How do you flesh out your player character's personality?

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>>53373680
Answer the following questions about your character:

>Where does your character live? Who else lives there?
>Where is the character from originally? If this is a different place, why did he/she leave?
>What kind of family did he/she come from?
>What does your character do for a living?
>What would he/she PREFER to do for a living?
>How much schooling has he/she had?
>How smart is he/she?
>Who does your character love? What is his/her strongest attachments?
>What does your character care about?
>Who is he/she in love with? If this was in the past, what happened?
>What has disappointed your character?
>What is he/she proud of?
>What is his/her biggest vice?
>What is he/she insecure about?
>What is your character's biggest shame?
>How do other people see this person?
>What does your character smell like?
>What makes your character happiest?
>What does he/she dream about?
>What is your character's earliest memory?
>Does your character enjoy thinking about his/her life, or are they trying to forget?
>Is your character nostalgic for something? What?
>Is your character waiting for something? What?


These questions are paraphrased from writer Audrey Niffenegger, and can apply to TTRPGs as much as they do actual fiction writing. The more you answer, the better idea you'll have of the character's personality and history.

>>53373680
During game play, because it never turns out like you autisticly wrote down beforehand.

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Look at various forms of personality type charts, like Zodiac signs, blood types or MBTI. Even if you feel like they're just superstitious bullshit, they usually provide various archetypes for you to choose from. Listening to music might also give you inspiration, especially if you listen to the lyrics.
If you're looking for more specific personality quirks, my experience has taught me that you can't really force those well. They'll just come naturally as you write more of the character (or in case of RPGs, play them more).

That or just google some "100 questions about your RPG character" thing, that will force you to come up with a backstory to answer all questions.

>>53373680
You flesh out your character's personality through play, specifically in how they speak and interact with the world around them.
>>53373907
>>53373944
Writing out a backstory is all well and good, but there's a reason why "show, don't tell" is a mantra that all good writers live by.

>>53373985
>Writing out a backstory is all well and good, but there's a reason why "show, don't tell" is a mantra that all good writers live by.
True. The purpose of the questions exercise is to make you think about how you're going to roleplay your character beforehand so you're not stuttering out uhms when the DM asks how your character reacts. The point isn't to say "Well I was abused as a child by my mother so I ignore the attentions of the pretty noblewoman.", it's to say "I ignore the pretty noblewoman and look a little panicked as I politely excuse myself from the situation."

>>53373985
>but there's a reason why "show, don't tell" is a mantra that all good writers live by.
During sessions, yes. But when I GM, I prefer having my players just hand me in something written as their background story, even if it's just one paragraph. It's a lot easier for me to put in stuff relating to their background if I have something to read, rather than having to take notes of whenever the player says something that's related to their background.

>>53373985
True. Where lists like >>53373907 fall short is that if those details never come into play then they're meaningless to begin with. Instead of trying to fill in all your cousin's uncle's cat's maiden names it's better to write down few concrete, actionable upon facts about your character and then PLAY them out purposefully and consistently.

>>53373680

First you draft out their backstory and personality roughly, then you keep all that in mind and let it inform the way you play. Ideally, your GM should set you up with a pivotal moment or two to really let your character come into their own.

>>53373680
How do they act when they're around/talking to...
>friends
>family
>enemies
>not enemies but people who annoy them
>children
>elders
>someone they respect
>a lover or crush

>>53373680
I start with a rough outline of the motivations and some details of the past; the rest "emerges" during play.
For instance a recent character of mine was just an "aloof elven wizard" specialized in divination.
In play, he was impatient with others (since he allready saw many variations on the conversations he was having at that moment) would assume a lot about people based on stupid things like date of birth and so on, and occasionally he would mop the floor with people's emotions (godly sense motive + 7 charisma). It turned out (talking it out with the GM) the reason he was like this was that he saw something terrible in prophecy and was working to change the future he saw, henche the reason he was an adventurer.
When not stressed out trying to avert the dragopocalypse he was actually pretty shy and unassuming.

>>53373680
t h i c c c c

I'm partial to the 3 3's

3 defining moments of backstory
3 defining beliefs
3 defining

gives you enough to start

alternatively, I'm a fan of pick 2 "deadly sins" and 2 "heavenly virtues".

>>53379524
> 3 defining goals

Fucking Samsung keyboard update sucks fucking ass

>>53373680
Once I've worked out some of the basics, I like to (depending on setting) consider which deity they might be inclined to worship, and from there think about which aspects of that deity they would feel drawn to.

Recently I had to write up a one-off character who was an inquisitor of a chaotic war god despite coming from a lawful society; I decided that felt obligated to uphold fair combat in war, etc., etc.

>>53373680
I write a list of personality traits, then I make up imaginary conversations in my head and try to tailor my character's responses to his/her traits. That way I have speech to fall back on and imitate during the game.

>>53379524
>>53379536

Who the fuck has 3 defining goals irl? Most people has one or none.

>>53379701
>I want to own my home
>I want to have a family
>I want to be able to retire comfortably

That took me 10 seconds. Are you legitimately retarded?

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Immediate Goal
Something they really hate
Something they really like

And worry about the rest while playing.
Also, it's great to use the other PCs and NPCs as foils. Nothing helps define a character better than contrasting them with someone else.