How do you Build your Character?

SKyOdin · Jun 23, 2009

I am not sure how to describe my character creation process. To a certain degree, by the time I am consciously paying attention to a character concept, it is already a fully formed combination of personality, appearance, rough background, and class. This is because my brain is always kicking around character and story mechanics 24/7 (albeit not always for D&D). Inevitably, whenever I crack open a D&D book, reading it causes my brain to start developing story and character ideas.

For example, I actually developed a bunch of character ideas by just sitting down and reading the d20 Modern Cyberscape book's list of cybernetic enhancements. By simply trying to imagine what some of those cybernetic enhancements would look like in use, I ended up developing the characters they were attached to. I ended up with at least three characters inspired by that book alone.

Part of how my brain works is that I create a character my creating an amalgam of traits possessed by characters from books, TV, videogames and so on that I like. Of course, as soon as a character is actually introduced into a D&D game, the character's personality often ends up being somewhat different that I originally intended. This is usually because a character's personality is mostly defined by how they play off of the other PCs and NPCs. I have also had characters end up turning out differently that I intended because of mechanics. For example, I once came up with a young, silver-haired, female Mystic Theurge who I intended to be extremely smart and intuitive, but was physically quite weak. When it came time to roll up stats, I rolled up the highest point value character yet seen in the campaign (and we were using a generous stat rolling method). She ended up having well above average Str and Con in addition to her smarts.

Greg K · Jun 23, 2009

Hussar said:
Out of curiosity, do any of you do background generation as a group? I mean, have the entire group sit down and start working out backgrounds that fit together and fit with the campaign?

I did this for my current campaign and it worked very, very well. I'm of the opinion that characters created in a vacuum, without any input from the other players, don't work as well.

I have been having group sessions for character generation for a long time. As I have written before, I present everyone with brief campaign and cultural over views. Then, the players start discussing character ideas with me and we start fine tuning the character idea to fit the campaign. Finally, the players begin to generate characters with appropriate handouts for culture/class/organization as appropriate.

I have found it ensures everyone is on the same page and characters fit the campaign

Woas · Jun 23, 2009

The games I've recently been involved in make generating character history a meaningful part of character creation (as in, it determines what s/he can do).

It's really been a boon compared to other games that let you 'loosey goosey' a character's history an all you get are "No family, no friends. Mysterious fellow who wears all black and doesn't talk to anyone cause I don't want the GM to screw me over if I go out on a limp here with a character history."

Okay so a little sarcastic but it has made player's I've seen never care about character history in one sitting become very interested in it. Especially when you have the rules of the game to 'back' that history up and help define it.

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 23, 2009

Hussar said:
I'm talking about where do you start when you want to make a new character?
<snip>
So how do you do it? How do you breathe life into your characters. My poor gnome didn't have much of a personality until he failed his first binder check. Now, almost all his personality comes from failing binder checks. Loads of fun. But, man, it took a long time. And, if he makes all his checks, he's back to being really boring again. :'(

What do you think is the best way to build a character?

Personally, I try to keep an open mind about PC design and keep looking for inspiration everywhere- I've started with concepts, filling a party void, a rules wrinkles or a cool spell/piece of equipment/etc. to try out, a line from a song, a piece of art...

IMHO, there is no "best way" to start a given PC design.

However, once I have an initial concept and design, I try to make sure all subsequent character developments are true to the PC's nature.

This in no way means I don't design combat monsters, because I have. Several, even. They're not clones of each other, though. Bear, a 2Ed PC, had maxed out physical stats, and no mental stat above a 6 (which is what I asked my DM for). He was a gentle giant, and childlike in many ways. Unless directed to fight or directly provoked, he wouldn't fight. OTOH, Bloodwulf was an amoral sociopathic killing machine- the trick with him was to prevent him from fighting.

Out of curiosity, do any of you do background generation as a group? I mean, have the entire group sit down and start working out backgrounds that fit together and fit with the campaign?

I've never been able to get a whole group to come up with unified backgrounds (player or DM), but as a player, I have been able to convince one or 2 players to come up with linked PC ideas. Sometimes it was buddies- a Giant Dwarf (5'6") and a Dwarf Giant (6'5"), unified in being outcasts from their respective societies, for example (D&D); another time it was identical twin sisters who were both warrior mages (GURPS).

EP · Jun 24, 2009

I've just finished making up a new one (shifter barbarian/druid) that popped into my head a few weeks back. I always start by looking through classes, races, and other material to find some link or connection that would make that character stand out. For the shifter, par example, I figured with the razorclaw shifting and swift panther rage of the barbarian, I could move at 10 when raging and bloodied. Combining that with his weretiger heritage (which is now a were-panther), everything else falls into place.

Of course, he hasn't been played yet so he could be the fastest character to die for all I know.

Grymar · Jun 24, 2009

I have to find a starting point. Like others have said, this can be mechanical or personality, but there has to be that seed around which the character is built.

My latest character is based on an upcoming Pathfinder game and wanting to try the new paladin from the preview. So a paladin. Cool. Then I had to pick a race...something fun and unusual. A gnome. Now, how about a gnome paladin riding a dog and focused on mounted combat? I'm now working on background and personality. Some of this is informed by the mechanics and flavor of the setting, for instance gnomes get +2 to any single craft or profession skill...so what did he do before he was a paladin?

A character I built before was based on wanting to play a monk. I used the Ultimate Toolbox and rolled on a few tables until I got a good seed...he has a tatoo of a map on his back. So I let that idea grow...he was a street rat and thief who was reformed after waking up from a bender and finding the map tatooed on his back. He then went and joined a monastery and became a monk.

Another character was based on a wanting to play a shifter who is focused on survival. Not the Survival skill, but his own. He is an animal who refuses to be trapped and lives on the edge of the fight or flight instinct at all times. So he became a shifter barbarian. {Side note: this is also the most mechanically complex character I've ever made}

Mallus · Jun 24, 2009

I usually start with a name or a brief description that I find entertaining, which inspires me to keep creating the character, almost like an ad pitch made to myself. For example:

Cro-Magnum, caveman P.I. He was thawed from a block of ice and now he protects the City of Angels.

Cloud Strike is a mystical martial artist trained by the Masters of Zu Mountain. The Master of Zu Mountain are die-hard Communists.

Nehru Chomsky O'Toole, left-wing space politician. After collaborating with another player, he became a space diplomat, and was more Bertie Wooster than Jawaharlal Nehru.

He's the Mexican God of Egyptian Wrestling. His distant relatives from the 41st century are time-traveling practical jokers.

He's a cross between Dr. Richard Feynman and Dr. Strange. He has a talisman called The Eye of Heisenberg.

He's a Dragonborn paladin that marks opponents in combat with his semen. He's like a reptilian Don Quixote (in play, he turned out to be more more like a reptilian Peter Pan, or so my friend who's reading the J.M. Barrie original to his son says).

Next I add details, trying to forge the initial concept into a workable character. I find most of my characters pretty much write themselves. I try to keep things loose, too. I like my characters to evolve as they're played, to 'discover' them as we go along. An elaborate backstory or overly-rigid initial concept would just mean I'd contradict myself somewhere down the line.

Wombat · Jun 24, 2009

Back in the second edition of Champions, and possibly the first, there was a three-way possible path for creating a character:

Come up with a cool name. Then create the character that fits this.
Come up with a cool power. Then build the rest of the character around this.
Come up with a cool costume. Then think of the character that would wear this.

This is not a bad approach in general. In other words, inspiration can come from many directions.

For my own part, I really like to know about the campaign and the setting. I want to come up with a character that will respond well to the setting, whether directly supporting it (being part of the "mainstream") or coming in at an angle (being part of a subculture, etc.). Setting, for me, is very important; I try to put the mechanics rather low on my list.

I do notice that Class-based games, such as D&D, tend to push me more strongly towards thinking in terms of of what class I would want to play, rather than other aspects.

Storminator · Jun 24, 2009

I just started a new campaign last night for my son (9 years old) and his friend (10 years old and never played before) and had them start by picking out a mini. Then we made a character to match.

Of course, they're young and insane, so their PCs are bit odd...

PS

Jack Colby · Jun 24, 2009

I make a character that is interesting and fun mechanically first, sometimes getting ideas for the personality or background as I do that. The character really only comes out in play, though. It develops over time, based on my few ideas from creation and the events of the game, interactions with other characters, etc. I find imagining an entire persona and history beforehand to be boring and often pointless.