Final Form: Building Characters
The final revision of Building Characters, still system-adaptable but fully compatible with The Simple Approach.
Building Characters gives you everything you need to create people who feel real and stories that actually move. Whether you're a player, gamemaster, or solo storyteller, this book helps you shape character-driven roleplaying experiences that matter. It doesn't hand you templates or generic prompts. It helps you build meaning from the ground up using tools that work with any system, in any genre.
You won't find number crunching or backstory generators here. Instead, you'll ask the right questions, explore personal contradictions, and build traits that guide story direction. Each page brings focus. Each chapter gives you something to use. It's not about filling out forms. It's about creating people who change the course of the narrative just by being in it.
Characters First. Every Time.
This book uses The Simple Approach, a narrative-first and system-adaptable framework, to guide character creation. You'll work with modular tools like trait-based descriptions, five-point narrative ratings, role-based archetypes, and identity categories. It all stays grounded in emotional tone, genre alignment, and story function. You can follow the structure or pick the pieces that speak to your process. Everything's flexible. Everything's built to serve your story.
Start With Meaning: Begin with story impact, not numbers. You'll use the Why Chain and rating scale to build characters who feel emotionally grounded and narratively useful.
Use Archetypes as Anchors: Shape protagonists, antagonists, and supporting roles with clarity and depth. You'll understand what each character brings to the story and why it matters.
Work With Identity and Experience: Track change over time. Explore how memory, trauma, strengths, and personal values shape relationships and transformation.
Get Genre Ready: Adapt tone, structure, and character voice across fantasy, science fiction, modern, historical, occult, and literary stories with clear, repeatable tools.
Apply It Anywhere: Every tool is portable. Use it for prep, solo journaling, collaborative creation, or live play. Nothing requires a specific system or special rules.
Why You'll Keep Reaching for This Book
It doesn't matter what system you use. This book gives you the tools to make characters who matter. The kind who shape scenes, hold emotional weight, and move stories forward. It's not just helpful. It's built for the way real stories work. This book shows you how to focus on what makes a character essential, memorable, and worth following.
You're not here to memorize rules. You're here to make someone who changes everything just by entering the scene. This book gives you the tools to do exactly that. The guidance stays practical. The ideas stay clear. Every section is meant to help you see more deeply into the character and bring out what makes them vivid and alive.
If you've ever struggled to go beyond a character’s surface, this book shows you how. If your group wants stronger emotional beats or more grounded relationships, this book gets you there. If you want every choice and trait to carry real weight in the story, this is the tool that helps.
You don't need more stats. You need clarity, focus, and the right questions. This book gives you all of that.
