Sabre_Justice Posted:

LAWL.

Hehehe, just as well I still go by that this is a role-playing game, not a competition.

Indeed.

Anyway, a character is beginning to form in my head… a mercantile soldier, Neutral in alignment (I expect it to change to Neutral Evil at some point), not picky about what keeps him alive and brings in money. As for weapons, I’m thinking a halberd and sword of some sort…

Should I keep the rest of the character rambling to myself? Just I could use some suggestions.

No, do post up whatever that comes to your head so we’ll all have some idea as to how you’ll like your character to progress and develop. Log in to see images! Personally, I’ll rather like it if everyone could do the same, making this thread a sort of worktable for their characters, but I understand that some people only like to unveil the final product.

With regards to your mercenary soldier. Let’s say that he gets a job where he has to burn down an orphanage full of children because some property developers want that land. How would he go about doing it? Would he just shrug and toss a lit torch into the stables? Kidnap the children and forcefully drag them outside before setting the fire? Convince them that there is an emergency, and that all the children must leave before setting fire to the building?

The first is definitely Evil, but the second and third might make a case for True Neutral (TN). Not likely Chaotic Good (CG), though, since taking a job like burning down an orphanage is definitely not Good behaviour unless you can somehow justify it to yourself someway. But depending on the reasons why he did what he did, there might be a case for a poor confused TN character there.

Halberd sounds good, any particular reasons why that choice? How about fighting style? Would you want to be heavily armoured in full-plate, a veritable walking tank with a swishing halberd, or would you rather be light and nimble on your feet? If so, why?

I like to make my characters in this order. I first come up with a set of unique traits that I think might be interesting (”Apathetic and paranoid mercenary warrior who thinks that the world is out to get him”), then I weave a history around those traits (”Father was an abusive ****twat who abandoned his mother; wife slept with his best friend while he was out fighting a war; killed both of them in a fit of rage and confessed to a friend while drunk; betrayed by said friend to the authorities”).

Following that, I then come up with an image of how I would like him to look and act, and some quirks that make my character more “real” (”Full-plate armour from paranoia; sleeps with weapon under pillow; halberd from previous war training; haunted by bad dreams of both the war and his murder”). And, all that done, I go on to fill in the numbers to match what I just built up in my mind on the character sheet.

Hope that helps! Log in to see images!