The character creation process can be challenging to navigate. Some players love it and love to spend hours on it. Others hate fussing over it too much before a campaign starts. And some enjoy going into a session knowing nothing about their character because they enjoy improvising. Luckily, there is a character creation tool for every kind of player and game master. In this article, we’re exploring the top 5 resources for creating RPG characters you need to check out.
Build characters with random tables
This wouldn’t be a Dispel article without plenty of dice-rolling fun, and random tables really keep things interesting. If you want your players to start with a clean slate, prepare a bunch of rolling tables and set aside a prep day for character creation before you start your campaign. They will roll dice for naming their characters, as well as picking out their race, class, physical characteristics, motivations and abilities.
These kinds of resources are especially great if you and your players want to add some unexpected freshness to your next campaign, work on your improvisation skills, or embrace a bit of randomized chaos. Rolling dice for character creation in DnD is also one of the best ways to fix indecisiveness fast or introduce new players to the RPG world.
Random tables are also easy to find! You can buy books filled exclusively with rolling tables and art to go with them. You can also find thousands of them online for free, or get them from other players and DMs. You can even hand-pick bits and pieces from all over to create your own random tables based on the kinds of campaigns you and your party like to play.
These are also ideal for creating NPCs!
Printable character sheets
If you’re new to the world of RPGs, the best place to start is by downloading the official character sheets for whichever system you’re playing. From Dungeons & Dragons to Mörk Borg, these are available to download and print for free, and often come with character creation guides as well.
Many GMs, players and creators also create their own character sheets in different styles or layouts. You can purchase these from Etsy or indie RPG stores. They also share and swap these printables on Reddit, social media platforms and TTRPG forums.
If printables aren’t for you, platforms like Foundry and DnD Beyond allow your players to fill out and save their character sheets digitally. You can find official character sheets ready for you on these platforms, and more created under their third-party licenses.
Full character generators
Do you need to create characters fast? Do some of your players just hate character creation? Maybe you’ve run out of ideas for NPCs, and need a way to create more on the fly.
RPG creators have spent tireless hours building all of their ideas and random tables into online character generators. You can start with a completely blank slate and get a fully-fleshed out character PDF within seconds. Many of these generating tools also allow you to fill in fields if you are looking for characters within specific systems, genres, classes or races, and will randomly build out the rest of your character around your answers.
If you enjoy the process of character creation and all the detail that goes into it, but you’re lacking a bit of inspiration, there are also plenty of generators which give you one-line descriptions. These will usually include the race and/or class, a piece of background information and their motivation or an ability. Using this as a jumping off point, you can get creative with all the finer details.
Multiclass guides
Multiclassing rules are present in most RPGs, and it allows your players (or you, if you’re a player) to pause leveling up in a specific class, to begin leveling up in another. This allows your character to build multiple skillsets. Creating interesting and diverse characters makes for better storytelling. Just like people in real life, your roleplaying game characters can also grow, change and have multiple interests and motivations, especially in long-term campaigns!
So how do you create multiclass characters? The first step is to read the rule book. Make sure the entire party understands the process within whichever system you’re playing. If your chosen system doesn’t have rules for multiclassing yet, put your heads together and define a few guidelines everyone can follow. It’s also very likely someone has already done the hard work here, and you’ll be able to find general multiclassing rules you can plug into the RPG of your choice.
Multiclassing is a great tool for character development. It will prevent fatigue over long campaigns, add diversity to scenarios and increase anticipation for future sessions.
Drawing from life
Using ‘real life’ as a tool for character creation in your tabletop sessions is recommended for one-shots or longer campaigns where everyone in the party is open to a bit of silliness. Get everyone to choose a figure from history or popular culture. Avoid controversial figures at all costs (unless you’d like to use them to make bosses).
Hand out your character sheets and let everyone research away, translating the activities and personality traits of their heroes (or just people they find interesting) into whichever setting you’ve chosen to play. Who would Dolly Parton be in a dark fantasy world? What about William Shakespeare in a space exploration sci-fi setting?
If you also have beloved characters from literature, TV and film, they can be included in a similar way for themed one-shots. Maybe everyone gets to roll for a Scooby Doo character. You could even do a Friends or Sex and the City one-shot for your non-roleplaying friends. And may we be so bold as to suggest a dark fairytale RPG campaign inspired by the new Dispel Dark Fairytale dice collection? We know how much you all love it when your accessories match your setting.
We have always loved the idea of setting aside a couple of hours for character creation a few days before the campaign begins. Make it extra special and even more immersive with curated game accessories. When you have what will be a months-long campaign coming up, it’s nice to give each player some luxury dice as a gift, or have dice rolling areas where themed dice sets and a bunch of random tables are set up if they need to lean on them.
Looking for more dungeon master tips? Here are a few quick ideas to upgrade your game.
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