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Aleksander R. Nordgarden Rødner
Norway
Oslo
Oslo
Proud father of Sarah Arwen
Live long and prosper.
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Originally written by Mark Nichols, and posted here.
Now that you’ve decided what your character’s motivation is, it’s time to actually construct the vessel in which this purpose will reside. Just how do you build a person? By creating a life where none existed. Start at the base, and work your way up:
1. Childhood
How was the character’s early life? What was the person’s family like? It doesn’t take much effort to stray too far into pop psychology, but household composition and environment have a significant bearing on personality. So does one’s experiences in school and in social settings as a child and an adolescent.
Is domestic trauma in the character’s past? Social stigma at school? An unusual amount of teenage angst? Were they abused, neglected, spoiled, enriched? Were they denied a childhood, or unable to outgrow it? You don’t need to write your character’s biography, but you should know the outline.
2. Relationships
Is the character a loner, or a social butterfly? What type of family and friends does the character have? How do they interact with acquaintances and strangers? Do they have a romantic relationship or casual sexual partners? If they’re gay, are they out, or closeted? Are they extremely close to a few friends, or do they have a wide but shallow social circle?
3. Livelihood
What does the character do for a living? That may be integral to the story, or it may be incidental. Readers deserve to know, though. But don’t lock in a stereotype. It’s easy to associate personality traits with certain professions or pastimes. What’s not so easy — but is oh, so satisfying — is to cast against type: How about a happy-go-lucky private eye? A softhearted crook? A wizard who can’t spell straight?
Do they like their job? Are they fulfilled, or frustrated? Good at what they do, or inept? How do they relate to those above and below them in the workplace hierarchy? Do they lie, cheat, or steal, or are they a paragon of productivity? Either way, are they rewarded, or punished, or ignored?
4. Pastimes
What does your character do after work, on weekends? Where do they vacation? What are their hobbies, interests, passions? Do they have an eccentric or unexpected avocation? Do they have a remarkable skill or talent no one knows about? Are they philanthropic or charitable, or is all their spare time given to family and friends, or are they devoted only to themselves?
5. Outlook
Is the sun always shining, or does a perpetual rain cloud perch just over the character’s shoulder? Are they blithe, cheerful, confident? Suspicious, resentful, fearful? Whether your character’s glass is half full or half empty will determine the story’s tone, so check the person’s beverage before you put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper.
What are your character’s political views and social opinions? Are they religious? Skeptical? Atheistic? Scientifically minded, or superstitious? Are they charismatic, or a wallflower?
So many questions! But so many answers must be provided — and many more must be discovered on the journey that is the act of writing. (And some answers may change.) This character design is essential to your success — not just for your main character but also, to varying degrees, for major and minor supporting players and for walk-ons. Whether you’re aiming for high literature or genre fiction, the extent to which you care about your characters and their personalities will in large part determine how readers respond to them.
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Aleksander R. Nordgarden Rødner
Norway
Oslo
Oslo
Proud father of Sarah Arwen
Live long and prosper.
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Originally written by Mark Nichols, and posted here.
Descriptions of or references to your characters, their belongings, and their immediate surroundings say much about the people. Here are five aspects of personality that deserve some thought as you develop characters before and during the completion of your novel or short story.
1. Appearance
Writers are naturally inclined to make their main characters especially attractive unless they believe there is a very good reason to do otherwise: The character wishes to avoid attention, the story has an ugly duckling theme, or the character is reprehensible (in which case they might nevertheless be, for contrast, extremely good looking).
Don’t introduce your character with an extensive physical appraisal, but do sprinkle hints about their appearance (or don’t — many great works of literature don’t describe main characters’ looks at all). Make sure that physical features are consistent with that person’s ethnic origins, unless there’s a good reason for exceptions.
If you do want readers to visualize your conception of the character, consider not just physical characteristics but also carriage and comportment. How does the person move? Fast, or slow? Purposefully, or uncertainly? Gracefully, or awkwardly? Self-consciously, or without regard for how they are perceived?
2. Attire
How do your characters dress? The period and locale will determine the general costume, but personality is still easily conveyed within these parameters. What does what the people wear say about their social status and about their character? Is their clothing austere, or ostentatious? Prim, or provocative? What kind of accessories, if any, do they wear, and why?
3. Business
I refer here not to business as a synonym for commerce but in the theatrical sense of the character’s physical actions. What facial expressions do they employ? Are they self-conscious about them, or are they natural, or does it depend? If the character is physically demonstrative, how is this characteristic conveyed?
Do they use their hands a lot, or is the person’s entire body an instrument of expression? Do they often handle or caress objects? Does their business convey calm, or are they fidgety? Do they make physical contact with other people? Do they observe conventions of social distance (the space people leave between each other according to their social status and relationship)? Do they establish and maintain eye contact — and is this a sign of forthrightness, or an effort to discomfit or dominate others — or are they evasive about it?
What implements do they carry and use? Are these objects practical, like tools, or are they talismans? Does this person rely on instruments, or on thoughts and ideas, or on both?
4. Speech
What is the tone of the character’s voice? Smooth, or harsh? Quiet, or loud? Do they mumble, or do they enunciate carefully? With a high pitch, or a low one? Are they taciturn, or voluble? How else is their personality conveyed in the way they speak or how talk or think to themselves? Are they kind, or cruel, in their speech? Respectful, or insolent or condescending?
Do they have an unusual accent, or do they try to suppress it, and are they successful all the time, or does the accent prevail when they are emotional or unguarded? Is their general mode of speech an effort to hide or overcome their origins? If they must speak a foreign language, are they fluent, or merely competent, or not even that?
5. Environment
How does a character relate to their surroundings, and how does the person manipulate the environment? What is the person’s dwelling like, and what do the characteristics of that place convey personality? How does their workplace do the same? Is the personal environment functional and practical, or is it expressive of the character? Do their possessions convey a simple lifestyle, or one devoted to acquisition of goods?
A fascinating book called Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You, by psychology professor Sam Gosling, concludes that the way personal items are displayed in one’s home or workplace reveals much about the person, and that there are three general categories: things displayed ostentatiously (certificates, trophies, autographs), things displayed unselfconsciously for both the person and for visitors to see (vacation photos, knickknacks), and things displayed solely for the benefit of the space’s occupant, not its visitors (mementos, notes from loved ones).
Think about how you can apply this information to establishing settings for your characters, and bring what else you know or may soon learn about human behavior to bear when creating characters and telling stories.
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Aleksander R. Nordgarden Rødner
Norway
Oslo
Oslo
Proud father of Sarah Arwen
Live long and prosper.
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The folks over at Inkwell ideas have a few cool tools that you can use to create, and download, quick graphics for your campaigns. A few examples are:
-Hexographer - a tool to create hex-maps.
-Dungeongrapher - a tool to create dungeons
-Coat of Arms Design Studio - a quick and simple tool to create cool coats of arms
There are many other tools there, I suggest you go check it out!
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Aleksander R. Nordgarden Rødner
Norway
Oslo
Oslo
Proud father of Sarah Arwen
Live long and prosper.
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Sorry about the massive amounts of posts today, will try to keep it down, but I got really enthusiastic...
OK, so far, here's what we know:
My first Pathfinder Character will be a Neutral Evil Woman, with the following stats to divide up: 8, 11, 13, 14, 14, 18.
As for Neutral Evil, I don't see any reason to make her a woman who murders for the sake of murder. However, she will not go out of her way to avoid it, either. More definition will come as I write a backstory, but I envision a woman who has been wronged, her parents murdered or something like that. A woman scorned, I guess, one such as hell hath no fury the like of her.
Maybe that's too much, but I like the thought of it.
I think she will be human, and I am leaning towards a ranger. Maybe a half-elf? Sort of a female Tanis Half-Elven?
We will see.
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Aleksander R. Nordgarden Rødner
Norway
Oslo
Oslo
Proud father of Sarah Arwen
Live long and prosper.
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Yeah, let's leave the alignment up to chance, too. Here comes an alignment roll!
razumny previously rolled 1custom9{Good;Neutral Good;Chaotic Good;Lawful Neutral;Neutral;Chaotic Neutral;Lawful Evil;Neutral Evil;Chaotic Evil} = ( Neutral Evil) = Neutral Evil
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Aleksander R. Nordgarden Rødner
Norway
Oslo
Oslo
Proud father of Sarah Arwen
Live long and prosper.
-
I want a good mix of randomness and purposeful decisions in my character, and so, some of the decisions will be made by die rolls. One of these decisions is my character's gender, generated as follows:
razumny previously rolled 1custom10{f;m;f;m;f;m;f;m;f;m} = ( f) = f (F for Female and M for Male) .
OK, one female character, coming up. This will take some thinking about, let's see, now...
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Aleksander R. Nordgarden Rødner
Norway
Oslo
Oslo
Proud father of Sarah Arwen
Live long and prosper.
-
For Channuka, I got Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary from my fiancée, and I have started looking into it now, wanting to start playing RPGs again, and especially wanting to try Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, at some point in the not so very distant future.
So, in a series of posts, I will detail and chronicle the generation of my very first Pathfinder character.
Let's start off with rolling for stats:
razumny previously rolled 4d6l = (6 + 3 + 6 + 6) = 18
razumny previously rolled 4d6l = (1 + 3 + 4 + 1) = 8
razumny previously rolled 4d6l = (6 + 3 + 5 + 3) = 14
razumny previously rolled 4d6l = (2 + 3 + 2 + 6) = 11
razumny previously rolled 4d6l = (5 + 4 + 5 + 3) = 14
razumny previously rolled 4d6l = (5 + 2 + 6 + 1) = 13
Sorted from high to low, I have the following stats to divide up: 8, 11, 13, 14, 14, 18.
I'll have to have a think, and so we'll see what kind of character I'll come up with.
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Aleksander R. Nordgarden Rødner
Norway
Oslo
Oslo
Proud father of Sarah Arwen
Live long and prosper.
-
I've got to say, I'm having a blast participating in this contest. Not only do I now have a schedule on which to write and publish more reviews, but I am also getting a number of reviews out the door that I have been meaning to write.
I am absolutely amazed at the number of reviews, and their quality, that we are seeing in this contest, and I look forward to earning my silver reviewer's badge.
So far, I've got four reviews up, here they are:
Microlite20 Purest Essence in review
GURPS Lite in review
Robin's laws of good game mastering in review
Archipelago in review
Upcoming from me are reviews of Spione: Story Now in Cold War Berlin and Love in the Time of Seið, and definitely a few more, though those are the ones that I have actually begun. Who knows, I might even review a monster book like the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook...
If you're interested in looking at my competition, and their contributions, you have a few options;
-The Geeklist
-The Iron_Reviewer tag
Or, if you want to read the reviews sorted by deadlines (or rounds), here are the first four rounds:
-The Iron_Reviewer_deadline_1 tag
-The Iron_Reviewer_deadline_2 tag
-The Iron_Reviewer_deadline_3 tag
-The Iron_Reviewer_deadline_4 tag
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Aleksander R. Nordgarden Rødner
Norway
Oslo
Oslo
Proud father of Sarah Arwen
Live long and prosper.
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This list comes from Tyler at Held Action, and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
1 - Half a footprint leads into the wall.
2 - A loose brick with no mortar holding it in place.
3 - A wall sconce is slightly askew of true.
4 - An innocuous, if out of place, drain in the floor conceals the opening mechanism.
5 - A semicircle drawn in the dust from by the dragging corner of a revolving panel.
6 - A loose baseboard panel covers a latch.
7 - The corner of a tapestry pokes out of the door frame.
8 - Liquid or another fluid substance — i.e., melted wax, runs under the frame.
9 - A fine coat of plaster dust signals a door to mocked up match the masonry.
10 - The torch flame flickers, indicating a draft passing between stones in the wall.
11 - The tip of some unlucky adventurer’s blade is wedged between the door and jamb — this secret door also only opens inward; it’ll take some shoving to move the last fellow’s body.
12 - Scratches in the paint indicate the nearby bust’s nose rotates.
13 - The chandelier overhead droops lower than the rest, as the gear to which it is attached has begun to slip through wear.
14 - Light rapping suggests this section of wall is significantly less thick than that on either side.
15 - The mural in which it is concealed shows the outline in the flaking in the pigment.
16 - A rat hole at floor level leads into what should be sheer bedrock, by the map’s reckoning.
17 - The halberd held by the decorative suit of armor resists being bumped a little too strongly, being attached to a pull chain in the floor.
18 - The fountain built into the wall shows no sign of running water’s effect on its basin.
19 - The wardrobe has no rear panel.
20 - The gargoyle’s slightly wider left eye allows an adult-sized finger to push the catch hidden within.
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Aleksander R. Nordgarden Rødner
Norway
Oslo
Oslo
Proud father of Sarah Arwen
Live long and prosper.
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Hello guys, welcome to (yet another one of) my blog(s).
So, a mission statement for the blog would be customary, I guess. Not going to happen. It will become what it will become. Done.
I hope you enjoy what I post, which will be mostly about boardgames and RPGs, and sometimes about my personal life. Video games might sneak in from time to time.
Bye now!
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Proud father of Sarah Arwen
