The Fun of Flawed Characters

Sometimes the perfect character is not the best character. In my experience some of the most memorable and fun characters are the ones who are flawed. I feel that drawbacks, weaknesses and personality quirks are some of the best sources of role play in any game.

While any experienced gamer will tell you that you need to design a character that is good at what he/she does, the strive for perfection should be avoided. It is the weaknesses and drawbacks that lead characters to rely on one another, form bonds, and make characters more realistic. Real people have real problems and are usually not perfect. Plus having a flaw gives you more opportunity to roleplay instead of rollplay. Furthermore, as I will show, having character flaws can allow people to have fun rather than gripe when they make mistakes or have unlucky streaks.


The example I will give is from a campaign I ran last year. The character was an old wizard, So old in fact that he had forgotten more about magic than most will ever know. He had before senility been a mighty and famous caster but now was struggling with the most simple spells (returning to level 5). The player had designed this character will comedy in mind and played him well enough to be entertaining but not enough to be a burden or a distraction. Needless to say having a crotchety old man running around with young adventurers led to a lot of fun conversations and NPC interactions. What really made this character memorable however was how the character handled failure in combat and stressful situations. Instead of getting frustrated he roleplayed the character forgetting the words to the spell, casting the wrong spell (like a harmless illusion or cantrip) or reaching into his bag and pulling out the wrong components. Furthermore when critical successes occurred he roleplayed moments of clarity where the other characters got a glimpse of his former glory. In this way by designing a character with a major flaw he turned in game failures from a source of frustration to a source of comedy and entertainment for the party.


The principle is that flaws make characters more interesting and therefore encourages more roleplay. Think about most of the movies, comic books, and books you've read. What makes you feel a connection to the characters is not how they are perfect but how they are flawed. This is especially true in western pop culture where we LOVE our anti-heroes.

As a storyteller you should encourage your players to give their characters drawbacks that enhance the game with memorable moments and stories. You can encourage this by offering rewards to those players that give their characters meaningful drawbacks, skeletons, flaws. Even if these flaws do not have huge combat or mechanics consequences they will enrich play.

The Philosophy of Character Building

How can you use the Socratic Method to create a good character? let me explain how I use a series of questions to help myself and my players create dynamic personalities for their characters.

But wait, Everybody Knows how to make a character for an RPG right? Pick your race, assign your points, pick your special abilities and then come up with a backstory that will explain him/her being in the party. throughout my time as a DM I have heard people explain their characters like this:

"My character is a Brutal Warrior whose only desire is glory on the battlefield. He hates orcs and is chaotic neutral"

"My character is an outcast dwarf who seeks redemption and honor in helping others"

Both of these are excellent starts and are seeds that could grow into dynamic characters. However, these backstories are very broad and while they speak volumes about where the character has been and their large scale goals, they don't really reveal much of a personality. I think often in games people are told to create a history for their character but not a persona. Where a character has been and what they have done informs their personality of course but it does not define it.

Due to the emphasis on a character's history instead of personality many characters suffer from an inconsistency of behavior or what I call "situational personality disorder" (SPD). You have all seen this, a character has up until that point not engaged in X behavior or expressed any leanings towards X but since the campaign now requires it in order to overcome a challenge the character shifts his or her behavior to fit the situation. I believe that in many cases this occurs because the player never established what the character would do in morally ambiguous situations. The answers to the questions that follow form a frame of reference which can help the player react to situations in a manner consistent with a dynamic (realistic) personality.

These questions take the character from a collection of characteristics and abilities on a sheet to a unique individual that the players will feel more inclined to play with consistency of behavior, almost like they are doing the character wrong by not following what their personality would desire. These questions also create a framework in which they can think like their characters instead of thinking only in terms of game practicality.


Question Examples:

how does the character feel about killing? is it ever justified? does he feel that monsters can be killed with impunity but not humans? what about Dwarves, Elves, Aliens, etc?

What is the role of the law in the character's mind? is it for the good of all? does it stifle freedom? is it the tyranny of government? does the character obey the law? what kind of situation does it take for the character to commit serious crimes?

does the character believe in higher powers? what does character believe he owes the gods?

how does the character think of those higher in society? Lower? what does the character think of his/her place?

what about the opposite sex? Strait, Gay/lesbian? are the opposite sex to be protected or to be manipulated?

how loyal is the character to his/her word?

how does the character feel about other adventurers? does he/she seek camaraderie or just the accomplishment of personal goals?


Does the character care about the opinions of others?

does the character want to find love?

does the character have a family? wife/husband/Lover? where are they? what are they doing?

why did the character join his profession? is his profession in line with his class or was he a farmer until he became a fighter to defend his home from bandits?

these questions are just a small sampling of the questions I ask my players to answer when making a character. I tailor them depending on the vague backstory they give me and the setting I plan to run.

I have met with a lot of success using this system. The players have often created memorable characters they love to play. Using this system I have actually seen long time dungeon crawlers try to skip through combat to get to character interactions.

I wish you luck and good gaming,

Athanasios