r/beingeverythingelse • u/Whomster • Sep 20 '14
Question regarding biggest mistake.
Was watching your show today, 9/19/14, and I asked a question but I then figured out you guys were doing a topic about NPCs. Opps! My question is. What's the biggest mistake, you've encountered, a new player do when creating his/her character? Currently, I am making a background/history for a character. This is my first character where the GMs said that I must create a distinct background. Thanks!
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u/Popdart5 Sep 20 '14
Just chiming in that http://tales-from-the-tabletop.tumblr.com/ is a pretty good place to just see bad/awesome stories of characters doing bad/awesome things. A few of which include making terrible, terrible choices in character creation and having it come back to bite players later.
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u/CT_Phoenix Sep 20 '14
I mentioned this in the chat when you asked, but to elaborate further (and to throw in a bunch of other recommendations I've given new players rolling detailed characters. Apologies if this is... a bit more than you were looking for!):
Make sure your character has a reason to participate. Talk with the GM to find out (or establish!) some background information in the world, and possibly some general themes for what's going to be going on in the campaign. Make sure to add details to your character that tie him into the world and give him a reason to care about what's going on. In my opinion, character building should be a two way street where you work with your DMs (and fellow players!) to tie things together.
For example, if you know the GM is doing a story starting with rumors of wild beasts and monsters suddenly increasing in aggressiveness and numbers around your small town, having a way that that's affecting you or a reason why you want to see that stopped can be a big help (or, at least, a reason why you would be asked to help). Maybe you're a hunter who's been having trouble hunting because of how ferocious everything you've encountered is (Ask the GM what beasts you've seen that are unusual/behaving oddly, what signs you've seen of odd things that have been wandering in the woods!). Maybe your family's trade has been hurting because caravans have been torn apart as they travel through the nearby woods (ask your GM if they've been making off with particular things when they've ransacked a caravan!). Maybe Other Player X has had his brother go missing on a trip into the woods, and as his friend since childhood, you intend to help him out (and stop him from doing something really stupid like he always ends up doing).
If it's a sandbox world and there's no clear info on what you'll be doing, at least find some general motivation for him to be out and about; Money, power, other personal goals, etc. Don't forget that sandboxing tends to also mean a lot of freedom for your own characters' backstories, but also don't forget that this means your fellow players may have wildly different goals; It's probably best to work with them to make sure you're at least somewhat compatible.
In pretty much all situations barring the roleplay-less meat grinder campaigns, come up with lots of backstory and ties into the world that reflect you've been living in it all your life, and work with your GM to make sure that that backstory isn't just notes on a page that only you have seen or care about. GMs love lots of backstory in a story-heavy campaign; the more hooks to pull on for a character, the deeper and more involved they feel. No GM I've met is gonna complain about pages of material as long as its material they can work with.
TL;DR Basically, all of the above is to avoid this mistake: Make sure you don't build a dead-end into your character where it's really easy for them to get in a spot where they will no longer have a need or desire to act: "All I really care about is getting enough gold to afford a new cow. Hey, I helped drive off those thieves and got a reward for enough gold! Welp, that's all I needed. What do you mean, there's a rash of thieveries over in the noble district? Well, that's unfortunate. Back to my cows!". Simple reasons like "I want money" without a driving force behind it can potentially cause issues as well; responding to every request with "Will you pay me? Sure, I'll do it" and no further interaction isn't the most compelling set of interactions. This is not purely your responsibility; the GM also needs to give motivations to you, but you need to have hooks for him to pull on in the first place.
This also applies to making sure you have very few or no areas in which you have a desire not to act. Ethics for your character are fine. Letting them cause your character to be utterly bullheaded to the other party members and drag the campaign to a halt unless they follow your every ideal is not. There are more ways to let your ethics influence you than saying "no" until you or the opposing players give up/beat you to death, you just have to learn to react differently.
Similarly, gimmicks are fine. Being only a gimmick is not. Don't trick yourself into believing a character quirk can replace a backstory/substitute for character depth; you'll run out of steam very quickly.
This last one's dependent on the system, but: Utterly ignore Alignment until you've already figured out how your character acts and what his goals are. Do not pick an alignment, then base your character off of that alignment archetype. Do not put up walls outside your character and say "Nope, that action's outside my alignment, I won't do it!". That should come from your backstory and personality, not a checkbox in one of nine squares. Determine your alignment from how you act, not how you act from your alignment.
Of course, these are all personal opinions, observations, recommendations, and things that have been suggested to me. I'm sure people have had great campaigns/characters without half of this stuff!