Individual History

Life before the Story

The player character is defined by much more than a race and some skills. He or she is a person, an individual, with goals, interests, concerns, fears, family and relationships. As part of creating a character, defining one’s personality is as important as the attribute scores.

Defining physical aspects such as gender, height and weight have likely be determined by this point; however, if not, this would be the time to fill in those details. Physical descriptions such as skin color, hair color, eye color can and should be added at this time as well. Things like scars, tattoos or the description of an usual gate are nice details as well.

The following two subsections will help define the history of the character. There is a Background Tool that can be used on the website to assist.

Backstory

Childhood and existence prior to the game.

In the game, a player is pretending to be another person, living in another world, which is governed by different physics. To have a sense of what decisions to make, it is important to understand the motivation and influences of this character.

Often this can be accomplished by detailing the entity’s backstory first. Often the environment and events from growing up or living in a particular way can set a general impression of what this character will be like. When noting on the character sheet the backstory, write as much detail as desired; however, often just one or two words can summarize, such as “Criminal” or “Guild Merchant.” The other details about the past will be captured when documenting the character’s personality.

Personality

Who is this character really?

After thinking about the character’s backstory and how that influences who that character is today, a few key notes should be made, perhaps just a short sentence for the following categories.

Traits: This is a general statement of a noticeable personality behavior. It could be “I am very intolerant of those who have a different faith” or “I am a hopeless romantic but fall in and out of love quickly.”

Ideals: This is the goal or the hope of how the character would live in a perfect world. It is the inspiration that drives the character’s behavior. One example is “I aspire to prove myself worthy to my family.” Another is “I am greedy and just in this for the bounty.”

Bonds: A character’s bond is what is important to him; that for which he or she would sacrifice. This could be a person, a group of friends, a relative or even tangible objects. It might be “the workshop where I learned my trade” or “my mother means the world to me.”

Flaws: Finally, it is important to have at least one character-flaw. These are weaknesses which could undermine the character. Some might be obvious like “I am a binge drinker,” while others might be secretive like “I can’t help but pilfer a little from the share.”