Twelve character archetypes built as design jobs: what they want, the contradiction, how they stand, and the single prop that proves it.
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Features
Finish the task and leave. Keep one door. Sell the dry socks. If you cannot say the want in one breath, you have two characters.
Good at the job and tired of being thanked. Soft voice, capable hands. New, and already right. The contradiction is the silhouette.
A latch, a spare key, a sample jar, a keyring, a blank note they have not handed over. The second object has to be the same job or it is clutter.
Feet planted and shoulders toward the exit. Half a step behind. Weight on the doorframe. Embroidery does not tell you who has the keys.
Guide
Pick the job, then let the costume follow it
Use the list, or Pick one for me. Read the want and the contradiction before the costume. The contradiction is the part you can draw.
A latch, a spare key, a sample jar, a keyring. If a second object appears, it has to belong to the same job or it is clutter.
Species and palette live on the random OC generator. The playground draws the job once the prop is chosen. Both are free.
FAQ
No. They are design roles: a want, a contradiction, a posture, and one prop. They are not a moral ranking, a destiny chart, or a copy of any one book’s class list.
Yes. Reading, copying, and Pick one for me are free in the browser. No sign-in, no subscription, and no paid tier. The playground is free too.
No. It chooses one of the twelve entries on this page. An image is created only if you open the playground and draw.
Start with one. A second role is a promotion or a conflict, and it needs its own prop. If both props are in the hands, you have not chosen.
The wheel assigns species, palette, accessory, and a broad role. This list assigns a specific job and the posture that goes with it. Use the wheel when you are stuck for a body. Use this page when you are stuck for what the body is for.
The posture and the prop, not the archetype’s name alone. “Weight against a doorframe, one hand on the latch” draws. “Keeper archetype” does not.
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Pick a role by the contradiction it forces: a want, a posture, and a single prop. Species and palette can wait. The random OC generator assigns those. This list assigns the job.
An archetype, on this page, is a job plus a contradiction. It is not a destiny, a moral score, or a bundle of costume pieces. The person who was handed the job wants to leave and is too competent for anyone to allow it. Draw the feet planted and the shoulders aimed at the door, with the tool still in the hand. The keeper of one door is not a general. Their wear is on the elbow that rests on the frame. If the label does not force a posture and a prop, it is a theme, and themes do not draw themselves.
There are twelve. Read them, or use Pick one for me. When the job is chosen, species and palette are a separate decision: the random OC generator spins those without assigning a role this specific. The playground is where the picture happens, free, with no sign-in. Take the prop sentence with you. Do not take three archetypes and average them. A comic who has the keys and is also a gentle threat and a merchant is a committee.
Want is the errand. Contradiction is why a simple costume of that errand would be a lie: the useful liar has open hands, the second chair is loyal and privately unconvinced, the exile is outside the group and better kept than the people who expelled them. Posture is the drawing instruction. Prop is the budget. Costume is what not to add — no medal on the person who was handed the job, no spikes on the gentle threat, no pristine robes on the scholar whose credential is a dirty cuff.
Use the contradiction before you use a color palette. Colors are easy to change later. A straight spine on someone standing apart from the group is the exile. If you then give them a throne and a smirk, you have drawn a different archetype and kept the word. Believe the posture.
Keeper of one door, drawn as a hare only after the job is set. Long ears would catch on a low frame, so the ears go back when they lean, which means the lean is habitual and the ears have learned it. One hand on the latch. A handbell, not a weapon rack, because the job is to signal stop, not to win a war. The elbow of the coat is worn. Species came second. The random wheel could have offered fox or human; the latch would stay. That is the test. If a new species forces a new job, you did not have an archetype yet. You had a creature.
Early apprentice, human, storybook. Issued sleeves too long, a practice brush, a folded note they have not passed forward. The note is the fact that they have already seen the mistake. The long sleeves are the fact that the room still treats them as new. Do not promote them with a better coat until the story does. The archetype is the delay.
If you want the job assigned and the body randomized together, spin the random OC generator and then force the result to answer to one entry on this list. If the wheel gives you a night courier, the merchant of small mercies and the second chair are both nearby, and they are not the same drawing. Pick. Then open the playground and generate from the prop, not from the label. “Archetype: mentor” is a worse prompt than “half a step back, spare key, quieter coat.”
Personality is the resting face inside the job. A door keeper can be even-keeled or quick-spark; the latch does not decide that. Flaws remove an option the archetype would rather keep: the second chair who agrees too fast, the witness who lies about small things and is therefore failing the only job they have. The bio template is the place to write the want in one line under the picture. All of these tools are free and do not ask you to sign in.
No. They are design roles: a want, a contradiction, a posture, and one prop. They are not a moral ranking, a destiny chart, or a copy of any one book’s class list.
Yes. Reading, copying, and Pick one for me are free in the browser. No sign-in, no subscription, and no paid tier. The playground is free too.
No. It chooses one of the twelve entries on this page. An image is created only if you open the playground and draw.
Start with one. A second role is a promotion or a conflict, and it needs its own prop. If both props are in the hands, you have not chosen.
The wheel assigns species, palette, accessory, and a broad role. This list assigns a specific job and the posture that goes with it. Use the wheel when you are stuck for a body. Use this page when you are stuck for what the body is for.
The posture and the prop, not the archetype’s name alone. “Weight against a doorframe, one hand on the latch” draws. “Keeper archetype” does not.
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