Rpg Character Body Drawing Template

Steve is the co-creator of QAGS, Hobomancer, and many other RPGs from Hex Games.

The Paradigm Nine, Paradigm City's most mostly adequate super-heroes!

Joshua LH Burnett (used with permission)

A Guide to Creating Strong RPG Characters

Before you can start playing a office-playing game (RPG), everyone but the game master (GM) needs a character (as well known as a player character, or PC). The PCs are the primary characters of the story you and your friends volition be telling as the game unfolds. In add-on to serving as your proxy in the game globe, your character serves as your interface with the game'southward rules organization.

Just like dissimilar chess pieces tin move in different directions on the lath, unlike characters in an RPG have different abilities and limitations. Some of these are defined purely by the mechanics of the game system; others are tied to narrative goals of the players and dramatic needs of the story. The balance betwixt rules and story varies according to game organization and grouping preferences, but all RPG characters are defined by a combination of narrative elements and game stats. Game stats and important narrative elements for a PC are recorded on a slice of paper (or in a figurer file) chosen a character canvas.

In the early on days of gaming, when characters functioned more as playing pieces than fully-realized fictional characters, and when near game systems had very complex character stats, players often made their characters in isolation before the group got together for the first game session. Present, at that place is a lot more focus on story and most modern games recommend that the players go together to create characters. This gathering is sometimes called "session zero." Making graphic symbol cosmos a group activity provides iii major benefits:

• Brainstorming: Brainstorming is an important part of character cosmos, and brainstorming always works better when you take other people to bounce your ideas off of. It's a lot better to detect out that in that location's a terrible flaw in your character idea now than afterward you've spent a lot of fourth dimension on it. Talking through your graphic symbol concept with other players tin assist yous spot and ready bad ideas and better upon practiced ones.
• Coherence: Since the players know what kinds of characters the other players are making, it leads to a more than balanced and coherent PC group (likewise commonly referred to every bit a "party"). If everyone makes their grapheme in isolation, the party may end up with repetitive characters (a super-hero team with nothing but grim loner vigilantes) or with nobody to fill an important role (a group of infinite pirates, none of whom know how to fly a ship). If anybody's together during character creation, you tin make certain all the necessary roles are filed and none of the character concepts overlap too desperately.
• Connections: Every bit players build their characters, they can build connections between the PCs. For example, if Sparky is taking karate classes and Luke runs a dojo, it makes sense for Luke to be Sparky's karate instructor. If Jesse and Bianca were both wronged past an evil corporation, making it the same corporation gives them a common enemy. These bonds can help provide the characters with a shared history that helps explain why they stick together, give them a mutual goal, and generate lots of story ideas.

5 Necessary Steps for Character Cosmos

Session zero usually begins with a brief summary or word of the game'due south setting, system, and premise. Special attention should exist paid to details that volition impact character creation, such as allowed or restricted character types or whether any of the game rules will be ignored, changed, or replaced by house rules. Once all the players sympathize what'southward going on, they can begin brainstorming their characters, hopefully with lots of group give-and-take that results in better and more interconnected characters.

The procedure of character creation can exist broken downwardly into five basic steps:

• Determine on a graphic symbol concept
• Ascertain your graphic symbol's part in the political party
• Create a character sketch
• Make up one's mind your character's game stats
• Add together some details to bring the character to life

You don't have to do these steps in the lodge given here, or even end one stride before moving on to another. Graphic symbol concept is usually the starting bespeak, but in some games (especially older ones) stats are generated randomly, so you might not know which concepts will work for the character until you've rolled some die. The order given here is simply the one that I've found most helpful for walking new players through the character creation process. Once you've got the hang of it, practice things in whatsoever gild feels right to you.

Creating a Character Concept

A character concept is a brief summary of the character, usually just a few words. It's how the character would be described in the dramatis personae of a Shakespeare play or the trailer for a movie. Character concepts typically consist of a job or genre archetype and a few descriptive words that distinguish the graphic symbol from others with the same job or genre archetype. Here are a few examples:

• Scoundrel with a heart of gold
• Cop on the edge
• Impulsive starship helm
• Prissy elf who thinks he's better than everybody else
• Wise-cracking teenage super-hero

By their very nature, character concepts are a fiddling cliched, merely that's kind of the point. They're a starting bespeak from which to build the character, so they should exist simple and easily-understood. You'll add the nuances equally yous build and eventually play the character. Without a strong concept, you run the risk of ending up with an incoherent pile of cool abilities, traits, and plot hooks rather than a fully-realized graphic symbol that y'all and the other players can identify with.

Character Role

While your graphic symbol is one of the heroes of the story, he's not the simply only hero of the story. The story is about a group of people, and then you demand to accept an idea of how your character will fit into that group. Peculiarly if your concept is based on a standard genre archetype, your office will often be obvious: wizards cast spells, hard-boiled detectives solve mysteries, and cops on the edge shoot lots of people.

Every bit long every bit the party'southward likely to get into situations where spells demand to be bandage, mysteries need to exist solved, and people demand to get shot, the others will probably keep your character around for purely commonsensical purposes. If your character's usefulness isn't so readily apparent, you'll need some idea of why the others proceed him effectually.

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It may exist because the character serves a purpose that isn't based on his profession or skill gear up (the seemingly useless slacker is the son of a wealthy banker and the remainder of the political party can sponge off of daddy'southward credit cards) or because he has a personal human relationship with one of the other characters (the warrior isn't going to go out his little brother behind for the orcs to capture, no affair how useless the kid is). Hopefully, you and the other players already have a general idea of what kind of situations the characters volition exist getting into. If non, don't exist agape to inquire your GM for advice about how to make sure your character volition fit the party and the plot.

When thinking virtually your role, it'due south all-time to avert roles like "political party leader" that rely on the consent of the other players, even if your character concept suggests that your graphic symbol volition fit well into a item office. Only because you're the highest-ranking officer doesn't hateful the others in the grouping will listen to you, especially if yous find yourself in a situation where the control construction that gave you the rank isn't bankroll you upwards. In one case you start playing, the group dynamics volition develop naturally, often thrusting characters into roles the thespian never expected. For at present, focus on making certain the other characters volition have a reason to continue you around.

Character Sketch

The character sketch is a more detailed expansion of the character concept. If you call up of the character concept equally how you lot would depict the character to a fellow member of the story's potential audience, the grapheme sketch is how you'd describe the grapheme to an author who's writing a story about the character or an actor who's been bandage in the role.

The character can comprise background information, notes about the character's personality, information about the character's friends and acquaintances, appearance, goals, fears, dreams, and pretty much annihilation else that will requite you a better thought of what the character is like and how he fits into the game setting.

Some players start out with a very bones graphic symbol sketch and make full in the details as the story unfolds. Others put a lot of time into writing elaborate backgrounds and figuring out everything there is to know almost the graphic symbol. Most players autumn somewhere in between.

When you're working on your graphic symbol sketch, keep in listen that this information is prologue. While it's neat to give the grapheme an interesting groundwork--specially if it provides plot hooks (enemies, goals, and unfinished business, for example) that the GM can use during the game--y'all don't want the most interesting parts of your character'southward life to be in the past.

Graphic symbol Stats

Stats are the game rules that govern your character. They are used to draw the character'south abilities, disadvantages, and resource and to assistance determine how constructive the character is at certain activities within the game, like shooting a bad guy or finding clues at a crime scene. The specific stats used to depict a character, how they're determined, and the rating systems used to define the power of a particular trait vary from system to system, but at that place are a few general types of stats that appear in many dissimilar games.

• Ability Scores or Attributes typically define the character's natural abilities and aptitudes such equally wellness, intelligence, or charisma. Power scores are often used as "default" scores for actions in which the grapheme has no specific training, or as base rolls to which dice or bonuses from more than specific traits are added. The names and number of ability scores vary from game organization to game system. For example, QAGS has 3 attributes (Body, Encephalon, and Nerve), while Dungeons & Dragons has six (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma).
• Graphic symbol Classes, also commonly called Archetypes or Templates, are a collection of traits (skills, special abilities, drawbacks, starting equipment, etc.) based around the character's profession or genre archetype. Some games define character classes very strictly, others allow players a variety of options to choose from. Character classes were extremely mutual in early RPGs, but have generally been eliminated in favor of more a la menu systems in more mod games. In games where non-human characters are permitted, players may also choose racial packages that give them additional abilities and drawbacks.
• Skills and Special Abilities, which go past a number of names, draw specific training, noesis, or powers possessed by the graphic symbol. They can include anything from "17th Century literature" to "heed reading," depending on the nature of the game. Some game systems require the player to choose these traits from a pre-existing list, others permit the actor to make up any skill or special ability appropriate to the genre.

Other traits vary considerably from system to system and can include stats that define the character's flaws, resources, personal relationships, reputation, moral and ethical views, and merely about annihilation else that might be subject field to a die roll.

When you're generating the stats for your character, at that place are two important thing to go on in listen. The first is to choose stats that make sense for the grapheme you're trying to create, non just stats that sound absurd. Make certain the grapheme has the abilities required to do his job, and make sure you know how the character came by any traits that are unexpected for the graphic symbol type.

The other is to make sure that you have a articulate agreement of what the stats hateful and how they piece of work, and that your understanding of the rules meshes with the GM's understanding of the rules. If you lot're not sure how something works or the rules are ambiguous, talk to the GM and brand sure everyone's on the same page.

Characters for Laser Ponies

Hex Games

Finishing Touches

The last stride in character creation is to tie everything together and add a few details. This is more often than not a matter of building upon and expanding what you already know most the graphic symbol. This is a proficient time to describe the character and think nearly how you program to role-play him. What does he look similar? How does he dress? What kind of attitude does he projection? Does he have an accent or distinctive speaking fashion?

One way to get a better grasp of what a character is like is to imagine what actor would play him if the game were made into a movie. A spaceship captain played by Neil Patrick Harris is going to be a very dissimilar character than a spaceship captain played by Clive Owen, so deciding WWPHITM? (Who Would Play Him/Her In The Movie?) is a good way to get a amend ide of what the character is like. The WWPHIM? also provides a reference for how the character volition react to situations that arise during the game, since you can model your responses on characters the actor has played.

If you haven't already done so, give your character a name. Try to brand it something cool that fits the genre and setting. Remember, your graphic symbol is a hero, and so he needs a heroic name. Unless you lot're playing game with a comedic or lightheaded tone, it's best to avert punny or joke names. The joke volition get erstwhile really fast, and in one case the novelty wears off the dumb proper name will practise cypher except detract from scenes that crave a more than serious tone.

One time y'all've got a solid idea of who your character is, get over the details with your GM to make sure in that location are no bug or missing pieces. If yous want specific details from your character background to be a office of the story once the game begins, talk to the GM and allow her know what subplots, supporting characters, and other character-specific details you'd similar to run into during the game.

Most GMs welcome ideas from the players (it makes their job easier), but aren't psychic, so if you want specific character elements to appear in the game, you have to allow the GM know. Only remember that your grapheme is but one of the protagonists, so don't effort to introduce character arcs so big that they'll take over the story and plow the other PCs into your graphic symbol's sidekicks. One time everyone has a grapheme, you're finally ready to start playing the game.

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© 2015 Steve Johnson

wellsadow1956.blogspot.com

Source: https://hobbylark.com/tabletop-gaming/Creating-Characters-for-Role-Playing-Games

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