Character Building Guidelines
There are many things that are important to keep in mind for character creation, from the style of the game to what your character's roll in the group is. There are many more factors that may also come into play depending on the specific campaign.
General Guidelines
For All Games
What follows are some general pieces of advise to follow.
Building characters as a Group
There are many benefits to building characters as a group. It lets you help brainstorm ideas, ensures that you aren't unintentionally stepping on another characters goals, and all round helps build a solid groundwork for the game to come.
For further details on how best to benefit from building characters as a group, take a look at this pdf.
Backgrounds
Many people have different approaches to developing character backgrounds. Some people like writing small novels, while others like to have their characters start off as a blank slate that they can fill out through play. Either way, there are a few background issues that are important for the GM.
- A bit of info about a living, non-enemy NPC who is important to the PC.
- Something the PC is passionate about (an ideal; a person, place or thing; a goal).
- A living rival or enemy NPC (or organization).
Depending on the campaign there may be more or less asked of you, but in most cases you'll want to be able to give these three pieces of information.
Clearly Labelling Your Core Character Role - Three up, Three down
From Without Which Not.
Consider the first three things that you want people to remember about your character, and the last three things you would let anybody forget. For Example:
Ajimiru ‘King Blade’ for Armageddon Engines (a game of giant robot anime)
Three up, three down:
- He’s a hotshot ‘engine pilot who’s never lost a battle.
- He has a tragically scarred, older brother who disappeared in epic battle (and secretly went over to the other side).
- His kitten goes everywhere with him.
and
- He has the morals of an alley cat.
- Ajimiru is strikingly handsome.
- He’s an idealistic ‘good guy’ out to avenge his brother, regain his family name, and have a rockin’ good time.
Doing this will help to ensure that the GM knows whats important about your character, and can help to give you spotlight moments. In addition this helps to differentiate between characters that might be otherwise similar or who fill the same role in the party.
For Roleplaying Intensive Games
Roleplaying Intensive games put even more focus on who your character is than what he can do. This means extra time should be spent on elements such as Three Up, Three Down and Backgrounds.
More details to follow at a later date....
