Characters---Dungeons and Dragons Style

I've now moved on to the Dragonlance phase of my research, and one of the more interesting things about Dragonlance is that it was originally conceived as a D&D adventure and only later turned into a series of novels. It's not something I ever would have picked up on without knowing it ahead of time (kind of like the bible stories in C.S. Lewis), but knowing that you can definitely see the influence.

So that got me thinking about the D&D character creation process, and how it actually works fairly well as a template for creating fictive characters in general. I've never actually played D&D, but I have played a lot of videogames based on its system, and I once read part of a rulebook. So my description of the D&D process may not be completely accurate, but that doesn't make it any less useful for creating characters in fiction.

That disclaimer aside, here we go:

In D&D, you begin the character creation process by choosing a number of different attributes about your character. What race they are, what age they are, where they come from, what their job is, how strong they are, how smart they are, how fast they are, etc.

That gives you a basic sketch of your character. You know a few of the external things about them, which can help you figure out some of the internal things as well.

You then go on to pick some cool skills and talents for them---what makes this character special, what makes them different from the others around them, what makes your big dumb warrior different than your friend's---is he really good with two-handed swords? Does he fight with two weapons at once? Is he a sword and shield type? Does have a good eye for traps? Can he pick locks? Can he use a bow? Does he swim well? The list goes on and on...and on and on, but you get the idea.

So now you know what your character can do. In terms of the game, he's pretty much done at this point, at least until he starts leveling up (I think ;-p). But in terms of being a character, you're just starting. Now that you know all the cool stuff he can do, you get to go back and figure out why he can do it, which eventually leads you into who he is as a person. Why did he choose to fight with two-handed swords instead of a sword and shield? Why can't he swim---is he afraid of water? Did he have a traumatic childhood experience in a river? Why did he choose to be a warrior---or did someone else choose for him?

You get the idea. I don't imagine that that many people struggle with creating characters---it's a big part of what makes writing fun, but taking this approach can help you flesh out characters you've already created, and it doesn't just work for fantasy. Let's take the crime genre (which I've been working with a lot this summer). You can do the same thing. What kind of cop is this person? Why? What are their specialties? Are they big? Small? Smart? Dumb? Addicted to donuts? Coffee? Can they swim? Why? etc. etc. etc.

Just an interesting thing that occurred to me as I was seeing some of the D&D emerge in Dragonlance today. I may try to play a game or two when I get back to college in the fall---just so I can really go through the process of creating the characters, the storylines, etc. I'm a big proponent of the theory that learning different ways of creating and telling stories can only help you as a writer...even if those ways are a little outside the normal writing curriculum. ;-p