character

A character is the fictional persona a player portrays in a role-playing game. Characters are the primary interface between player and fiction: the player decides what the character attempts, and the game’s rules and game master determine what happens as a result.

Most systems represent characters through a combination of narrative elements (name, background, personality, goals) and mechanical attributes (statistics, skills, hit points, special abilities). The balance varies: some games emphasize detailed mechanical builds while others reduce mechanical representation to a few descriptors and let the fiction carry the weight.

Character creation is often the first creative act a player performs in a new campaign. The choices made during creation — ancestry, class, backstory, motivations — shape what kinds of stories the game can tell. Characters created in isolation sometimes clash; session zero exists partly to ensure that the group’s characters form a coherent ensemble.