S1E1 – The Quest: Character Creation

Published on by Jeff

Building Your Concept

Ego Types

The Innocent

Motto: Free to be you and me
Core desire: to get to paradise
Goal: to be happy
Greatest fear: to be punished for doing something bad or wrong
Strategy: to do things right
Weakness: boring for all their naive innocence
Talent: faith and optimism
The Innocent is also known as: Utopian, traditionalist, naive, mystic, saint, romantic, dreamer.

The Orphan/Regular Guy or Gal

Motto: All men and women are created equal
Core Desire: connecting with others
Goal: to belong
Greatest fear: to be left out or to stand out from the crowd
Strategy: develop ordinary solid virtues, be down to earth, the common touch
Weakness: losing one’s own self in an effort to blend in or for the sake of superficial relationships
Talent: realism, empathy, lack of pretense
The Regular Person is also known as: The good old boy, everyman, the person next door, the realist, the working stiff, the solid citizen, the good neighbor, the silent majority.

The Hero

Motto: Where there’s a will, there’s a way
Core desire: to prove one’s worth through courageous acts
Goal: expert mastery in a way that improves the world
Greatest fear: weakness, vulnerability, being a “chicken”
Strategy: to be as strong and competent as possible
Weakness: arrogance, always needing another battle to fight
Talent: competence and courage
The Hero is also known as: The warrior, crusader, rescuer, superhero, the soldier, dragon slayer, the winner and the team player.

The Caregiver

Motto: Love your neighbour as yourself
Core desire: to protect and care for others
Goal: to help others
Greatest fear: selfishness and ingratitude
Strategy: doing things for others
Weakness: martyrdom and being exploited
Talent: compassion, generosity
The Caregiver is also known as: The saint, altruist, parent, helper, supporter.

The Soul Types

The Explorer

Motto: Don’t fence me in
Core desire: the freedom to find out who you are through exploring the world
Goal: to experience a better, more authentic, more fulfilling life
Biggest fear: getting trapped, conformity, and inner emptiness
Strategy: journey, seeking out and experiencing new things, escape from boredom
Weakness: aimless wandering, becoming a misfit
Talent: autonomy, ambition, being true to one’s soul
The explorer is also known as: The seeker, iconoclast, wanderer, individualist, pilgrim.

The Rebel

Motto: Rules are made to be broken
Core desire: revenge or revolution
Goal: to overturn what isn’t working
Greatest fear: to be powerless or ineffectual
Strategy: disrupt, destroy, or shock
Weakness: crossing over to the dark side, crime
Talent: outrageousness, radical freedom
The Outlaw is also known as: The rebel, revolutionary, wild man, the misfit, or iconoclast.

The Lover

Motto: You’re the only one
Core desire: intimacy and experience
Goal: being in a relationship with the people, work and surroundings they love
Greatest fear: being alone, a wallflower, unwanted, unloved
Strategy: to become more and more physically and emotionally attractive
Weakness: outward-directed desire to please others at risk of losing own identity
Talent: passion, gratitude, appreciation, and commitment
The Lover is also known as: The partner, friend, intimate, enthusiast, sensualist, spouse, team-builder.

The Creator

Motto: If you can imagine it, it can be done
Core desire: to create things of enduring value
Goal: to realize a vision
Greatest fear: mediocre vision or execution
Strategy: develop artistic control and skill
Task: to create culture, express own vision
Weakness: perfectionism, bad solutions
Talent: creativity and imagination
The Creator is also known as: The artist, inventor, innovator, musician, writer or dreamer.

The Self Types

The Jester

Motto: You only live once
Core desire: to live in the moment with full enjoyment
Goal: to have a great time and lighten up the world
Greatest fear: being bored or boring others
Strategy: play, make jokes, be funny
Weakness: frivolity, wasting time
Talent: joy
The Jester is also known as: The fool, trickster, joker, practical joker or comedian.

The Sage

Motto: The truth will set you free
Core desire: to find the truth.
Goal: to use intelligence and analysis to understand the world.
Biggest fear: being duped, misled—or ignorance.
Strategy: seeking out information and knowledge; self-reflection and understanding thought processes.
Weakness: can study details forever and never act.
Talent: wisdom, intelligence.
The Sage is also known as: The expert, scholar, detective, advisor, thinker, philosopher, academic, researcher, thinker, planner, professional, mentor, teacher, contemplative.

The Magician

Motto: I make things happen.
Core desire: understanding the fundamental laws of the universe
Goal: to make dreams come true
Greatest fear: unintended negative consequences
Strategy: develop a vision and live by it
Weakness: becoming manipulative
Talent: finding win-win solutions
The Magician is also known as:The visionary, catalyst, inventor, charismatic leader, shaman, healer, medicine man.

The Ruler

Motto: Power isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.
Core desire: control
Goal: create a prosperous, successful family or community
Strategy: exercise power
Greatest fear: chaos, being overthrown
Weakness: being authoritarian, unable to delegate
Talent: responsibility, leadership
The Ruler is also known as: The boss, leader, aristocrat, king, queen, politician, role model, manager or administrator.

Fantasy

Fighter – focused on combat abilities, but almost entirely lacking in magical abilities
Rogue – focused on stealth and social skills, and capable of high-damage special attacks balanced by sub-par resistance to injury
Wizard – featuring powerful magical abilities, but physically weak
Cleric – specializing in healing and supportive magical abilities

Other Notes

Remember, when you are designing your character, be sure to understand your GM’s vision for the campaign. The one thing always will ruin your fun, and the fun of others in your group, than having a character that breaks immersion at every turn.

Another good trick when making your character is to ensure you are playing something that is compatible with, or even compliments, the other characters in the party. Be sure to talk to the other players to get ideas. Creative storytelling is what Role-Playing is all about, and you have at least 1 other person you can bounce ideas off of when making your character. Use them.

It often helps the GM, and the other players, if everyone agrees to a predetermined “connection” to the other characters. This can simplify writing a back story and can make it easier to get started quickly. Also, a particularly harsh GM can always manipulate that connection for a better story.

Character History

Never limit yourself to the basic information under your “class”. There are always ways to expand, and deepen, your character.

7th Sea’s “20 Questions” is a great place to start. I could not find an actual copy of these (without Piratingstuff, don’t do that!), bvut I did find a link to a form where they listed them: http://vaelis.forumotion.com/t79-seventh-seas-twenty-questions

Another great resource for both players and GM’s, when making characters, is http://www.obsidianportal.com/

Alternative Methods

Advancement/Development

  1. Don’t be afraid to change something that’s not working
  2. Roleplaying beyond your character sheet
  3. Grow your personality based on what happens to your character
  4. Set goals for your character

Specific Types of games

LARPing

When creating a LARP character, please keep in mind the physical considerations such as,
Racial features – i.e. height & weight. Its ok to be short or tall as an Elf, but long beards and obisity are not really Elven triats.
How you look is how you look, you don’t get to look like the dashing hero if you look like Michael Cera, but that doesn’t meen you cannot ACT like the dashing hero.

Tabletop

You can do anything, be anyone. You are a butterfly in the sky! Fly twice as high; but keep in mind your roleplaying limitations. While there are skills you can get in games to help make up for your own shortcomings, try to play a character that you can actually achive. If you are not good at solving puzzels, maybe you should play Wattson and not Holmes.

Final Thoughts

Never be afraid to reach, but remember that Role-Playing is supposed to be fun for everyone. Its a colaberitive art form, and you get to be a part of the epic storytelling you and your friends can dream up. Role-Playing is about telling a story and sharing in a “choose-your-own-adventure” story where you and your friends get to be the kick-ass heroes that save the day! Your imagination is your only limit, and with a little tender loving care, even Scrouge can expand his thinking and imagine greater!

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