Creating Characters

Character creation in role playing games is the most important aspect of the hobby. In RPG's characters are what drive the story, they make all the big decisions, rescue (or imperil) the settings rulers and resources, and challenge its enemies.

The sad thing is, that many players do not bother to make their characters interesting, and so most games do not last beyond a few sessions, and fizzle out. If the players (regardless of age) put a little life into these characters, the game would be far more interesting for the DM/GM/Storyteller and the players alike. But how do you make a character unique and interesting?

Using the normal default of roleplaying games being in a pseudo-medieval world with dragons elves and dragons. Lets look at some questions that are good to ask yourself about the character to hlp you flesh out his personality and history:

Where Did The Character Come From?

Is he or she a local or a foreigner? This makes alot of difference in a medieval setting, where few people ever go farther than a few miles from where they were born. People in a medieval setting are generally very suspicious of outsiders, seeing them as inherantly immoral and suspect. DMs should feel encouraged to play this up.

What Did The Character Do Before Adventure Came Calling?

Adventurers rarely choose their careers. Often they had a normal hum-drum life before some big event, such as a rampaging enemy, plague or other event made adventuring an option (or removed all other options). Many times, and adventurer might wish nothing more than to settle down to a nice "boring" life rather than crawling through swamps and fighting monsters. Other times, adventurers might be the sort of people that never really fit in society. History is full of these sorts of adventurers including Christopher Columbus, Juan Ponce de León, Benjamin Franklin, and Jack Churchill (This guy fought in WW2 armed with a bow, arrows and a Claymore, saying: "any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed").

Career Choices: Choosing a career that the character had before adventure came a-knocking is a great way to flesh out a character and get a feel of his world view and normal skills and knowledges. An excellent list, with descriptions of medieval trades can be found here.

Projects

Lots of projects are under way lately, with many more to come. But I will try to post assorted bits as I can.

I am presently working with Knightvision Studios as a concept artist for their delightfully complex setting Ebonyr. Its a very detailed world meant for "Old School" style roleplaying games.

To the left is one of the concept sketches of the settings bestial/scapegoat race called the Ruhk. This race seems to be more like primitive humans than the standard non-human goblinesqe critters that we see so often.

From what I have gathered, the Ruhk are tough, warlike folk. But are also innovative, cunning and brave. To reflect this, I want to portray them as people, rather than just tusked brutes. The image shown depicts a Ruhk woman gathering oysters with a child of her race.

Angelic Musings

To the left is a color piece created for the launching of Marcher Lord Press. This company strives to produce quality fiction for the Christian market that is geared towards fans of science fiction and fantasy. Its some good stuff too.

This was a fun project. I love angel imagery, but prefer "action" oriented angels. Biblical angels are often seen as frightening by those who meet them.

If you think this image, or other Aaron Siddall images would look good on a print, coffee mug or mouse pad, YOURE NOT ALONE. Such products can be purchased over at my DeviantArt Page. Just click on the appropriate image in My Gallery, and click on "Available in The Shop" and take it from there.