2025 Character Creation Challenge - After Action Review

I did the Character Creation Challenge last month. You make a character for any TTRPG, every day, through the month of January. That works out to 31 characters. And I'm the type who likes to make a little backstory for each of my characters. It usually isn't much. It could fit on a postcard. A paragraph is plenty. But I'm not used to doing it day in and day out.

I have notes.

So many, in fact, that I took a few days to sort through my notes and thoughts.

Here you go.

Simple tools for a big job. Not pictured: My PC with an internet connection and my TTRPG collection.

Posting More

One of my goals this year is to post more on this blog. 31 posts is more than I've posted in most years all in one month. I could not post on this blog for the rest of this year and still make my goal. Not that I will, of course.


Planning

31 characters is a big sandwich to eat, even when it's spread over 31 days. I had a plan for what TTRPGs to use, building up a decent buffer, and a rough calendar for the opening weeks. An outline of my initial plans was presented in the post announcing my participation in the challenge.

My plans for a comfortable buffer of characters and posts fell apart quickly. That made falling behind harder to deal with as I had to double up to catch up. The scenario came to be during middle of the challenge. I wasn't feeling well and had to cut non-critical tasks to rest. More than anything else, the lack of a solid buffer almost killed this challenge for me.

The planning I put into the challenge was always subject to change. I had never done this challenge before, so I had no experience to base an extensive plan on. The goal of my planning was to provide enough organization to give me the confidence to take on the challenge. In that, it worked this time, but I'll need to do better next time.


Starting Off: My Concerns

My big worry was running out of ideas. The weird thing was that the more characters I made, the easier it was to come up with more. My ideas started to build on each other. By the end of the first week, I had a big chunk of the month mapped out.

My other concern was running out of motivation. Again, that first week was critical. By the end of it, I had developed a process. Things began to flow.


Developing a Process

Here's the list of the TTRPG products I used and how many posts they were featured in:

• 13th Age (1e) - 2
• Bucket of Bolts - 2
• Entity - 1
• Kaiju Generator - 1
• Lemuria Space Station - 1
• Mothership - 4
• Nekropol - 1
• Old School Essentials - 9
• Robert E. Howard's Conan - 1
• Rogue Zone - 1
• Star Trek Adventures (1e) - 8

Over time, I refined the process of creating characters. The first step in making things more efficient was favoring less mechanically complex games, those with an online character generator, or the ones I could jump into with minimal review. That favored the TTRPGs on my original "almost certainly" list and doomed those on my "might use" list. I didn't have the luxury of learning or re-learning complex rules if I was going to keep up the pace demanded of the challenge. The next step was standardizing the process. Making a character for any TTRPG is a similar procedure. The posts I wrote for each character also started following a format, even though I didn't consciously come up with one. This all allowed me to put more focus on making characters and communicating my thoughts about it.


The Marathon of the Middle

I wasn't feeling well during the middle of the challenge. And I lost motivation. Twice. Plus, as my early confidence vanished, I ran dry on ideas a couple of times. Remember when I said the ideas began to flow? The flow stopped. I walked in a creative wasteland.

It didn't help that the buffer I started with wasn't the one I planned on. Starting off, I had two or three days of characters ready to post. That ran out as I lost focus until I got behind and stayed behind. Buffering several days worth of characters - what I originally planned on - would've worked out much better.


Exploring My TTRPG Collection

The challenge gave me a chance to explore my TTRPG collection in a way that I never had before. I particularly enjoyed making characters for a variety of indie and solo TTRPGs. They'll come in handy when I dip my toe into some of those games later this year. I also want to do my modest part in bringing some attention to theses titles.

Making characters for the indie and solo TTRPGs I used felt straightforward. There's an odd combination of raw enthusiasm and professional polish to them. This helped me catch up when I fell behind during the challenge.


Going the Distance

Going into the last couple of weeks, I gritted my teeth and tackled the grind. I became less discriminating about my character concepts. Being picky about quality is not the way to get caught up. In that scenario, good enough is good enough.

It wasn't until the last week that I again had posts ready to go the night before they were needed. That week was a matter of getting characters made and posts written. I felt like I was driving a car. One hand on the wheel and the other shifting gears, coaxing a little more performance out of the process, trying to get where I need to be.


Past the Finish Line

The day after the challenge was weird. I had the feeling that there was something I needed to get done. 31 days is more than long enough for something to become a habit.

That said, I do have other uses for the time.


Looking Back

The challenge has certainly been that.

Doing things like this builds up creative muscles. It forces the mind to adapt and find new solutions. I could obviously make a character before the challenge. However, I now feel a mastery of the process that previously lacked.

It's good to take on challenges. Still, I don't think I be making another character for another week or two.