D&D 5E [POLL] What drives your inspiration behind char gen?

Sacrosanct · Dec 1, 2015

This has come up in a lot of discussions, so I was curious to see if there were any hard numbers behind it. Most often, what is the primary motivation method you use when creating a PC. Of course most of us have different motivations from time to time, but which one do you use most often. There is no wrong or best answer.

1. Media (literary, movies, TV, poems, etc) replication of a character
2. Mechanical (very general them, focusing on which mechanical options give the best bonuses)
3. Thematic (personality type, appearance, not necessarily based on any existing media example, and mechanical options used to support theme rather than optimization)
4. Other

KahlessNestor · Dec 1, 2015

I guess 4 for me. Random.

I'm a character whore. I like making characters, but don't often have a concept. And I'm bad with choice paralysis lol. So I roll dice for race, class, archetype, and background and find a story in the choices. And don't forget to roll on that trinket table! I have this vision of mugging a character and leaving him his gold and valuables and taking only that weird bauble. What a story hook!

Hand of Evil · Dec 1, 2015

Other - based on discussion with my DM and the other players to fit within the dynamics of the campaign and story. This is just the DM asking questions, telling the type of campaign (urban, exploration, political, swashbuckling, etc.), then roll the dice for stats and then I work on the character.

GMforPowergamers · Dec 1, 2015

I said media

A lot Of my characters start as gestalts of media stuff...

Giltonio_Santos · Dec 1, 2015

All of the above. I've created characters because I wanted to play with some specific mechanic, have created them to emulate characters I enjoyed in other media, and also as concepts of my own design.

Sacrosanct · Dec 1, 2015

Hand of Evil said:
Other - based on discussion with my DM and the other players to fit within the dynamics of the campaign and story. This is just the DM asking questions, telling the type of campaign (urban, exploration, political, swashbuckling, etc.), then roll the dice for stats and then I work on the character.

Dang, I totally should have had another option. I had a feeling I was forgetting one major one. Group discussion/party need, which short of falls under what you're saying

Salamandyr · Dec 1, 2015

Honestly...swords. Swords pretty much define all my character concepts.

lowkey13 · Dec 1, 2015

*Deleted by user*

Ralif Redhammer · Dec 1, 2015

I generally go with thematic development. I come up with the idea, say, a stodgy dwarven bard, or a cheerful elven paladin. One of the key steps in developing the character for me, is their voice/manner of speaking. My twin and I both tend to take that approach, actually.

Sacrosanct · Dec 1, 2015

OH, I should have added another option too: Miniature

I admit I've done that a couple times too, creating a PC just because a mini was cool lol.

But for me, I'd say I'm 25% media, 70% thematic, and 5% other (mix/match).