How do YOU create your characters?

[Blake Duffey]

Bruunwald wrote:

Actually, it's a real old school idea (we're talking 1974 - 1979) to create your character based off of what you roll. That goes back to the very first days of the game when the main thrust of character creation WAS rolling randomly for stats. You were... maybe not completely "expected," but at least "guided" by the rules themselves to do so.

This is right on the mark. Rolling stats and then creating the personality is an older idea (from the time where you had stat requirements for certain classes/races, to say nothing of a much simpler game system). No feats, skills, etc.

That said, my group typically creates the concept and then builds the character to fit that concept. For fun we'll occasionally 'invert' things (roll dice and go from there).

[TOZ]

Brad McDowell wrote:

Could you put this in haiku form please?

Scores, stats, history.

Make the bones, organs, and flesh.
Souls shine at table.

[Lamontius]

so uh
I basically like think of something
and then I do it

and then the magic happens

[Azixirad]

Personally, I start with race and class i.e what do i want to run. and then I will spend time coming up with a fairly detailed background story that I give to the DM at least a week in advance of the first game.
As a DM I liked to have my players give me a good detailed background with ambitions so I could customize a campaign to let them accomplish these goals.

[strayshift]

Brad McDowell wrote:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

First the bones. (Abilities, class, race.)

Then the organs. (Feats, skills, gear.)

Next the flesh. (Personality, history.)

But the soul never appears until the dice hit the table.

THAT is when I discover the character.

Could you put this in haiku form please?

Think organs, pen flesh,

cast die and order chaos
a new character...

[Lincoln Hills]

Here's where I once again plug a haiku I wrote years ago - even though it has more to do with post-character-creation play than anything that happens during creation:

Fail at simple tasks
Succeed when impossible
Fickle d20!

The other note I have on this topic is that I find it occasionally shakes me out of encrusted habits to try character creation the opposite of the way I generally do. Those of you who create the concept first - just once, try rolling the dice and building the character around it. Those of you who always start with the mechanics and determine personality afterward - pick a favorite TV/novel character and use mechanics to design the PF equivalent. It does us all good now and then to break our own habits (except toilet training).

[Soul]

im sure my way is boring to you all, but i play mostly PFS and i play mostly with the same 5 or 6 people in my area. i occasionally manage to get to play with other more random people, but for the most part i play with my friends.

i generally pick two or three classes, build a barebones character from those (abilities, traits, and feats) and from that, if i like the character ill put a bit more effort into a backstory or personality.

example: my group plans on playing Rise of the Runelords one day a month soon, we're a party of 5 (or 6 maybe), a fighter tank, an Arcane Archer build, a rogue (probably), an arcane spellcaster (magus most likely), and i was the last to decide on a character so i was either going to fill a spot with another ranged character, a bard/summoner buffmonkey, or a straight healer. so i spec'd out a few characters, a gunslinger, a ninja, a summoner, a monk, a cleric, and a life oracle, all planned feated and geared to level 18 using common pfs gold/level and pfs legal items. i gave up on the gunslinger, the ninja (although i brought her back as a halfling ninja/shadowdancer that im going to play in pfs at gamedays and conventions) and the summoner at this point. i decided from here what their basic personality would be and left the characters open to develop as they play out during their adventure. i've decided im going to play either the cleric or the life oracle, and im thinking the oracle, because those fit into a nice niche that the team needs filled.

[Solusek]

I like to keep things simple. I usually just browse through one of the "Campaign Smashers" threads and then pick whichever one of those builds strikes my fancy at the time.

Btw, are there any groups out there looking for another player to join their table? The groups I'm playing in keep falling apart...

[Soul]

Solusek wrote:

I like to keep things simple. I usually just browse through one of the "Campaign Smashers" threads and then pick whichever one of those builds strikes my fancy at the time.

Btw, are there any groups out there looking for another player to join their table? The groups I'm playing in keep falling apart...

i play in St. Louis Missouri, Colombia Missouri, Quincy Illinois, and occasionally Champagne Illinois, we have usually 2-5 tables and as many as 15-20 on gamedays, if you're in the area im sure you would be welcome to play.

EDIT: its society play.