Character Creation, part two

(Previous post here)

Now you have have some (more or less) randomly generated numbers. You are ready to start building your character's basic attributes.

More or less random numbers

Get another piece of paper and right down these  six TLAs:

Weird three letter acronyms

STR  (Strenght) This denotes how much your character can carry and (obviously) how much physical strength they have.

DEX (Dexterity) refers to reflexes, balance, and flexibility. A Cirque du Soliel performer would have a DEX of 18 (the highest number you can get). An average person would be around 9.

CON (Constitution) tells you how much stamina this imaginary person has. It includes their ability to recover from stress or injury.

INT (Intelligence) is a measure of learning and reasoning skill. An example of intelligence in action is how quickly this character learns languages.

WIS (Wisdom) is different from intelligence in that it denotes a person's willpower, awareness, common sense, and intuition.

CHA (Charisma) refers to the ability to lead, their personality, appearance, and skill at diplomacy.


Then place those random numbers randomly on your characteristics.

This character is moderately strong, pretty flexible, smart enough to get into trouble, and likes to lead.

For a person with this kind of dexterity, I would most likely make them a cat-burglar in training, or perhaps a business owner who likes to tumble in their free time.

See how you can get a wide variety of ideas from six simple attributes?

Roll some dice and have some fun! That's why we write, after all. :)

Character Creation

I'm always looking for ways to stimulate my brain. This past weekend, I got a wonderful shot of creativity from an unexpected source.

For the first time in nearly twenty years, I joined a game based on Dungeons and Dragons. Yep, that old role playing game (RPG) that we used to fear would lead the youth of our nation into devil worship.

In actuality, RPGs are an adventure in shared, co-operative story telling. Any author who has co-written a story can tell of the joys of creating a world and quirky characters with another person. I got to have that fun with seven other bright, intelligent, fun people.

Every story starts with a character or eight. Someone with various strengths and weaknesses who gets challenged to push herself. How she reacts to those challenges depend a great deal on her personality traits. Fortunately, RPGs give you a wonderful way to discover those personalities.

Of course, we usually use archetypes (here) or GMC (here). But why not try some thing a little koo-koo crazy?

First, get yourself four six sided dice.

Then, roll your dice.

Remove the lowest number from the cluster.

Add up the remaining dice and write that number down. Do that six times.

Next time - what to do with those numbers!