Cool concept

There are many things that you can draw inspiration from. Movies, books, even music can get the creative juices flowing. Sometimes, even reality can bring questions such as “How would I have handled that?” or “What would have happened if…?” These are great jumping points to work out an idea for a story or character. For this corner, we are talking characters.

My most recent adventure in this was while I was building a character for a current campaign that I’m playing in (yes, I play). The system is Pathfinder, so I used the SRD for much of what I was doing. Digging through some of the classes, I landed on Psychic. It looked different enough to me that I was excited to give it a try. Then I asked, “What’s my story?”

This was the first time I built a character mechanically before laying out at least a general idea of who this person was. After watching the series “The Witcher,” I got to thinking about how the world is built, its magic and political structures. I decided that my character’s powers were going to be an uncommon set of skills. The abilities would be present at a young age, then trained to mastery in order to become an invaluable asset to a ruler.

Now I had her backstory laid out as already stated: showed promise young, trained, then sent to a kingdom as an advisor, but then had to come up with a reason for adventuring with this group of nobodies. Since the group was being commissioned by an allied ruler, and being sent off into unknown/untamed lands, it was seen as beneficial for an advisor, especially one of psychic ability, to accompany the group. They believed this would aid in their chances of success.

There I had it. My character, complete with backstory, was ready to go! Inspired by the world of “The Witcher.”

When you find a cool idea and want to imitate it, that is awesome! Come up with a story for your character and build from it. Trust me, GMs love it and will add elements of it into the overall plot of the game they are creating as well. This is part of how the story becomes collaborative, it is now a world created together.