On Character

Unique White Box Player Characters
The White Box presents the player with three character classes from which to choose.  The player's character can be a Fighting Man, a Magic User or a Cleric. Just three classes, but an infinite variety of characters, if we apply a little imagination.  For some of my early characters I chose not very original names from comics, movies, books. Basically, I based many of my characters on a character that I borrowed from someplace else. My first decision would be what White Box class does this character have most in common with. For some it was easy, others took a little imagination. At some point I got tired of trying to copy characters and started coming up with my own character concepts and names. In game mechanic terms all Fighting Men player characters are somewhat similar in White Box D&D. Outside of the actual numbers for attributes and hit points, the name given to the character is all that distinguishes it from another Fighting Man PC. Unless the player adds some detail while role-playing the character! I guess it should be obvious since the game is called role-playing. Maybe not. The White Box refers to "Rules for Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns..." it doesn't say role-playing, at least not on the cover. The actual role-playing, giving characters unique personality, crept into early Fantastic Medieval Wargames because we had an idea who the character was, often based on the original character borrowed from another source for game play. Was the character an honest do-gooder, or a bit of a self serving rascal? Events at the table are often just as likely to shape a PC's personality as any pre-conceived character concept unless dealing with a "borrowed" character. We all bring a bit of our own personality to our PCs, but with a little effort we can go much further than playing a version of ourselves. In many ways I think it is actually easier to do this with the White Box rules than while using many other rules because White Box doesn't get in the way.  The game mechanics can easily slip into the background and the character sheet has very little on it that would shape the PC's personality other than an extreme attribute score now and then. With later editions of the game a PC may have a high or low Bluff score and the payer just rolls the die to see if the PC successfully lies. In White Box play, you decide what your PCs relationship to lying may be and role-play it out. The White Box really gives the player lots of freedom regarding how each PC is played. Let your imagination be your guide and make each character really unique.