Need to learn more about your characters?

The Mother of All Character Questionnaires is designed for roleplayers, but I'm betting writers will find it useful to! (And not just fantasy writers, mind. There's something here for everyone.)

Give a character a secret . . .

My weekly roleplaying group has been using rules based on the Over the Edge system for our latest game. One of the rules I really like involves character creation: each character needs a secret--a secret that should come back to haunt them as the game plays out.

How is this working out gamewise? Not all our secrets have come to light and, of those that have, not all were earth shattering. But the revealing of one character's secret had an intense impact on the game while the secret of another character turned out to be a clever red herring in the overall plot.

Of course, the writer of a story, as opposed to the dungeon master of a game, has much more control over how integral to the plot the characters' secrets turn out to be. So I think I'm going to add 'secret' to my character sheet. Some characters will have big secrets, some will have small secrets--but a secret of some sort should add some spice to each of them and will open up new plot possibilities for me.

My Character Sheet

I love filling out character sheets. I write them on big index cards that I keep handy and alphabetized, so I can always go back and check a character's eye color or DOB. The sheet I'm using now includes all the stuff I like to keep track of, plus the long-standing Dungeons & Dragons abilities to give me an idea of my characters' strengths and weaknesses:

IDENTITY

Name: [including nicknames]
Actor I would cast in the part: [I love 'casting' my characters.]
Gender:
Enneagram Type:
Sexual Orientation:
Religion:
Race: [this can be broad, as in 'human' or 'orc,' or more narrow, as in 'human: Native American.']
Nationality:
DOB:
Height:
Weight:
Eye Color:
Hair Color:

ABILITIES [Usually range from 1 to 18]

Strength:
Dexterity:     
Constitution: 
Intelligence:  
Wisdom:        
Charisma:    

HISTORY

Family Connections:
Education Level:
Alma Mater:
Profession:
Special Skills:
Languages Spoken:
Secret: See this post.

NOTES

[Anything not covered above]

This character sheet is working for me at the moment--but I'm sure I'll keep adjusting it!