A lot of the fun of Rpgs comes from how your character reacts to any given challenge. This section will help you explore this dimension of gaming. 

How your PC (player character)  handles a problem depends on what shaped the  character into who he or she is, on this page  you'll find 7 exercise that will challenge you to create a  richer past for the character you've brought to life, and allow you to better think and act as they would. 

There is no particular order to these activities so feel free to complete them in any order you like.

Save the cat.

Alignment can be a tricky thing when creating a character, with the players chosen alignment often not lining g up to the PC's actions. This exercise will help you to choose an alignment that fits your character by asking, how would you react to a cat stuck in a tree? 

Read the options below to choose one that best fits your characters actions. Or answer the question yourself and see where you think it would fit on the list.

Options 1-7 are Good, 8-13 are Neutral, and 14-20 are Evil the higher the number is the more evil your character is and the lower the more good.

You may also want to think about why your character reacted the way they did. 

Evil.

20. set the tree on fire.

19. Shoot the cat. 

18. Build a series of elaborate traps around the tree to prevent anyone else from helping. 

17. Throw a rock at the cat 

16. Cut down the tree injuring the cat. 

15. Persuade a child to rescue the cat hoping both get injured. 

14. leave the cat to its fate.

13. Say "Hey cat get your ass down here" then shrug and walk away. 

12. Wonder aloud whose cat is this?

11. Spend 10 minutes explaining to the cat why it shouldn't have climbed the tree in the first place and why you cant help.

10. Defensively justify to the cat why you're unable to help as it anxiously watches you.

9. Feel guilty about not helping the cat because you don't have time.

8. Sit watching until the cat climbs down safely on it's own, feel relieved that everything worked out okay.

7. Find a ladder to rescue the cat. 

6. Rescue the cat, form a Deep emotional bond with it as you nurse it back to health and then adopt it.

5. Free climb forty feet into a thorny tree to rescue the cat.

4. Evade the wild dogs that chased the cat into the tree and rescue the cat.

3. Battle the horde of Feral ghouls who chased the cat into the Tree and Rescue  the cat.

2. Evade the wild dogs that chased the cat into the tree. Rescue and adopt the cat, whilst also training the wild dogs to be emotional support animals 

1. Evade the wild dogs and the traps around the tree and then free climb 40ft Into a thorny tree which has been set on fire just to rescue the cat.

Good.

RED FLAGS.

You are desperate for work and in need of money, but not every job is one you want to take. Each point that follows adds a new fact about a job your character is offered .

Decide when you think the work is too much trouble.

• You are approached by a stranger.
• He wears a hood to hide his face. 
• He speaks in cool, oily sentences , which drip with easy Charisma.
• He speaks in a rasping voice
• He has a tattoo with unfamiliar symbols just barely visible at the edge of his sleeve
• He warns you it could be a dangerous job. 
• The work he describes seems almost too simple.
• Your skills and experience are uniquely suited to the task 
• You know of only one other mercenary who has taken work like this.
• The reward is three times what you expect for this type of work.
• The job involves travel into the wasteland far away  from settlements or outposts.
• More than one caravan has disappeared in the area.
• The barman has been anxiously been glancing at your table all night.
• The stranger tends to chuckle too himself as he speaks 
• Occasionally the chuckle turns into a full laugh.
• Which turns into a menacing cackle. 
• Inside the bottom of your tankard the word Run is etched. 
• Sensing your unease the stranger doubles the reward. 
• Two guards enter the bar without warning the stranger ducks under the table 
•  The guards announces " we're looking for a member of the crimson dawn believed to be in the area, they trick foolish adventurers into the ruins using promises of wealth. Their victims suffer horrible fates worse than death. If you think you've seen one let us know" 
• The stranger emerges from under the table looking guilty 
• You accept the job and the stranger leaves cackling menacingly, upon entering the ruins you are captured by the crimson dawn and knocked out, when you regain consciousness you are tied to a stake the rooms on fire and a circle of crimson Robed people around you are on their knees arms out stretched chanting. 

Across a Crowded Tavern. 

to someone with an eye for talent, even a character who is relatively inexperienced possesses qualities that signal potential. this activity  will help you to develop your character to stand out from the crowd.

what is your main skill and how would you display it if you were sitting at a table in a crowded tavern?

Examples

Repair. when your sitting a tavern you often repair your weapons or work on work on small devices. 

Guns. you are not without your weapon often having more than one at a time, you absent mindedly roll a bullet between your fingers as you drink.

Scavenging even sitting in a tavern you are still looking out for things to claim as your own, you can often be seen cleaning dust and dirt off of your finds which are sprawled across the table.

 

What stories of your work have been spread around the wasteland, and how do people react to them? 

are the stories good, tales of your victories or of overcoming an obstacle, or are they stories of your evil deeds killing the innocent and torching villages, or just stealing from a local merchant. 

 

Do people recognise you, how do they respond when they see you?

are you feared, loved or do people not really know about you? 

5 things you packed, but you shouldnt have. 

in this exercise we will look at your characters inexperience by examining 5 things they probably shouldn't have packed. 

1. Growing up, you were taught that a specific item was important to your identity. on the road you have found little use for it. every time you see it among your belongings, you make an excuse to keep it. but each time those excuses are harder to find. 

what is your item, where did it come from and why can't you part with it?

 

2. This Item was part of an old superstition you were taught as a child. it has since proven to be untrue.

what is it, and when did you try to use it?

 

3. when first venturing out, you grabbed this item. it seemed like something useful you would need on the road. you are still waiting for the perfect opportunity to pull it out. 

what is it, and when do you plan to use it?

 

4. you purchased this item, intending to learn how to use it. you keep putting off that learning experience. now throwing it away would be admitting you will never gain that skill. 

what is it, and how long would it actually take you to learn how to use it. 

 

5. this is an item you found out in the wasteland and could never put down.

what is it, where did you get it and why is it so important. 

 

5 Fears.

The true measure of courage is not to face danger fearlessly but to face fear and overcome it. heroes without fear lack an important emotional tool to add weight to their stories this exercise will help you discover that fear makes you stronger and more interesting. 

 the body.

one of the most obvious fears to confront an adventurer with is that of physical harm. After all a huge part of the job is risking danger. Pain and death are obvious and appropriate fears that most adventurers will face often. it may add flavour to some characters to make this a fear of a specific injury. A robot might fear Electrical damage or water. A ghoul may fear fire if they survived the great war.

Carefully consider what fear your character might have, and how difficult would it be too overcome

examples of fears include

• pain 
• weakness  
• fire 
• injury 
• sickness 
• Death 
• Radiation

the mind.

The powerful tool in any adventurers Arsenal is their mind, since it controls how she put her skills to use, but it can also work against her. Constructing invisible foes in the darkness, seeing shadows as signs of danger lurking around every corner, an oddly phrased sentence can be a sign of conspiracy. adventurers make calculations about danger out of necessity. fear lies in how they draw those conclusions and react to them. the mind is also the space where characters catalogue their plans and resources.

Any anxiety about failure, readiness or progress is felt through the mind. Certain heroes are dependent on their minds in ways others are not. For a Doctor her mind and her study are vital to keep those around her alive and it is easy to tie this in to a fear of inadequacy or anxiety. fears of the mind are less visceral than others but they carry no less weight.

To create a mind based fear for your character, consider what you know and focus on the dangers you find most important for instance.

• Anxiety
• Lack of preparation
• Feeling lost
• Post-traumatic Stress
• Lack of valuable information 
• Existential Dread

 

The Heart.

Emotional Storytelling is the core of Character driven fiction. the way you interact with other characters drives a great deal of the story. Rejection is an easy theme around which to build fear. Our world is already fraught with social strife surrounding appearance and acceptance. Adding features like tusks, rotting flesh and other mutations to Npc's makes differences more overt and easier to play with. Facing rejection is especially terrifying when your way of life depends on trusting other people.

On the other side of the coin, intimacy is another common heroic fear. Allowing yourself to care about others makes the pain  of loss more pronounced and opens you up to new vulnerabilities. Fear of intimacy raises the stakes on otherwise mundane interactions. 

To construct a fear of the heart, focus on a social interaction and what would happen if something went wrong. For instance

• Rejection
• Intimacy
• Loneliness
• Personal awkwardness
• Loss
• Social pressures to succeed

 

The Beast.

Despite being abstract, the beast is probably the most commonly represented fear in story telling. It is based around the unknown and unknowable causing harm. The most obvious manifestation of the beast is monsters, the awful things that lurk in dangerous places with sharp teeth and claws, it is easy to play a character who fears a specific type of creature  almost every hostile creature found In the wasteland is individually terrifying and it's easy to empathise with a character who sees monsters that way. There is also an element of the beast in the fears that drive hatred and bigotry. Those who are ignorant and fear what they do not understand  are in thrall to the beast.

To co structure a fear of the beast, think of what your character does not know and find a way to make that dangerous focus on the alien and outwardly horrific to find the shape of the beast. For instance

• Monstrous appearance 
• Dangerous abilities 
• Forbidden knowledge 
• Alien cultures and practices 
• Unfamiliar devices 
• Uncontained power 

 

The Soul.

A lot of what is abstract in real life takes concrete form in the wasteland. It is very possible to play a character who simply fears evil as a force. A  story about good and evil in a conceptual level becomes more grounded when you have a character embody those concepts. Evil is very easy to understand when it can swing an axe or fire a gun at you. You can  even create  an internal conflict by exploring the thought process of a good person when violence is an unavoidable aspect of life. Fearing personal corruption is a great way to add weight to actions and decisions  your character must make.

To construct a spiritual fear, ask difficult questions about your characters beliefs and behaviour. Create an emotional attachment to his or her sense of justice and find areas where there are no easy answers. For instance

• The nature of evil
• The fragility of virtue
• A specific evil person or faction
• Personal corruption
• Crisis of faith 
• Cosmic Horrors (like H.P. Lovecraft) 

 

 

 

Never Have I ever.

You and your party stare in disbelief as the large computer in front of you whirs into life, suddenly turrets burst from the floor and point at you, you know you wont make it out of the room unless you play never have I ever.

NEVER HAVE I EVER...

• KILLED A CREATURE THAT COULD NOT DEFEND ITSELF 
• SHARED A BED WITH SOMEONE WHOSE NAME I DIDNT KNOW
• FOUGHT A BATTLE I COULDNT WIN 
• STOOD FOR A CAUSE I DID NOT BELIEVE IN 
• BEEN IMPRISONED 
• HEARD THE VOICE OF A GOD
• LOST A GREAT LOVE
• SOUGHT REVENGE FOR A WRONG DONE TO ME 
• WITNESSED A VIOLENT CRIME 
• ATTEMPTED TO TALK TO AN ANIMAL OR FERAL 
• FOUGHT A DEATH CLAW
• KISSED SOMEONE FOR MY OWN GAIN 
• SABOTAGED A MACHINE 
• FIRED A GUN IN BATTLE
• BEEN CERTAIN I WAS ABOUT TO DIE
• LOST A LIMB 
• BEEN ON AN ADVENTURE BEFORE THIS ONE
• HAD A RIVAL
• BEEN SPARED BY A STRONGER OPPONENT 
• LOST A PARENT
• BEEN BETRAYED BY SOMEONE CLOSE
• BEEN FOOLED BY A CON OR ILLUSION
• RUN FROM A FIGHT 
• BEEN TOO LATE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE 
• BEEN AT THE MERCY OF ANOTHER 

What drives you forward?.

Here's an exercise to help develop the ways in which your core motivations spur your decisions. Answering the prompts to create deep motivations for your character.

Fighting For Your Life.

You are at deaths door. Your breath is shallow and ragged. Your joints cry and ache. Every physical part of you longs to lie down and rest come what may. 

what image appears in your mind that inspires you to keep fighting?

 

Without A Clue. 

The trail is cold. Following every clue has led you back to the same place of uncertainty from which you started. You can feel icy dread creeping over you as you consider the possibility of re-examining everything that brought you to this point. 

what physical object do you instinctively reach for in this moment? What comfort does it bring?

 

Lost Your Way. 

In the pursuit of righting wrongs, the line between good and evil has become blurred. You have done things you could never have imagined doing before, but you are not sure if that crossed a line. 

What words guide you toward your moral centre? Who said them?

 

Facing the unknown.

you are faced with a locked chest deep in the basement ruins of a crumbling factory. On your journey down, you have faced many clever traps and seen valuable rewards.

what treasures that could be hidden inside make you want to open the chest? 

 

Social Unrest. 

you and your party are facing a serious problem and cannot agree on a solution. You have argued until you are blue in the face, and the temptation to go your own way is strong.

what moment from your past makes you try again to reach the other members?