Breaking out of the Character Rut
By
Mercurial
Every gamer has a character type they visit again and again. I’ve gamed with The Combat Monster, The Ingenue, The Intellect, The Slut, The Freak, The Clown, et cetera, et cetera. The major problem with this is that every game ends up the same, with the same group of people who always take the same sides of the same argument, only there’s a different background and the characters have different names. I could keep going, but I’m sure you get the point. Now, I have to confess that I’m guilty, too. My personal schtick for the longest time was The Kick Ass Chick. She’s argumentative, often full of herself, and generally gets herself into more trouble than she can handle. So, with that admission over and done with, I’ll go do penance like a good little girl.
Okay. I’m back. Though I think I confused the people at the confessional.
The real question here is how to escape from the vicious cycle of making the same character over and over again, with a different name and a new cool power? (Insert melodramatic music here.) The most obvious answer is to not get into that rut in the first place, but that’s more difficult than it sounds. Everyone says that you should make your first character something you know, and that makes perfect sense. It’s difficult enough to remember the rules and not put your foot in your mouth the first time you game without trying to get inside the head of a midget transsexual goat herder, unless you really are a midget transsexual goat herder in real life. Every character needs to move off in a different direction, taking a concept and twisting it around until you come up with something new and unique. Why play the same game over and over again?
The real secret to coming up with a character and not just a caricature is preluding. (For you cretins, caricatures are those cartoonish drawings you can get at amusement parks. While they’re amusing, there’s no detail, often no color, and only a one-dimensional image, both figuratively and literally.)
You can do a lot of different things for a prelude, but the general concept is that you’re fleshing out the character’s background before you play it. You can tell stories from their past, play out scenes with family or friends, or, my personal favorite, play the question game.
In the question game, the GM and the player get together (or the player could fill in answers on a sheet of paper or send them in Morse Code or whatever you like) and the GM asks questions. Stop when you feel like you’ve both gotten a hold of this character and what makes them tick. Personally, I’ve found that after about 30 minutes, your brain begins to hurt.
So what questions do you ask? The point is to ask some major, life-defining questions, things like “Who is her family?” and “When did he first… turn into a raging death beast/join the resistance/meet an alien/whatever? “ But also ask some quirky detail questions like, “What is the last movie he saw?” or “Describe the last dream she had.” Both are important… the defining questions give you an idea of who the character really is, what’s important to them, why they act the way they do. But, without the details, you’re going to end up with a soap opera character: all crisis, no substance.
In the interest of encouragement, I’m going to sign off with a list of some of the questions I’ve used in the past. These questions assume that this is a present day game and they don’t even begin to touch on supernatural/sci-fi/other concerns, so you might have to modify them accordingly. The secret of the question game is to not choose your list of questions until you get there and just follow whatever good tangents develop… I’ve developed entire subplots and themes for games during good question sessions.
Who are your character’s parents/siblings/other family?
What is their relationship like?
What happened the last time your character and his brother (or another key relative) fought?
What are holidays like for their family?
What did your character get for Christmas?
What does your character do for a living?
How did he or she get that job?
What is on your character’s desk or in their locker?
What is in your character’s closet at home?
What is in your character’s jacket or wallet or purse?
When was the last time your character was really angry? What happened?
What is your character afraid of?
Has your character ever cried at a movie?
What pet peeves does your character have?
What party tricks/stupid human tricks can your character do?
What kind of music does your character like?
What is the last dream your character had?
The last book he or she read?
When was the last time your character got embarrassed? What happened?
What makes your character feel insecure?
Who does your character spend free time with? What do they do?
What’s one phrase that your character uses often in speech?
What happened the last time your character developed a crush or an infatuation?
Has your character ever been in love?
Has your character ever had sex?
What one thing would your character never admit to anyone?