character & worldbuilding development questions

CHARACTERS

Basic info - referring to them

What name are they using right now?

What pronouns are they using right now?

What is their current position?

How is this name pronounced?

What title are they using?

What is their current title?

How would their pronouns, name and title be used in a sentence?

Reputation

What is their reputation like among:

  • their peers?
  • their superiors?
  • their inferiors?
  • their enemies?
  • the general public?

physical attributes - appearance

physical attributes - initial impressions:

What is the feature people first notice about them?
What is their default facial expression?
What is their default posture?

species

What is their species?
What is the general category of species (eg, mammal, reptile, avian)?

physical attributes - features

hair:
What is their hair texture?
What is their hair colour?
Other hair details?

skin[/scales/etc]:
What is their skin texture?
What is their skin colouration?
Other skin details?

eyes:
What are their eye colouration?
What are their eye shape?
Other eye details?

nose:
What is their nose prominence?
What is their nose length?
What is their nose width?
What is their nose shape?
Other nose details?

mouth:
What is their mouth prominence?
What is their mouth width?
What is their mouth volume?
What is their mouth shape?
Other mouth details?

ears:
What is their ear prominence?
What is their ear size?
What is their ear shape?
Other ear details?

style

Do they have any tattoos? If so:
What are the tattoos?
Where are the tattoos?
What quality are the tattoos?
How old are the tattoos?

Do they have any scars? If so:
Where are the scars?
What are they from?
What colour and texture are the scars?
How old are the scars?

Do they have any piercings?? If so:
What piercings do they have?
When did they get pierced?
Where and how did they get pierced (eg, professionally, by a friend)?

Physical Health

What is their overall physical health like?

If applicable, what is their prognosis?

Mental Attributes

What is their DND alignment?

How do they react to encountering cruelty?
How do they respond to encountering surprises?

Mental Health

What is their overall mental health like?

What mental health conditions do they have, if any?

What mental health medications do they take, if any?

What do they do to self-soothe?

What, if any, are their triggers, and how do they react to them?

How do they respond to strong positive emotions?

How do they respond to strong negative emotions?

What do they think they can do better than everyone else?

Are they right?

Identity

What is their gender and sex identity?
Do they identify as transgender, cisgender, both, or neither?
Are they intersex?
If they are intersex, what is their intersex condition or variation?

What is their gender sexuality?

What is their cultural identity?

What is their religious identity?
If any, what religious affiliation were they raised with?

Favourites

Savoury food?

Sweet food?

Drink?

Film genre?

Show genre?

Art style?

Music genre?

Household animal?

Book genre?

Sport or game?

Colour?

Weather?

Time of day?

Plant/flower?

View?

Wild animal?

Languages

For the purposes of this segment, “speak” and “speech” include languages that are not verbally spoken, such as sign languages. As always, feel free to alter the questions to fill out any way you wish.

What languages do they speak?

What languages to they understand?

What languages do they read in?

What is their accent, & how strong is it?

Swearing:
How ofen do they swear in public?
How often do they swear in private?
How coarse is their swearing?
How varied is their swearig?

Political speech:
How ofen do they speak politically in public?
How often do they speak politically in private?
How passionate is their political speech?
How annoyed is their political speech?

Do they talk to themself?
If so, how often?
What kinds of things do they say?

Personal History

circumstances of birth:
What was the gestation or equivalent like?
Who was there when they were born?
Was it a difficult birth, an easy birth, or in between?
Was it in a hospital, or in the middle of nowhere, or somewhere else?

childhood

What do they remember most fondly about their childhood?

What did they find most difficult about their childhood?

Have they ever been bullied?
Have they ever been a bully?

education

What is their highest completed level of education?
What is their highest attempted level of education?

Who was their favourite teacher, or other favourite educator?
What made this person their favourite?

What did they find most difficult about their education?
What do they remember most fondly about their education?

If they could study anything, what would it be?

work & employment

What's their dream job?

What’s a job they’d hate, but other people say they’d be good at?

Are they, or have they ever been, unable to work for any reason?

What do they do on their day off?

Do they work to rule?

Employment history: For each job they've had, what was the:
position and trade?
location and dates?
organisation?

criminal record

Do they have a criminal record?
Are there any charges brought against them that have been dropped?
What crimes have they committed without ever being caught?

Travel

In what universes have they been?
On what planets have they been?
In what countries have they been?
In what regions have they been?
What landmarks have they visited?

How often do they travel?
For what reasons do they travel?

Do they enjoy travelling?

What's their favourite place they've travelled to?

What is 'home' to them?


Worldbuilding

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