Improve Your Roleplaying with Better D&D Character Background Skills

One of the best ways to improve your roleplaying skills in D&D is by creating a better character background. Creating a better D&D character background will give you, and your Dungeon Master, more opportunities and character hooks for roleplaying. Here are a few tips on how to create a better D&D character background by using easy to create plots hooks and personality traits.

Decide on one thing that your character would lay down his life for. It may be something noble, or it may be more self-serving. But pick something that your character would, under any circumstances, fight to the death over. It could be that anytime someone steals something from him, he will go to the ends of the earth to track them down and make them pay at any cost. Or, it could be that whenever his homeland is disrespected in conversation, he just cannot let it go. Whatever it is, choose this one carefully as it will turn out to be an extremely important part of your character.

Decide on three things that your D&D character will always fight over. Maybe he has an unrelenting hatred for trolls and whenever he is near them he must find them and attack them. Or, maybe whenever he encounters citizens from a small, secluded town he feels compelled to fight them over past wrong-doings. Choose three possible situations or trigger mechanisms that your character will fight for.

Pick one thing that your character absolutely fears. This fear can alter an adventure if a character runs into one of the fearsome obstacles that he feels he must avoid. This could be an extremely large fear of something that you don’t common run into. Or, it could be a small fear of something that is a lot more common. The player will have to choose what they think is correct for the character.

Decide on one characteristic, or trait, that defines how other people see your character. Maybe your character is always calm no matter what the situation is. Or perhaps your character is the comedian. He is always cracking jokes, even while in the court of a king or the lair of a dragon. You can take this character trait and write it at the top of your character sheet, so you will always be subtly reminded to play your character in that way.

Create one additional character that is important and somehow related to your character. This could be a meddling uncle that always seems to show up in your business at inconvenient times. Or, it could be a childhood enemy that has followed you much of your life. He’s often poked fun at you when you’re down, but has also shown an act of heroism on random occasions which leads you to wonder if he’s really good, or really bad.

With these seven different characteristics, one thing that you will die for, the three things you will always fight for, and one thing that you are afraid of, and one characteristic that defines your personality, and one character that is important to you, you’ve instantly created a small amount of background, personality, and a play style for the characters. Answering these questions for your character dramatically increases the chance for fun and dramatic roleplaying opportunities in your game, as well as starting the foundation for your D&D character background.

Espen writes articles about Role Playing and Dungeons & Dragons Character information.