NirDine’s Guide to Great Personality

Has a character ever stuck with you way after their story is over? Maybe you read a book or saw a movie, and for some reason, one of the characters just stayed with you. You start to see them in other places, in other characters even, tying together things that have nothing to do with one another. You hear a song and can’t help but associate it with them. You see a movie and what the protagonist does reminds you so much of that particular character. Perhaps it was the story that did it for you, maybe it was the actions they took, or it could even have been the way they were portrayed, but something really calls to you about that character.

Well, I know that you’re probably not a stranger to this concept, but tabletop role playing games bring the incredible opportunity of taking those characters and becoming them in one way or another. The agency provided to us as co authors and audience of our own story is unique to these spaces. It gives us the possibility to experience these stories as whoever we wish to be. Whether we decide it to be a direct representation of an existing character, someone inspired by them, or a creation of our own, the choice is entirely up to us, and that is truly magical.

The supplement goes over character creation from a narrative perspective, helping you create something that’s both interesting and fun to play. It does its best to provide you with everything you need to create something meaningful while remaining simple and actionable. It’s a system agnostic essay like short form document that tries to dissect characters through their identity, establishing a few features that carry most of the weight when it comes to representation.

The whole thing features art from Kyo Smash (@SmashKyo), an Argentinian artist with whom I’ve had the pleasure and privilege of working on a previous project. She custom fitted every piece of art into the document, transforming my silly little stick figure references into the amazing art you see before you. Like, really, it’s unbelievably good.