When I set out to launch a roleplaying game campaign, there are some things I always want my players to think about as they’re creating characters: backstory (but not too much of one), motivations, and goals… allies and enemies, weaknesses and fears… These are my special ingredients to use as a game master if I want to prepare character-focused sessions and adventures.

However, the rules for character creation vary by roleplaying game system. Some are concerned mainly with how the character is represented by the system mechanically, while others also consider how to develop a character narratively. I wanted to create a bridge between the character creation procedure and my campaign creation process so that I could get what I needed for the types of games I run.

When I first starting blogging, I developed a one-page character creation worksheet to hand out at the start of a campaign when I’m game mastering, and to fill out when I’m a player and want to consider more than just the character sheet. I designed it to get players thinking in broad strokes about what sort of character they wanted to play, and what sorts of stories they wanted to tell during the campaign. This was the “Seven Steps to Character Creation” worksheet, which I’ve since retired because it wasn’t doing what I wanted it to.

Ten years later, I’ve changed and grown as a GM. Some of the questions on the original worksheet were a little too open-ended, or they weren’t as useful to the players or the campaign. I’ve discovered that some players benefit from being able to pick from options or prompts, and there were other “ingredients” I wanted to draw out of them with the worksheet.

Now there are “Eight Steps to Character Creation” on the worksheet, but it still fits on a single page. During session zero, you can share this sheet during character creation for any system or setting. I hope it can serve as a springboard for your own games or stories.

If you’d like to customize the worksheet, the Google Doc is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Basically, you can remix and build upon it so long as you give credit and keep it free. I’d love to see what you make of it.

Featured Image by Marek Studzinski on Unsplash

When I played “Nighted” at Origins courtesy of Lurking Fears’ fantastic GMs, it was one of the most fun, scary, and memorable Call of Cthulhu sessions I’d ever experienced. I knew I wanted to run it for my home group, but I was inspired to move the action to 1890s New Orleans. I’ve since run that remix at Dreadfest and Con of the North in the Twin Cities, and I expect I’ll break it out again someday. As part of that adaptation, I made changes to the cast of characters to increase the diversity of the cast somewhat, make them feel at home in New Orleans, and finally evoke and subvert some of the tropes and stock characters of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Chaosium’s Secrets of New Orleans (2009) was invaluable as I researched the city and the people who made it home. The original “Nighted” scenario by Ash DelVillan was published in Issue #2 of Bayt al Azif and available on DriveThruRPG.com in digital and physical formats.

Without further ado, below you can find six pre-generated characters to use in any 7th edition Cthulhu by Gaslight game. Note that they were created especially for one-shot scenarios set circa 1890 in the storied city of New Orleans, and their skills and backgrounds reflect the diversity of that city. The available occupations include an architect, an antiquarian, a big game hunter, a blues singer, a police detective, and a zoologist.

March Fourth for GM’s Day! Today’s the day to tell your GM how much you appreciate all that they do. And if you’re the GM, today’s a great day to treat yourself to a little something to help “fill the well.” DriveThruRPG is having a huge sale on a ton of PDFs and ebooks to help you run a better roleplaying game. What follows are some of my favorite game master resources that are currently free or discounted.

Enhancing Your Game or GMing Yourself

The second edition of the Mythic Game Master Emulator by Tana Pigeon has been the standout RPG purchase of 2026 for me, and with the PDF costing less than $10 for GM’s Day, it’s an incredible value. Not only does it offer a robust and intuitive system for solo roleplay (allowing you to game master for yourself), but the many random tables it contains can help a GM improvise on the fly or provide inspiration while prepping a session or campaign. (If this is appealing to you, you might also be interested in The Adventure Crafter or The Location Crafter, also by Pigeon and also on sale.) The second edition of Mythic GME feels like a huge quality of life improvement over the first and revised editions, with lots of examples and guidance to get started quickly.

And while it’s not part of the sale on DTRPG, the Mythic GME Digital app for desktop and mobile are amazing companions to speed up your solo play. I’ve been using them extensively to power my solo RPG blog since treating myself for Christmas.

In 2025 I started a new blog project to record my adventures as a solo roleplaying gamer over at the Chronicles of a Solitary Heroine. I’ve only been able to update it sporadically, with my return to work and preparation for the holidays sucking up much of what little free time I enjoy. But with my recent purchase of the Mythic Game Master Emulator Second Edition (and my child finally settling into a sleep/nap schedule more conducive to my feeling awake enough to create), I’ve finally been diving back in.

I’d been wanting to try starting a solo campaign for many months now, due in part to my subscription to the Soloist and The Lone Toad newsletters, but also because the medium seemed like a natural fit for me as someone who equally loves writing, roleplaying, and gamemastering.

2025 had a very different shape for me than those past, with much less free time and, frankly, energy. I was thrilled to become a mother, but it meant prioritizing my little boy over my own creativity and entertainment. The list of my favorite apps, tabletop games, books, TV and movies, and video games from the last year is shorter than in previous years, but perhaps you’ll find something to inspire you as you pursue those 2026 goals and resolutions. There’s also a bonus list of recommended mom-related apps at the end if you or someone you know is expecting.

You can help support my author newsletter and blog by purchasing one of the books mentioned on this list. I’ll receive a small commission on anything you buy from my bookshelf or the below links. The rest of the links will take you to the page to download, watch, or buy the listed media.

Apps

• Obsidian. This free note-taking app works entirely offline and locally, and it isn’t full of AI bloat, making it my new RPG campaign organizer of choice. I’ve been using it for my solo RPG campaigns and love the combination of wiki-style linking with basic markup formatting. The latter helps me easily translate my content to typeset PDFs on GM Binder or blog posts on WordPress (with the right plugin). And with the recent introduction of bases providing database functionality, it’s quickly becoming a full-blown replacement for Notion. Check out PhD20’s series of tutorials on using Obsidian for RPGs if you want to get started.