Campaign longevity hinges on two important aspects of the game; having a DM that provides an interesting and compelling story and players that provide interesting and compelling characters.  This series of articles focus on the latter; building characters that have us wanting to know more about them and make us excited to be part of their further adventures; characters who are truly memorable.  In his recent article Sam talked about his character needing to be more interesting.  Not only do interesting and memorable characters make the game more exciting but they also help relieve the DM from always being the one forced to come up with the elements that drive a campaign forward.  Done in the right way the characters’ own stories become as relevant as the DM’s story.  When combined together these two components synergistically enrich the entire campaign experience and will keep everyone at the table coming back for more, session after session. 

 

So what makes a character memorable?  For some players building a more interesting, compelling, and exciting character (outside of his powers and abilities) can seem like an overwhelming task or at the very least they struggle trying to find the place to start.  I have had players tell me that they “just aren’t that creative” or “can’t think of anything good”.  But fear not, if you like roleplaying games then you are a creative person; you just might need a little push to get you going.  That’s where this series of articles comes in.

 

Once you sit down with your character how do you take a piece of paper covered in numbers and stats and turn it into someone you and your fellow gamers are emotionally invested in and excited about seeing how their personal story unfolds?  For this series of articles I am going to focus on character hooks.  In the coming weeks we’ll take a look at each of the following aspects of character and examine ways to create hooks from them; race & class, backgrounds, quirks & flaws, goals & motivations, beliefs, ethics, & morals, and fate & destiny.  Any or all of these areas can be used to assist you in creating that special character that has you excited to play week after week.

 

This week we will focus on creating hooks based on a character’s race and class and how each can be used to create a truly memorable hero.

 

Race & Class

For virtually everyone the selection of a character’s race and class are the first two choices that begin to shape and define the newly emerging character.  Our reasons for making the selections are as varied as the players that make them.  Some players are intrigued by the inherent abilities or bonuses of a race while others like the powers and features of a given class.  Some people start a new campaign knowing exactly what kind of character they want to play while others like to wait and see what the rest of the party looks like.  However you come to the decision about what race and class you are going to play, it is the perfect opportunity to begin the process of adding hooks and additional detail to your character.

 

Race

A character’s race is the most obvious trait he possesses so it is the perfect place to begin thinking about hooks.  Race is a core aspect of a person’s being and affects multiple aspects of a character’s life including his values, outlooks, and relationships.  Start by asking yourself questions relating to your hero’s race.  You don’t have to answer all of them (or any of them) right away but begin thinking about the role of race and racial identity as it applies to your character.  The answer to any of the following questions has the potential to become a great character hook.

 

Racially speaking, does the character “play to type”?

Think about some of the traits typically associated with your chosen race.  The race’s common personality characteristics, social role, cultural structure, geographic origins and the like are rich areas to mine for ideas about how your character is, or isn’t like the others of his kind.  Has the character always been a paragon of his race or is he trying to be something he’s not?  If he is a typical example of his people, is he by choice or out of a sense of obligation, perhaps even guilt. 

• As a shifter your character strives to always honor his people and his heritage.  He refuses to speak in any but the ancient tongue of his people and only uses the traditional weapons and armor of his clan and culture.  He is dedicated to preserving the ancient rites and rituals of his ancestors, some of which are a bit primitive and violent. 
• Instead of an uptight sophisticate perhaps your eladrin character is a good-natured farm boy more concerned with next year’s harvest than with the politics and intrigues of the Feywild.
• Many dwarves are gruff and dour and yours is no exception.  Maybe it’s because “he’s just another dwarf” or maybe it has something to do with being an ex-convict and graduate of the school of hard knocks. 
• To those around him your dragonborn character exemplifies the racial ideals of honor, justice, and loyalty.  But you see these antiquated traits as flaws that ended a once-great empire.  They are however useful for earning someone’s trust. 

 

If not typical of his race what about the character is different, and why?

There is nothing wrong with playing a character as a shining paragon example of his people, but if he isn’t, how is he different and what factors in his life have caused this change.  Was he raised in a different environment than typical for his race, or maybe by a culture other than his own?  Is he an outsider, or even a pariah amongst his own race? 

• Devas frequently embrace their destiny as ever-reborn beings anxious to learn and grow with each new incarnation.  Your deva fears death and seeks to avoid his fate, why?  Is it because of his belief that this time he’ll succumb to evil and return as a rakshasa, or has he grown weary seeing that “the more things change the more they stay the same”?
• More than a decade of servitude under the yolk of an oppressive task-master has left your character a grim, brooding, fatalistic halfling.  The typical curious and inquisitive nature of his people thoroughly beaten out of him.
• Is your educated, urban goliath character the product of a big-city upbringing and a well-financed education or just an image he projects to keep others from thinking he’s an ignorant, unrefined savage? 

 

How does the character view other members of his race? 

How the character views his own people can have a dramatic affect on what type of person he is.  Is he embarrassed by his people?  Is he trying to overcome a negative stereotype or perhaps take advantage of a positive one?   Does he hate the things his people stand for and have achieved, or does he strive to embrace their most noble ideals?

• Tieflings are sometimes forced to endure the burden of the negative reputation created by their ancestors.  But your character feels the sting of discrimination everywhere he goes.  Is it because of his infernal heritage or the fact that he’s an insufferable bastard?
• As a member of a disgraced noble house of eladrin your character has suffered at the hands of his brethren.  Has he accepted his lot in life or does his resentment hide stronger feelings of vengeance?
• Half-elves are often portrayed as “torn between two worlds”.  But your character looks at his breeding as the makings of a superior race, encompassing the best of both worlds. 
• Does your warforged character even have a sense of race?  Many worforged tend to replace racial identity with national identity, sometimes as a citizen, often as property.  Is your character struggling to define his identity or is he simply accepting of his lot in life?

 

How does the character view other races in general, both PC and monstrous?

As important as a character’s relationship to his own race, it is often more telling to see how he views the other races of the world.  Does the character harbor any resentment, prejudice, or hatred for a particular race?  On the opposite side of the coin, is the character fascinated by, or enamored with a particular race?  This may simply be a preference for dealing with members of a certain race in business to secretly wishing he was of a different race. 

• Your human character refuses to use any weapons, armor, or equipment not of dwarven design.  Is it his eye for quality craftsmanship or a tribute to his adoptive dwarven father?
• As a slave to hobgoblins your character carries many scars, some physical, most mental and emotional.  Your time under their iron hand has forever changed you.  Does your character now despise all goblinoids, seeking to kill them on sight or has he succumbed to a Stockholm Syndrome-like condition and now will only wear armor and wield weapons of goblinoid design while offering praises to their deities chanted in their native tongue? 
• Any half-breed his bound to have issues with his race.  Your half-orc longs for the affections of a human woman to help him forget about his more bestial side.  Alternatively he might hate the human race that he feels abandoned and never accepted him. 
• The fall of the empires of Arkhosia and Bael Turath is ancient history.  But your dragonborn character simply cannot forgive the tiefling race for their hand in the destruction of your ancestors’ golden age.   

 

Class

In many players’ minds class is the single greatest aspect of a character’s identity.  Not only does class govern the character’s powers, skills, and abilities but it also defines his mechanical role within the party dynamic and oftentimes governs his social role within society.  The following questions are all geared toward fleshing out the character in regard to his class.  A great place to start is with two terms that are relevant to every class but are almost always completely overlooked; role and power source.  Rarely does either of these terms even get committed to the character sheet but they are great starting points for asking yourself what makes your character unique?  Even before you settle on a specific class, both role and power source begin to define the character, so take a minute to ask a few questions regarding each as well as other class-based questions.

 

How did the character come to be a member of his chosen class?

The path that led to his choice of class can be one of the character’s most defining traits.  Some characters may have ended up in a particular class out of necessity, others as the result of a “calling”.  Still others may have worked for years, perhaps even decades to achieve success in their chosen class, while some other character just sort of “ended up” there.  In a previous article I discussed class-based backgrounds in depth.  [Follow this link to view that article.]

• Has your divine character always been a member of the faithful?  Or did he find religion during a low-point in his life?  Perhaps your paladin of The Raven Queen once served the demon lord Orcus.  What events transpired leading your character to redemption in the service of a radically different patron? 
• The warlock class often assumes that a character has intentionally sought out various entities and agreed to pacts with them in order to further their own power.  Is that your character’s story?  Or did the granting power come to you?  Maybe your character is a “victim” in all this.  Someone whose parents offered up their child’s soul in exchange for a boon from an infernal being.  Now you carry the warlock’s “blessing”.  What else might your master want from you? 

 

How did the class’s power source manifest for the character?

No matter what the class’s power source the nature of that source says a lot about the character who wields it.  Someone barely controlling ancient primal energies invokes a much different feel than the scholarly or artistic arcanist.  Did the character spend years in study training to unlock the mysteries of the power source or has it merely been the byproduct of the character’s lifestyle?  Did the character work hard to obtain access to it, or was the power source thrust upon him? 

• A mysterious childhood disease left your character in a month-long coma.  Although the village priest was unable to awaken you, your character did finally come to.  Upon awakening he discovered that he had been “blessed” with psionic powers. 
• Your shaman was a noble-born socialite from a major city.  A freak storm left your character a castaway, the sole survivor of a ship wreak, lost and alone on some mysterious isle.  Over the years he learned to “listen” to the spirits of the isle and grew to command the primal energies of the natural world.  Upon his eventual return to the “civilized” world he finds himself a stranger in a strange land.  Does he seek to recapture his old life or has he forever left it behind. 

 

What does the power source mean to the character and how does he view it?

The answer to this question can have dramatic impact on the character.  Someone who spent years leaning the secrets and subtleties of his arcane power source may view it as a sacred art or while the unwilling host of an aberration’s psionic “gift” may, at best find it an inconvenient nuisance while at worst hold his powers in utter contempt. 

• Your warden’s connection to the primal power source is his religion and guides his actions.  He views his ability to access it as a sacred responsibility and considers himself an emissary of the spirit world consulting “the spirits” before any major decision. 
• While most divine characters have strong opinions about their power source, how does your wizard feel about his?  Is the arcane power source simply a tool to be manipulated; a means to an end?  Or is it a manifestation of an ancient and beautiful art form?  Perhaps your wizard feels as though the application of arcane energy grants him insight into the meaning of the universe, or maybe it’s just a way to bend reality to his will. 

 

Does class role impact the way the character views his allies? Or how he views his enemies?

The defender and leader class roles suggest a character who is more concerned with his allies and their condition while strikers and controllers are clearly more enemy-focused.  Does the character embrace his role within the party or strive to do things “his own way”?

• How does your fighter feel about his role as the party defender?  A paladin might be more than willing to sacrifice his life so that others may live, but your character may be sick and tired of always being the one in the line of fire. 
• Although your warlord character may have the “leader” role, is he in fact the leader of your party?  He may have the tactical skills and combat acumen of a seasoned veteran but his poor social skills and low charisma make him come off more like a drill sergeant.

 

How does the character view others of his chosen class?

A character’s relationship with others who walk a similar path can define a lot about his nature.  A variety of dynamics come to mind from subtle rivalries to all-out conflict with someone who serves an opposing power.  Is the character part of a guild, club, or organization of individuals?  Or was he cast out of such a group?  Does the character have a mentor or master of the same class and what kind of relationship does he have with him?

• Your rogue character may be of the professional adventurer variety and would never even think about stealing from someone.  In fact his time spent working for the local city guard investigating the activities of larcenous rogues and thieves has left him with a desire to bring those scoundrels to justice. 
• The invoker stands out as the one divine class that truly receives his abilities from “on high”, whereas other divine characters usually access their power through faith and devotion.  How has this colored your invoker’s view?  Are clerics and paladins less-favored, even if the follow the same deity?  Worse yet, does your character view them as frauds, con-artists, or even heretics?  

 

Does the character’s class define him, or does he define the class?

To many D&D players certain classes instantly bring to mind a certain look and feel to those characters of that class.  Rangers are stereotypically woodsy scout types while clerics are devout priests.  There is nothing wrong with playing to that but you might also consider redefining the expectation.  Your dual-weapon wielding, furry loin-cloth wearing, Conan inspired hulking warrior might be better built with the rogue class than the fighter or barbarian.  You don’t call it sneak attack, it’s a cleaving blow.  Just re-imagining powers and abilities can give you an entirely new look for an old class without changing any rules or mechanics.

• Your barbarian character is anything but a savage berserker.  He spent years with a remote cabal of Jedi-like monks learning the art of channeling the primal energies of the universe through his physically conditioned body.  Now he taps these energies more as a warrior-mystic than a savage barbarian.
• The fighter is usually thought of as a catch-all warrior class.  Don’t let your character be “just another tank”.  Think about a model for him; is he a former gladiator, or maybe a professional soldier?  Perhaps he was once little more than a common thug or strong-arm man.  How might he act, and view the world if he was once the bodyguard to an important noble?  Maybe the bodyguard of someone who was murdered?  There are a million paths of the warrior, what was yours?

 

These are all just a few ideas to get you thinking about your character in terms that can help you make him more memorable and exciting.  Not only does a well-crafted and memorable character motivate you to keep playing him, but it also motivates your DM to keep crafting stories for him and other players to keep adventuring with him.

 

Remember, successful roleplaying games are a collaborative effort.  Your DM shouldn’t be forced to take on the entire job of being the sole person responsible for an exciting, creative, and rewarding session.  Help him out.  Characters built with lots of detail, interesting stories, and plentiful hooks make a DM’s job that much easier.  And speaking from experience, these types of characters are what bring me (as a DM) back to the table each week and have me excited about creating the best possible stories for them that I can. 

 

That’s it for this time.  Come back next week for part 2 on how to create interesting backgrounds for your character.