Feel free to paste any character creation resources you've found online. Likewise, I'll gather up some materials that help me, and together we can use them to make simple characters with motivation, history, and values.
Motivation, History, and Values; or how to get off of Dustin's shit list and into his heart
Speaking of Motivation, History, and Values, these are our primary focus for D&D character creation. If you don't have all three (and some stats), you're doing it wrong. Allow me to clarify:
- Motivation
- The character's reason for becoming an adventurer, continuing to adventure, and purpose in joining an adventuring party. Maybe he has personal goals or a lust for treasure, but he has to have taken up the most dangerous profession (or second, if we count Gnome Poopestry) for a viable reason.
- History
- The character's life before the game began. Before he was an adventurer, your character did something mundane until an important event (Joseph Campbell calls it the "call to adventure") caused him to give up his mortal life. Your history (or backstory) is a short description of these events.
- Values
- The character's personal beliefs and outlook. Your character's values drive his interaction with other characters, typically NPCs. At times, Values and Motivation may overlap, but they are separate ideas. An evil character's motivation probably isn't just "to do evil," but he always ends up doing dirty deeds (dirt cheap) because he does not value the lives of others. Your character should have a few key values, and you can figure out the rest as you go. In many cases, aspects of your Values can be added to your History; maybe your wood elf doesn't trust humans after a caravan made off with his tribe's most precious treasures, or maybe his lawful good alignment and strong sense of justice are derived directly from his time in the cloister.
I mentioned Joseph Campbell above; he's the guy who had such a raging Star Wars boner that he wrote a book about the themes common between history's great epics. He called it the hero's journey, or the Monomyth.
Personality Tests
Personality tests are useful for more than just telling you things you already know (Anthony is a self-obsessed asshole? I hadn't noticed. Thanks, Meyers-Briggs!), they're also great tools for creating characters. I know I've tried to suggest this before, but the list was TL;DR and I didn't really adjust it to fit the audience ("Dustin, does my Vampire have any special skills?"). I'm going to narrow it down to a few questions or steal some from another sourcebook, so just wait patiently or Google that shit.
Creating NPCs
On page 186 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, James Wyatt explores the seven sentences necessary for creating an NPC. This may be useful to you.
Occupation
The first sentence introduces the NPC, describing the character's way of life.
Physical Description
This sentence provides a brief summary of the NPC's appearance. In addition to covering the basics (height and build, color of skin, hair, and eyes, and so forth), think about a distinctive quirk to help set the character apart in the players’ minds. Roll or choose a quirk from the table, or come up with one of your own.
Attributes and Skills
Here is where you note whether any of the NPC’s abilities are markedly above or below average—great strength or monumental stupidity, for example. You should also mention any special skills he or she has, even if they’re not associated with the character's occupation. These notes will help you create appropriate statistics later.
Values and Motivations
Summarize the values that the NPC holds dear, and what spurs him or her to action. These factors can have an impact on the party's interaction with that person. These details also help you decide how the NPC reacts to the characters.
Behavior
This sentence describes how the NPC interacts with others—traits that will stand out in the players' minds. An NPC might be urbane, sarcastic, loud and obnoxious, soft-spoken, or condescending. If this behavior is applied differently depending on who you are, people than with strangers, note that here.
Useful Knowledge
Does the NPC know something that might benefit the PCs? This information might be purely for flavor, or it could be a key clue leading the PCs deeper into the adventure.
Mannerism
Describe a memorable characteristic of the NPC, something for the players to remember. They might forget a name, but they'll remember the blacksmith with the elaborate vocabulary. Roll or pick a mannerism from the table, or make up your own.
