D&D 5E Trouble thinking of a character concept

[WaywardWaffle]

I'm sure other people have been in this boat before. I've been playing as one character for a few years now in one campaign, doing random one shots in between.

For one shots, it's easy and the backstory being ultra fleshed out doesn't matter too much.

But now, we are starting a side campaign in the same world off to the side of the main campaign to teach our DM's cousin how to play, and so I need to think of a proper character that can interact with the world with proper consequences and I'm finding myself stumped.

I know my main character started as a vague idea and took almost a year to be fully worked out what I wanted him to be, but going back to the start with a character that needs to grow all that way again, especially on a story with not even close to the same scope in the world, is hard to do.

Does anyone have advice for situations like this, or questions they go over whenever they make a character to give them a small boost to personality and story at the start?

 

[KahlessNestor]

If I have trouble with a character idea, sometimes I will just start randomly genrating a character. Rondomly roll for race and class. Or randomize your ability scores or roll in order. Maybe you have an off race for your class. Why did they become this class?

Roll your background and Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws. There is usually a story there. Are you a Folk Hero who led your people against a tyrant? Who is the tyrant? The people back home know your secret and you can never return. What is this secret?

I also do Friend, Foe, and Contact to create some NPCs that come out of my story. A friend is someone you would do anything for, and they the same for you. A foe wishes you ill, perhaps dead, and might actively promote your demise. Why? What did you do to provoke such animosity. A contact is an acquaintance, maybe someone you know professionally. They woll do you favors, but won't take great risk.

Think about a story to tie all this together. As you work through the random generation, a story might emerge. Feel free to stop randomizing whenever in the process you wish and start tailoring it for the story that is emerging. Go back and adjust things, if you like.

Hope this helped.

Sent from my SM-G900P using EN World mobile app

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I focus first on my pc's relation with the world/other NPC. I alway say to my player to avoid the trap of ''everyone I knew before the adventure is dead''. Its a common trope, but it removes your character from many hooks the Dm might have thrown at you. I like my characters to have a family back at home. it gives my character 1) a reason to come back home alive 2) the need to have a good reason for adventuring 3) a reason to save the land from danger 4) something the DM can use to motivate my PC if need be. I feel it protects against all-out murder-hobo-ism.

One of my player always plays the classic orphan with no ties to anyone. After 2-3 game he starts getting bored because he has no relation to anyone while the rest of the characters works to send some money back home, defend their homeland, prove to their parents they are not failures etc

One of my last PC was a dwarven scout left for dead in the tunnels and had to escape to the surface. During his dowtime, he kept writing letters to his sons to tell them he did not fail the homeland, that he fought bravely etc. He kept the letters on him while looking for a way to send them home, but died in a dungeon before he could. He asked his fellow companions to take his letters home, giving them the three rings that identified his Family, Clan and Class to allow passage into the Dwarf-Hold. This allows me to play, as new PC, one of the sons of my first character trying to redeem his father's name or hunting the false friend that let him die.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Do you have the mechanical basics of stuff like Race, Class, Skills etc decided?

Do you know what other people are playing?
Is anyone playing a character that sparks ideas of a connected character to theirs? Relative, companion, employee etc?
Is there anything in the setting that sparks ideas? Maybe something that you were intrigued by in the previous game but weren't able to explore then?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If the usual methods don't work, look at various things within the game from a campaign world POV.

For example, look at the weapons list and find one you like. Or maybe one of the odder ones. Then think: "What kind of person uses one of these, and why?" "What kind of guy uses a whip in D&D?" was the question that got me to build an Indiana Jones-esque Ftr/Rgr/Diviner/Spellsword character in a 3.5Ed campaign. Similar questions prompted me to make a flail-using "bounty hunter" (Ranger), a kusarigama loving ftr/thief, a thrown-weapon & polearm-wielding monk, a ftr/cleric with a greatspear, and Paladins and Sorcerers with Mauls.

The same can be done with feats, spells, races, classes- really, any mechanical artifact in the game- and can lead you down interesting paths. That sorcerer with a maul? He also had unusual feats that shaped him, and indeed were the initial inspiration for the PC...by reminding me of a particular Marvel Comics character.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, the campaign world will answer those questions. Sometimes, you'll have to fill in the blanks.

 

[Rhenny]

If I have trouble with a character idea, sometimes I will just start randomly genrating a character. Rondomly roll for race and class. Or randomize your ability scores or roll in order. Maybe you have an off race for your class. Why did they become this class?

Roll your background and Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws. There is usually a story there. Are you a Folk Hero who led your people against a tyrant? Who is the tyrant? The people back home know your secret and you can never return. What is this secret?

I also do Friend, Foe, and Contact to create some NPCs that come out of my story. A friend is someone you would do anything for, and they the same for you. A foe wishes you ill, perhaps dead, and might actively promote your demise. Why? What did you do to provoke such animosity. A contact is an acquaintance, maybe someone you know professionally. They woll do you favors, but won't take great risk.

Think about a story to tie all this together. As you work through the random generation, a story might emerge. Feel free to stop randomizing whenever in the process you wish and start tailoring it for the story that is emerging. Go back and adjust things, if you like.

Hope this helped.

Sent from my SM-G900P using EN World mobile app

I do the same. But if the random stuff doesn't capture my imagination, I do the opposite. I consciously think about a character that I'd like to live through. One that I would like to roleplay (and feel is within my roleplaying range).

I often find myself creating "wanna be" characters.

The Elven lass who has been expelled from her Elven community, dreaming of becoming a great Bladesinger like the ones of legend. Then I create the story of the legend and that helps me aspire to be something.

Sometimes I take a common idea from real life and insert it into a fantasy setting.

The brawny fighter, who always wanted to be a bard. He tries to sing, and can't do it too well, but he loves it and won't stop. He also lives to provide for his mother who has recently gone completely white haired and senile. Part of the reason why he sings is to soothe his mom. Luckily, his mother is physically cared for by their old neighbor, so he can strike out on his own to gain riches to help. He is also searching for his father who left his mother 10 years ago. He's not sure if the father left, or was forced to go. It is a mystery.

I hope those two methods help.

 

[procproc]

My approach is different from the others mentioned so far. I find some game mechanical element that I like, and think of an interesting twist on it that still works.

For example, the last character I played was a fiend pact warlock. But instead of being a Faust-style person seeking power, he was someone who'd been captured and had a demon infused into him in preparation to ritually release it into the world, but who then escaped before he could be sacrificed. So mechanically he was a warlock, but the "pact" had a very different flavor to it.

Another character -- also a warlock -- was a dwarven rifleman. The "rifle" was just an arcane implement -- either staff or wand would work -- and Eldritch Blast was the rifle shot. It took years of training to be able to shoot the rifle, so most people couldn't just pick it up and shoot it. The pact element of the class didn't work very well with the flavor, so I picked a mechanical benefit and we basically just hand-waved the rest of it aside, since it's essentially a flavor restriction anyway.

Yet another character was a warforged wizard in a non-Eberron game. I decided I liked the idea of a machine trying to accumulate knowledge, so we agreed that a powerful wizard had made a handful of us and sent us out to collect arcane knowledge. There the restriction was really "why is this race in the world at all?"

So I guess for me, there's something appealing about taking a character that shouldn't work, mechanically or flavor-wise, and finding an explanation that makes it reasonable.

 

[cbwjm]

If creating a new character and I don't have a background for them, I normally don't care and just pick the class I want to play. Since that isn't very helpful, and since you want to tie into the established setting, then I would suggest checking out any factions or locations of your game world. If there is a group of rangers or an arcane order of wizards then you can perhaps be a member of their organisation. If there is a major city nearby then you may have been a criminal from that city or a one of that city's guardsmen. If there are a unique pantheon then a cleric of one of their orders should help tie you into the world as you travel about spreading the faith.

I don't know how much you really need as a backstory, but if you can work with one of the above and then add 2 or 3 more sentences that should hopefully round out your character.