Character Sheets

A new way to think about characters

What if you used RPG character sheets to create characters? What happens?

These characters don’t have to be from a fantastical/supernatural/special setting at all; they can be office grunts and bored kids. For these sheets, I used Adventures in Middle-earth, a DnD game with a Lord of the Rings skin, but you could use any game.

April Ludgate from Parks and Rec

For April, I chose the Agent, a subclass of Treasure Hunter. An agent is persuasive, cunning, and diplomatic. In her own way, April is all of these things. In the AiME Player’s Manual, I found an expansive list of characteristics. There were so many that I had no trouble selecting a few for April; the manual even organized them into lists of which would be apropos given a character’s background, and “Doomed to Die” felt too perfect not to give to Pawnee’s favorite daughter.

Choosing this background helped me find a hope for her that I don’t think I’d ever recognized in April before: living for today—but it was perfect. Immediately I thought of when she married Andy on a whim and the time she drove him to the Grand Canyon. If I were to write stories involving April, I might look back on this character sheet someday and find inspiration for her decisions in a plot, and ways to bolster those decisions in the eyes of the audience.

Michael Scott from The Office

You might notice a few errors in this character sheet and that’s because when I filled it out I was channeling my inner Michael Scott, who at the best of times is half listening to any directions. Here also exploring Michael’s background as “the Magician” was extremely useful.

At his core, Michael is a performer who desperately wants to wins the affections of others by amusing them. Deeper down, he knows he isn’t all that funny or interesting, and more than once this is devastating for his character. Combined, these two traits make Michael one of TV’s least forgettable characters ever written. Imagine how choosing diametrically opposed hopes and despairs could help you create your own enticing characters!

What character should I do next?

Louise Belcher from Bob’s Burgers

Louise might be one of my all-time favorite TV characters. An headstrong force of complete chaos, she berates, cajoles, badgers, manipulates, sweet-talks and outmaneuvers everyone around into doing exactly what she wants. Making her a Treasure Hunter with Hobbit-ish qualities was too perfect. She’s sneaky, clever and convincing.

I think my favorite part of this sheet is “Brave in a Pinch.” This characteristic isn’t first to come to mind when I think of Louise, but it does eventually come to mind. As a hallmark trait of Hobbits in AiME (and in the source text), though, it felt just right for Louise, too, who ultimately does want to do the right thing, unless the wrong thing involves getting her bunny ears back.

Conclusion

By forcing myself to pause and think about each minute aspect of these characters: what special items might they have? what quirky skills? how would they attack foes and what drives them to do what they do? I understand them each just a little better. Doing this with my own characters, I’ve found similar exciting results and I hope you’ll consider trying it out yourself!