Today, we're going to build the same

character three times in 10 minutes, 1

hour, and 10 hours. I will show you how

10 minutes is enough to create an

interesting character if you use a

simple trick, what you can do to take

things to the next level by slowing

down, and the weird thing that happens

when you give character creation some

proper time. By the end of this video,

you will be able to create much better

characters. And I believe you might even

look at character creation itself very

differently. I'm Adiad. I've been

playing D and D since I was a kid. And

to prove this works every time, I'm

going to start with a very basic

concept, a human fighter, and turn it

into something amazing. All right, so 10

minutes. Here's my strategy. I'm going

to start with a rough vibe to give me

direction and then jump into TND Beyond

because it will speed up the writing so

I can save time for the trick I

mentioned earlier, which is where the

magic happens. So, I'm going through the

build. And at this speed, you don't have

time to optimize. I like a sword and

shield, so that's what I'm building

around. I'm starting at level three

because I want a subclass, and I'm

choosing champion because it's simple

and I like it. Soldier background

because it fits the concept. And what's

interesting is that even the small

choices start doing character work

without me even realizing it. I'm

picking a playing card set because I

like the idea of a guard who plays cards

at night. I'm picking insight because I

want a guy who notices things and I'm

basically getting to know the character

as I build it. About 6 minutes in D and

Beyond starts asking me things I really

don't have answers to yet. Like faith,

personal characteristics, and physical

description, etc. And I realize if I try

to fill all of this in, I will just run

out of time. So, I skip it because I

would rather spend a bit of time on that

magic trick I mentioned at the start.

It's a simple question. What do I want

from the other characters at this table?

And what stands in the way of getting

it? We don't know who is going to be

playing with us. So, we need to work

with broad concepts here. For our

fighter, I think he wants to be trusted.

He wants the people around him to look

at him and think, I'm glad he's here.

And what stands in the way is that he

doesn't really trust himself. I think

something happened. We'll find out what

in a second. And he carries it. This

just took 30 seconds and it gave this

character more direction than filling

out some text boxes could have. So

here's the tenant version of our

character in one sentence. A human

fighter who wants to earn the trust of

the people around him, but doesn't fully

believe he deserves it. He's got a

complete character sheet thanks to the

magic of technology, a direction and

tension. The stuff he does not have yet

like eye color, etc. We can probably

figure out the table. I think the lesson

here is a D&D character does not need a

10-page backstory to be fun to play or

to play with. But direction does make

all the difference. And now the question

becomes, how do we take this to the next

level? By the way, before we go deeper,

if you want to make sure your next

character is awesome and avoids all the

most common character creation mistakes

out there, I put together a free guide

called the seven deadly sins of

character creation. And you can get it

by simply clicking the link in the

description. All right, so we have a

character. He works, but what if we had

more time? This 10-minute character is

complete for one shot or a pickup game.

But something very cool starts to happen

when you sit with a character longer

than you have to. When I was a kid, I

used to build characters for hours. I

just couldn't play as often as I wanted.

So, character creation kind of became a

game of its own. I would just sit with

my books and just think about these

people I was making up for hours. And

something happened during that time that

I didn't understand until much later.

Which leads us to the 1h hour build.

When you have that long, the first thing

you notice is that the questions change.

At 10 minutes, they're all quite

mechanical. You think about the class,

the stats, etc. But when you have an

hour, you can go deeper on the personal

questions if you want. I don't think a

backstory needs to be a biography.

Instead, I think it's more useful to

think about it as a situation. Where's

this person right now? What just

happened in their life? Basically, how

did they end up here? So, our fighter in

the 10-minute version, we said he might

have been a guard, but now that we have

a bit more time, I'm thinking maybe he

actually came from some kind of military

unit, but it's kind of the first thing

everyone does with a soldier background.

He was the leader of a squad and things

went bad during a battle, so now he is

haunted. I feel like we've all seen that

character a hundred times before, and

it's not bad. If that's your character,

please keep it. But here, I just want to

take the opportunity to push a little

past this first idea. So, what if it's

smaller than that? What if he was just a

guy, a small militia, like from a small

town, you know, like nothing fancy?

Maybe he wasn't particularly special and

people would sometimes make fun of him,

but he was reliable. I think he could

have been the kind of person people just

counted on. like he would always show up

even if you just met him the night

before at the tavern and bring breakfast

to share with everyone. And then one day

something went wrong. Maybe a raid or a

decision he made under pressure. Maybe

the leader of the unit was wounded and

no one else would step up and he knew he

wasn't ready to take the lead, but he

did it anyway and it cost something. Or

even better, someone. I think the

awkward kid in the unit who looked at

him like the brother he never had died.

But what really matters is what comes

after. I think he just left. Both the

militia and the town. He wasn't really

kicked out. People actually understood

that he was right to have stepped in and

the family of the person who died

actually forgave him. But there was just

something, you know, in the way people

would look at him now that felt like

pity. And he really didn't like that.

And I'd like to take a step back here.

Do you see what happened about this

process? We went through the first idea,

felt it was cool, but could be improved.

So, we rejected it for a reason and

landed on something else with a more

texture because it's more specific. Our

character is not really a failed hero,

but he is a failed neighbor, which I

think in a sense is so much worse and

probably more relatable, so it's going

to be easier to roleplay to. And now

that magic question we asked in the

10-minute build gets so much richer.

We'll keep the he wants to be trusted

part. That doesn't need to change. But

now we have a better idea about the why

he does. He's just trying to prove

mostly to himself that he is still

someone worth trusting. And he'll be

looking for evidence of that. In every

interaction, even in fights, he will try

to find clues to prove to himself that

he's not the person he turned into in

his worst moment. And what does he want

from the other characters? Well, for

them to rely on him. And for this, he

has a strategy. He'll be the one who

steps in in front of the hits. Maybe

that's why he became a sword and shield

dude. Even though in his militia days,

he'd only carry a lens. We chose a lens

on the sheet. So, we can use this. And

maybe this means he now has a weird

self-taught fighting stance that works,

but would be fun to describe during

combat. And so, what stands in the way?

I think deep down he's terrified that if

he ever faces a truly important moment,

he'll just freeze again. And what I

would like you to see here is that this

will improve the experience of the whole

table, not just yours. Because when a

character has that kind of inner

tension, it automatically creates cool

scenes with everyone. Like say we're

playing with a rogue who has trust

issues. Our warrior wants nothing more

than that trust. So he will probably try

to overplay it which the rogue might

find suspicious etc etc. The other

characters become mirrors and give us

direction.

This is where you get after 1 hour

thinking about your character. We could

have gone back to the sheet but I wanted

to show you that you don't have to. You

can use that time to dig deeper into who

the character is. I feel like I know the

guy more now. He's almost a different

character. If you're someone who loves

the mechanical build side of things with

the combos, etc., please don't think I'm

saying you're wrong. All of that is

extremely cool and it has depth, too.

It's just another kind of depth. I think

this kind I'm trying to show here is

cool as well. It has my personal

preference, and I just wanted to focus

on that here. So yeah, we didn't even

really touch the character sheet during

this whole section, but the

understanding and the depth we'll be

able to roleplay at has changed a lot.

But this leads us to a question. If

we're not touching the mechanical

aspects of the character, and if the

1-hour version is already a great

character you could play in a long

campaign, what could 10 hours possibly

add? Well, to understand this, I need to

go back in time and tell you about this

character I built when I was 12. His

name was Uber. He was a warrior wizard

multiclass, and this was D&D 3.0 because

3.5 wasn't out yet. And I remember

spending a long time with him, not

really on the mechanical build. I was a

kid with no internet access to look at

forums, etc. So, I probably picked

terrible spells if we're only thinking

about damage here. But there was this

one question I couldn't stop thinking

about. How do I, a 12-year-old kid in

France, sit at a table and pretend to be

an adult warrior wizard? Basically, how

do you play someone that different from

yourself? And that question is the

beginning of what I'm about to show you.

So, 10 hours. I think I'm barely going

to look at the character sheet now. At

this stage, the questions we're looking

at are completely different from

anything we've seen so far. Now I'm

thinking what are the personality traits

I have as a player that I would like to

explore through this character. In the

case of our fighter, am I comfortable

playing someone who carries this kind of

guilt? Or maybe it's just something

familiar? Is this the same character I

always end up making? And if it is, what

would happen if I pushed into something

that maybe scares me a little? The point

is, spending this much time on a

character gives you the opportunity to

get personal. On paper, our fighter is

simple. He's just a guy with a sword and

a shield, and he has gone through that

failure he can't forget. He needs to be

better. I've described many characters

like this, but now that I have 10 hours,

I can stop designing him and start

asking myself, what is it about this guy

that I'm drawn to? Is it the guilt? I

know what it feels like to carry

something you got wrong. Maybe you do,

too. Or maybe it's the need to prove

himself because that would be familiar

as well. Or is it the way he enters

rooms? Maybe secretly hoping that people

will notice him and give him a chance.

If that was the case, those might be his

traits, but you know, I share those as

well. When you spend a long time with a

character, they can become this space

and things that usually feel

overwhelming can exist in a way that

feels safe to explore. We're playing a

game. It's all pretend. And sometimes

that's the perfect distance to look at

something real. And this can change the

way you play the table, too. When you

spend enough time thinking about a

character to find pieces of yourself in

them, role- playinging them becomes a

lot easier. Because of that time you

spent, you're able to find parallels

between things that didn't seem related

before and the roleplay stops being a

performance. In our example here, maybe

at some point something will happen in

game and someone's character will turn

to you and say, "I trust you." And you

will feel something and nobody will care

if you're a terrible actor in that

moment. You put in the work and found a

part of yourself that resonates with the

game. And I think that is what 10 hours

can get you. Character is not just in

the sheet anymore and you bring it to

life without even thinking about it.

That's what happened with Aubin when I

was 12. I I didn't think about it like

that at the time, of course, but I

remember sitting there with my little

Lord of the Rings binder thinking that

guy is brave and talking in front of my

class is scary. You know, how does that

work? How do I play brave? And I think

the answer I found, even if I didn't

phrase it like that then, is I just

spent so much time with him that he

stopped being entirely separate from me.

I'm not saying I couldn't tell reality

from fiction or that I started to

pretend I was a wizard in daily life cuz

I was a fairly normal though extremely

nerdy kid. But what I mean is I think I

just found the parts of me that could be

him. So the many hours I spent on him,

which you know it was way more than 10,

weren't really about the build. I spent

them building a relationship between me

and this person I had invented. And the

result was that when I finally played

him, I was just different at the table.

I spoke and even sat differently. I had

done the work of figuring out who he was

to me and who I could be through him. So

now if we look back at our character,

he's just a human fighter with no exotic

ancestry or crazy optimized damage

build. He's just a person. And I

actually love this because persons are

unique. This one, our little character,

has a failure he can let go of somewhere

in his past. He hopes he can overcome

it, but won't say it out loud, and he

really needs to not make that same

mistake again. The concept is simple,

but you can put as much stuff as you

want underneath. I believe that the

longer you spend on character creation,

the less it becomes about the character

sheet. At 10 minutes, the sheet is the

character. 1 hour is when it becomes

more like a starting point, but at 10

hours and beyond, it's almost not really

the point anymore. You know, at that

point, you just move inward. And I think

this is kind of important because there

is something that a lot of us don't give

ourselves permission to do. We can take

this seriously. I mean, it's okay to sit

with an imaginary person for hours and

ask yourself real questions about who

they are and why you care. It might

sound ridiculous to outside people, but

the great news is you don't have to tell

them. You're making a pretend warrior

for a 50-year-old game where you go and

kill dragons in old caves. So yeah, it

it is a bit silly, but it's also exactly

what makes it safe. Humans have played

games forever, and it's one of the

places where we get to try on things we

haven't figured out yet. So I'm not

saying you need 10 hours, otherwise your

character will suck. Like the 10-minute

character is cool, and it's exactly what

you need for many different types of

games. If your friends told you about a

one shot this weekend, the version we

built at the start is really all you

need. even for a longer campaign. Maybe

you just don't care as much about all

that depth nonsense. And that's okay.

You know, different people with

different needs and wants play different

games at different tables. What I'm

saying is if you ever want to go deeper,

do it. You might learn stuff. So, next

time you sit down to create a new

character and you're about to rush

through it, maybe take a breath and sit

with it a little longer than you need

to. The mechanical aspects can be done

quickly, but the rest of it can take as

long as you're willing to give it. But

now that we have a great character, we

have a problem. How do you actually

roleplay it without feeling scared?

Because I know a lot of you are shy. So

click on this video next to learn how to

do this easily, even if you really don't

like acting.