Ravings of a Textual Deviant

I asked it, now I’ve got to answer it.

What can the GM or other players do to help ?midwife? the character creation process?

Ask questions. Then ask some more questions. Repeat as necessary.

In my experience, helping someone develop a character is a lot like interviewing. Your goals are fairly similar–you want to find out more about the character, perhaps get some background information, and see if there are any inconsistencies in the story. Some people are better interview subjects than others, and if I’m getting a lot of one-word answers, then I’m probably not asking the right questions. Where character creation diverges from interviewing is that in character creation, it’s appropriate to offer suggestions or create information collaboratively. As a GM, I often have a secondary goal of helping the character integrate into the game, and this influences me when I help a player. As a player, that goes out the window, and I’m totally focused on helping someone create a character that’s fun to play.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2004 at 10:56 am and is filed under Games & Gaming, Gaming Memes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.