Character Craft, Step Four: Appearance
The first thing that will usually distinguish your character is his/her appearance. This occurs across genres. In tabletop games, the first question is usually, “What do I see?” or “What do you look like?” In live-action or interactive games, the answer is apparent. In either case, your character’s appearance will have an immediate, and often profound, impact upon the initial reactions of others.
- When planning your character’s appearance, there are many factors to consider, but none moreso than your character’s personality and background (which is why they preceded this step). Consider what image your character would seek to broadcast and whether it reflects or hides his/her inner nature. Then answer the following questions.
- How does your character dress? Does he/she wear clothes of a particular or distinguishing fashion? Does he/she wear any sort of noticeable accessories?
- What are your character’s skin, hair, and eye colors? How does your character wear his/her hair (i.e. long or short, plain or stylized, etc.)? Does he/she have any freckles, birthmarks, piercings, tattoos, or other embellishments?
- Does your character have any scars, permanent injuries, or physical defects that would be immediately apparent, such as missing fingers, strange skin pigmentation, or disproportionate body parts?
As always, give some thought to the effect this might have on how the character is perceived, interacted with, and ultimately played. If you are faced with practical limitations, such as costuming and props in live-action games, you may need to revise your character a bit. Chances are good, however, that there is a happy medium between your creative wishes and real-life hindrances.