Character Creation: The Big First Choice in an RPG

If you're a fan of RPGs, particularly western-style RPGs for the PC, you've likely come across a character creation screen, in which you customize your player character. In many ways, the decisions you make on this screen will be some of the most important ones you will make for the entire game.

Some of the choices are relatively minor.

• Your character's name. It's basically a variable that shows up whenever others address your character by name, and is never spoken in voiced dialogue.
• Your character's appearance.
• Your character's gender. There are some times when it will occasionally change dialogue beyond gendered pronouns, as well as determine romance options.
• In some games, your character's voice.

Others are more significant. Many games have some combination of the following

• Your character's class, which determines where your talents lie
• Your character's starting statistics, which often determine their health, how much damage they do and other factors related to their performance.
• Your character's starting skills, which have applications in and outside of combat. Unlike statistics, it's often easier to change them later.
• A few other choices, which depend on the game. For example, in the Fallout series, you can pick up to two Traits, which have benefits and drawbacks.

Unlike the first category of choices, these choices will have a significant, and often permanent, impact on the game. The problem is that players will make them when they know nothing about the game, often resulting in unwise choices. For example, players might choose the Skilled trait in the first two Fallout games due to it increasing their skills, without knowing how severe the drawbacks are- by getting Perks every four levels, rather than three, the player will have fewer special abilities.

Many modern games limit the amount of choices the player is presented with at the start of the game. In these games, the character creation screens focus on the cosmetic variables, and saving most important decisions until after the player actually starts playing, thereby getting a feel for the game and figuring out their playstyle. This approach can be more newbie-friendly, but it can also limit how much the players are able to customize their characters.

Fallout: New Vegas is a good example of a game that offers relatively risk-free customization choices. At the start of the game, the player is able to determine their S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, choose three skills to tag(giving them a significant bonus) and selecting traits. Once the player starts to leave Goodsprings, the starting town, the player has one last chance to reset their build if they're dissatisfied. It's possible that players may end up regretting some of the choices they made when creating their character, but this gives them a chance to experiment and learn a little about the game before finalizing their builds.

Many games struggle to find a balance between giving players freedom and helping prevent them from getting lost or frustrated. Character creation screens can find a happy medium by giving players meaningful choices when it comes to creating their characters, but also ensuring that they understand those choices and their consequences. Players should have the freedom to shape their characters as they wish, to perhaps make mistakes, but also to learn how to live with and overcome those mistakes so they can ultimatley finish the game their way.