RPG Character Creation: Depth
I'm often heard encouraging my players to create characters with depth. I'm not sure they know exactly what I mean, or anyone else for that matter, and I feel like the subject needs some threshing. At the very least, I'd like to be able to explain it in simple terms and get the point across clearly. For me, it's an important part of character creation.
Depth.
Deep? Like hollywood drama deep?
No, I'm never getting at the kind of depth that people attribute to emotion, like when something "gets to the core of you", or is a strong emotional experience common to all humans, or is a profound utterance that moves you. Sometimes those things are described as "deep". And sometimes the people who propound or enact such things are, themselves, described as "deep". But I'm not looking for characters that are profound, or emotional, or inspirational, or anything of that nature (though it wouldn't hurt!).
Depth for me is more about complexity. Like a gem with many facets, each side refracts light in a different direction; like a wall with more footholds, each an opportunity for a new path to climb; like a face with more wrinkles, each wrinkle tells a story; like the ocean, with ever deeper, darker, and harder-to-reach depths to discover and learn from. Our characters should aspire to this.
What does this look like? Well, let's look at a character from one our favourite works of fantasy fiction. Search no further than Aragorn, from Tolkein's Lord of the Rings!
Is he a simple warden of the forest - the archetypal lone wolf - with a mind for personal gain, like so many characters in a fantasy RPG? No, no, no. Heir to the Throne of Isildur! but not yet prepared to take on the responsibility. 16th Chieftain of the Dunedain of the North! masquerading as a mere ranger. Descendant of Elendil, also known as Elassar, who bore the shards of Narsil and the Ring of Barahir, spirited away to the care of Elves to protect him from the forces of Sauron! And on and on it goes, with titles, epithets, and nicknames, all with meaningful stories behind them, and, if you read Tolkien's Legendarium or research Aragorn on The One Wiki To Rule Them All, a who's-who of friends in high places. Not to mention his troubled relationships with Arwen and Eowyn, and Arwen's father Elrond, and the details of his upbringing. He is indeed a rich and compelling character with many facets to him.
Aragorn's story isn't better than any other story, but it has a certain complexity to it. It has verisimilitude, like the things that have happened to Aragorn in the past are still relevant in the present and have influence over how events unfold in the story proper, rather than being an obligatory summary of his life to present day. The lengthy history, going back generations, and the number and significance of the events, people, and items give the story weight and substance; it certainly disposes Aragorn to be a very round protagonist, rather than a flat supporting character, especially one that the reader identifies with and has pathos for. From a narrative or artistic perspective, Aragorn's story has substance enough to both entice readers to wonder at things unexplored, and to provide material for development later on. (Looking to write a sequel or take the campaign on a tangent? Explore one of these past events, relationships, places, or pick up where something left off).
Most importantly in the case of Aragorn, to use a Shakespearean parlance, what's past is prologue. Not only is the story multi-faceted, with the force of history behind it, and satisfyingly substantive, it perfectly sets up the events of the story proper, Lord of the Rings, in which Aragorn struggles with the legacy of his family, eventually overcomes his hesitations to become King, wins over the forces of evil, and gets the girl. The complexity and potency of the character backstory is directly proportional to that of the story proper.
For those of you wishing to have truly fantastic and compelling roleplaying game experiences, it logically follows from Tolkein's example that you must create characters with complexity and with a substantial amount of story material to draw on later in the campaign. This is the essence of a character depth. How can you achieve this?
1. Relationships
Too often I see and hear of characters that appear to have existed in a vacuum for their entire lives; right from birth up until the convenient "everyone's inside the tavern..." introduction of your campaign, some characters don't seem to have any connection to the world around them.
It's a borderline insult to creative writing, roleplaying games, and fiction in general to field a character like this, with absolutely no attention paid to obvious backstory points like parents or friends. I can't say enough about avoiding this at all costs. To do so, in a very basic sense, I suggest focusing on relationships.
You need to make a list of people that your character knows, or knew. You may not write about how your character has climbed the highest mountain, fought ice giants and reclaimed the magic totem now hanging around their neck, but your character can at least have some friends, and maybe an uncle or two. Not everything needs to be an epic saga like that of Aragorn. The basics are plenty.
Relationships provide a lot of potential material for developing a character and a campaign, as a lot of plot problems and plot resolutions that typify generic plot lines center around people. Any NPC could fill the role of loved-one-in-distress, someone you go to for aid, an equipment supplier, a knower of knowledge, an "in" with some group, a betrayer, or even one's Achilles heel, but there's no need to let the GM come up with all of them.
Here's a few categories of relationship that you can slot NPCs into:
1. Parents.
2. Brothers and sisters, or extended family members.
3. Friends. Childhood friends that you haven't seen in a long time, or people that you've been in contact with recently.
4. Mentors, teachers, partners or employers.
5. Rivals and enemies.
6. Contacts. Someone you know, or know of, that can help.
7. Favours. Someone you helped in the past that owes you.
You can get creative by combining them: a distant cousin [extended family member] who's vying for a seat on the throne and wishes to take you, the competition, out [rival] but is now your only chance at getting into the Miroslav Family Vault to recover the evidence of stolen heirlooms [Contact]. But don't forget the details. What is your relationship with that person like? How did you meet them? How has your relationship changed over time, and in view of what circumstances or events? What kind of a role do you see them playing in the campaign?
2. Thematic consistency and Development
Thematic consistency is about understanding the basic premise from which your other ideas issue forth. The decisions and behaviours of your character should be premised on the motivations and inspirations established in your character's theme. Aragorn's theme is the battle of inner demons, triumphing over self-doubt. Once you understand what that theme is, it becomes a measure which you hold all other aspects of your character up to.
Development is the process of filling in the details and letting those details take you to fantastic places. It's a process of embellishing, elaborating, ornamenting, and otherwise enriching the basic theme or premise into a full-fledged character story.
It's important to keep in mind that the genre of fiction and the setting of the campaign weigh heavily on this process. Triumphing over self-doubt could apply to any character in any setting, but the specific circumstances that fomented this self-doubting and triumphing are what make it unique in the setting and genre.
I also encourage that you let one decision lead to another, like cause and effect. Establish something interesting about your character, like "My character was a human raised by Elves", and then think logically about how that would have impacted your character, keeping consistency with the theme.
3. Cooperation
If you get a good handle on #1 and #2, you're going to need #3 when it comes to working with the GM and the other PCs to make your dreams come true. I can't say too much on this subject here, but suffice it to say that there's no point in writing a really cool backstory if your GM isn't going to include any of those details in the campaign. Gnome sayin'? Make it a back and forth conversation between the stakeholders... don't expect them to accept everything outright, but do expect that they read your story and consider it. Also, don't be closed off to new ideas: a lot of ideas are good ones, not just yours.
That's all for character depth. Stay tuned for a future post where a few case studies are presented in detail, and the process of character creation is revealed.
