Hello, gentlemen. I'm just another non-native speaking English writer who's new to the forum. I don't expect this post to have many views, but for 5 people who sees this. Here's a little tip for you, let's cut to the case
1. Personality
This is the heart and soul and everything a character should have. You can't just say "He doesn't have a personality" BECAUSE THAT'S WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS. Your character can be a generic brave and kind protagonist but don't just make them ONLY brave and kind, you need to give them some flaws too. My favourite personality format is Three positive traits, three neutral traits, and three negative traits.
I've seen so many people—writers and D&D fans alike—focus too much on their backstory. The backstory is good for developing one's personality, but it's kinda like adding fertiliser to a plant. Sure, a plant grows better with fertiliser (Backstory), but water (Personality) and sunlight (Roleplay style) are essential.
For DMs, don't just give personalities to BBEG and NPCs alone, you need to give enemies one too. Bandit talks, Cultist talks, EVERYTHING talks, whether vocal or not. For more subtle personification, don't use "it" pronoun. Calling an animal "It" is like treating them as an object, and that also deletes a huge chunk of personification away like a street dog eating his first meal in 2 weeks.
If you're a fan of Disney movies, make your animals talk and act like a Disney movie. Don't worry about realism. If you've watched ERB's JRR Tolkein VS, George R.R. Martin, Tolkein said "But news flash; the genre is called Fantasy. It's meant to be unrealistic, you myotic manatee!" he makes a good point; don't bother about realism unless you want to flex your scientific knowledge. If you want to make animals smile, cry, or standing up on two legs. Go ahead, no one is stopping you.
"bUT wHaT abOuT Speak to Animals spElLs??///??"
As I said, animals don't have to communicate verbally. They can just think or speak in their own language. As a DM, you're responsible for giving them thoughts. As a player, your job is to paint the image of your character interacting with that monster. Take a look at these two paragraphs below.
The arrow struck on the Gnoll's head. It growls and turns its head to the direction where it'd been hit.
The arrow struck on the Gnoll's head, "Ow!" he touched his skull, feeling the fresh blood running down from his head. Angered, he turned to the direction the arrow had struck him and growls, "You...You'll pay for that!"
What do you think which one is better? Comment below.
2. Backstory
Slamming a novella of backstory doesn't mean it'll be good. I don't read it, DMs don't read it, and the players don't read it. The backstory should be simple; your character is an adventurer, what do you think they do before they go on a quest? becoming a politician? mass-murdering people? Age is important too, a 21 years old human definitely can't travel the world and slaying every heretic along the way. And a 190 years old Elf definitely have seen things for sure.
Before you write something epic, look at your character's age.
For people whose backstory is "mY pArEntS dIEd wHeN i WAs bORn," that isn't bad either. Tragic backstory doesn't mean that character would suck. Like I said above, it's all about PERSONALITY, not BACKSTORY of that character.
3.Flavour
Imagination is a hard subject to explain. It's a man's greatest weapon, yet we still not sure how it works. When you cast a spell, you don't just drop a huge nuclear fire orb that will decontaminate 15th-century English countryside. You need to drop a huge nuclear fire orb that will decontaminate 15th-century English countryside...with style.
Rules are meant to be a break. Not happy with a rapier? why don't reskin it as a Zweihandler instead? Think Fire Bolt is just a fire stick that hurts enemies? Why don't you describe it as opening a portal in the sky that rains a hailstorm of flaming arrows upon your enemies? No one can stop you from thinking outside of the box, not even rules lawyer, not even the DM, not even the president of your country.
Rule of Cool is and always be better than rules.
That aside, here's my character sheet. Feel free to use it anytime!
Basic Information
Name:
Gender:
Age:
Race:
Class:
Appearance:
Clothing:
Equipment:
Minor Details
Dominant Hand: (Note: Cats have 50/50 percentage of being either left or right-pawed) (Note: Lizards usually are mixed-handed)
Dominant Foot:
Dominant Eyes:
Birthdate:
Favourite Season:
Favourite Weather:
Favourite Food:
Favourite Instruments:
Favourite Races (That is not their own):
Hobbies:
Dislikes:
Personality
Positive Traits (3):
Neutral Traits (3):
Negative Traits (3):
What do this character act when they're...
Happy:
Angry:
Sad:
Common Mood:
Uncommon Mood:
Rare Mood:
Goals:
Wishes:
Promises:
Introvert or Extrovert:
Catchphrases/Favourite quotes:
Voice Reference:
Extra Information
If you need help creating a character, feel free to ask me a question in the comment below!
"Civilisation began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock."
-Sigmund Freud
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference."
—Richard Dawkins
DM—Stories From The End of The World: Episode I
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Hello, gentlemen. I'm just another non-native speaking English writer who's new to the forum. I don't expect this post to have many views, but for 5 people who sees this. Here's a little tip for you, let's cut to the case
1. Personality
This is the heart and soul and everything a character should have. You can't just say "He doesn't have a personality" BECAUSE THAT'S WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS. Your character can be a generic brave and kind protagonist but don't just make them ONLY brave and kind, you need to give them some flaws too. My favourite personality format is Three positive traits, three neutral traits, and three negative traits.
I've seen so many people—writers and D&D fans alike—focus too much on their backstory. The backstory is good for developing one's personality, but it's kinda like adding fertiliser to a plant. Sure, a plant grows better with fertiliser (Backstory), but water (Personality) and sunlight (Roleplay style) are essential.
For DMs, don't just give personalities to BBEG and NPCs alone, you need to give enemies one too. Bandit talks, Cultist talks, EVERYTHING talks, whether vocal or not. For more subtle personification, don't use "it" pronoun. Calling an animal "It" is like treating them as an object, and that also deletes a huge chunk of personification away like a street dog eating his first meal in 2 weeks.
If you're a fan of Disney movies, make your animals talk and act like a Disney movie. Don't worry about realism. If you've watched ERB's JRR Tolkein VS, George R.R. Martin, Tolkein said "But news flash; the genre is called Fantasy. It's meant to be unrealistic, you myotic manatee!" he makes a good point; don't bother about realism unless you want to flex your scientific knowledge. If you want to make animals smile, cry, or standing up on two legs. Go ahead, no one is stopping you.
"bUT wHaT abOuT Speak to Animals spElLs??///??"
As I said, animals don't have to communicate verbally. They can just think or speak in their own language. As a DM, you're responsible for giving them thoughts. As a player, your job is to paint the image of your character interacting with that monster. Take a look at these two paragraphs below.
The arrow struck on the Gnoll's head. It growls and turns its head to the direction where it'd been hit.
The arrow struck on the Gnoll's head, "Ow!" he touched his skull, feeling the fresh blood running down from his head. Angered, he turned to the direction the arrow had struck him and growls, "You...You'll pay for that!"
What do you think which one is better? Comment below.
2. Backstory
Slamming a novella of backstory doesn't mean it'll be good. I don't read it, DMs don't read it, and the players don't read it. The backstory should be simple; your character is an adventurer, what do you think they do before they go on a quest? becoming a politician? mass-murdering people? Age is important too, a 21 years old human definitely can't travel the world and slaying every heretic along the way. And a 190 years old Elf definitely have seen things for sure.
Before you write something epic, look at your character's age.
For people whose backstory is "mY pArEntS dIEd wHeN i WAs bORn," that isn't bad either. Tragic backstory doesn't mean that character would suck. Like I said above, it's all about PERSONALITY, not BACKSTORY of that character.
3.Flavour
Imagination is a hard subject to explain. It's a man's greatest weapon, yet we still not sure how it works. When you cast a spell, you don't just drop a huge nuclear fire orb that will decontaminate 15th-century English countryside. You need to drop a huge nuclear fire orb that will decontaminate 15th-century English countryside...with style.
Rules are meant to be a break. Not happy with a rapier? why don't reskin it as a Zweihandler instead? Think Fire Bolt is just a fire stick that hurts enemies? Why don't you describe it as opening a portal in the sky that rains a hailstorm of flaming arrows upon your enemies? No one can stop you from thinking outside of the box, not even rules lawyer, not even the DM, not even the president of your country.
Rule of Cool is and always be better than rules.
That aside, here's my character sheet. Feel free to use it anytime!
Basic Information
Name:
Gender:
Age:
Race:
Class:
Appearance:
Clothing:
Equipment:
Minor Details
Dominant Hand: (Note: Cats have 50/50 percentage of being either left or right-pawed) (Note: Lizards usually are mixed-handed)
Dominant Foot:
Dominant Eyes:
Birthdate:
Favourite Season:
Favourite Weather:
Favourite Food:
Favourite Instruments:
Favourite Races (That is not their own):
Hobbies:
Dislikes:
Personality
Positive Traits (3):
Neutral Traits (3):
Negative Traits (3):
What do this character act when they're...
Happy:
Angry:
Sad:
Common Mood:
Uncommon Mood:
Rare Mood:
Goals:
Wishes:
Promises:
Introvert or Extrovert:
Catchphrases/Favourite quotes:
Voice Reference:
Extra Information
If you need help creating a character, feel free to ask me a question in the comment below!
"The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference."
—Richard Dawkins
DM—Stories From The End of The World: Episode I