Creating a Better Player-Character
How to transform stats on a sheet into a dynamic character with a story befitting of legends
Coming up with a new character is one of the biggest challenges and tabletop roleplaying gamer can face, yes, even bigger than facing down ancient dragons. There are those who have played the game for years who still get stuck when it comes to creating their player-character bios and backstories and think about how to differentiate their new PC from their old one. For me, I have a few steps I always think through that helps create dynamic and interesting characters.
1. Talk to your DM
You should be doing this anyway at the start of every campaign. If your DM hasn’t provided you with a player’s handbook of sorts or a campaign-guide, ask them for one. If not, talk to them about what kind of campaign they’re looking to run. Get a general idea of where they are hoping to take the story and what they would like to see the player-characters accomplish. Tailor-crafting your PC to the DM’s goals and plot-line will make it easier for you both to rope your character in to the central conflict, while still having their own individual narrative and agency. It will also help avoid writing your character into a corner wondering why your PC would care about the central conflict at hand.
2. Create Your Characters With Purpose
This is the “Why are they doing what they are doing” bit of character-creation. This will be helped immensely by talking to the DM about the campaign, and what your characters will be doing, whether it’s engaging in courtly intrigue, or delving into darkest dungeons. Once you have that, figure out why your character is doing this. What are their personal stakes in what’s happening? Yes, I’m sure your fabulous GM has their own master-plot they’ll be gradually revealing throughout the campaign, but your character needs their own reason to be there. Not every character wants to save the world, or the town, or the region what-have-you. The onus is on you as the player to give your character personal stakes in the events around them.
You can also give your character lesser but equally as personal objectives to accomplish between the great plot-events. Maybe they’re simply trying to become a better person, to find love, or to prove themselves to a distant parent figure. These things are your character’s reason for being. All good characters have drive and a purpose, having one that pushes you forwards in the adventure will create memorable stories and interesting challenges for you and your group.
3. Memorable Contrasts
This one isn’t so much as necessary as it is something that I always enjoy doing with my player-characters. A contrast is when two aspects of a character are seemingly at odds with one another. The kindly, unassuming bartender is actually a powerful wizard. A sweet seemingly-innocent young boy hides a dark secret and worships a dark god. Contrasts create conflict, and conflict makes stories interesting. They also help create characters that feel more three-dimensional and fully-rounded. No one is exactly the same all the time, and we’re all full of our own inner-anachronisms and hypocritical flaws and ideals that come into conflict with our very nature every day. Who we are is often at odds with who we want to be and how we perceive ourselves. It may also come into conflict with how the world externally perceives us. Try playing around with it and coming up with some interesting conflicts and contrasts to give your character some extra spice.
4. How Did they Get Here
So now we’ve talked to our DM, we know what they are doing and why they are doing it and we’ve peppered them in with interesting contrasts and inner-conflict that create a fully-realized inner-world sure to make them an interesting headspace to occupy while at the gaming table. Now is the part where we think of how they got to that space. We often refer to this part as writing down the backstory. Many players prefer to start with the backstory and use it as a leaping off point, but personally I like saving this step for a good ways into creating the character. It allows me plenty of freedom to really think about the kind of character I want to play without being strung along by a lofty pre-written backstory.
Instead, I prefer to reverse-engineer the backstory from the kind of character I want to play. For example, say I want to play a grizzled mercenary who harbors a fascination with gizmos and inventions and would like to settle down with his tinker’s tools and create a toy-shop one day. With my concept and some interesting contrasts already settled down, I can look backwards in his life and easily imagine how he arrived at such a point in his career. Since we already know he’s a mercenary, we can imagine what his life in the company was like and what lead to him looking for a change. What sort of events shaped his worldview that he’d go to something so drastically different as inventing toys?
With our concept so neatly laid out for us we have a clear direction in mind and all that’s left is figuring out how we got there. It also helps when talking to your DM about your character concept as they may have relevant information you were unaware of, and you can begin to work together to craft an interesting journey.
5. Working With Other Players
Of course, there’s more individuals at the table besides you and your DM. You have the rest of the group to consider. This may be backstory planning, discussing how your characters know each other and are already linked. Pre-establishing relationships prior to the campaign’s beginning helps cement your characters as part of the world and adds another layer to their being.
Beyond the backstory, there is always working to develop your relationships to other characters within the context of the story. Too many players fall back on the crutch of the lone-stranger archetype and never develop any bonds with the rest of the party or within the world, depriving them of a particularly interesting aspect of tabletop roleplaying. Even if you are playing the brooding loner who sits by himself in the tavern far away from everyone else, you need to have a reason to do this beyond just trying to look cool and mysterious. Having apathetic or begrudging relationships with your party members is still a relationship-dynamic and it’s worth exploring and roleplaying out.
Look to make friends with your party members and/or travelling companions, or perhaps even bitter rivals. It’s worth talking to the other players at the table in and out of character to find out how your characters feel about each other. Relationships make characters interesting. They generate bonds and conflict that can completely alter a character’s choices and change the entire story as a whole.
Try out some of these tips in your own games. Above all, collaboration is key and ensures a good time for everyone. Here’s hoping your next characters are the most legendary of all.
Dorian Dawes is the author of Harbinger Island and Mercs. They have been DM’ing for several years and have also contributed to the Aethera tabletop rpg setting. Their non-fiction work has been published by Bitch Media and the Huffington Post. You can support their writing at patreon.com/doriandawes
