Editing Texas: Character Generation (section)

==Create the Character!==

Alright, so we now have three descriptors - enough for a character sheet in one line. For example:

''He's a '''GUNSLINGER''' with an aptitude for '''PHYSICAL''' things, known for being '''CAUTIOUS'''.''

Easy, right?

The next step is to add a little more meat to the above line - turn it into a paragraph.

Things you may or may not want to include:

* '''A Name:''' Not actually as essential as you might think - after all, Clint Eastwood got away with playing ''The Man With No Name'' three times. On the other hand, if you have a whole ''posse with no name'' it gets kind of silly, so a nickname can be handy, even if its just "stranger" or "traveller". You can get a lot of characterisation out of a name though - consider the difference between ''John Oak'' and ''Joshua Worthington III'', and the sort of characters that might have these names. 

* '''A description:''' This can be as florid or as short as you like, but its nice to have enough details that the other players can paint a mental picture. Remember that this is a spaghetti western, so most protagonists are rough and dirty looking (like Clint Eastwood) rather than being white hats with clean shaven chins (like John Wayne). On the other hand, a little contrast can be good, so if you want your character to be a greenhorn from out east with a dapper suit, shiny ivory-handled guns that have never been fired and a twinkle in his eye, then go for it!

* '''Some history:''' Don't go overboard here - its not that sort of game. As a rule of thumb, add history only if it makes your character more interesting or gives the GM nice plot hooks. For example, we're deadly interested if your Sioux brave had his tribe massacred by Mexican bandidos (fundamental knowledge of real life political geography is not mandatory) but its less useful to know that your huckster once won a bridge tournament in mississipi - unless of course he cheated and has an angry debtee on his tail.

* '''A goal:''' In Spaghetti Westerns, the protagonists don't normally start with much motivation, and their goals settle on them during the movie. This isn't obligatory though, and its a rare GM that doesn't appreciate having his story-writing workload shared. If he knows what your character's motivations are, its much easier for him to make you feel engaged with the story.

So here's the expanded version of the above character paragraph. Note that the keywords are still in bold, for ease of reference:

''He was a mousy haired fellow, nothing impressive to look at, but "Holster-stuck Joe" was famous across several states. His nickname came about on account of the fact that his smokewagons were rarely drawn: it was meant to be an insult, but Joe took to liking it. It was his '''CAUTIOUS''' nature - he'd seen too many of his friends and family getting shot down for being too hasty to fight, and he'd learnt to be a man of peace. What others didn't know was that when Joe backed down from a fight, he wasn't being a coward - he was saving his enemy's life. After all, Joe was probably the fastest '''GUNSLINGER''' in all Texas, a man who had the ability (though not the inclination) to solve all problems in a quick and '''PHYSICAL''' fashion. He rode into town looking to not use his guns, and looking to get away both from all the young guns that followed him all the time, meaning to challenge him and all the lawmen blaming him for the actions of his old gang. He figured if he could outrun his rep, he could find peace. He figured wrong.''


And that's a wrap!
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