Character creation is my favorite part of
playing an rpg. This is the moment you get to craft your character into being. The
choices made during this stage will affect how they interact with the world,
decide what they can or cannot do within it, and define their role with the
society so this step is worthy of much consideration. A well thought-out character can be the difference between an engaging
story and a series of die rolls and box text. This will be the first post in a two part
explanation of character creation. This will cover the actually mechanical
portion of the game and how best to begin while the second part will cover more
of the descriptive details.
Most games follow a basic format for character
building; Concept, attributes, skills, advantages or special abilities, flaws
(if the game includes them), and then derived stats so I’ll follow that format
for my post. The first step in the process is Think of a character concept. This is generally a few words that
sum up the central idea of your character like, Nerdy Do-gooder or Crazed
Hatchet Juggler. This step will help guide you through selecting stats for the
character as certain concepts should be good or bad at various tasks. Concepts
tend to be broad but a good, original concept will make the next choices you
make so much easier.
The next step is to decide which attributes best fit your mental image of the character.
Attributes are your characters innate
abilities, things they can do naturally. I won’t cover them too much because not
too many people puzzle over where to place their points. The Nerdy character
should have high intelligence and the Juggler should have the dexterity to be
able to actually juggle. The thing to
pay attention to with attributes are which ones affect the characters derived
attributes. If your concept requires you to have a heighten level of those
attributes, then it’s a good idea to plan
accordingly.
After that it’s time to select skills. This is
where people tend to take the most time during character creation as skills
determine what your character can do and how well they can do it. It’s a wise
idea to diversify skills as oppose to
concentrate them into only a few high level skills. When people tend to
make characters that are only focused in a few areas, the characters come out
two dimensional. Playing a two dimensional character is boring! A good broad
grouping of skills will give your character some depth and will allow them to
overcome more obstacles. You’ll earn experience later on to level up your
skills. This will give you something to work towards as you play.
Some games assign special abilities to certain
characters archetypes but others allow you to pick and choose. Selecting
special abilities and advantages should be based on your character, not how
practical they are for the game ahead. This is where you can add more detail to
your character, making them seem more real. Ambidexterity is really useful but
how many people are really ambidextrous. It’s hard to know which advantages
will come into play later so there is no sense in stacking up ones you think
will be useful but don’t fit your character. Never underestimate the value of contacts. Access to resources is a
good decision for a beginning character who may be unfamiliar with the game
mechanics.
Some games offer either bonus character build
points or more experience points in game for adding flaws to your character. I
enjoy this part of games because if there is anything that helps create a real
character, this is it. Everyone is flawed somehow and characters without issues
aren’t very interesting. However, don’t over load yourself with them otherwise
you risk having an unplayable character. Their handicaps will hinder them too
much to be enjoyable. The trick is to find at least one that works for your
character and then debated how fitting others may be.
Most derived stats can’t be directly
manipulated. As stated above, just keep an eye on your stats to make sure they
line up. This covers the mechanical part of character creation. Next post will
cover the finer details.
Let the
good times roll
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