Create connections and integrate into the world
This point is one of the most important because it breathes life into your character. Previously, you considered where you come from or what your previous profession might have been. All of these are good approaches to go a little deeper.
The more connections you create with your environment, the better your game master can work with that and create situations where you can bring your character into play. Do you have one or more NPCs who have been important to you? Loved ones, family, a mentor, or a rival? Are there places that are close to your heart or that you avoid for a specific reason? Is there an organization, guild, or group that you’re part of, want to be part of, or that is after you?
The more details and backgrounds of the world you integrate into your backstory, the easier it will be for you and your game master to bring the character to life in the campaign and offer them suitable challenges. Additionally, your fellow players can draw on details that automatically incorporate you and your character into the story. This way, you create a place for yourself in the existing world and give yourself connections and substance.
Ensure that your game master has some open questions and connections from your past that they can weave into the story to give you the spotlight and integrate your character as part of the whole in the campaign.
Mistakes and quirks make you alive
Even though one would prefer to be flawless in a fictional universe, it’s quite limiting if your character has no flaws. Without flaws, mistakes, secrets, or inner conflicts, there is usually little room for development and growth.
So, seek out some edges and corners, as they make you interesting and provide a certain mystery. Do you have a phobia, like darkness, spiders, or undead? Are you particularly bad or limited at something, like swimming or reading?
Or are you burdened by deep guilt, such as having killed someone in a fit of rage or being involved in criminal activities? Are you a reformed paladin who was once a criminal and is fleeing from their past?
Such conflicts are important because your game master can use them to confront you and the group during the campaign. This gives your character the opportunity to grow within themselves and with the group, to overcome their flaws, to give in to them, or to find solutions to conflicts.
