Originally written and posted on Medium.com August 14th, 2018
This is the 3rd, final, and simplest part of a guide to creating your character for a game of Dungeons and Dragons.
“Yeah, I get you’re a whirling death vortex with +4 Strength and a magic axe, but like, ya know — who are you?” — A DM reminding everyone D&D is a role playing game
Great, you’ve chosen a race (your racial powers), you’ve chosen a class (profession), now the final piece of the puzzle falls into place — all the other shit that makes you an actual person and not just a fucking facade of an entity.
This is really more a step by step process as opposed to a “choose one of the following”, so follow along at home!
You’re probably going to want to use some kind of name generator for your mad, make-believe person, but honestly, Paul the Half-Orc is way funnier.
Pick one. Or neither. Or multiple. It affects the game in no way, and is purely there so your character isn’t some genitalia-less action figure (unless you want to be a genitalia-less figurine-like character, in which case, go for it)
You can check out the PHB (or this handy guide) for advice on average heights and weights, but honestly, go with whatever you feel best aids the characterisation of your mighty hero.
Hair colour, eye colour. Foot size. Skin pigment. Tongue width. Hand size. Toe length. Choose as many or as few details as you want, flesh out your character as you see fit.
Ah, this old chestnut. Alignment is a basic representation of your characters morality, based on 2 spectrums: Lawful to Chaotic, and Good to Evil. Confusion around what alignment actually is is possibly the oldest meme in the world.
So, everyone speaks Common (unless specified otherwise). ****I know that doesn’t quite make sense, but hey, we’re playing a game, and you need some way to antagonise the locals.
You’ll probably speak some extra languages based on your race — check the PHB for those. You’ll almost certainly speak at least your racial language (e.g Elves speak Elvish, etc.)