Building a Character, PT1

Simutronic’s Gemstone IV is one of the longest running MUD games of all times. Players take on character(s) just as they would in a DnD campaign or other table top roleplaying game. Characters can be built up from one of the following races – Human, Giantman, Half-Elf, Sylvankind, Dark Elves, Elven, Dwarven, Halfling (Truefolk!), Forest Gnomes, Burghal Gnomes, Half-Krolvin, Erithian or Aelotioi (https://gswiki.play.net/Race). The next choice is to pick a profession, similar to a class, that are broken down into “square” (Classically fighters), “Pures” (classically spell casters), and “Semis” (a mix of both), that include – Monks, Rogues and warriors as Squares, Clerics, Empaths, Sorcerers, and Wizards as pures and finally Bards, Paladins and Rangers as Semis. (https://gswiki.play.net/Profession) Further down the line you choose your starting statistics and skills to round out the mechanical aspect of the character. I’m going to talk about what I consider to be the more fun part of the game, which is to focus on who the character really is and how they interact with the world.

Creating Life -

Making a character mechanically is as easy as picking a name, race, profession, statistics and then some skills to be able to do things. “Do things”. What are those “things” that are done in a role playing game? Fight monsters, get loot, gain levels rinse and repeat right? Well, that’s what most games have been distilled to but not in Gemstone. There is one world where everyone lives together and the actions of one or a few can have a lasting impact on the all of the game world. How your character acts and what they can or can’t do is part of making the game world come to life. Interacting with others who are engaged on this level can be an incredibly rewarding experience as you take of the aspects of another person all together! So what makes a character a well-rounded character and what do I recommend when creating a new life? Let’s read on!

For many people the idea of good or evil is binary while for others it is more shades of grey. A character’s backstory could be cliché – Their family was murdered by an evil wizard and they seek revenge! They are a proud warrior out to prove themselves! Clichés, or what I’d rather call Archetypes, are perfectly acceptable if you provide nuance to the character. Give your characters traits or failings, specifics that bring the story to life. The wizard was just a local apprentice who tried to get further by any means necessary, engaging in black magic and used local sacrifices – your parents – to get further. Finding out, you lead a mob in uprising against the wizard, defeating him and earning the praise of the village. They insisted you go around and help others, making you the reluctant hero you are today – OR – Raised to be a nobleperson, blessed with great influence, you were brought up thinking you were the best. As you entered training to be a warrior you found that others far surpassed your abilities. In your dismay you resorted to underhanded tricks and “drugging” or poisoning others to best them during training and duels. Eventually, word gets out and you are exiled, wandering the world to reclaim your honor, or inflict misery on anyone and everyone.

I will be upfront and say that I almost always create a character around one or two “gimmicks” and built out from those, fleshing out a realistic (for the game world!) character that has their own thoughts, feelings and motivations. I happen to have an idea for making a “Free to Play” character that I want to try out so let’s go through the process together. In this particular instance I have a theme that will act as the skeleton and a few initial ideas to start the character off.

The Gimmick –

I hope to make this a semi regular blog posting as I follow the story of this character and maybe even stream/record him. That being said, I have some years of experience in the game and knowledge of its history that I can tie into. I want the specifics to be a secret but realistic based on recent events. With that being said, the backstory of my character will be as follows: Our character is a young adult, forced into the adult role when his parents were taken tragically from them due to an unknown illness that seemed to quickly spread around the town where you lived and just as quickly left. There were many rumors as to the origins of the illness but nothing ever was proven.

The costs of treating the illness eventually left him destitute and orphaned, forced to live homeless, wandering the city and living hand to mouth. The last possession being a musical instrument from your father you try and learn to play, singing tales you heard while out in the streets. He is now a disheveled mess, begging and playing music as he wanders the city as a homeless gnome bard. The character will have no combat abilities and will focus on earning a living by foraging and begging. This character will be entirely focused on roleplaying for his stats and skills.

I already have several song ideas to create and sing to others, including a song about an unknown gnomish Arkati (god) that the character will believe in and try and spread the word about. He will be incredibly shy, dirty and downtrodden, afraid of the world and others who have let him down. While he will perform (poorly at first) he will not trust anyone enough to follow them or let them know more about him.

This gives us a great starting point to build the character inside the game world and then actually interact with others. We will further flesh out his feelings about certain things before hand, but a vast majority of the game will come down to how interacts with other actual players happen. You can only preplan so much or you will be shoehorning yourself into a set outcome, even if the world does its best to steer away from that. This is why it is always best to have a general goal or motivation in mind. The more flexible you are with your characters future while sticking with your core beliefs (unless something major happens to shake those!) the more fun and realistic your character will be!

Join me in the very near future as we go through the actual character creation (with lots of pretty pictures coming!)
Thanks for reading! What do you look for when trying to make a character or in a well created character in games, fiction or movies?