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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Dungeons and Dragons Player Tools – Character Creation

One of the first things that you do when you start out as a player is come up with an idea for your character. I want to give you some help when coming up for a character because I think players often struggle with coming up with a character in two major ways. Plus then there are just practical things to think about as well. But let’s talk about the two big things to think about as you come up with your character idea.

The Struggle of a Character Idea

So, there is a struggle in two areas that I think players consistently run across. Both are around when you come up with the concept for the character. A player generally ends up on either of two extremes. They come up with a good starting character idea but don’t know where to build their character towards. Or they come up with a level twenty backstory and the character is level one.

So how do you combat that as a player? I think there are two things to think about. Because both starting at the right point and having an idea where you want to build to, that level twenty powerful character, are important. And it’s more than just what class do you want to take.

Coming Up With A Character Idea

So let’s come up with that character idea. And yes, you are starting the campaign at level one. But that means the world is your oyster. You get to come up with the answer to the question, why did I get into adventuring?

Let’s start there. This is a simple question that is meant to prompt the thought process of character creation. It is meant to also limit the scope of your character. It’s not a question of, what amazing things have I done? Or what great skills do I have? It’s a simple question of, why did I become an adventurer. And the reason for keeping it that simple is that the skills come from your class and background. And you will do amazing things in the campaign. But right now you are starting out. So what is the characters motivation.

Then I also want you to think about, where is the character going? And by this I mean, why do you keep being an adventurer in some ways. What is the end goal that would make you character feel satisfied as an adventurer? Because this is going to be the big thing that you roleplay towards. Again it’s not the skills or levels of a certain class, but what motivates your character to be an adventurer and go as far as they want.

Example – Character Idea

Let’s say I sit down and I want to create my character. I have some ideas for it especially around class and background. I know that I want to be a Monk who was an Urchin and then was brought into a monastery to learn martial arts and have a place to live. So I got that bit of a backstory, now I need to answer my two questions.

Why am I an adventurer? I head off adventuring because the monastery needs more money. There used to be a bunch of people who donated money but after the charismatic head monk passed away, people have slowly drifted away. But this is the place that saved me, so I want to venture out to find fortune or make money in any way that I can to keep the monastery going so it can help more kids like I was.

What is my end goal? It’s two part really. The first step is that I want to get the monastery back to the point where it is financially stable. And then eventually, once it is there and I feel like it won’t fall into a bad spot again, I want to return to the monastery and take over running it and bringing in more kids.

What About Race, Class, and Background?

So how do you plan those in as well? Well, you easily see that I tossed them into my backstory idea. I think that most people generally can come up with some idea of what they want to play in those areas. But I do want to toss out especially with background, think about how it ties into your character idea, and the same can be said for class. It wouldn’t make sense for me to have my backstory with the monastery and be a well trained Wizard.

While they are important to making a mechanically solid character, I don’t think that it’s the end of the world to focus more on what makes thematic sense. That is going to provide a more interesting gaming experience. And this is also where it’s great to collaborate in a session 0 with your Dungeon Master and the other players to create a balanced party, if you want, but to iron out any wrinkles between characters and players and their character builds.

Stats

Finally, let’s talk about stats. And I went over in the Character Creation article for Dungeon Masters some different options for rolling up stats. And there are more options as well that can be done. But the first step when getting stats is ask the Dungeon Master how they want you to get stats. Every Dungeon Master is going to have a preferred way. And even if they don’t, they are going to want it consistent across everyone. You get characters with unbalanced stats if someone does points buy and another player rolls.

But there is more to stats then just how you get stats, there is how you allocate them. And there are two things I want to talk about here. What is your best stat and what is your worst stat?

Best Stat

So the reason why you think about this is that your best stat is going to affect your best skills. And that is probably going to be what you are leaning into. If I character my monk, I might go with high dexterity as my top stat. The reason that I do that is two-fold. Firstly it helps with the character build and making it functional. But also, it stems from my background and idea for my character. I want to be light on my feet from being an urchin who stole some and didn’t want to get caught and then being trained in martial arts.

In fact, that’ll also influence how I solve problems too, I might just try and fadeaway in the shadows. So that’d again make sense for dexterity to be my best stat because it means that my stealth will be solid.

Dump Stat

So the worst stat is also called the dump stat. And every character should have a dump stat of some sort. That means a stat that is below 10 so you get a negative to your rolls on it. Because as much as your good stat helps determine how you roleplay, your dump stat is going to be as well.

Let’s look at my monk urchin. They came the monastery when they were a little bit older, probably a teenager, so they don’t have the formal schooling that you’d expect. The monks did what they could, but while the character is street smart from living on the streets, they aren’t book smart. So intelligence would make a great dump stat.

Especially because thinking about the backstory, how poor intelligence could work in. The character is focused on doing well themselves. They learned as a kid how to rely only on themselves. And while they love their monastery, they think it’s only on them to save it. So even though they maybe know they aren’t the brightest, they aren’t going to consult others for it. They are going to try and do those things themself.

Don’t Be Batman

Final thing about stats is don’t be Batman. What do I mean about that? Batman is generally good at everything in DC. He can take on almost any villain and with enough time and his tons of resources, he’ll beat them. But when you play you don’t want to be Batman. Batman isn’t fun for everyone at the table.

So let’s talk about it a bit more. First off, give yourself a dump stat. Even if everything rolled high, give yourself an 7 or 8 in some area and roleplay into it. Also don’t pick all the good skills. If you are a rogue who is proficient or have expertise with stealth, persuasion, deception, intimidation, perception, and insight, you are just going to do everything. Don’t be good at everything, and this part of character creation to make sure that every player at the table has some area where they will shine.

Final Thoughts

We’re going to have a few more articles in this series for players in Dungeons and Dragons, or really any RPG system. So as a player what topics do you want covered? I am going to toss out a few, but let me know if there are more you want to learn about?

• Flaws, Bonds, Ideals, and Personality Traits
• Roleplaying your character
• Character Arcs

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Dungeon Master Tools – Character Creation

Know What Books You Are Going to Use

Firstly, know what books you are going to use. If you are a new Dungeon Master, I think I would go with the Players Handbook and the Revised Ranger which you can find online. I wouldn’t add in anything else, because that is going to mean a few things. Firstly that you or someone owns those other books. And if you don’t own them, you need to know what’s in them pretty well. The other reason is that it keeps what you need to know focused and the character races and classes easier to keep track of.

As you play more and feel more comfortable, I think it’s totally valid to add in more books. In fact, I expect that most Dungeon Masters are going to add in more books over time. Though, if you are playing the revised 5E with the new books, you get to keep it limited, for now.

Is Anything Banned?

Next, know if you don’t want anything in your campaign. Is your setting one where all magic comes from the divine or demonic sources, maybe you don’t go with all the casting classes. Or if magic is banned or doesn’t exist for some reason, that’s good to know. Another example would be creatures with flying speeds that the PC’s (player characters) can play. Do you want to deal with a 3D battle scenario or not?

I think that banning is a last resort. In fact, I recommend that Dungeon Masters don’t do it. But there are thematic reasons why you may ban some class or class feature so be aware of that. Especially if this is your first campaign, and you want to run something that is maybe easier to understand, don’t ban anything, go with a setting that more closely resembles Faerun as it’s going to make your life easier as you and your players don’t need to remember anything.

How Do You Get Stats?

One of the final things here is how you get the stats. And I want to talk about a number of ways that you can get them. Because there are a lot of fun ways. But know how you want to do it. Why, because a player might like one better than another, so they can min/max or manipulate things more. So know which way you want to go so there isn’t a discussion. You run this game as the Dungeon Master, listen to reasons, but at the end, everyone does it the same way, however you land.

Point Buy

Firstly there is point buy system. In this players get a certain number of points, and all stats start at 8. Then you spend points to increase those stats. Before the bonus you get from being an elf or half-orc, whatever it might be, you can go as high as fifteen. Each number increase costs a point and you start with 27 total points. This is going to give the players complete control over how they handout their stats.

Rolling

Rolling For Stats is another way that you can go, and this can be done in a few different ways. The most common way is roll 4D6 (four six sided dice) and drop the lowest of the dice. For example, if you roll a six, two, five, and two, you drop one of the twos, and get a 13. Now, you complete that six times, one for each stat, and players assign them in the direction that they want. That is going to let some numbers possible be higher, but there isn’t a floor like you get with the point buy system.

You can also just go with rolling 3D6 and keeping that, it’s going to create a wider range of what you can roll, though. So it is possible that a player is going to roll very low. A three in a stat is too low to really even play with, and while it’s possible in the previous version, it’s less possible.

Finally, you can use either method and do a down the line approach to the stats. What I mean by that is you start with strength and go down. So if I decide I’m a wizard, I hope I roll well on roll four for intelligence. This is going to create a greater level of variance in characters and how good they are and it can be fun. Just let your players know ahead of time.

Standard Array

The final way is the simplest. This is the standard array. The standard array is 15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8 for your stats. Every player is going to start out basically the same. Now that order is going to change, but no one is going to have a very high stat by magically rolling three sixes. And no player is going to have a low stat. This is good, I think for a starting campaign. The more new people you have, the easier this is to use. Mainly, because, you don’t want someone to be in a position to dominate everything because of good rolls.

Is Anything Custom Allowed?

This is the final thing and generally my answer is going to be no for this. Again, if you feel comfortable with it, sure. But know that what is custom might not be balanced. And this could be from a custom class that a player found on the internet that they want to try. Or it might be customizing a spell so it does a different type of damage. Generally I saw go with rules as written. Unless you want that extra challenge in something, keep it simple. And if this is your first game or early on in your dungeon mastering career, definitely don’t do it.

Final Thoughts

This, I think, is a good bonus topic to add into the mix. I don’t think it’s as much of a tool that I would recommend specifically to make your life easier. It is just some good things to think of before you session zero. Especially when it comes to how you want to get your stats and anything custom. That way you know what you are comfortable with.

For me, personally, I like the roll 4D6 and drop the lowest. Though, with that, it is not too hard for a player to get some really good stats. So even with my preferred system, I generally look through and make sure everyone is balanced. If someone rolls everything over 12, for example, I change one. I want you always to have a bad stat, and some good stats, no Batmans (someone who is good at everything) on the team. Use your discretion with that and keep it fair.

So what is coming up next?

• Session 1
• Story Arcs
• World Building
• Combat
• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you. And this one is really that first step that you can take before you even start to think about the other elements.

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Dungeon Master Tools – Session 0

What Is A Session 0?

A session 0 is your first session of your RPG campaign, kind of. Everyone gets together, like you would normally to play the game. But instead of just playing the game, you instead are getting ready to play the game. Players don’t come with rolled up characters or anything like that. This session is for chatting, talking through your character ideas and rolling up those characters.

Why Do A Session 0?

We know what a session 0 is now. The better question might be, why do a session 0? Is there a very good reason for doing it, or is this just extra work for everyone and you should just jump right in? I’ll give you a spoiler, it’s a good thing to do.

Players Handbook

One of the reasons it’s a good thing to do is because not everyone has a players handbook. And that is a bit of an investment for a players handbook that in all fairness the fighter might not really need 99% of the time. So it makes sense to share the players handbook around the table so everyone can create their own character. If even one player doesn’t come to that first playing session without a built character, you’re going to spend most of the time making the character, so might as well have everyone do it at once.

Player Conversation

Beyond that practical reason, it’s great to have players talk and bounce character ideas off one each other. You can do that via an e-mail, but if someone is waffling between what stats to make strongest, a couple of different character backstories, things like that, the Session 0 is amazing for players to work together and create their party that can work cohesively. The example would be the rogue and the paladin. How do they work together, well, if they are created together to be in the same party, the players can talk through that.

Dungeon Master Benefits

And for the Dungeon Master it is great as well. You see what the players want to play. And as part of the conversation, you know what elements are the most important to the players. Is the background an urchin, but the backstory is really focused on the fact that they were a noble who got lost and lived as a urchin? Well, now I know all of that if I am part of the character creation process.

What Else Can Be Done in Session 0?

So, I talk a lot about character creation. And I think that is going to be the bulk of the time that is spent in a session 0. But it is also a chance for players who maybe don’t know each other to get to know each other. Because I find that I often pull in from different groups of friends to play in a campaign. So they might not know each other at the start of the campaign. A session 0 is a great way for people to get to know each other.

And as the Dungeon Master it is a great time to workshop other ideas. If you want a list of NPC names, have the players right down five each. If you want locations, let the players create some of the locations. This is a chance to flesh out some of that stuff that I think Dungeon Masters often try and do themselves for the campaign. Take off some of the load and share the fun and frustration of some of that creation on the fly with the players.

Finally, it is a chance as the Dungeon Master to pitch more of the tone of the game. This might be in giving the elevator pitch again. Or it might be adding to that pitch as you’ve planned a bit more, or integrating things from what the players are talking about. But this somewhat goes back to character creation. If someone is creating a character that doesn’t fit the tone, you know ahead of time.

Final Thoughts

This is a really useful tool. I think, and I don’t want to over emphasize it, but also don’t want to under emphasize it, it’s a great chance to socialize. Even if it’s a friend group, it is going to let you set the tone for the time and keep that focus on the fun of the game. Though every session is going to have tangents and things like that.

But for a new Dungeon Master or even someone who knows the game really well and has run many campaigns, this is very nice to use. Especially because you get to know the characters and see that work done collaboratively. It immediately cuts down on potential party friction if someone believes that there character should work in one hyper specific way that goes against what the rest of the party wants. And yes, this is something that happens.

So what is coming up next?

• Session 1
• Story Arcs
• World Building
• Combat
• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you. And this one is really that first step that you can take before you even start to think about the other elements.

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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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Now, I won’t complain too much about some of those themes. I like the Cthulhu or Lovecraftian stuff that Fantasy Flight Games does. Marvel, I’m clearly a big Marvel fan as you can see from here and here. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other themes or really IP’s that I’d like to see games put it, or more games coming from.

The Dresden Files

This one does already have a game. And it has a game that I like. I think that The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game is good. But the theme is something that the players bring to the game. The game does remind you about what the story you’re playing through is, but if you don’t know the story, the cards won’t help that much. I want something that tells more of the Dresden Files story.

What Would I Want?

I don’t know that I want this to be a dungeon crawl type of game. I feel like it would work for Dresden, but not be as interesting. Plus, there are other themes that I’d want a dungeon crawler. What I would love is to see a Detective: A Modern Board Game style Dresden Files game. Dresden is always puzzling out mysteries. And we already have books of short stories that are other cases he’s done. It would work well for creating new cases, and it could be a massive case tied together over 5 smaller cases.

And then you could have Harry, Murphy, and some of the other characters as the ones who give you things to activate. And using magic in the game would be interesting and different. There definitely needs to be some sort of combat mechanic which base Detective really doesn’t have, but it is something that could easily be added. But for a lot of it, and a lot of what Harry does is investigate and get punched.

Sword Art Online

Another one that technically has a board game. But it is a small game from Japanime Games that needs the rule book to be updated or just fixed. And the game gives you a tiny bit of the SAO theme. You play as the main characters, and you can switch, but that is it.

For those of you not familiar with Sword Art Online, it is an anime where the characters get trapped in a video game. If you die in the video game, you die in real life. And the only way to escape is to beat the game by climbing to the top of the tower/levels and beating the final boss. There are more seasons as well with different things, but that’s a good starting point for knowledge.

What Would I Want?

I’d want a boss battling game. Something along the lines of Primal, Kingdom Death Monster, or Townsfolk Tussle. Really, mostly along the lines of Kingdom Death Monster. If you put that theme on KDM, I’d be paying $700 to get everything for it.

Kingdom Death Monster is a boss battling game, but it also has you building up your tribe/colony, adding armor, weapons, and more. That would work well for an RPG style video game which is what Sword Art Online is. While everything you’d be doing is working towards the next boss battle, what you do outside of that matters as well. And the depth of story and world in SAO, side quests that might appear as boss battles, all of those are good. I think that you could really create a good game for SAO in that style.

Tomb Raider

Yes, another one with a board game already. Though, I should say, a board game I think. I forget what happened with it, I demoed it at GenCon in 2019, and I was severely disappointed. And there are a few others a well, but none that have made waves in board gaming. And Tom Raider is a very cool theme. Especially when you think about the newer video games.

What Would I Want?

I think I’d want this to be done in the style of 7th Continent or maybe more like 7th Citadel. I could have said Detective as well, because it is a mystery most of the time. But I think that treasure hunting, getting dropped on an island that you don’t know what is going on. Or going to that bigger set piece area, that is cool.

7th Citadel adds in more story. And I could see that working really well, because you get that exploration, but you could make it feel like a bigger story. In fact, you could drop all the base cards for health, some skills, and some characters. Then you could add in other packs to add in more stories, new treasures to hunt. Almost make it a combination of 7th Citadel and TIME Stories. But actually pay off on a big story.

Locke & Key

Maybe all of these will have a board game done on them, because Locke & Key does. But this is another one that the game looks lacking and too abstracted. Locke & Key is a horror series where there are magical keys. These keys can do all sorts of crazy things, and the Locke family is the protector of the keys. But there are almost Lovecraftian type creatures from beyond, that want to get their hands on the keys and take over.

What Would I Want?

I think I’d want a one versus all game. Maybe even with an element of questioning if someone one is infected or not. So it could end up being a Battlestar Galactica type of game or Unfathomable with hidden traitors. Like, who has been infected by the other world. But I also think it could maybe work better as a one versus all game.

But let’s break it down more so, I think we have one person who is playing an infected villain. Someone under the control of the other world. And then they are trying to get the keys from the Locke family, since they can’t just take them. And at times the Locke’s will need to figure out how to banish them and go to the Omega door, which seals away the other worldly creatures. They need to open the door to get more material to make a new key, but there is a chance someone else can be hit. And if they are hit, then they become other worldly.

Of course, it might not be obvious if they are hit. So every time you do that, you risk getting someone else infected. And if someone else is infected, they start working with the group still, but being less optimal. How do you hide it, when do you switch sides and just start working obviously for the bad guy. It’s more about trying to stop each other versus kill them.

Disenchantment

I know this one doesn’t have a game. And honestly, it is so weird, it might not work all that well. Disenchantment is about a princess who has some lousy friends who go on adventures in all sorts of weird places. And then eventually people want to kill them, everyone wants to kill them. It’s a lighter story, and a completely weird world.

What Would I Do?

This, to me is a great one for a dungeon crawler. They end up in a world of gnomes, elves, castles, hell, other castles, and more. They really get pulled around everywhere. Give it a nice world map and see where all you end up, how you can make it through challenges, and if the monsters will kill you. Or your own mother, or really anyone will kill you.

And because you can go to hell, and they do in the show, I think that’d be a fun way to keep a dungeon crawler moving forward. If you die, it isn’t the end, you just need to get back out of hell. Maybe make a hell book of scenarios. Then every time that you die you play through another one of those. It could be determined by where, or how you die, but it could also just be done randomly. And if you die too many times you eventually get stuck.

Keeper of the Lost Cities

I did just write about this. So if you want to know a bit about the series, you can find that here. But the basic idea is that a girl is plucked from her not so normal human life. She finds out that she is really an elf, she gets into elf school. She makes friends, and yes this sounds like Harry Potter, but the world is better and more interesting. And the magic, each elf has a different skill or could have a different skill. And the world is in unrest and their are secret organizations trying to mess with the status quo.

What Would I Want?

This is tough, mainly because I don’t want to repeat too much of what I’ve already done. And this is a really cool world to play in. Firstly, I would want character creation for this game, or at least some ability to pick. Maybe something like Midarra which is very story heavy and you can build out characters however you want.

The elves unlock their powers, but they also have skills that they all can do. It just depends on how well they train themselves. So really setting up stats in different ways and then picking what power you want from being an empath to mind reading or inflicting emotions on someone else. Plus so many more.

I think this would kind of ben another dungeon crawl type of game. Maybe a bit like something like Arydia which isn’t out yet and I might late back, possibly. The concept of Arydia is that you dig deeper. You spend time at the world map level, you make story decisions, and then you get down to a narrower focus.

What Theme Would You Want?

Do you feel that there are some that need more love? I could probably spend time and come up with more. Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson is getting another one, otherwise it’d be on my list. The Call to Adventure version is cool, but there is so much that could be done in that world. And there are plenty of IP’s that could be treated better. I’m going to call out Japanime a little bit here, I think that they often put out okay games with a big IP. I’d love to see some of their anime IP’s get a better developed game.

Let me know which of my ideas sounds the coolest. And let me know what you want to see a game made about that doesn’t get enough love.

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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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Firstly, let me say that I won’t be talking about Legacy of Dragonholt. Legacy of Dragonholt is a simplified and good RPG that is meant for families, I’d say, and keeps everything very basic and simple.

Key Elements of an RPG

When thinking about what elements are taken over from RPG’s to board games, you need to ask what elements the board games are going to try and emulate. There’s a lot of things that they try to, but not all of them work as well and not all of theme are key.

Character Creation

Not one that’s used in a ton of board games, but it’s a core part to RPG’s. Most players I know of have about ten to fifteen different ideas floating around in their head. And that’s great, some board games try and add in elements like this. How does this work for board games, and does it work well? I think a lot of board games kind of half do this, and mainly focus on the next thing I’m going to talk about. When I say half do this, I mean they give you some characters out of the box to work on with maybe limited customization to start with. Gloomhaven, for example, you get your class, and you get cards with 1 on them and that’s your starting set of cards, but you can technically change things up a little bit, because you can swap in X cards, and you can buy gear, so you’d be slightly different than other characters. From what I’ve seen, Folklore: The Affliction maybe does more, but I need to delve into it. Sword & Sorcery also kind of does it with the abilities that you can take at the start.

So does this work well, I think it works okay, a lot of games kind of do it because it’s a lot of work to actually implement, and more board games play with tighter rule sets than RPG’s do.

Character Progression

This is what most board games try and emulate and might be one of the better things that they do emulate. By character progression, I don’t mean narrative growth, I mean leveling up. Who doesn’t like getting a new skill, more health, better stats overall, that’s one of the fun parts of Dungeons and Dragons for me.And there are a lot of board games that do this very well, something like Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth has you progressing your deck and swapping out cards, Gloomhaven has you getting access to new cards and getting more hit points, Sword and Sorcery it’s new skills, weapons and more that you can get. Even stuff like Pandemic Legacy which borrows a few RPG elements lightly gives you an option for character progression.

I think this works extremely well in campaign games. In fact, that’s a knock I have on SeaFall and Charterstone as Legacy games is that I didn’t feel like my character continued to progress over time. Once I’d progressed to a certain point, I could optimize how I’d progressed but not progress further really. But then there are games like Tainted Grail which uses a lot of RPG elements and it’s great for their progression, and even a more limited progression like Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth has interesting progression.

Story

A huge thing about RPG’s is obviously the story that the Dungeon Master and the players are weaving together. This is an area that I think some board games are better at emulating than others. The issue with story often is that the story doesn’t feel as immersive as an RPG. A good example of this would be Near and Far, it has interesting story in it, but it’s more about the worker placement style mechanics and leveling up your team to get victory points. Most of the time I just want more story and a more cohesive story, because they don’t expect the story to be read in any particular order. That was the issue and a big issue with SeaFall, there was no specific order for the story, so it felt like it started and stopped telling the story at different times. Then, however, there are other games, like Gloomhaven or Tainted Grail that tell a good immersive story, and while the mechanics might get ahead of the story at times, I don’t feel like it breaks my immersion. Now, all of those games I mentioned use some other RPG elements, but some games, like Mansions of Madness just has the story element of RPG’s that it adds in, and it works well there.

This element is interesting, because sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn’t. I think it can be a key component and should be the main focus for board games that want to be RPG like board games. I also think that it’s an area that games often oversell themselves on. I like TIME Stories a lot and it calls itself an RPG, it’s one of my favorites thus far, but I don’t get the story RPG feel.

Wrapping Up

Now, I’m a huge fan of RPG elements in board games. It can give a really immersive experience in a lot of different ways. For me, story is definitely king. I want a game with a great story that draws me into what is going on and gives me an experience w hen I play it. However, without solid mechanics to back it up, a game with a great story might as well just be the story. And character progression and even character creation really can give a game a great RPG feel when the story is good but not great.

One game that I’m extremely excited about is the new Roll Player Adventures that’s coming out this year. It builds upon a game, Roll Player, where you are literally just rolling up a character in a D&D manner and makes it into a board game RPG experience. I think it should work really well and the fact you can roll up characters in Roll Player and bring them into Roll Player Adventures is awesome.

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The Premise

The Characters

The Bosses

The Guilds

The Levels

The Boards

Cards vs Dice

Character Leveling

Skills, Weapons and More

Quests

In Town Activities

Level Events and Monsters

Boss Battles

Building a Character

So, this really should have more of a graphical component to it than it will. I would love to show some art, but I don’t have that, to give a sense of the design, or a layout of how I think the board is going to work, but we are in the super early phases of this design. What’s really going to happen is that I’m going to move this over to a spreadsheet and create a number of different characters based off of that so that everything is formatted the same.

The Real World Character

Male – Age 26 – Office Drone

A recent graduate with high hopes and now nothing more than an office drone. Changing the world was the dream, and now it’s changing numbers in the spread sheet. Friends moved away and not enough energy after working overtime to make that many more. At least the people he works with are nice enough, and the coffee isn’t bad.

“I’ve been waiting for this game for months, I know some old friends have too, it’ll be just like old times.”

Keywords: Gamer, Business

In Game Character

Stats:

Strength: 5

Agility: 5

Vitality: 5

Allure: 5

Guile: 5

Currency: 100 Gold

Oddly enough, that’s about it for a character when you pull them out of the box. The real nuances to a character are going to come with how you allocate your 10 extra points for the stats.

The Other Stuff

I think it’s important to talk about what else you’ll have right away, even though it might not be pure character creation stuff. Such as what sort of weapons will you be able to find, and what sort of skills can you pick up. You will be dropped into the world without any gear, just normal commoners clothes, and no skills, just basic attacks that you can do, so that’s why you get 100 gold to start. You can save it up, because there is better stuff you can get on level 2, but you might not live that long.

For armor, and this could have really been it’s own section, you’re looking at two types of armor.

Leather – No movement penalty, +2 defense

Chainmail – Minus 1 movement, +4 defense

Something along those lines. the advantage with chainmail is that you are going to be taking considerably less damage. When an attack might only get through on leather armor at 2 to 4 damage, that means chain might mean that you take no damage. But it does mean that the enemy is going to be more apt to focus on you, because you are going to be the closest with that slower speed, so it’s a trade off. Numbers are not final at this point obviously, but for an example.

Weapons then, you’re going to have much more of a choice. You will have two handed swords, short swords, daggers, bow and arrow, axe, crossbow, and maul at least all available at the start of the game to buy.

As for skills, we’re looking at pretty simple ones that would be available. Something like sweeping attack, bash, counter attack, rush, disengage.

Plus there will be items as well, health potions probably being the biggest of those items that the players might want to buy.

Now, with getting items, I could be really nice, I could be really mean, or I could do something between that. What do I mean? If I was really nice, you’d have a catalog of items that you could pick from and purchase without it costing a turn. If I was really mean, I could make those places four separate shops and make players almost have to decide to shop at least 3 times in a row before doing anything else. I’m going to be less mean than that, I don’t want to hand out gear, and players can do other things on their first turn, but on the first level, there is just going to be a bazaar that’s the shopping area, so you can go and shop once and be done with it, unless you decide that you need more and then you can come back again. The first level is going to play a bit differently than others, I think, and I will delve into what I’m thinking when I start building a level, though I probably won’t build the first level.

Character creation, pretty simple, basically all a player would need to do is allocate those points and fill in the player name and the character name. The character boards, for the stats, might be more like a character sheet, and then a side board. Or I might go with dials that keep track of stats, that’s too be determined, with a save sheet so if the dials get bumped it isn’t the end of the world. Or with a save sheet, maybe I’d do a dry erase player board, that’d be pretty cool and useful.

What do you think of character creation, it should be extremely simple. Obviously, the keywords I handed out this time were pretty generic, but I want to create more unique real world people than just what I wrote for this one, someone might run a greenhouse so they’d know about plants, or maybe a chef, give people a ton of different backgrounds.

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