Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Firaeki 04-15-08, 11:10 AM	I have a tendancy to build many characters, for D&D and using D&D for inspiration in other sources. And after a while, I discovered I tend to start the process by visualizing a short action sequence of some sort, and whoever the protagonist character that appears inside my little imagined encounter becomes what I try and build a character up to become mechanically. After that, I find myself at a point where I have to come up with the backstory, and then I try and visualize what this guy's like when he's NOT running around killing monsters. Sometimes, I get a fairly clear image, and I use that to guide my way through deciding what kind of guy he was beforehand, but sometimes I can't think of anything, which is when I make my way here to look for help coming up with ideas. How about you guys? Is there some sort of method behind where your characters come from?
elliott20 04-15-08, 11:20 AM	I usually only create characters when I have background material to work with. 1. consider the setting, power level of the character, and level of crunchiness of the campaign 2. pick a character concept that's appropriate to setting. usually, this is just drawing him out in the broadest strokes possible. usually this will include a theme in there somehwere. "shaman in search of redemption", "wondering warrior", "master of disguise", etc. just a simple idea. this is also when I come up with a rough image of what the guy looks like. 3. give the character a couple brief biographical notes. refine mental image as we go. 4. give the character several guiding beliefs/goals. continuing to refine mental image as we go. If appropriate, modify character history to fit. 5. give the character a couple instinctual quirks. again, continue to modify any previous notes if I feel necessary 6. build the character mechanically
Heliomance 04-15-08, 01:26 PM	Prsonally, I wing it. I make a character that I like crunch- and flavour-wise, maybe give ahim a quirk or two, maybe something he's trying to achieve, then I start playing. His personality might change completely from what I originally envisaged, because it'll be the way it feels right to play him. For instance, I have a character who started out very definitely LE. Honour was everything to him, but he was definitely a bad guy. Then he discovered that the organisation he was part of were engaging in some horribly dishonourable stuff. He tried to correct this, and now not only is he LN-verging-on-LG, but he's the head of the organiation. I wasn't planning any of that when I made him, I was planning for him to remain a villian. It just happened.
Silverswordmaster 04-16-08, 08:52 AM	I write storys and read plenty of books, so I have a huge cashe of odd backstorys, curious historys, and dark secrets that I reguarly employ into my characters. I look at each character from the Characters point of view. Some characters, like Rath, not from DnD but The SWSE, start out as based off of myself or one of my friends. I happen to be a proficent gunslinger, and pretty good with pistol trick, so I started working with that and developed Rath off of the pistols. I like to 'build' the character, add layer upon layer of detail. Some of it is unimportent, never to be used, and other parts of it are A-class material, but all of it goes into the story I write, weaving a tale so I know how to think as the character when I am playing Him/Her. If I'm pressed for time and I can't deside on anything, I have been known to pull a Gygax and roll dice for everything. ( For example: 'Ok, (rolls dice) a Female, (Rolls dice), Twi'lek, (roll dice) Nobel.') And then go with that.
Soulless_Enigma 04-16-08, 09:33 AM	"I think of them." On a more serious note, I just make whatever appeals to me fluff and crunch-wise at the time that'll fit into the prescribed setting without too much hassle.
Sakon22 04-17-08, 12:15 AM	I usually somehow end up mixing up a bunch of random cool ideas and using details of myself as filler. Like Sakon Rasthor (yea, I know I use the name a lot,) started with the necromancer stuff from an old character, the weird diseased aspect of Raistlin, the bastard son of noble in exile thing and myself for a few personality quirks and physical features. Throw in a little pre-'one ring' Sauron deceiving and viola! a character! Though I do pain myself to have the character's background explain their personality, being the psychology dabbler that I am.
Cuaglar 04-17-08, 12:52 PM	Every time I start a game, I usually try to play something I haven't played before, race-and-class-wise. Even in my experience, I've never yet played a monk or a rogue, nor a half-orc, of the standard classes and races. And even if I played a paladin before (and I love being a paladin) I try to make a relevant change. But sometimes, if I don't really care about the game or I just can't come up with any ideas, I roll randomly for standard class and race, and then try to come up with something original for them. One of my favorite characters was a random choice amongst all the Eberron races and a coin-toss between cleric and druid. Because I lost the coin, I decided that he was a druid who thought he was a cleric.
eepop 04-17-08, 01:12 PM	I usually have my "role" dictated because I am usually the last one to be informed we're starting a new campaign, and everyone else has already chosen their character. My current campaign for instance I was told we had a rogue, a trip-fighter, and the other character wanted to play a bard but he wasn't sure it would be worthwhile. So I need to play something that can heal, and that makes the bard feel more potent. It also needs to be goodly. Melee cleric fits that pretty well so I started with that. Then I considered that now that we have 3-4 melee characters, its best to focus on buffing the entire group. Which lead to Divine Metamagic:Persist. So now I have a goodly cleric that focuses on bestowing significant and enduring blessings on his companions. At this point I go over a couple questions to myself: -What have our other cleric characters done over the years? --Did any of them go in a direction that could be exaggerated? --Did any of them go in a direction that a dichotomy of would be interesting? --Is there anything none of them have done before? -What character concepts could explain the selected crunch in an rp sense? Thinking that over, I come upon the idea that we've never had a character that was/thought he was a deity. This also explains the "significant and enduring blessings" part. Once thats been decided, the question becomes "Where can this fluff fill in some of the holes in our crunch?" Healing Devotion, with its ability to bestow healing power to another seems in line with what a deity could do. A deity should have followers, so the Leadership feat seems like it could be a good fit.
Melpomene 04-17-08, 02:02 PM	Most of my player character concepts begin when I decide to do something stupid, either mechanically or flavourally. For example: --I wonder what the largest weapon a PC can weild by level ten is. --I wonder how strong a spellcaster who just focused on Magic Missile is. --I wonder if I can get away with a "spellcaster" that only uses UMD. --I wonder what would happen if you had a paladin dedicated to a LN god. --How would you go about making an "Art Dealer" a la Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg? From then, I decide mechanically how it would work. I build the framework, chose classes, races, stats, feats. --Fighter/Giant Paragon, Half-Giant, High Str, Monkey Grip... --Warmage into PrC, Human, high Int, PrC prewrecks... --Warlock/Coglayer, Goblin or Gnome, high Cha and Int, Skill Focus: UMD... --Paladin of Wee Jas, Human, even stats, undead/turning feats... --Rogue, Human or Halfling, powerful Int... Then, I work on backstory. Even if the person is doing something to satisfy my own petty curiosity or humour, I give them a reason for doing it. You don't devote yourself and your life to a crazy ideal for no reason. --Frith the Huge. Frith is a mercenary. The massive sword thing helped him get early jobs, so he keeps practicing to get his name out. The more outragously large his sword, the more people will want to hire him. --Arcuss Vent. Name roughly means Magic Arrow or Magic Missile in Draconic. He is fascenated by the spell, having learned it very early. He seeks to understand all of its aspects, and constantly looks for new metamagic to manipulate it. --Gojira, Steam Mage. A fanatical machinist, Gojira has crafted a prototype weapon that could revolutionize modern warfare. It uses wands and scrolls as ammunition, quickly cycling through both in a symphony of function. He seeks to mass-produce the device, but needs more field trials first. --The Ruby Champion recieved a missive from the Stern Lady a few years back. In it, she was told of the countless pointless deaths that flood the Styx from war, hatred, averice, and other sins. The Ruby Champion threw off her old identity and seeks to deliver a swift and righteous justice to all who would use and end life carelessly. --Kyresh Autumnwind was, at one time, legitimate. Art objects are big business, especially in areas with many adventurers. However, after he overlooked a few less-than-reputable transactions, he became known as the local fence. Skills had to come quickly or jail (or worse) loomed in his future. Now he walks a fine line between guild-sponsored redistributor of antiquities and freelance underground smuggling contact. Lastly, I have to put them somewhere. I have played a few of these characters, most notably the Ruby Champion. Others became "bosses" or BBEGs in my campaigns. Some just wait for the right story to jump into. Of course, when I'm designing BBEGs or NPCs specifically, there's an entirely different process altogether...
Terjon of the Blue Rose 04-18-08, 04:24 AM	I tend to pick a personality aspect and expound upon it. Terjon grew from the concept of a human who was arragonce personified. Davin was drawn from the concept of a conflicted man who wanted to be good but believed it impossible for him. Thurt is the epitomy of pride, in his family and then in himself. Remmin is a glory hound who hopes to be the great hero. Gol (soon to be posted) is a professional in all things he does. Personally I like to work backwards. Decide who I want to play and then determine how he got to be who he is.