Sure! That sounds like an easy question to answer. In response to this question you may say to yourself of course I do! My characters have mad skills and I know what I can do with them! But do you?

I thought I did for my Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fifth edition (5e) characters, until I saw this post on Reddit. The information contained in this post changed my perspective on what I can do with the skills that my D&D 5e characters have. 

Use this list as a springboard to creativity for what your characters can do in-game to enhance the role-play, gameplay, and experience of everyone at the gaming table. Please be sure to reach out in advance to your Dungeon Master (DM), or Game Master (GM) if you plan to use this in another TTRPG (Tabletop Role-playing Game) system, to get their approval prior to the inclusion of what can be done with this list of skills into the adventure or campaign world. 

In reality — which is an ironic choice of words given the fantastical, made-up nature of TTRPGs! — the only limit to what your characters can do with their skills, or anything else, is your imagination and creativity. (And your DMs/GMs approval!) 

Although the thread is archived on Reddit and thus further comments are unable to be posted in said thread as a result, please feel free to post any suggestions or comments that you may have here. 

Players, the addition of what can be done with this list of skills into your adventure or campaign world may enhance your gameplay, level up your game, and add another string to your bow.

As I worked on my Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) character for the Dungeons & Toast guild (Toastmasters club) Year of the Manticore narrative campaign, I stumbled when I hit this roadblock—character likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes?! How should I know? It’s a first level character! And to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never delved that deep into character creation to create likes and dislikes for any of my roleplaying game (RPG) characters—ever. (And I delve deep when it comes to character creation, as I seek to mine the character for all it’s worth and to uncover treasures heretofore undiscovered.)

What was I to do!?

Well, I reached out to the Aether (internet) and contacted the sages there. And I found some hidden nuggets of knowledge—ancient scrolls which contained wisdom about character likes and dislikes. Right away I incorporated these character traits into my character’s personality and backstory as these wise words dovetailed into what I had already created for my character.

If you want to find likes and dislikes for your D&D, or other RPG system characters, go here. (The list is also a good list for writers’ prompts, per the author.) Although some of the prompts are modern, and thus may be a poor fit in your campaign—or they might be!—they might be a good resource to create the historical or futuristic equivalent, if possible, or used as a springboard to other ideas for possible likes and dislikes for your characters.

If you’d like your characters likes and dislikes to be more random and left up to the gods of chance and fate, and determined in a random fashion, go here. (This is a great way to stretch yourself and include likes and dislikes for your characters that you might otherwise pass on.)

Another way to draw inspiration for likes and dislikes for your characters is to draw from your own life experiences; or perhaps you know someone who has likes and dislikes that are different or unusual, odd or eccentric, or quirky. Another source to draw inspiration from for characters of your own is from characters that you like from other sources (books and the like; please be sure to respect the author’s works.) People watching is another great way to get ideas for character likes and dislikes.

Now go forth and create characters! If you have any great character likes and dislikes that will enhance the roleplay, fun, and experience for all those at the table, please share them so that we can all benefit!

Additional Resources:

Let’s be productive!

I am a strong believer that co-working sessions to get things done and bounce new ideas off another brain when it feels like you have no creative momentum. I’ve done it often both professionally and personally and I have found that a room “bustling with productive activity” helps me channel my creative focus.

With that in mind, I’m excited to share that periodically, when I’m in work/writing mode, I will be opening up my Zoom room to the guild as an opportunity for members to take advantage of a “shared workspace.” Please join me to try and make progress on anything that may have you stumped. Initially I saw this as a good opportunity for group feedback regarding speech ideas but I would say, don’t limit yourself! If you’re working on something for your Clark Kent job, bring it to the Zoom.

Rules of Engagement:

• Please bring something to work on – this is NOT socialization hour.
• If you realize you’re in a zone and don’t want to be interrupted but still appreciate being in the “busy space,” just turn off your camera.
• If you need more in-depth discussion, consider using a breakout room with those who are available to provide feedback and leave the general area open for the wonderful vibe of working with no talking.
• I will most likely play some light music. If you don’t like my music choice… tough cookies.
• Okay, if you don’t like my music DM me some suggestions for a different playlist.

That’s really it. Whenever I’m opening up the room I will post in the Members Only channel on discord. I imagine most sessions will run between 45 minutes to 2 hours. And finally, if you ever want to schedule a working session or discussion, please don’t hesitate to let me know – I love scheduled project time! It makes me feel uber productive.

Cheers y’all!