Creating PC's with Personality

[LordGraz'zt]

Does anyone have any tips or advice for creating PC's with personality?

My players could definitely use some help bringing their characters to life - we have made some steps in terms of backstory and then introducing elements of that into the game - but at the table they still very much feel like a bunch of numbers on a page.

My group is definitely not the amateur theatre type of roleplayers, but if I can give them a couple of pointers to add "life to the page" I think they would jump on it.

Any tools or guides you use at your table when making characters would be much appreciated.

 

[Ryujin]

In short, interaction. If you get them to start interacting with NPCs one-on-one, inthe first person, then the personalities will develop. The personalities might just end up being their own, but that's better than cardboard cut-outs.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I would avoid backstory. Seriously. This is especially true if you're starting at 1st-level. You don't want the PC's most exciting adventures to have happened before they start playing, nor do you want them writing about their boring background being raised as a dyemaker ("... and that's why they call me Lommy Greenhands".) It's also a problem for players who don't know how to write, and they're fearful their publisher, well, DM, might "reject" their fiction.

You can start in the adventure and work on backstory later, if necessary. That's frequently done in good fiction.

Backstory used to be about setting plot hooks, but now it seems more like short story writing. The competitive kind, as now you have one set of completely independent plot hooks per PC, all of which are expected to be followed up. The DM could be easily overwhelmed, or if they're not the players are now competing for his time to resolve their backstory instead of someone else's.

FATE has a great backstory/personality mechanic. The versions I'm most familiar with, Spirit of the Century and Harry Dresden, both assume experienced characters though. Each has five phases of character building (not counting the numbers). Each player writes a short section about their character. I always find the "starting out" part the hardest. There's also an "on my own" part which is your player becoming a professional at whatever they do. These are both short and designed to explain why your character has certain skills or stunts.

The third part involves writing the blurb of a book your PC featured in. (A blurb, of course, is short.) Then the next two parts involve adding your character as a "subplot" to two other characters' blurbs.

Each phase gives your PC an "aspect" or two, depending on the exact ruleset used. A blurb is a character description like "ladies' man". A character with this aspect could tag it (using a fate point) to gain a bonus to seducing a woman. However, a woman could tag that aspect to distract him, or a man could tempt him with an invitation to a beautiful lady, etc. As you can see, these personality traits are both positives and negatives. Each PC gets 5 or 10 aspects.

The DM could "bribe" a PC to act foolishly with a fate point; if the PC accepts the fate point, they must roleplay the aspect. However, they can refuse by paying a fate point. A PC low on fate points pretty much must accept the bribes, and act accordingly. This is a real problem if the PC has an aspect such as "Sobbin' in my Drink" or something like that.

 

[Neonchameleon]

First make sure everyone has a motivation.

Second, hand them each a couple of loaded questions (Dread-style). I've some examples here although you don't need anywhere near that many questions. That's if you don't want to add rules like aspects and fate points.

 

[Ryujin]

I've had DMs ask me a bunch of motivational questions, in the past. Inevitably I end up with something else, through actual play, as the character's personality sort of organically grows.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

I agree with [MENTION=27897]Ryujin[/MENTION], my first character ever was written one way on my page, but after our first session (in which he was almost eaten by a yeti, mauled by raptors and had a ear cut off by angry dwarves), my rogue's carefree attitude was replaced by one of paranoia and cautiousness.

The best way to get your players to do something, I have found, is to lead by example. Trying to get my players to use terrain in combat, I made sure to have the monsters use the terrain. To get them to flesh out their characters, interaction is a great tool. If you act in character of the NPC's, it makes it easier for the PC's to follow suit. You can also "demand" to know what or how their characters speak, rather than just having the players say "I ask him where the goblins took the stolen supplies."

Trit

 

[The Red King]

All of my NPC's that stick around have personality. Some have accents, or other things that make them stand out. I like to do that, and the players seem to like that too. They actually kidnapped 3 of my NPS'd to keep them around. (Its an evil group.)

The players never do much of that kind of thing for more than the 1st session, but I don't let it bug me. Its like watching them AS their characters. It helps me plan ahead better.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

While you can build personable PCs all kinds of ways, i've found that starting with personality & concept first, then deciding his class and other mechanicsl aspects tends to yield the most consistent results.

 

[Keldryn]

This book definitely produced PCs with personality:

The randomness inherent in its system is probably a poor fit for 4e, but it could serve as a good source of inspiration, if you can track down a copy.

On a more serious note, I'd suggest asking the players to answer a handful of fairly broad questions. No need to get into too much depth before the character ever sees play, but enough for the player to get somewhere to start.

The backgrounds in PH2 are a good place to start with developing a bit of a personality/backstory, and I think they are great for overcoming the "writer's block" that many players get when starting with a completely blank slate. Pick 2 to 4 that seem applicable, and maybe even let them get mechanical benefits from 2 (instead of just 1) to encourage picking more than one background.

Many of the backgrounds will provide a starting point for answering questions like: Where did you grow up?

Establish some motivations for the character, including at least one short-term goal and one longer-term goal. Neither goal should be something very time-sensitive; "to rescue my sister who was captured by slavers" is good if the first adventure involves a group of slavers who just so happened to capture the character's sister. Beyond that, it's hard to justify going on other adventures while someone's life is in danger. Of course, that could establish something about the character's personality...

Ask each player to identify one significant person in their character's life; it could be a mentor, a parent, a sibling, a friend, whatever. What was the character's relationship with that individual? Is he or she still in the character's life? What influence did that person have on the character?

Something else that might be helpful for getting the players thinking about it would be to ask more targeted questions, such as "how do you react when you see someone being bullied" or "how do you respond when threatened?" "Entrusted to deliver an uncounted purse of gold, thou dost meet a beggar. Dost thou deliver the gold knowing the trust in thee was well-placed; or show compassion, giving the beggar a coin, knowing it won't be missed?"

The short version: ask the players directed questions or give them lists to pick something from to get them started. Sometimes narrowing the options can really get the gears turning.

 

[Unwise]

For me, that answer is right here:
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It is simple and makes for a very interesting character. The challenge comes in when the DM already has a fairly railroaded campaign and feels they have to add in all the side quests that a system like this can generate.