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Writer's pictureDawn Dalton

Fun Ways to Generate Characters You Normally Wouldn't Play


Any role player who's been playing for a while can tell you that it's really easy to get drawn into playing the same type of character over and over again. If I'm playing Legend of the 5 Rings, odds are I'm playing a Crane Courtier. Sorceresses for D&D. You get the picture.


While playing the same type of character allows you to easily start a new game without slowing down play to learn new rules, it also makes your campaigns all feel the same.


It's easy to get into a rut, so I came up with a five ways to generate new characters.


The Complete Opposite


This one feels very self-explanatory. If you're always playing the fighter, maybe slipping into the healer role for a campaign or a wizard will help spice things up. It forces you to rethink where you stand in combat when you don't have as many hit points as you're used to.


Added bonus: it makes you appreciate the people who normally play those characters. When was the last time you thanked your healer?


Random Rolling


Nothing says gaming more than randomly rolling your character. This could be just rolling your stats in order and making the best character out of that or it could be assigning each character class a number and rolling. Bonus points if everyone in your group does this (how many different bards does one group need?).


The Beloved Character


Is there a character in a show or book that you absolutely fell in love with? Someone who would be fun to play? Maybe it's time to stat them out and actually play them. Even more fun would be an entire group of characters from the same show or completely opposite shows.


Tell me: how fun would it be to play a fighter who's afraid of battle but does it anyway (ala Sailor Moon)?


The Mash-Up


Two great tastes that taste great together. Or who you don't think would actually work together. Katniss Everdeen meets Hermione Granger. This leads to at least a couple of character concepts. One is the book smart ranger. The other the wizard who only uses their spells to help with their archery. The possibilities are endless with this one.


Swapping with a Friend


This one gets a little tricky, especially if you have a group of friends like mine. Everyone makes a character, but they don't get to play it. Either you know ahead of time who's going to get your character or they get shuffled and redistributed amongst the group.


Bonus points if everyone gives the character a quirk the player has to act out in session.


There you go, five ways to help generate characters. While this list isn't comprehensive, hopefully it gives you a few jumping off points to get you out of your character rut.


Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go play my artistic vampire. Let me know in the comments below if there is a way you like to use to keep your characters fresh and new.

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