Character Development

In order to encourage thoughtful character design and interaction with the world, the following is a (mostly) optional exercise to earn some in-game benefits. Each subsection completed will earn you a point, and each point earns you a tiered, non-stacked reward, as follows:

1. Nothing :(
2. Extra 50 GP
3. Extra 100 GP
4. 1 Potion of Healing
5. +5 HP
6. +1 to any ability score of your choice
7. Low-grade magical item (with DM approval)

Basics & Personality

This section is mandatory, and should also be completed in a World Anvil character sheet to be added to the campaign. Your DM thanks you. :-)

• Character Name
• Pronouns & Gender
• Class(es) & Level
• Race
• Background
• Armor Class
• HP Maximum
• Hit Dice
• Ability Scores
• Saving Throws
• Skill Proficiencies
• Languages
• Features & Traits

The following are still mandatory, but do not need to be included on a World Anvil character sheet.

• Appearance
• Age
• Personality Traits (at least 4 positive and 2 negative)
• Ideals
• Bonds
• Flaws
• Background (can be brief, since this is a whole section below)
• Home
• Job/Hobbies
• Goals (What does your character want to accomplish?)
• Deities (What god/goddess(es) does your character worship, if any?)
• Hooks (What parts of your character can be used connect them to the world/involve them in plot?
• Knives (What parts of your character can be used against them? What dangling threads do they have that the DM can pull on?)

Backstory

Please answer the following questions in as much detail as you would like. You may answer as yourself or as your character.

1. Where does your character consider home? Has that changed over time? Why?
2. What is/was your character’s family like? Do they have siblings? Do they get along?
3. How did your character earn the skillset of their class(es)?
4. Describe in brief one life-altering event.
5. What social class is your character from? How did that impact their upbringing?
6. Has your character broken any laws? Which ones, when, and where?
7. What are your character’s core moral beliefs? How did they develop?
8. What is your character’s biggest mistake?
9. What is your character’s biggest regret?
10. What is your character’s biggest fear?
11. What is the most important item to your character? Why?
12. How did your character end up in Wairwood? Are they here for any particular reason?
13. Is there anything important that happened to your character that you haven’t talked about? What is it?

Interactions

Please answer the following questions in as much detail as you would like. You may answer as yourself or as your character.

1. When presented with a problem, where does your character start? What is their process?
2. How does your character treat strangers? Friends? Enemies?
3. What does your character look for in companions? In significant others?
4. How does your character handle stress?
5. How does your character handle issues of morality?
6. What is your character’s relationship to religion? What god/goddesses do they worship and why?
7. What is your character’s relationship to magic?
8. Who are your character’s friends? How have they impacted your character?
9. Does your character have any enemies? Who, and how did that happen?
10. What is your character’s relationship to secrets, either their own or others?
11. What valuable or important contacts does your character have? How did they meet?
12. What traits of others immediately make your character like or dislike them?
13. Is there anything else important about your character’s interactions that you haven’t talked about? What is it?

Self Reflection

Please answer the following questions in as much detail as you would like. You may answer as yourself or as your character.

1. What is your character’s opinion of themselves?
2. Does your character have a motto/code of honor/certain morality or philosophy? What is it and why?
3. What does your character hope to achieve by the end of their life? How close are they?
4. What would your character say are their strengths? Their weaknesses?
5. What are your character’s thoughts on killing? When is it okay? When is it not okay?
6. Is your character a loyal person? What, if anything, would make them break their loyalty?
7. What does your character consider to be the worst act a person can commit? Why?
8. What kind of threat does your character present to the public? Do they know this? Do they lean into it or try to avoid it?
9. What does your character think happens after death?
10. What is one thing that your character doesn’t like about themselves? Are they trying to improve it?
11. What is your character’s favorite thing about themselves? Why?
12. What is a secret that your character is keeping? Who are they keeping it from? (Themselves is a valid answer here).
13. Is there anything else important about how your character views themselves that you haven’t talked about? What is it?

Short Story

Write a short story from your character’s perspective about an important event in their life. There’s not a word minimum here but, like, don’t write five words.

Moodboard

Create a collage of images (at least 9) relating to your character. You can send each image to Quinn separately, combine them, make a Pinterest board, etc. See an example here.

Playlist

Create a playlist of at least 8 songs that your character would relate to or listen to. You can create a Youtube playlist, send links to Quinn, make it on Spotify, etc.

Just For Funsies

These questions will not count towards the above rewards, but they’re a good warm-up before diving into the longer questions.

1. Hogwarts House?
2. Avatar Element?
3. Favorite color?
4. Favorite animal?
5. Favorite food?
6. Favorite comfort item?
7. High school clique? (Nerd, jock, prep, goth, etc)
8. Best date?
9. Worst date?
10. What to do with 1 million GP?
11. Coffee order?
12. Tavern order?
13. Favorite book?
14. Favorite movie?
15. Favorite song?
16. Jewelry?
17. Tattoos?
18. Scars?
19. Coffee or tea?
20. Color or monochrome?
21. Night or day?
22. High school superlative? (Most likely to…)
23. Favorite school subject?
24. If your character played D&D, what class would they want to play?
25. Fashion sense?
26. Fashion sense, but in our world?
27. College major?
28. Beach or mountains?
29. Favorite snack?
30. Pizza toppings?
31. Your character is given 5 minutes to prepare a TED Talk. What are they talking about?
32. Collections?
33. Hot or cold?
34. Shirts or skins?
35. Patronus?
36. Childhood nickname?
37. Pajamas?
38. Moon or stars?
39. What does your character’s phone case look like?
40. Do they put their laundry away immediately?

The original idea for this reward-based system comes from tumblr user dwarfstarscast.