We’ve all be there. The Forever GM of your friend group approaches you with a pitch for a new campaign. Everyone is excited, everyone is discussing the plot hook and what kind of characters they want to build and how best to form a party.
And then there’s you. Or, in this, case, there’s me: Sitting quietly with my brain screaming, “WHERE DO WE START?!” Character creation has always been, and remains after years of playing TTRPGs, one of the most challenging things about starting a new game.
For me, personally, the reason is simple: I do not care about these stats on a page until I’m given a reason to. They do not become a character to me just be virtue of having a name, a class, and a stat block. So many times, in the beginning of a campaign, my characters feel very flat and one dimensional - Until I have something that helps me develop their backstory and personality, their connections to the world the other players and me have found ourselves in together.
One tool that I have used in the past is The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide, by James D’Amato. This book helped me understand some of the foundational things about character creation, as well as how to add “flavor” to your character. Give them hobbies. Talk about the holidays they celebrated in the region where they’re from. Tell us about the time they broke their grandmother’s heirloom mirror. Figure out why they decided to become an adventurer.
I find, though, that sometimes this isn’t enough to get into the mind of the character and what is where I feel solo TTRPGs can help fill the gap. Many times, they have their initial setup that you can simply drop your character into, and a premise to follow through with pre-drafted prompts. This sort of scenario helps me a lot with learning who my character is: How would they react in this particular moment? Which of their personality traits come to the forefront?
I’ve designed a few games that are specifically character journaling exercises, where you can simply plop your character into the scenario and play. However, a game like Let the Tides Carry You Back to Me can be used completely independently of its scenario: In the end, it is simply a series of questions designed to help you learn who your character is.
The initial premise of a game can also be tweaked to fit your character, as well. Something like 32% (which we played here)could be tweaked to fit a fantasy campaign be having the character be shipwrecked on a deserted island with only enough supplies to last them seven days, and they have to source materials to make a signal fire.
At the end of the day, so much character development happens during the course of your campaign, but it can feel daunting to go into a new story with your character and not know anything about them. Solo games can help bridge that gap and assist in creating both backstory and personality for a character who was previously a blank slate.
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