Bonds

Let’s start with bonds. This one is pretty simple, but it’s a very handy one to have, and for the Dungeon Master to know about. This is what you are connected to. Often times, this is going to be a character, such as a family member, but it can also be an organization. If you play a monk, it might be the monetary that you studied at. If you’re a half-orc barbarian, it might be the tribe that grew up with. Or maybe you play a druid who has a wild old bear friend.

The important element, here is, that you don’t tie them too tightly into anything. While they are your bond, keep it a bit nebulas as to how. Why you want to do that, is so the Dungeon Master can play with the character more. If you create someone who is extremely specific in location and backstory, it is going to be trickier to integrate.

Flaws

Next up is the flaw. I think this one is very important as well because it is going to be important for your role playing. This is something that you character doesn’t like. I think the name flaw makes that fairly obvious, but let’s lay it out clearly. And this is something that you can role play when you play Dungeons and Dragons.

Now, I think most players pick a flaw that isn’t too big a complication. But a bigger complication can create more interesting role playing moments. For example, a character in my game dislikes leprechauns. Another one is afraid of water. These make for interesting moments in the game because water is a thing, rain is a thing. And turns out the fey are very important to the story so leprechauns show up.

And while I think a lot of players will gravitate towards, I dislike something, or I’m afraid of something. I think there is a physical element that you can add to. What does it look like if your rogue is missing an arm? How is that going to complicate life for them, because as an adventurer, and in particular a rogue who maybe does second story work, that is going to make the life way more challenging.

Ideals

Another way to say an ideal would be, what is your characters north star. And I want to use that term, because I think ideals are less role played out than some. But there is a very important reason to have them in your game and for your character.

Now, the reason I think it is less role played than other things, in Dungeons and Dragons, is that it’s a positive. I think a good ideal can be role played though. So how do you do that?

I think that you make it specific and general enough. Now that sounds weird, but if it’s too general, it can’t be acted upon. If it is too specific, like a bond, it is a fixed element of the story. There is less room for the story to grow.

The other thing the ideal is good for is the north star. This is for those moments when you get stuck asking yourself, what would your character do? As a north star, this is going to give you a quick decision check that you can think about. But there are risks to this, but we’ll talk about that later.

Personality Traits

These are going to be role playing prompts as well. But these don’t always serve that extra purpose for the Dungeon Master to use. Sure, they might be, but the others often more tie to a specific thing. But often times they are lesser things.

You might be very brash after you’ve had a couple of drinks. That is a personality trait, and something you can lean into. It is something, also, that a Dungeon Master can use. Or maybe when someone breaks your trust it is forever gone. That is something else that a Dungeon Master can use.

But a lot of the time, since you do two of these, it is going to be more important to how your character interacts with the party, the NPC’s and the world in general. So as a player, think about them, so you think about how you use them to get into and get out of trouble. Because a good personality trait should be a bit of both.

Using Them As Framework Not The Law

Let’s talk about something important that I hinted at with the ideals. The ideal, personality traits, flaw, and bond are all great things to help shape your character. But they are not all of who your character is. There is one thing as a player that you want to avoid.

And this goes to what I consider a golden rule for Dungeons and Dragons, gaming of any sort really. Is everyone at the table, yourself included, having fun. Ideally that answer should be yes. And it might be some fun with the game and a lot of fun with the company, or a lot of fun with the game.

Why talk about that now? Well, I think it is pretty easy to fall into the trap of “that is what my player would do.”, and that’s negative behavior at the table.

Example

What do I mean by that? Imagine you have a flaw where you have sticky fingers, common for a rogue in Dungeons and Dragons. What happens if you go into the castle and you see some jewels sitting out in the throne room? Do you steal them or not? Now your flaw might say yes. But the room is full of guards, nobles, and the king. If you get caught, what is the king going to do? You won’t be able to talk your way out of it.

If you play by the letter of the law with your character, you would steal them. Likely by stealing the jewels you get caught and you get your whole party in trouble. Now everyone in the party, and probably the people at the table, are annoyed with you.

So, let your character be smart. Don’t let them just be driven by their ideals, bonds, flaws, and personality traits. It is going to go against that fun for everyone at the table. Sure, you might find some fun with it, but is it going to be worth the long term ramifications?

They Can (And Should) Change

The final thing I want to talk about is changing them. This is an element of character creation that is often over looked. Mainly because, I think most players, myself included, think of it as part of character creation. But as you play your Dungeons and Dragons campaign, you will change. So at the start you might be brash, or you might have sticky fingers. But will you continue to have that?

I want to go back to the flaw of being afraid of rain. After a rainman killed the character and he was reincarnated, the player character became afraid of rain. That is going to knock out the previous flaw. Or it is going to be added to the previous flaw as an additional one.

Or, another example, very early on my players decided to befriend and get the help from a fellow student at their school. So now that is a bond that the characters have. They want what is good for that NPC because they befriended them. Sure, they pick other bonds before, but now it is one to add to their character.

Those are two easy examples. But the main point is that your character is a living character. In the world, they go on missions, fight monsters, and interact with people. Every thing they do is going to change them as time goes by. So update your bonds, flaws, ideals, and personality traits as needed.

Final Thoughts for Dungeon and Dragons Traits

There is a good amount in there. I always want to point back to the golden rule for Dungeons and Dragons and all RPGs. And thanks to The RPG Academy for being the ones who made it. But don’t let these things get in the way of fun at the table for everyone. The great thing is that your bonds, flaws, ideals, and personality traits are all tools to enhance the fun at the table.

Which is the hardest to get that proper balance for?

Two more topics to go for players. Let me know if there is an additional Dungeons and Dragons player topic(s) you want to see covered. I want to make this as comprehensive as possible.

• Roleplaying your character
• Character Arcs

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Why Do Character Development?

Why do you do it, because people change over time. Now, sometimes it is a small amount of time. But for eight levels higher, you spent some time in the game world. Both in game and outside of the game. And your character now has way more experiences than they did before.

When creating characters we think of big backstories for them. Well, that big backstory isn’t that much compared to where they are now. If you start playing at level one and then progress, you start somewhat better than the average person. Now at level eight you are impressive, and also you have just experienced more of the world for better and worse than the NPC who runs a shop or many other characters.

So, naturally it feels like there is a story progression there. I think for the players as well, it is useful to progress and develop your character as you go. You might start playing a character, realize you like one or two things about it which you lean into and that changes how your character interacts with the world. Yes, that is character development through the eyes of the players desires.

How Do You Do Character Development?

So how do you do character development well? And honestly, well is a relative term. You don’t need to do character development at all. But for a longer campaign it can be fun to toy around with that as time progresses to think about how your character is going to progress as well.

For example, I have in a game I’m running, a player who has a character who is scared of water. Were they at the start of the campaign, no, but now they are through things that have happened. They even bought an umbrella to make sure they could be dry in a given situation. Or another character who started out as a fighter and has since started thinking about how he can develop business and grow his own little business empire.

And I can put it down to a few different things, which you might recognize from the character sheet. You can grown your character development through your characters changing Personality Traits, Bonds, Flaws, and Ideals.

These are all the elements of your character that you start out with. But you can see in my above example of gaining a fear of water, rain in particular, a new flaw or personality trait has come out. For the other one, his personality trait and ideal life have changed to where he wants to run a business and spends time on that as much as he can. let’s dive into each.

Personality Traits

Probably the easiest, your character gains a new interest. It might be running a business. Or you might find out that like or dislike something a lot. Now you interact in situations differently. And you grow that over time.

Bonds

Bonds is one that I haven’t mentioned yet, but I’ve had a character in a game develop in that too. They were in close contact and connection with a demon lord, as time progressed, they drifted away from them, so that demon lord is not longer a bond. Oddly enough, another one is forming more of a bond as time goes on.

But who you know matters and who you are most connected with. If you join a thieves guild mid game, that might be a new bond that you have. Bonds are easy in some ways because you might have an old master, if they die, who fills that spot? It might be the adventuring party, but how does that change how you play.

Flaws

Flaws, being scared of rain in a world where they travel a lot is a big deal. But is there something new that your character dislikes a lot now that gets in the way. Rain works, but maybe you had a run in with the city guard, so even though you are good, you really dislike the city guard. Or a religion or anything like that which you now really dislike.

Or maybe it is a situation where you spoke your mind once and through a great roll got what you wanted in a situation where it was dicey. How does that change your character, do you believe you can do it all the time, maybe to a detriment when a roll doesn’t go as well?

Ideals

And this one ties some into what I mentioned above about starting to dislike a religion, city guard, whatever it might be. Your ideal can change because you find something better. Or your ideal can change because you no longer believe as much as you did before. Either way, that can cause your character to develop over time.

Final Thoughts on Character Development in Dungeons and Dragons

I think that developing your character throughout a campaign is that it is something good that you can do. But it is something optional for a Dungeons and Dragons game. Some people have an idea and want to stick to it. Though, when creating a character, you can develop that idea over time. So you want to end up at this point, how does your character grow to that.

But for other people, they start out where they want to be. The trickster character who is just in adventuring for fun. Maybe they develop a bit of a heart for their party. But they likely stay as the trickster in the adventure for fun versus developing deep connections.

But when you can develop and change your character over time, I think it offers a chance to developing a bigger story. To create those more memorable moments that stand out because they changed the campaign when they changed your character.

Do you try and do character development through a Dungeons and Dragons or any RPG campaign?

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People do those five things in different orders, but I tend to like them in the order listed above. Some people pick class before race, but for me, the race plays a more important part in who your character is. Everything I want to lay out should enhance both your roll playing and your role playing.

Race

So why is race the first thing? Why not class? I think that race will give you a better idea of your character for both roll and role play. And elf might not be as likely to be a barbarian but if they are, you now have a story surrounding that. But for first time players, race can be easier to pick than a class. Picking that you want to be an elf then leads you in certain directions for your class choices. Granted, picking human leaves everything open.

So from the roll play side, like I said, picking your race helps you nail down your class. And I think that the class for a lot of players is a little bit more flexible and most races can play most classes well. Going back to the elf example, you can pick to be an elf and be a fighter, a ranger, a rogue, a druid, or a wizard very easily. And I think that a number of the other classes work as well. Picking your race will give you a narrower target for classes, but a wider target than picking a class and then going back to race.

From the role play side, you now get to create a character with more of the flavor that you might want. When you look at the classes, you have a variety open to you still, both fighters and casters. The race give you a better picture for role playing than class does. How do you want them to interact, do you want a haughty or nature focused character, an elf, a gruff drinking and brawling character, why not a dwarf. The race helps set more of that personality than anything else would.

Class

Class helps focus the character. This really covers both roll and role play again as you can use the class to focus more of the story. But you also get a lot of mechanics out of this. You are going to get your first skills, if you pick a spell casting class your first spells, and you really get to see where you are going to be rolling the dice. Take this time to when looking at the class to find those skills that are going to be your characters standard. What attack is your signature, so when it comes time to combat you are ready to go.

But there is also role play elements to think about. When you pick your class you start to add in other questions. If you are a wizard, what wizarding school did you go to. What connections do you still maintain there? If you are a fighter, where did you learn to fight? Who is your mentor or trainer, and are they still a friend or a foe? Were you in the military or town guard or why did you pick up the skills?

Stats

Now we move into an area that seems more like it is roll playing and role playing. But in reality, it is both. The roll playing part is obvious. You roll your dice and you use the stats to modify them. So with your race and class, you now know what stats you need to be good at. If you are a wizard, intelligence, a fighter, strength, that sort of thing.

But putting down your stats also gives you a ton of opportunity to create more role playing as well. It is tempting to try and be at least okay at everything. Using a standard array for numbers, it is going to give you one thing you are below average at. And that is where you get your role playing. What does it look like to be worse than average at intelligence or to be missing subtly because of lacking common sense from wisdom? What is it like to be a character who isn’t strong? There is a lot of story that starts to develop from your weaknesses, as well as your strengths.

Background

This is the last part of what you need to be thinking about from the book. The background helps flesh out your characters backstory and who you were at some point in time in your life before you decided to go adventuring. This one is much more focused on the role playing side of things, versus the roll playing. In fact, you are unlikely to get any dice improvements out of this beside getting some more skills and maybe some tools to help improve your modifiers.

This is about picking a background and getting four areas in this. You get personality traits, bonds, ideals, and flaws. Check out them more in details in my Building a D&D Character 201 article. But these add in story elements naturally to a character by giving them connections and little ticks and more. These are not hard and fast things your character will always adhere to, but they help create touch points when you aren’t sure how you character would react. It also gives them some skills to fall back on.

Backstory

We are finally to backstory. This one is the easiest to talk about. This one is only role playing focused. This is what helps your dungeon master know how to bring your character into the story. It is also the only part not in the book. However, I put it last because if you don’t know what backstory you want, the other things will help. In fact, they can do most of the writing for you.

If you are an elf, you will see things more one way. If you are an elf fighter, it focused more. An elf fighter who is great with a bow because you have high dexterity but bad charisma, more focused. An elf fighter with low charisma and a military background, you now have a lot of your backstory written for you. You just need to flesh out the details.

Now You Have Your Character!

If you go through those steps, you’ll have a character that is ready to be played. Work with your Dungeon Master through this whole process, because you want your character to fit the story being told. As a dungeon master, I recommend a session 0, a chance to sit around, talk about your story idea and setting and then build characters together. That will create a group more cohesive characters for the players and the world being played in.

What type of character do you want to play next?

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What Are Some Pitfalls?

With all of that said, I do think that we need to start on a bit more negative side of things. We need to call out what can create these less interesting characters in a book. Then after that, I will talk about how they can be overcome.

The Mary Sue or Marty Stu

This is one of the more common tropes for new writers. The general idea is that the main character is perfect at anything they do. Jumping out of an helicopter with a bedsheet and parachuting to safety, that is completely absurd. But it’s been done in a book that I read. Every idea the character has is right and everyone else is always proven wrong, I watched a show that ended with a season that was completely full of that.

The Dullard

Similar to the Mary Sue or Marty Stu, the dullard is slightly different. While previous they might be good at everything, this one is just generic. It is meant to have that ultimate self insert into the character. They don’t really have any traits of their own, so that as you read them, they sound like you sound. The biggest issue with the dullard is they can often be overtaken in interest by side characters. And that causes an issue for the author, they either need to make the main character better and more interesting losing the self insertion or make the side characters worse weakening the whole story. I had seen side characters fall of a cliff in terms of depth and interest of writing in a series before because of this problem.

The Out of Place

This one I see more often in RPG’s. A person has an idea for a character that they want. And they really love the character. Maybe it has personal sentiment for them or something like that. And it is something they want to bring to the table in a book or a series. The character, however, doesn’t fit in with the world that is created. A grim dark setting isn’t going to have a crazy happy brightly colored character without people believing that character would be crazy. Or it could be a archetype character that just doesn’t quite fit. But it’s something that shows up in a books as well, and can sometimes be a dullard character who just doesn’t match the depth of the rest of the characters.

The Fixes

The Mary Sue or Marty Stu

This character is one of the easier ones to fix. Give that character a flaw, and a major flaw. Going back to the one example I gave, the character who jumped out of a helicopter, the author gave them a claustrophobia that kind of appeared out of nowhere, and then was fixed the page later. That doesn’t cut it. This really goes back to RPG’s in some ways and how you can learn from them for writing, but give your characters a “dump stat”.

What do I mean by a dump stat? In Dungeons and Dragons and other RPG’s you fairly often have six different stats. For Dungeons and Dragons that is strength, agility, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. Most heroes in RPG’s will have stats that are 10 or higher in most of them. 10 is the common baseline for what everyone can do. But, a more interesting character will have a stat that is below average. So while a fighter might have 18 strength being well higher than the average, they might have a below average wisdom or charisma.

This idea can be taken into writing as well. Harry Dresden has a massive flaw when it comes to women. Now, is he a womanizer, not really, but his default is to always protect a woman. This, of course, gets him into trouble when that woman might be a vampire or just as dangerous as he is. He even knows he has that flaw, but out of a misplaced chivalry refuses to work on it. It is something that trips him up again and again, but makes him feel more human.

The Dullard

Honestly, it’s a similar fix to the Mary Sue and Marty Stu. Give them a flaw. But also give them depth of character. The self-insert character often lacks motivations in almost any way. Going back to Dungeons and Dragons, there is trick that can help with character creation that can also help with writing. There are four different character traits you fill in when creating a character.

• Personality Trait – Funny, serious, clueless. Give them one or two of these things. They are basically some role playing direction but also a common tone you can use for a character you are writing.
• Ideal – This is something that they hold up on a pedestal. For someone like Harry Dresden it could be that chivalry is not dead. Why you add this in, is because it always gives the character that goal or reference of what they hold most important.
• Bond – Who are they connected to. Going back to Harry Dresden, there is the White Council, his friends, and more. Find that one person or group of people who your character sees as important. The great thing about these characters is that you can then kill them to add in drama to your story, or at least put them in danger. But it could also be something like a bond to a religious organization or any organization as well.
• Flaw – Hey, we’re back to flaws. Give them something that they are bad at. For Harry Dresden that is that he doesn’t want to hurt a woman as that isn’t chivalrous or honorable. I talked about this a lot already, but it helps make your character feel more human and realistic than just an empty shell.

Now, these things don’t need to be explicitly stated in the story. But use them to create a more interesting and realistic character and get away from the dullard self-insertion main character. These characters will have longer staying power if you create them with depth. And this will give you a quick reference for a characters motivations when you get stuck as to what they would do, or what would make sense to do.

The Out of Place

This one is the hardest to fix. And, in my opinion, the simplest answer is save them. If you might just have that character in the wrong story. It might be that this great character is just meant to be in a totally different world and story. Take what I talk about above, create those traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds for that character, jot down some back story for them. When the time comes, when you have the right story, you’ll have that character in your back pocket who is ready to go. And who knows when that story will come to you, but don’t fret about it, it just means you have something already. Just because a character doesn’t fit doesn’t make you bad at writing, it just means that you had the right idea at the wrong time and the right time will come.

It’s Okay to Not Get it Perfect

Finally, it is okay to not get it perfect. If your character is a Mary Sue at some points, that is fine. If a character in a scene stands out like a sore thumb, that is fine. If your character ends up being a little but dull, that is fine. The only way to get better at writing is to write more. And sometimes you need a Marty Stu in your story, or you want someone who stands out, or it is meant as a fluff self-insertion story. My hope is that you leave more equipped to write a better variety of characters and deeper characters that will be memorable. While these aren’t hard and fast character writing rules, they are handy tools that are good to master so that you then know how, why, and where to break them.

What are some of your favorite characters in books, film, television, RPG’s, that have a lot of depth to them? What are some of the best examples out there?

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In the prerequisites, we’ve talked about how to make a character that fits the campaign and is fun for you and the group (101). We then went on and talked about how Dungeons and Dragons gives you tools, such as personality trait, ideals, bonds, and flaws to create some role playing experiences (201). Finally, in our last class we looked at how you can create an open backstory that the Dungeon Master will be able to tie into the game and that can tie into your role playing and character development (301).

This last bit is going to build off of creating that interesting backstory to give more options for the DM and for the player themselves with role playing. It could just be considered a continuation of the previous one, but I think that there are a few more intricacies with building a character with everything in here.

Leave Blanks in Your Backstory
This one is interesting because as a player you often want to know everything about your character. But it’s going to give you more opportunities to develop a character if you haven’t filled everything in. It also allows the DM a chance to create more character hooks for you. If your whole background is known, they only have the hooks that you were instructed to create in 301. However, if the DM has opportunity to work on your backstory and create hooks in those openings.

This is also tricky because it requires trust between players and the DM. There is at times a mindset that it’s DM vs the players. If you think it’s going to be like that, it’s hard to give a DM a chance to twist your characters backstory. But if you do allow for it, you can develop more interesting and deeper stories and stretch yourself with role playing.

Play to Your Weakness
Probably could have been mentioned earlier as I talked about flaws and looked at what D&D has baked into your character creation already. But there’s an idea of a dump stat, and no, this isn’t the stat you dump all your points into, it’s the stat that is lower than every other stat and is below the average, ten, that the commoners have. It’s easy to not want to have one of these or to not let it shine. However, the dump stat is going to provide you a lot of role playing opportunities. So give your character one, and then tie it into the backstory. Pick whatever stat that you want to dump, I wouldn’t recommend CON (constitution) though for any character, but really make it part of your story. There’s a desire to have it be the heroic things that you have done and your great moments to create your backstory, but instead consider your previous failures as to figure out why you are driven to be an adventurer. This also, again, creates more plot hooks for the DM to grab onto.

Don’t Be Afraid to Change
Finally, don’t be afraid to change your backstory. Don’t be afraid to change your character. You might think you have a concept that you love, but it might not end up being what you thought it was going to be. Figure that out early on, and if that is the case and it isn’t a character that you love, talk to your DM and change your character. Now, this can be done a couple of different ways. Maybe you don’t like the backstory that you created, so change that up. Even possibly changing out your background if need be to match your new backstory idea. Or it could be that you thought you’d love playing the Wizard, but you really want to hit things with a big pointy metal stick. Talk to your DM and change the character that you are playing. Depending on what the DM wants to do, your previous character could be magically transformed, or it could be that your previous character leaves the party and a new one comes in. My only caveat to this is that you should try and change early to find out what you want. In Dungeons and Flagons season one, Clint changed characters completely in the middle of the game, and it just happened to work that it made sense in the story, and I actually gave him the option as I knew he wanted to try new things. But that puts pressure on the DM, so if you are going to change, try and change early as the party and story are just starting.

I’m sure that there are many more things that I could talk about with character creation. However, I think for Dungeons and Dragons, that this is a very strong basis for getting character ready for a game and into a game. If you put everything together, you’re going to, most likely, have a fun time. There are certainly other things as well that can impact your game, but if you do this process, you can be fairly confident it won’t be your character.

Are there any tips that you’d like to add for character creation? If so, leave them in the comments below.

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

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We’ve talked previously about the simplest ways to make a character that doesn’t step on other players toes, that fits into the game, and one that is fun to play.

Next we’ve talked about how you can use the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws to create some back story for your character. This allows you to really start creating a backstory for your character and your role playing. You can review 201 here.

Now we’re onto really delving into the backstory and what makes a good backstory. This will be covered in the final two posts about creating backstory and creating your player character.

When creating a backstory there are a few things that you should be writing into your backstory:

Role Playing Prompts –
This is probably the trickiest one to explain, but basically you are looking to expand upon the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws that you’ve previously created or at this time create those along with your backstory to give you things to role play with. But now you get the chance to really expand upon that. If you have a flaw that you hate all goblins, well, now you can explain why you hate all goblins since they murdered your family and burned down your village. So as you develop your backstory, look to drop in those little tidbits of information to support the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws. Also, look to add in more role playing elements for you. You can create little pieces of story that are going to give your character a more rich background and more depth to role play with.

A Reason to Adventure –
This one is pretty straight forward. You need a reason to be about adventuring. If you spent your whole life on a farm and you are going to inherit the farm, why are you out adventuring? Or if you are a hermit in the woods who hates people, why are you adventuring? Give yourself a reason to be adventuring, and a reason to keep adventuring. If a bunch of goblins killed off your family and burned down your village, that’s probably a reason to start adventuring to get revenge and also a reason to continue adventuring after you get revenge because you don’t have a place to go back to. It doesn’t have to be that tragic, and with elves or other longer living races, you might adventure just to leave your mark on the world. But use your backstory as your opportunity to create a reason why you are adventuring and why you will continue adventuring with the adventuring party.

Goals/Story Hooks for Your Character
Now, this is partially covered when you create your bonds as they can be things that is your characters goal, but work on adding in some goals and story hooks for your character that the DM is going to be able to use. It doesn’t mean that all of them will be used, but they are things that the DM can use if they want. In our example of wanting to get revenge on the goblins who killed your family, that’s a story hook that the DM can use. If you write that you’ve already taken care of the goblin in your backstory you’ve now closed off that part of your backstory and completed it already. The DM now can’t pull out your hate of goblins, give you the chance to track down the goblins and maybe have a change of heart about goblins as a whole. As a DM, I really appreciate those bits of mystery that people leave in their backstories. In the first season of Dungeons and Flagons, we had a great example of this as Ashley’s character was left somewhere as a young child and all she remembered from it was the stars in the sky. That gives me a ton to play with as a DM.

If you have, especially the first two added into your backstory, you are going to have a character that has a reason to go adventuring and a fun character to play. The last piece really allows you to be more a part of the story and have those story arcs that really focus in on you. If you are a player who wants to sit back and enjoy the story more, having less of those hooks is going to make it so you’re less involved.

Are there other backstory elements that make a good Dungeons and Dragons character? Have you done these while creating characters before?

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Those things can all be purely mechanical at that point, so you might only have an extremely simple backstory created. In 201, we’re going to create the basic backstory or more so, the basic role playing pieces you need to think about.

The fun thing, D&D already has something built in for that. In the backgrounds section, and I’ve talked about this before, they have you roll for four things, personality traits, ideals, flaws, and bonds. These are going to be your building blocks for Character Creation 201.

Personality Traits
Probably the easiest section to talk about because we all have an idea of what personality traits are. Someone can be pompous, demeaning, trusting, quick to anger, and so many more things. Pick one or two things that are your characters ticks and put them into personality traits. It can be as simple as your character is trusting and nice. And it really can be as basic as that. However, a lot of the time you’re going to want to provide a bit more context. For example if your character is easily angered, that’s going to be annoying for everyone to play with a character who gets mad at any sort of slight. Instead, you have a character who gets mad when whenever anyone talks about their family, that’s interesting.

Ideals
Another one that is pretty easy, what is it your character holds sacred. Maybe they firmly believe that all goblins are evil. It could be that an ancient religion must be revered. This is really the pillar of your character. Now, ideals might be fairly easy to come up with a good one as compared to some of the others, but you do have to ask yourself some question. What if something or someone goes against your ideal in your party or you have to ignore your ideal for a little bit in the game for the story? Going back to the goblin example, what if you have to interrogate a goblin and you’ve always just murdered them before? What if you come across a goblin village with goblin children in it who are playing a game? There’s a tendency to use the ideal as a black and white thing where you’ll act one way on one side of it and another way if you cross to the other side. With the goblin example, not a goblin, you’ll give it a chance, is a goblin it deserves to die. What happens instead if you give yourself room to role play in that, and your character struggles with what to do in the goblin village? It doesn’t mean you change your ideal, it means that your character as depth. And the goblin example is a very concrete example, but it generally shows the idea that is being shot for.

Bonds
This one is a bit trickier, who are you really connected to, or what or where you are connected to in the world. This could also be seen as a “why you are doing this” sort of thing. Maybe you have a baby sibling who you are going to protect by going out into the big world. Maybe you have a village that was kind to your in your time of need, maybe there’s a certain god or a relic. It’s interesting, because this doesn’t have to be something you’ve experienced in your life yet. For example, if you decided there’s a holy relic, it could be long lost, and your bond to the world is that religion and finding that holy relic. Bonds also don’t have to be a good thing, it could be a bond if you’re a rogue where you owe the thieves guild money. I would say out of all of the traits, the bond is what is really going to drive the character into adventuring and keep driving them forward in the campaign.

Flaws
The best for that, and I’m serious about this. This one should be the best part, like the personality traits, your flaw is going to be something that can really inform your role playing, and can create some very interesting moments. However, a lot of people look at a flaw, and they don’t really want to take one, because they want to be that near perfect hero like Superman who can save the day. You’re not, you’re probably not even the A-Team, you’d be lucky when starting out to be on a team at all. You are a messed up character who has most likely had a hard life, you’re going to have flaws. So make them real and make them something that affects you in a game. If you go with, whenever I see a demon, I curl up into a ball and can’t do anything, that’s not a good flaw. One, you might not be playing a game with demons, so it won’t ever effect your character, or it might be a game about demons and now you’re going to be worthless. Take something that you can role play into in interesting ways, and something that, if you want, your character can overcome. And once they’ve overcome it, put down another flaw, the next in line or maybe something else that has come out with how your character now copes with the previous flaw.

By adding in these four things, you now have gone from a character that is fit for the framework of a game, and is going to mechanically fit in, to a character that is starting to have reasons for doing things, and places for you to role play. And that’s what character creation is, a place for you to set-up how you’re going to role play throughout the campaign.

This is also a good time to mention that the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws can all change throughout the campaign. I talked about it in the flaws, how you might overcome the flaw, or maybe your bond will shift as you dip for a couple of classes of warlock. So those are very tangible game reasons, but beyond that, the first couple of sessions it might just shift because you find yourself playing your character differently than you thought you were going to. So let these things be able to change those first couple of sessions as you lock them down, and then give yourself character arcs to go through as you complete a bond and form another.

What are your thoughts on Personality Traits, Ideals, Bonds, and Flaws? How do you use them in your games?

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