This week, we’ll take a break from the rants and essays and foray into the realm of useful game advice. (Yeah, yeah, I know….*gasp!* shock! Horror!)

Here’s a little trick that I’ve used in the past—a method of coming up with a random character concept when I’m strapped for ideas. Being a completely random method, it can generate some pretty bizarre results, but I have found that sometimes the stranger results lead to some of the best characters I’ve ever played.

Here’s how it works. First, get a copy of a book—any book that is close to the same genre as the game you’re playing. I try to stay within the same genre, because it will often contain words that are specific to that genre, which helps in the process…worse comes to worse, you can use any book, however.

Randomly flip through the pages and stop. Read the first word that catches your eye on the page. Write that down. Repeat this process. Continue to “harvest” words until you have a list of ten, and then look at your list. Using the ten words that you have harvested, create a concept for your character.

Here’s an example. I’ll create a pulp character, using a copy of The Great Pulp Heroes by Don Hutchinson (not actually a pulp-genre book, but a non-fiction study of the pulps, so it will do.). I flip through the pages, and come up with the following list: fabrications, seventeen, menace, Chinatown, War, muscles, dapper, east, government, and confidential.

Looking over the list, I come up with the following character concept: The character (let’s call him The Agent) works for the government, although he occasionally does confidential work for private citizens. Nobody knows his true identity—he uses a series of aliases which are all fabrications. In truth, The Agent is Richard Ranch, a dapper playboy who, after the War, traveled to the east where he learned the esoteric arts…his muscles now provide him with more power than mere guns. In 1917, he first encountered his nemesis, a menace by the name of Shanghai Chan. They have fought on many occasions. Since returning to America, Ranch has operated as The Agent, eschewing the high society of his birth to instead prowl the streets of Chinatown rooting out the followers of his evil nemesis.

Pretty damned cool, if I say so myself.

Let’s try again. This time, we’ll create a character for a standard medieval fantasy setting. The book I’m using is The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. I flip through the pages, and come up with the following: south, man, mushrooms, killed, Kings, afraid, knife, council, elder, rider.

Here is the character: Thomas is a man from the south. His family grew mushrooms on a small farm. One day, one of the Kings men, a rider, came to the farm. He tried to steal food and what little money the family had. A struggle ensued. The rider killed the members of Thomas’ family. Thomas, who had been in the village at the time, discovered this, and, using the only weapon his father had, a small knife, he tracked down the rider and killed the man. The Elder Council of the village, afraid of what the King would do once the murder was discovered, banished Thomas from the village. He now wanders the world, as an adventurer.

Pretty simple process, as you can see. The idea is to open your mind to whatever possibilities present themselves in the random string of words, no matter how strange. The same sort of thing can be done by Game Masters to create adventure ideas as well. Using this process will eliminate the repetition of the same ideas that crop up again and again…and originality can only make your gaming experiences that much better.

That’s all for now, kids. This week’s recommendations: I’m reading The Great Pulp Heroes by Don Hutchinson. I’m listening to Fire of Freedom by Black 47.

See ya in 7.