Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 194 - Foolproof New Character Checklist - Beyond the Sheet

Episode Date: October 1, 2023

We all love making characters but one of the most common challenges I’ve heard in talking to players is how to make a memorable character; one that stands out from the crowd.  In this episode, I’m going to give you 10 tips for making characters that can grow, evolve, and be easier to tie in to the campaign at large, beyond the numbers on the character sheet.   #dnd #Pathfinder2e #charactercreation #chracterdesign #roleplaying   Resources: Character Creation Tips - https://lockhouse.co.uk/character-creation-tips-ttrpgs/ How to Create Great RPG Characters - https://hobbylark.com/tabletop-gaming/Creating-Characters-for-Role-Playing-Games   12 Tips to Make the Most Memorable RPG Character Ever - https://cardboardmountain.com/12-tips-to-make-the-most-memorable-rpg-character-ever/   Backstory Tips - https://mistymountaingaming.com/blogs/dungeon-feed/crafting-a-backstory-tips-for-creating-your-dungeons-and-dragons-original-character  

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. You start with the four things I've already listed. A tie-in to the world, a reason to work with your adventuring party, a background, and a motivation and or goal. But if you want to take a C character and make it an A character, or if you want to go from good to great, there are other things that you can do for your character to really build them up. Thank you for listening to the Taking20 Podcast, episode 194, the foolishly titled foolproof guide for creating better RPG characters. I want to thank this week's sponsor, Teachers. They're underpaid, overworked, and deserve so much more than we give them. And if that's not enough, their eyes can start to look weird.

I mean, they just have so many pupils. I want to thank Scott Nichols for his generous donation to the podcast over at ko-fi.com slash taking20podcast. This podcast survives thanks to generous donations like his. Scott, thank you so much for the donation, and please let me know if there's a topic you'd like me to cover in a future episode. As a reminder, we have a contest where the winner will be revealed during episode number 200. Send me up to 10 three-bullet NPCs and follow 3D Crafts and Curios on Instagram for a chance to win...

I've just been handed an update about the prize that we're awarding. I was mistaken in my previous announcement. We're not giving away a gorgeous 3D printed mug. We're giving away three gorgeous 3D printed mugs. Brandon over at 3D Crafts and Curios is being so generous with his time and supporting the channel. Please give them a follow on Instagram. And while you're there, check out the dice towers, DM screens, initiative trackers, coin banks, giant cartridges, coasters, and numerous other products for sale at their Etsy

store. Search for 3D Crafts and Curios. Thank you, Brandon, for sponsoring this giveaway and being so generous for this podcast. I am so very thankful for your support. It's been a long time since I had an episode dedicated to players. Now DMs, hang on, before you turn off the podcast, some of this advice works really well for NPCs you want to dedicate a lot of resources to fleshing out. Mostly I would suggest sticking to the three-bullet NPC or other simpler method of generating interesting three-dimensional NPCs, but the methods I'm going to talk about here can be used for those boss NPCs, important NPCs, recurring NPCs in your game that are almost as important as the PCs themselves. They are very rare, but could appear in your game depending

on the type of game that you're running. If you want to build a good three-dimensional character, the first thing I would recommend is to get information from your DM. What's the theme of the campaign? Is it a pirate campaign? Are you dungeon crawling? Are you spending a lot of time in a city? Find out that information from them and that will help you build your character. Get character recommendations from the DM, especially what to avoid. For example, in one of the campaigns I'm currently in, the GM recommended playing an undead character. At the time, for Pathfinder 2e, the rules for undead characters had just been released in the Book of the Dead, and the adventure was going to take place in a land where the undead outnumber the living by a significant margin. He recommended playing an undead character,

but didn't mandate it. He was up front with the challenges that a living character would have in his campaign world and let us make the decision. That information was critical to my character design choice for that campaign. So once you've gotten some input from your DM, start brainstorming your character concept. Ignore rules. Ignore guides. Don't find the best archer build in D&D. Come up with a few ideas for your character, and there are a ton of ways to do this. You can choose a character archetype like the hero, the ruler, the lover, the caregiver, the jester, the wise wanderer, or any of a thousand other character frameworks, for lack of a better way to say it. You can pick a feature or an aspect of your character that will be front and center for them. They like to protect their friends. They use magic to destroy their enemies. They're the face of the party, charming

some and intimidating others. And once you have your general concept in your mind, try to sum up your character in a brief description. Oh, I'm playing a psychic goblin, a rogue wielding two daggers, an armor-wearing fighter with sword and shield, or an aged druid on one last adventure for her life. Once you come up with this concept, discuss it with your DM, make sure it fits the campaign, and they will likely have ideas on how to tie it into the campaign setting. Now, different game systems have different methods for creating your character, and this, frankly, isn't a mechanics episode. There are quite literally hundreds of articles and videos and podcasts about the mechanics of building your

character for 5e or Pathfinder 2e or Blades in the Dark, Delta Green, Shadowrun. All of them revolve around a similar process of selecting your ancestry or race, selecting your background, what class you're going to play, what your ability scores are, whether that's standard array, point by, rolling your dice, or whatever your DM requires. Finding good tools to use, whatever you would like,

D&D Beyond, Pathbuilder, Demiplane, spreadsheets, PDFs, hell, pencil and paper, the way we did it back in the bad old days. Racing as we go until a piece of paper became a series of gray smudges, especially where the hit points were stored. It doesn't matter what tool you use, and I'm not going to sit here and recommend one tool over another

since everyone's in a different place financially and experientially. Find what you want, use what you can afford, and make sure it helps you and you can enjoy it. You choose your subclass, your archetype, feats, skills, starting spells, calculate hit points, and then select your starting equipment. You are a smart listener and can figure all that crap out from other sources out there. It's not that I don't want to help you. And honestly, if you do need help, please send me an email, feedback at taking20podcast.com, and we'll take that discussion offline. I'll be happy to help you build your

character via Discord or email or other communication means. Where I want to focus this week's episode, though, are the parts of creating a character that may not be obvious from the mechanics. However, I do want to give two caveats for this episode. One, some of the things I'm going to say are going to make you say, well, duh. Good. That means you just need to take the advice to heart, the stuff you already know, and execute on it. Talking is a good game. Doing it is even better. Two, this list is going to be what's been successful for me in past games. Depending on your game, you may need nothing more than what's on your character sheet, or your GM may be expecting a three-page single-spaced backstory. And you may need a lot more than what I include in this episode,

but I think these ten things will really get you started. Now, as I mentioned, before you get started fleshing out your character beyond numbers on a page, you need to know what kind of adventure it is. Specifically, you need to know whether the character will be in a heavy role-playing game or a light role-playing game. Different DMs run different types of games, so it may be a lot more tactical combat and dice rolling than emoting and voice and responding in character. There's nothing wrong with either game or a mix of the two. It just changes how you prepare your character before you actually sit down at the table. First off, low role-playing games that are mostly tactical, battle map, not a lot of

in-character speaking type games require less prep work by you, the player. Most of those games will be on mechanics, this skill modifier, that armor class, this other to hit roll. The most role-playing done may be when one player yells, that was for destroying Wizleton, you undead sack of crap. Everyone laughs and loots. Hang on, as a side note, has anyone made a version of those stupid signs that were everywhere for like last year or year before last? Live, laugh, love? Make one that says something like lunge, laugh, loot? No? All right, well, I'm just thinking out loud. If you want your character to be more fleshed out, your character may only need the following. One, some tie-in to the campaign world. Your character becomes much more interesting when it's not just druid number 23. They're Alex, the dwarven stranger who helps farmers with their crops and animals

and keeps up the signposts to lay in the Briarstone Forest. Instead of Fighter number 14, they're Isabella, the city guard who has passed over for promotion one time too many and has decided to take her skills freelance and make more money that way. Alex could be very invested in the protection of the town from the overarching evil of the campaign. Initially, maybe it's something that just threatens the town or the local area, but as they dive deeper, it expands to threaten the entire nation, world, or even plane of existence. Isabella, meanwhile, discovers she's

pretty good at adventuring, and her success is great for rubbing her boss's nose in it, proving she didn't need his stupid promotion anyway. Most importantly, giving your character a tie-in to the world automatically gives your character a motivation to join the adventure. Secondarily, but also important, it makes it easier on your DM to work your character into the story and make the adventure more personal, more dramatic, and frankly, more interesting. As you're coming up with your background, leave gaps in there and discuss it with your DM. Your DM will likely have suggestions

for your background to tie it in even tighter to the adventure. Alex wasn't just passed over for promotion. She was passed over for a less qualified Lieutenant Jessica Rice, who only became a Lieutenant because her father works closely with a local Baron. Two, a reason for your character to hang around with these other adventurers. Your character must be able to work with a group to solve the problem. So let's get that out of the way. My character's a loner and doesn't like anyone and will lie to them, steal from them, defecate in their helmets, and hide treasure from them. Can we, hang on, can we go back a couple examples and have a conversation? What, steal from them? No, no, no, no, the helmet shitting thing. That seems really inappropriate.

Well, I am just a voice inside Jeremy's head. Maybe I should seek some professional help. Putting rolling a nut log into protective headgear aside, your character really needs to be a productive member of the group and be able to work together, even if they disagree with the other character's goals, purposes, personality, values, or morals. You're an adventuring party,

and generally should act like social creatures, at least a little. Sure, the champion is all for the greater good and your character's in it to avenge your lover's death, but look for ways to find common ground and work together so you both accomplish what you want, even if it's for different reasons. The third thing that you will need? A background of some sort. What did your character do before taking up the mantle of adventurer? They didn't come out of the wound fully armed for battle. Okay, if they did, I really feel sorry for your mom.

Before they are adventurer, were they a fishmonger, a mountain scout, a petty thief, a farmer, bartender, servant, slave, prisoner, conman, college student, merchant, or maybe the relative of one of the same. I know that characters are generated out of our head, but if it were the real world, they did something before picking up sword and shield and trying to clear out the ruins from the Benadaris Empire. Personally, I love playing background against type. There's nothing wrong with making a barbarian character that used to be a gladiator, or hunter, or pirate. All those sound fun as hell. But imagine a barbarian that used to be a medic, a failed entrepreneur, a noble, or an artist. I used to paint in acrylics, but now I paint in

my enemy's blood. That kind of thing. It can really make your character more interesting and maybe drive a little more roleplay throughout the adventure. The fourth thing that you'll need, and honestly for a low roleplaying adventure, this may be the last thing you need. A motivation, a goal, or both. I alluded to this in bullet number two, but let's bring it into focus. Why is your character adventuring? As I've said, adventuring is hard and dangerous life that can be cut short by the next encounter,

the next trap, or the next powerful noble that you decide you want to insult or shit in their helmet. There needs to be a motivation, a goal, or both. And at this time, I could extend this episode by 20 minutes by talking about the differences between motivations and goals. And maybe I'll do that episode one of these days. But to sum it up far too simply, most goals are the what. They are external and they are future-oriented. I want to become the head of the Thieves Guild. I want to be financially set up for the rest of my life.

I want to become the best longsword fighter in all of Galarian. Most motivations, on the other hand, are the why. They are the internal and many times driven by past experiences. I want to become the head of the Thieves guild because I want to steal from the nobility and provide to the poor and oppressed. I want to be financially set up for the rest of my life because I grew up with nothing and I don't want my children to go through the same hardships that I did. Or I want to become the best longsword fighter in all of Galarian because my mother was a skilled longsword fighter and I want to honor her name and legacy. A tie-in to the campaign world, a reason to be working with the

party, a background, and one or more motivations or goals. That's it. Done. Finito. If you have those, your character is already way more fleshed out than 99% of the adventurers that will ever join a table. All this information may never come up around the table, but you have it and you can use it to ground your roleplay opportunities that do occur in the game. Wait, your mom was Lady Draven of the Fourfold Valkyries? Yes, and I can't let her down. That name just means so much to this town. Boom! Even if that's the only sentence you ever utter about your character's backstory, your character just became deeper, more fleshed out, entwined with the game world, and honestly, more fun to play with. I get excited about this stuff because even in my tactical, low-roleplay games, I love it when characters open up a bit about their past.

They're not just Valda the tiefling fighter. They're Valda, daughter of Lady Draven, seeking to carry on her mother's legacy by recreating the fourfold Valkyries to strike fear into those who would profit off others' misery. See? It's not a lot of work to create characters that are really interesting. Now, again, do you need to do this with every campaign? No. If this doesn't sound fun at all, roll out Joseph the Sorcerer and start blasting cantrips. But if you do want to flesh out your character, the four things I've already mentioned are sufficient for most games that are out there.

Let's take two characters that I'm currently role-playing in two campaigns right now. Ravenna is a half-elf cleric of Erastil who grew up in Otari. Her father was a drunkard who drank what little salary he made, and Ravenna and her siblings were hungry more often than not. She hunts in the nearby forest to provide food and prays to provide healing for those who would otherwise go without both. The gaunt light has brought hordes of undead to her home, and she and her fellow adventurers must shudder the light once

and for all. Novius was a corpse preparer in the undead nation of Geb. He prepared corpses for reanimation, replacing missing or destroyed body parts, and ensuring a successful conversion from corpse to minion for powerful necromancers and undead of the nation. While doing so, he started experimenting with a mix of occult, alchemy, and religious rituals to conduct some, shall we say, unauthorized flesh warp experiments, including on his own body to make himself more powerful. One evening, to quote Lord of the Rings, he dug too greedily and too deep into his own body while attempting to modify himself and died in the process. He rose the next evening as a mummy.

With his newfound undead abilities, he seeks power above all else, and the other adventurers he's with seems like the easiest path to get there. Neither of these games are heavy role-playing games, with a lot of in-character speaking, and I don't think either motivation has really come up to the forefront yet. But knowing who they are, what they want, and what makes them tick makes them easier to roleplay when it does come up. But suppose you're in a heavy roleplay game. What do you need to do for your character then?

Okay, you start with the four things I've already listed. A tie-in to the world, a reason to work with your adventuring party, a background, and a motivation and or goal. That may be all that you need. But if you want to take a C character and make it an A character, or if you want to go from good to great, there are other things that you can do for your character to really build them up. Fifth thing, adventure hooks built around your character and their backstory. Hooks could be an episode all its own, but most of them revolve around one of three broad categories, secrets, problems, and history.

Your character could have one or more secrets, big ones, small ones, doesn't matter. Have something they don't want revealed. They're related to the big bad. The character's committed a crime and on the run for it. There's a bounty on their head. They have a medical condition. They're an operative for some organization. Secrets like those are just things that are

unique to your character in the game world, so you don't just reveal to anyone. If your character starts to trust one or more of the other characters, then reveal of that secret could be a glorious roleplay oh shit kind of moment around the table. In the Venn diagram of hooks, the circle with the label secrets would have a partial overlap with a circle labeled problems. Not all secrets are problems, not all problems are secrets, but there are things that are both. Problems in general are something from your backstory that has a hook that your character does not or cannot keep secret from the rest of the adventuring party. It's not a secret that the character was part of the Veiled Serpents. That's part of the problem.

Everybody knows they were part of the Veiled Serpents because of the obvious tattoo on the back of their hands. It's not a secret that the Veiled Serpents don't really let people leave willingly and chase those that do leave to try to get them to return to the fold or kill them to keep them from giving away information about the cult. Besides secrets and problems, you can also come up with history for your character. Things that I think about at this point are connections to the game world and other characters. What family does that character have and what family have they lost?

What traumatic events has the character been through? What obstacles do they have that they have not yet overcome? Relationships with people in the town. This history will ground your character in the story, so when the big bad attacks a town, it's not just generic town number four, it's Whistleton. The last stop on the wild frontier where your warlock made his home. Had his first kiss.

Buried his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, the kindly lady who always served blue frickin' milk for some reason. Purely hypothetical of example, of course, and any similarity to persons living, dead, or burned to death by the Empire are purely coincidental. So, secrets, problems, and history will connect your character to the game world, and by extension, the campaign itself, allowing for rich roleplay. Sixth thing, a personality. This section only needs a brief explanation because that's all you need for personality. A brief, maybe two to three words

that tell you the character's personality. Are they adventurous and driven? Introverted, often distracted? Charismatic and raunchy? Outgoing and religious? Hardworking and steadfast? You don't need a complete psych profile or a Myers-Briggs

designation for the character. I use just a few words as brief reminders for how my character will act. Novius the mummy is eager to help and has a phobia of fire. Ravenna is quiet and cautious but will put herself at risk for those she considers friends. Don't go crazy. A couple of bullets or words are all you need to help define a personality. Seventh thing, description. If you want to write a full description detailing your character from tabard to tailbone, be my guest, but I generally focus on what's unique about the character. Do they tend to wear a certain color or certain articles of clothing? Do they have a distinguishing feature like salt and pepper hair, a big smile, or a forehead so big that it's a five head, or maybe

growing to a six head? He says, indicating he probably has a four and a half head himself. Do they like oversized clothes? Do they like red boots? Tend to prefer fancier garb? Anything that you can use to help describe this character to others and give them a picture of what they look like. Eighth thing that you can come up with. A voice, a mannerism, or a quirk. Let's get this out of the way. If you don't want to give your character a particular voice or accent, if you don't feel comfortable rolling out that New York accent around the table, don't. If you want to do one, you certainly can. But having a different voice does make it easier for your fellow players to determine whether you're speaking in character and when you're not.

For example, Novius has a deeper voice and speaks very crisply, almost staccato in nature. It's not that different from my regular speaking voice, but that drop and that over-pronunciation of my consonants really makes it clear that Novius is the one making the dick joke, not Jeremy. Alternatively, if you feel comfortable doing so, or if you just want to get better at it, give your character a mannerism or quirk. It could be something that you describe and don't even have to act out. Something as simple as, oh, every time there's downtime, my character pulls out a big thing of floss and cleans his teeth. Or they spend an hour every evening oiling their rapier and using wax paste to keep the leather-wrapped handle smooth and supple. They believe the existence of vampires is some vast conspiracy and a big lie.

They hate being underground. It makes the character unique as long as you don't role-play the quirk in such a way as to be unhelpful for the campaign. Guys, I know the owlbears are attacking, but I still have 30 minutes of rapier polishing to finish, so good luck. Why does rapier polishing sound dirty? Excuse me, I'll be over here polishing my rapier. Act like I'm not even here. You could add a quirk with their speech that they tend to babble at the beginning of speaking. Well, I don't believe this is worth our time.

Or they snort occasionally. Well, you know, I don't think that's worth my time, really. Or they have changes in speed and volume and talk like Christopher Walken or add dramatic pauses like William Shatner. Crutch words like I don't think, you know, that this is really worth our time. They could be nasal. Guys, I just don't think it's really worth our time. They may add adjectives and use flowery language.

I just don't think this risky endeavor, as vitally important as it appears to be to you, is worth our precious and valuable time. Make them sound like they're about to burst into a song. Note, I am NOT demonstrating that. You're just gonna have to live without it. Or maybe they rely on audible or visual tics. Like, I just don't think that's worth our time. A little change like that can help bring life to your character, humanize them even, and make them feel real. Ninth thing, add a flaw. You can always add a character flaw that gives them something to overcome, something they're working on about themselves. Be creative. They're forgetful, lazy, obsessive. They're self-deprecating, quick to anger, trust too easily, keep others at a distance, whatever.

If it's a high roleplay campaign, I'll discuss it with the table beforehand, but sometimes I'll make a character that's just a little bit bigoted. They don't trust worshippers of Shar, probably for good reasons. Whoa, whoa, hey, hey, hey, hey, we're all friends here. hey, hey, hey, hey, we're all friends here. I'm just saying that worshippers of Shar are backstabbing spies who'll sell your soul into internal suffering at the hands of their shadow-loving witch-goddess bitch if they thought it would benefit them even one iota. Other than that, they're great people. Maybe they call elves knife-ears. They think everyone from the nation of Andoran are looking to take advantage of you. Any preconceived notion that you can roleplay is

a good example here. For this one in specific, though, I would discuss it around your table before roleplaying. Bigotry can easily become uncomfortable if taken too far, so make sure you're not going to yuck someone else's yum by roleplaying like that. I probably wouldn't play a character like this for a new group that I didn't know really well or sitting down to a one-shot, because those that do know me know that I'm the farthest thing from racist that you can just about find and they can easily separate the character that I'm role-playing from the person that I am. Tenth thing that you can do to flesh out your character. Add something they enjoy when they're not adventuring. When your character isn't trudging through long forgotten ruins or hunting

for thieves in the back alleys of Neverwinter, or carving out their new kingdom in the wilds of the Spreshen Forest, what do they like to do? Do they write poetry? Do they like to garden? Do they have lovely azaleas? Maybe they make and sell little tchotchkes on the weekends at the local art gallery. Make soap. They woodwork. They make podcasts. They support their local gaming stores. They steal gifts from saloons temple like the lying, pilfering, hateful, murdering, charred zealots that they are. Sorry, where'd I go just now? Words of caution. Do not use any of the distinctive patterns, accents, or quirks that you notice in other players around the table

because they may think you're making fun of them. There are a lot of guides online that expound on about one or more of these 10 points that I made above. I'm going to put links in the resources. Go check them out and read a lot more about it. Most importantly, have fun with your characters. If you start down the road of role-playing a character and you're not having fun with them, change them till they are fun. This isn't a job where you have to trudge along every day longing for the inevitable moment when the void embraces you, you know, like the filthy shah worshippers do. It doesn't take much to give your character some depth and make them feel more like a real person. Doing any of these things will make it a better and possibly more enjoyable character to roleplay.

Tie them to the campaign world in some way, give the character a reason to adventure, a background, and some motivation or goal, and if you want to even give them more depth, work with your GM for plot hooks tied to your character, give them personality and a description, voice quirk, flaw, or hobby, and I'll bet you and the other players around the table would have fun doing it. If you like this podcast, or if I typoed on this page, if and you like this podcast,

evidently I talk with a slight southern accent, but I type like a freaking hill jack. Tune in next week when I'm going to talk to DMs about unfortunate problems of the uninterested character and the uninterested player. But before I go, I want to thank this week's sponsor, teachers. I heard the physics and earth sciences teachers were having an affair at my son's school, but they soon broke up. I guess there was just no chemistry between them. This has been episode 194, your foolproof new character checklist. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking 20 podcast is a Publishing Cube Media production. Copyright 2023. References to game system content are copyright their respective publishers.