RP character inspiration
- Thread starter dragsaw
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Well, start with the basics. What sort of person is he, or she? Like, what does he/she do? How does he/she pay the bills? What does she/he like to do on her/his own time?
Well, RP where? What is the setting and/or the game? Other than that, what do you want to RP? A bland normal guy ("I went to work today and then had tea, what did you do?"), a bastard ("Listen here, how 'bout you lend me, say, 100$ and I won't spread rumours about you?"), a righteous thug ("This is my hood, al right? Next time I see you or your buddies try to sell drugs here again, I'll start breaking above the knees, too.") or something different. Then try to construct it from there. Why does the character do it, what drove him to this. Have some backstroy in mind - might be short, might be long, but at any rate, you need a backstory, then just flesh the character more and more as you go along.
I like to start with what they are like, as a person, by thinking about "in X situation, what would she/he do?" for a variety of situations, and that usually starts giving me a picture. If you're hard up for those (and this sounds silly) go on FB or some other social crap hole and take a bunch of those "what type of Y" are you, but answer the questions 'in character' to get an idea.
Then see if you can get your hands on Hero Builder's Guidebook - it's a supplement for...well, hero building. It's for 3.5, though, you can still use parts of it for 4e, but not as many - lots of crunchy information there, that doesn't translate well. Still, the ideas are good for a D&D game. Not the best source for RP stuff, mind you, but it's a start. The section on building a history is pretty useful.dragsaw said:
Other than that, there are some free sources as well. I'll just throw in this one, if you want to be thorough, answer these 100 questions [http://www.miniworld.com/adnd/100ThingsAboutUrPCBackGround.html] about your character and you should have one ready by the end. Or just skip some of them, there is enough to give you a playable character.
That does sound silly... But it sounds like it could work quite well, so I might try that for my next character.Mylinkay Asdara said:
I like to start each of my characters off with one simple gimmick then flesh them out from there untill that gimmick is just a small part of their personality. My favorite character started of as the simple idea of a kleptomaniac rogue and is now fleshed out to the point that he had a character arc during an adventure and changed alignment.
Give us a character class and alignment. We can come up with ideas for cuthroat Druids who were literally raised by a pack of woods, like their meat raw and espouse a literal survival of the fittest philosophy, and enjoy dropping people in the middle of the woods just to see how well they'd fare against their lupine bretheren but ultimately ideas like that would be utterly pointless if you planned to play a Lawful Good Paladin.dragsaw said:
If you cannot give us a class and alignment, then the following might be similarly useful:
There's a group of ruffians blocking your path on the road and demanding a toll. How would you prefer to deal with them (character-wise)?
a1) Intimidate them into letting you pass
a2) Intimidate them into letting you pass and giving you their money to compensate you for not killing them.
b) Smash their heads in
c) Convince them that you're not worth the trouble (Optional: and that other routes would be more profitable)
d) Steal their own coin purses and pay them with money from that
e) Kill one and hope that scares the others off.
You've just cornered a thief in the streets. He looks desperate and willing to fight What do you do?
a) Kill him
b) Talk him down
c) Knock him out and hand him over to the local guards
d) Any of the above (elaborate, please) combined with taking what he stole for yourself
e) Let him go.
The aforementioned thief reveals that he was stealing because he needed money so as to provide for his paraplegic sister. The GM reveals that this is unquestionably true. Does this change anything?
Jack suggests either fightiness or explodiness. Actually, go with the exploding part, since mages and the like are so integral in kicking ass in DnD.dragsaw said:
A bitter misanthropic bastard who would be the greatest warrior in the world if not for his crippling alcoholism.
im going a warrior and planing on Neutral Good ,Ex sellsword? (dont know how that will work so maby more Chaotic Neutral sort like bron from gameofthones)Asita said:
i dont know what one my mates is geting the game it self so 4th? odds are what the cheaper one isHarkonnen64 said:
Techincally the ideal lineup for a sellsword would likely be true neutral, or at least that's the preferable alignment for the job, given that anyone can potentially hire you. That said, going against ideal setups tends to lead to fairly interesting characters, if properly thought out. The big question you have to ask yourself is how you want to play that angle. Off the top of my head, a neutral good sellsword could be played as a character who makes a point of only accepting jobs he views as just or otherwise moral. You could even tack on a no-kill rule (Granted though, the two combined basically make Himura Kenshin). Alternatively, you could play a character who despises his work and actively seeks loopholes around contracts of questionable morality (and/or offers penance for his sins on the job). More generally though, I'd familiarize yourself with the alignment and then ask yourself "How does this alignment reflect on my profession (and the flavor thereof?)" More specifically if you're going with the sellsword idea: "Why would someone of this alignment become a sellsword?"dragsaw said:
I had an idea for a cool character the other day.
A warrior who has a tiny piece of a god in him. A god who embodies battle and struggle. The god wanted to understand the struggles of mortal life, which were denied it as an immortal god. So it broke itself into dozens of soul sized pieces and allowed itself to be born as mortals.
So the warrior is driven by an obsessive urge to fight and test himself that has basically ruined his life and estranged his family, he is never satisifed and wants to push himself further and further. He scorns anything fun over training and testing himself(No women, no drink, no desserts)
I also had this idea that he was born in a barbarian tribe and that at the age of 15 he left his tribe and singlehandedly attacked His tribes enemy tribe. He killed every single man who could fight in that enemy tribe over a winter by sneaking in and killing them when they slept or when they hunted or whatever, guerrilla warfare stuff. When there were no more fighting men in the tribe the women, the children and the elderly suffered horrible without men to get food, or protect them. Some raiders or orcs or whatever heard about the tribes weakness and came upon the enemy tribe and those they didnt murder were enslaved and tortured.
When he came back to his tribe and told them what he had done, they called him a murderer and a monster because he didnt fight honorably and caused the suffering of innocents. They cast him out. He still doesnt quite understand what he did wrong, because hes crazy.
He has a rational human side that can be brought out by emotional things but his obsessive need for challenges is still very strong. The godshard might make him switch sides in the middle of a battle because he wants to be on the side that has the harder fight or attempt to murder powerful people just because he wants to know if he can. Also because he has a shard of a god for a soul, if the right person got a hold of him and managed to restrain him, they could extract a great deal of untapped power from him.
Steal that if you want.
A warrior who has a tiny piece of a god in him. A god who embodies battle and struggle. The god wanted to understand the struggles of mortal life, which were denied it as an immortal god. So it broke itself into dozens of soul sized pieces and allowed itself to be born as mortals.
So the warrior is driven by an obsessive urge to fight and test himself that has basically ruined his life and estranged his family, he is never satisifed and wants to push himself further and further. He scorns anything fun over training and testing himself(No women, no drink, no desserts)
I also had this idea that he was born in a barbarian tribe and that at the age of 15 he left his tribe and singlehandedly attacked His tribes enemy tribe. He killed every single man who could fight in that enemy tribe over a winter by sneaking in and killing them when they slept or when they hunted or whatever, guerrilla warfare stuff. When there were no more fighting men in the tribe the women, the children and the elderly suffered horrible without men to get food, or protect them. Some raiders or orcs or whatever heard about the tribes weakness and came upon the enemy tribe and those they didnt murder were enslaved and tortured.
When he came back to his tribe and told them what he had done, they called him a murderer and a monster because he didnt fight honorably and caused the suffering of innocents. They cast him out. He still doesnt quite understand what he did wrong, because hes crazy.
He has a rational human side that can be brought out by emotional things but his obsessive need for challenges is still very strong. The godshard might make him switch sides in the middle of a battle because he wants to be on the side that has the harder fight or attempt to murder powerful people just because he wants to know if he can. Also because he has a shard of a god for a soul, if the right person got a hold of him and managed to restrain him, they could extract a great deal of untapped power from him.
Steal that if you want.
There was an old King Arthur style game (probably Chivalry and Sorcery but I'm not sure) which had characters have a set of traits ranked 1-10 between certain virtues and vices. Eg Honour, Chivalry, Charity, Love, Faith, Bravery, Honesty, Loyalty. It was an excellent way to get an instant snapshot of an character.
A Neutral Good mercenary would have low Honour and Chivalry. After all what good are these things? You can't eat em and they seem to be for nobs anyway. His Loyalty, Bravery and Faith are medium as he is a mercenary and will work for almost anyone who pays and knows enough not to offend the gods lest their followers cease with the magic healing. Honesty would be higher and Charity and Love higher still indicating that not so deep down this person has a heart of gold.
Or think of your own set of virtues and rate em.
I would recommend sounding out the GM and other players. It's no good playing a grim, dark soul if everyone else is light, fluffy and making Monty Python references. And vice versa.
A Neutral Good mercenary would have low Honour and Chivalry. After all what good are these things? You can't eat em and they seem to be for nobs anyway. His Loyalty, Bravery and Faith are medium as he is a mercenary and will work for almost anyone who pays and knows enough not to offend the gods lest their followers cease with the magic healing. Honesty would be higher and Charity and Love higher still indicating that not so deep down this person has a heart of gold.
Or think of your own set of virtues and rate em.
I would recommend sounding out the GM and other players. It's no good playing a grim, dark soul if everyone else is light, fluffy and making Monty Python references. And vice versa.
My suggestion is to use your character as a petri dish. Pick one small, focused aspect you'd like to RP, and explain where it came from. You mentioned you want to use a bow? Ok, so the character has some bow skills. Where and how did they get that? How would it relate to the character? The more you follow these links, the more you're developing the character, until you've answered all the questions, and you have a fully grown bacteria character.
Well, since you're talking about Neutral Good, I'm guessing it's 3.5 - in 4e, you only have Lawful Good, Good, Unaligned, Evil and Chaotic Evil. But then again, 4e has really plunged down in price, so it might be that.dragsaw said:
You could do anything you wish alignment-wise. Well, mostly anything. Although as a sellsword it's less likely he'll be Lawful but not impossible - he could have a personal (or somebody else's - his god, his church, his family's, or maybe a bounty hunter or a hired blade guild's) code of honour to follow. The important thing is to try and follow it strictly. Make it up or take an existing one. An example would be "Never back up from a challenge of honour, never harm the innocent, never assist wizards without a beard, and always give chocolate to children you meet". You get the idea but make it more strict and encompassing more of his life.dragsaw said:
Neutral (on the Law-Chaos scale) would mean just that - no particular preference. The character could still have a code of honour but it would be a bit more of a guideline and would deal with a lesser extent of the character's life.
Chaotic is going to mean he disregards laws and rules. Not all of the time forever and ever but he wouldn't be afraid to break them to do what it has to be done (or what he wants). Think renegade Shepard.
Good would mean he cares about people and tries to help them. The money he makes may go for his family or his village (after charges for equipment and such) or maybe he only takes jobs that would help out the people - destroy the orcs that pillage the village, stop the goblins from stealing goods, stab those nasty giant rodents, and so on.
Neutral, again, means neutrality. He could still be altruistic but in a more moderate way. Ultimately, he wouldn't go slaughtering people or outright harming them but also wouldn't run several charities. Just a normal dude.
Evil would be more of a self interest. He'll likely also take jobs of questionable content - go kill a guy, go burn that village and so on.
Same applies for 4e, but CG and NG fall under Good there, while LN, CN and True Neutral would be Unaligned and LE and NE are just Evil.
As for a more RP advice, here is how I do my characters, I'll demonstrate with yours. I start from a concept - it could be "a dude with an axe" or it could be "The third son of a noble", "an escaped slave"" or whatever - as vague or as focused as you want it to be (I once made a character based on a picture I liked). So in your case, you have a fighter sellsword. Cool, we'll work with that. Next step is find out why and how he became that concept. Definitely have something in his background, so for example, he could be from a family of mercenaries. But I'll go with something more funky and say that he was from a family of bakers, however he is the fourth son, and the family business is in safe hands, and he has always been interested in adventure. His family, however, disapproved, but the character persevered and decided to earn his own money, not rely on the family for support. So he became a sell sword - not only does he get to see the world and experience more stuff, but he also gets paid for it.
With that in mind, you now have a more workable concept. You can flesh it out more, describe the family, his life, his friends, if you wish, you can even add more details - I'll give an example right now: On his first adventure, he was hired by followers of a god (I suck at D&D mythology, so just pick one) and during the travel he learned more and more about the god, so he finally became a devout follower himself. This could be an appropriate god (of battle/adventure) or something that doesn't quite fit (the god of magic or merchants) which would actually be even cooler. So let's say, that character became a follower of the god of nature, so he now prefers travelling and working in the rural areas and wants to protect animals. Also, he may become a vegetarian.
But anyway, once you are happy with what you have, just put it down in game stats and see if you can fit it, you might make changes or additions at this point. For example, you may end up with Wisdom being the lowest stat, so just tie something into it, for example, the character had an accident as a child due to his own absent mindedness, which left him a scar to remind himself to be more careful (and still he isn't). I had a character who was banished from his tribe because he was really stupid, well, more like the chief told him "Look buddy, go and travel the world to find adventure and wisdom and come back when you find them" because he couldn't take his idiocy.
With that, just keep adding more stuff until it feels right. Add quirks, some flaws (like, he may be too hot headed, or maybe he can't swim make sure it's somehow relevant - being afraid of cellphones in D&D does nothing), add some interesting and notable points in the character's background. What I find easy to do is borrow stuff from other fictional characters, or even some friends and people I know. For example, I have a friend who uses "In life" a lot - he usually ends the sentences with it if it makes at least a bit of sense ("You know, you can't always win...in life", "I'm out of money...in life") it's like a verbal tic, so I could add it to the character's speech, or I know another person who may have a funny way of dressing, so I decide to incorporate that, or maybe I just want him to sound like Sean Connery and so on. These minor details bring life to the character and they are easy to use - you've seen and know them enough.
But for a first character, I'd advise you to go and take a character test - there are thousands out there on the net but I already linked you to the 100 questions [http://www.miniworld.com/adnd/100ThingsAboutUrPCBackGround.html] which I find good enough (also the only thing I have in my bookmarks on the topic). Here are some example answers for the character
Part 1: The Basics
What is your full name?
I suck at making names, so I usually just use a random name generator. Still, the best I can come up with is Frederick Stoneoven. Well run with that.
Where and when were you born?
Well, let's say the character is 21 years old, and he was born in a medium sized village called (I suck at names, make something up or ask your DM for one) that is right at the foot of a large hill. Or something. You can still adapt real locations here - my grandmother's house was on a hill and the bakery was literally down the street, so let's say the same was with the family bakery.
Who are/were your parents? (Know their names, occupations, personalities, etc.)
Bakers of the Stoneoven family who disapprove of their son "running around like a fool". You could add more here but that might also be enough.
Do you have any siblings? What are/were they like?
Well, since he's the fourth child, let's say he has two brothers (the oldest) and a sister. Make up names. Have something interesting about them. For example, maybe the oldest one secretly supports the character, since he wanted to do the same as a child but was forced to take care of the family business (first son and all that), while the second one just laughs at the notion of adventuring.
Where do you live now, and with whom? Describe the place and the person/people.
Well, presumably the character travels a lot. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have any friends. It could be that he has been in the same area and know the innkeepers and other regular travellers, or maybe the people at his church.
What is your occupation?
A sellsword - pay money, he fights for you.
Write a full physical description of yourself. You might want to consider factors such as: height, weight, race, hair and eye color, style of dress, and any tattoos, scars, or distinguishing marks.
Erm, just as the question says. I suck at this, too, so I just base it off a known fantasy figure or two, or maybe an illustration. In fact it's even easier to have something and say "This. My character looks like this."
To which social class do you belong?
Well, as coming from a baker family, certainly not the nobility, but it could be a bigger business, so people really know the family name.
Do you have any allergies, diseases, or other physical weaknesses?
Probably not, but for fun, you can have something here.
Are you right- or left-handed?
It doesn't really matter, just go with right handed.
What does your voice sound like?
OK, I find this question a bit dumb. I rarely do voices, so it doesn't really matter.
And so on and so forth. If you encounter a question that you can't answer, either make something up or leave it - not everything is that important.
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And that's pretty basically what happens. Make stuff up and string them together. Make it as epic or as ordinary as you want.