Building Characters

Lots of writers have problems when it comes to building characters. They either build characters that end up being too powerful for their setting, that don't fit into the world, or just have the wrong number of dimensions (either two flat or have too much going on). They need a system to help them not only decide where their characters fit in and possibly help them do some world-building on the side.

Other writers are just looking for new ways of doing the same old things because something feels missing in their characters, either because they don't mesh well with other characters or the world as a whole. They're looking for some way to fill in those holes.

With that in mind, the following system is suggested. It breaks characters down to the basics, allowing you to look at how they think, how they work with the world as a whole, and how they work with other characters. This may spur you to create other characters that fill necessary roles in the backstory and current story or to look at your world and see what's missing. While it's possible to condense the system down, especially if you're creating a team of characters or skipping several steps, this system should take care of numerous problems that you can deal with even before you start writing.

[It should be noted that these are just how the characters start the story. The character can evolve due to events in the story, thus allowing a bitter person to become a romantic one or a loving character to become an angry one. Heck, you could even have the oldest character become the middle child due to some event in the story, and the position change may modify his personality somewhat.

So, rather than pointing out at the end of each section that you can change these details as the story progresses, just remember that you can change the details, but do try to foreshadow the change(s), and make how the change is wrought into some sort of character arc; readers hate random changes, and so you need to show why it's happening, especially if the change is huge.]

The Roles

While it helps if you're fitting the character into one of the slots of the five-man band, this also works for figuring out what purpose the character serves in both the overall narrative as well as the world specifically. For example, the character can be a protagonist, an antagonist, the love interest, a sidekick, or even just someone to get exposition or a needed macguffin from in the narrative. It should be noted that a character can serve multiple roles; the hero may be in love with the local prophet, who fills the role of love interest and expositor.

In the world itself, they can be a guardian, a hunter of evil, or just an apprentice blacksmith. Heck, they can even have no real role in the world itself, but are looking for one and finding that role can be part of the character's subplot. Don't get stuck on the idea that this is a permanent pigeonhole; your sidekick can be a hunter of demons who likes forging knives for others, but isn't feeling fulfilled by either role and really wants to be a butterfly collector, or even has no idea what they want, just something different.

In either case, if you are trying to change the narrative or world role of the character, remember that he needs an arc of some sort or it will feel somewhat random. That is, a hero can change from a sidekick or a samurai to a temple monk, but you need to show why they are making the change, even if it's just a few paragraphs. This change works even better if you gave some foreshadowing of it happening. Otherwise, have fun with it; characters should not be stuck in pigeonholes.

[Yes, you can do with other traits, and this is the last time I'll mention it. HONEST.]

Personality

You should define the character's base personality, at least briefly. You don't need to go into depth on this, just do enough to establish how the character reacts to others. You'll be building up the layers later, but for now just describe him using a couple of words, such as insufferable, lazy, honorable, ditzy, angry, loving. These words will form the basis of how the character reacts to others and events and will influence how they make decisions; they will form the lens on how the character sees everything.

Personal Beliefs

Everyone has a core set of beliefs, be it "be the noble warrior based on bushido" or "mess with everyone". However, most people also like something that contradicts that, such as the samurai who prefers libraries or the prankster who maintains a shelter. This is where you need to decide on the character's personal philosophy and how they express themselves differently than others. This is an area where you can have fun: the humble monk who loves drunken karaoke, the strict preacher who goes to orgies, and even the loyal mother who just wants a long vacation. Keep it as simple as possible, but have fun with it.

The Abilities

This just asks what the character can do, his skills, his powers, and his perks. Like the flying brick with heat beams who is a reporter with access to a farm. Or the sword master who knows some stage magic and has a nice nest egg. Or the apprentice sorcerer who doesn't miss with a knife and has access to a huge library. In essence, you've established who the character is, so now we're defining what he can do.

If you're working with the five-man band, this is where you start really establishing what part they play in that group.

You can either be really brief or fill out character sheets. While the character sheets can take time to fill out, they do answer this question pretty absolutely, while the brief sentence allows you all sorts of wiggle room. Use whichever feels better to you, but don't get carried with the character sheets; not everyone needs even a full stat block.

The Likes

Everyone has hobbies, collections, or just things that tickle their fancy. These should be noted as they help further differentiate one character from another. Debate contradictory likes, such as a monk who likes money or a barbarian who prefers ballet; while they can come off as humorous, they can also be stereotypical. However, they can also be the signal for a character arc as the character pursues their real interest.

The Flaws

Everyone has limitations, and these can help create problems later on, such as the hemophiliac who has to fight a hand-to-hand battle or the lusty pervert who has to defend a harem. However, don't get too crazy; it is tempting to give someone a flaw that makes their role impossible, such as a demon hunter allergic to iron himself. Unless it's part of a satire of some sort, those kinds of flaws can cost you some credibility unless you go out of your way to allow for it, such as a hemophiliac sword master would need some really good armor.

Note that this can include all sorts of other characters, such as kids, dealing with a dead spouse who won't go away, or even a woman in every port. While this is good for character development, don't get too crazy; these are other characters you need to develop and otherwise keep track of. While they can be used by others, such as kidnapping or threats to the kids, don't use them that way too often or it just becomes a cliché, as is using any flaw too much.

Land of Origin

Everyone comes from somewhere. For our purposes, this means two things: Where he's from and where he usually hangs out. You can be as specific (which part of town) to as general (which star system) as you want to be, but it helps to have some sort of location; this can help to further define the character. You should also note the race and economic/social status of the character as well, but you can be as general or specific as you want to be. Given that these help determine a number of factors about the character, from how others treat him to medical access, these are options that should be at least debated.

The only major note is that you should try to avoid "ambiguous", "unknown", or similar responses whenever possible. Once in a while is fine because sometimes having a character whose past is a puzzle can work. But, if you're doing it solely to be cool, edgy, or just to avoid having to avoid doing the work, then don't do it; nothing says boring, cliché, or lazy like not giving a character some sort of origin. You can do it, but you had better be able to show that you had a reason to do it.

Schooling

Everyone has to learn things from someone or something, even if it's the School of Hard Knocks. This section merely questions where the character learned to do what they do, and doesn't necessarily represent formal education. Consider The Batman: While he did attend school and even attained a degree in business, he learned most of his martial arts from hiring teachers, his escapology from working under a master magician, and generally just mucking about. Tarzan learned his fighting from wrestling gorillas, his manners from the books left behind by his parents, and his woodcraft skills from living in a jungle. Ironically, Wonder Woman has the most formal teaching as she learned almost every skill she had from one teacher or another, usually in a very formal environment.

In short, your character had to learn their skills somewhere and no one is saying they need to learn from one source. Just look at the mages who learned their magic at an academy (formal), sneaking around and picking locks from their friends (informal), and carousing and seduction from the local pub (informal). Look at it this way: You're constantly picking up skills from being taught, research, and just trying things; your characters should be learning the same way.

Family Life

Sometimes your family chooses you, sometimes you choose your family. Only the most anti-social people have some sort of family; even Wolverine has a number of people he's learned to trust, respect, and even love from before his X-Men days. The key here is that while most people have those to whom they are genetically related, they also tend to have people who are family to whom they have no relation whatsoever. The character likely has the same setup, and may have different roles in those relations; he may be the eldest son of Lord Cashbury with all of its rewards and obligations to his immediate family, the rapscallion with the wit and flashing swords to his more extended family, and the source of much-needed hugs and advice to junior members of both.

However, this does not mean that the familial relations need to be, well, "friendly." Sabretooth and Wolverine definitely have a father/son relationship, but it's also definitely one based in hate. The standard illegitimate son also falls in this area, where the son is seen as a mercenary or opportunist by most of the family even as some may have respect, grudging or otherwise, for the guy. So when you're defining "family relationships" keep in mind any alliances, rivalries, or other relationships when you're detailing this section.

Goals For the Future

Very few people don't have some sort of goal, even if it's surviving until the next sunrise, finding a fight, or just getting fed. Some people have higher goals, such as ending poverty, securing the future for the next generation, or just making sure that nuclear war doesn't break out. Some even have a mix of goals, like surviving to the next paycheck, getting their degree, and then ending hunger. Your character has some sort of goal(s) in mind, usually further than just the current mission; sure, he may be worried about eliminating the Demon King of Havteras now, but that doesn't mean he can't be worried about establishing a kingdom where Peace rules and eliminating the Demon King is just a part of how he plans to do that.

Meeting Up With Others

So how did the characters meet up? Was it the pub, at the academy, or being on the same cable car where they were all granted fabulous powers? Or how about just going to the same school? Or ending up in the same dimension where some crazy mage was gathering random strangers with the needed skills to take on the powerful demon Carathas? Your character needs to meet up with the others or there just isn't a story; even if you're telling the story of how they met, how they do it is still worth noting.

* * * * *

Character building can be a weird animal. It can be used to not only build some pretty solid characters but also reach back into world-building, helping you build a much denser world. It allows you to think about how the big cogs work with the little cogs, and how they all work within the world. However, keep in mind that you do need to keep track of all of these connections; they can create possible continuity issues. While keeping a yarn board (like you see used by conspiracy theorists) can help, sometimes just noting the connections can help keep everything straight.

It should be noted that you should only be doing this for major characters, the people you who either you're writing about or those that they'll meet a lot. You don't need to do this for every last guard that the characters go through (although it could be fun to do to highlight a single guard to show how mean the main characters are), and it may even be too much for some of the major characters.

In short, like any other tool decide on how this will best help your story. If you want to take shortcuts (such as giving everyone the same origin and how they met up) or some steps just seem out-of-place (such as an orphan's family life), then feel free to skip those steps or condense things down as you see fit. This should be used to help you, not bind you to yet more rules. Use it (or not) as you feel it works best for your style.

[It should be noted that if you want something a little more solid, several TTRPGs have excellent character design systems that you may want to look at.R Talsorian's Mekton or Cyberpunk 2077 (yes, it was a table-top game first) have their Life Path mechanics that can help you flesh out characters and don't take that long to use. Champions has great Perks and Disadvantages systems that help spur your imagination (if you get the Fourth Edition, you also get some world-building materials). Even the Merits & Flaws system found in various Storyteller games (put out by White Wolf) can be used.]