Evil Game Master Society

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THE COMPLEAT GUIDE TO CHARACTER CREATION
Questions to Aid in Character Design
a.k.a. Four Steps to Better Role-Playing
By Paul Tiseo tiseo.paul@mayo.edu
Reprinted without his permission as taken from rec.games.frp.dnd
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Disclaimer: Use is made of the male pronoun only insofar as it minimizes my typing. I do not mean to offend any PC who is a member of the female sex. Heck, I don’t even want to offend hermaphrodite races too!

This text was written in order to help anyone, DM or player, who is having difficulty fleshing a character get over any writer’s block the might be experiencing. Also, it help more weathered RPGers flesh out their character in ways they might not have yet had addressed. Simply follow through the questions and write down short answers. Then take the answers and compose your history/ personality text for your PC/NPC sheet.

1a. Early History/Family Milieu/Childhood Environment:

1. Exactly where and when was your character born? Under what circumstances? Was he wanted? Was he adopted
2. Who raised him? How did he live? What was his quality of living/standards?
3. What was happening in the region while he was growing up? Any marking events?
4. Does he have any immediate relatives? If so, how did he get along with them? What are they doing now? How many sisters or brothers does he have? What of their names? Where are they now? What are they doing?
5. Any marking events in his family’s history? Fortunes made or lost? Migrations? Lost members? Found members? Deaths? Births? Crimes? Great acts of philantropy?
6. Is he well-educated? Where and under who did he study?

1b. Recent History/Entry into Adulthood:

1. Where is he living now? Is he patriotic about his current locale? How is he living? What are his living conditions? How does it affect him?
2. Who are his close friends? Why? How did they become close friends? Does he currently have a love or exclusive relation of some sort? Who is this special person?
3. Who does he deal with on a frequent basis? Why?
4. Does he have anyone who dislikes him? Is each person currently acting on it, or just passive about it? Why does he dislike him?
5. Does he have any enemies with deep-seated hatreds? Blood feuds Vendettas? Why? How are they acting out this hatred in relation to him?
6. Any marking events in his recent past? Did he commit a crime? Any acts of great philantropy/heroism?

2. Motivation:

1. What are your character’s immediate goals in the next year? What does he want out of life at the moment?
2. What are his long-term goals, in the next five, ten or twenty years? What does he want out of life in the long run? Fame? Fortune? Family? Land? Enemies crushed? Nothing?
3. What type of person, briefly, would be his ideal mate?
4. Who is his patron deity? Is he a devout worshiper?
5. Is he a member of any nonreligious/secular cause? (i.e., is he a loyal servant of a king, baron, organization, etc.)
6. Is there any race, creed, alignment, religion or the like which he cannot stand? Does he fight against it?
7. What is his greatest fear?
8. What is his greatest hope?
9. What is the one task he absolutely refuses to do?

3. Idiosyncrasies/Character:

1. What is your character’s motto or favorite saying?
2. What is his favorite color?
3. Describe what he would wear if money were no object. What does he usually dress like?
4. What is his favorite food? His favorite drink?
5. What is his favorite animal?
6. What habits of his friends annoy him most?
7. What are his pet peeves, if any?
8. Does he have any mannerisms?
9. Does he have any distinguishing marks?

4. Personality Traits (a.k.a Virutes and Vices):

Use of the concept herein will thankfully make the alignment system useless. With personality traits well-defined, alignment becomes extraneous as a guide to role-playing your PC. Alignment was designed as a quick and dirty system for explaining a character’s behavior, but inherent in the system are limits that do not make for very "realistic" and "3-dimensional" characters.

Pick traits that you see your character possesing and rank them in their tendency to dominate in the character’s personality as indicated just below. For example, the most freqent traits in an Arthurian, Good-type character would be the Positive traits, with maybe a couple of negativ traits here and there. (hey, nobody’s perfect!) It’s up to you to "paint" your character with the traits, thus one should not necessarily impose a limit on the number of traits to use. Think about the following aspects of a character’s personality: his outlook, his openess, his emotionality, his self-esteem, his sense of humor, his sociability, his mannersisms, his political inclinations, his sense of ambition, his attitudes, etc.

Always: Frequently: Genrally: Occasionally: Never:

Hereafter are listed the list of traits and behaviors to pick from. Note, Negative, Neutral or Positive traits are not necessarily Evil, Neutral or Good, respectively, in the AD&D sense of the alignment system. For example, being obedient to an Evil lord would make you evil, in a sense, since you will execute his draconic orders which in turn forces you towards evil acts. Obedience is a neutral trait, but the character could still be considered LE in terms of "official" AD&D. Some of the negative traits are simply traits not desirable, while others are perhaps closer to what could pass as a common idea of Evil. Also, the classification is not hard and fast and is somewhat personally biased. Societal values, whether ours or in the game setting, would be a strong influence on whether something is negative or positive. For example, Adultery could be else than negative in some settings where marriage isn’t an institution like in our world. Well, enough disclaimers.

Positive: Accepting, Affable, Altruistic, Ascetic, Austere, Benevolent, Careful, Cheerful, Chivalrous, Clean, Comfortable, Compassionate, Congenial, Conscientious, Considerate, Courteous, Creative, Dapper, Dignified, Eager, Earnest, Educated, Enlightened, Enthusiastic, Forgiving, Friendly, Gallant, Generous, Genial, Gentle, Giving, Goodhumored, Graceful, Gracious, Handsome, Happy, Helpful, Honest, Knowledgeable, Lively, Mannerly, Mellifluous, Neat, Optimistic, Outgoing, Paragon, Patient, Peaceble, Perseverant, Philantropic, Pious, Polite, Pretty, Provident, Quaint, Reliable, Resolute, Respectful, Sociable, Tranquil, Trustworthy, Unselfish, Valorous, Vivacious, Well-read, Wise

Neutral: Accurate, Ambitious, Anarchistic, Anticipative Aristocratic, Bold, Calm, Candid, Celibate, Charismatic, Chaste, Competant, Concilliatory, Contemplative, Cunning, Curious, Dainty, Daring, Demonstrative, Diplomatic, Discerning, Dogmatic, Dreamer, Eccentric, Efficient, Eventempered, Fair, Faltering, Fascinating, Fearless, Frank, Honorable, Humble, Impartial, Inquisitive, Instinctual, Intelligent, Just, Keen, Lawful, Lawless, Liberal, Loyal, Meticulous, Modest, Mollifying, Moral, Non-conformist, Obedient, Obscure, Obtuse, Odd Ostentatious, Passionate, Perfectionist, Phlegmatic, Prideful, Prudent, Rational, Righteous, Scheming, Shrewd, Sober, Solitary, Straightforward, Virginal, Zealous

Negative: Absentminded, Abusive, Addictive, Adultering, Agressive, Aloof, Antagonistic, Apathetic, Arrogant, Barbarous, Bigoted, Bitter, Boisterous, Boorish, Boring, Bullying, Callous, Capricious, Careless, Caustic, Cheating, Clumsy, Compliant, Conceited, Condescending, Confusing, Conniving, Contradictory, Controlling, Corrupt, Covetous, Coward, Crazed Criminal, Cruel, Cynical, Dark, Deceptive, Deformed, Delinquent, Depressive, Derogatory, Despondent Destructive, Dictatorial, Difficult, Disdainful, Disfigured, Dishonest, Disorderly, Disturbed, Drunken, Dull, Envious, Erratic, Exasperating, Foolish, Frivolous, Gluttonous, Greedy, Haughty, Haunted, Imbecile, Immature, Immoral, Impatient, Impetuous, Incompetant, Incorrigeable, Indifferent, Insensitive, Insidious, Insolent, Irritating, Kleptomaniac, Lazy, Lustful, Malevolent, Manic, Manipulative, Megalomaniac, Merciless, Messy, Moody, Naive, Neglectful, Obstinate, Perverted, Plotting, Reluctant, Resignation, Reticent, Rude, Ruffian, Ruthless, Self-serving, Severe, Shallow, Shy, Sinister, Sly, Sniveling, Stubborn, Stupid, Submissive, Surly, Savage, Traitorous, Ugly, Uncertain, Unclean, Undecisive, Vainglorious, Vapid, Violent, Weak-willed, Wicked

by Anna Dobritt

adobritt@hotmail.com

Hail and Well-met Everyone!

Let’s talk about unconventional weaponry. I don’t mean nuclear bombs, lasers, phasers and the like, but what can be used as a weapon when your PC is temporarily without theirs. After all, adventurers have to remove their weapons once in a while, else they couldn’t get dressed very easily.(And if your adventurer never removes their clothes, everyone else better keep upwind of them at all times!)

So, there you are at home counting the gold and platinum coins you gained from your last adventure. The sun’s set, you had an excellent meal of venison stew, washed down with your favorite bitter; when the front door bursts open and your well-earned peace and quiet is rudely interrupted!

You leap from your chair as the ‘guest’ approach, swords at the ready. You automatically reach for you blade, when you realize it’s hanging on the wall to your right. “Damn! Now what?” you’re thinking as you move to put the table between you and them.

Well, since this is your home, you know where everything is and most things can be used in a pinch as a weapon. The chair you were sitting on, the table,and even throwing the coins at them! If you have a mirror, break it (and don’t worry about the seven years’ bad luck!) Throw knickknacks at them! Do whatever it takes to distract them or thrown off-balance long enough to get your real weapon.

What if you character happens to be working in an inn for some reason? Maybe to earn a little extra coin, or as some sort of agreement with the innkeeper for their staying there. Unless the character is the bouncer, it’s not likely the innkeeper would want them going around armed and in their armor. Might give too many customers the idea that fights are frequent at the place. Well, in the kitchen, there are skillets, pots, serving trays (things that when applied to the head of an attacker would render most insensible for a period of time. Of course there are the usual cleavers and butcher knives, but what about the spit for the fireplace? If it has a haunch of meat on it, all the better. Someone with a sword would hit the meat and the blade would get stuck long enough for you to disarm him or her or someone else to sneak up behind and use the skillet attack.

There are also logs for the fireplace, or even a pot of hot soup! And don’t forget the poker for the fireplace!

On a farm, you have any number of sharp tools that can be used to defend yourself. The pitchfork, a hoe or shovel, a sickle (which would be a bit easier to handle with one hand) and the scythe. If you use a shovel, don’t forget about the pile of manure that could be flung at the attacker. (A face full of horse droppings would give make a lot of people pause!)

The point is, everyone should be able to defend him or herself with whatever is at hand, from the momentarily unarmed fighter, to the stableboy. (Something to keep in mind for real life as well.)

Blade Bright!