Writing Characters for Your Dungeons And Dragons Game
When writing many characters for Dungeons and Dragons, how do you find inspiration to distinguish your NPCs from the player's characters? The answer is not the easiest, in my opinion, especially when you need to tie them with your story that you are planning to make as a Dungeon Master. These are a couple of ways that I find inspiration for the characters that appear in my games. With these tips, I find something to write even if I have nothing but a blank page looking at me, looking at me like a buffoon.
The "Freewriting" technique
One of the best ways of creating new characters for your story is making them just by staring at the black page and making it more and more filled with words and sentences. One of the most common mistakes the writers and game masters make is that they are feeling like they would fail by writing something that is crap. And Most of the stuff is crap with the first draft, however writing in its self, let yourself write freely, is liberating of exploring new ideas. So the next time you struggle with a writer's block or can't write a character what so ever, just start writing on a blank page without any judgments or convictions. Just let yourself express the ideas that are floating in your mind or find new ideas as you go along. After you write something, then it's the time to seek the parts that you actually enjoyed and what can move forward. And maybe that will be the only tip that you need.
If freewriting still gives you obstacles, another tip is to write a story for the game, even if the characters wouldn't participate in it. Okay, Hold on your pitchforks. Just Write the story, giving you an idea where it should lead and most importantly, what characters the story requires, when you write up a couple of the NPC's necessary, just write out the characters out of the adventure, or make them another kind of NPC's in another adventure. Only by trying to tell a story, you will feel what characters you should need to have in your session. And when thinking whether or not the characters you have written in this fashion is any good, just make them have more chaos, flaws, virtues, and things that make sense for the character and their motivations.
People in your life
The people in your life can is an excellent inspiration for characters. Many writers do that, especially the likes of Ernest Hemingway or other "Adventuring writers," Jeez just look at the interview with Stephen King and how he gathers his information on a novel, characters. I'm sure that most writers make plenty of characters based on people in their own lives, and you know what? Most of the time, it works. Think about the person you just hate, love, are inspired by, gives you the creeps, and try to convey those feelings through a fictional character that your characters encounter; sometimes the outcomes are even therapeutic. But of course, don't parody your players or the people they know, that is a big no-no in my book.
But you know why it works? It works because you encounter those people in your life, you know maybe some nit-picky things about them that make you like or dislike them, some of those people's motivations, goals, ambitions, flaws even they don't understand and mannerisms. Using that kind of information and adding some character development on top and I'm sure you will have a great character, a realistic one or just plain interesting in someways.
Stealing and recreating characters
Your favorite TV shows, books, movies, video games, music, etc. - Hey, good artist copy, great artist steal was said by probably the most famous and prolific painter Pablo Picasso. And you know what he was right. If you're homebrewing your game, take the characters you love, twist them around, put some other things, or take out some of the personality, and you'll have something different or a character. Just be careful, some aspects of a character are crucial in making them who they are, so try to identify the essential characteristics of a character you are trying to give hommage. If you have some of the characters that you adore, gather inspirations from them, give them homages, of course, don't rip them off, make it your own, that's how a great Dungeon Masters steals.
It is a great place to gather up visual inspiration. I believe, even better than searching through Google images for the perfect character to put in your game, look for inspiration for writing, locations, and other things. The main reason for that is that on this website, many people like us enjoy gathering things that inspire them, and they create their boards for specific needs — looking for a noble orc? There is probably a perfect suited art for you and the board to follow. Even better, these collections or artwork that you follow and save up yourself can act as a folder of inspiration that can be enhanced pretty quickly, after making a board you can search more for the similar ideas. You'll stumble upon the things you are searching for. If you still didn't try to use Pinterest as a source of inspiration - Check out Dungeon Goblin Pinterest, where I use many of the art to inspire me for my games.
The Theme Song Approach
It's silly, but every superhero has their theme song. Why do you, should you be any lesser? Jump into Youtube, Spotify, and find a song resonates with you and the character that you intend to create. And listen to that kind of music when you are writing something about the character itself. Check this Blog Post if you’re using Spotify.
The Mayer Briggs Personality Types
Maybe you're not a master psychologist or a writer that can understand the characters entirely you create. However, just by looking at the typology in the MBTI website, it can act as a guide. How characters work in the world and how they interact with it. It's essential to create engaging NPCs and Villians, so when you're prepping a vital character that follows the type of, for instance, a King, check out what could fit the role. Maybe the personality of the King makes more trouble for him. What if he is an introvert that just wants to be left alone with the books and it's tower studying. Try to Mix these things up when writing characters, reading about different personality types. It's a great way to create a believable character, with more than one dimension to it.
Researching Archetypes themselves
By researching archetypes and their role that they serve in the story, we will find ways not only in what characters you can make but also how you can implement them, what do they care for and why if at all they are essential. The Hero's Journey Joseph Campbell's book is a must-read for storytellers, writers and also GM's that are willing to deepen their knowledge into the subject. Other authors research this topic of Archetypes. One of the more famous ones is Carl Jung, where he analyzes the archetypes of King, Magician, Warrior, and Jester. Jung also researched the dark side of each of these archetypes, what are their biggest fears and motivations, which is very helpful for any that creates characters that follow some role.
Astrology Charts and Zodiac Signs
I know what you're thinking... I don't tell you to believe in them, but these charts has random information about the personality and provide many strange things you can implement for your character. Just imagine that a village witch is making reading for your character and it's flaws and favorable aspects and just put the exciting things into your character if there is not much inspiration. Also, what it's great about these random sayings about the character it can inspire even adventures for your characters, mannerisms, and so on. This is what I use.
If astrology charts are too much to handle and inconvenient, try the Zodiac signs, which are more or less another random way to enhance your character.
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