character-flaws
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Storyboard: Flaw of the land
Nobody's perfect. Heck, most of us aren't even within spitting distance. That's why we spent a column starting in on a discussion of flaws as they affect characters, breaking down the broad categories of flaws that you can give a character. But as I said right then, there's a lot more to talk about when it comes to flaws, especially since your flaws can be far more important than your character's actual abilities. It's useful to understand that you could make your character profoundly incapable of understanding selfish or deceptive motives (ignorant flaw), or make him a former murderer who's adventuring as a sort of work-release program (redemptive flaw), or even just a deaf mute (functional flaw). But it's important to understand why these things matter -- in a world where everyone is telepathic, a deaf mute is only at a slight disadvantage. You need to pick out marquee weaknesses that are relevant, and you need to know when a smaller flaw is actually useful to roleplaying.
Storyboard: Flawed premise
If there's one major element I've been coming back to over the course of this year (which isn't quite a year of this column, but close enough for government work), it's character creation. This is not by coincidence -- a lot of roleplaying consists of just throwing the right mix of characters in a closed space to encourage interaction and then letting them play off one another. So it seems fitting to close off the year by talking about what I consider one of the most vital elements in creation: making your character an incompetent mess with severe emotional issues. Yes, I'm talking about flaws, which are one of the best ways to add definition to a character that might otherwise be lackluster. Like sculpting from marble, flaws cut away the edges of a character and help bring everything into greater definition. But it's a delicate balance between making an interestingly flawed character and making an execrable lump of flesh useful only as monster bait (or a virtual infallible deity whose flaws are all non-starters such as "well, he can't play the oboe"). You want a character just flawed enough to be interesting, but not so flawed as to drag others down.
