LogFAQs > #944303617

shadowsword87 posted...

I honestly have no problem winging a personality, because I tend to be ok making something up, and sticking with it for a long time. While actual improv I'm bad at, using improv in non-improv stuff I'm golden at.

My problem is, when I wing it, I almost invariably wind up regretting my spur-of-the-moment decisions, so I either wind up hating the character in very short order, or I get paralyzed into non-choice as a sort of self-defense mechanism (which can trap me in the loop of "I'll be more proactive when I figure out who this person is" and "I can't figure out who this person is because they never do anything", which then makes me hate the character out of frustration).

Having a solid framework to start with makes it easier to make the important decisions, which in turn means I'm more satisfied with the results of those decisions, which sort of allows me to settle in to the character and come to like them. It starts to make me interested in their story.

It's kind of like the difference between buying an ill-fitting suit off the rack without even looking at the size and trying on a bunch of suits until you find one that mostly fits pretty well and then buying it. Sure, you could tailor the first suit to fit you just as well as the second one, but you're more likely to get what you want and feel more comfortable if you just buy the second one (and you can tailor that one as well, so, you know, bonus).



shadowsword87 posted...

The difference is that I like to wait a bit before putting things in stone, because I'd rather figure out what sort of personality the group needs than just bolt in Another Leader no matter what.

See, I sort of see that as not really being a problem for me. Because pre-establishing a personality for a character isn't the same thing as locking in that character forever.

The key is, when you work out the backstory, you know who the character IS (when you start), and you know who they were and where they come from, but that's not the same thing as who they BECOME. If you're playing in a group where literally everyone is trying to be "GROUP LEADER", you can always allow your character to evolve, accepting in-character that it might be better for them to follow someone else's lead than always push their own agenda. Or, conversely, if you're in a group where literally everyone is terrified of ever speaking to NPCs, your character can evolve into the party spokesperson simply by virtue of realizing no one else is going to do it. But it's harder to know where you're going if you don't know where you've been (at least for me).

Also, it helps that I tend to gravitate to playing support roles/characters anyway. So I'm usually primed going in to be relatively easy-going and group-centric, as opposed to the sorts of "I AM GRIMDARK EMOKID WHO MUST ALWAYS BE THE CENTER OF ATTENTION, LOOK AT MY BLEAK BLACK OUTFIT THAT LOOKS LIKE IT CAME FROM FANTASY HOT TOPIC" characters that your average teenager (or munchkin) tends to make. I'm going to be the Heal Chick or Utility Wizard long before I declare myself the group tactician or spokesperson.

And I do try to gauge what the group needs in advance, and then steer my ideas towards that (which is why I agree Session 0s are awesome). I'm not just OC-wanking out a unique special snowflake who basically HAS to be the center of attention (the sort of silver-haired violet-eyed fairy princess sort of character that certain RP circles used to dread). I don't really make "The entire plot has to revolve around me constantly or my character would leave the group" characters. I try to wedge myself into the nooks and crannies that other people overlooked.

When Nudo was running his game, I pretty much straight up asked him what everyone else was playing so I could do the old "Okay, so the group needs a Thief" trick. He was mostly unhelpful - and that, combined with him saying it was going to be a fairly serious game, is part of why my first character really didn't fit at all.



LinkPizza posted...

I like making a full personality early. The thing is, I can basically have a character evolve overtime into the personality we need... sort of...

Yeah, basically this.

I feel like the key is, you don't want to irrevocably spell out every facet of your personality and intentions. But if you figure out where you came from, a significant reason why you'd be adventuring in the first place, through what sort of lens you see the world (Shadow's hated Alignment-system actually helps here), you develop a hard core around which you can build. Then some embellishment, and if you're feeling frisky, a few barbed hooks for your GM to use against you later, and you start to get a more fully actualized character.

For me, it's the difference between this:

"Chaotic Neutral Female Human Shadow Sorcerer with the Inheritor Background".

And this:

"The young woman (barely more than a girl) who stands before you stares back at you with dark, shadowed eyes. Her jet-black hair hangs in somewhat unkempt strands, framing her pale, thin face.

When you question her about her background, she responds in a quiet yet unexpectedly strong voice. She tells you of her parents, who were adventurers themselves many years ago. And then she tells you of how her wizard mother was slain in battle and revived through a priest's magic - but what no one knew at the time was that her mother was pregnant. Having to unexpectedly restore two lives instead of one, the spell didn't quite work - she herself was left forever touched by Death's influence, while her mother slowly weakened and died after giving birth. Her father grew distant and aloof, his heart dying with his beloved wife, until he too passed away some years later. Now orphaned at the age of 7, she likely would have died herself, had she not been taken in by an eccentric "uncle" (one of her parents' former adventuring allies), who retired to run a roadside inn halfway between Daggerford and Waterdeep, where he raised her as if she was his own blood.

Raised on tales of adventure told to her by her "aunt" (a traveling bard, and another former companion of her parents) that were tempered by her uncle's cynical way of seeing the world, she grew up with fantasies of eventually traveling herself - perhaps to better understand the parents she never really knew by following in their footsteps. This desire was only bolstered when she began to develop arcane powers of her own, which came dark and unbidden without formal training or study. Upon reaching adulthood, her uncle gave her the same staff her mother once wielded, a powerful relic the group had discovered on one of their adventures. It was that very day that she set out, confident in her ability to defend herself, and hopeful for what she might find waiting out there in the wider world.

You, of course, already know the story of how she came to be part of your group, and of her willingness to help you achieve your own goals. It is her hope that in helping you to seek your destiny, she will hopefully find her own as well."

Basically, the sort of character biographies they used to have in games like Baldur's Gate, only with a bit more embellishment:

http://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Minsc#Biography
---

"Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76
"POwned again." --- blight family