D&D: Five Things You Might Explore When Making A New PC
Sometimes you just wanna be an elf. But sometimes you wanna go deeper, and really explore something when you make a PC.
Creating an RPG character is a unique exercise in creativity. Because on the one hand, sure, you’re creating a character that’s distinct from yourself. But on the other hand, you’re going to embody them through play. Which means you can sort of use an RPG character as a way to try out or explore something about yourself. You don’t have to, mind you, sometimes you just want to play a hot elf prince and it doesn’t have to mean anything.
But sometimes you can posit the question, what would it be like if I got really into swords? Or any number of other self-exploratory ideas.
Your Identity
There are lots of ways to define identity. You could play a character of a different gender to try and express that side of yourself; I think you can find plenty of stories about people who learned a little something about themselves from playing a character. But you could even just play a character who grew up different from you. Characters are a chance to shine a spotlight on part of you, or to figure out what it might be like if you were a little different. Or got a little too into swords.
Your Moral Compass
The real world is full of consequences (unless you’re super rich) that most people might take great pains to avoid. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make the ‘right decisions’ but that’s because we don’t want to mess up our lives.
RPG characters are a much safer place to play out your morally grey ideas about personal property and whether or not possession is nine tenths of the law. It can be fun to play a little sleazebag of a guy because that’s not who you are in real life, but it’s a nice break from the tension of trying to be a good person in the real world. So you become a fantasy loan shark or whatever and play at being a (hopefully lovable) asshole for a few hours with your friends.
Your Preferences
You know deep down the kinds of choices you’re likely to routinely make. We’re creatures of habit, after all. Humans find patterns, and they like to stick to ’em. But an RPG character is a chance to break out of that. Are you nerdy in real life? Maybe you want to be someone with mighty thews and a big axe.
Do you always try to take care of the people around you? Maybe you want to be the blastiest of blaster Wizards. It’s a chance to play with different preferences, as an expression of both the game mechanics and who you are.
Your Sense of Style
I don’t know about you, but if I’m making a character, I will immediately put them in outfits that I would never dream of wearing myself. The way your character looks is a great example of a place to explore your own inner world. What do you think is cool in terms of capes and armors? Colors? Patterns?
You basically have a limitless canvas. What are you going to paint on it?
Your Sense Of Self
Sometimes you just want to play a character because you want to see what it’d be like to be ‘that kind of character’. This can happen a lot with characters defined as archetypes, like the scoundrel with a heart of gold; who hasn’t wanted to be Han Solo? And if you play the right kind of Rogue you can get a feel for what that would be like.
Same goes for a virtuous and noble Paladin; we’ve all had dreams of being noble knights, probably. The point is, your character can be a way to experience something that you’d never get to otherwise, giving you a new sense of self. I think that’s why we get so attached to our little guys.
What do you like to explore when making a character?
