Umbral Echoes Blog

Last time, I outlined a few ways that I’ve seen people go about creating characters. So this time, I’ll go over how I do it.

Sadly (or perhaps it’s a good thing), there’s no one formula I use. Sometimes I will think, “Wow, that’s a neat power/ability! I think I’ll design a character around that.”  Sometimes I’ll be intrigued by a character in a movie or book, see a synergy in them with another character from some different series (or half-formed concept already lurking in my brain), and combine the two (or more) into something new.  Sometimes I hear a particularly awesome song and it just gives me a concept.  That last was how I made my character Sammael; here’s the song (not sure if this will work in Facebook, so if not, the file is here):

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The child-like-yet-creepy tune gave me the image of a kid in a cathedral with dead bodies all around him.  I let the scene play out in my head, and created a character from the result.  What caused the scene?  What happened before?  What would it do to a child, and what would they end up like after?  Just a small jump from one step to the next, and by the time it’s done, you have a character.

But more often than not, inspiration strikes randomly. I’m not sure what path those neural impulses take, but one minute I’ll be all, “Mmmm, steak,” and the next it’s, “Wouldn’t it be neat if there were a modern-day cop who worshiped Aztec gods and made human sacrifices out of really evil people that got let go due to legal loopholes?”

So if I had to nail down a formula, here would be the steps (though sometimes the order shifts drastically):

1. Figure out the character concept — the core of who the character is, what they do, and why.  This part is actually pretty easy for me.
2. Flesh out the personality.  Give the character some quirks.  If the character concept follows a stereotype, find some ways to break the mold.
3. Write a background story.  This part is also pretty easy, but requires a bit more discipline.
4. Fill out the character sheet.  Also easy, once the above are complete.
5. Come up with a name for the character.  Hardest part, almost without fail.

I’ve found that once I’ve done 1-3, the character sheet comes almost without thought.  By that point, I know the character.  I know what they’re good at, what they like, what they would have practiced and studied.  So filling out the skills, powers, and the rest of the character sheet is easy.

Step 5, ironically, probably takes me longer than any of the other steps.  I don’t like just giving a character any name; I like to give them a name that “feels” right for them, that evokes the right emotions, and that often takes a while.

Overall, I find that I enjoy characters as much as playing them, on average.  Sometimes I have more fun making the character than playing it, or vice-versa, but in the end it’s about even.  If there’s one thing I like about being the storyteller/gamemaster/what-have-you, it’s that I get to create and play a bunch of different characters.

This is talking about character designs in roleplaying games, and here I mean actual games where you take on and play a role, so not games like World of Warcraft.  An experience/level system does not a roleplaying game make.

Creating a character is one of the defining parts of roleplaying games, and as a player it’s the first thing that you do after acquainting yourself with the rules (or sometimes even before that!).  Your character is the extension of yourself in the game world, the one and only tool you have to interact with the story.

I think there are as many different ways of creating a character as there are players who create them, if not more.  But there are some general themes people tend to follow.  There is no best way, except the way that is best for you personally.  As for me, I tend to use many different methods, depending on how inspiration strikes.

Some people just play themselves in a game.  The character’s personality is the player’s personality.  The primary benefit is that you don’t even have to pause to think what your character would say or do in any given situation; your character reacts as you would.  There is no qualm of, “Would my character be upset by this?  Would s/he like this person?”  Especially for many people new to roleplaying, this is the easiest way to get into it.  You’re playing the role of… yourself.  On the downside, the line between in-character and 0ut-of-character is easy to blur.  Someone insults your character, it’s easy to take it as an insult to yourself.  Your character fails, it feels more like you’ve failed.  So while I might recommend this for people new to roleplaying, I’d always recommend it stressing those warnings.

Some players take inspiration from other sources when creating a character.  “I think Spike is really awesome, so I’m going to create an Exalted version of him.”  This is very common, and has a similar benefit as the “playing yourself” method of character design.  You’re already familiar with the character, so you have a better idea of how they should react when presented with any given situation.  Personally, I like melding different sources and adding a twist, to create something my own.

Some players create something entirely from scratch, or from different inspiration altogether — maybe a song, or a line from a poem.  This is probably the most challenging method of character creation.  You write the background, and you try to get inside the character’s head, but really until you’re playing the character, it’s hard to get a handle on it.  But eventually, this is where characters can take on a life of their own — where, in thinking as the character might, a thought or line comes into your head that never would have, otherwise.  Of course, sometimes people who successfully pull this off end up playing the same character over and over again, because they like their creation so much.  When you create something awesome, it’s easy to get attached to it, which runs many of the same risks as playing yourself does.

I personally tend to use a mesh of the previous two paragraphs.  I’d be interested to hear other people’s takes on how they go about it.  In my next post I’ll go into a bit more detail on some of my own methods.