Welcome to the Fantasy Character Generator "Event Guide!" If you've already created something in the Fantasy Generator, and want to flesh out the character a bit, here is a great place to start. You don't even have to have a physical description or personality, to use this guide. It's meant *only* to enhance the creation process, not to actually fully simulate life or to replace careful thought about your character. You'll just be needing a simple 6 sided die - everyone should have those at home from a board game or two. If you don't, click on one of the dice-rolling programs linked on the Character Generator to load up some numbers. I'd recommend printing the pages out, so you don't have to sit staring at a screen all night. That way you can take them with you to school and work on your characters instead of boring assignments. lol - just kidding, please finish your work first. Then play. :) |
(last modified 9/22/03 - minor change to "source of event", minor explanation in Era/age event happens.)
First off, you'll want to decide how many "events" your character will need for their story or their history. For EACH chart - the numbers directly below (the "roll" row) apply whenever you roll your 6 sided die. |
||||||
Roll
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
Results |
1 Childhood, 1 Teen/Adult |
2 Childhood, 1 Teen/Adult | 2 Childhood, 2 Teen/Adult | 3 Childhood, 1 Teen/Adult | 2 Childhood, 3 Teen/Adult | 3 Childhood, 3 Teen/Adult |
Next, either choose or roll on the charts below to see when an Event happens. For each event listed in the quantity above, roll once on the chart below! So, if you rolled a 4 above, you'd roll three times in Childhood, and once either in teen or adult. Whichever suits your idea of the character. It's okay to have two events in the same range. |
||||||
Childhood ONLY | Infancy: Birth | Infancy: Toddler | Childhood: pre-4 | Childhood: 4-6 | Childhood: 7-9 | Childhood: 10-12 |
Teen ONLY | Preteens: 11-12 | Teens: 13-14 | Teens: 15-16 | Teens: 17-18 | Teens: 18-19 | Teens: any |
Adult ONLY | Young Adult: 19-20 | Young Adult: 20-21 | Young Adult: 22-25 | Adult: 24-28 | Adult: 26-29 | Adult: 28 + |
Next, let's find out how "serious" the event is. For each event you've rolled, roll on this chart separately. So again, if you'd rolled a 4 at the top, you'd still be doing 3 for your childhood, 1 for your teen/adult years - though you might want to tamper with this particular level - unless you want tons of intense things happening? Then, also roll for the commonality of the event, as in how many other people this might have happened to over the ages. |
||||||
SEVERITY | Very Mild, hardly a noticable effect | Mild, only affects a specific thing or for a short time | Average, it's something special to you | Sharp, it affects you particularly but only once in a while | Strong, this event has a lasting impact | Constant, this event will always shape how the character acts/is |
COMMONALITY | Very common, happens to lots of people | Fairly common, happens often or to a number of folks | Common, happens to a few people often enough | Somewhat Rare, isn't seen in every village/city | Rare, it's hardly seen in groups of people | Very Rare or Unique, this is such a rare event it's only happened to YOU |
Now, find out if the event only happens to YOUR character, to their family, friends, or those around them, and whether this is a negative or positive event. Remember that certain events that might seem at first to be one, might turn into the other. So if perhaps a birth is chosen, it's not always a good thing. Likewise, a death is not always bad. It just depends on how your character's life is shaping up. |
||||||
TO WHOM | Self Only | Self and Friend | Self and Relative | Close Relative | Close Friend | Distant but affects you directly |
EFFECT | Resoundingly Negative, no one benefits | Pretty Negative, someone might get something out of this, but probably not you | Neutrally Negative, it might be annoying, but not really bad | Neutrally Good, it's mildly nice but nothing special | Pretty Good, you might have a lasting glow | Exceptionally Good, either something very amazing only to you, or something generally good for all |
Next you might want to locate a SOURCE of this event. If it doesn't sound right, just choose another thing or roll again. Then choose or roll for the TYPE of Event. These are highly subjective of course, to the things that you want to write about or have your character live through. Always just discard things you don't want. |
||||||
SOURCE of Event | Self Inflicted/ Solo | Parent/Guardian | Sibling/Relative | Friend/Lover | Enemy or Associate | Distant Enemy or Unknown person |
TYPE of Event | Financial | Birth/Death | Land/Nature | Weather | Animal | Travel |
Examples of Type | Sudden inheritance, loss | obvious - but whose? | Farming changes, earthquake, etc | disasterous hurricane, rain at the right time | gain or lose a pet, burden beast, racing, or even a dragon? | forced to move, finding a new place to live |
From these, you should be able to come up with at least the basics of a storyline for your character's life. As an example, I'll use our "3 childhood and 1 teen/adult" roll as above. I roll three times in Childhood eras - getting a 6, 2 and 5. So since I'll be doing this more in chronological order that means there was an event when they were 1 or 2 years old, another when they were around 8, and another when they were say 11. For my "teen/adult" roll I got a 2, meaning either 13-14 or 20-21. Since I would like to keep this timeline young I'll take the teen event at 14. For the first event, during their toddler years, I roll 4 and 3, meaning a Sharp but fairly Common event. I roll on the next chart a 2 and 1, meaning that it has affected myself and a friend, and it is utterly Negative. At first I rolled a 1 and 2, self-inflicted and birth/death, but it doesn't seem likely that I'd be able to carry this off until I remember a particular movie... Rainman. I'm going to say that at a very young age, this character accidentally killed their playmate - perhaps a weight fell on them because of play or a fire got out of hand, or accidentally drowned. This event has traumatized the character but the effects are seen more by those around them - they barely remember it, but perhaps the parents of the other friend hold a lasting grudge? For the second childhood event I roll 1, 6, 6, 5, 2, 2 - something hardly worth mentioning, only happening to this character in its uniqueness, from a distant source, that affects in a pretty good manner, from a parent, and involves a birth or a death. Since the character's around 8 years old now, I think that this might mean that a distant relative had died at some point in the past, and the parents decide that at this point in the character's life, they are now going to inherit something important only to them - something precious that they might keep with them, but that might not have any inherant monitary or social value. Perhaps a ring or a book, journal or map of some sort that the character cherishes, but doesn't have any lasting impact otherwise. For their last Childhood event, I roll 1, 3, 2, 1, 1, 6 - Another fairly common and subtle event, again to the character and one of their friends, and very negatively, that is something the character causes and in this case it seems to be that they manage to make their friend or someone they know move away. This is kind of complex, but I think it draws on the prior event - maybe the family of the dead friend have finally had enough, and try bringing some justice to their lives. The character barely remembers the event, though, and in doing seems to insult the other family so much they can't bear to be around any more. Now the teenage event, around age 14, I roll 2, 6, 3, 5, 5, 5 - something that doesn't last long or have much impact but has again only happened to this character. It involves this character and one of their relatives, and is pretty good in nature. Finally it is caused by an enemy - I'm going to say the same family they've always had trouble with - and it involves animals. Here is a nice juicy setup - The family that left some years back seem to have fallen on hard times in their new land, and they come crawling back to the charcter to ask for money - to buy a pair of runners that are exceptional racers. Not only that but these are horses that the character and their (brother? sister? cousin?) had tended as children and remember the pair well. They react in a positive manner every time the character is around them. Usually around age 15 or so is when many characters are Searched (judged, found, etc) for a dragon site's hatching. That could always make up the last teen/adult stage event, and bring everything to a close until the hatching! |
||||||
Thank you for checking out the suppliment to the Fantasy
Character Generator brought to you by Weyrleader Shard and Droppin the
Fork Productions! If you like this chart and find it helpful, feel free
to link to it on your site!
|