Hello again! Welcome to At the Table, where we discuss topics revolving around the greatest roleplaying game in the world! Today, I figured we would discuss one of the more important and, and key components to playing Dungeons and Dragons: Your Character! There are many, I mean many resources out there to help you create a character, which is good and super helpful! However, I would like to discuss, who your character is, and why playing a character you like is important.

Resources

There is an endless array of resources that can help you discover your character or build off the idea that you have bubbling in your brain. Wizards of the Coast have many great books published to help your build a character. The 5^th Edition SRD gives you the nuts and bolts of character creation. They have race, class, and background, which is all you really need to play this magnificent game. Lastly, try the internet, there are more resources there than you can imagine!

The Who

No, not the band, good guess though! Figuring out who your character is can be one of the hardest things in the game. I recently made a character for a friend’s game, which has so graciously agreed to run so I can take a short break from DM’ing. I began by asking myself, what does my character look like? I started with the superficial and worked inward, which allowed me to create reasons why he looks the way he does. Does your character have tattoos, scars, no hair, one eye, a missing limb, etc. All of these things can help you build the inner workings of your character. When you are trying to think of ideas to inspire you, ask yourself the following questions:

• Did your character suffer from a terrible life tragedy?
• Does your character have any siblings?
• What sort of childhood did your character have?
  • Did your character experience a terrible childhood trauma?
  • Were they an orphan?
  • Did they have a wonderful childhood, which gives them an ever persistent outlook on life?
• Where are they from and why did they leave home?
  • Was your character raised in a town, forest, or the desert?
  • Who was your character raised by?
  • Was it nature versus nurture?
  • What caused them to leave home?

These are just some of the questions that can help you brainstorm who your character will be. Remember, this is a game, use your imagination, you can literally create whoever you want! Hopefully the person you create is someone you will enjoy playing.

Flaws and Quirks

Copyright 2018 L5R

My favorite part about creating a character is not the super high stats or how much damage they can inflict on their foes, but, how unique or odd the character is. Flaws make my characters feel and seem more realistic and unique. I like games were these aspects create problems or situations that the characters have to deal with. I think that is why I enjoy the Marvel TV shows on Netflix, each of those heroes have flaws, and shows them to be more human than hero. The hero or adventurer who is pulled into the life by circumstance is more appealing to me, it is what helps define who someone is and why they act the way they do. You can use flaws and quirks as inspirations instead of hindrances. The player’s handbook says to roll or choose one flaw, if you want to have more flaws, by all means, double down! This is your character; those tables are just inspirational tools. If the flaws, or ideals, bonds, traits you are looking for are not listed, talking it over with your DM, create your own background. You want to enjoy who you are going to play. Which brings us to the next part: Why playing a character you like is important.

Play who you like

Now that you have invested a lot of time in creating an entirely new person, it is time to play! So, you gather up with your friends and sit down at the table. A few sessions later, you discover, your character is not turning out how you first envisioned them to be. Maybe you are having trouble expressing some parts of their personality, maybe some parts of their personality is clashing with other characters in the group. Do not let any of this discourage you; there are ways to solve this problem.

First, you can drop that character and start over, which is a lot of work, and heartbreaking. You spent all that time creating someone you really wanted to be, and now, things are not going as you had as planned. If starting over is what you want, talk to your DM, see what they suggest. Maybe, creating all the backstory was too much for you at first. So, you could do a quick build as the described in the player’s handbook pick a background, let the dice fly and roll on the tables. Then rediscover your character as you play. That is a great option as well, and can be just as rewarding.

Second and my favorite: keeping the character. Work through the problems or issues you are having. It has only been a few sessions, maybe the idea you had is harder to roleplay than you thought, which could be a good thing; it means you will have to do a little work on bringing that personality to life. I think if you stick with it and work through the situations and mold that character into the concept you had, you will enjoy it more than if you just started over. Not only will you have the past you built, but your character will be molded by the other characters, and will have more depth, more personality. All of the detail you created is still there, still part of the person you created, use all that to shape who they are becoming. As it is with life, your past will help inform your future.

Remember, it is just a game, you are here for fun. So play someone who will bring you and everyone else at the table a few hours of joy each session!