Character Creation Guide
Dec 12, 2011 12:35:46 GMT -5
Post by Adminbot on Dec 12, 2011 12:35:46 GMT -5
Character Creation is arguably the most important element that a role player can lend to the RP. A character is the collection of personality traits, physical appearance, and personal touches that the role player adds to bring a character to life. When creating a character, there are several important steps to consider.
The Order
The first real piece of advice I can offer you is to choose not to follow the list outlined above point by point when you create your own characters. The order of how it's done is not really all that important, to be honest; what matters most is the finished product. Everyone creates characters based on their own order, generally what they're most comfortable with and what they would see as the most important. Some might just follow a character sheet and go from there, but this by no means makes it the only way to do things. The points listed above are only the basics you need to build up a well-developed character. They're not some binding contract obligating you to work on your personal creation in that exact way.
The Name
For some, this is the easiest part of character creation. For others, it's the hardest part. Whichever camp you fall in, the main thing to bear in mind is that a name is an identity. The name itself doesn't carry weight, but it identifies the thing that DOES carry weight - your character. Names are powerful tools of association, identification, and much more. Your name could affect how seriously your character is taken, based on things like reputation and renown, or even something as simple as a funny sounding name. You can name your character anything you want, but it's preferable to keep the setting of the RP world in mind so you select an appropriate-sounding name.
The Gender
Personally, I always start with this trait here. Before anything can really begin to develop for your image of the character, you have to know what gender s/he is. Unless it's an intentionally ambiguous gender, most characters instantly stand out as being male or female; you know which one it is the moment you conceive the character concept. That's not to say that similar character designs can't work for both genders, but with the way our minds tend to work, we categorize based on gender much more quickly than we categorize based on something like speech mannerisms. So it's helpful to know if the character you're working on is a mister or a missus. From there, things tend to flow more easily.
The Age
Age has a very strong formative influence on several other aspects of a character. How old your character is will likely impact things like their personality, mannerisms, physical appearance, clothing style, world view, and even things like sexual appetite. Age is a strong indicator of the type of character you'll be creating; it's also a strong indicator of the character's role in the environment you'll be using them in. A youthful, brash, cocksure teen will inevitably be inexperienced and rash in critical situations on an adventure, whereas a wizened old bag could offer sage advice at critical junctures. Likewise, what your character knows about the fictional world you're role playing in will be affected by how old and experienced they are (or aren't). The age of your character is a good indicator of how you'll be interacting with other characters and the environments you'll be traversing.
The Race
This is perhaps the funnest of the choices you can make about your character. Being able to decide what Race your character is will lead to all sorts of interesting possibilities. Based on the world you're role playing in, different Races will have different outlooks on life, personalities, mannerisms, appearances, tendencies, relations with other Races, and life spans. There are a multitude of variables that go hand in hand with what Race you decide to play as, so it's a very important decision; but it's also a very fun one, because when you can decide the Race of your character, you're then able to easily fill in a lot of other facts about them based on the known traits of that Race. So it allows you to focus more on your own personal additions and quirks that you'll be adding, rather than the tedium of filling in more mundane details.
The Personality
This section right here is perhaps the single most important aspect of a character, because a good personality can make a character just as easily as a bad one will break the character. It can be a daunting task to complete a whole new person that is completely seperate from yourself, with their own set of mannerisms and quirks. Because of the magnitude of the task, it can be tempting to base the character at least partially on yourself. This is discouraged, because it defeats the purpose of a role play. You're not exactly taking on the role of another character in another space and time if it's a carbon copy of yourself to begin with. Still, I can understand the difficulties of generating a completely separate entity that you're still comfortable with using. One suggestion I have is to grab a dictionary, pop it open, and let your finger fall somewhere. Wherever it fell, look carefully at any sorts of traits in that section that you could attribute to a person's behavior. Do this about ten times or so, and find a way to fit these traits together into a cohesive, complementary way. The personality you create needs to be three-dimensional; that is to say, they need to have more than just one defining trait, and they need to be dynamic and flexible enough that they can change over time. Flat, static characters become repetitive and boring, and they react the same way to various stimuli you'll experience over the course of the RP. Characters with an added dimension can not only be in a moment and experience it, but they can add to it. Also, as a bit of a last minute tip, don't forget the classic questions like "Is this person good, evil, or in-between?" These questions will have a strong affect on how s/he will interact with others in the story.
The External
If you introduced a flamboyant, eccentric person to a group of 10 randomly selected people, I guarantee that asking them about the person later on would yield the same results. They would recall the person based on two things: personality (which we've already discussed) and physical appearance. Of course, it varies from person to person exactly what trait or aspect of the eccentric they would remember, but they will almost always recall something from those two categories. So as you can hopefully see, appearance bears a strong influence on how your character is seen, reacted to, and remembered in an RP. For instance, if your character is an "Average Joe" commoner type who walks into a tavern, he's not likely to turn nearly as many heads as if he were a buxom blonde bombshell beauty from exotic, far away regions. Different types of physical external traits exist, such as: height, weight, physical body type, skin tone and coloration, abnormal appendages, scarring, eye color, and hair color. And that's just if your character is walking around bare. There's still clothing to consider, such as: eyewear (glasses/shades, monocles, etc), shoes/boots, undergarments, armor and helmets (which can be of varying styles and compositions), weapons, shields, and etc. Assess the nature of your character and add characteristics that would enhance their appearance. Generally speaking, appearance ought to in some way complement their behavior and personality. It could be a perfect source of symbolism for what kind of person they are, or it could belie a completely contradictory behavior and be used as a means of deception. All in all, appearance ought to reflect what sort of choices your character made in the past, what life they are leading, what they have been through, and various other criteria.
The History
Whereas personality is the most important aspect of character creation for what your character will be like to interact with in the present, their personal history is equally important because it comprises all the things they have experienced that led to them being the way they are. Think of it as history being the cause, and personality being the effect. You can't have one without the other. Bear this in mind when you're tempted to give your happy-go-lucky character an incredibly tragic backstory that would leave even Richard Simmons curled up in the fetal position for years. History is something very important and integral to a character, because the events that unfold in their past will have a strong impact on their present and future. As the old adage goes, those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. For this reason, it's tremendously important to keep your history as a cohesive, organized story that clearly shows the progression of the character over time. That's right - character development isn't just confined to the present. A character could start an RP already being a drastically different person than s/he was five years ago. The most important question to ask yourself is - what do I want to do with this history? You shouldn't write a history as merely a chunk of events that serve the purpose of filling a void so you can just get it over with. History should serve a purpose that will reveal itself in the character you have invested this planning and effort into.
That's all the character creation advice I have for the moment. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to post them in the topic.
- The Name
- The Gender
- The Age
- The Race
- The Personality
- The External
- The History
The Order
The first real piece of advice I can offer you is to choose not to follow the list outlined above point by point when you create your own characters. The order of how it's done is not really all that important, to be honest; what matters most is the finished product. Everyone creates characters based on their own order, generally what they're most comfortable with and what they would see as the most important. Some might just follow a character sheet and go from there, but this by no means makes it the only way to do things. The points listed above are only the basics you need to build up a well-developed character. They're not some binding contract obligating you to work on your personal creation in that exact way.
The Name
For some, this is the easiest part of character creation. For others, it's the hardest part. Whichever camp you fall in, the main thing to bear in mind is that a name is an identity. The name itself doesn't carry weight, but it identifies the thing that DOES carry weight - your character. Names are powerful tools of association, identification, and much more. Your name could affect how seriously your character is taken, based on things like reputation and renown, or even something as simple as a funny sounding name. You can name your character anything you want, but it's preferable to keep the setting of the RP world in mind so you select an appropriate-sounding name.
The Gender
Personally, I always start with this trait here. Before anything can really begin to develop for your image of the character, you have to know what gender s/he is. Unless it's an intentionally ambiguous gender, most characters instantly stand out as being male or female; you know which one it is the moment you conceive the character concept. That's not to say that similar character designs can't work for both genders, but with the way our minds tend to work, we categorize based on gender much more quickly than we categorize based on something like speech mannerisms. So it's helpful to know if the character you're working on is a mister or a missus. From there, things tend to flow more easily.
The Age
Age has a very strong formative influence on several other aspects of a character. How old your character is will likely impact things like their personality, mannerisms, physical appearance, clothing style, world view, and even things like sexual appetite. Age is a strong indicator of the type of character you'll be creating; it's also a strong indicator of the character's role in the environment you'll be using them in. A youthful, brash, cocksure teen will inevitably be inexperienced and rash in critical situations on an adventure, whereas a wizened old bag could offer sage advice at critical junctures. Likewise, what your character knows about the fictional world you're role playing in will be affected by how old and experienced they are (or aren't). The age of your character is a good indicator of how you'll be interacting with other characters and the environments you'll be traversing.
The Race
This is perhaps the funnest of the choices you can make about your character. Being able to decide what Race your character is will lead to all sorts of interesting possibilities. Based on the world you're role playing in, different Races will have different outlooks on life, personalities, mannerisms, appearances, tendencies, relations with other Races, and life spans. There are a multitude of variables that go hand in hand with what Race you decide to play as, so it's a very important decision; but it's also a very fun one, because when you can decide the Race of your character, you're then able to easily fill in a lot of other facts about them based on the known traits of that Race. So it allows you to focus more on your own personal additions and quirks that you'll be adding, rather than the tedium of filling in more mundane details.
The Personality
This section right here is perhaps the single most important aspect of a character, because a good personality can make a character just as easily as a bad one will break the character. It can be a daunting task to complete a whole new person that is completely seperate from yourself, with their own set of mannerisms and quirks. Because of the magnitude of the task, it can be tempting to base the character at least partially on yourself. This is discouraged, because it defeats the purpose of a role play. You're not exactly taking on the role of another character in another space and time if it's a carbon copy of yourself to begin with. Still, I can understand the difficulties of generating a completely separate entity that you're still comfortable with using. One suggestion I have is to grab a dictionary, pop it open, and let your finger fall somewhere. Wherever it fell, look carefully at any sorts of traits in that section that you could attribute to a person's behavior. Do this about ten times or so, and find a way to fit these traits together into a cohesive, complementary way. The personality you create needs to be three-dimensional; that is to say, they need to have more than just one defining trait, and they need to be dynamic and flexible enough that they can change over time. Flat, static characters become repetitive and boring, and they react the same way to various stimuli you'll experience over the course of the RP. Characters with an added dimension can not only be in a moment and experience it, but they can add to it. Also, as a bit of a last minute tip, don't forget the classic questions like "Is this person good, evil, or in-between?" These questions will have a strong affect on how s/he will interact with others in the story.
The External
If you introduced a flamboyant, eccentric person to a group of 10 randomly selected people, I guarantee that asking them about the person later on would yield the same results. They would recall the person based on two things: personality (which we've already discussed) and physical appearance. Of course, it varies from person to person exactly what trait or aspect of the eccentric they would remember, but they will almost always recall something from those two categories. So as you can hopefully see, appearance bears a strong influence on how your character is seen, reacted to, and remembered in an RP. For instance, if your character is an "Average Joe" commoner type who walks into a tavern, he's not likely to turn nearly as many heads as if he were a buxom blonde bombshell beauty from exotic, far away regions. Different types of physical external traits exist, such as: height, weight, physical body type, skin tone and coloration, abnormal appendages, scarring, eye color, and hair color. And that's just if your character is walking around bare. There's still clothing to consider, such as: eyewear (glasses/shades, monocles, etc), shoes/boots, undergarments, armor and helmets (which can be of varying styles and compositions), weapons, shields, and etc. Assess the nature of your character and add characteristics that would enhance their appearance. Generally speaking, appearance ought to in some way complement their behavior and personality. It could be a perfect source of symbolism for what kind of person they are, or it could belie a completely contradictory behavior and be used as a means of deception. All in all, appearance ought to reflect what sort of choices your character made in the past, what life they are leading, what they have been through, and various other criteria.
The History
Whereas personality is the most important aspect of character creation for what your character will be like to interact with in the present, their personal history is equally important because it comprises all the things they have experienced that led to them being the way they are. Think of it as history being the cause, and personality being the effect. You can't have one without the other. Bear this in mind when you're tempted to give your happy-go-lucky character an incredibly tragic backstory that would leave even Richard Simmons curled up in the fetal position for years. History is something very important and integral to a character, because the events that unfold in their past will have a strong impact on their present and future. As the old adage goes, those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. For this reason, it's tremendously important to keep your history as a cohesive, organized story that clearly shows the progression of the character over time. That's right - character development isn't just confined to the present. A character could start an RP already being a drastically different person than s/he was five years ago. The most important question to ask yourself is - what do I want to do with this history? You shouldn't write a history as merely a chunk of events that serve the purpose of filling a void so you can just get it over with. History should serve a purpose that will reveal itself in the character you have invested this planning and effort into.
That's all the character creation advice I have for the moment. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to post them in the topic.