Creating People, Places, and Things, Pt.1 - People
The Pilgrimage to Canterbury, Thomas Stothard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In his recorded lectures on worldbuilding, Brandon Sanderson states that worldbuilding is ultimately in service to the story and that lore should be conveyed through characters in interesting ways. With no story, worldbuilding is pointless, and with no characters, there is no story. So, how do you create interesting, believable characters to build your story around? How do we as GMs do this when the main characters are ultimately not of our design? Let's take a look at how to use the world around you as inspiration for the denizens of your game worlds, whether they are NPCs, creatures, and yes, even the player characters!
What Makes a Believable Character?
Detail of the Wife of Bath, The Pilgrimage to Canterbury, Thomas Stothard
The phrase "believable character" implies that there is an appearance of reality to that character - you believe that the character could (or maybe does) exist. Without going into deep philosophy on what it means to be human, the best way to create that appearance of life is with the non-physical traits of that character. This includes their personality, their gender, their quirks, their flaws, their wants, and their needs.
To borrow from history, the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales are believable because they have all of these traits. The Wife of Bath, one of the most developed characters does not shy away from discussing her gender, her flaws, and most definitely her wants and needs!
What Makes a Believable Character Interesting?
To take that believable character to the next level, you have to then add the details that make them unique. This includes physical traits like hair, eye, skin, sex, build, and species but it can also include non-physical traits as well.
Detail of the Summoner, The Pilgrimage to Canterbury, Thomas Stothard
Continuing our use of The Canterbury Tales as an example, the Summoner is described as scabby and pimple-covered with a face that children feared. He smelled of garlic and onions, was often drunk, and boisterous. Chaucer goes into such detail to paint you a picture of this man so you will understand the context of his tale. He’s an interesting character because of his numerous flaws.
Building believable characters in your RPG World
When creating an NPC for your RPG campaign, start with the non-physical traits first. Get a sense of who they are and then build the physical traits around that. This also allows you to tailor their stat block to what is most relevant. If Helga, the barmaid with a heart of gold, has information that she knows is valuable, then she's going to need a higher charisma and some negotiation skills.
This works for player character creation and design as well. Most RPG character creation methods start with the physical traits first and then add the non-physical traits later. This is a vestigial holdover from the early wargaming days of D&D. That works just fine for action-oriented highly-lethal games. It allows the players to quantify their characters quickly so the game can get started, especially if there's a higher risk of the character dying before you can get invested in it. However, story-oriented RPG campaigns can really benefit from thinking through the non-physical stuff first. This is one of the core elements of why Session Zeros have become popular. A Session Zero allows you to sit down as a group and talk through character traits, motivations, and relationships. Saving the number crunching until the end of the Session Zero or even after the Session Zero gives the player time to think through how they want to build that character.
This also applies to creatures and monsters. All sentient life has wants and needs even if they are basic survival necessities. When adding a creature to your adventure, think about why that creature is there, what its disposition is, and what it wants and/or needs. This could open an opportunity for you to explain a bit about the world you've created. It might also give your players alternate paths to resolve the encounter other than simply fighting it. Monsters are a bit trickier because by their nature they are dangerous things that will most likely kill anything in their paths. But, even monsters have wants and needs - a gelatinous cube has to eat!
The Monsters Know What They’re Doing by Keith Ammann is an excellent book about this exact thing. If you’ve not read it, I highly recommend you pick it up.
Using the World Around You for Character Inspiration
Characters are all around us - people you see every day, actors, writers, musicians, historical figures. Every one of these people are unique and have their own story. Observe them and think about the traits we've discussed. If you are using a historical figure, research them beyond their summary entry on Wikipedia. What were their motivations? Their quirks, their flaws? What made them interesting and what makes them memorable? That is a distilled character.
Then, when you have those traits down, embellish the character. Make it your own. Add on those physical traits and place them in your world. Consider where your character is in your world and why they're there.
Lastly, stat that character out. What are the stats that matter most and what are the abilities and powers that will be necessary for your game?
Through observation of the world around you, you will find an infinite amount of characters just waiting to be added to your word.
DMing the World in Practice
Try it out for yourself!
Pick a historical figure and then ask yourself the following:
When did they live?
When was their key moment in history?
Why were they famous or infamous?
Why did they want to make a mark on history?
How did they live?
How did they succeed or fail at their key moment?
Embellish the character. Modify the traits you just defined. Add on unique traits like:
Physicality
Personality
Quirks
Flaws
Stat the Character! Using whatever rules system you prefer, define the following:
Key attributes (Highs and Lows, treat everything else as a basic die roll)
Key Qualities (armor, enchantments, etc)
Actions - Attacks, Spells, Powers
