Inspiration is the first element of character creation that I will discuss in-depth. If you remember from the previous column there are four total elements, and the other three are conceptualization, mechanization and dramatization.
What is inspiration?
Inspiration is what you want, the gleam in your eye as you show up to character creation. Inspiration itself isn't all that complicated, and is often expressed to the GM in the form "I want to play ..." In a full process of character creation, inspiration is the measuring stick to see how successful the process has been. Write down your desires at the beginning of the process, and then when it is over you can go back and look and see if you actually got what you wanted. If you did, then bravo! You will have character that you can (most likely) enjoy playing and can come to each session excited about.
Inspiration and conceptualization are often confused with each other, and even combined together. How many times have you heard a GM or role-playing book say "come up with a concept"? Usually the word concept is used to refer to both inspiration (the raw idea) and conceptualization (the details), and sometimes even dramatization (how it is played). Combining the two isn't a huge problem though, since the inspiration tends to lead directly into the concept. It is useful to separate them, because then the inspiration can be used as the measuring stick to see if the details of concept maintain the initial desire.
Does having that aging dependent true love agree with the idiom of the character? You inspiration allows you to answer that question. While the concept is still being built, the inspiration stays constant and reminds the player of the direction they need to go, like a light house showing the way through a dark fog.
Inspiration can come from many, many places. Books, movies, role-playing source books, the dreams of players, and my current personal favorite – sad old-style country songs – are just the tip of the iceberg for what might be driving a player to make a particular character.
Character Creations Focusing on Inspirations
Inspiration-based games can be whole bunch of fun, as they are focused almost solely on "do what is fun for you". A game focusing entirely on inspiration would be a lot like a free-form game where the GM says "Do what you want" and leaves you alone. The player's wants go unfettered and play begins. Do you know players who would like this? Of course. And games like this are played, although they usually focus heavily on dramatization as well. In an on-line setting where people are just typing, the dramatization can play a very minor role.
Inspiration games are very much like free-form storytelling, where the characters collaborate to create a novel or plot line like story. Because each player just does what they want, the story is often not controlled by such fettering muses as reality or common sense. Also, characters tend to end up more stereotyped then deep, as the detail from the concept is missing. In fact, playing stereotypes is an excellent example of playing inspirations rather then just true characters.
In combination with other character-creation elements, inspiration focused games make an determined effort not to compromise the player's picture of the character during the character creation process. They use the initial inspiration as a measuring stick for each section of character creation to make sure no detail, no rule, or no play style affects the core of the character. When player's get done with character creation, they can safely say – I have what I wanted.
A common problem with this sort of inspiration based character creation is that mechanics get in the way of inspiration, causing frustration by players and GMs alike, and a move towards systems that mold better to inspirations. The Hero system is probably the best example of "our system will let you do whatever you want" but there are certainly others of great popularity that succeed to some degree – GURPS, Nobilis, Amber Diceless and Over the Edge are just a few more examples.
My opinion on the matter on inspiration based character creation is very clear – it creates the best characters. The reason for this is that the player has a great interest in playing the character.
Changing Inspirations
It should be clear that changing the inspiration for the character during the character creation process can be the death knell for character creation. But it certainly can happen, much to the frustration of the GM, as the player keeps saying "Wait! I wanted to play Spiderman not Batman!" Or "I think I would rather my character was a mystic psychic with cool powers then the solemn martial arts warrior" This form of distraction can be dealt with if the player and GM are both willing to put the work in to redefine the character as needed. The player may need to walk away for a bit until they get a better idea, or the GM may need to step back and examine the myriad desires to guess what the player really is after. (It helps if they have a PhD in psychiatry. Just reading a lot of Freud doesn't cut it.)
A much worse form of inspiration change occurs when a players inspirations change during play. There can be many reasons for this as well, but the most common is that the inspiration that was chosen does not actually fit the campaign the GM is running. The GM often says to the player "your character just doesn't seem to fit what I am running" which is a good thing to say at the beginning of character creation before any real creation has occurred and an absolutely horrid thing for the GM to say (for the first time) two sessions into the campaign. In the first case, it is the player's responsibility to build a character under the rules the GM has set out, and to play the character based on those rules. In the second, it is the GMs responsibility to help the players make characters that will work, and he has shirked that duty and caused in play trouble.
Inspiration can change based on in-game events, usually something dramatic like an encounter with a Deck of Many Things or a few wishes. This can be good or bad, and both the GM and player need to be very careful of any events that actually change the character inspiration. Of course, reaching character goals and standard character development can also change a character and potentially the inspiration, and those also need to be monitored by watchful players and GMs.
What if it is missing from character creation?
I don't have any idea what I want to play. I am just going to roll some dice.
The real problem with a lack of inspiration is that the player doesn't have any emotional attachment to a character. This can make it harder to draw the player into the campaign, or even keep them coming back from week to week. Everyone knows the difference between a player with energy for their character and players without that energy. And I hate to tell you – it isn't all coffee and sugar that gets players that way. Even if a player doesn't have inspiration at the beginning of a character creation process (not always possible), they can gain some inspiration during the process itself. Maybe based on some random roll they have an Idea(tm). And that idea becomes their inspiration.
There are also some systems where it can be an advantage to not have inspiration. Any system where character death is easy and often can benefit from not having much emotional attachment to each character. (Hackmaster, anyone?) Usually these systems are focused on something besides role-playing, such as mechanics. It is no doubt that if you spend a whole bunch of time creating emotional investment in players and then kill their character off every two sessions you won't have players for long.
Conclusion
In the Amber Diceless RPG there is a description of the Attribute Auction. The Attribute Auction is where the players all bid their character creation points to see who is the strongest, smartest, toughest or can kill other players with their mind. The book tells the GM to let the players know that each and every attribute is the "Most Important" attribute. I feel the same way about the four methods of character creation – they are all the most important - even though character creation can succeed without any one of them. Just like an Amber character, you can sacrifice your strength if you have a plan. So have a plan when you make characters.
But to get back to inspiration - you just have to ask yourself: what inspires you to role-play? What inspires your characters? What do you want to play?
