Character creation

This article is about customizable game characters. For the process of designing fictional characters, see Characterization.

Polyhedral dice and a character sheet

Character creation (also character generation / character design) is the process of defining a player character in a role-playing game. The result of character creation is a direct characterization that is recorded on a character sheet. This may include a representation of the character's physical, mental, psychological, and social attributes and skills in terms of the specific game's mechanics. It may also include informal descriptions of the character's physical appearance, personality, personal back-story ("background"), and possessions. Games with a fantasy setting may include traits such as race, class, or species. Character creation is the first step taken by the players (as opposed to the gamemaster) in preparation for a game.

Character advancement

Character advancement refers to the improvement of a character's statistics later in the game. The player modifies existing statistics and adds new traits, usually by spending experience points or gaining a new experience level. Character advancement typically uses similar rules as character creation. Changes during character advancement are incremental.

Making decisions

The process of creating a character requires making decisions about the character's attributes and skills. Each game includes its own procedures for making these decisions.

Prescription

The decision may be predetermined by the rules. This may be according to a formula or a table that maps one or more predetermined statistics to a specific choice for another.

The decision may be made by the game master prior to character creation.

Pre-generated options

Some games and campaign settings offer pre-generated character options for beginners or players who prefer to start playing more quickly.

Random choice

Random choices are made by rolling dice and either using the result directly or looking it up in a table, depending on the decision that is to be made. A random generation system allows the full range of values to be generated for each statistic, leading to diversity among newly generated characters. However, players have little control over the scores.

For example, in some editions of Dungeons & Dragons the player rolls 4d6 and adds the highest three numbers to generate an ability score (attribute value) from 3 to 18. In the first editions of the Stormbringer role playing game, the character's race and class both are determined by rolling 1d100 and looking up the result in the appropriate table.

Player's choice

The player makes decisions within defined restrictions. These restrictions may allow players to distribute a number of character points among various statistics. In a point distribution system, higher scores cost more points per level than lower ones, and costs may vary between statistics within a category. Usually, there is an upper and lower limit for each score. Additional constraints may apply, depending on the game system.

Examples for systems that use point distribution to determine statistics are the Hero System (including its predecessor Champions), GURPS, the World of Darkness series, and the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game with its unusual auction system. Some Dungeons & Dragons editions also have an optional point buy method for determining ability scores.

Narrative generation

As used for example in the Traveller, Empire of the Petal Throne and Harnmaster RPGs or some cRPGs such as Mount & Blade and Darklands, this technique models a character's life prior to becoming an active adventurer. The player chooses family origin then makes further decisions at specific life "checkpoints" such as early education, young adulthood, or "tours of duty" in various careers. Each stage applies modifiers and gives the character the opportunity to develop skills, advantages, and possessions, or to suffer setbacks and disadvantages. In some cases, a player may run through repeated career cycles to sacrifice character youth for additional skills, experience and material advancement. Levels of randomization and player agency vary depending on the specific system.

Determining numerical values

Determining numerical values comprises several steps that are not always distinct:

1. (a) Obtain a set of values and (b) select the statistics to assign them to
2. Assign the values to the statistics
3. Adjust scores by trading statistics' levels.

Example: In Castle Falkenstein, abilities are the only type of statistic. Each player gets the same pre-defined set of scores (1a) and can freely choose (1b) which abilities to assign them to (2). In addition, higher scores can be bought by balancing them with a number of low scores (3).

Obtaining and assigning values

Character creation screen in S.C.O.U.R.G.E.: Heroes of Lesser Renown

Games that don't use point distribution to determine all statistic values use different methods for different types of statistic. For instance, there may be a few attributes with an assigned value each, but a large number of customizable skills. Here are some examples of different methods:

• To determine attribute values in Basic Dungeons & Dragons, Marvel Super Heroes, or Stormbringer 3rd edition, the player rolls once (1a) for each attribute (1b) and must use whatever result occurred on the dice for that statistic (2).
• D&D 3.5 allows the player to first randomly generate a number of values (1a) and then assign (2) each attribute one of them (1b).
• For determining skill values, Stormbringer 3rd edition combines two methods. Some of them (1b) are predetermined (1a, 2) by the character's race and randomly chosen profession. The player then selects a randomly determined number of additional skills (1b) and rolls dice (1a) to determine starting values for them (2).

Adjusting scores

Some creation systems use a mix of point-distribution and random generation; most common among these are variant rules that allow, for instance, the alteration of the initially random stats by taking a reduction of one trait in order to increase another.

Another form of adjustment are racial or occupational ("class") modifiers. In many games, certain statistics are slightly increased or decreased depending on the character's race and sometimes profession. In Dungeons & Dragons, for example, non-human races typically increase one ability score by two (on a scale of 3 to 18) while another is lowered by the same amount. In Stormbringer 3rd edition, nearly all nationalities (subraces) cause adjustments of some or all attribute scores by an amount that is usually randomly determined and has a range of up to two-thirds of an attribute's initial value. In point-distribution systems, these modifiers generally contribute to a race's "point cost", while in other systems, it is up to the race's designer to balance different races against each other (if this is desired).

Templates and classes

Class selection screen in Falcon's Eye

To speed up and simplify the character creation process, many games use character templates. These are sample characters representing genre-typical archetypes. Templates can be completely ready-made or only define the statistics necessary for a character to fill a particular occupation or dramatic role. For instance, a thief should know how to move quietly, pick locks, disarm traps, and climb walls.

In some games, these templates are only an optional character creation aid that has no prescribed effect on the rest of the game. They can be flexibly modified according to the game's character creation rules or ignored altogether. This is generally the case in games that try to give the player as much control over the character creation process as possible. (Examples are Shadowrun or GURPS.)

Other games use templates as a mandatory tool to provide direction and limitations to character creation and development. This character class concept was introduced by Dungeons & Dragons. It is now used in all d20 System games and has been adopted by many others, such as Palladium Books' Megaversal system.

External links

• Building Better Characters column on RPGnet