A Citizen_W Guest Article - RPG Character Creation

Here's another article on RPG's by Citizen_W. This time he's giving us a general guide to character creation so you don't all end up playing the same person you always do...

There are thousands of RPG’s in the world (literally) from the rule heavy volume of giants tomes to indie press productions of a few dice rolls that are more like group storytelling. However they all have one thing in common, you will need a character.

Character creation is one of my favourite parts of RPing as a PC (Player character) I often create 4 or 5 and flit between them for weeks before we begin. However some people really struggle with the idea of forging the ideas they have in their head into a usable character or can’t think of something they’d like to role-play.

I've come up with a few tips for creating fleshed out PC’s that will give you more enjoyment to play and assist your GM.

1) Be Original
Okay this ones a weird one and a bit of a personal bugbear (which are also bugbears to me). Too many campaigns I've played in have the mysterious stranger who’s dressed in black with a long coat wielding a Katana in a western setting seething silently in the corner. It’s been done guys, and it's really hard for the other players to know how to interact with this loner in a group setting and difficult for a GM to include this maverick loner into a group.

“You all meet in a tavern, and as you leave this silent bad-ass leaves with you”. 

Leather trench-coats are standard issue...didn't you know?

Obviously taking a few inspirations from favourite characters, comics, games etc is a great way to stoke your imagination but just playing a carbon copy of Master Chief is dull and the kind of character you often find is abandoned quickest.

Editors Note - 'Inspired by' is always going to happen as we all have our favourite characters from all kinds of media but as a player of Vampire the Masquerade for many years I lost count of the amount of the above mentioned 'Katana wielding, leather trench-coat guy (and girl) that seemed to be everywhere...The Matrix movies have a lot to answer for in that area...

2) It’s Okay to Suck

A level one character is essentially as capable as a normal person with a bit of specialist knowledge. Essentially as I write this I am a level one human with skill points in Comics, Nerdery and Sarcasm, I am not equipped in anyway to take on a level 40 Dragon (or to continue the metaphor Joss Whedon) and I'm okay with this. The biggest reason I find players dislike role-play is they expected to be back-flipping and flinging a thousand shurikens at a horde of skeletons and basking in the adulation of the town.

Editors Note - My current Through the Breach character is illiterate and has skills in Throwing Weapons and Shotgun despite the fact that the stat that controls them is actually his worst one...I've also played a cowardly Arbite in Dark Heresy, an insane Tech-Marine in Deathwatch and a Gangrel with both multiple personality disorder and an addiction to draining other vampires to death in Vampire the Masquerade...

3) Backstory

When I've got a vague idea in my head of who I want to RP I sit and scribble out a couple of paragraphs about why they exist and their recent history (Some RPG’s actually have this built into character creation) I then give a copy to the GM with my character sheet and also to the other players just so they have a better idea of why I'm reacting how I am and how best to approach the character.

Editors Note - I'm a bit hit or miss in this area so my characters back-stories tend to develop via random crap I make up during in character conversations...though my Dark Heresy characters background came about when all the other players presumed he'd done something hideous to some poor innocent woman and their idea was actually more interesting than I had come up with myself, lol.

4) GM Approval
Okay so you want to be a pirate who’s okay with a sword but you've decided you’re of Chinese descent and you want some Kung-Fu skills, you check the rulebook and find pirates only get cutlass and pistol skills. Well shit son you’re stuffed. Or are you? 

Why not approach the GM and skill swap. Pistol becomes Wu-Shu and cutlass becomes Tai-Chi sword. Easily done, it also puts you at the negative of having no range (when I GM I love players who have an exploitable weakness).

Too many people are overly rigid with the books classes and skills, once you are comfortable with the rules it's not too hard to add a few skills.

Editors Note - This takes some getting used to if you're from a miniature wargames background where the rules are set. RPG's are a bit different...

5) Flaws

One of my favourite systems for character creation is the Serenity system. It’s a little clunky on rules and uses an odd dice system but for character skills it lets you be as badass as you want, as long as you take an equal amount of flaws. 

Want to be a Clint Eastwood level gun-slinger, fine but you will have a crippling addiction to booze, a limp and probably herpes. While not every system has a way to add negatives, putting in an addiction or other flaw really fleshes a character out and makes them feel like a person.

Editors Note - If you're a GM it's worth noting that some 'Min-Maxer' players will take flaws (Mins) that don't really cause them problems comparable to the benefits (the Max's)...as a side-note it's okay to be really mean to those sort of people...

6) Plan Your Level-ups

This isn't always possible as a campaign rolls on your priorities may change but it's still  good idea to note down your ideal upgrades and level rewards so you know what you’re aiming for and to allow or GM approval (For instance I only let a character upgrade skills they've actually used in some way). 

Editors Note - I'm quite notorious for planning every step of my characters development (from a mechanical point of view at least) though am occasionally foiled by environmental factors such as a sudden and unexplained lack of knives everywhere we go or that time when my Tech-Marine caught the Obliterator virus and kept absorbing his Storm Bolter...

Also the level of upgrade being given should be equivalent to the learning experience as once you've got the hang of killing a generic zombie with your sword then I doubt you learn much more by killing the hundredth and sharpening your pencil does not count towards your final level in Melee...no...it doesn't...

7) Have Fun

While obviously the point of an RPG I’ve experienced plenty of players who just weren't enjoying themselves. This is partly a GM issue that may mean your campaign sucks but as a player if your character really isn't working talk to the GM and make a new one, your old character could die in a blaze of glory that will be a great story for the other players and some of the most fun for you (my Chaplain characters death in Deathwatch was one of my favourite things to roleplay).

To finished I’d like to talk about experienced role-players and keeping it all fresh. My biggest tip for that is play something unexpected. In out very male dominated group I often role-play a woman, partly for the challenge and partly for party balance in social interactions.

Another great way to freshen things up is to let the GM or a fellow player create your character and then play the role they’ve set out for you. This isn’t for everyone but gives a really interesting challenge (unless the person designing it has been an absolute dick).

Well I hope you enjoyed this article and found the tips helpful, I’m sure you’ll see me loitering around here again if GMort invites me. 

Editors Note - He's invited any-time he wants...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Citizen_W's Beginners Guide to GMing

GMing is a skill like any other and though as in any field of expertise there are some people for which it comes naturally there are others that have had to work to develop the necessary skills. Citizen_W is what I would call a 'natural' GM in that he has a flair for the dramatic, is good at voices and has just the right amount of megalomania to push you in the direction he wants with enough improvisation skills to be able to deal with the kind of players that get obsessed over a throwaway NPC or kill the person they were meant to be meeting and chat for an hour with the person they're there to kill....

I therefore asked the aforementioned Citizen_W (Tom to his friends and a few of his victims...) to write a brief guide to GMing and was pleasantly surprised when he said yes, lol.

So over to Tom...

Introduction.
There are many skills in the hobby world that you don’t find in every gamer.

We all know that guy who can absorb rules like a sponge, or that one girl who never touched a paint brush then won Golden Demon, but for me one of the truly hard to master skills in being a games master.

Call them what you like GM, DM, “storyteller”, “fate-master” or “that dick that just made me fall down a hole”, they’re that individual giving up their time to craft your fun. Few appreciate the time many GM’s go to, world building, mission writing and pulling out their own hair because you players did it wrong. 

Editors Note - We are a particularly difficult group of gamers to GM for as given a choice of two directions we invariably end up finding a third and insist on exploring it for no clearly defined reason...

When GMort asked me to explain my style of GMing I jumped at the chance, first though a little tedious back-story. My GMing experience began early (before I’d actually role-played) stumbling through D+D 3.5 with some friends in my early teens. This taught me many valuable lessons, as whole Saturdays disappeared trying to navigate uneven hallways (a hard enough challenge for a level 1 character) filled with traps we couldn't even dream of disarming, as we didn't understand level scaling challenges.

Through my elder teens and into university I role-played a lot picking up tips and hints from other GM’s before I tried my hand again. It was D&D 3.5 again but this attempt was much more successful, and is where I really began to build my style of GMing. Since then I've run many of the fantasy flight systems, Serenity, Vampire Masquerade and a number of smaller systems as one shots, and most recently “Through the Breach”, but my style remains unchanged. So with the preamble over lets delve further.

Rules.
I hate rules. 

Trudging through 3.5 edition was made more painful by the sheer weight of rules available in D&D. I say available as I think of them very much as a suggestion, you can if you wish role a dexterity test to make sure you keep your footing on every uneven flagstone, but it's going to get tiring quick.

The greatest example of this I can call to mind was when I visited my girlfriend at university, to be greeted by her house-mates who were confused as to why they kept dying in their campaign. After watching them play for 20 minutes it became clear, they were using EVERY rule across 2 different D&D editions which turned even a lowly goblin into a party killing nightmare. Needless to say the problem was an easy one to fix.

Story.
As far as I'm concerned role-play is storytelling, all be it collectively, and should be treated s such.

So does any-one have any good ideas?

I’m a big believer in bending or even breaking rules if it fit the character, scenario or even if it's just cool (I've run whole combats where no dice were touched and people just spared weaving the story between them as they cleared a room). Not only this but any session should be engaging like a story. My personal aim for a game session is for it to be enjoyable for a non player observing as it is too the players and for everyone to leave with an anecdote to tell down the pub later.

Editors Note - My better half often just sits and listens to our RPG sessions and actually enjoys them as an observer...I should probably get around to marrying her now I think about it... 

Flexibility.
It's not just your story...

One thing I learnt early in GMing, you can plan as much as you can, guide your players as much as possible and have contingency plans but your players can and will “go off road”. Being flexible and ad libbing sections makes a story feel more organic and allows players to feel as though they really are impacting your world.

Flexibility is also useful for when real life gets in the way, I've turned up to sessions with nothing but a note book a vague storyline for the session in my head and a few enemy stats, I guarantee most of the players involved in those sessions had no idea.

Editors Note - This session was apparently mostly improvised...and as surmised above...we had no idea...

Flexibility can only take you so far however some things can fully derail a session, player absence is a big one but I have  way round this:

GM’s character.
I usually create my own character when GMing, 

I usually make them a bit of an all rounder who could step up in most situations if needed. They level at the average rate of the party and rarely get any special treatment but can be invaluable.

Editors Note - With the exception of Deathwatch (Space Marines all being male) Toms's 'own' character is generally an attractive female...this may say more about him than the technique itself, lol.

Specifics.
A lot is said in a role-play session, thoughts, actions, ideas… they all blend into one.

I try to keep comprehensive notes on players actions. Fire your gun? I know how many bullets you have left. Forget to share information? too bad. This takes a bit of effort but when the player is greeted by the click of an empty gun or a missed piece of information comes back to haunt the players everything feels a little more real.

Editors Note - Knowing that the eight round burst from your Storm Bolter is more than sufficient to take out your opponent becomes slightly more traumatic when it clicks empty after three rounds...yes, this happened...

Overall my biggest tip is to keep things flowing, keep combat light and fast to move the story on. An area proving more troublesome than thought or a problem taking to long to solve drop the players a hint in character, There’s nothing worse than a player rage quitting on you or getting bored because they’re character is being ignored...

Hopefully this will be the first of many articles from Citizen_W and I'm sure he'd appreciate your feedback.

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.