How much detail should a character have?

Jenara · Post by **Jenara** » Mon May 24, 2010 3:50 pm

When I make a PC I add all sorts of stuff to the PC, I detail clothing colour, add a few gems if its appropriate, the notes section on my character sheets are usually jam packed.

Am I the only one who does this?

I like the detail, the completeness it gives, I used to spend days detailing these people because somehow they needed to be real... I used to feel like one of those method actors who lived their role.

(I'm not saying I lived in the wild, killing Orcs and fighting for my life, although thats a usual day at the Office) But I tried to get onto their heads...

SO I guess my question is to ask if I went and still do go over the top!?!

LadyWinterWolf · Post by **LadyWinterWolf** » Mon May 24, 2010 4:26 pm

Actually, if it helps you become more attuned to your character, and understand facets of the character, his/her behavior will be easier to determine when action is needed during the game. What you mention isn't way overboard, but I've gamed with folks who have pages and pages of details on their character...and don't hesitate to put everyone to sleep reading it to the group. Now that is overboard.

That's another reason why I like to use fantasy pictures I've found on the internet; helps me keep control on the character's appearance if I see it outright, and not have to keep imagining it.

greenknight · Post by **greenknight** » Mon May 24, 2010 4:45 pm

I don't think that's over the top, but it isn't my personal style. I find that as LadyWinterWolf suggests, having a picture does a pretty good job of describing the character, especially over the internet. I usually don't go into great detail about my character's appearance, but if the character has one or two unusual and significant items (not necessarily magical items), I have been known to describe those.

But generally speaking, I pay more attention to the character's personality. And the main tools I use for that are the character's race, class, alignment, ability scores, skills and history.

Post by **Stik** » Mon May 24, 2010 9:52 pm

I'm an artist, and some of my characters, PC or NPC, start out from a sketch and an idea. In that case, the amount of detail is relative to how much the sketch defines the character.
Other characters are all about an idea or an attitude, and require very little detail in terms of appearance to make them playable.

Post by **Tempest** » Mon May 24, 2010 11:33 pm

How much detail my characters have is directly related to how much I like them or have invested in them.

If I care about the game and the character a lot, expect to see all sorts of random details. If I don't expect to see generic fighter five. I'm very glad my friends haven't caught on to this yet.

I can socially feign interest in games, but I cannot creatively feign interest.

TigerStripedDog · Post by **TigerStripedDog** » Tue May 25, 2010 2:11 pm

I think it depends on the detail. For current stuff, such as clothing, style, personality, goals, quirks, manerisms, and description... I would say as detailed as you can be.

For background stuff I would say you want to have some moderation. And thats mainly so that you can leave room for the DM to put some storyline in there for you that you aren't already aware of. The more in depth you go, the more you constrain the DM in bringing in things from the past. I like basic information, major life events, wealth of family, size of family, and any family deaths that you knew about. As well as country of origin. Other than that... I would leave it pretty open.

Tiger

Lukafio · Post by **Lukafio** » Tue May 25, 2010 3:58 pm

I am the opposite of Tiger, with out going overboard.

Pictures from the internet are great. Pictures you can draw or have drawn for you are even better.

If this is a long term character, then do the work. Any good DM will see this as an opportunity to draw upon your charaters background if needs be. I know I used to. Where the party goes is up to the DM, backgrounds can only help. Now if you put something in there like say family wiped out by a band of orcs but you also said my family and I live in modern city and never leave, hence my desire to adventure, then you DM should step in and give you the chance to fix it or he/she will show you thier creativity.
(to help clarify my example: by modern city I imply that it be civillized and the nearest band of orcs would be leagues away in the wilds and rural areas.)
Now with all this said, it is not the only possiblilty. Everyone is different and plays to thier own style.

Jenara · Post by **Jenara** » Wed May 26, 2010 2:54 pm

Typical I have at least 5 pages on my character's history, detailing who they are, what they do, why they do, what colour they like... Basically eveything about a character...

One of my longest serving characters (An Elven Thief, I know, groan) had a whole ring binder's worth of info, drawings of her house in Waterdeep, I knew when she was born and what happened, even where and what she liked to eat... She's a 2ed Swashbuckler, and her enemy turned out to be our main villian... that was a great campaign, 4 thieves trying to survive in Waterdeep..

So maybe I do put in too much detail in them...

LordWilly · Post by **LordWilly** » Wed May 26, 2010 3:49 pm

I tend to view my characters as very young, just starting out in the world and therefor they just can't have extensive backgrounds. I do have a general idea where I want to go with them and definitely a mental picture of them.

Wizard_of_Wumbo · Post by **Wizard_of_Wumbo** » Wed May 26, 2010 4:02 pm

My group doesnt stick with characters long enough to have a point to write detailed backstories, unless its a character that we practically fall in love with. I have never really written down that much of a backstory for my characters, i probably should start.

Lukafio · Post by **Lukafio** » Thu May 27, 2010 12:11 am

Well said one and all.

We each express our creativity in the game differently and it all works.

Anyone else care to add more?

phindar · Post by **phindar** » Thu May 27, 2010 10:06 am

I try to have a name for the character by the time I get to the table, but I fail at that by an embarrassing ratio. (I've been known to have the character's background, description, build, plot hook and catchphrases all nailed down, and still stuck on a name.)

Crimson-Kobold · Post by **Crimson-Kobold** » Thu May 27, 2010 2:00 pm

Back....ground? What is this....background, you speak of?

My group doesn't get too much into backgrounds (well, nevermind much, try at all). I believe that has to do with the fact we're habitually restarting our games lol. No point in writing up any sort of background for a character you're going to play for a couple sessions. But we're kinda sorta...getting....better....

Well, I am at least. I remember a while ago I was posting a journal of one of our campaigns, but I didn't continue it for long.

Why? Because I couldn't think of a way to explain why our roster of characters dramatically changed

Jenara · Post by **Jenara** » Thu May 27, 2010 2:24 pm

phindar wrote:I try to have a name for the character by the time I get to the table, but I fail at that by an embarrassing ratio. (I've been known to have the character's background, description, build, plot hook and catchphrases all nailed down, and still stuck on a name.)

Thats an interesting one, IL stated that he uses a baby name book, that works, EBON is great! Or dare i say it the 3e Hero Builders Guidebook?... ?

Names for "normal" races seem to come to me from nowhere, but Goblins, Orcs... thats a different story.

Jenara · Post by **Jenara** » Thu May 27, 2010 2:46 pm

Crimson-Kobold wrote:Back....ground? What is this....background, you speak of?

..... But we're kinda sorta...getting....better....

Well, I am at least....

Hey, good to see you back!

I think we already touche
on this a few times... RPing comes to mind, Just like Luk said we all do things our own way, the level of detail varies.

The way I see it, if you are happy "living" in that persons skin, knowing what you know... even a tiny bit of info like say, do they like spiders? You have a start, you don't have to write it down, (I do because I'm a writer). It can be in your head, you don't need reams and reams you may never use...

And like you say, if you are going to change PC's in a few sessions, why do you need to know what side of the bed they sleep on?

Personally, and this is just me, no insult to either your game or any of your players, but I'd work on that... you will never invest in a character you are going to have to change... maybe a long term campaign like an official box set is in order?? It might help bring a change.... of course, if you like that style then ignore me...

ps...
I just can't let go, I took a PC I played in a GEN Con tournament home with me!

(a dwarf called Boris I think..)