Character Development

[RPGer]

I'm curious, as a fairly new Pathfinder player (6 months or so), what are some techniques that you use when creating a new character. How does everyone tend to develop a backstory and traits of your new character?

[oxybe]

Honestly?

Generally speaking I dislike writing backstories or preset personalities before actual play. At most I generally have a vague reason as to why the character is adventuring ("Because money!" or "Because Power!" and "For reasons of *cough cough mumble mumble*") and very basic or barebones of a personality made up.

From there once I get into the groove of the character & how they play I start building up as to why and how they became who they are.

More then a few times I tried to stick to a personality I couldn't get into the groove for when the campaign started because I preset it and just didn't have fun with it as i originally expected to, so I now tend to more "organically" grow my character and backstory during the first few sessions.

[RPGer]

Honestly?

At most I generally have a vague reason as to why the character is adventuring ("Because money!" or "Because Power!" and "For reasons of *cough cough mumble mumble*") and very basic or barebones of a personality made up.

From there once I get into the groove of the character & how they play I start building up as to why and how they became who they are.

...so I now tend to more "organically" grow my character and backstory during the first few sessions.

That's more towards how I'm leaning. Use the experiences of the character to help develop the character, and see what feels right. However, I've seen some that create elaborate back stories of where and how their character grew up, and why they are how they are. I'm about to start my second character and was thinking of giving him one or two noteworthy traits and go from there.

Any other suggestions?

[MrNobody]

To me, it depends on the starting level.
If i'm starting low level (1 to 5) i go with a simple and short background (who i am, where i come from, what my goal is) and put a little more effort of describing personality.

If i'm starting medium level (6 to 10) i write a more complex background, adding references to previously accomplished deeds, maybe adding a minor contact or two (the innkeeper of the Sleeping Horse Inn is X Town, one of the guards of Grey Rock Castle in Y City...).I also try to highlight some connections between its story and its personality.

For high level (11 or more) i expand the above, adding more known people (and increasing their social position), more visited places and a deeper explanation regarding the development of its personality.

Also, i usually create my backstory dialoguing actively with the DM, expecially about social contacts, known people and visited places: it helps a lot when it comes to building sidequests and such.

[BWR]

Honestly?

Generally speaking I dislike writing backstories or preset personalities before actual play. At most I generally have a vague reason as to why the character is adventuring ("Because money!" or "Because Power!" and "For reasons of *cough cough mumble mumble*") and very basic or barebones of a personality made up.

From there once I get into the groove of the character & how they play I start building up as to why and how they became who they are.

More then a few times I tried to stick to a personality I couldn't get into the groove for when the campaign started because I preset it and just didn't have fun with it as i originally expected to, so I now tend to more "organically" grow my character and backstory during the first few sessions.

Pretty much this. Even if I have a distinct idea of what I want the character to be, they often change after a few sessions.
And for all my whining about roleplaying being more important than mechanics, I tend to choose characters, no matter what system, based on mechanics or archetypes and develop a personality accordingly. I honestly cannot remember ever having created a personality and history and chosen all mechanics based on that.

The closest I have come to creating characters with fluff first is wanting to play a specific culture in a game (such as wanting to play a Ethengar tribesman in Mystara), and a pseudo L5R OA game I play with my girlfriend where we are now into 4 generations descended from my original PC. Children in the family have ability scores rolled but the choice of class is done by in-game politics, not player choice. Yes, you can argue that politics is player choice but these characters are created in a vacuum but with 12+ years of setting and campaign history determining their relationships and who they train with and why. They don't have backstories created to fit the character, they are characters with backstories that have been imposed on them willy-nilly.

[NRSASD]

I tend to pick a character design I want to play with (a lizardman support ranger with a heavy crossbow, for example) then work with the DM on how he/she fits into the game world. Once we've found a design that works for the game, I try to get a little backstory that gives me an IC reason for my PC to be friends with at least one other PC, so I have a reason to follow plotlines even if they are in no way related to my character or their interests.

Besides that, I let the personality develop during the game.

@RPGer Honestly that sounds good to me. Try to give them a reason to follow DM plots even if they aren't related to you directly. It keeps the game moving and gives your character more chances for personality to develop. "I hate marshes! I'm not going in there." "But my vision showed me that my sister is trapped in the Fire-Swamp of Unspeakable Foul Gases! Please...?" "... Fine. But only for you, and you owe me one."

[prufock]

I'm curious, as a fairly new Pathfinder player (6 months or so), what are some techniques that you use when creating a new character. How does everyone tend to develop a backstory and traits of your new character?

I tend to come to them through psychology. I latch on to a particular mental illness, philosophy, personality type, or unique character traits or flaws. Sometimes it's structured, like I'll sit and say "what kind of character type have I not tried yet?" but other times it just comes through things I read about in either fiction, news articles, comic books, or watch in movies or tv shows.

I usually deal with the "miniskirt rule" of backstories, keeping them short and to the point - often bullets of the important events in his life that would shape his character. That's it, the rest I make up on the fly.

[Felyndiira]

I do it by divorcing the character idea from the mechanics. I almost always begin character creation with a central idea rather than the crunch, though my "central idea" is usually designed to focus on the character - things like their ideals, their outlooks, their personality, etc. - rather than their mechanics. Thus, I usually do not start character creation with something like "master swordsman" or "fire-using archmage", but instead ideas like "a goblin who has internalized prejudice against himself and believes in human supremacy" or "a formerly retired adventurer who took up the sword to run away from her familial responsibilities".

I trained myself to stop thinking of characters in terms of classes. That doesn't mean I don't optimize, of course, but my characters - to me - are not "Warlock 5 / Warlord 2" or "Martial artist using eldritch claw and beast claw to quadruple DEX to damage". Instead, I might think of them as "idealist trying to start a new home after being kicked out of her old one". Rather than "Paladin 5" or...well, "fifth level paladin", I try to think of them as "a girl who had known violence her whole life, and is trying to figure out how to be a good person after a paladin showed her kindness for the first time in her life."

After I have an idea of what my character is, I insert the mechanics. If I really did set your character's personality and worldview as my focus, the mechanics part shouldn't feel constrained at all. Is my character a Socialist who wants to bring her vision of equality to the world? Then she could literally be almost anything - maybe she is born with a magical gift, and that gift manifested itself exactly like the Inquisitor class (you don't have to be an actual Inquisitor to take Inquisitor!). Maybe she studied magic, and seeks to bring change using arcane power. Maybe she was some sort of barbarian who's actually a knight working for the people, with rage representing his supernatural calm in combat. Whatever she is mechanically, I could probably fit it in a way so that it doesn't conflict with the Socialist worldview that is the character's main concept.

*

EDIT: Also, you don't really need any more backstory than what is needed to convey your character concept. If you want to explore, say, boomerang bigotry with a goblin character, his tastes in clothing when he's two years old or him catching a big fish probably doesn't really matter (and won't come up in the story). The "skirt" principle is relevant, though IMO that is about as useless as any other guidelines - sometimes it's appropriate, and sometimes you should just throw it out completely when that 10-page backstory is entirely necessary for your character concept.

[Geddy2112]

I usually grab a famous person or fictional character and then give them a rough build into the mechanics. I have a couple sentences-race, class, notable mechanics, alignment, goals. The rest I work out when I plug the character into a game(and not all concepts fit all games). Unless I am high level, I don't have too much backstory-certainly the character does, but I don't need to write most of it up unless it is really important. I can write 10+ page backstories, but ain't nobody got time for that. I try to stick to 1-3 pages 12 TNR double spaced.

Having my characters based off other people, real or otherwise, gives me a template for a default answer of "what my character would do" but after a few sessions, the characters become their own thing. They retain some of the traits of the inspiration, but modify others and add/replace as needed.

[goto124]

sometimes it's appropriate, and sometimes you should just throw it out completely when that 10-page backstory is entirely necessary for your character concept.

Might want to prepare a summary of that story, for your GM and fellow players.

[Sajiri]

I work with my DM on it and we do a bit of back and forth to come up with a character I want to play that mixes well with the campaign he wants to run. Like, I'll say the type of character I want to make (such as, a pirate), he'll give me a general starting point that would suit for that in the campaign (jail break), and then I come up with a backstory and how I got there. But beyond that, much of it is based on experiences and what goes on, I dont think I've ever had a character thats ended up the way I originally planned for them (basically I always want to do a darker/more evil character but always end up playing them some shade of good, or at least friendly neutral).

We're doing one game where I didn't even get to make a backstory, as my character was literally just born when it started (an android character). That was kind of fun developing that character, as she started as a complete blank slate, part of the plot was that her programming hadn't been finished so she wasnt given a personality or memories yet, and even though I had a vague idea of how she'd turn out, based on what happened throughout the sessions she ended up completely different.

I guess it all depends on how roleplay heavy the game is though, and how big consequences can be. Since we play with one DM, one player, death is never really a possibility (although there can be consequences still) and entire sessions can go by without a single dice roll. When character traits form I do try to stick to them, and sometimes I abandon smart mechanics for believable character choices. There's been more than once that I've seen an ambush coming a mile away, but thats based around what I know of the DM, and the fact he's laughing like an evil genius, but I know the character I'm playing wouldnt know that, and would have no reason to suspect anything is wrong and may think she's in a completely safe place, so I go ahead and let her walk into it despite I know it's a terrible idea.

[Quertus]

I'm curious, as a fairly new Pathfinder player (6 months or so), what are some techniques that you use when creating a new character. How does everyone tend to develop a backstory and traits of your new character?

There is generally a bit of difference between back story and history. For any of my recent (past 20 years or so) characters, I really haven't found them interesting to play long-term unless I have tied their back story into some existing character history (ie, this character is the child or apprentice of this other character; this character was inspired by or actually at the <famous battle> of this other character, etc). Sort of a way to jump start their connection to the world - and to try to provide them with enough background that their personality doesn't instantly radically deviate from my expectations, by giving them a reason for being who they are.

But that probably doesn't help you much, as a new player. You could make characters based off of the exploits of your old parties, I suppose. Or based off historical, mythical, or even fictional events completely unrelated to the campaign.

Probably more useful are the various RPGs that include questions for you to answer about your character, or tables of random traits (whether you actually roll, or just look at them for inspiration).

[AMFV]

I typically start by designing the character mechanically, figuring out what sort of mechanical thing I want to play. Sometimes I'll have a broad concept before that, but usually it's something that could be summed up in one or two sentences. Then once I have the mechanics I go back and try to make them make sense. Take for example 3.5 or Pathfinder, I'll figure out how to factor in most prerequisite feats or what-not, how to explain my character's path before I got a hold of him, and his future aspirations based on my mechanical plans. This way the fluff and crunch are bonded fairly tightly. Although I could see other ways of doing character development working just as well.

[RPGer]

Thank you all for sharing your comments, suggestions, and feedback. Good food for thought and helpful.

[omegatiger121]

D&D 5e provides character background stuffs, which I find very helpful when I know how a character should act but can't describe it aptly.

[TheYell]

Im with AMFV mainly because my RP buddies are pretty mechanical about RP these days. When they DM they have said NO to a backstory for being too fanciful. Such as inventing a monastery for a monk paladin! Sorry but PF doesnt have any specific monasteries of Iomedae in Avistan! what did he do train by mail? NO he is just a monk paladin focus on your stats and feat paths. It is sad.

[Âmesang]

I can't recall if I got this from the Monster Manual IV or V (both, perhaps?), but it may be good to separate a character's profile into chunks. It helps that one of the books had a pair of specific vampires to serve as an example:

"Short, overall description."
Strategies and Tactics
Sample Encounter

• particular encounter
• relevant Knowledge skill checks

Ecology

• environment
• physical characteristics
• alignment

Society
Typical Treasure