Roll & Play: The Fantasy Character Kit

Absolute genius idea! Brilliant for DM's and player alike :D

As someone who struggles to make characters at the best of times due to indecision and trying to craft the impossible perfect character, something like this is ideal for when I need to generate a character for a one-shot campaign or on short notice. It can also be very useful as an inspirational aide when developing your next long-term character and has some genuinely unique elements to jump-start the creative process. The fact that this book can use dice is great as it takes away my personal agency in the character creation process and forces me out of my comfort zone and makes me expand my character pool into something I might not normally play. It also deeply satisfies my itch to roll dice for practically any given reason as a D&D nerd.There are some odd inclusions here and there but nothing out of the realm of possibility depending on the theme of the campaign and type of player or DM you are. For example, I know for a fact that some people will give an eye roll to one of the arcanists spell casting methods in this book which is using a keyboard to hack into the code of the universe. It feels a little out of place in a world of high-fantasy but even then you can easily convert it to feel more fantasy-like if you’re not a fan of fourth wall breaks or sci-fi elements. I think this book is best when you use it as an aide rather than gospel as you can run into some odd combinations due to the random mishmash of the dice rolls. But then again the randomness can be a boon at times and brings a breath of fresh air into a campaign as an utterly confusing NPC or character that is also somehow well put together.This would be an ideal as a gift to someone like myself who struggles with character creation, but otherwise enjoys fantasy role-playing. Or even for a complete beginner that has shown interest in any of the major role playing game systems. The book has clearly been primarily developed to work well with 5e as a lot of the included elements are ones that slot perfectly into the current edition of D&D.The book itself is printed flawlessly onto nice thick paper and is filled with nice looking and colourful illustrations that are directly related to the characters and topics in the book. No problems recommending it at all.

This is a great collection of random tables, excellent for coming up with random characters for tabletop rpg or adding details to characters. Also great for npcs.

A good story is all well and good, but a memorable adventure relies on well-developed characters. The character classes in role playing games often determine a lot of character’s - well - character and this book is broken down into chapters covering the common ones. The DM or player can use these chapters as inspiration for creating interesting characters of their own. Each chapter starts with an example character within that class, which is followed by loads of tables from which attributes can be chosen by a die-roll or simply act as a list of ideas to choose from. If you are trying to craft a character within a specific mould, then there are loads of suggestions, if you’re happy to let happenstance choose for you, the grab your bag of dice and roll away.Everything in the book is a suggestion and the creator can choose how much to follow. It also acts as a way for a DM tasked with creating many NPCs, quickly and in a way that fits their class.The book is spiral bound and will sit flat, either opened on two pages or one. It’s well presented, clear and accessible

A bit of a closed book to me, as I have no interest in DnD. However, my son assures me that my grandson is semi-pro level, so here’s his assessment:“A great alternative to official DnD books ,as you can use it with the DnD World and accessories. It’swell written, with plenty of adventures and options to chose from. Lots of fun to play, with some diverse and exciting storylines; enough fun to keep going back and following different paths. Some storylines were a bit bland to start with, but they got going eventually.As I already had access to the required dice, I could get going straight away.The spiral bound design makes it easy to flip pages, and it will last longer than a standard binding.Overall, a well thought out book; it was more use to me than I expected as an experienced player, but newbies can use it too.”

Play D&D? Need some inspiration?This is the Roll & Play The Fantasy Character Kit, 180 Pages, Ring Bound.If you have played D&D no matter what edition from the very first (where I cut my teeth) to the latest 5th edition this should give you some inspiration when creating a character or a NPC for a campaign. You will need all regular dice D4, D6, D8, D10 (x2), D12 and a D20, as there are loads of tables you can roll on. So not only have you gone through all the character creation by rolling yer D6's for your Ability Scores, chosen your class and race accordingly. Now you can use this book to create a back story or even a name from a roll of 2 x D10s. I don't think my halfling thief looks like an Urrz...seems more Half Orcish ha ha.Each class here has a section broken down into Backstory Inspiration, Origins And Goals, Appearance And Items, Magical Equipment, Spells, Quirks, Deities, Party Relationship, Friends And Enemies. Obviously most of the above are only applicable to NPCs, as I can't see any DM being generous to letting Lvl 1 characters starting with magical items...imagine that? The XP alone would boost you up some levels already ha!But using the book as a lazy go to is decent if you can't be bothered to use the old grey matter, plus there is only so many things you can think of. This really does help to be honest.Overall I'd recommend this book as a really good addition to any 5th Edition game, if you play first or second, most of the classes are irrelevant. But good none the less!