Character Generation

~Concept by Freyar Hunter
~Revision by Link Skywalker

In role playing, the Characters are everything. The story, the system, the medium, it's all secondary to the character. Without the characters the stories would all be the same, the systems would all be droll, and the mediums empty. The character is your conduit into the world of the game, it is the most important part of role playing. That is why it's so important to put care and effort into your characters. This is especially important for OTBRPGs, because unlike D&D, you have no system, no guidelines. Who your character is means EVERYTHING in an OTBRPG, because there are no numbers to tell people how strong or how smart you are.

As a Role Player who is somewhat well thought of when it comes to the art of creating a good role playing character, I hope to capture the basic character creation process within this article as completely and concisely as possible. Let's begin shall we?

Firstly, you need a concept. What kind of game will this character take part in? Medieval fantasy? Modern day fiction? Futuristic Science Fiction? Something in between? You should try and figure out what role you would like to play within the story. Too many people rush to claim the position of the hero, and never consider the many other possibilities for their characters. The naive warrior who learns his lessons the hard way, the caring and self sacrificing healer, perhaps even the non combatant who got swept along with the other characters through some unfortunate coincidence. The possibilities are endless! I personally like to play the shady antihero who joins the party to reach his own ends.

Once you know who your character is, it's time to start putting the character together. It's important to note at this point that some OTBRPGs have very specific rules or requirements in terms of character creation. The skills I teach you in this guide will serve you just fine in most games, but sometimes the GM may require that each character have a favorite kind of music, or that all the characters adhere to a certain and somewhat strict set of history guidelines. It is usually pretty easy to adapt a character to these requirements, but it's much better if you have those requirements in mind when you initially create the character.

A sample Character Sheet (CS) for an OTBRPG goes something like this;

Name:
Age:
Race:
Gender:
Alignment:
Physical Description:
Clothing:
Occupation:
Skills/Abilities:
Resources/Items/Possessions:
History:
Interesting Facts:

These can be added to or edited or expanded depending on the game you're in or your own feelings on how you would like your character's information to be presented. This is simply the template that I myself have put together over the years, because I feel that it does a good job of displaying all the required information about a character in the most efficient manner. In the following paragraphs, I'll take you through each step of filling out this profile, and I'll create a character with you as we go along to give you a general idea of how everything works.

Firstly, the name. Simple right? Wrong. This is often the most difficult part of the creation process for people. It's important that your name be fitting of the character, and the setting. If most characters are named things like “Welnarg Bestak” you can't name your character “Brian Bloodguzzler” it just doesn't fit. Another thing you don't want to do is create a name that is too hard to remember how to spell, like “Illithiumnius” because then people will avoid interacting with your character just so they don't have to spell his name. The best way to come up with a good character name is to just start with a sound, let's say the sound of the letter “d.” Now, just let your lounge form an unusual and simple word, mess with the way the word sounds until you like it. Another good way is to use words from other languages as your character's name, or even to just use an old fashioned baby-book-of-names.

~ Our sample characters name shall be... Telfarus Gunst.

Secondly, we have our character's age. This isn't the most dramatic or interesting part of the character, however, it is somewhat important so that others may quick reference as to weather their characters should address you as they would a child, or an adult, or an elderly person. For this purpose, you may want to put any unusual modifiers to your age on this line as well. For example, if your character is 12 but has been cursed to look like an old man, you would write “Age: 12 (looks 72)” or some such thing. It should also be noted that “unknown” and “immortal” while they are sometimes well and good, should be used very, very, VERY sparingly. Some RPGs forbid it outright.

~ Telfarus Gunst's age shall be...24.

Going on down the list, we have Race coming in at number three. Age has only a little more bearing on your character than age does. You can select a well known race, or a race that is perhaps of your own creation. You should select your race based on the type of character you have. For example, if you play a dwarf, you should play a hardheaded, gruff fellow who has an affinity for the underground, and quite strong. Of course, you can always make a dwarf that is something of an outcast, such as a dwarf who is not strong, likes forests, or cannot grow a beard. Those all make interesting character traits. Think about your race, and how you can use it to enhance your character. Alternatively as mentioned above, you can create your own race. Just make up a name, the naming methods used earlier in the guide should work. After that, you can implement any oddities of your race in the “appearance” or “abilities” section of the CS.

~ Telfarus Gunst's race shall be... Demon.

The fourth thing on the Character Sheet that needs filling out is the Gender. This is both one of the most, and one of the least important parts of the biography. On the one hand, it's important for people to know what to refer to you as. On the other... it's really kinda pointless besides that. Unless you want to play out gender-specific situations.

~ As you probably noticed from his name, Telfarus is a male character.

Alignment is an important part of a character's profile. Is the character the type who will help a may laying by the side of the road? Will he walk past him? Will he offer to help in return for monetary gains? Or will he just stick a knife in his head to make him stop moaning? You can type of your alignment however you like, although the basic ones are good, evil, and neutral. You can embellish upon these however you want, for example, you might say your character is Good but has a grudge against a certain character and would murder him – a decidedly evil action – if given the chance.

~ Our character, Telfarus, is very much devoted to the ideals of Justice, Honor, and tradition.

Physical Description is where things start to get interesting. In this part of the Biography of your character, you go into detail about how your character looks. Don't describe clothing yet, stick to the basic Physical Features of your Character. Be descriptive, and as always, try to be original. The Physical Description of Telfarus Gunst below should give you a pretty good idea of what you're trying to accomplish.

~ Telfarus is 6 feet tall, with features reminiscent of a bird. His body is covered in immaculately groomed white feathers, excepting his legs which become bare and scaly at the knees. Rather than arms, wings protrude from his shoulders, though at the ends of each wing he has a three fingered hand. Oddly enough he has no beak, but instead a normal human face, covered in white feathers. His nose is somewhat unusually large and in his mouth he has fangs rather than teeth. His eyes are a deep green, and across his back he has many scars from where he was whipped as a child.

Starting to get interesting isn't it? Well it only gets better from here on out, because we've moved on to your character's clothing. This may not seem as interesting as your character's physical description, but what you must keep in mind that while you did choose your character's physical description – your character did not. Your character's physical description is, for the most part, something that your character has no control over. Their clothing however is how your character expresses themselves outwardly. It's how your character would like the world to see them. Is your character reclusive? Are they proud of their physical appearance? Are they trendy? Are they not? These are all questions you should ask yourself when designing your character's apparel.

~ Telfarus Gunst wears an large gray robe that reaches all the way to the floor and trails behind him on the ground, his long sleeves cover all but his gloved hands, and the hood of his robe casts a shadow over his facial features, which matters little, as he also wears a black iron mask over his face. His robe is tied at the waist with a thin red rope, from which hangs a small bag and a dagger. In his hand he always carries his walking stick.

Occupation, we all know what this is right? Your occupation is your job, it's what you do. Your character's occupation should reflect their current vocation in life. In other words you might say that this is your character's “class.” Some sample occupations might include healer, warrior, general, dark knight, alchemist and lawyer. Any number of things really. The idea is to relate the occupation that your character is currently engaged in.

~ Telfarus is an assassin for the good Kingdom of Wayloft, as well as a talented healer.

Skills and Abilities is where you list, what else, your skills and abilities. If you're proficient in a form of combat, how to use a weapon, how to forge documents, or any other relevant skill or ability, then this is where you should put it. This area is where a lot of players make mistakes. We all want great characters, but you have to keep in mind that the game is no fun unless the characters have flaws. When filling out your skills and abilities you should take care not to let your character become all powerful. Another thing you should take care of in this section is describing your less obvious abilities. Examples of abilities you might need to explain are things like “ultimate healing,” “Storm of Blades” or other abilities that have names.

~ Our example character's skills are; Flying, Moderate knowledge of the martial arts, proficiency at dual wielding daggers, Knowledge of Medicine and Alchemy, Healing magic, Air Magic.

Air Magic – Ability to manipulate the wind so far as to change it's direction and strength, or to create wind where there is none. Air Magic also enables him to create small to large tornadoes depending on his level of concentration.

Resources/Items/Possessions is basically your character's inventory. You need not make note of minor items such as soap, however you will want to include any items you own that have magical properties, or that are likely to be of interest. For example, your weapon would definatly be something that you would want to put here. Be careful not to overburden your character. They don't really need every item in existence.

~ Telfarus Gunst carries 2 small daggers, one of them is normal, while the other's blade is made of pure air. He also carries medical supplies, various tools of Alchemy, and a magic rope that grows or shrinks depending on how long Telfarus commands that it be.

The history of your character is both the most time consuming and the most enjoyable part of the creation process. While the rest of your sheet is meant mostly for quick reference by other players, this is where you have a chance to really bring your character to life. A good Character history can be anywhere from 3 to about 15 paragraphs in length, depending on the age and experience of the character. A good middle ground to shoot for is 8 paragraphs. Your history should contain interesting, and important events in your character's life up to the point of play. Additionally, your history should form the basis of your character's personality, and should explain why he is who he is today. If your character is a calloused old duelist who seems intent to fight until he dies, then his history should explain why. Perhaps his family was killed and he no longer wants to live? Perhaps he has a horrible sin on his consciance? Or maybe he just doesn't care. One more thing that I cannot stress enough is the importance of originality. You should always strive to make your character as original as you can, but the history is a section where it's even easier to write about a man whose family was killed by the villain and he seeks revenge. This is not always bad, by any means. Cliches are common because they are good, but keep in mind that a story heard a thousand times is not one that anybody wants to hear again.

~ Unlike most races, Demons are born at the mental and physical equivalent of a 10 year old human. So it was with Telfarus Gunst, a minor air elemental demon. As per the social standard, he never knew his parents, and was left to fend for himself in a society that firmly believed in the phrase “Only the Strong survive.”

While the other young demons discovered methods of survival in forming alliances with each other, Telfarus was never accepted among them because of his strange feather colorings. White was an almost unheard of color for Air demons, and was believed to characterize weakness. More than once, the other Demon's would catch hold of him and whip him for no better reason than to entertain themselves.

Telfarus, of course, hated his life. But demon society was all that he knew, all that he even knew existed. Until one day, when he was about 17 in human years, Telfarus was scavenging about for something to eat, he overheard some older demons talking about a village of humans they had recently attacked. They spoke of how the humans had fallen because they were weak, because rather than focusing their fight on the demons, they had instead protected the weaklings who could not fight.

Telfarus was shocked at the news. Beings other than demons existed! And better, they were beings that would show him what he had never known – kindness. Right then and there he spread his wings and flew off – not sure of anything beyond the deep caverns of his kin, but determined to find this place, and these people, that his fellow demon's viewed with such contempt. These humans would show him kindness, they appreciated the weak! (Though Telfarus was by no means weak, having had to fend for himself for so long in such a harsh society.)

Telfarus had no way of knowing that humans would instantly relate his appearance with the evils that his kin had set upon them. Nor could he have known how violently humans would react to those horrors. Telfarus would not return to his people however, even the way the humans turned him aside was better than the horrors of living with Demons.

And so Telfarus wandered, for 2 long years, not even bothering to attempt to contact another town, but instead finding his solace in the forest, among the birds that were his people's distant and lesser cousins. It was here that he came upon the elves, though he did not know it. The elves that inhabited the forest watched him carefully from the moment he entered their lands. Of course, they feared that he was a scout for the Demon army – but it did not take long for them to notice his calm, peaceful demeanor.

Regardless, the elves made no attempts to contact him. They were a secretive people who enjoyed their solitude, and the decision on weather or not to admit their existence in the forest by making contact with an outsider was a difficult one. Fortunately for Telfarus, the choice was forced upon them one day, when as if guided by a magical entity, Telfarus found himself in the elves secret village.

As the inhabitants of the village came out to see this strange intruder, he turned to run – afraid of what he had found, and what they might do to him. The elves were going to let him go, until one elvish woman, a healer of the Lajanise order, ran forward and took hold of his hand. She had been the one to first see him as he entered the forest, and had argued most vehemently that he was a good and gentle being. Without saying a word to him, she turned to the people of the village, including the gathered elders, and told them that she would take Telfarus in under her protection.

The next 18 months were the best in Telfarus' life. The elven woman, Yiway was her name, taught him everything she could teach him about healing, and he proved a very adept learner. They even theorized that his white feathers marked him as one particularly powerful in the healing arts – which is probably why demons considered it a color of weakness. Over the course of his stay, he became an accepted, and loved member of the society, even to the point of being trained and allowed to take part in the villages profession. Assassination of those who were of no use to the world.

Good times do not last however, and only a year and a half after his arrival at the village, tragedy struck. During a summer storm, one of the trees near the village was struck by lightning, and fell onto an outlying home, crushing it and setting it ablaze. Yiway and Telfarus both rushed in to try and help those trapped inside, but only Telfarus escaped.

After the death of Yiway, Telfarus could no longer bear to stay in the village that held so many memories of his dearest mentor and friend The elders gave him, as parting gifts, a magical dagger, robes so as to hide his form, and a note to give to the king of Wayloft – that he might seek gainful employment from him.

That leaves but one section of the character sheet left to fill out – interesting facts. This section is by no means necessary, but it can be important. This is something like the “Miscellaneous” section of the CS. In here you would put perhaps a theme song for your character, make note of an animal companion, or of a nervous habit.

~ Calling Card: Telfarus carves the rune of death into the forehead of every assassination target that he kills, to ensure that they cannot be resurrected.
Slurring: Telfarus Speaks with a slight slur, because his demon tounge was not designed for the language of men.

Well that's just about all you should need to know about creating a character, if you have any comments or suggestions please send them to me. Post this on your website if you like, I'd appreciate credit and a link back to Epic Journeys, but I'm happy just to get the word out to all the new kids about how to make a good character. As a parting note, I want to stress again how important it is to keep your character both original and balanced. Without Originality and Balance, all we have is half a dozen Drizzt Do'Urdens fighting half a dozen Inuyashas.

Good luck, and happy playing.