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