How do you create your character?

[Decamber]

I don't know why I always change my mind at the last moment despite weeks of careful consideration, but I invariably do.

I have the same problem, Pigeon. Needless to say, it especially occurs while having a short break due to sickness or whatever, so I have to wait three weeks before playing! Yikes, that is life, I guess.

 

[Apok]

My Four Step program for character creation.

Step 1; I either think up a general concept or have been struck by inspiration for a particular character. This usually includes his personality traits and what he specializes in. Frex, a grizzled mercenary pikeman, a witty swashbucler type ala Carey Elwes in the Princess Bride, an alcoholic magic-user, a sniper, etc. Once I get a firm idea of the concept in my head, I move on to...

Step 2; Finding the best class or combinations of classes to make this concept work. At this time, I usually roll up stats as well. This process usually takes the shortest period of time, which brings me to...

Step 3; Optimizing feats and skills. This process takes a while, as I usually find that there are more feats/skills that I'd like than I could concievably have. Once this step is complete, I move on to...

Step 4; Final Tweaks and putting it on paper. Any minor changes that I want/need to make are made here just before the character gets put on paper.

Violla! A character is created.

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I start with a concept based on what ever happens to spark my interest, it might be a piture,movie, book, song, or nothing in particular. Sometimes, as a start i use the characters back ground, the mental image of the character in my head, Sometimes it's as simple as starting with a cool weapon i want the character to have. I then work my way out from there.

It may seem kind of a bad habit, but I never worry about what the other guy is doing, be it other players or the DM. I always try to just make the chrarcter i want to play. If he's not a perfict fit for the group of the adventure my DM's running, oh well, that just adds to the role-play.

 

[shilsen]

I've done a lot of different things, but recently I've been creating characters based on what the other people in the group are running. Most of the other players seem to have a fixed concept that always shows up - one likes multiclassed clerics who enjoy combat (usually with a greatsword), one plays chaotics, and one usually has obsessive, revenge-driven characters. They're also pretty tactically poor, so I wait and see what kind of characters they create, and come up with one who plugs one of the holes in the party. I can come up with an interesting character for any of the race-class combos, so it never detracts from my own enjoyment, and also requires a little more creative roleplaying, so it works for me.

 

[Galfridus]

When I play (which is rarely), I usually balance concept and rules until I come with something that satisfies me in both. I might be thinking about clerics because the party needs one, then come up with a roleplay hook that would make a good cleric and take it from there. From there usually means thinking up a basic history while doing the stats, then fleshing out the history (making minor changes to the stats as needed). Since I don't play very often, I tend to put way too much thought into my PCs.

When DMing, I have two types of NPCs: mass-produced and custom-made. Custom-made NPCs are the big villains, major henchmen, etc., and are usually built around some sort of hook, either roleplay or game mechanic. Once I have the hook, I'll make them as I make PCs, more or less. Mass-produced NPCs are for when I'm populating a town or something similar; usually I'll create a big list of names and just bang out a paragraph of description and background for each. Long repetition of this process has made me pretty quick at it, and I find it a great way to come up with plot seeds, backstory, and secondary intrigues as I go. By making them all at once, it's easier to create relationships between them.

 

[Isida KepTukari]

Usually I do two things in near tandum. First, I roll my stats. Then I usually have an idea of what I'm going to play. It's like looking at blank template of a person with those attributes and going... now what would they become?

Ferret - Like you I also try to write the character like a charcter in a story. Properly inspired, I can rip off a two-page character background in five minutes.

I get some of my inspiration from my dad, who taught me how to play. He was in theater a lot while in college, and here's a paraphrase of what he used to say about characterization:

"By the time you're done really knowing your character, you should know what he/she would say when woken up by a phone call at 3am by his mother-in-law."

 

[Zhure]

Character Concept -> rough draft of abilities -> tweak concept to match abilities -> final draft.

This plan rarely works; no concept is finished unscathed.

Or, in Champions terms, I usually run out of points before I run out of concept.

Greg

 

[Howling Coyote]

Usually I get an interesting (read weird) character idea. Then I decide which character classes he should have. Almost as often I just decide what sort of character I want to play.
After that I just proceed step by step, by creating his stats, and thinking about his background and personality at the same time.
Usually my characters tend to be some kind of spellcasters, but a pure fighter isn't rare thing to me either.
As a side note I usually tend to spend lots of time tweaking my characters until I'm satisfied with them. In other words while I can think up a perfect character idea almost instantly, I don't like to rush when I'm creating them.

 

[Eben]

I collect miniatures, and most of my character concepts stem fom these. My next character will definately be a cleric with a warhammer since I'm painting this geat Reaper mini of a cleric with a warhammer who seems to be turning some undead by waving a scroll at them. Deus le volt!
A previous character was rogue with bardic ambitions, also inspired by a Reaper mini. These guys should put character sheets in those blister packs!

 

[Dougal DeKree]

sad but true

Since my fellow players usually don't give a damn about their chars doing anything but fight i usually end up doing the social interaction-part as well as the magic part. so my choice is always limited... and no, i don't play sorcerers .-)