Character Creation

Overview

I take character creation very seriously. To that end, I've collected a bunch of words about creating characters here. Read them through while creating the character, if possible, and steal ideas from them.

The Basics

The most important thing about any character in my campaign is background and description. You could even run a character in my campaign without any other stats at all, if you'd like, although it's sometimes convenient to roll a dice or compare numbers, etc. <shrug>

Anyway, don't be afraid to suggest rules variations you'd like to try out, etc. I'm extremely severe towards any sort of munchkinism (which translates, roughly, to "any character who tries to get power and enormous game-world status without working honestly for them".), so don't try to use this to your advantage. However, if you just want to have fun with stuff, go ahead. I'm all for it.

I expect two things from each player prior to starting them playing in my campaign:

1. A character description/background document - This is a document describing both the character you intend to run, as well as his or her personal history. You're encouraged to write as much as possible. Experience and/or level awards are available for characters who
2. A character sheet - This is a basic character sheet, nothing particularly unusual. Attributes can be rolled any way you wish, or even hand-picked, with the stipulation that they should match the description, and not be too outrageously high. I reserve the right to arbitrarily reduce attribute scores before accepting characters into my games.

You should probably make a couple of copies of each of these, so that I can keep one in my possession, and pore over it late at night when I'm bored. E-copies are particularly useful (I use a Windows-NT box, but I'm good with computers, and could probably coax a Mac disk or something to work if hard-pressed. Try to make it easy for me if you can.)

A Checklist

Creating a character is a long and involved process, and it's easy to forget stuff. To help you remember all the things you need to do, I've prepared this checklist. Page number references from the revised 2nd edition Player's Handbook (the black one with the adventurers bursting into through a door on the cover)

1. A Detailed Character History - More on this in the Player package, but briefly, this is where your character came from, what made him who (s)he is today, etc. The more words, the better.
2. A Detailed Character Description - This includes such things as what your character looks like, how (s)he acts and behaves, what (s)he believes, what (s)he wears, etc.
3. Choose class and race - This is a big step, and should probably come out of your character description. Note that non-humans have a hard time in my world, and in Museurth, only human characters are allowed at all (unless you have a really convincing reason to play a Dylph or an irn or something).
4. Weapon and Nonweapon Proficiencies - (Chapter 5). Nonweapon proficiencies should come out of your character background, as should weapon proficiencies.
5. Equipment - (Chapter 6). Choose equipment based on starting money as listed, unless you can come up with a convincing reason why your character has more money (you can have less money if you want without even asking me).
6. Ability Scores - Give me ranges for these, based on your character description, as described in the Player Package. Justifications for particular values would be good, here, if the value is unusually high (14 or above) or unusually low (6 or below). (p18-25)
7. Combat Stats - This includes your THAC0 (p121 + modifiers), your Armor Class (AC) (p99+modifiers), and your Hit Points (p16 + modifiers)

These are the important things. You can come up with other stuff too, like age and weight and stuff, but as long as these things are there, your character will be considered playable in my campaign.

Character Backgrounds

I use character backgrounds for plot ideas and motivating players, so the richer and more original the background, the richer the character's (and hence, the player's) involvement in the game world will be.

Some things to think about for character backgrounds are:

• People that the character may have had in the past: parents, friends, mentors, servants -- anybody significant to the character can be documented.
• The character's homeland. Depending on the campaign, you can invent this, or I will give you options. Contact me before creating characters if you care about this issue.
• Why is the character adventuring/doing whatever the adventure dictates? This is one of the more important and unusual questions: if there isn't a satisfactory answer to this, the character might fizzle before it has a chance to make its mark on the world...
• What do you (as a player) hope to get out of playing this character? Answering this helps me, as a game master, to help fulfill your hopes.