Character Creation is the act of creating a character for a Role Playing Game, or RPG.

Each game has it's own particular requirement for this. It can take anywhere from five minutes to five hours, depending on the complexity of the game involved.

White Wolf games usually require the individual to fill out a sheet with skills, attributes, etc., as well as a basic character history. This usually takes about an hour.

LARP characters for WW games usually take about fifteen minutes to half an hour, once you know what you're doing...

CC for HOL usually requires either a) as much time as the Holmeister feels like contributing to pulling something out of his ass, or b) a good amount of time rolling the character up via the chart system in Buttery Wholesomeness, (preferably in a group, so you can all suffer together), managing to survive, and playing.

CC for Rifts tends to be fairly mind boggling...paging through the book looking for primary skills, then figuring out your secondary skills, attributes, etc., and doing various complex math. Lengthy, unless you really know what you're doing. This is apparently the same for any Palladium game...though I didn't find Robotech to be the same.

D&D - Roll your stats using six sided dice. The GM may allow you to do this in sets of 3, and let you pick the best. Thank him for this. Then generate skill stats for weapons, THACO, etc. This is different for third edition. *Grin*

Amber - Bid for dominance between the 4 stats. Spend remaining points on abilities like being able to walk the pattern, shape shadow, etc. Write up a whopping character history and be prepared to be quizzed often. Play. Once again, this takes as long as the whole thing takes, and as elaborate as you feel like getting with your char. history.

You (perhaps) begin to get the idea. Likely others will add, correct, etc. Not something to be taken seriously, and learning a new game system (let alone character creation system) is like unto beginning a new programming language. For the fun of it.

Character creation, as in all other role-playing aspects should be done after both the leader (i.e. GameMaster (GM), Dungeon Master (DM), Storyteller, etc.) and players are very familiar with the system involved.

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.

Doing this usually makes either leader and/or player realise if they're willing to commit time and effort to the game, because if they don't have the patience to spend time creating their characters, they probably have no desire to be a part of the game for the long haul.

Before creating your character, always check that both leader and player are on the same "page" (pun not intended). For example, if the player wants to blow things up, hack things to bits, cause wanton carnage and destruction, leader should react accordingly by throwing bigger and badder enemies at the players. If the leader is not comfortable with this tactic, said leader should inform the player beforehand, to avoid any misunderstanding later.

Most of all, though, enjoy the game. Create characters you will want to role-play continuously and have fun.

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