Which came first; the Story or the Stats?
Every day, there is someone out there who creates a new character for their roleplaying game. No matter which game they play, no matter which genre, most people go through the same process. They have a character concept in mind, manipulate the abilities and the backstory of said character, and then put that character to paper, hoping that he or she is fun to play. Over the years, I’ve witnessed many people create characters and, of course, have created many myself. One thing I’ve noticed is that there is not one standard process of creating characters. For the most part, people fall into one of two camps; those that create the backstory of their character first and then fill in the numbers (fluff before crunch) or those that calculate the numbers first and then create a backstory based upon the numbers (crunch before fluff). I’m going to give you an example of each and then tell you what I normally do.
Fluff before Crunch
Kristobar Chelton was a good man. From an early age he had trained as a squire, idolizing the knights that he saw every day. He was especially enthralled with Sir Cooper, the knight for whom he worked. Every day he would brush Bolt, Sir Cooper’s handsome grey steed, making his coat shine like glass in the bright sunlight. He would polish Sir Cooper’s armor for hours on end, sometimes catching himself in the reflection, and daydreaming of when he would be in the saddle, protecting the needy from the monsters that roamed the countryside.
When he reached the age of manhood, he decided that he was ready to become a knight. He approached Sir Cooper and told him that the time had come. Sir Cooper agreed and said he would arrange for Kristobar’s training to start as soon as possible. Kristobar was ecstatic. He raced home and told his parents of Sir Cooper’s promise. That evening, their home was full of food, wine, and song. Unfortunately, it was to be the last happy moment for a while.
Kristobar’s training did not go well. He had trouble weilding his weapon while in full armor, the horse he was to ride would buck him off constantly, and his problem solving skills, while good, were not good enough to reconcile the practice disputes he was sent to resolve.
After two months of failures, Kristobar was called into Father Thomas’ office to discuss his future. Father Thomas took pity on Kristobar and told him that, while he was eager to learn, eagerness was not enough.
“Perhaps a life in the clergy would be good for you,” it was suggested to him. But Kristobar did not want to hear it. He told Father Thomas that he would be a knight and would continue to practice until he was either a knight or he was dead. There was no middle ground for him.
That evening, Kristobar had the most vivid dream he had ever had before. He was in the middle of a field of tall grass, surrounded by nothing but the wind and the chirping of birds. In the distance, a man in full armor with a symbol of a right-handed gauntlet help upright with the palm forward walked towards him. He came within a few feet of Kristobar and stopped.
“You are not ready, Kristobar. You will be in the future, but not now. I know your heart is pure and, when you are ready, I will welcome you into my ranks. For now, take this.”
The man held out a small golden key which Kristobar quickly took. The man continued.
“You will know when to use this. For now, you must serve me in the clergy, spreading my word and helping the defenseless. Go, my son. Do my bidding.”
With that, Kristobar awoke and sat upright. In his hand was the key. He knew what he must do.
The next day, Kristobar walked into Father Thomas’ office and told him what happened. It was the beginning of a wonderful journey for Kristobar.
So now we have the backstory for Kristobar Chelton. Now we do the math. We know he will be a human cleric with asperations of being a paladin. We’re playing D&D, so let’s use the standard array (16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10) to fill in the attributes.
Strength – He needs to be able to defend people in trouble so he has to be pretty good with a weapon. We’ll make his strength a 14.
Dexterity – Clerics can wear relatively heavy armor to protect them, so dexterity is not a critical attribute for them. We’ll make it a 10.
Constitution – Just like with strength, he needs to be hardy so he can defend people. Let’s give him a 12 constitution.
Intelligence – Kristobar is not stupid but he’s also not the smartest person out there. He was raised to be a squire. While he may have had some formal training, most of his education will revolve around what he learns as a young cleric. Intelligence will be set to 11.
Wisdom – Kristobar knows people and wants to help them. He wants to use the power of his god to help those in need. He studies the books and passages of his god and learns to let his god’s will flow through him. His wisdom is a 16.
Charisma – Kristobar is good at helping people and talking to them. He geniunely cares about what they have to say. He’s not great at it but he’s learning to be better. We’ll set his charisma at 13.
Str 14, Dex 10, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 16, Cha 13. Not bad for a first level cleric. Because of his personality, we’ll say that he is best trained in diplomacy, healing, and insight. And given his background, I will definitely make him Lawful Good.
All in all, this is a pretty well rounded character with a fully fleshed out backstory. Personally, this would be a fun character to roleplay given his ultimate goal. I would just want to make sure I worked with the DM to realize his potential.
Crunch before Fluff
Ok. Time to sit down and make a character. Let’s see. What do I like to play? I like wizards. Ok, let’s make a wizard. I also really like Eberron, so I’m going to make him a changeling. I’ll use the standard array (16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10) to fill in the attributes.
Strength – Not that important for wizards. They usually stay out of combat. Let’s make it an 11.
Dexterity – Can’t wear armor but I need that 16 for intelligence. Better put the 14 in dexterity.
Constitution – Wizards have relatively low hit points, so I want a relatively high constitution. A 13 should be good.
Intelligence – Most important attribute. Definitely a 16.
Wisdom – Well, I have a hard time playing stupid or naive characters, so I’ll put the 12 in wisdom.
Charisma – I have a 10 left. Guess this is my dump stat.
Str 11, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 12, Cha 10. I’m thinking knowledge in arcana, history, and nature should work for him, since he’s so smart. I also want to play a pretty impatient wizard, so let’s make him Chaotic Neutral. Now the story for him.
Evershade Venuur was born in the city of Celene to a changeling father and an elf mother. He lived a good life and always showed an affinity for magic. However, he was also impatient and always wished that his magic abilites were innate, like the sorcerer, so he wouldn’t have to spend time researching and memorizing them. He was patient enough, though, to complete his training.
His goal is to bend magic to his will the way he believes sorcerers do it. He had learned some ways of doing it (i.e. metamagic feats) and wishes to learn more.
He is traveling trying to better himself. He is in Erybend because he has heard a alchemist named Grumbles needs help finding some flowers to go into a concotion of sorts. If nothing else, it’s a good opportunity to earn some cash and practice mage hand.
Not bad. Nice numbers and the story, while not too terribly fleshed out, does give me an idea of how to play him. Should be fun.
So what does Tony do?
Both of the characters I’ve presented are characters I’ve created and played. Both were created in the manner listed and both are the most memorable, and fun, characters I have ever played. In each instance, I analyzed what kind of DM would be running the game (would there be more roleplaying than action or vice versa) and made the character based upon that.
Typically, I create characters using the second method. I come up with a character concept insofar as what character class I would like and then the numbers to fit him or her. I then come up with a fleshed out backstory, again depending on the DM. I don’t want to spend a lot of time coming up with a backstory if I know it’s not going to matter in the game. But, if it will, I definitely will spend a lot of time creating and adjusting said backstory to bring a fully fleshed out character to the table who has many options for the DM to use in the campaign.
Conclusion
There is no right way or wrong way to make a character. Some folks prefer to flesh out a character first and then make the numbers fit. Some folks prefer to input the numbers and create a backstory to justify the numbers. Either way is okay as long as you’re having fun with them.
So what about you? Do you prefer “fluff before crunch,” “crunch before fluff,” or something completely different?
nail bunny July 13th, 2008 at 7:39 PM
Depends on the character creation style: If I can choose what the end results are, I tend to build key defining personality and backstory traits before the character stats so I know where to go, if I have no choice I wait till the final product and build from that, if it is a mix, I define a few things (like is the character lazy, stubborn, orphaned, etc) and defint the rest after stats are finalized.
As for full backstory that depends on my knowledge of the world, for game world I know very well, I know the world more than well enough to write a full and complete backstory; for other game worlds, detials of the backstory might take time to fully flesh out.