I've seen several threads over the months here, which seems to divide the community into two separate groups. Some players prefer to define their character's personality strengths and moral flaws first, whereas others prefer to create their attributes, select a race and class and then determine their personality.

With ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous RPG's development, we've waffled back and forth on the subject between our playtesters, contributors and editor. Both have a significant role in the game, but we're divided on what belongs where.

Here's where I reach out to you, the general role-playing populace for your opinion. One can certainly argue that both are equally important, but I'd like to know - where do you stand? Which do you consider first and foremost in the character creation process? I'd love to hear your opinions and experience on the matter!

A lot of it depends on the game and its generation system. I try and read the game first and try to get inspiration, then see what comes from playing around with the mechanics.

Almost always personality.  If, after about 15 minutes, I haven't latched onto something good then I'll roll my attributes (unassigned preferably) and see if I'm going to be average, strong in one thing, weak in one thing, and so on to help spark an idea, but that's pretty rare.  I can't just assign numbers and then make something to match it though.  The 'molding' of the personality to fit appropriate attributes and stuff comes afterwards naturally, but I have to have a lump of proper clay to start with!

Depends on the game, really. For a random-generation game it's obviously stats first (Maybe not all the stats, but certainly a core of them), but for points-based, I'll typically come up with a vague concept, put some numbers down, evolve the concept, etc. until I'm happy.

I think you're best off acknowledging people will go either way.

Isn't "class and race" tied to "personality"?

Even though i may act different personlities as a GM, i don't when i'm a player:
Thus, as a player, i do not choose personality, because the personalit is always a variant of my own.

If i decides to tweak it abit towards one or another aspect, it usually happens as a part of the rest.
What i always choose first, if possible and neccesary, is "race".
And like personality, i usually has the same thing, but only if the system and GM allows it: A cat-folk-being.
But if that don't work, i might have to choose between human or Elf.

Since i am not fond of playing D&D (any version), i tend to shift between choosing the rest in varying order, after playing several Storytelling games and similarly inspired, i go for something called "Concept" first.
Since personality already is defined (never chosen) for me, one may say this equals "Class".

So my order is:
Always defined: Personality
First choise: "Race"
Second Choise: "Class"
"The rest".

It really just depends on the game. If I'm doing some sort of point-buy system, or in a game where the GM lets me put my stats where I want, then I'll definitely at least have a sort of character concept beforehand.

If I'm rolling attributes straight or with minimal change in Castles & Crusades or PFRPG, for instance, then I might have a character idea, but how he's expressed is going to depend on what I roll. Perhaps I had a warrior or savage barbarian type in mind, but I roll low on my Strength and high on my Dex. Perhaps he had some sort of wasting illness as a child, and had to compensate by being quicker and sneakier than many in his tribe? Perhaps he dreams of being a warrior, but was chosen as the shaman's successor at a young age? The ideas can still be there, but just like life, what someone does is and how they act is tempered by reality.

In games like Traveller, I usually just enjoy fleshing out my character as his life experiences rolled during character creation round him out.

I often find myself coming up with a personality,realising it's a stereotype (embittered mercenary), and then rolling attributes that then help me break out of the stereotype (very low strength...maybe he's never seen combat, he's just a cynical "armchair enthusiast" of military matters).

Personality and concept first, then the stats and skills that fit.

After that, I let the stats and skills influence my concept.

For me, it is intuitive to create a character concept first and then select whatever the system offers to realize that concept.

I have a distaste for creating a character primarily around a mechanic.

I roll for my attributes.

Personality emerges in play.

Stats come first. There may be an initial concept during chargen, but my characters tend to become defined over the first few sessions.

First I have an idea about the kind of character I want to play, then I build/roll the character. The details of his/her personality are filled in during play (usually the first sessions are defining)!

I like systems best that allow for both approaches.

Allow players that come from the "personality/character concept first" side top create their character (within the limits of the system/genre, of course; no special snowflake lost angel character in a warhammeresque humanocentric campaign), but let other players who want to use chance find their character with the rolls of some dice.

Off topic, yet somewhat related:

Hi ZWEIHÄNDER!

On the official forum you said:

QuoteI've spoken a few times in the last two podcast interviews about how I tackled Warhammer's broken math (and the pains I undertook to understand it before embarking on the design process). ZWEIHÄNDER falls somewhere in the sweet, sweet middle. The math revisal is core to the design principle. I'm very proud of it.

Would you care to elaborate on that? (Maybe in a new thread?)
In what way was the math broken, what were the pains to understand it and how does your take on the system repair the damage?

Depends on the game. In WFRP I roll eveything randomly and then discover the character in play.

It varies with me.  In point-buy games, I'll generally have a concept first and build to that.  In games where there is a more random generation system, I'll typically let the dice tell me who my character is.  As a player, I'd like to note that a random character/lifepath system can be a useful tool no matter what the system is like, just to help get the creative juices flowing on days your muse is silent.