The GM’s job is to build a world that responds to your character specifically. Not “a person with Brawl 4” — you. The village you grew up in. The person who hurt you. The thing you are still trying to prove. That material is what the GM turns into plot hooks, difficult choices, and moments that land.
Without it, the GM improvises something generic. With it, the GM makes something that feels like it was written for you — because it was.
Your background story gives them world connections: people who know you, places you have history with, debts in both directions. Your defining moments tell them what already hurt you, and what you care enough to protect. Your mindset tells them how to challenge your personality without just rolling dice at you. Your motivations tell them what kind of adventure you actually want to go on.
This is not a form. There is no wrong answer and no required length. It is a conversation with yourself about who this person is before the game begins.
Three questions. Answer them in whatever order feels right. A few sentences each is plenty. A few paragraphs is also fine. This is your character’s life before the first session — the ground they’re standing on when the story starts.
Not just a place name — what kind of place. A city has different textures depending on which part of it raised you. A village, a camp, a ship, a guild hall, a manor. What was the community like? Who did you grow up around? What did people there value, and what did they look down on?
Your background gives you skill dots, but it doesn’t tell the full story. What did a normal day look like? What role did you play in your community — respected, tolerated, invisible? What were you good at, and what did that let you see that others missed?
Something changed. It almost always does. The question is whether you left willingly, were pushed, or had the ground disappear beneath you. The answer shapes how your character holds their past: with nostalgia, or with both hands pressed firmly forward.
Write two events from your character’s past that shaped who they are. These are the moments that explain the why behind your character’s personality: why they react the way they do, why certain things matter more than they should, why they trust quickly or not at all.
The most useful moments are small and personal. Not the day you became a hero — the day before that, when something quieter happened and you were never quite the same afterward.
The kinds of moments that work:
None of these involve dragons. None of them require a prophecy. All of them give a GM something real to work with.
The moments you choose will fuel everything that follows. They explain the fears your character carries, the lines they will not cross, and the ones they will cross without hesitation. A character who witnessed an injustice they could not stop is a very different person from one who looked away and kept walking. Both are valid. Both are interesting. Neither is complete until you write down what happened.
Mindset is a seven-axis personality compass. Every axis is always active for every character. You are not picking the ones that matter and ignoring the rest — you are deciding where your character sits on all seven, from strong lean to dead center.
Each axis is a spectrum between two extremes. The center means your character has no strong tendency in either direction — they lean depending on the situation, like most people do on most things. One dot from center is a mild lean. Two is noticeable. Three dots from center is a defining trait — the kind of thing other characters would describe about you unprompted.
You set your position on each axis on the character sheet.
| Left | Right | What It Covers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calm | ↔ | Aggressive | How you respond to conflict and pressure |
| Polite | ↔ | Rude | How you treat people you have no reason to impress |
| Thoughtful | ↔ | Impulsive | Whether you plan first or act first |
| Idealistic | ↔ | Pragmatic | Whether you follow principles or results |
| Introvert | ↔ | Extrovert | Where you recharge — alone or with people |
| Follower | ↔ | Independent | Whether you look for direction or make your own |
| Content | ↔ | Ambitious | Whether you protect what you have or reach for more |
Mindset has no mechanical effect. No dice bonuses. No penalties. No interaction with gifts, skills, or action points. Not now, not ever. This is a closed decision, not a deferral.
What mindset gives you is a quick reference for how your character thinks. When the GM puts a difficult choice in front of you and you are not sure how your character would respond, glance at your axes. A character who sits three dots toward Impulsive and two toward Idealistic does not spend long weighing options — they do the right thing, immediately, and deal with the consequences later. The answer tends to arrive faster than you expect.
The GM uses your mindset the same way. A character with a strong Calm lean gets tested differently than one who runs Aggressive. A deep Idealist hears offers that a Pragmatist would take without blinking. Your mindset tells the GM how to make the game personal without needing to guess.
Mindset can change during play. People grow, break, harden, soften. A character who starts three dots toward Content might end the campaign deep into Ambitious after watching someone else take what was theirs. Update your axes when it feels true — not after every session, but when something in the story actually shifts who your character is.
What does your character want? What are they afraid of? What would they give up everything else to protect, or to destroy?
There is no template here. Write what feels true. Goals, fears, desires, grudges, hopes — in whatever combination fits the person you have been building through the earlier sections.
If you are not sure where to start, look at your defining moments and your mindset. They tend to point toward motivations without being asked. A character who watched injustice and who sits on the idealistic end of the spectrum probably wants to fix something. A character shaped by betrayal who leans pragmatic probably wants to make sure it never happens again, by whatever means are available. You do not need to overthink it — write what follows naturally from who this person already is.
Share these with your GM. A motivation your GM does not know about is one that will never come up.
See also: Character Appearance — how your identity shows (or hides) on the outside.
Back to Character Creation.
© Soltherra RPG System