Is it weird to spend a day just making characters?

[Father Enoch]

This is technically an rpg post but not really specific to any one so I put it here.

Has anyone else here ever spent time just creating rpg characters, even if they don't have a game session or a campaign? What I mean is, do you make characters to practice getting your head around the character creation system of a game you haven't tried? So you do this to practice, and remind yourself how the system works? Or do you do this because you're just bored?

[Cauthon]

I tell myself stories when I'm bored or trying to fall asleep, which is made easier when there's a framework to operate within. Making random character -rough drafts of them, anyway- helps a lot with that.

[Heavy Arms]

I don't do it nearly as much as I did when I was younger, but making characters just for the fun of it was one of my old past times for what to do on long trips. Obviously going from being a passenger to the driver didn't help a lot to continue that practice.

I wouldn't say I had any distinct goals with it; especially as it was long before having your whole collection on PDFs and a small laptop to travel with. It was just something fun to do. In systems I know well enough, I could just use some paper and a pencil and make up characters (the vast majority I never used) because it was mentally simulating.

[Critian Caceorte]

This is technically an rpg post but not really specific to any one so I put it here.

Has anyone else here ever spent time just creating rpg characters, even if they don't have a game session or a campaign? What I mean is, do you make characters to practice getting your head around the character creation system of a game you haven't tried? So you do this to practice, and remind yourself how the system works? Or do you do this because you're just bored?

Like what Heavy Arms said, it's not something that I do as much these days because I'm running several games at the moment, but I used to just spend hours creating characters and going over the books to see what works. I didn't have a lot of people to play with back then, especially not for Storyteller stuff, so I was just kind of on my lonesome in creating things. Discord helped open things up a little, so now that I'm making groups with people I don't have as much energy to do as I did before.

[Iguazu]

When I first started playing RPGs, yeah; now, I'll find online character generators like Hero-Machine or Hero-Forge.

[Father Enoch]

But Hero Forge just makes miniatures, doesn't it? I meant characters as in sheets.

[Baaldam]

Depends. Sometimes i sketch out some concept or backstory, others i jot stats around for the sake of a build or whatever - and then there are times i just steal a character template from a splatbook and jot down some small bits to customize it into an almost fully fleshed out PC or NPC.

And then just throw the lot of them into some file compilation or other for use when the opportunity to play or GM strikes.

[Rhywbeth]

I'll do it for practice, with a new system (speeds up session zeros). I'll also do it for fun, or if an interesting concept strikes me.

I'll also sometimes roll random stats and make a game out of making the random nonsense make sense (I couldn't make the professional wrestler Tremere make any sense, but she was a memorable concept).

[Lysander]

Not at all. When I was younger and had a burst of creative inspiration about a character and there backstory. It wouldn’t be shocking to see how much time would pass as the backstory would gell and a good non player character or player character would emerge. It was like the old story of how Athena erupted fully formed from Zeus.

[Iguazu]

But Hero Forge just makes miniatures, doesn't it? I meant characters as in sheets.

That is true; I've played so many RPGs that, when I create a character, create a concept and rarely assign stats because I haven't decided if, it's for Vampire: Requiem or Cyberpunk 2020: Night's Edge game. Any RPG game will do.

[Lysander]

That is true; I've played so many RPGs that, when I create a character, create a concept and rarely assign stats because I haven't decided if, it's for Vampire: Requiem or Cyberpunk 2020: Night's Edge game. Any RPG game will do.

I know the feeling when I come up with a concept that could work well with Mage The Awakening or Changeling The Lost. I never had any troubles when it came to creating characters when it came to Vampire The Masquerade or the Requiem.

[Iguazu]

I know the feeling when I come up with a concept that could work well with Mage The Awakening or Changeling The Lost. I never had any troubles when it came to creating characters when it came to Vampire The Masquerade or the Requiem.

When we got Masquerade, we also go the Player's Guide and I went crazy with the Mortals-sheet; I went to the copy-shop, five-cents a copy and would get twenty or forty sheets at a time and make massive amounts of mortal-NPCs for V:tM. I felt that vampire was more of a mortal-driven game and instead of having my players roll for blood-points, I'd have them role-play the hunt. Just rolling a few dice to see how much Blood they got was like, just rolling a few die to see how much Gold the players got in a D&D dungeon. Human-interactions was apart of the game.

When Dark-Ages game out, I made a Dark Ages Character Concept generator-program and went from there.

[Lysander]

Compelling backstories and flaws never get old.

[Iguazu]

Especially with editable .PDFs; if they're like Judicial-Council Forms, you should be able to edit them if you download them to your computer.

[brasidas19004]

I do this - both for practice, and with any RPG which has a rich Character Generation sequence. I also like to have some characters ready to be NPCs for when I run games.
It sure beats watching TV or on-line gambling!