Good for writing books, is a bit overwhelming with the amount of stuff it covers. Definitely recommend it for aspiring authors.

So at first look, this book looks extremely comprehensive. It covers everything that you have to think about, whether it's for your major characters or you're minor and side characters.

It is definitely not a book you read in one sitting. This is to be used as a resource. You take it, practice with it, and move between chapters as it feels organic for you.

The section about "naming your character", which for me has been the hardest part so far, was not really helpful.
It does give ideas for minor or side characters, but definitely not helpful for the Main characters.

At times, it did feel more oriented or written in the spirit of contemporary/fiction books rather than fantasy and specifically high fantasy. But I do think a lot applies to any genre that your brain would want to.

It is super informative and, most importantly, reflective. I will be revisiting this book a lot.

Perfect for anyone looking to work on character creation — be it for a book or a D&D group, fantasy, science fiction, historical or contemporary — this is an excellent assistant. With questions ranging from backstory to goals, romance to revenge, and even some ideas on character arcs, this book is going to be useful for just about anyone who needs to make up an imaginary person or six.

Not every exercise is necessary, such as going over the hour-to-hour minutia of what they eat or what music they listen to, but there are enough there that one of them is certain to inspire something! If you struggle with character creation, or just need a little help, or like filling out endless questionnaires about your favorite character, this is the book for you.

It’s easy to read, well laid-out, and while there may be other sources that offer something similar, I doubt they offer quite so much. While I thank Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC, I’ve gone ahead and bought a copy of this for myself.

A great tool to help flesh out any fantasy character. I feel like it could be useful both for rpg purposes, and also for writers who might need or want a little extra help. I love that it goes from the more basic concepts of the character, to more complex stuff that might never actually come up, but just having them there will make the character feel more real, so for that reason I love it.

A good book to help writers begin to flesh out their characters. This book is most definitely suited for beginners or those struggling to make the characters seem 3D, but may be unsuitable for more advanced writers.

Holy awesomeness! This is a book of character creating genius.

Well-formatted and easy to follow. I loved how clear and concise everything was—right to the point, without a bunch of superfluous fluff. As a writer, this is the kind of writing craft stuff that I love to read: well laid out, easy to follow, concise while still being thorough.

This book will help you create deep, fully-formed characters, down to the minutest detail. I highly recommend this for any writer or maybe even the most extreme of hardcore D&D players who want to make the absolute most of their character creation. Also, now that I think about it in retrospect, this would serve as a great template for writing a biography, guiding the writer to include all the most important details about a person's life, personality, hobbies, idiosyncrasies, etc.

A valuable, all-encompassing resource for character development.

Do you want the characters in your novel or screenplay to come off as real, to pop off the page with rich backstories and complex personality traits? Then it might well be worth your time to check out Jeff Stormer’s The Ultimate Fantasy Character Creator. Already ordered a copy of this book for my nephew who is a diehard D&D player, figuring he can use it to really bring his characters to life. But as I was reading this/doing the exercises I can definitely see how this can be used beyond the realm of fantasy. The exercises get you thinking beyond basic mundane characteristics and bring forth little quirks and eccentricities that make your characters multi-dimensional. While I read this in ebook format I can see the appeal of having it in paperback. Thanks so much to Adams Media and NetGalley for allowing me access to an ARC of The Ultimate Fantasy Character Creator.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-ultimate-fantasy-character-creator-jeff-stormer/1145682064?ean=9781507222676&bvnotificationId=5d0219c9-fbac-11ef-b3fd-12e97105e6ef&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/339727032

I’ve been a fan of Stormer’s for years. I’ve loved his work with the All My Fantasy Children and Party of One podcasts, and his games on itchio. The timing of this book dropping on NetGalley at the same time that I’m getting started on a new campaign was too great to resist.

I found myself highlighting specific questions and keeping the pages open as I began drafting my new character, and it’s been such a delight, exploring and developing a character to play with.

With a variety of writing excepted, like journal entries, fill in the blank questionnaires, multiple choice questions, Stormer has created a magnificent reference tool for any looking to dig deeper into character building. And seeing the final result at the end in a couple pages introducing us to a new character developed using the methods was a fantastic way to bring everything together.

While this is marketed towards TTRPG games, I believe that this would also serve as a remarkable resource for creative writers looking to flesh out characters in stories.

Thanks to NetGalley and Adams Media for this arc!

Adams Media provided a galley for review.

As a gamer and a writer, I've come across several books like this one. And they tend to be similar in structure: several broad categories followed by questions in each area to be filled out from the character's perspective. Stormer, however, has done a bit more than others to make his guide stand out.

Although the title specifically includes "fantasy", the various exercises in this book are not all specifically tied that genre alone. In fact, I found that so many of these can apply to character creation of any kind very easily enough. The whole point of this book is to spark the creative engines, to get one to think about a variety of things when bringing to life an entity from practically nothing at all.

I can see myself revisiting this one as I work on my own creations in the future.