First thing is that this is just the way I myself let my players build their characters, as most things are easily adapted people liking my world could chose to use a different system. I myself prefer to have a system that encourages as much role-playing as possible and thus do I do it like this: Characters have strong and weak points, they may give reason for people to do certain things, or to get a bonus when there actually is made a check.
Player characters have usually as common element that they did not leave their home to become an adventurer in the normal simple RPG standard way. They are more likely people that have to be on the road for their occupation and end up in some adventure that way. People should keep clearly in mind during the creation what his character does for a living and what that logically brings along in skills and possessions.
Try to have a story behind what you put on your character sheet as much as you can and maybe use those little story’s in the characters big history.
A character is defined by a list of simple data and then some more extensive points that require some pieces of text. The order can be changed if that suits you better
- Name, race, age (sometimes an approximation), size and weight, gender, the colour of hair and eye’s etc, posture.
- The next things are 3 lists with skills and character traits that a character has that are among others following from his upbringing and job and thus easily explainable, also are here things about a characters personality.
These things are divided in positive points, negative points and the points that are not clearly a strong or weak point of the character. This can be because it is a truly neutral point or because it is to complicated to split it up into a good and a negative side that would then be put in the 1ste 2 lists.
The more extensive these lists are the better it is and the lists of good and bad things should be reasonably balanced, not more then about 10% difference in the amount of points. With the development of the character in it’s adventures will it be able to learn new positive abilities, maybe reach higher levels in existing abilities and get rid of negative points. However, there can of course also come back some negative things due to bad luck or divine meddling. Nevertheless, al considered should a character become stronger with the learning of new things.
The next is the list of the gods you worship; if a character has the ability to use magic shall he need to have a god listed here that spreads that kind of magic. Make sure your character pays regularly and often attention and gives offerings to his gods. The more he creatively varies these offerings the better it will be. It is always bad if you find out on an important moment that your god isn’t enthusiastic about helping you and that you might have to make severe promises to keep his support.
- This point, the goal your character has in live is connected to some extend with the next point, how your character earns his living. For example if you want to become a great entertainer while your only a small village fair magician, or if you want to build out your company to a great imperium, or if you just go out into the world to learn some skills that will make you a valuable person in your home town. This point can change in the light of new events in the characters life that make him look at the world in a different way or make him just frustrated or traumatized and those things usually shake up what you have in mind for your life.
- Earning your living is the practical point of what your character is planning to do if no unexpected quests or adventures distract him and what should be able to keep him from starving if he not happens to have to be near the places where the adventures start.
- The description of the character is what a total stranger would perceive of him when he would just randomly meet him in a town on the street.
- The history of a character, this is something you should be now mostly already have in mind because from this logically follow most of the good and bad traits of your character and might also tell something about how his personality has been formed.
- The equipment are the items a character his with him when he takes the road and for that purpose should they be defendable as something he can have. There isn’t something like a starting fund, a character has in the beginning those things he needs to go on the road with and do his job and this should all simply explain itself and within reason shall a character just have these things. If there are quite expensive items among them then it can be that these are just the things he lacks and that those are just the things that are part of his life’s goal to obtain.
Appendix A is an example charactersheet showing how a character could be put to paper.