Ways to use this list
- Art challenge: draw a card, sketch the character in ten minutes, then swap sketches with a friend and redraw each other's OC in your own style.
- Story writing: draw two cards and make the characters meet. A retired dragon tamer and a seasick pirate captain could open a café together.
- Role-play nights: each player draws an OC card and plays that character for the whole evening, always chasing what the character wants.
- Character sheets: draw a card, then spin the personality trait generator and the eye colour wheel to fill in the details.
Press Draw a card, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a wheel, duck race, hat and more.
The full list (40 entries)
- A retired dragon tamer who now runs a quiet bakery
- A lighthouse keeper who collects messages in bottles
- A shy librarian who can talk to moths
- A goblin chef determined to win the royal cook-off
- A twelve-year-old inventor with a clockwork pet owl
- A knight who is afraid of horses
- A ghost who just wants someone to finish her book
- A cloud farmer who herds storms across the sky
- A pirate captain who gets terribly seasick
- A forest witch who runs a lost-property office
- A robot gardener learning what flowers are for
- A mapmaker whose maps change overnight
- A street musician whose songs make it rain
- A space courier who has never been to Earth
- A wizard's apprentice who keeps turning things into cheese
- A detective cat who works the night shift
- A stone giant who carves tiny statues
- A new kid at school who secretly glows in the dark
- A mermaid who wants to climb mountains
- A time traveller stuck in the same Tuesday
- A beekeeper whose bees spell out warnings
- A prince who would rather be a blacksmith
- A gentle troll who guards a bridge nobody uses
- A desert scout who can hear water underground
- A toymaker whose toys wake up at full moon
- A scarecrow who dreams of being a dancer
- A deep-sea explorer searching for a song she heard once
- A thief who only steals back stolen things
- A painter whose portraits whisper secrets
- A shapeshifter who forgot their original shape
- A tea-shop owner who is secretly a retired hero
- A post carrier for the dragons of the north
- A fox spirit learning to live in a big city
- A chess champion who sees her next move in dreams
- A snow sculptor whose sculptures walk at night
- A sky-ship mechanic with oil stains on every page of her diary
- A shepherd who reads the stars like a newspaper
- A circus acrobat who can stop falling in mid-air
- A gardener growing a tree tall enough to reach the moon
- A twin who swapped places for one day and got stuck
Questions people ask
What does OC stand for?
OC means original character: one you invented yourself rather than borrowed from a book, film or game. Artists and writers share their OCs online and build whole worlds around them.
How do I turn a prompt into a full character?
Give them a name, a want, a fear and one habit. Spin the fear generator for the fear, then ask what this character would do on the worst day of their life.
Can each pupil in a class get a different OC card?
Yes: No repeats until everyone is picked is already on, so every card comes up once before any returns. Each pupil then draws a character nobody else in the room has.
Am I allowed to use these OC ideas in my own work?
Yes. They are short ideas made up for this page, not characters from any story. Once you have drawn, named and grown one, the character is yours.