# Questionnaires

LLMS index: [llms.txt](/dvw/en/llms.txt)

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Questionnaires offer a different approach to character creation. Players answer a series of (usually) multiple-choice questions, from which a piece of software constructs a customized character. Questions may or may not be focused—that is, later questions may or may not depend on your answers to earlier questions. This can be done independently or tied into a kit system; it’s easy to see how a player-written web-based tool could construct characters from forms even if the developers decided against doing it officially.

There are basically two ways that questionnaires can be used: Ask players about the character they’re creating; ask players about themselves. Examples:

- Your character prefers to deal with enemies

  - Face to face.

  - At a distance.

  - Behind their backs.

  - By giving them what they want.

- You view your fellow players as

  - Potential victims.

  - Part of the world.

  - The reason you play.

  - Competition.

The first approach constructs a profile of the character that the player wants to play, then attempts to spend pick points in a way that best reflects this. In the example given: The first answer might suggest a confrontational role such as fighter or lawyer; the second answer might suggest archer or magic-user; the third answer might suggest thief or politician; the fourth answer might suggest crafter or merchant [^31].

The second approach tries to create a character that is right for the player; this may be radically different from what the player would have chosen otherwise. In the (somewhat unsubtle) example given, the answers basically point at player types—killer, explorer, socializer, achiever. Although players can enjoy the surprise results that this technique can deliver (if only to scoff at them) and can have fun wrestling with off-the-wall questions (“If you were a color, what would it be?”), nevertheless it’s a form of psychometric testing; many players find the idea of this uncomfortable [^32].


[^31]: Developers would do well to hire a professional psychologist to help put together such a test.
[^32]: As a general rule, anything that the developer’s marketing manager would want, players will find uncomfortable.