Five Questions for Your RPG Character: Secrets, Fears and Memories
It’s probably safe to say most of us have been in that moment where you go around the table at the beginning of the game and introduce your character. You talk about what they look like. Some people go into detail about what their character is wearing, their mannerisms, some might grab sensory details like how the smell of smoke clings to her when she passes by. Others leave it at “I’m an elven rogue”, and that’s okay, too. Regardless, the party still sees how they generally conduct themselves after a few hours of game time.
But there’s still plenty going on that they do not see. There are things your character will not be up front about, or things they would prefer never to have come to light. There are things that will embarrass them or make them vulnerable. This is a part of the humanoid condition.
Some of these things might never come up at the table explicitly, but they can still color your character’s behavior and actions. To that end, here are some questions you can ask yourself to get a little more of that depth out of your character.
What is her best kept secret?
Everyone has things they don’t like to talk about, and some of these things are more intense than others. Not every unspoken fact is going to be a murder-level secret. In fact, it could be something fairly innocuous.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For example, one of my players has a tough-as-nails character who goes by a dangerous-sounding street sobriquet. Her mother is the sweetest person you will ever meet and calls her something sugary sweet no matter who is watching. A more serious character whose mother calls her “Peanut” or has an embarrassing nickname can have a cute lighter-end-of-the-spectrum secret.
On the other hand, it could be something legitimately humiliating, but not incriminating. Maybe she doesn’t change her underwear as often as she should. Maybe she can’t read.
Then again, it could actually be a murder-level secret. In a game where the party frequently kills bandits in the woods, maybe leaving a few bodies in her wake is not the worst offense she could be accused of, but if she is a particularly good character, it could be a point of major shame for her. Perhaps she betrayed someone in the past who was depending on her, or struck a deal with a devil.
These are things the DM can use against you, but when that happens it isn’t a bad thing. It makes things happen. Anything that gets the ball rolling towards something interesting and generates fun for the table is good. Murder-level secrets are the ones you should definitely share with the DM.
Even if these things don’t come up at the table, they can and should color your character’s behavior. At the very least it should color her point of view. If Peanut is a Mama’s Girl, she might react differently to more maternal characters. If she can’t read, she could awkwardly wait for other people to order at taverns and then order the same thing they got. She could scoff when people offer her documents, and act like it’s just not important to her.
What is his darkest fear?
(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)
Everyone is afraid of something. There are a lot of common phobias you can dip into. Spiders, enclosed spaces, thunder, deep water, heights, bugs, ghosts, or needles, to name a few. A fear is a relateable flaw and a good chance to show your character being vulnerable to something, no matter how stoic he is on the outside.
It doesn’t have to be a classic fear. Fear of losing people is one that gets touched on a lot. Fear of mortality. Existential dread. These are things that aren’t as immediate as common phobias, but they are still real things that will color his interactions and actions. He might be prone to making morbid observations, for example, due to his preoccupation with his internalized fear of death.
Maybe he fears things like rejection or that people won’t like him. He might suddenly change an opinion to present himself in a better light to others, or just never let people get to see who he really is because being rejected as a facsimile of who he is is less painful than being himself and being rejected for that. Maybe he tells a lot of jokes and hides behind his humor. Maybe he’s always starting fights because if he is the one being aggressive first, then no one had the chance to like him in the first place.
What is her best or worst memory?
The moments in your character’s life that stick with her, say a lot about her. What does she try to bury? What does she treasure? If the thing she values most in her past was an intense sword fight, then you know she will love having the fight of her life in the future. If her best memory is a romantic interlude, it would make sense that she would seek more of the same.
Similarly, what she loathes about her past may explain some of what she dreads. When something bad happens and she sees similarities to a situation she has been in before, she might try to do things differently to avoid the outcome. Say she lost someone once in a hostage situation. If there are hostages being taken in the current game, she might lock up or act in an unexpected fashion since what she tried last time didn’t work. It might even lead to a conversation with the rest of the party regarding the incident in question.
What is the worst mistake he has ever made?
Students fighting a saber duel, around 1900, painting by Georg Mühlberg (1863–1925) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone does things they regret. These things are learning experiences and they stick with your character. Maybe he told a lie as a child and got someone hurt or worse. Maybe he went somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be and saw something horrible that scarred him for life. Maybe he just stuck his hand in a hornet’s nest and got stung.
What if he challenged the wrong person to a duel and still carries the scars from it? That is something that affects his physical appearance, and there will be an implied story behind it. The second you mention something like a scar, they might not say it, but people are going to be curious about it, and it comes out in the open as a major moment of character development.
What if he fell for the wrong person and got jilted and it’s made him cautious about romantic partners in the present? He might be skeptical about other people’s relationships as well. What if he repeated a secret that wasn’t meant to go anywhere and lost a friend? He might be less inclined to talk a lot, and instead be a man of action.
What does she want the most?
Even if you’re not honest with other people or even your DM about this, you should know the answer. Your character’s goals will guide her actions. Where does she want to end up in her life?
Hoard of ancient gold coins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Wealth is a common goal. Fame or prestige — which in this case are not the same thing. Fame meaning everyone knows who she is, and prestige being that those in her own field respect her. Many people just want a happy home life.
What if she wants immortality? Consider why she would want that. Fear of death? Love of history and a desire to see it unfold? Simply acknowledging that there is not enough time to learn everything she wants to know in a single human lifespan? Maybe she is involved with a member of a species that lives for a far longer time than she does and she doesn’t want to leave her lover alone for centuries.
If she wants power, think about why. Maybe she just doesn’t want to be under anyone’s boot, or perhaps she’s a control freak. Maybe she wants vengeance on someone and is biding her time and becoming strong enough to reach out and take it. Maybe she’s just trying to one-up the sibling that was always better than she was.
Maybe she just wants to be a good person and make her deity proud of her. Maybe she wants to help people because of some sense of honor.
Regardless, these goals will affect her choices. A character who desires to become immortal more than anything else will likely not be sacrificing themselves for another person. A character who wants to retire and have a happy home life will be loath to make long-lasting enemies. A character who wants to be a paragon of virtue will really think about whether the person at the other end of her blade deserves to die.
The depths are not stagnant
The answers to any of these questions don’t have to stay the same through a whole campaign or even through a whole session. Your character is not obligated to be the same person he was a week ago or even ten minutes ago, if something happens to change his view.
If you find the answers to these questions changing, think about why and what brought you to this point. It’s a good thing. It means not only is your character affecting the world, but the world is affecting your character.
Consistency is not the same thing as stagnancy. Keep track of the reasons why your character changes, and let him do it. When you really know who he is, even if these things never come up in the open at the table, they can really help keep your character consistent. His past, even after he leaves it behind, is still a part of who he is. His secrets, even if they never see the light, will still have an impact on his actions.
Who knows, he might even surprise you.
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