Character Development Happens In-Game.

I think it’s important for people to realize that Character Development does not end with the backstory in character creation.

Some people seem to work with the assumption that whatever snapshot they have of their character after making the backstory is what the character will continue to be like at the end of the campaign.  This is not the case… and rightfully so.

Consider the fact that people change according to the events that they experience and live through.  Whether it’s a moment that affirms your humanity, or one that destroys your faith in your gods, these things mold and change and influence your character in a myriad of ways.

Once your character enters play, his story continues.  Events here are no less valid than the ones in his backstory, and each and every one of the things that happens is something the character is going to have to learn to live with.  Victories and failures both have a place in this, and it’s how the character copes with such highs and lows that make a character worth watching.

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As a GM, I’m the most constant audience your character’s story will ever have.  So it means a LOT  to me to give you a tale worthy of seeing.  I consider it my job to give challenges that make heroes, that highlight their virtues, play up their defeats and herald their eventual return to glory.

Every player that ditches a character because that character failed is a disappointment to me, because rather than be able to show that they’re better than what they are, these characters are left broken and failed and bleeding… little stories of what could have been lying unused around them because the player couldn’t think of taking the challenge of being better.

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Character Development fascinates me.  It’s why I love playing when I do get to play, it’s because I know that the character I submitted last week, will be a totally different person by the end of the campaign.  He may be triumphant, or he might be corrupted, but the ultimate result will be that he has had a Story.  And that’s really what counts in my book.