Jade | February 26, 2010
Whether as a PCs or an NPCs, evil characters tend to get the short end of the stick. All too often, they’re portrayed as short-sighted, reactionary, shallow, and … well, stupid. Frequently, all evil characters look and act the same, like they are clones of one another. Which is a real shame; after all, what’s [...]
Category: Building characters, Musings |
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Tags: alignment, backgrounds, character creation, evil, players
Jade | February 12, 2010
Tired of games where all the characters are named Ariel or Thorin? What a character name that sounds distinctive but not too far out? What about using a real-world name? Perhaps something historical or from another culture. In earlier editions of Beyond Fred, I covered Roman and Russian names. But what if you want something [...]
Category: Building characters |
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Tags: beyond fred, character creation, italian, names
Jade | November 6, 2009
Sometimes the hardest part of building a character is coming up with a good name. You can always take a name from Tolkien or other fantasy novels, but you’ve seen those names over and over and you want something a little different, but not way out there. How about an historical name? Or one from [...]
Category: Building characters |
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Tags: beyond fred, character creation, names, russian
Jade | October 5, 2009
Finding a good name is sometimes the hardest part of designing an NPC. You want something more exotic than “Fred the Fighter”, but “Frewxyque the Grand Thunder Duke” becomes too hard to say with a straight face after the first first time. Baby name books can help, but some of the best names come from [...]
Category: Building characters |
6 Comments »
Tags: beyond fred, character creation, names, roman
Jade | September 23, 2009
You’ve got your NPCs classified. You’ve separated the extras and walk-ons from the bit players and major characters. But how exactly do you go about creating those unique characters? Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you create NPCs your players will remember, no matter what game system you use.
Define your NPC’s purpose. Why is he [...]
Category: Building characters, Campaign creation |
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Tags: character creation, NPCs
Jade | July 29, 2009
*Ball of Abysmal Flame
One of my all-time favorite RPGs is Ars Magica. I love the fact that it doesn’t try to impose game balance limitations on mages. I also love the troupe-style play where everyone gets to play a magus/maga and something else. As a Storyguide, I love the fact that the group as a [...]
Category: Building characters, Game Systems |
3 Comments »
Tags: Ars Magica, character creation, cross-system gaming, D&D, magic, spell casters
Jade | May 13, 2009
I’ve mentioned how useful character questionnaires are to me as a GM. I can draw reams of campaign ideas just from the questionnaires I receive. My questions run the gambit from “What does your character look like?” to “What gives your character’s life meaning?” I ask players to answer the questions in character, except for [...]
Category: Building characters, GM tools |
2 Comments »
Tags: backgrounds, character contributions, character creation, questionnaires
Jade | May 4, 2009
There’s a continuum about character backgrounds. I use detailed character backgrounds in my games; in fact, I warn players that I reserve the right to fill in any character history they don’t. Other GMs don’t bother with backgrounds at all — a sentence or two at the top of the character sheet. It really depends [...]
Category: Building characters, GMing philosophy, Working with players |
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Tags: backgrounds, character creation, NPCs, PCs