Why Your First Character Should Be Kinda Like You

Roleplaying is just making decisions as your character. Make it easy.

You don’t need to play a glow-in-the-dark mushroom wizard with emotional baggage to enjoy D&D. That can be your second character.

You also don’t need to write a 14-page backstory about your tragic career as a circus acrobat turned underworld tax accountant. Unless you really want to.

If you’re brand new to this whole roleplaying game thing (the dice, the dragons, the people pretending to be goblins) one of the trickier parts is figuring out who you're gonna play as your first character. With so many possibilities, it can be overwhelming.

Here’s my advice: Start with someone who’s kinda like you... but with a sword.

Welcome to D&D for Beginners. Join Professor Lump (but I prefer "Richard") Crackfang, the learned scholar and wizard, in exploring the most common questions of new and early D&D players. If you haven't yet, subscribe free here:

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Roleplaying Is Weird (At First)

Pretending to be a magical elf in a fantasy tavern full of strangers is not something most adults do between work emails and grocery runs.

You probably have more experience dealing with yard work and annoying coworkers than imaginary owlbears.

Yet the advice from seasoned players is often, “Make anything! Go wild! Be a chaotic neutral half gnome/half goliath/half aarakocra [a math whiz!!] lawyer who thinks he's a telepathic jellyfish and moonlights as a bard!”

Yeah, that might be fun. But wait until after you’ve played a few sessions.

For your first game, that kind of character is a one-way ticket to freezing in fear. You’ll be staring at your sheet while your party interrogates a shady street merchant, wondering what a telepathic jellyfish is supposed to do. Blink? Float menacingly? Chirp unexpectedly?

The Better Option: Play You, But With a Sword

You already know how you think — how you act in a crowded room — what you’d do if someone pulled a knife at McDonald’s.

So start there. Make your first character 80% you, 20% badass adventurer.

When your character shares your personality, you don’t have to perform. You just respond.

• Practical and observant? Maybe you’re a ranger who keeps watch while the others chat.

• Like helping people? Maybe you’re a cleric who heals and encourages.

• Got a big laugh and a sarcastic streak? Charismatic fighter or rogue.

• Hate talking? Play a barbarian. Grunt, swing axe, repeat.

You don’t need a funny voice or a dramatic backstory. You don’t need to act. You just get to be yourself in a world with goblins and treasure.

Roleplaying Is Just Responding

As you get comfortable, you can try playing characters who think differently than you do. But at first? Nah. Keep it simple.

If you’ve never roleplayed before, the last thing you want is to freeze up because you don’t know how a 300-year-old half-elf diplomat would react to an undead werewolf in a polka-dot dress.

But you do know what you would do if someone insulted your intelligence. Or offered you a sack of gold to spy on your friends. Or threatened someone you cared about.

That’s all roleplaying is: making decisions as your character. And when that character feels natural, those decisions come easy.

“But Isn’t That Boring?”

Nope. It’s smart.

Playing a character like you doesn’t mean they’re dull—even if you think you are. It means you’re building on something solid. Something you understand.

From there, you can still be a dwarven barbarian. Or a wizard with fireball spells. Or a rogue with a mysterious past and a +2 to sarcasm.

Once You’re Comfortable, Then You Can Get Weird.

How weird? How about

• A pacifist monk who communicates only through aggressive charades and interpretive dance

• A warlock whose patron embodies a sock puppet named Mister Wibbles, and he’s definitely in charge

• A gnome artificer who straps fireworks to everything and insists it's “just controlled science”

Just don’t start there. You only get one first character. Make it easy on yourself. Start with something familiar. Something comfortable. Something that lets you focus on the game, not your nerves.

So grab a sword. Pick a class. Step into the game as you, just with better hair and a much cooler outfit. You’ll be surprised how fast it all starts to make sense.

-- Dick Crackfang, A.W.E. (Arcane Wizard Extraordinaire)
(Also your humble guide. Definitely not a jellyfish. Not anymore.)