Drop Dice

Get with the GM, get with the GM, get with the GM for the love of all pantheons. At this point hopefully you have had at least a minor role if not larger in creating the game world and you already have some thoughts on character concepts that could work and what you want to play because you know the world. Do not start filling in a sheet until you talk to him/her. They may have special rules that they want you to follow or that awesome character concept you have in mind is part of the villainous faction and the GM wants pure heroic types, that doesn't mean you cant play that character it just means that you have to adapt to the plan of the campaign. I know most of our last games have been character creation at the table. This has worked out well for scheduling and building a balanced party. Though honestly I am a bit on the fence about character building as a group, as a story teller I kind of want bits of character backgrounds to not be player knowledge. I want things to come out during play naturally and sometimes the thing that makes you a special snowflake is revealed during these group build sessions.

As an artist you learn to make things with depth, details make things interesting. Look at the da Vinci sketch provided, it is way more interesting than a smiley faced stick figure because of depth. I recommend that in every system instead of building "a human swords-woman who is blind" build a "blind swords-woman, human." The second has a different connotation to it, your character is blind and you also happen to be a swordsman but that doesn't necessarily define you. One of my characters was actually this example, she was blinded in combat as an out to flat killing her in combat. I had to spend a bit to convenience her into continuing to play a blind bushi in L5R. She finally decided to continue play the character and had a blast, I even gave her Dare Devil like scenes eventually because her character over came her challenge and created a school of blind fighting (entirely player created, no school actually exists, or should I say existed at the time). This was a great story and it was only available to her because she had to overcome a challenge. I always recommend that you look at disadvantages (as Savage Worlds puts it) before anything else in character creation because that is who your character is, after that go to advantages because that is the same coin. And if you use defining interests in your game go there next. Bam! You have a concept and that's what Savage Worlds and really every other game needs for story and building unique characters because when it comes down to it every swordsman is going to mechanically operate about the same as every other swordsman, what make you special is who you are. This is the stage where my 20 Questions could be filled out, or if you have created your own insert here.

Lastly have goals, be invested in the story this does go further than character creation, but back to the point. At the beginning of the game if you start as a simple goat farmer maybe your goal is to marry the girl next door and live a successful life. That is a great plot hook for a GM, I kid nap the girl. Now your goal shifts to rescuing her, you still want to marry her but that will come later. But if I am a really mean GM I hit you where it hurts. You track down the kidnappers, defeat them somehow with the help of you faithful goat Billy and she is gone. Some investigation later you find out these kidnappers are the kings men to another kingdom, she has been taken to be wed to the tyrant who rules the next kingdom over. You find friends, lets call them "adventurers" and you form a "party" to go save your fair maiden, you do it, but now that tyrant king starts a war with your homeland because you where identified and told other travelers your tale. Now you have to decide is your love worth the lives of many innocent people? Should you return home where your nation will most likely turn you over to the tyrant to avoid war, but the girl will be safe at home again? Should you try to kill the tyrant and stage a coup, hopefully saving many of your own people's lives for those that live under the tyrant? Look at that, I just made a whole story arc around your goat farmer and his love. More depth means more room for GM's to create. If you want a basic dude with a sword killing things play Dynasty Warriors and ignore the cut scenes.

Stats are actually the least important thing about character creation, unless you are playing a very heavily instructed game like Pathfinder where the book says what you can do. In Savage Worlds that problem does not exist, or at least is much more limited. There are basic rules to follow but much of the onus is on the players to create flavor for their abilities. An example of this is a ray gun, ok so mechanically we will make it using Weird Science since it does not fit the norm of the campaign it uses bolt as its power. Ok, that sounds cool. Except that it is not, so...

Add them, they make that ray gun do way cool things. Say I want to go way off the wall. I want a necromantic ray gun that shoots leaches from the backpack/tank on me. Go for it and here is how:

Wow that's pretty cool. but trapping go way further, they do things that many seasoned players do automatically without thinking about it. Say you have caster gets his power from eating a strict diet of rice and water, if he doesn't follow that he loses his powers. That my friend is hindrance with a trapping, its that easy. Your character always takes his shoes off before entering a building, that's weird in a western game but it is also a trapping to your character. Trappings help create depth, and again plot hooks for GMs.

I probably should have said it before, but write it down. Save it if your on a computer, and give your GM a copy if at all possible. Nothing is more irritating than having to rebuild your character at a normal game session. And if you do have to rebuild, please try to do it before the game or at least quietly if the game can move forward without you.

In this order please:

• SavageDragon Age Play Demo (Short) if you are brand new, this will help with understanding how things work.
• CharacterCreation & Optimization (over an hour) Savage Worlds GM Hangout
• EuroEdition: Character Creation (over an hour) another Savage Worlds GM Hangout with a different look, same basic principles.
• Trappings(over an hour)Savage Worlds GM Hangout
• Power tothe Players (John Wick) Some GM love, but the second half is more toward the players. About the importance of selecting good disadvantages rather than "I am allergic to hypoallergenic cats, yay free points"

For my players