Avian Gamers Network

Another great read from The Cresent Order guild. Hope you enjoy
Some of it reiterating from the other post but there is also new ideas in this one also.

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I’ve been role-playing for about 15 years and many of my friends, while great role players, have always had trouble coming up with interesting characters. They even tend to do their best when a fully fleshed out personality is handed to them to play. With that in mind, I thought it might be interesting for some to have some kind of guidelines when creating a back-story and personality for their character. Keep in mind that this is by no means the be all and end all of character creation. It is simply a (hopefully) helpful attempt at breaking down the process and should be taken as such.

Step 1 – What’s in a name?

The first and perhaps the most far-reaching step in character creation: Choosing a name. Blur did a great post here, I highly recommend reading it.

To me, there is basically three ways to go about naming a character.

A) Choosing a name based on a fleshed out personality. You come up with a character then name him or her according to the back-story and personality you chose. Han Solo is a good example of this method. Lucas had an idea for a roguish character, a guy who goes at it alone and flies by the seat of his pants. In fact, Lucas is very good at symbolism in all his name choosing.

B) Creating a character around the name. So you’ve come up with the coolest name ever and want to use it somehow, time to flesh out a character around that name. Let’s pretend we don’t know who or what Bib Fortuna is. To me, that name obviously suggest ‘fortune’ and ‘luck’. I’ll make him a gambler a guy who makes his own luck both at the sabbacc table and in life.

C) Picking a name completely at random. This is my least favorite method but it is the easiest. Simply create a character and make up a name. I have an ex-stormtrooper? I’ll name him Kel Dromokh. Simple and fast it allows me to jump into play sooner rather than later.

Step 2 – Points for originality

While we all want to portray our favorite heroes and villains from the movies, it’s best to stay away from existing character concepts. Sure, you’d look cool in a dark cloak wielding a double-bladed lightsabre, but so would the other 165 players going for that look. Why not go for a MonCal bounty hunter instead of a Rodian? Or maybe be a Wookiee dancer and use that Twi’lek character for something else.

Furthermore, originality is not only about emulating someone else’s creation it’s also about basic appearance. Even though this is a game it should not be homogenous it should be varied and colorful just like real life. Go walk around you neighborhood, how many 6’4” rugged chiseled types do you see walking around? Yes, it’s nice to look like the all-American (or should I say all-Corellian?) hero since most of us don’t look like that in real life, but it loses its appeal when everyone looks the same. Try being shorter than the norm, or fat, or ugly, or… You get the picture. Demark yourself from the crowd. After all, you want people to recognize you on sight, not to confuse you with the other five bounty hunters in Mandalorian armor standing at the bar. (Unless of course you want to be inconspicuous ) This brings me to…


Step 3 – Nobody’s perfect

Physical flaws, personality flaws are what will make your character unique and seem to come into a life of his or her own. The most interesting heroes in film and literature all have something in common. They all had flaws of some kind. Han Solo is a smuggler, working outside the law sure but he’s also greedy, a womanizer of sorts and has violent tendencies “They’ll not get me without a fight!” Luke is impatient, brash and whiny (granted he does grow out of that last one ).

Maybe your character has a scar or a limp from a past spent in a street gang on Coruscant, maybe he has trouble with alcohol or maybe he ran away from the orphanage at an early age, missing most of his schooling and as a result he’s still very innocent, seeing the world as perfectly black and white with no shades of gray. The possibilities are endless. It’s just a matter of giving a few nicks to your character after you’ve polished him or her to perfection.

Step 4 – The Devil’s in the details

Come up with as many details as you can to flesh out you character’s back-story. Even if no one ever learns about any of them, your character will become more real to you allowing you to play him or her for the better.

Where was your character born? Does he have any family or siblings? How does he get along with them? Where did he go to school? Did he finish? At what level? What kind of relationships does the character have? What kind of friends? Enemies? Why? What makes him angry? Afraid? Happy? What does he know? What does he need to know?

All of those and many, many more are questions that you could ask yourself about your character. Note that you don’t need to write a novel about these. A simple one-line answer is more than sufficient. You’ll also find that the more questions you ask, the more questions will come to mind making your character all the more fleshed out as you answer those.

Step 5 – W5

The final step, the step that tells you all you need to know about your character at the beginning of the game. These are the questions every good reporter needs to ask in order to get a complete story. Who? What? Where? When? And Why?

Who? Who is your character now? Is he someone that is defined by his profession rather than his personality?

What? What does your character want to accomplish? What are his short-term goals? What about his long-term goals? What is he willing to do to accomplish them?

Where? Where is your character headed? Is he planning on staying put, put down roots and start a business? Maybe he wants to explore all that he can? Does he have a destiny of some sort?

When? When does your character want/need to accomplish his goals? Is he working on a schedule? If so, does he know that schedule or does some outside force dictate it?

Why? Why does your character want to do these things? Why did he become a bounty hunter/shopkeeper/dancer/hairdresser/whatever?

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That’s it. You’re done. Hopefully you have now created a character you can be proud of and you’ll not be put on the spot if someone asks you questions about him or her.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be ready to continue developing your character as you explore and interact with the world, to present yourself as a fully fleshed out individual and not some cookie-cutter individual.

All in all, I find that these are five rather easy steps that should help in the creation of a unique character that presents an interesting and complex background and personality.

-Keverask


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