Something rather scary happened to me on Saturday night. Something I never would have thought a geek girl of my stature would experience. I was thisclose to a complete freak-out and crying fest.
I sat down to a blank character sheet…and couldn’t think of anything to put on it.
That’s right. I – the co-owner of an RPG company – could not come up with a character concept to save my life. My husband couldn’t either. It certainly wasn’t because we didn’t want to play the game. We’ve been looking forward to it for some time, ever since our friend asked us if we’d be in if he ran a Mage: the Ascension campaign set in pre-WWII Europe. But when we settled in at the table with our lovely new character sheets before us, we both sat there for a couple of hours with nothing written on them but our names, while the rest of the players were long finished with stats and were already putting detail into their backgrounds.
In retrospect, we could have made the situation a lot easier on ourselves than we did. Here’s what I learned about overcoming difficult character creation, so hopefully you don’t have to go through the same painful experience I did.
What’s The Stumbling Block?
When you were in school, there was likely a point where you didn’t understand a certain bit of math, science, or grammar, and needed help. How much help was your teacher/tutor/friend able to provide when they asked you what you didn’t understand and you just insisted, “All of it! I don’t get any of it. I just don’t get it!”? Probably not much. Once you calmed down and said, “OK, I don’t even know where to start, how do I know if I’m supposed to solve for x or y?” your helper finally had a starting point and was able to get to the root of your struggles.
The same goes for that blank character sheet staring back at you. Unless you are having a complete mental shutdown (not that there’s anything wrong with that), there are probably just one or two things that are truly messing with your ability to create. Perhaps it’s a new game system that you’re not familiar with, and the rules and options are overwhelming. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you’ve played this game many times before, you might be fighting to think of a concept you haven’t already played in another campaign. It might be a setting that you’re not used to, such as a modern setting when you’re used to playing in a fantasy setting. Or it may be the prospect of having a new GM or new gaming group is making you unconsciously nervous. Any of these things can staunch the flow of creativity and make you feel like a bumbling newb. Once you determine what is actually tripping you up, you can acknowledge it and move on.
Address The Problem
Realizing what’s making the character creation difficult for you is great, but now that you know what the problem is, you have to deal with it. How? That depends on what your individual trouble point is.
Unfamiliar rules are confusing you? Ask the GM or another player for a Cliff Notes version, or if something specific is really confounding you, ask for a detailed explanation. Played in more Pathfinder games than you can count? Look through the class options and think about one that you’ve never played before, or one that you could play very differently – like a cleric of a completely different deity, or a two-weapon wielding ranger instead of one with a bow, or a character of a different alignment than you usually play. If the setting of the campaign is perplexing you, think about a favorite movie, TV show, or book using a similar setting, and draw some inspiration from that.
If you’re nervous about a new GM or gaming group, get to know them! True, you can only get to know people so well in a 4-hour character creation session, but talk to them, and not just about the game. You’re going to be spending an evening a week with these folks, and who wants it to be awkward? No one, that’s who. If they remain anonymous faces across the table who you can only identify by their character’s name, your discomfort is going to last well beyond character creation.
Brainstorm! Out Loud!
So you’ve figured out what’s holding you back in creating your character, but man, you still can’t quite get rolling. You feel like if you just had a tiny seed of what your character should be, everything would click and you’d be filling in that character sheet faster than your mechanical pencil could keep up. Instead of banging your head against the table in frustration, why not throw the topic out there for everyone?
There’s no shame in turning to your fellow gamers and saying, “Hey, guys? I’m having a hard time narrowing down a character idea here. What are you all playing?” If you find out from them that there are already going to be two rogues in the party, that might push you back toward that bard you were kind of thinking about. Or if it turns out that no one is playing a healer, maybe that would be a good thing for you to play.
To take the brainstorming even further, if you’ve got an idea you want to expand on, but are stuck, open the floor to suggestions. “So I’d really like to play a ranger with two weapons, but I don’t want to be a Drizzt copycat, ya know? I was thinking shortsword and dagger, but I don’t know…got anything better?” Sometimes you’ve been thinking so long and hard on something that you start tripping yourself up, and a fresh set of eyes, so to speak, is all you need to find that perfect idea.
Is it cheating for someone else to come up with elements of your character concept? No more than it’s cheating for a GM to hand out pre-generated characters. You’re still driving the bus, here. You’re going to make that character your own. So what if it was Bob’s idea for you to be a celestial bloodline sorcerer instead of a draconic one? Did Bob decide that Ethyn is a sharp dresser and great dancer? Nope, that was all you.
What Was My Problem?
Mage: the Ascension was a new game system for me, and while I’ve played Vampire and Werewolf before, Mage had so much more stuff that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it all. My husband had a character concept, but couldn’t figure out how to make the character do what he wanted with Mage rules. I was also having a hard time thinking of a character that would fit in pre-WWII Europe, and was a little nervous about playing with a bunch of new people (they’re all members of our club, so I know them, but aside from my husband and the GM, I’ve never really played with any of them before).
So we sat there stupidly for a couple hours, staring blankly at our character sheets and getting more and more frustrated. Once we finally admitted what problems we were having, and started talking to our GM and the other players – who have all played Mage many times before – things started making sense, gears started turning, and just like that, we created a brother-sister magic team, both members of the Cult of Ecstasy, with me as a soothsayer/fortune-teller and my husband as a Houdini-esque magician. And we both were left kicking ourselves that we’d made it so hard by not realizing what was wrong and asking for help earlier in the evening.
Lesson learned! And let my lesson be a lesson to you, too. Remember, gaming should always be fun. If that blank character sheet is stressing you out, take a deep breath and try to figure out why. Your creativity has not abandoned you – sometimes, you just need to try to tap it in a different spot.
Have you ever struggled with character creation? What other tips do you have to help a player who’s fighting with their character sheet?
About c
We were having this discussion about “What is your characters song?”- and all of us could generally pick a song that fit our character to a T. But turn it upside down: Pick a song you like and create the character to match that song. Songs have personalities- at one point we even had the idea to create a whole adventuring company after the songs on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: The group would be called the “Lonely Hearts- there would a warlord named Sgt. Pepper. A rogue (with a circus background) named Kite, a somewhat spacy illusionist named Lucy, etc.
Though gimmick characters can sometimes be like the red headed step child of your compendium. Sometimes settle on a gimmick and see where it takes you. You might be surprised what comes from it.
@pseckler – Picking a song to build the character around ! I like that a lot!
@Xaov – Hey, I know you!
You’re right, sometimes the gimmick can turn out to be a lot of fun. Your gimmick character is one of the best I’ve ever encountered. 
Personally, I’ve had very little trouble with it. I’m one of those character-creator-aholics! For D&D, I’ve only done two campaigns, but I have a list of at least 20-25 concepts I’d like to try.
Okay, I have struggled. I recently started a Star Wars campaign (Empire Strikes Back era) and ran into some trouble there. The GM had restricted us to the core rulebooks and there wasn’t anything in there that struck my fancy. I was actually relieved when my character died! I didn’t have enough options. For Mutants and Masterminds, it was a matter of figuring out which aspects I liked about various heroes.
Here’s the ideas I’ve used to generate characters when I have “character block” or face a new system:
-pick a weapon, an item, or a spell and use that as a starting point
-pick a feat or skill I haven’t used before and start there (not applicable in some systems)
-pick an actor and create a character based on the type of character you think the actor would be in the setting (usually ends up being Denzel Washington for me)
-if there’s a random NPC table, roll there until I get something that I react strongly to. Even if I hate it, I’ve now eliminated something and it may get the juices flowing. Usually, I get something that’s almost viable and tweak it from there.
-narrow my scope: pick one or two books and look for something I react strongly to
-broaden my scope: grab a new book and look for something I react strongly to (All it took to get a second Star Wars character was to grab their book filled with new aliens. I was ecstatic when the GM opened that up to us!)
-ask someone what they’re playing. Play that character’s brother/cousin/sister/best friend/etc.
-try to recreate a favorite TV/movie/webcomic character
-spoof a least favorite TV/movie/webcomic character
When all else fails, ask the GM what they think the group is lacking.
Jordan – All good ideas! I especially like the one about playing a character connected to another character. Whenever my husband and I play a new game system for the first time, we play connected characters. It’s nice to not be fledgling alone.
Cant say as I’ve ever had this problem. I rolled the Dice – they said Wizard or Cleric, or Fighter, or Dwarf, or Halfing, or Elf, or Thief (yes I play BECMI D&D). Stats determine personality even if you dont thinkso.
ON FOREIGN FIELDS
DEVELOPING A CHARACTER’S PERSONALITY
“It’s Provine the Moneylender…you haven’t seen me!”
The Character has been notoriously ill-developed as a consistent party in the D&D game. While monsters have in-depth exploration of their ecologies, the Character is little more than a set of stats, light background, and perhaps some character traits to fill out the wading-pool of personality.
ABILITIES ARE PERSONALITY
Asaeran the Sworder has literally fought for survival all his life and his physical abilities and combat cunning are a record of that life. He certainly isn’t a public, noisy personality, but in battle, his scared body and severed tongue are of little importance as he destroys his enemies.
RACE IS PERSONALITY
The Halflings are physically a small people. While they were treated as children as far back as their earliest contacts with humans, they have nothing but contempt for the assumption. They survived the darkness and fought for their own place in the world and expect to be treated as equals or better. For Asaeran the Sworder, being short simply provided him with a better view of his enemy’s underbelly.
CHARACTER CLASS IS PERSONALITY
Becoming a Fighter had more to do with circumstance than choice. For Asaeran it was ‘do or die’. While he wonders what being a farmer, or a wizard, or a cleric would be like, he is a fighter: a disciplined warrior, a master of his weapons and environment, and whether it is the condition of his weapons, the behaviour of those around him, or the slightest unexpected noise, Asaeran is constantly focused on the real world.
LEVEL IS PERSONALITY
The pit fighters of Wardenclyffe do not leave the pits until they are adults. Consequently they will have fought and survived many times over before they are released as warriors with names.
ALIGNMENT IS PERSONALITY
Whether Law, Order, and Organization. Chaos and the Government of one, or Good, Neutral, or Evil; Alignments are all aspects of the Psychological Personality. They are based in the education of the individual and the experiences of a lifetime.
HISTORY IS PERSONALITY
While the Halfling people have a long history in peaceful farming, things have changed. For nine centuries one war mongering tyrant and his army after the next have marched across the Halfling lands looting and burning on the way to someplace important. Famine, pestilence, and war have shaped the Halfing People.
Asaeran the Sworder is considered by outsiders an agrarian hick turned child soldier, but being raised in the fight pits of Wardenclyffe from childhood have defined him physically and psychologically in a way that makes him something terrible and furious.
WHO IS THE CHARACTER?
The Character will be a combination of all the aspects that you find on the character sheet, not just a one word character trait. For Asaeran, A fighter who has not seen outside the fight pit since he was a child, He is strong, agile, healthy, and distinctive (S16, D15, C13, I12, W13, CH5). He values life and has terrible nightmares about his childhood (his most prominent is being attacked by a wolf while he slept in the corner of a pit – and only to kill a little puppy) His fighting prowess is great (level 5), and he is focused on discipline and survival. He is a Halfling with personal and cultural history and knows it is a tactical advantage. But he is also unexperienced with life in the wider world. He is Neutral. He hates the anarchy of his culture and despises the cruelty and destruction of life but also values it for the order and stability that it has granted his people.
There are more games than just D&D, Sean. A lot of them in fact. And in many of them, you need to know your character before you do the mechanics. A lot of the White Wolf games are like that. It’s good you’ve never had problems coming up with a character’s background, personality, motivations, type, likes, dislikes, flaws, race, quirks, etc.
I was just reminded of another great aid when my group was working on characters last night. Unfortunately, I didn’t have it then. I found a copy of a 3E book, The Hero Builder’s Guidebook, at a used book store. It’s aimed toward creating fantasy characters, but prompts the player to fill out the basics for any character: home town, family social/economic status, living & deceased family members, childhood events, love life, enemies, mentors, etc.
When I first showed it to my group, they balked. Then I had them put together a character by rolling on the random tables. Of the two that scoffed the most, one kept saying, “This is really good. I can really work with this!” and the other just laughed maniacally. The verdict? Good resource.
@Jordan – I remember the Hero Builder’s Guidebook! (Might even still have a copy in the depths of the dungeon…I mean, basement.) One of our players often uses a similar book that I think is actually an old GURPS supplement. While I really prefer to come up with a concept myself, using charts like that would be great for a change of pace, or especially if you needed a character in a hurry.