How do you Build your Character?

jensun · Jun 26, 2009

Woas said:
and maybe other people more familiar with the games could correct me but I believe Spirits of the Century and Ars Magica have LP char gen.

I couldn't tell you about AM but SotC doesn't have a life path system as far as I recall.

It does have a very interesting system for creating a group of characters with established connections with each other. SotC characters start out at being highly experienced in their own field and fairly competent in a number of others. There is little to no mechanical advancement and in order to establish the characters each gets to describe two of their previous exploits in the form of "novels" they starred in. Those novels are then randomly given out to the other characters with those characters then taking on "guest star" roles in those previous exploits.

Its an interesting way of getting round the "you all meet in a bar and decide to go kill stuff" issue and it works well for the pulp genre. It doesnt hurt that SotC characters start at highly experienced.

It would be harder to translate into low level D&D if only because starting D&D characters are often just about to set out on their adventures into the world. I have used it successfully when running a high level 3.5 D&D one shot at one of my groups gaming weekends away.

RefinedBean · Jun 26, 2009

I find a concept that interests me, either from my own imagination or from an outside influence. I then do a good amount of research on the concept, and eventually figure out the best personality and what-not to accompany the concept, and what would fit well with the party.

For example, I watched the movie Pi, which got me thinking about mathematics and D&D...a week later, I had an Invoker of Oghma who spreads the absolute power of knowledge and numbers, his equations and logical truths fueled with divine fervor. Been rocking him for about a month now.

Hussar · Jun 26, 2009

Here's another one for doing groups - I make no claims to creating this, I learned it elsewhere. You take several Magic: the Gathering cards, although any CCG would work depending on your genre.

You pick a series of cards, trade a few cards to get links to other players and wind up with a hand of six or so cards. You then pick one element from each card, could be anything - the picture, the flavor text, the author's name, whatever, and use that as an inspiration for one facet of your character's background.

Like I said, I did this with my current group and it worked fantastically.

Took a bit of digging but I found it

Grymar · Jun 26, 2009

I always like the Question/Answer session at the start of every Elder Scrolls game. It was an interesting take on the generation aspect of an RPG.

Not only would an in-game character ask you things like "What is your race?" or "What is your birthsign?" but also moral/ethical questions like "You see a wounded man on the street, what do you do?"

MichaelK · Jun 26, 2009

Hussar said:
I'm talking about where do you start when you want to make a new character?

I come up with a few vague details to start with. Maybe, I'd like to play an Elf or the group doesn't have a fighter.

From that I try to come up with a picture in my head of what they might look like. At about this point I tend to decide whether they're male or female, what race they are, etc.

Then I imagine a random scene, for example it's late night at a tavern and a rowdy drinker tries to pick a fight with this character I'm imagining. I decide what the character's reaction would be. Would they try to trick them, buy them a drink, fight them, cast a spell? I go into more detail, playing it like a movie in my mind's eye, imagining exactly what it would be like.

Then I imagine a different scene and do it all over again, trying to keep it consistent.

As I progress through the scenes I might move away a bit from my original ideas but that's okay. As long as by the end I have a reasonably coherent image in my head of the character's personality, abilities and powers.

Then I try to fit it into whatever gaming system we're using. If the character is too low a level to be as powerful as I was imagining I try to create a younger version of the character who will one day grow into the person I was imagining (I don't stick to this though, it's not graven in stone. Based on the events in game they may develop quite differently).

This usually isn't too hard as when I was first developing the character I keep the system in mind and try to make something that will fit with the rules we're using.

This is one of the first characters I ever made from a mechanics first perspective.

That's not too difficult. Just look at the sheet and ask questions.

Why does he have a high spellcraft? Did he spend hours reading books on magic at his mentor's library? Was he trained by an imp tempting him into dark sorceries, etc, etc.

By the time you've done that for everything on the character sheet you should have a good idea of what they're like.

Dannyalcatraz · Jun 26, 2009

Hussar said:
Here's another one for doing groups - I make no claims to creating this, I learned it elsewhere. You take several Magic: the Gathering cards, although any CCG would work depending on your genre.

You pick a series of cards, trade a few cards to get links to other players and wind up with a hand of six or so cards. You then pick one element from each card, could be anything - the picture, the flavor text, the author's name, whatever, and use that as an inspiration for one facet of your character's background.

Like I said, I did this with my current group and it worked fantastically.

Took a bit of digging but I found it

That's somewhat like what you'd do in Everway.

Hussar · Jun 27, 2009

Yeah, I know that's not original. I got it from a Fear the Boot podcast a ways back, and they got it from one of their GM's. Who knows where he got it from.

I do know that it was a fantastic little mini game though. Something I think I'll incorporate into most of my games now. Heck, with a bit of Google Image searching, you can find CCG's for just about any genre. SF, fantasy, whatever. Collect about eight images per player and away you go.

Holy Bovine · Jun 28, 2009

To the OP - I know what you are experiencing. I have experienced and witnessed it as people make characters when the first thought in their head is - "I want to do X" where X is some combat tactic, spell, power or whatever. They most often turn into the most bland, cookie cutter PCs I have ever played or played with.

For myself when I make a character my most common way is to base it off a character I have read about or seen in a movie or TV program. Not the most original thing I know but it gives me a good basis to build from. Most often these characters are minor in their primary subject material and I expand and expound upon the building blocks I get. For example one my current characters is based off of the Planet Hulk trade paperback more specifically Korg a rock creature who early on kills his brother Margus. I envisioned Korg and Margus as Goliaths and convinced one of my co-players to take up the position of my brother. I choose to play Margus and he Korg. From the little there is about Korg (and even less about Margus) I built a character concept that had him as a brash hot-headed man out of his element in the cities of the world. Korg is more of a stoic fellow but still has a great deal of resentment towards the civilized portions of the world.

A simple example to be sure but it does, I think, show how a relatively minor character can lead to a bigger concept and personality.

Nifft · Jun 29, 2009

Mechanics almost always drives my class and/or race. There's no question more interesting to me than, "What does that play like?", when choosing what to play.

Every class (& race) offers more than enough background options that I can always find something interesting (fluff-wise) which fits in with the mechanics that I want to test-drive.

For example, right now the Bard is the new sexy, and I'm itching to take one for a spin. So my concept is a Tiefling who was raised by wild gnomes in the Feywild. He'd always be trying to act like a cruel loner (which is how he pictures Tieflings), but he'd have this irrepressible tendency towards jovial pranks and show tunes.

Cheers, -- N

Eli-kun · Jun 29, 2009

It depends on how much I know about the setting and the other characters. It also depends on the mood of the game. It mostly depends on what inspires me.

In some games I will roll for everything randomly, including personality traits.

Sometimes I will work out the character mechanically and see how they turn out when playing them. I might base this on a race and class combination that seems fun, like Dwarf Ninja/Dread Pirate.

Sometimes I like to go against a common stereotype for a race or class. I could make a Paladin with a crude sense of humor. I could make a shy, submissive half orc. I could make a happy, cheerful necromancer.

I might go for a certain character concept and try to flesh it out. As an example, I used to be a fan of Professional wrestling. It's advanced stage combat. Since wrestlers are actors, they could also be bards. I tried to expand on the Professional wrestler bard. I tried to figure out what type of characters the bard portrayed in the ring. I also asked myself what caused the bard to start adventuring. I decided to go with the simple explanation of the theater troupe losing its funding. My bard decided that being an adventurer is better than being an unemployed actor.