One Strong (But Wrong) Opinion

It’s hardly revolutionary to say that in the vast majority of role-playing games, your character is your single strongest vector of contribution, so making a good character is critical. But what’s a “good” character? Easy: Someone you (and everyone else at the table) finds interesting. Someone we want to talk about. Someone who moves the story in an interesting direction. And, most importantly, someone you can wrap your head around, so you can play them. That last point is essential. If you can’t get a grip on your own character, your game is dead in the water. If you can’t understand them you can’t decide what they would say or do. That makes it hard for you to contribute, and everything grinds to a halt. Every week, the groups I’m in play games which require us to invent characters on the fly — lots and lots of characters — often very quickly. We make (and role-play) a lot of imaginary people. Which can be challenging. Different games have different rules for making characters, some…