{"id":387,"date":"2014-07-21T18:14:11","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T18:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/introducing-your-character-not-your-sheet\/"},"modified":"2023-02-26T20:11:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T20:11:30","slug":"introducing-your-character-not-your-sheet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/introducing-your-character-not-your-sheet\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Your Character (Not Your Sheet)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all do it. You\u2019re getting ready to play a new game and, unless it\u2019s just a mindless dungeon crawl where the characters aren\u2019t going to talk amongst themselves, the time comes to introduce your character. Maybe the GM wants you to describe to another player who his character sees sitting in the other<\/em> corner of the bar with his back to the wall. Maybe the PCs have worked together before and already know each other. Whatever the case, it\u2019s time to let the other players know who their characters are adventuring with, so you promptly begin introducing your character sheet:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy character has a Body of 14…Gimmick is Weird Luck…Skills are Guns +3…WWPHITM? is\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Some players aren\u2019t quite so blatant:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an athletic guy…strange things always happen when he\u2019s around…he\u2019s a good shot…kind of looks like\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

But the effect is about the same. The other players get word salad of game stats or an inventory of abilities but when it\u2019s all over they still have no idea who this guy who they\u2019re about to ask to join them on a dangerous journey or who they\u2019ve known for years actually is<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We can do better. Here are a few ideas:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t think of your character as a game character that you\u2019re describing to the other players.<\/strong> Think of him as a character in your favorite TV show or comic book who you\u2019re describing to someone\u2019s who\u2019s never seen or read it.<\/p>\n

Get into character.<\/strong> I almost always give players extra Yum Yums if they do the character introduction in first person, especially if they do it as the character describing himself. Sometimes you have to break character to get all the important information across, but playing the character will at least give everyone some idea of what he\u2019s like.<\/p>\n

Focus on the big picture.<\/strong> Nobody\u2019s going to remember all your Words and Numbers anyway. Saying \u201cHannibal is the brains of the operation\u201d is just as meaningful \u201cHannibal has a Brain of 15, his Job is \u2018Leader of the A-Team,\u2019 his Gimmick is \u2018I Love It When A Plan Comes Together,\u2019 and he has Skills in Tactics and Strategy.\u201d It\u2019s also a lot shorter and less likely to get lost in shuffle. Don\u2019t worry about giving the other players a full resume, just give them general idea of what your character can do.<\/p>\n

Tell the other players why they know things about your character.<\/strong> Instead of telling the others what abilities your character has, tell them how their characters know about a particular ability. For example, instead of saying he\u2019s got the \u201cDrawing\u201d Skill, mention that he\u2019s doodling on the bar napkin or that he\u2019s carrying a sketchbook. Details about what the other characters can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell are more likely to make an impression than lists of what they know. If they wouldn\u2019t know about an ability, don\u2019t mention it. If it comes up in play, they\u2019ll find out.<\/p>\n

Describe what the character looks like, not just the WWPHITM?.<\/strong> Mention how the character is dressed, how he wears his hair, whether he has any tattoos or scars, and anything else that gives them a better idea of who they\u2019re dealing with. Sometimes describing the character\u2019s costume or equipment can be an indirect way of letting the others know what he can do. For example, if you mention that he\u2019s carrying a laptop, most players will assume he\u2019s got computer skills of some sort, and a fraternity T-shirt and backwards ballcap is a good way of letting everyone know your character\u2019s a bro. Just don\u2019t let it turn into a dramatic reading of the character\u2019s equipment list. If your character\u2019s stuff is the most interesting thing about him, you need a better character.<\/p>\n

Talk about the character\u2019s personality, values, and general attitude.<\/strong> This is especially true if the characters have known each other for a while. While you can get some personality across by doing the introduction in character, there are some things that longtime associates will know that you can\u2019t get across with mannerisms and funny voices. If your character always keeps his word or rants about government abuses of power at the slightest provocation, and the other characters would know that, let the players know.<\/p>\n

Describe things that aren\u2019t on your character sheet.<\/strong> Remember that your character sheet isn\u2019t your character (something I plan to talk about in a future post), so it\u2019s perfectly fine to mention things that aren\u2019t written down. While you don\u2019t want to introduce new abilities that really should<\/em> be on the character sheet (\u201coh, yeah, and he can fly!\u201d), it\u2019s perfectly fine to describe his love of unmasculine European coffee even if he doesn\u2019t have a \u201cCappuccino Appreciation\u201d Skill.<\/p>\n

Giving the other players and the GM a good idea of what your character\u2019s all about will make it easier for them to understand what role you want him to play in the group and may even be a good way of creating interesting group dynamics right from the start. An inventory of stats, however, isn\u2019t going to do that. Hopefully when you start your next game, these tips will help you introduce your character instead of your character sheet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all do it. You\u2019re getting ready to play a new game and, unless it\u2019s just a mindless dungeon crawl where the characters aren\u2019t going to talk amongst themselves, the time comes to introduce your character. Maybe the GM wants you to describe to another player who his character sees sitting in the other corner…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[43,173,1496,1655,2384],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-gaming-articles","tag-qags","tag-hudson-hawk","tag-a-team","tag-wwphitm","tag-hannibal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3064,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/3064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deathcookie.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}