I was asked by a Player about creating a character for a game. Their concern was that they didn’t want to spend the time creating a character that they wouldn’t have fun playing. First and foremost: don’t worry about it. Everyone has favorite and less-favorite characters. In some cases, a Neat Idea didn’t really resolve properly, as the ruleset might let you down, or you can’t quite nail down a way to work the idea into a list of skills and stats. Sometimes the character doesn’t really fit the campaign: a gung-ho combat character would be out of place in an Agatha Christie murder mystery. Sometimes the player just isn’t inspired by the campaign, so it can be hard to make a “good” character. And then there are the times when the Character just Clicks. Cherish those characters, as they are the most fun to pull out.
Everyone has their own formula for making characters. For some, its about skill balance and maximizing power for points. “Min-maxing” is the term. Some people don’t care as much about power curve, and put more effort into the personality of the character. Some Players (myself included) will spend points on skills that might not affect the game much, but fits the character’s backstory. It is possible to overdo this, and end up with a character that isn’t “useful” very often. Some people don’t really invest much in their characters at all. One of our Players, when playing in a traditional fantasy game, might make a character like “Bob the Mage” who doesn’t really have much more than what’s expressly written on the paper. Playing the game amounts to little more than rolling dice when necessary. When he has an engaging character, he spends a great deal of time and effort squeezing the most out of that character as he can.
For myself, it all begins with the Character themself, and who they are. I try to work out the main driving personality, and come up with a name that sums it up as succinctly as possible. From there, I work out what skills they would have, and prioritize that in the order of “usefulness” for the campaign. If I find playing the character engaging from the start, it is much easier to have fun and let that character take over for the night. Crimson, a character I have played on and off for twenty years, has a very developed personality by now.
Another component of character building is coming up with a list of things this personality can do. Different games in different systems will handle the specifics and numbers in their own ways, but coming up with that main set of skills and abilities is the first step. This will help you make your character find a place in the game, and know how they can participate in the adventure. Character Types can be common, and most games with similar themes will have many of the same concepts to work with. Come up with what you want your character to do first, then worry about how your particular game engine handles those abilities.
So don’t worry about hit-and-miss with characters. That’s part of the game! Just take the time and think about how you like to play, what the campaign is about, and let the character develop along the lines you are comfortable with.