Investing in your Character

It dawned on me the other day that the players have been getting the short shrift. Let me make it up to you.

Just what exactly a character is depends on the player controlling it. For one player, the character might be a collection of numbers, bound loosely to an identity, probably one created in a haphazard fashion and for the benefit of the other players. Another player might see the PC as a fully realized identity, an alter ego with personality, history, ambitions, and, maybe, even a different voice. Most, in my experience, fall somewhere between the two.

The degree of investment a player makes into the PC often depends on what brings the player to the table in the first place. As Robin Laws so masterfully pointed out, there are slayers, actors, storytellers, and watchers: Each shapes his or her character’s identity in accordance with what they hope to get out of the experience. As a DM, identifying the player types and playing to them can make a marked improvement on game play and enjoyment for everyone involved. If you have a party of slayers, for example, there’s little point weaving a complex intrigue. Likewise, the game may fall to pieces should you throw a party of actors and storytellers in a dungeon week in and week out.

Sometimes, though, it’s difficult for a DM to recognize the cues. The inability may stem from sheer ignorance, especially if the the DM skipped that part in the DMG. It could also arise from players who don’t quite fit into a player archetype. I find most players are composites, some being actors and storytellers, slayers and instigators, and so on.  While I do think it’s possible to run a good game without recognizing player motivations, I’m not sure its possible to run a great game.

The task of identifying the players’ interests is not the DM’s alone. Players have a part in this as well. There’s a lot you can do to share your interests, aside from just telling the DM straight to his or her face. (You might not know what type of player you are or what you’re really after in the game.) I find the best way is to simply invest in your character.

What I mean by character investment is to examine your adventurer with a fresh set of eyes. Look beyond the feat, power, feature combinations and consider just who exactly this hero is. For some, this is easy and much of the groundwork may be done ahead of time through painstaking notes and background information the player has already worked out. Others might find this a bit daunting, especially if you’re not at the table to wax about your character’s feelings. How does one invest? You do so by grounding your character in the game, through what I like to call anchors. There’s no right number of anchors. You can have one or a dozen. Each anchor, however, reveals something about your PC and his or her place in the world. An anchor is a story element that describes something about your character and past experiences. I’ll include a few examples so you can see what I’m talking about.

Hometown: Your character had to come from somewhere. Even if wolves raised your barbarian, they did so in a place and at a specific time. Come up with a hometown. This could be a place in the campaign setting or it could be a smaller, less significant location such as a hamlet or village. Consider what life was like there, who you knew, and who you didn’t. What kind of upbringing did your character have? What was your quality of life? Did you know your parents? What did they do to put food on the table? Similarly, did you have any siblings? What do they do and who are they? Finally, why did you leave your hometown? What was the event or circumstance that led you to leave all that you knew and venture out into the unknown.

Foil: As much as I think we would all like to believe that we get along famously with everyone we’ve ever met, each one of probably has someone out there that doesn’t like us. I can think of a couple. If this is true for us, it’s also true for your character. Who is this person? What is the source of your animosity? Are you to blame? What did you do? Or, what didn’t you do? A foil doesn’t have to be a enemy seeking your death, though it might be. A foil can simply be someone you disappointed, offended, frustrated, or harmed. This character might resurface in your life, perhaps to exact revenge or maybe to give you the chance for redemption.

Goal: Most folks work toward something. Yes, there are some people who are content to wile away their time doing nothing, but I believe even these folks are striving for something even if they don’t realize it. What does your character hope to achieve in life? I’m not talking about mechanics here. Saying you want to be a demigod may be your goal, but it’s unlikely to be something your starting character would even dream of accomplishing. Better choices could be finding your father’s ancestral sword, rescuing a sibling from the Shadowfell, visiting the Shrine of Okal-Ma, where the great mystic and healer is believed to have died. Or something like this.

Other possibilities include Traumas, Loves, Fears, Failures, Accomplishments, and so on.

You don’t have to write a 1,000 words to set up this information. It might be enough to scribble down something like “Lothar of the Hill People went on long walks with the women in his village. One woman he prized was Pooklah of the Twin Peaks. A bear mauled her. Now Lothar is sad.” You just need enough to give your DM a few hooks to play with down the road.

Once you assemble your anchors, share them with your DM. Send it in an email or hand him or her a note. A DM may note use everything you create, but offering this information demonstrates you commitment to the game’s development and also reveals the sorts of stories that interest you. When the game turns involves your anchor, it gives you a chance to gain the spotlight, to immerse in the world, and to give your efforts meaning. Such experiences help develop your character into an interesting and memorable figure with the all-around result of enriching the play experience.