Jennerosity

My first gaming group is about to start a brand new campaign.  We’re using a world we’ve played in before, just fast-forwarding a bit, and creating  new characters for it.  It’s got me to thinking about the methods I’ve been using to develop characters that I am more interested in and (hopefully) others are too.¹

1. I start with some ‘woo-woo.’ I find that I like to start with something very abstract.  Like a particular quality or quirk that someone might have, and then build out.  If I start out by thinking of the larger role the person has in the group, I tend to get stuck there, and the character lacks a personality.  So, unless I’ve already got a character idea in my head that I’ve been itching to use, I’ll pull a tarot card and see if that gives me any inspiration.  Another thing you could do is go find a horoscope/astrology site and check out today’s readings, and see what tickles your fancy.
2. Reference material. When coming up with a character, sometimes it’s hard not to use a well-known model.  So, at some point, I take my kernel and start to think of famous tv/movie/book characters that shared that trait.  This is good time to brainstorm all the possible ways that this can influence someone and pick which direction feels right for you, the world you’re playing in, and the group of characters you are playing with.  Usually you don’t want to copy a well-known character but it can be good to give you some guidance.
3. Torture. Now that I’ve got some general ideas about who and what your character is like, I then begin to think of ways to make a person’s life more difficult.  The current rule set/setting I am playing in makes this easy, since you have to pick assets and complications for your character.  The assets are easy, so I try not to look at those until I’ve figured out what the complications are.  I also like to frame these in terms of the past and future.  What’s happened in their past that has lead them to a particular place where they would meet their current companions?  What might come up in the future that would bring conflict to a situation?  The whole point of gaming groups is adventure and conflict and often the most memorable and fun times for players come up when that is character driven, instead of story driven.

After going through those basic steps, I’m usually ready at this point to start assigning some numbers, fleshing out details for a backstory, and filling out my character sheet.  Anyone else got any interesting tips for creating an interesting character?

1. I’ve also borrowed a lot of these methods for creating characters for my novels. [↩]

Related posts:

1. Character Description: Kitsune & Kirin
2. Evernote for Gamers
3. 5 For Friday – PAX Edition