Character Creation Guide

The most important thing to do is talk with the Game Master (GM) about the specifics of the campaign they are running. Hopefully most questions about the setting are within the writings here on this site, but you need to know exactly what kind of game you will be playing in. It doesn't make much sense for you to play an initiate member of the Alderwards if the game will take place entirely in The Fangs, unless it does. Or playing a Sal'diri shepherd living in Tapli, unless it does. And it doesn't make sense to play a Buried Elf who has honestly dedicated their lives to serving the xenophobic and murderous Ironbelt Brothers, unless it does. Example: After talking with the GM, Nick has decided that he wants to play a mercenary or soldier. Luckily this is a very flexible background, and after the discussion he knows that there are not many professional soldiers in the setting so he is able to settle on being part of a levy or militia. With this information he can start filling out the massive blanks in his character.

Now you have an understanding of the campaign you are playing in, you can begin to plan and write your character. A typical recommendation is to think of characters you like in other media. Whether it's someone like King Arthur Pendragon inspires you to play a chivalrous knight fighting for what is good and just, to characters like Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones who are much more concerned with more selfish (to varying degrees) concerns like fighting, his family, and his love. You can take traits, motivations, and fears from many places but you should try and create an organic and believable person from it, try to incorporate these pieces into a backstory to add extra layers of depth as well as giving you the player inherit ideas of how the character would act in different scenarios. Example: After some consideration, Nick wants to play a misunderstood hero with a noble goal. He thinks being from a monstrous race will add some inherent distrust and fear from others, decides to choose between a race like goblin or orc. He then decides on an orc because goblins don't make as good melee fighters and are a bit too mischievous and vile for what he wants. While working on a backstory for his character, he incorporates that there aren't many professional or full time soldiers, so in his spare time his orc is actually a baker. Knowing this is pretty atypical for an orc of almost any setting, Nick sets decides that maybe his character learned it from somewhere else, in fact maybe maybe he learned it from his grandfather who is actually a human, and not only is his character at least a quarter human, he may be a half-orc. Deciding to flesh out this backstory, this character is the offspring of an orc who saved a human woman (the baker's daughter) and they fell in love.

With a solid foundation of who the character is, it's time to decide what your character is (normally this is when I would also pick a race for my character if it wasn't a part of any particular backstory.) When deciding on a class (and/or race) we can make our choice from what we want out of our character. Thinking of archetypes can be very helpful in deciding this. There are tanks, which are meant to absorb damage and direct enemies to attack them instead of other members of your party, next we have DPS (damage per second) whose job is to deal as much damage as quickly as possible, and finally we have support, these kinds of characters are responsible for healing and buffing allies in combat to reducing how much damage enemies do or causing other ailments like making them easier to hit so they are become less of a threat. After deciding this you can start looking at classes (or whatever they are called in the system you are using) with whatever abilities they may have, and equipment. Example: Wanting to play a more heroic role, Nick decides that he wants to play something like a tank, maybe with a little bit of support thrown because that way he can also help the other adventurers in his party (luckily, a lot of the time you can find a class that mixes like this.) A barbarian is much too focused on anger and killing, a fighter is a bit closer, but he finally decides on making his character a paladin which is not only a tank but can also buff and heal his party! Being a paladin, Nick also needs to pick a deity for his character, communicate with your GM about any powerful entities that have a tie to your character whether it's gods, demons, devils, emperors, queens, etc.

As we end character creation knowing large swaths of our character's background as well as how they work mechanically we can fill in some of the remaining pieces. For example, we have yet to give them real goals and personality traits. If you are unsure about what else to add to your character or if you don't feel like you have enough I am a big fan of using the Genesys Core Rulebook's section titled "Determine Character Motivation." You may have noticed a lack of a name until this point, I like to have my name have something to do with the character and who they are. As I finish a backstory I like I will start thinking of names I may actually like/want to use. Example: Nick is only sure that he wants his half-orc to be a courageous paladin that wants to protects the people he loves. So, he decides to use the tables in the Genesys Core Rulebook to help flesh out the rest of the character. He rolls 13 under Desire, 97 for Fear, 28 under Strength, and 85 under Flaw. The character's desire is Belonging, the character wants more than anything to be accepted by someone or perhaps a group or faction of people. The character's Fear is Poverty, for whatever reason the paladin is deeply concerned about wealth, or rather, his lack of it. The character's Strength is Courageous, fitting for someone who is willing to put themselves in harm's way to protect those around him. And the character's Flaw is Recklessness, he puts little forethought into how his actions may affect him and those around him. With this information Nick can start putting together a real history and personality. Backstory: The half-orc is the son of an orc mercenary who saved his mother and grandfather from bandits, and after a short while his parents would wed and have him. His parents made plans to move to larger city where their love would be more accepted and his father could find more consistent work. Sadly his mother passed away in childbirth, clutching her newborn child. His father cried with his massive heaving chest as his mother cooed "Isn't he just the sweetest thing you ever saw...?" as she passed from this world. His father took her final words very seriously, and named the child Sugar, but thanks to his thick accent came out as Xugarr. Xugarr settled in the village where his mother and grandfather lived in, joining the town militia and doing the occasional odd job to help keep bandits and other threats at bay, at least until he perished rescuing villagers from a burning building while Xugarr was still young. Being a half-orc, Xugarr was always a bit bigger and stronger than other children, as well as the few combat lessons from his father, while this didn't make him arrogant it still causes to this day him to overestimate the abilities of others around him (Recklessness.) Xugarr would often use these abilities to help others, standing up for the young or weak against bullies (Courageous), but no matter how far he went to protect someone they still spurned him for his Orcish heritage. He hopes for one day to find other's who love him dearly for who he is like his family does (Belonging.) He hopes to one day repay the kindness and love of his grandfather who raised him he wants to adventure to find treasure so he may help his grandfather retire in luxury or to renovate his bakery and hire help (Poverty.)