How do I create a character's personality?Like I'm gonna be playing a star wars rpg and I made a bounty hunter, I have the character sheet, but I don't know how to create the non-game parts of the character. Pic sort of related I suppose
Write down where he comes from. I'm not asking you to write a novel, some short points are enough.Background, parents, youth, first job.Motivations, why did he become a bounty hunter? Goals. Principles. Principles can make a hug difference. For instance, does he kill anyone in his path or does he vow to only kill those that are in the way of his bounty?You can think of a particular manner of speech. Does he favor short, quick sentences? Maybe most of his replys are just gruffy grunts. Or can he talk eloquently? Pick something that you are comfortable with.Keep those in mind and then start playing the character. Nobody is expecting you to hand over a novel as a backstory, and nobody is expecting you to play improv theater. Just find a way to have fun playing this character past rolling a die.
>>97762501BIG 5 PERSONALITYOpenness to Experience: This trait reflects a person’s level of imagination, curiosity, intellectual depth, and preference for variety. Individuals scoring high enjoy novelty, abstract thinking, and art, while those scoring low prefer routine, tradition, and practicality.Conscientiousness: This dimension measures a person’s tendency toward self-discipline, organization, carefulness, and goal-directed behavior. A high score suggests a hardworking & reliable individual, whereas a low score points to someone who is more spontaneous, flexible, and perhaps prone to procrastination.Extraversion: This trait indicates how social, talkative, energetic, and assertive a person is, encompassing their level of engagement with the outside world. Highly extraverted people are energized by social interaction and crowds, while those scoring low (introverts) prefer solitude and reflection.Agreeableness: This dimension gauges an individual’s orientation toward compassion, cooperativeness, kindness, and trustworthiness in social interactions. High agreeableness is linked to being empathetic and helpful, while low agreeableness is associated with being more competitive, skeptical, and focused on self-interest.Neuroticism: This trait measures a person’s tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anxiety, stress, worry, and emotional instability. A high score indicates high emotional reactivity and mood swings, while a low score suggests a calm, secure, and resilient temperament.
>>97762536>>97762544This does help me a lot, thank you. I sort of have an idea what he's supposed to be like but I was struggling on how to put it.
>>97762501>Like I'm gonna be playing a star wars rpg and I made a bounty hunter,Stand around and look cool, then job and lose against a blind man when it's time to actually fight.
>>97762589You forgot the part where he survives and has many adventures that are no longer canon
>>97762544OCEAN is Myers-Briggs-level bullshit for HR people.
>>97762848>Myers-Briggsqrd?
>>97762929
>>97762967but this all seems very accurate and true to real life
>>97762996MBTI is of questionable accuracy when it comes to real people, but there is nothing wrong with using these as some sort of guideline.Better than slapping some random traits together and hope they somehow create a complete human being.
>>97762501Is the bounty hunter a twink twi'lek?
>>97763179He is a twi'lekI don't put my fetishes into my games so he won't be a twink.
>>97763198Look up Twi'lek culture and general personality traits, then filter that through their backstory (if you don't have one, talk to the GM about the timeline placement and tone of the game and make one based on that information, backstories are not useless like /tg/ says because /tg/ is full of nogames retards, they inform how your character reached the point the game starts in and how they behave during the game based on their past experiences).Where they grew up, their wealth or lack of it, if it's empire era then they were probably oppressed by the empire since the empire is extremely anti-anything that isn't human so consider that, how did they become a bounty hunter, how long have they been one, if this isn't their first gig what was? Stuff like that.People are shaped by their experiences and upbringing. Your character should be too.
How do you portray Stoic vs Shy?
>>97762501Little brat
>>97762501Copy from a character you like from something your group doesn't know.
>>97762967>>97763153MBTI is a good structure for character personalities though
>>97764128Stutter
>>97764128Shy people are nervous when conversing with norms.Stoic people make norms nervous when conversing with them.
>>97762501I have these notes from drama class, over 20 years ago, about the traits that make up a character. They might serve as inspiration for you..The Character's Physiological Attributes:1. Biological Attributes: Man, woman or animal and the attributes that emphasize gender.2. Physical Circumstances: Age, size, weight, skin, eye and hair colour. Shape of head, face and body parts.3. Other Physical Attributes: Stance, movement patterns, voice quirks, any diseases or deformities (bad sight, hearing, aches, birth marks).4. Appearance: Handsome, over/underweight, clean, well-dressed.5. Inherited Traits: "She's got her mother's legs, but her fathers musical sense".The Character's Sociological Attributes1. Class - lower, upper, middle2. Occupation: Work, type of work, times of work, income, work environment, work conditions, relationship with union or other organizations, capable of working?3. Education: Amount, type of schools, grades, favourite subjects, hated subjects, classmates, teachers.4. Home Environment: Parents, divorced?, orphan?, parents' habits, husband, wife or children.5. Religion6. Race, nationality.7. Societal Hierarchy: Gang boss, Rotary, Athlete8. Political Views.9. Likes, Hobbies: Books, magazines, cinema.10. Representability: How well does the character represent her label?The Character's Psychological Attributes1. Sex life, Morals2. Motivation: Ambitions, will, desires3. Noticeable Traits: Temperamental, choleric, pessimistic, optimistic. Attitudes4. Frustrations, Failures.5. Intellectual Level: Cool-headed, calm, rash, indecisive, ethics.6. Decisive Properties: Decisiveness in different types of situations.7. Emotions: hidden and/or apparent.8. Life View: Resigned, militant, defeatist.9. Complexes: Phobias, superstitions, manias, delusions.10. Social Type: Extrovert, Introvert, Ambivert.11. Abilities: Talents, languages12. Qualities: Imagination, judgement, taste13. IQ
>>97765923These are neat, and do make for great inspiration.
>>97764128Stoic people are Introverted and emotionally stable.Shy people are neurotic.
>>97762544I also supplement it with a value chart.
>>97766537
>>97762848You can convert between them pretty easily except for the lack of a Neurotic scale.
>>97762544
>>97764128Stoic characters tend to be more confident when they speak, though they don't speak much at all and get to the point.Shy characters tend to be more nervous when they speak, and might ramble when they do speak.
Best way to build up a characters personality is through hypotheticals.Imagine your character in specific situations, go with your first instinct on how he'd react, then figure out step by step why he would act that way.
>>97762501Usually answering these six questions helps when coming up with a character that feels like a believable person:> Where do they come from?> What do they want?> What do they believe in?> Who do they care about?> To whom or what are they loyal?> Why are they here specifically?These usually make for good outline to a character, you can then ask follow-up questions and fill in the gaps as you play. The idea is to make a believable person that is distinct from yourself, but that you're interested enough in to be able to step into their shoes, eventually you should be able to do it intuitively.
>>97762501Try playing a game and seeing what happens.>>97762536>>97762544Shit advice.
>>97768417>character for nerd dice game: who are their parents???>character from billion dollar media franchise: nobody even though about it until the third movie
>>97768417People - and thus characters - are defined by their experiences. If you create a character that has no connections to the setting the GM is running and has no past, no family, no history, no previous experiences, that just randomly spawned into the game world, you won't have a character. You objectively cannot, because your "character" has no personality traits, no likes or dislikes, no ideals, no beliefs, no opinions, no NOTHING. "TRY PLAYING A GAME AND SEEING WHAT HAPPENS" is shit nogames faggots like (you) spew over and over, but it has nothing to do with making a character, because GUESS WHAT THE CHARACTER NEEDS TO SEE WHAT FUCKING HAPPENS?! They need a PERSONALITY! Which they can only have if they've lived experiences in the past, because they need a starting point for their personality to grow and change and evolve as they experience more new things! >OH JUST GIVE THEM ONEOkay how do you fucking determine it? That's the Question OP asked.>UHHH JUST LET STUFF HAPPENNo, that doesn't work, that does not give them a defined personality at the start of the game.>UHHHHH THEY DONT NEED ONEYes they fucking do you troglodyte, they need a starting point so that the experiences within the game can affect them, so that the player knows how their fucking character will react to certain experiences, YOU KNOW, ROLEPLAYING! THE THING THAT COMES RIGHT THERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NAME! TABLE TOP ROLE PLAYING GAME! FRONT AND CENTER! YOU STUPID, NOGAMES FUCK!
>>97769919You’d be surprised how many people think that just playing as themselves in a funny hat is the height of “role playing”. Most of those people have zero separation between themselves and their character, and take everything bad that happens to them in the game as an attack on their person.
>>97762501Answer the following questions: 1) What does the character have in their pockets/purse?2) What does your character do on a Sunday?3) What was the best birthday gift the character received?4) What does the character think about the policies of the mayor/leader of the community?5) What is the character's handwriting like?6) What is the character's favorite color?7) What tics does the character have when they need to sit still for a while?
>>97762967>>97762544yeah just roll on those with D5 and D16It's great
>>97770104I can't answer half of those about myself most of the time lmao
>>97770313Sounds like your player needs more time to work on your character sheet then
>>97770438being a player character in Offices and Mergers 5e sucks
>>97769919>>97770082Yeah you guys have never played games that lasted more than two sessions.
HOW TO ROLEPLAY:Step 1: pick a funny foreign accentStep 2: do whatever you want
>>97770839I have. And I didn’t claim every pone who plays ttrpgs is like that. I’m just saying there are some real lazy motherfuckers up out there when it comes to ttrpgs who act like having a bit of fun pretending to be someone else is somehow beneath them.
>>97762501What I do is I have a list of fictional characters with personalities I find acceptable to emulate, and just pick one for a new character, either because it would fit the game, or I think it'd be funny.
>>97773605Thanks reddit.
>>97775424redditors are the ones writing lore docs for their 5E characters, faggot. get over yourself. if anyone wanted to hear you tell a backstory you'd be the GM
>>97776109>Who's Horseshoe Theory?
>>97762501Everyone expects a bounty hunter to be some edgy grim Clint Eastwood mother fucker. So make him a goober who uses obfuscating stupidity and cheap/cowardly tricks instead.
>>97762501Yendor's eventual twink death is the worst tragedy of Star Wars.
>>97786609what does he look like later?
>>97762501>How do I create a character's personality?How do you get good characterization?The Complete Book of Villains.It is the single greatest characterization tool I have ever seen.It really helps you design a campaign, too.The advice works for any system.You can use it to develop characters of any type or depth, simply using the parts you need and skipping the rest. You can use it to roll up 30 shallow characters in a matter of minutes or take your time to develop more characterization for one character than you'll ever really need.I will never stop shilling this thing.The old link I had washttps://the-eye.eu/public/Books/rpg.rem.uz/Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons/AD%26D%202nd%20Edition/Accessories/DMGR6%20-%20The%20Complete%20Book%20of%20Villains.pdfNo Idea where to find it free now.I bought a physical copy.
>>97790886Huh, I have a pdf of this, never bothered reading it before.Guess I'll take a look.
