What’s your favorite part of creating a new character? Is it rolling for their stats? Choosing their spells and abilities? Or maybe it’s developing an elaborate backstory? I highly enjoy creating new characters and trying to decide what makes them tick, but I often get stuck on determining anything more than their alignment and a vague personality trait. Brenton will tell you it took me over a year of playing my current character, a Tabaxi Pirate Rogue, to actually decide on an Ideal and Bond. I want to really know my character, and it takes time! It can take a while to determine what your character would do in certain situations, and the longer you play, you may realize that their reaction isn’t quite what you imagined in the beginning. In case you’re like me, I’ve compiled a list of 50 Character Building Questions to help you develop your adventurer!
This list is a great launching point for you whether you’re brand new to the tabletop roleplay gaming world, a new Game Master trying to help your players, or even an experienced Game Master checking in every few levels to promote the ideal of continual growth. These questions are broken down into different categories. Feel free to snag them and modify them as needed to fit your games.
Appearance:
- What species is your character?
- What color is your fur/hair/skin/scales?
- What color are your eyes?
- How tall is your character?
- How old is your character?
- Is your character young or old for their race?
- What clothes are they wearing?
- Do they have any extra clothes?
- What items do they carry?
- Do they carry any items that are precious to them?
- What would they do if they lost that item?
Childhood:
- Did they know their parents?
- Did they like their upbringing? Why or why not?
- How did your childhood forge them into the person they are today?
- How many family members did they have?
- Do they have any siblings? Do/did they like those siblings?
- Is their family still alive?
- Where did your character grow up?
- What was that like?
- Did they have any pets/animals?
- What was a scary moment that happened to them as a child?
- What is their favorite memory from childhood?
- What was the biggest lesson you learned while they were a child?
Character’s Opinions/Motivations:
- What is something they fear?
- What is something they hate?
- Is there anything your character would be willing to sacrifice everything for? What is it?
- Are they satisfied with their current position in life, or do they want a different life?
- What is their main goal in life right now?
- What motivates your character?
- On a scale of 1 to 5, how important is the accumulation of Wealth for your character?
- What about the accumulation of Power?
- How important is the accumulation of Magic Items?
- What deadly sin best represents your character and why? (Lust, Glutton, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride)
History:
- What’s your character’s birthday month?
- Have they been to [starting location] before or is this their first time?
- Where were they before they arrived in [starting location]?
- What brings them to [starting location]?
- Does your character intend to go back to where they were previously located?
- Name someone your character has wronged and how they wronged them. It can be a person, organization, etc.
- Alternatively, name someone that has wronged your character and how.
- What’s your character’s theme song?
- What is an unusual skill your character has?
Hypothetical Situations
- If your character became the recipient of a Wish Spell, what would they wish for?
- If your character knew they would die tomorrow, what would they do today?
- Your character stumbles across a package in the middle of the road. There is no sign of another person in sight; no tracks to indicate where the package may have come from, and there seems to be a slight vibration in the package. What do they do?
- Your character overhears a party member speaking ill of them. What do they do?
- If your character came across a burning cart in the middle of the room and heard cries for help, what would they do?
- Would your character sacrifice themselves for another?
- Would your character sacrifice someone else for their own gain?
- If your character successfully caught a bounty and that person convinced your character of their innocence, would your character let them go or turn them in anyway?
What about you? We know there are certainly more than 50 questions for character building out there. Comment below or find us on Instagram, Twitter, Discord, and Patreonto tell us what questions we missed! For more tips, check out our other Dungeon Master posts.
