Hudsen’s Hall of Games is The Michigan Daily’s Weekly Column about all things gaming. Whether it’s Dungeons & Dragons or the newest Steam releases, this is where you’ll find it!
Welcome, everyone, to the wonderful first installment of Hudsen’s Hall of Games. Here, I will regale you with wonderful information about gaming of all kinds. Today, we will be focusing on tabletop roleplaying games, specifically Dungeons & Dragons (because that’s the one everyone plays …). In honor of the first installment of this column, I’ll be discussing the beginning of any good D&D player’s journey: character creation.
Making a character is a wonderful thing. Every time I start a new campaign or play in a one-shot, coming up with a silly little guy to embody brings me so much joy. However, if you aren’t careful, making your character could result in disaster! Maybe that’s overexaggerating, but realizing a character you were excited to play isn’t as fun as you thought can be disastrous. If a character has a personality you feel uncomfortable playing, or they don’t mesh with the players, it can make the game much less enjoyable. In the effort of dodging such a catastrophe, here’s my advice for how to create characters you’ll love (almost) every time.
Whether you’re new to D&D or a grizzled veteran, there’s one piece of advice that I always give when making characters: contextualize their abilities. As a writing prompt, it sounds simple, but it can lead down some really intriguing paths. Ask yourself, “Why did my fighter learn to swing a sword?” or, “Why would my wizard have learned ‘burning hands’ instead of ‘mage armor?’” These questions serve two very important functions: to fully realize your character and to put you in their headspace. If you interrogate why your character can do what they do, they stop being a bundle of rules and stats and become a person with a history that informs their reality. Nobody is an island, after all. The value of understanding your character’s mindset shouldn’t be understated, either. One of the hardest things about roleplaying is being someone who isn’t you and making decisions you wouldn’t make. D&D characters are defined by their “class” (essentially their role in the party), so interrogating what defines them helps you to understand what makes them different from you!
The other piece of advice I emphasize is the value of talking with the people you will be playing with about their characters, as well as your Dungeon Master. Not only is it good courtesy, but you can all work together to make your characters as awesome as possible! Adding connections between your character and a friend’s character is bound to create something wonderful. Most DMs also love when you ask about the setting or ways to tie your character into the campaign. I know I already said it, but no character is an island! Connecting your character to the world helps them exist more distinctly in your mind and in the minds of other players, and it also just feels good to engage deeply with a story.
Well folks, that’s it for now. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out! I’ve been a DM for almost my entire D&D career of six years (which may not seem too long, but I play about three times a week …), so I’m always looking to help people get into the hobby and engage with it to the fullest possible extent. With that, go and make the best characters you can! Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more!
Senior Arts Editor Hudsen Mazurek can be reached at hudsen@umich.edu.
