How to write a good story?

[Ketiara]

So my party just got wiped out, and now I'm stuck yet again, with the problem of writing a new character. I'm currently stuck because I dont want to use a cliché personality from books I've read.
Whenever I'm using Fitz, Eragon, Matrim, Rand, Harry, Richard, Nicci etc.. I find myself locking myself to a route I might not really wanna take. Mostly because the idea isn't really my own and thus not believable for me.

So now Im thinking it might be better for me to totally "randomise" or make it up myself in order to make it more believable for myself. But how?!? I'm truly stuck, I cant get over the characters I've read about or ideals I feel I want to pursue. But everytime I end up in the same old ... so Rand al'thor he is pretty cool... or Nicci was evil but is turning around... etc...
What do you guys do to come up with new, and interesting and while easy to roleplay, still with some/alot of flavour?

please let me know your secrets.

[Yora]

I often start with "How normal could a guy be and still end up as a character in this story?"
Usually that means having a rather average person who of above average intelligence and had a chance to recieve the best training a common person can get. This enables him to see things on a somewhat larger scale and have a greater awareness of what's going on, and also gives him the needed skill and experience to be able to join the group of people that is going to do something about the problem that threatens them.

But not lying here, I always play the same two characters with a different coating of paint. They are all a new interpretation of Solid Snake/FemShep/The Major/Ise Nanao/Jarael/Hinjo/Wedge Antilles/Jadzia Dax/Lightning/Kenma Tenzo/G'Kar/Balsa/Arthur/Tex/Alyx Vance.
Always the second smartest person in the room and a few levels above everyone else in understanding the situation, while being a bit of an understated badass. Not flashy, but with style.

[Sajiri]

Rather than thinking about other characters, why not think about yourself? Ask a question on why your character is doing what they're doing and what they want to achieve- think about how YOU would react in that situation, and try not to idealize it.

Take a look at the skills you've got. Lots of knowledge skills? You like learning. Intimidate? You're gruff and imposing. Think up a background, maybe something completely random but simple, and go from there. How would that have affected who you/your character is now? Could anything interesting have happened back then? Maybe you've travelled a bit and a world wise, maybe you've been forever in one town so are rather naive/sheltered.

[HunterColt22]

Like anything else in the world, practice. :/ Nothing comes to anyone easily, even those of us here who might be gods at story and character development, they were not always like that. Being cliche is part of learning anyway. Nothing is truly original in the sense that everyone has a similar idea, the better way to do things is to take something you like and adapt it to yourself.

[Morithias]

Also don't assume that unoriginal = bad. Sometimes Hero with a thousand faces Avatar is what the story calls for. I've based entire campaigns around ripped off characters with a sleight twist to the original concept. Look for inspiration and do some minor to moderate alteration, sometimes it's best to let other people do the work for you!

[Endelehia]

Your character has not sprung into existence the moment you stepped into that fated tavern.He has a background already.Here is a really helpful link,http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19713850/The_Ten-Minute_Background--Post_your_characters!

Roleplay your stats,especially the mental ones.There is a banner on page 10 of phb that gives some nice examples.Also think about how your stats have affected your course through early life.A sickly character with low con might be somewhat shunned growing up in a dwarven society,a high intelligence half-orc would probably felt out of place in an orc village where none could connect with him,a human with exceptional strength raised in a barbaric tribe,would be respected by his fellow tribesmen and might as well be quite popular with the ladies,etc.And growing up in such environments has affected your personality in adulthood.

If you take such things into consideration and spend time developing your character background you' find it considerably easier to roleplay him regardless of his persona.

But of course you will always be easier to play something closer to your personality.If you are always cracking wise i real life,you might have a hard time keeping a serious facade while being a devout holy warrior,driven by his burning desire for justice for his slaughtered family and on the same time having an internal struggle to not let it turn into mindless vengeance.

[BowStreetRunner]

When I was in college I took a Drama class and the professor offered a challenge. She asked us to bring in a movie, book, comic, tv show, or similar from modern times that we considered to be an original work. When we did, she would show each of us some old play that had the same concept. While once or twice she pointed to Shakespeare or something else from the middle ages, almost 90% of the time she found something way back in Greek times that had the same idea already.

You really want a decent starting idea, begin with Greek mythology, plays, or history and then build from there. Odds are, anything we think of as truly original, they had some idea that was similar first.

[White_Drake]

This may be obvious advice, but think of why your character's ability scores are what they are; this provides a surprisingly good framework from which you can build up your character's past. Also, the above posters are correct, originality is overrated, so long as you don't give direct quotations from your source material, stealing a character concept is an okay start. A You'd also be hard pressed to find anything good that hasn't already been done.

[An Enemy Spy]

Make him be from space.

[BCOVertigo]

Make him be from space.

Alright, turn off the server. Thread's over people.

Hehe, one thing I might add is that while adding in unresolved conflicts to a backstory may seem a little needy, it definitely makes it easier for the DM to loop you in. Just be should be sure not to beat the DM over the head with this, the main antagonist murdering your parents is a bit much in most cases.

Be classy about it.

As an aside, I cannot stress how good a piece of advice the 'normal guy' remark is. What is your brother's name? Is he a drunk? Do you have to bail him out of trouble? How does your family react to your adventuring? Are you on speaking terms?

Don't take easy outs by cauterizing your character so he has no relationships with outside entities aside from negative ones. Make some good, some bad, some complicated. Don't be that redshirt who waits until your deathbed to tell people what you wanted to do after you retiring from adventuring.

[lsfreak]

I start out by answering questions.

How did they grow up? What was family like? Was it a culturally "normal" family?
How did they get interested in whatever that they ended up taking class levels in? As a paladin (archetype, not class), did they feel a divine connection, or great loyalty to the church, or a desire to do good, or maybe they were not given an option?
How did they learn their skills? Schooling, peers, militia, trial and error, etc. Why did they learn them? Are they still actively learning (a wizard with strong ties to his mentor/school), just picking up new tricks as they go, or something else?
Why adventuring?
How do they view different groups of people: a few races, types of magic, religions or lack thereof; why are their views about these groups noteworthy, and why aren't they neutral?

[JellyPooga]

Have you tried building yourself an "ideas hat"...these are usually made of a colander, tin-foil and some wire, but anything metallic that will fit on your head will do. The theory goes that they draw inspiration as it floats through the multiverse and guides it to your own head, but no-one really knows how they work for sure. :smallwink: [anyone who gets the reference can have a point]

Seriously though, I often find that if I'm stuck for ideas, doing something other than trying to think of an idea (or anything typically "inspirational", like reading a book) can help...go do some shopping, talk a stroll, cook dinner or phone a family member. The most mundane things often spark an idea that you can just run with (e.g. a name for a product at the supermarket might give you the start of a name for your character, say a Blackberry Jam with a brand name of "Hedges" might inspire the name "Blackhedge"...then once you've got part of the name, you can think of where, perhaps, he got that name and why...maybe Blackhedge is your characters family name, due to some ancestor who was an evil druid hundreds of years ago...maybe the latent druidic evilness in your characters soul is just waiting to emerge or he's embraced it fully, but is wary about abusing the power because he's really a nice guy...or maybe his heritage has been corrupted over the years and manifests as a different kind of power, perhaps represented by the Warlock or Sorcerer class, if you're playing D&D...or as something completely different, his name is Blackhedge because he's just an extraordinarily bad gardener, so instead of following his families lanscaping traditions, went off to fighter school to be a guard...this is, you understand, completely off the top of my head and entirely based off of a fictional fruit preserve that could hypothetically exists in a non-specific grocery store!).

[NikitaDarkstar]

Personally I start with a concept, such as "I want to play a wizard specialized in necromancy." from there I work out the basic mechanics (stats and whatever class levels he has so far). Around that time I start to ask how my character ended up taking this path and what consequences it had. In this characters case he found a book on the subject and got curious, as simple as that. But the consequences were that he was disowned by his family, which also meant they didn't pay the tuition fee to the mage academy he was in for the next semester, meaning he had to pursue his studies somewhere else. That cause him to end up with some bad company, and in the end some fairly powerful enemies.

And that was just from asking "Why?". add "How?" and "When?" if you want and need to, but often you can get quite a bit just from looking at your statblock, then add skills (and spells) as needed, add feats (tie these into the backstory too if they're something that would be considered unusual) and you're done.

But I do agree with the advice to keep the character as normal as possible, if you don't have to give him a strange and dark background, then don't (Unless it's a dark and gritty setting, then a "normal, happy" childhood most likely wouldn't be normal). Just do what needs to be done to explain the characters choices in life. (And there's nothing wrong with a little darkness, just don't go overboard with it.)

[hoverfrog]

First think of a name. There's a lot in a name. Sir Evan Longshanks is a very different character from Albert Bumble who is different again from Slither McNab. Use random name generators if you like and see what kind of names come out of them. If something grabs you then grab it back and wrestle with the idea.

Then think of a place where you come from. Gypsies are different from townies who are different from mountain folk or the desert people, etc.

If you've got a character class or build then how did you get to where you are now? Did your wizard train under a harsh master who used you to sweep floors and dispose of failed experiments or did he attend a prestigious mages guild in a major city? Did your paladin squire for a famous knight or was his position secured as part of your social rank? Did your cleric gain his power through an act of faith or was he trained in a monastery? Is your rogue a wealthy dilettante who uses guile and cunning to steal in order to make his life more interesting or is he an orphan who turned to crime simply to survive?

Why are you adventuring? Did a friend bet you that you couldn't climb the mountain and pluck a feather from an eagle? Did you get lost one day? Where you taken as a slave in a raid on your home town? Are you running from something? Are you seeking revenge for some wrong?

There is always the time honoured tradition of playing against type too. Halfling barbarian, half orc wizard, priest of a death god who loves life and enjoys parties, a necromancer who works to destroy all undead, a paladin who enjoys whoring and gambling and kills prisoners rather than let them go free (summary justice in times of war), an evil rogue who steals from the rich and uses their money to bribe the stupid poor into keeping his identity and location a secret (an Assassin playing on the Robin Hood legend).

[only1doug]

Personally I start with a concept, such as "I want to play a wizard specialized in necromancy." from there I work out the basic mechanics (stats and whatever class levels he has so far). Around that time I start to ask how my character ended up taking this path and what consequences it had. In this characters case he found a book on the subject and got curious, as simple as that. But the consequences were that he was disowned by his family, which also meant they didn't pay the tuition fee to the mage academy he was in for the next semester, meaning he had to pursue his studies somewhere else. That cause him to end up with some bad company, and in the end some fairly powerful enemies.

And that was just from asking "Why?". add "How?" and "When?" if you want and need to, but often you can get quite a bit just from looking at your statblock, then add skills (and spells) as needed, add feats (tie these into the backstory too if they're something that would be considered unusual) and you're done.

But I do agree with the advice to keep the character as normal as possible, if you don't have to give him a strange and dark background, then don't (Unless it's a dark and gritty setting, then a "normal, happy" childhood most likely wouldn't be normal). Just do what needs to be done to explain the characters choices in life. (And there's nothing wrong with a little darkness, just don't go overboard with it.)

I agree completely, Start with the character build and then look at all the decisions and figure out how and why the character took that path.this will give you a broad framework for who the character is and you can then re-visit and expand on smaller details.

I created a Jedi Kid in a Star wars game once that I ended up writing 6 pages of backstory for, when he eventually (and inevitably) turned to the dark side that backstory also provided a replacement character for me, his previous mentor who arrived looking to find out what had happened to him and to try to redeem him.

(It was inevitable because the adult Jedi in the game (another PC) basically ignored the kid and told him to go meditate whenever the Kid bothered him, even when the kid said that his meditation and dreams were being invaded by a dark jedi)