Beneath the surface of character

[Hand of Evil]

See the DM ADVICE THREAD

You have to ask background question of your players.

You have to provide your players information on your world.

 

[Mercule]

As a player, I often (although not always) start with an archetype and then twist it a bit until it's something else.

Because of another thread, the Hermetic I played in M:tA comes to mind. I vastly prefer the Hermetic archetype for wizards, but I didn't want to be a characature. So, I started looking for something to twist. I had also just made the observation that I'd rarely, if ever, seen any of my pasty-white co-play anything besides pasty-white characters. So, I grabbed another stereotype (partially chosen because I wanted a not-nice character) of a poor, black gang-banger from Oakland, CA. The fun part was finding the intersection of the two, as one is totally anti-intellectual while the other practically oozes brains.

Another way to go is to start with a single personality trait (or two) and build the rest from there.

My screen name comes from a character who was the fullest expression of Chaotic Good I could come up with. He was pretty much a pacifist, philosopher, and had a real love of life. He was also hopelessly self-possessed and altruistic. He was so independent minded that he threw leader-types (especially paladins) into fits of apoplexy; but his moral compass, combined with an acceptance of others' paths, turned him into an anti-leader who did his own thing accompanied by scads of followers.

His brother, on the other hand, was the result of the thought, "What if a mage was so focused on creation/manufacturing/item-type magic that he'd completely lost sight of the fact that other people weren't just objects?"

Anyway, I'm not sure if that explains any actual method. All I've got, though, are examples of some of the more interesting characters I've created.

 

[Evilhalfling]

For me, the most important thing about a character is their 'hook'. This is whatever it is that makes them interesting and fun to roleplay. It could be a character that is a battle-scarred warrior who seeks glory and honor in combat. Then something like half-orc barbarian comes naturally. Or a mother-hen figure, looking after the PCs. This could be a cleric of a nature-goddess.

This really makes me want to do a mother hen half orc barbarian
sort of drill sargent motherly but very caring under a tougher exterior.

really? some of you do pages for NPCs?
mine get a hook, a basic motivation (2 sentences) a reason for that motivation, and a description, one or two noticable features. the rest is off the cuff. If they interact a lot they may get an update - ie thinks ralph(PC) is a idiot, and that Alice is generous.

 

[The Shaman]

really? some of you do pages for NPCs?

Absolutely.

Being the GM means having a literal world full of characters to run - spending some time on characterizing the most important NPCs gives me the same sense of satisfaction I get as a player running an adventurer.

It also leads to some interesting in-game opportunities. For example, in writing an NPC background I decided that the character studied architecture and still liked to visit and sketch old buildings. *BAM!* That gave me an idea for a complete adventure in which the heroes accompany the character on a trip to an old Muslim tomb in a small desert village - hilarity ensues.

This NPC is a major character, one of the main antagonists of the campaign setting, so he gets about two pages worth of background. Minor characters get a paragraph - spear carriers get a stat block and a couple of sentences