Player character
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The player character (often abbreviated as SC, PC or Char) is a fictional character in pen-&-paper role-playing games and in the derived live-action role-playing games (LARP) and computer role-playing games, which is controlled or played by a player.
Every player character has attributes that describe him or her and give him or her an individual personality, such as name, gender, height, profession or origin. Often these are also attributes (attributes) such as strength or intelligence and derived skills (skills) such as tracking or cooking, which are determined at creation or rolled. The level of the attributes and how well one masters such a skill is usually expressed by numerical values and entered on a character sheet. A player character has a different number of attributes and skills depending on the game system. Simple systems only know three attributes, while complex systems may assign several hundred to a character. Modern systems are increasingly treating other things like relationships and character traits as traits.
Teammates and the gamemaster expect the player to play and design their player character to match these traits. It may well happen that player characters die or retire. New player characters are then generated, usually requiring the approval of the game master and the party. Players often create player characters opposite of their own nature, which includes the opposite gender.
The opposite of the player character is the non-player character.
A character menu, here of the Facebook game Dawn of the Dragons.
A character sheet of the game Stormbringer, values and descriptions are noted here.
See also
- Computer game character
- Avatar (Internet)
Questions and Answers
Q: What is a player character?
A: A player character (PC) is a made-up character in a role-playing or video game whose actions are chosen by a player of the game rather than the rules of the game.
Q: What are non-player characters?
A: The characters that are not used by a player are called non-player characters (NPCs).
Q: Who chooses the actions of non-player characters?
A: The actions of non-player characters are generally chosen by the game itself in video games, or based on rules followed by a gamemaster in tabletop role-playing games.
Q: What is the role of a player character in a game?
A: The player character acts as a fictional, different body for the player using it.
Q: How many player characters do most video games have?
A: Most video games have one player character for each person playing the game.
Q: Do some games offer a group of player characters to choose from?
A: Yes, some games offer a group of player characters for the player to choose from, letting player control one of them at a time.
Q: Do player characters in games with multiple options have different abilities and attributes?
A: Yes, where there is more than one player character to choose, the characters may have different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses to make the gameplay different with each.
