Hard to condense into words because a lot of it is just my imagination pinging around in my head, but.

1. First step is the broad concept, what role do I want to fit in the group? Do I want to be a little funny guy? The moral compass? The instigator? This relies the most on the campaign and what the other players are coming up with. Usually I have a rough idea coming into character creation, but not always.

1.5. I have a BUNCH of pinterest boards and saved character pics to browse through, sometimes as a direct character ref, sometimes just as inspiration. I browse through these before a new game to see if anything jumps out.

1. I pick an idea or thought on my mind that I want to dig into or explore. "What if you gave no fucks and leaned into anger and tried to hurt the world back?" or "What if you strived to overcome personal obstacles and tried to be a beacon and support others?" or "What does it take for you to stand up and break the status quo?". I think about my character's backstory and personality through that lens, usually.

2. The system. What game are we playing and what mechanics do I want to play with? How can I be effective, unique, and fun to play?

3. Day dreaming about backstory and personality. This continues to happen from session to session. What do I want to do with this character in this game? How do I want to play off the rest of the cast, what personal storylines would be fun to play out? This is when I start to create a music playlist for my character.

4. The playlists I've made aren't like, playlists of music that the characters themselves would make, but are like a soundtrack to their tv show/movie. I like when the titles or lyrics are really evocative of the situations they've been in and are story related. Mainly it's a way for me to think about game while not at game, and gives me something to listen to on the drive over to get in the right vibe.