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A great way to expand your roleplaying abilities in Dungeons & Dragons, or any other roleplaying game, is to try and make better characters. Developing a background and personality for your character will give you a better guideline on how to play your character and it will also give your Dungeon Master more hooks for their story and opportunities to role-play. We’re going to discuss a few ideas on how to easily create a better D&D character background by using simple plot hooks and personality traits. These methods can be altered to work with other roleplaying games as well.

Decide on one thing that your character would lay down his life for. It may be something noble, or it may be more self-serving. But pick something that your character would, under any circumstances, fight to the death over. It could be that anytime someone steals something from him, he will go to the ends of the earth to track them down and make them pay at any cost. Or, it could be that whenever his homeland is disrespected in conversation, he just cannot let it go. Whatever it is, choose this one carefully as it will turn out to be an extremely important part of your character.

Pick three things that your character will always fight for. These three things are things that will instantly cause the character to go into fight mode. He may not fight to the death over these, but he will always address them appropriately. Perhaps the player just can’t stand it when people insult him about his short stature. Or maybe he hates it when people make fun of any one of his adventuring comrades.

Pick one thing that your character absolutely fears. This fear can alter an adventure if a character runs into one of the fearsome obstacles that he feels he must avoid. This could be an extremely large fear of something that you don’t common run into. Or, it could be a small fear of something that is a lot more common. The player will have to choose what they think is correct for the character.

Decide on one characteristic, or trait, that defines how other people see your character. Maybe your character is always calm no matter what the situation is. Or perhaps your character is the comedian. He is always cracking jokes, even while in the court of a king or the lair of a dragon. You can take this character trait and write it at the top of your character sheet, so you will always be subtly reminded to play your character in that way.

Pick one additional character that is important to your character. This character could be another person in the party, or it could be an NPC. Then you need to define the relationship between your character and the other character. This could be a good connection, someone who has always been there to help you in your time of need. Or, it could be someone that always has a negative influence in your life. Maybe when you’re at your worst, this person seems to always show up and makes things even more miserable.

With these seven different characteristics, one thing that you will die for, the three things you will always fight for, and one thing that you are afraid of, and one characteristic that defines your personality, and one character that is important to you, you’ve instantly created a small amount of background, personality, and a play style for the characters. Answering these questions for your character dramatically increases the chance for fun and dramatic roleplaying opportunities in your game, as well as starting the foundation for your D&D character background.

Espen writes articles about Role Playing and DnD Character information.

This is a list of the ten best pen and paper roleplaying games ever created. This list was generated by votes from the roleplaying community. It was not a scientific poll, but it is a general opinion and consensus among RPG fans and enthusiasts around the world.

10 – Gamma World – It’s a post-apocalyptic game, but not in the style of Mad Max. This game fit more into the style of a science fantasy game. You could play all sorts of random mutant creatures, in addition to playing people that were mostly normal.

9 – Vampire the Masquerade – This was the flagship product of White Wolf’s World of Darkness setting. Since its inception, the game has spawned numerous other similar games, such as Werewolf, Mage, Changeling, and many others.

8 – RuneQuest – Many years ago, this game was recognized as one of the ‘Big Three’ roleplaying games with the largest market share, the other two being Dungeons & Dragons and Traveller. Over time, RuneQuest lost some of its market share but still remains one of the most popular fantasy roleplaying adventure games of all time.

7 – Champions – This was the original comic book / super hero roleplaying game. Many others have followed, like Marvel Super Heroes, Mutant’s and Masterminds, Heroes Unlimited, and more. But Champions was the first game to break the mold and put the player in control of a comic book super hero.

6 – Tunnels & Trolls – Also called T&T, this was the second modern roleplaying game ever created. It was published in 1975 and was created to be an easier to play game than its predecessor, D&D.

5 – GURPs – With the Generic Universal RolePlaying System (GURPs), you can create a game for any setting. You use the GURPs system and find a sourcebook that has the campaign type you like. Once you do that, you’re pretty much ready to rock.

4 – Star Wars – Based on the movies carrying the same name, the Star Wars Roleplaying Game was first created by West End Games using the d6 system. Eventually it moved on to other companies and saw some play time under the d20 system, and then finally the Saga Edition. It is the premiere sci-fi, or space opera, themed roleplaying game due to George Lucas dominating the minds of nerds all over the world.

3 – Traveller – Although not the most famous space opera setting (See #4), it is the ‘original’ space opera setting for pen and paper roleplaying games. Traveller was first published in 1977 by Game Designers’ Workshop, but has been printed by other companies since then. It still remains one of the longest running and best RPG games of all time.

2 – Call of Cthulhu – A unique entry into this list. This horror-based roleplaying game is based off of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. There really isn’t a popular, comparable game out on the market now. Instead, different gaming companies have chosen to create Call of Cthulhu in a variety of different systems under a variety of different publishers.

1 – Dungeons & Dragons – The most famous pen and paper roleplaying game of all time. This fantasy game still dominates the market with all of its various incarnations, from the original D&D to 4th Edition. D&D creators Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson are legends in the industry, just as the game itself is.

If you count the different editions from each game as separate games, then this list would turn out to be a very different list. In general, there were specific editions to each game that were vastly preferred over others. Sometimes it was the newer edition and sometimes it was the older edition. But this list is a good representation of the best pen and paper roleplaying games ever.

Hans Verbeck writes about RPGs and the Best RPGs.