1.3 Character concept
The first thing a player should do when generating
a character is to come up with a character concept. This is the idea
behind the character; the initial character concept can be as simple or as
complex as the player wants.
Examples of character concepts are:
- A middle-aged balding merchant from the city states;
- The rightful heir to the throne who escaped as a child when his
family were killed and is now a teenager living on the streets and
working as a freelance thief;
- A wandering minstrel who dabbles in healing arts;
- A black magician, who has sold his soul to demons, but now craves
respectability;
- A naive barbarian warrior, with lots of strength but not much
subtlety;
- A beautiful noble women, trained by her father as an expert
swordswomen, who is now seeking revenge for his death;
- A mysterious fanatical martial artist assassin, who never breaks his
word and never kills unless paid to do so;
- A old blind seer, who, through magic, can see clearly;
- An ex-pirate now turned mercenary;
- A manically depressed dwarven warrior;
- A talented but plain woman, battling against a sexist society;
- A peasant farmer, thrown off his lands by a greedy landlord, now
acting as servant for another character;
- A young girl who understands and can talk to animals;
- A warrior priest from a far-off desert tribe, with an honour debt to
another character.
A good character concept should meet the following criteria:
- the player finds the idea interesting;
- the character is compatible with other characters that are likely to
be in play - i.e. similar overall power, differing capabilities (so
he/she does not overlap with other characters) and a similar overall
outlook or objectives;
- the character should have interesting psychological quirks, without
being so screwed up emotionally that the entire campaign revolves around
his/her personal crises;
- the referee should be able to work the character into the campaign
easily.
The player should ideally discuss the character concept with the referee
before proceeding any further.
See also: