[Twilight Time] Creating a 3D Skeleton

Mon Jun 24 10:18:05 EDT 2002

June 24, 2002 - Creating a 3-Dimensional Skeleton
Volume 3, Issue 9

This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: 
http://www.burningvoid.com/

Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except 
where noted otherwise. You may forward it via email to other people, 
but only in its entirety - do not alter the contents. This copyright 
notice must go with it. Do not repost or reprint by any other means 
without direct permission.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, change your options, or view the 
archives, visit the Twilight Time:
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime
You can also subscribe by sending an email with a subject of 
"subscribe" (without the quotes) to Twilighttime-request at burningvoid.com

Good morning!

We didn't post quite as many articles as usual this last month, but 
hopefully you can forgive us. It's beautiful and sunny, and the 
intermittent problems we were having with our net connection inspired 
me to take a bit of a break. I'm still playing around with stuff in 
the interests of overcoming a bit of writer's burnout, and I think I'm 
finally getting somewhere. So hopefully you'll be seeing more articles 
real soon now.

In the meantime, we've discovered that the best ice cream shop in the 
world is right up the street from us. Gazillions of very creative 
flavors, nice people, and huge serving sizes! Our weekend search for 
RPG shops was a bust, however, so we're still stuck with buying 
online. I guess you can't have everything, huh? But then as long as I 
can look over to the desk on the other side of my office and see one 
of our cats chewing on the yellow paisley plush Cthulhu doll, life 
must be good. :)

Have a great day,
Heather

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Creating a Three-Dimensional Skeleton

We've talked a lot in previous issues about creating three-dimensional 
characters with depth and background. There are a number of advantages 
to this sort of character creation, but there is also one potential 
drawback. If you're playing in a high-death game, where there's every 
chance that your character will get killed off after just a few weeks 
of play, you might not want to put so much effort into your characters.

Why put all that time and effort into details that you'll never get to 
explore? Why get interested in and attached to the character if he's 
just going to get himself shot in a few days?

Does this mean that you have to create boring, one-dimensional 
characters for high-death games? That you can't create interesting 
character background for these characters? That you can't have all the 
benefits you get out of in-depth character creation?

Not at all. It just means you have to do things a little differently. 
Instead of creating a full, flesh-and-blood character, you create a 
three-dimensional skeleton instead - something you can hang a few 
scraps of flesh on now, and fill out later if he manages to survive.

Bones

First you need the very basic stuff, the kind of things you really 
can't have a character without:

*   All the statistics appropriate to your game, of course.
*   A name really does help too.
*   A brief explanation (at least one line) of any unusual quirks, 
flaws, merits, advantages, disadvantages, etc. that you might have taken.
*   The names and/or occupations of any contacts or allies you might 
have.

This is the kind of stuff you can write down in about 15 minutes of 
quick thinking (except perhaps for the statistics - how long that 
takes depends on your game's character creation system).

Cartilage and Ligaments

Next you need a few things to hold those bones together. Consider 
writing maybe one page (or at least a few paragraphs) of character 
background. This is the minimum of details that explain your character:

*   Who is your character?
*   What does she do for a living and why?
*   What training has she had?
*   Who and what is important to her?
*   If you have a specific character "concept," what is it?

No need to go into reams of detail here. Just the basic facts will 
suffice (and perhaps a few plot hooks).

Scraps of Flesh

This is the important part, if you're interested in making use of the 
benefits you get out of a three-dimensional character. While you don't 
want to fully fill out your character, you do need a few scraps of 
flesh to hang on the bones and expand on later - assuming your 
character lives for a while. I've described this method once before 
when discussing ways to make non-player characters (NPCs) interesting 
with just a few details. I called it the Bright Spots of Detail method 
of character-building.

The basic idea is this: pick a few bold, bright, interesting, exciting 
details to give your character. These are quick things that you can 
describe in a sentence or a short paragraph, but they should be 
interesting enough that they obviously have *potential* to them. In 
other words, it's easy for you to see how you might expand on these 
things later. They have a certain energy or excitement to them. They 
inspire you and give you ideas. They provide plot hooks that the game 
master (GM) can choose to make use of.

If you need a little help coming up with these details, then consider 
answering a couple of questions from one or both of the following 
articles:

Bright Spots of Detail and NPC-Building Questions:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/npc-questions.html

The Player Character Questionnaire:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/pcquestions.html

Knitting Flesh

The real trick is this: the longer your character lives, the more you 
can flesh out these details and expand on your character concept and 
background. Thus the amount of effort that you put into the character 
ends up being directly related to the length of time that the 
character gets to exist within the game. The longer the character 
lives, the more complete and full a character you have. If the 
character dies after a couple of sessions, you didn't have too much 
effort invested in him.

Pick out a portion of your character background now and then - 
probably after every one to three game sessions. Think about it a bit. 
Come up with some of the details you left out before and expand on it 
a bit. Think about how it affects your character's life. Flesh out a 
contact your character has, or a friend. Detail some past event that 
had a strong effect on your character's life.

If you don't feel like expanding on something you've already written, 
then come up with something new. Go back to those questionnaires and 
answer another question. Come up with a childhood friend for your 
character. Detail a hobby your character has.

Obviously you don't want to use this to slip things past your GM once 
the game has started, and it helps to have his permission and/or 
assistance in this process if there's any chance that what you're 
doing could affect the game. Show anything you write up to your GM and 
make sure he's okay with it.

This can be a great way to create interesting characters for 
high-combat games. It doesn't require you to waste lots of effort on a 
character that won't last, or to invest time and interest in a 
character you'll never get to explore. But it does allow you to create 
characters that will have some depth and complexity to them, bringing 
you all (or at least most) of the benefits of a traditional 
three-dimensional character.

Related articles:

Three-Dimensional Character Creation:
http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001/000025.html

What's Your Opinion?:

Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic 
requests? Drop me a line at (heather at burningvoid.com). If I pass any 
of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG 
resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you 
don't want me to use your name and/or comments!

Next Issue:

Coming in just a few weeks (mid-July).

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SITE UPDATE:

Burning Void Roleplaying Resources:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/fanthorror.html
Mixing Fantasy and Horror in Roleplaying Games
A few questions answered on handling monsters, treasure, magic items, 
and spells in a fantasy/horror cross-genre game.

Burning Void Writers' Resources:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/burnout.html
Recovering from Writers' Burnout - Steps to Happier Writing
If you're feeling a bit burned out on your writing, perhaps we can 
help you regain your enthusiasm once again!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

RATINGS:

You can give the Twilight Time Zine a rating on the RPG Gateway to let 
us know how we're doing:
http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=5288

The same goes for the Burning Void RPG resources page:
http://www.rpggateway.com/cgi-bin/wyrm/rate.cgi?ID=1392

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ANNOUNCEMENTS:
(Trademarks are property of their respective holders and are used for 
identifying purposes only.)

ShoreCon2002: October 10-13, 2002
At the Cherry Hill Hilton, Route 70, Cherry Hill, NJ
One of the largest Gaming conventions on the East Coast
RPG's, Miniatures, CCG's, Board Games, and The Cherry Hill Experiment
http://www.completestrategygaming.com/
Guests include Author Elaine Cunningham

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Advertiser Instructions:

If you wish to have an advertisement appear in this newsletter, please 
email  <support at burningvoid.com> to come to an arrangement. We're also 
willing to print several small one-paragraph RPG-related news 
announcements for free each issue. (We reserve the right to refuse any 
ad or announcement.)

Privacy Policy:

We do not sell or give out your information. We will never hand out 
your email addresses (or any other information that we somehow end up 
with), barring a court order to do so.

Unsubscribe:

The Burning Void Roleplaying Resources Newsletter is entirely 
voluntary and opt-in ONLY. If you are receiving this directly from us 
and you did not sign up for this newsletter then something is wrong. 
Please use the unsubscribe instructions below. If that does not work, 
let us know right away at <heather at burningvoid.com>.

In order to unsubscribe, visit
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/twilighttime
sign in (if you've forgotten your password, the system can email it to 
you), and follow the instructions. Or, send an email with a subject of 
"unsubscribe" (without the quotes) to twilighttime-request at burningvoid.com