A story is only as good as its characters, and nowhere does that apply more than to a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Sure, you could play the game as just a bundle of numbers attacking other bundles of numbers, but where’s the fun in that? A good character will allow you to engage more with the world the GM sets out for you, step out of your comfort zone a little bit, and create stories that you and your friends will be reminiscing about- or teasing you about- for years to come, if you put in the effort.

Your character is a window into the world of the GM, as well as your way of leaving your mark on it. With the strong combination of the right GM and a strong character concept, you’ll find yourself getting far more out of the game- and if you’re going to be settling into a session for the long haul, the last thing you want to happen is to create a character with little to no depth to them.

Character creation has always been one of my favourite parts of playing D&D, but it can be a real struggle for players who’re just starting out, as there’s a few pitfalls that can catch you out. Every GM and player has a different concept of what a good character is, and don’t take my word as gospel, but here’s the things I try to keep in mind whenever I create a character.

Let awesome art inspire you.

Rule number one is, as always, communicate with your GM. There may be restrictions on races, classes or backgrounds in the campaign. Keep them up to date with your character background and you won’t have any problems on game day!

Active, Not Passive

Dungeons & Dragons is about adventure, stepping into the wild unknown, and making good and bad decisions: your character should reflect that, in both where they’ve been in the past and where they plan to be in the future. An active character is a character who has constant motivation to stay with their comrades, help them, and to journey to the next adventure, as there’s a connecting chain between their overall goals and their more short-term goals. This way, you’re not having to find reasons to rationalise your character doing what they do, and it’ll help everything else fall into place.

A passive character is a character who has no overarching goal, and the events of the world that they participate in just seem to ‘happen’ to them. Realistically, they have no real reason to be adventuring, and there’s no real existing motive for them to be putting their life on the line. If you have a character who’s passive in motive, you’ll also be playing them passively, as you have no window for input on any of the situations that’re happening.

“I’m just here to murder random NPCs, LOL.”

When I say that your character should have an overarching goal, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the grandest goal of them all, or something that will never change. If you think of your favourite movies, you want to see the best characters succeed: you know that Luke wants to rescue Leia in Star Wars, and you know that Han Solo needs to pay back Jabba the Hutt. Ideally, your GM would most likely want your character to have their goal be something that can actually be achieved at some point in the campaign.

If you’re just at the start of your character creating process, don’t worry about having the whole how and why of the motive just yet. Just think about what you would like to experience during the game. Would you like to kill a dragon? Amass a ton of wealth? Get revenge, fall in love, become immortal? Think about what’d be fun to play, and then you can begin drafting the character to work towards that motive.

The Dreaded Backstory

Ah, the backstory- often the most requested pre-campaign document, almost as often not produced to the GM! Writing a backstory can be a challenge, as you don’t want to write too much, nor do you want to write too little.

The way I break down a backstory is by using the Who, What, Where and Why method:

Who is my character at their core? Who is important to them?

What is their goal? What is their darkest secret, if anything? What motivates them?

Where have they come from? Where would they like to go?

Why are they an adventurer? Why are they the way they are?

Some of these questions overlap, of course, but it’s something to keep your mind running on the right track. The Who, What, Where and Why of your character is going to be the questions that your GM is asking in their head as you’re writing your backstory. There’s more to it than this, and you’re free to add as many details as you want- in fact, I’d encourage it! As long as you’ve got all these key elements in, you’re moving in the right direction to creating a character with several dimensions: personality, motivation and relationships, and your GM will hopefully see that and take note of the ‘plot hooks’ that he can hang up and pull on later.

Or they’re figuring out a new way of emotionally tormenting you.

Another good tip is to simply talk to your GM during the character creation process. I know I also mentioned this in my other D&D piece, but it’s worth repeating: you’re working as a team with the GM, and the best way you’re going to find something that works for both of you is by communicating. Ask them about their world, send them your character, and see how you can fit in. If you have a good idea for a special location for where your character is from, ask them if that can be included in the game somehow. Try and leave your mark in the world so that you can call a little bit of it your own, and you’ll already be far more invested in the game.

It’s Who Your Character Knows

There’s an instinctual reach for certain tropes when we create a character which can sometimes ‘box in’ a character’s potential for depth within the game. These tropes often make it easy to ‘skip over’ certain parts of a characters life, skipping some of the things that might be particularly hard to write or conceptualise.

Don’t be afraid to give your character connections outside of the party. It’s incredibly rare for somebody to live in a world teeming of life and not at least made a contact or friend or two: similarly, the amount of people who’ll live and have some kind of family to speak of, blood related or not, is pretty high. You don’t need to list off an extensive back catalogue of generic people that your character has met; far from it. Stick to the essentials.

The point I’m trying to make is that you have to own who your character is. If they’re a hermit and they don’t know anybody, own that, rather than using it as a storytelling crutch to bypass having to write any further details. Perhaps they don’t like people, and they’ve kept the company of a pet who they care for more than anything else. Are they just an all-business, can’t-tie-me-down type? Then they’ll care for the people who’re their tightest connections, who’re the ones lining their pockets with gold.

It doesn’t have to be every villager you’ve ever met, but whoever has been useful/important to your character in some way.

Writing your own character is hard enough; writing extra characters can be even tougher! So, in keeping with the theme, stick to the essentials. These characters could simply be a description of what the person is like and their relation to the character. For the no-nonsense rogue I mentioned earlier, a contact could be: “Raven Oxbrey, Human. A fence of stolen goods working for the local Thieves Guild. A slimeball with greasy, stringy hair over a lumpy skull. My character doesn’t trust them, but they’ve built a good working relationship.”

By adding these extra background characters, not only has your GM got an extra non-player character to work with than they had before, but they can also grasp a better picture of who your character is- who they’ve met, and where they’ve been. It also allows you, as a player, to be in the essence of roleplaying before the game has even begun, imagining the kind of conversations your character has had, and the way they might speak.

If you don’t want to create these background characters, ask the other players who they’re considering playing- if there’s a degree of compatibility and you can cooperate on a backstory you can both agree upon, perhaps you might be blood relatives, or have history together! These kinds of friendships and bonds can really change a party dynamic for the better.

It’s All In The Details

Roleplaying games aren’t the most visual of mediums; mostly, it’s Theatre of the Mind, so often any visual descriptions are going to be all in your head. Describing things has never been by strong suit, both as a player and a GM. Still, a little description goes a long way.

In many ways, how your character actually looks in their physical characteristics- the colour of their hair and eyes, the size of their nose and ears, etc- is the least important thing to know. They don’t have much bearing on the game, and unless it’s a particularly striking hair colour or iris colour, it’s not going to be a visual motif of your character.

Films will use visual motifs often to offer an ‘iconic’ image of their character, and there’s nothing to stop you doing the same. You might forget what colour Tony Montana’s eyes are, but you’ll always remember the piles of cocaine and the Hawaiian shirt. This isn’t to say that your character should also have piles of “travelling powder” in front of them (although, by all means, a fantasy Al Pacino is an excellent thing to gun for)! Rather, think about what the most striking thing about your character is. What’s the one thing that anybody would notice? Here’s a few things that you might want to consider.

The build of your character. Are they tall? Short? Are they noticeably muscular (maybe intimidatingly so?) or frail and weak, looking like they might fall over in the wind?

Do they have a precious possession on them? This could be a piece of jewellery like a signet ring, an impressively forged or expensive weapon, or a mysterious trinket (possibly a family heirloom, or a personal memento, or a lucky charm).

What’s their mood? When you introduce your character, are they calm and controlled? Maybe they seem paranoid or twitchy, eyes darting around the room, looking for threats. Are they comfortable talking to strangers, or are they shrinking violets? Depending on your character, think about how they involuntarily physically react to situations.

Equipment shouldn’t just be a shopping list of things you need: think about the things in real life you’d never want to part from.

Use Yer Voice, Laddie!

The best pre-game tip I can give to you, as a player, is to find a voice for your character. If you’re already naturally talented (or like to think you are, like me!) at voicing new accents and cadences, that’s excellent- but, for a lot of people, finding a voice for a character can be the most difficult thing you can do. Not only is there a layer of embarrassment to get behind, but also doing your character justice. You could be playing a character of a completely different gender, or maybe you just can’t give them the voice that you’re hearing in your head. It can be pretty frustrating.

If you’re struggling to give your character a voice for any of these reasons or perhaps some others, don’t be dissuaded! Simply use descriptive language to describe how your character talks in the third person. Sometimes, describing how your character speaks in the third person can be better than actually delivering the dialogue itself.

Saying “Brosca the Half-Orc says that the party should split up and try and pry each door open with force” is a lot different from saying “Brosca snarls with frustration and cracks her knuckles. She barks to her companions. ‘Let’s open these damn doors by force!’”

A voice can sometimes communicate a personality better than an extensive backstory can. Give it a try, experiment, and see which method works for you.

Final Touches

What’s in a name? Quite a lot, actually.

Drizzt Do’urden didn’t get the memo. (Drizz-it? Drizz-tuh? Dry-zit?)

Your character name isn’t just going to get written down on your character sheet: it’s going to be written hundreds of times by your GM, and spoken about the same amount at the table. There’s nothing worse than nobody at the table being able to say your character’s name: even worse is when they can’t remember it at all!

Creating names is one of my favourite parts of character creation, but for many people it can be an absolute pain. Luckily, there’s a lot of name generator websites that can help you generate lots of names which you can sift through. However, the method that I like to use if I’m stuck for inspiration is to use names from the real world and change a few syllables to make it my own. The ‘Real Names’ list on Fantasy Name Generators is one of the best tools you’ll be able to use. Feel free to use any of the others, but use caution- some of the names can be silly at best, and incomprehensible at worst!

Hopefully all these tips will have been of some use for you!

If you have any need for advice at all, feel free to DM me on Twitter @TheRealZeppy or email me at tebrierley@gmail.com. I’m always happy to lend advice to those who need it.

Also, thank you for everybody who viewed my last D&D piece! It’s encouraged me to keep writing about the game I love. Thank you so much if you complimented me or recommended my story. Criticism is always welcome. :)

Happy gaming! — Tom

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