Sometimes the hardest part of playing a table top role playing game (TTRPG) is making decisions. “What would my character do in this situation?” or “What my cleric heal that person or attack the enemy standing neat him?”
Both are legitimate questions and they are things that you should think about before your turn in the game.
This helps keep the game going and the immersion working for everyone involved. I’m here to say that sometimes it ok to slow down and think a little bit about these things. What would your character do?
This is where a back story, personality traits, ideals, bonds and flaws come in handy. By filling out this information you are better prepared to see what your character would actually do in most situations. You
can’t foresee everything that may happen though. However, with the previous information filled in, you’ll have better idea of what you’re doing.
Back Story – This tells the tale of your character and gives you an idea about how you got to where you are in life. I like giving my characters at least a little bit of a back story before the game begins. It’s also ok if you don’t know 100% about what they went through to get where they are now. A good back story will give a dungeon master (DM) an idea of what might effect your character and draw them more into the adventure.
Personality Traits – Ah yes, the thing that most D&D players don’t fill out. It’s true you don’t have to fill this section out to create a character, but it doesn’t hurt and it helps make a more well rounded character. Having personality traits can help lead your character when you need help figuring out what to do next.
Ideals – This describes what your character holds themselves to. Whether it be “Be a better person” or “I want to be a rich person!”. Bother are ideals that you can follow as your character. It doesn’t matter what path you choose, as long as you choose one. This can absolutely tell you what your character would do in a given situation. Maybe they’d work towards making things better for their common man, or maybe they’d look to make money any way they can.
Bonds – Bond talk about things from your past that you hold onto. This can be your parents and how they treated you to having an imaginary friend from your youth that’s still with you. This isn’t as important in my opinion. This can be described in your back story.
Flaws – I love this section. Nobody is perfect. Everyone has some type of flaw. Maybe you love money a little too much. Maybe you are frightened by spiders. Oh! Perhaps you raised yourself and as such don’t have the best manners. All theses are great suggestions for flaws.
Is this everything you should think about when you are creating your character? No way. There’s so many things that go into creating a character. But these will be a start to help you make decisions. We’ve only just skimmed the surface. I think that creating a back story and such will be another article. It makes a lot of sense to go there next.