The Cozy Dragon's Hoard of Dice

One thing that I enjoy doing, as a game master or even as a player if the game master allows for it, is the ‘Character Challenge’. Usually, this takes the form of a question that is fairly straightforward. Sometimes, if the mood takes me and I have both the physical and emotional energy, I’ll spin out answers into a half-page of short fiction, knocked off the top of my head, that highlights the character and the answer. Since I’m writing about other people’s characters at this point, it is only as true to the character as they say that it is, but it’s a fun writing exercise and a nice gift for PCs who frequently enjoy having stories about their original character – the writer’s form of ‘gift art’.

I have a few go-to questions for this, including:
– What is your character’s favourite food?
– What is your character’s bed/bedroom like? If they do not have one now, what was their last bed/bedroom like?
– What was the last minor bad thing that happened to your character? e.g. papercut, stepped in a puddle, etc.

Having these answers will very rarely make a big difference in how the character is played, but it encourages both myself and the players to think of their characters beyond the stats on the page and the lifetime of violence. Even the mysterious orphan who grew up to be a wandering swordsman has a favourite food. It might even be an indulgence, like honeyed figs or chocolate! Thinking about it, and putting some effort into building out the character can really help the character be more than math on a page.

There are a lot of online lists of questions for new fantasy roleplaying game characters that can serve as great fodder for this kind of exercise. If running a game like Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, a GM who ‘assigns’ such a challenge might even award something like Inspiration – not for good roleplay per se, but as a way to reward thought that contributes to later roleplay.

The main thing that I tend to avoid – which makes this a ‘cozy character challenge’, rather than just ‘a character challenge’ is that I try to avoid questions about the character’s adventures. In my experience, I have found that this will sometimes reward PCs who have put thought into characters that adventured before they joined the party, but may draw focus away from the ongoing adventures. For the adventures that the PCs were present for, they already know. If you have a specific question about an ongoing or recent adventure, such as ‘how did this make you feel’, that can be a worthy avenue for pursuit.

Asking ‘what was your favourite adventure’ is certainly a worthy pursuit for a game master who wishes to continue knocking it out of the park, but is somewhat outside of the breadth of this particular exercise.

A good character questionnaire in one part or in many, can help a PC consider situations that a life of swords and sorcery might not prepare them for. It’s a guideline, not a hard and fast rule – if they might have done something at one point, they’re allowed to grow and change – but it can also have them thinking about whether their character prefers summer or winter, enjoys snow or rain, enjoys hot beverages or cold ones.

And sometimes – just sometimes – that can inspire roleplay that goes a step beyond.