Character Development tools:

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• Character Creation Form

• Character Development Questionnaire

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Reference the race, class, about, world, Lunarian Guilds, Occupations, Professions, and Crafts sections, the Lunarian Player Character (PC) & Non-Player Character (NPC) Spreadsheet, and the Great Alliance World Map when developing your character. 

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Backstories are essential to creating memorable, authentic characters. Here are some tips to help you write compelling backstories:

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1. Build a timeline of your character’s life events. Plotting out key events in your character’s past can help you better understand your character’s personality and point of view. What were they like at a young age? Did they have a best friend? When was the first time they fell in love? Continue plotting out these key events until you reach the present day. Not only will this exercise help you better understand your character’s thoughts, personality, and quirks, it will also give you a bird’s eye view of the formative events in your character’s life.

2. Establish your character’s motivations and goals. Think of Harry Potter’s quest to defeat Lord Voldemort, fueled by his parents’ murders. Great characters are driven by a deep-seated motivation and have a goal they are trying to reach. This creates interesting characters and also creates a story arc. Your character’s driving force should be one of the first elements you figure out, since the subsequent action will be driven by this motivation.

3. Draw inspiration from real life. Writing a believable character backstory can be difficult. That’s why it’s helpful to draw inspiration from real life. Think about the way you recount formative events in your own life. Pay attention to the way your friends and loved ones tell stories. Read biographies of authors or historical figures to understand the important episodes that shaped their lives. Taking note of real peoples’ backstories will make your character’s backstory seem all the more authentic and genuine.

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4. Develop secondary characters. Create different types of characters that contrast with one another. A sidekick (think Watson to Sherlock Holmes) or a foil (Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter books) can illuminate the your character’s traits, strengths, or flaws. If you create a static character—a flat character arc that does not evolve much—contrast them with a dynamic character, one who undergoes a metamorphosis.

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5. Make sure backstory details are relevant. When writing backstory for your character, it can be tempting to include every bit of personal history that seems funny or interesting. However, focus on backstory that directly informs the plot points and conflicts that your character experiences in the main story. For example, if your main character’s best friend dies, backstory that explains the depth of their friendship will deepen the emotional stakes.

6. Don’t overload with backstory. It can be tempting to try to get all of your character’s backstory out of the way at the beginning. Allow for plotting, conflict, and organic character development. Try to spread out your backstory over the course of your roleplay, deploying information as it becomes relevant to your character’s current situation.

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7. Do a slow reveal. Refrain from revealing too much the first time you introduce your character. Reveal information bit by bit as you tell your story—not unlike the way people get to know one another in real life.

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Character Development tools:

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• Character Creation Form

• Character Development Questionnaire

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Reference the race, class, about, world, Lunarian Guilds, Occupations, Professions, and Crafts sections, the Lunarian Player Character (PC) & Non-Player Character (NPC) Spreadsheet, and the Great Alliance World Map when developing your character. ​