Berin Kinsman has a short post on the importance of character.  Like him, I’ve been a gamer for three decades — and while I can’t remember every character I’ve played — there are some that stand out, as well as some NPCs that stand out in a barrage of bit background players.  Stats, powers, whatever…none of them defined the characters (but bounded them within the confines of the mechanics).  The one’s I remember were living breathing people — at least in my mind; other players and friends’ characters that stand out do so for the same reason.

You don’t always have to have a fully fleshed out background to have a fully fleshed out character.  Look to TV characters for this:  Captain Kirk was a fully-rendered person, despite the fact we don’t know much about his background other than he was from Iowa, a bookworm at the academy, and had some family that seemed unnecessary, unimportant to him…his family was his crew.  Thomas Magnum…was in the Navy and served in Vietnam.  We don’t really know much more than that, save what was necessary for an episode plot (his wife from the ‘Nam, for instance…)  We know almost nothing about Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly, but his personality is so well fleshed-up, out responses and actions — even when surprising — always make sense in terms of what you’ve seen before.