Post/Author/DateTime	Post
elockloran 07-04-03, 02:27 PM	Greetings All ! This long-time DM is going to join a group as a player after oh-so-many years and could use some advice. I'm now finding my character writeups are longish and disjointed since I've been spoiled by the luxury of either lengthy DM notes or simply keeping it all in my head. What I could use is something like an old DRAGON article that illustrated how to detail your character's history and personality in 5 specific paragraphs. Heck, I might be misremembering this, maybe it was 3 paragraphs or 5 sentences (!), doesn't really matter as I just need some pointers in tightening up the descriptives. What I'm seeking: 1) The issue number containing that DRAGON article. 2) One's own suggestions for doing the same. 3) Example writeups to bring me to Enlightenment. Any help would be much appreciated!
Barrid 07-04-03, 03:46 PM	Just break down your history into easy sections. -Early Youth -Teens -Early Adulthood -Reason to adventure (if not covered) -Personality -Current and Future Goals That's what I'd do.
elockloran 07-05-03, 12:07 AM	Originally posted by Barrid Just break down your history into easy sections. -Early Youth -Teens -Early Adulthood -Reason to adventure (if not covered) -Personality -Current and Future Goals That's what I'd do. Thats a little too top-heavy on history IMO - its what I pretty much do now but I'm looking for a descriptive template to keep me in the correct mindset for a consise writeup. I think that DRAGON article I mentioned earlier had these groupings: * Personality * History * Appearance * Two others (?) Heck, maybe it *was* the Three-Paragraph Writeup :)
Barrid 07-05-03, 02:40 AM	So yer lookin for crib notes then? -Description(Appearance) -Personality -Short History(Major Highlights) Basically what you said. Here's a character survey, kinda like this (All short answer): Name- Age- Gender- Height/Weight- Build- Eye Color- Skin Color- Hair Color/Style- Race- Nationality- Notable Features- Clothing- Notable Possessions- Personality- Alignment- Class- Major Event 1- Major Event 2- Major Event 3- Reason for Adventuring-
Edymnion 07-05-03, 04:42 PM	Remember your high school/college 5 paragraph paper writing format? Paragraph 1: Introduction, mention 3 main points. Paragraph 2: Expand on point 1 Paragraph 3: Expand on point 2 Paragraph 4: Expand on point 3 Paragraph 5: Closing, restate parts of introduction Make point 1 physical description. Make point 2 personality description. Make point 3 brief background history. But really, with a good character concept, it shouldn't be that hard to come up with a page of description and background.
elockloran 07-05-03, 09:52 PM	Originally posted by Edymnion Remember your high school/college 5 paragraph paper writing format? Paragraph 1: Introduction, mention 3 main points. Paragraph 2: Expand on point 1 Paragraph 3: Expand on point 2 Paragraph 4: Expand on point 3 Paragraph 5: Closing, restate parts of introduction Make point 1 physical description. Make point 2 personality description. Make point 3 brief background history. But really, with a good character concept, it shouldn't be that hard to come up with a page of description and background. That looks good. For the sake of what I'm doing, Paragraph 1 and 5 would be overkill but 2-4 looks dead-on. I'd arrange it History-first to bring the reader immediately up to speed, saying "he hates gnolls" and *later* saying "gnolls killed his family" distracts the reader IMO. Basically I'm trying to make a writeup interesting and to-the-point conside enough that it'll be read. I find it incredibly easy to work up a full-page description but I think the DM will skim it or skip it completely at that length. Definitely looking for more of a "cover level" style over an actual resume. I know that *I* find the often-lengthy character writeups on this board, even the really good ones, sometimes too much to take.
Edymnion 07-06-03, 08:18 PM	Well, reason behind my madness in putting physical and emotional description first is so that when the reader has an easier time picturing the character and how they act, so when they get into the actual background history, all they have to do is plug in the character they already know into the events. Kinda like how many books will be 2-3 chapters in before they start telling you detailed character histories. Lets you get to know the character as they are now, then fills in the backstory. But hey, thats just me. Either way, the introduction and closing paragraphs can be skipped entirely. I just wanted to stay on model for the 5 paragraph essay, which is what you asked for, well, 5 paragraphs anyway.