In every roleplaying group I have ever been in, there is always at least one twink. Twinks are the players that search through the rules to make the powerful character they can, normally what they believe is the best fighter in the group. The background of the character goes something like: "My character has been in an elite fencing school in Vienna for his entire life training to be a master of all swords (explaining why the character cannot drive, operate a computer, or balance his check)." The description of the character is starts as follows: "The first thing you notice is the enormous gun/sword/nuclear bomb/etc. on their back." Their characters normally have flaws like "quick tempered" that way they can start fights if no fights come to them.

The downside to being a twink is that most experienced players and game masters can smell a twink from a mile away. Twinked characters normally meet one of three fates: the game master gets sick of their cockiness and created the most powerful character they can to kill them, a player gets sick of their attitude and bases a character around killing them, or they end up meeting another twink that can outtwink them and finds it a challenge to kill them.

There is nothing wrong with creating a combat oriented character. I have created many fighters in the past. The crime is spending too much effort on making them powerful fast or making combat the only side of the character. A combat oriented character (character being the important word) requires as much thought to create as it would any well rounded character.

An example of a twink character is "he was a gang member, and he worked his way into being the best fighter in the game." There is not that much of a jump from twink to combat oriented character, it just takes going further into the character's psyche and background. A combat oriented character would start "my character was abandoned by his parents and dismissed by most of the kids in school, he joined to a gang because he thought it would give him a system of belonging but it never did. . .he has little tolerance for people anymore but he loves dogs." Of course, that means that you are going to have to take some of the points out of making him the 'best fighter ever" and place them into animal ken. Not only did does the combat oriented character have a more rounded side to them, but they also have motivation and a demeanor.

Not all twinks are combat monsters, however, there is another kind. I encountered a couple girls (although I am sure that there are males as well) that play the social twink. The social twink has got to be the most beautiful character that walks in the room. The players expected everyone else to react to them when they started the game. These characters can have just as vapid backgrounds as combat characters.

The last game I dealt with a social twink in the character was described as "the most beautiful girl ever" nothing more/nothing less. The character contributed nothing to the game other than to try seduce. . .well anyone and generally act condescending to straight female characters. Although they may seem to be stronger characters, because they roleplay more, the characters are as bland and thoughtless as combat twinks. These characters hardly ever learn anything, because they are too busy trying to prove that they are the fairest in the land.

I talked to the girl that played characters like that and told her to try to give her some more depth, thus allowing the character to grow and contribute. I used the same logic that I did with the combat twink and took the "most beautiful girl ever" to "a woman that ran away from home because she got sick of being pushed into marriage by all of her suitors and is searching for someone who sees beyond outward beauty." Once the character developed those flaws and insecurities, she became a lot more interesting to roleplay and roleplay with. She tried to show the other players that she was smart, giving her a reason to contribute.

Another way of handling a twink is to get them to "prove their able to handle a powerful character." Set a lot of limitations on their first character, which will force them to be creative and roleplay the character in different ways. Hopefully, by the time, that they have proven themselves, their character will be a fully developed characters.

An important thing to remember is that many twinks do not realize that they are twinks.