The Makings of a Character for RPGs

Hey everyone!

Today, I want to talk a bit about character creation, specifically for roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons. Character creation is, hands-down, one of my absolute favorite parts of the game, so I'd like to discuss what goes into a character, and what I think is important when it comes to making a good character idea great.

(As an aside, I primarily play Pathfinder, not D&D, but they're almost the same thing. And D&D is easier to type. So I will be referring to D&D throughout this post.

So, those who are familiar with D&D know that there are two main things that go into a character - class and race. Your race, of course, is very simply what species or race your character belongs to. Is your character a human, an elf, or a dwarf? Or even something more unusual, like a tiefling or an aasimar? Your class, on the other hand, is what your character does. If you run into combat with heavy armor and a sword and shield, chances are that your character is a fighter. A ranger, on the other hand, will often stay on the outskirts of a battle with a bow and arrow, while a bard will use her music and magic to support her allies.

Except don't play bards. Bards are useless.

So you might be thinking, "Well, I want to get into the thick of combat without a care in the world and swing a greataxe around, so I'll just play a half-orc barbarian." Which, to be fair, is a perfectly valid way to create a character, and that's all that's really necessary. But when you get into the game, and you find that your fellow players have these rich, flavorful characters, with hopes and dreams and personalities, and your character is just sitting on the sidelines waiting for the next poor, unsuspecting goblin to walk past, you might find yourself bored, frustrated, or disappointed. Now, do you have to write a book detailing your character's backstory and motivations? No, not really. (It'd be really cool if you did though. Kudos to anyone who does so.) But there are definitely real, simple ways to give your characters life and make them interesting. Not every character is going to follow these same steps, but here's a guideline that I think works pretty well for creating a new character.

Step 1: Pick a class.

Some people like to start with their character's race, but personally, I think it makes more sense to start with class. The first thing you should think is "What do I want my character to do?" (I also like to think "What weapon, if any, do I want my character to use?" Some weapons are really cool, and some lend themselves to certain classes and playstyles.) If you want to be an out-of combat expert, relying on skill checks like Diplomacy or Intimidate to get your way, you may want to consider playing a rogue. (Or a bard - I know I mentioned that they're useless, and I will mostly stand by that statement. But that's more for combat situations. And since a big chunk of D&D is combat, I would shy away from playing a character who doesn't do much in combat.) If you'd rather be a support to your other players, providing healing and other benefits to your allies while also smiting your enemies with divine might, a cleric is probably more up your alley. And of course, if you really want to just bash some skulls with a giant club, feel free to grab that barbarian class!

This is also where you can see what other people are playing and try to fill in some gaps. Frankly, to me, this isn't very important. If you've got a party of two rangers and a bard, and you really want to play a ranger, I see no real reason why that should be an issue. However, oftentimes it will be helpful to have some diversity in the party. So if you're playing with three other players, and they have all decided on playing a barbarian, a fighter, and a ranger, you may want to play as a sorcerer, wizard, or cleric to provide some magic to the crew. I find this is a good method if you don't really know what you want to play, but the rest of your players really want to play particular characters.

By the way, if you've never played D&D before, my personal recommendation would be to play a barbarian. They're simple, easy to play, and can be a hell of a lot of fun for everyone in the game.

Step 2: Pick a race.

Now, every race confers different bonuses (and penalties) to your character. An elf character, for instance, will get bonuses to its Dexterity and Intelligence, but a penalty to its Constitution. Meanwhile, a gnome will have increased Constitution and Charisma, but lowered Strength. 

Not this type of gnome. Although I guess there's nothing stopping

you, really.

However, despite these (and other) racial bonuses and penalties, when it comes down to it, I think that race is most important for roleplaying and for flavor. Because, while a vampire-hunting human ranger has a certain compelling feel to it, a vampire-hunting dhampir (which is a half-vampire) ranger has a completely different feeling - still compelling, but for very different reasons. So in my opinion, it is best to pick a race that fits not because "Oh, the ability score modifiers worked well for a barbarian!" but rather because it makes for an interesting story. The player who picked a half-elf because "I was playing a ranger and wanted to put +2 in Wisdom" will likely end up being more bored than the player who picked a half-elf because "My character is the bastard child of a human noble and an elf consort, who was then sent away and was forced to fend for himself in a world that never truly accepted him."

As a disclaimer, there's no problem with picking a race for the benefits it confers to your characters. I do it all the time, as do most players I know. However, I just don't think that should be the only determining factor in picking a race. 

Step 3: Craft a backstory.

This is where you start to go above and beyond in character creation! Some DMs will specifically ask you  for your character's backstory (I know I do). But even if you're not asked for it, it's still really nice to have. Like I said, I don't expect any of my players to write me a novel detailing their character's upbringing, family life, their pet dog Fluffy who was run over by a wayward carriage, and so on and so forth. But again, it's just a matter of injecting a bit of life into your character - they're an entity in the game world, and they didn't just materialize as a level 1 wizard! What caused them to go adventuring? Why are they the class that they are? What are their goals for the future? Just coming up with answers to these sorts of questions can help you play the character and make the game just a bit more vibrant! Plus, the more your DM knows about your character's backstory, the more he or she can incorporate some of those details into the storyline. For instance, if you say that your character is a half-orc who used to run with bandits but had a change of heart and decided to stick to the straight and narrow, when your DM has you run into an old bandit accomplice who tries to get you to join back up with him, that creates an interesting and compelling (and maybe even emotional!) encounter that likely wouldn't have happened if you hadn't created that backstory.

Step 4: Give them some personality!

I'll admit, this was the biggest flaw I had with my first D&D character. I picked out my class, and picked a race to match. Created this really cool, somewhat tragic backstory that provided some insight into why my character acted the way he did, and why he was out adventuring rather than sitting at home. But I gave no thought to my character's personality, so he ended up just being... me. And that's boring. It's a roleplaying game, after all, so why not take the opportunity to roleplay a bit? Are you a really quiet, shy person typically? Try making a very temperamental, often-violent barbarian who drinks a lot and gets into barroom brawls! You may be surprised as to how much fun it'll end up being.

And my advice for this step? Make your character's personality a caricature. A complete exaggeration. I like to pick one character strength and one major flaw. One of my later characters was a really kind-hearted cleric, who believed that everyone had good in them and would always attempt to avoid combat rather than fight needlessly. Character strength? Kindness and a knack for diplomacy. Character flaw? Naivete. She nearly got duped multiple times into giving people money needlessly, and was only stopped by the rest of the party holding her back and saying "Hang on just a hot second, that guy is clearly working with the bandits! How could you not see that?!"

And of course, once you create that personality, try your best to stick to it in gameplay! Even if you, as the player, would love to go exploring that dark crevasse, if you established that your halfling druid is claustrophobic, don't go in there! Make her force the other players' characters in first! Staying true to your character can be tough, but if you can do it, the roleplaying aspects of the game will often end up being much more fun than something like combat.

That's pretty much it! After all that, of course, you've got all the fun stuff like rolling for stats, buying starting equipment, and whatnot. But most of that goes without saying, and I don't think it's as relevant for character creation at its core. Anyway, next time you're starting up a D&D game (or any other RPG, really), try following these steps and see how it works out for you!


EDIT: Two things that I forgot to mention, that are typically fairly important for character creation! One is physical appearance and voice. Generally, I would lump physical appearance in with race, and it can be fairly important for your character as well! Essentially, you'll want your appearance to at least somewhat thematically fit with your character's abilities. If you're playing as a brutish fighter with 18 Strength, for instance, you may not want to be a rat-faced guy who's only 5'3" and 100 pounds. And as for your character's voice, well, that's not entirely necessary for roleplaying, but I personally really like trying to come up with a distinct voice for my characters. (One of my characters, for example, sounds like a deeper-voiced version of Zapp Brannigan.) I think the greatest benefit for giving your character a distinct voice is that it helps set apart the moments in which you're actively roleplaying the character, and the moments in which you're talking as yourself, out-of-character.

Tips from personal experience: if your character sounds like this,

don't expect him to be taken seriously. Ever.

The other thing I want to mention is alignment. Some DMs play very strictly with alignment - for those who are unfamiliar, the two aspects of alignment are Good vs. Evil and Law vs. Chaos. So a lawful good character generally tries to uphold laws and traditions, while also looking out for the greater good. For me, alignment is more of a guideline than anything, since I feel most characters will tend towards a true neutral alignment with leanings toward law, chaos, good, or evil. Plus, alignment is very fluid, in my opinion. I'll likely do a longer post in the future about alignment, but to me, it's just something to keep in mind during character creation, not to be seen as an unerring truth about your character.