Beginner's Tips on Roleplaying a Character (By a beginner)

A Whole New World

Roleplaying games are great. They give us the ability to disappear into fantastical worlds of magic and danger, or planets of aliens and, well, more danger. But when you first start off these games it can be overwhelming. Each game system has its own set of rules to learn, spells and abilities to keep track of, and often a multitude of different dice.

With all this to keep track of, sometimes it can be difficult to keep up the Role aspect of roleplaying. So here are my beginner’s tips to create characters that both fit the game archetypes and are easy enough to imagine.

First Games

Plagiarise

I know, dirty dirty word. But we aren’t talking about writing a film or book here.

For your first games I would take an existing character that you love and implant them in the game system. Now it would be tough to have Judge Dredd or Batman in D&D, but not their personality. So you have a character that has a strict sense of right and wrong. One more Lawful than the other in the two examples here, but it is a jump off point.

[caption id="attachment_474" width="640"] Or even PIRATE BATMAN![/caption]

You already have seen enough stories and scenes to make a guess on their actions. You even have a cool gravelly voice to put on if you roleplay like that.

I would change up their role however. So imagine, if you could, Batman but as a Wizard. Less hand to hand fighting, but keeping that sense of justice and use of fear. In game it may influence you to use the more psychological spells, or become a spell based bounty hunter. That would be cool.

Of course the next step is to slightly change them. Some platforms make this easier than others. In my Play by Post WFRP game, Lukasz is based on Captain America. This may seem strange at first if you read the game play. He says and tries to do the right thing at all times. But given that I can write out his thoughts, it is all shown to be a charade. Whereas Steve Rogers lives and breathes his actions, Lukasz is doing it all for his selfish glory. He is desperate to be liked. Both he and Captain may save a child from a building, but Lukasz would be upset if he wasn’t praised afterwards.

Before you know it your character will evolve. Even if it isn’t a big in game thing (losing an arm will change up the character whether you like it or not), your character will slowly morph into the PC you want to play.

Building Your Character

Next Steps

Once you have wet your feet, or don’t want to use an existing character, it is time to try and make your first original character.

This will depend a little on your character’s class and race in the game system. You’ll have to tie the class into the background, with some needing a bit more development than others. For example, a wizard class would need the explanation of where his spellcasting ability came from.

A game that has randomised stats/characteristics can spark off some imagination too. All it takes is filling in the gaps and reasoning for the stats. A high weapon skill could mean that the character was a natural fighter in their youth. A high intelligence would be a top of the class student.
Lukasz rolled low on toughness and charisma. So in the background he was injured as a child, and is very vain.

Appearance

What do they look like? How old are they?

After deciding or rolling the race/species, the first place I start is the appearance.

• How old are they?


• What is their hair and eye colour?


• Do they have any scars or tattoos?


• What are they called?

For our example we will have a character named Jacob.

Jacob is a 23 year old human. He has brown hair and brown eyes, with a scar on his left eyebrow. He is a fighter (DnD class)

Give them a home life

Try not to go for the clichéd dead parents, you are better than this.

• How is your character’s relationship with their parents


• Do they have siblings? How do they get on? Sibling rivalry is a great motivator


• Are they a wealthy family?


• What do they do for a job?

These are the corner pieces of the character jigsaw. From these simple questions the rest is easily built upon. For each question you answer, ask why.

Example:

How is your character’s relationship with their parents?
Jacob loves his mother but dislikes his Dad
Why? His Dad is violent

Do they have siblings?
Jacob has one brother and two younger sisters. His brother joined the army; his sisters are school age
How do they get on?
Jacob looks up to his brother, but resents him for leaving the family. His sisters are practically raised by Jacob.

Are they a wealthy family?
They aren’t poor, but are comfortable. Dad works as a market trader, Mum is a housewife. Jacob contributes how he can by doing odd jobs.

What job does he have?
Jacob does odd jobs, but is often a rat catcher at the local tavern

So from that we have a frame:

Jacob is a young man living at home with his parents and two younger sisters. He has an older brother that is in the army. Jacob is proud of him, but is also resentful as he believes his brother abandoned the family. Jacob’s Dad is a violent man. Often he beats them when he gets home from working on the market. Jacob often sees his father at the tavern when he helps rat catching in the cellar.

We can deduce that he will look after younger people, has a strong sense of familial duty, can trap, and that he probably hates bullies.

Long and Short term goals

What does your character want in life?
This is split into long and short term goals as they can be massively different.

A short term goal would be earning £100. A long term may be saving £10,000

Examples of short term goals:

• Buy a new sword


• Travel to the big city


• Pass a school test

Example of long term goals:

• Graduate from a Sword Mastery school


• Start a new life in a big city


• Become a teacher

For our sample character, I see his goals being tied into his class as a fighter.

Jacob’s short term ambitions are to train in swordplay, with a long term goal to win a sword fighting competition.

The call to adventure

Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces details the standard cycle of adventure stories. The third section of this is the ‘Call To Adventure’. The Hero learns that they must leave the known world behind and travel into the land of adventure.

The Hero must then decide how to answer the Call:

• Refusal of the Call: The character refuses it, often to then get forced into it.
  Think Luke Skywalker refusing to go with Obi-Wan, until his Auntie and Uncle are killed


• Jumped at the Call: The character enthusiastically leaves to go on the adventure.
  The MCU version of Spider-Man is this. He jumps at the chance to be the hero.

Now the majority of RPGs will start after the character jumped at the opportunity.

What would make your character leave the relative comfort of the status quo? What will push them on that first step to adventure?

My DnD gnome, Shia, jumped at the call. It was to prove himself to his family. As the middle child he was often overlooked. Nothing was keeping him from leaving.

From the earlier section, Jacob has both a reason to leave on adventure (his Dad, admiration of brother), but also a reason to stay (his mum and sisters). So what are his goals?

Jacob longs to get away from his abusive Dad, but is torn between leaving and looking after his family.

So what will be the inciting incident to get him to leave?

Escaping a military draft?
Runs away with his family, but is separated?
He is on a job in another town and is arrested? (Forceful call to action)

While on a job in a different town he was arrested in a case of mistaken identity. He ends up in a prison cart on the way to the nearest big City. While he is there, the actual criminal is apprehended. He is released, but penniless and far from home.

Flaws

Flaws are important in your character, and they are great for a DM to add to campaigns. My WFRP character is vain and is scared of bears. I tied both into his background, explaining the bear thing with an incident as a child.

Indiana Jones is afraid of snakes.
Batman is fearful that his family/friends will be killed

Being extremely angry or shy could be a flaw.

Flaws could also be vices. Old standards are drink and drugs, but maybe your wizard is a glutton.

Jacob doesn’t drink; he has seen the damage it has done to his family. However he has become extremely preachy about this. He is known on occasion to lecture people in tavern, much to the chagrin of others.

With this we have a basic overview of our character.

Jacob is a 23 year old human. He has brown hair and brown eyes, with a scar on his left eyebrow. He is a fighter (DnD class). He lives at home with his parents and two younger sisters. He has an older brother that is in the army. Jacob is proud of him, but is also resentful as he believes his brother abandoned the family. Their Dad is a violent man. Often he beats them when he gets home from working on the market. Jacob often sees his father at the tavern when he helps rat catching in the cellar.

Jacob longs to get away from his abusive Dad, but is torn between leaving and looking after his family. Jacob doesn’t drink; he has seen the damage it has done to his family. However he has become extremely preachy about this. He is known on occasion to lecture people in tavern, much to the chagrin of others.

Jacob loves sword fighting. His goal is to train in swordplay and to eventually win a sword fighting competition.

While on a job in a different town he was arrested in a case of mistaken identity. He ends up in a prison cart on the way to the nearest big City. While he is there, the actual criminal is apprehended. He is released, but penniless and far from home.

Not a bad little background overall. The next step is to learn how to roleplay as the character.

Roleplaying

Separating player and character

One thing about roleplaying is separating what you as a player know, against what your character knows. As a character you may know that Orc Warlord Uglud the Masher has an army in the area, but Clarence the Bard wouldn’t. Clarence would have to ask around for information.

Now this separation can be tricky when first starting out, but in time it is easy to “forget” that information. Some DMs will purposely hide this information from one or more players, which may be helpful at your gaming table.

Game System

Another thing to remember is that your character won’t know that he only has a 1 in 3 chance of making the jump to save the burning orphanage. Your hero will attempt that jump, if it is in their nature. This can be where the old DnD alignment chart comes in. I will link it here, but an easy way to look at it is whether your character is selfish or selfless, and if they veer towards good morals or bad. Again, these can be open to interpretation. Stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving child may not be ‘lawful’, but it can certainly be seen as ‘good’.

Remember your goals

Your character has their needs and wants. What are they doing to work towards them? Jacob helping an Old Man to market won’t directly help him further in his sword fighting, but the two coins he gets as payment could go towards swordplay lessons.

Incorporate the other players in a positive way

If another player is adamant on Greebo the Half-Orc charging headfirst at a dragon, because that seems characterful, don’t discourage it. You character may tell their character not to do it, but you as a player shouldn’t stop any other player from carrying out a characterful act.

Instead, think of what your character would do:

Harkin the Dwarf watches Greebo charging towards the dragon. Shaking his head, he readies his axe, and charges as fast as his stumpy legs will take him. Onwards towards the scaly beast.

Now Harkin and Greebo may die because of this. But would a proud Dwarf really let a half-orc take the glory?

Don’t be too stubborn

So your party has been hired by a corrupt King to take out a troll cave. He has promised you plenty of riches. But your character is anti-establishment. He wouldn’t normally help royalty.

You as a player need to give him a reason.

Your character could agree to help, while secretly planning on using the money to fund a coup.
They could be scouting the castle for weak points.

Find a reason for your character to help further the story.

Do NOT get too hung up on the rules

The Dungeon/Games Master’s word is final. I know the wording there seems stern, it is meant to be. Roleplaying games are first and foremost storytelling games. If the DM decides that it would be cooler if the castle walls are un-scalable, then don’t argue that your massively high dexterity levels would let you do it. Accept the ruling and move on.

If you really want an explanation, ask after the game in a polite manner.

Of course, they aren’t infallible. Perhaps you could suggest that because of your character’s background as a gymnast that you roll an agility based test to avoid an axe strike, instead of some form of weapon skill. But suggest, never demand.

Bringing it all together

To bring it all together, here are some scenarios. Going off your character’s background and nature, how would they deal…

• …with a thief that has just robbed a wealthy but cruel man?


• …with being outnumbered by two orcs?


• …if they were given the task to hunt down an unhappy man that has left his wife?

Run through each of these and other scenarios, and try to get into the mentality of your character.
Why not pick one of your favourite films and honestly decide what your character would do.
Maybe Clarence the Bard couldn’t have stopped the terrorists at Nakatomi Plaza, but he could have distracted them for long enough until the reinforcements arrived.

It will help with your gaming as well as being really fun!

Remember it is a game

Finally, enjoy it. It is a game. The people you play with have given up their time to pay this game with you, respect that.

The story might now go exactly as you thought.
The dice definitely won’t.

Don’t take it so seriously that it is no longer fun. That’s what your job is for!



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