Concept art by microFAT.
This character originated as my first D&D player character.
I wrote his backstory in a single afternoon, drawing heavily from personal experience and intuition rather than conscious design frameworks.
After 4 months of gameplay, I reverse-engineered what made them work — identifying the patterns, pillars, and principles that emerged organically during play.
This retrospective demonstrates:
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Why This Matters: Rather than explicitly and prescriptively mapping out the character, I allowed him to breathe in a rich world. As such, his actions and decisions were far more organic. Reflecting on this process and how the character developed taught me more about character design than any intentional piece ever could and has fundamentally shaped my character design process.
After a few months of play, I identified the following patterns that made the character compelling and engaging to play: