The Character Cake Part 2

After you've mixed up all of your ingredients, it's time to put your character in the oven and let them bake. Use the questions you asked to make a character sheet. In the Window, character abilities are divided into traits, which everyone has, and skills, which are individualized. (I'll talk about how to make a good list of traits in my nest post.) For every one of my players, there were certain skills that they gave to their characters which they wouldn't have had if we had not talked about their backstory. For instance, Panda came up with a card game that his character, Albert, was an expert in. This is why it's so important to make a good list of questions to ask your players.


This is a sample character sheet for one of my NPCs, Daniel Ruthvan. (I'll give you three guesses where my screen name comes from. ^u^ ) Dan was originally created as a side-quest. He acts rather strangely because he is a half-vampire and doesn't understand a lot about how humans think. The players were supposed to eventually figure this out. However, my players took a great interest in him from the moment he was introduced and they decided that he, of course, must be evil. He became a central character and now joins the player characters in their journey.

Full Name: Daniel Smith-Ruthven

Age: 13

Gender: male

Race, Blood Status: white; half-vampire

Ethnicity, Nationality: American

This Character Has … (Traits)

Terrible Strength (D20)

Good Agility (D10)

Terrible Endurance (D30)

Poor Knowledge (Muggle) (D20)

Great Knowledge (Wizarding) (D8)

Excellent Intelligence (D8)

Good Research Capacity (D10)

Poor General Magical Aptitude (D12)

Poor Charisma (D12)

Good Perception (D10)

Great Awareness (D8)

This Character Is … (Skills)

Obsessed with numbers and categories (D6)

Excellent at restraining himself from blood (D6)

Consumed by a thirst for humanity (D8)

Skilled at reading other people’s emotions (D8)

Good at controlling other people’s emotions (D10)

Fairly allergic to plant matter (D10)

Really good at chess (D10)

A decent Cellist (D12)

Great at baking (D10)

This Character Can … (Skills)

hypnotize people easily (D6)

automatically heal his own minor wounds (D6)

reattach his own severed limbs (D8)

This Character Carries …

Wand


As a final note on character sheets, and this is VERY IMPORTANT:
Keep saved and updated copies of all player character sheets! Whenever a character levels up an ability (if you choose to allow leveling-up), change it on your copy of the character sheet as well as the player's copy. If your players are like my players, THEY WILL LOSE THEIR CHARACTER SHEETS OR FORGET TO BRING THEM. Even if this never happens, it's still nice to have copies for yourself to facilitate planning.