Creating your roleplay charcters

Well, we were actually talking about this in the Gilneas chat channel and I thought it'd be intresting to share with you all!

Firstly: Do you either:

1) Plan every single little thing for your character, (their pet peeves, relatives, favourite weapon, favourite food, where their house is, friends ect. ect.) before you roll them so you know exactely who your character is and how they'd act.

2) Get the basic outline and backstory of a character, (figure out their main strengths and weaknesses and important things in their lives) and jump straight into the game on the new toon, where you decide to let roleplay teach you more about your character.

Secondly: Who do you base your character on?

*I've seen people say they create their characters from taking strengths or weaknesses from their real-life selves and completely exagerrting it.

*I've seen people say their characters are just coppies from book or movie characters.

*I've seen people say their character ideas just appeared out of the blue.

I myself based Small Photowedge on a few of my favourite previous characters I had, mixing them together to create her. (Seen as most of those old characters were created from exaggerated things about me and a novel/movie character I can vaguely see me in her.) For Effie Quicktrinket, she is one of the first (if the first) of my characters based entirely off a novel/movie character as I just thought that the character in question (Effie Trinket from the Hunger Games) reminded me of gnomes so much and she was so eccentric!

Thirdly: Keeping up with your Characters

Now although this isn't always the case, I've seen it alot.

*The person(s) who has the single character, who they roleplay all the time on tend to be incredibly similar to their real life selves due to the fact that wacky, outrageous, extreme characters can get boring/hard to roleplay now and then and so they give up trying to act religious/evil/wise because of the effort, still good roleplay characters, just roleplayed more like their real life selves!

*The person(s) who has many roleplay characters tend to have a wider variaty of characters. They have more eccentric characters and more casual characters which they do keep up with and are consistant with. This as I've found out, is due to people, when being bored of their 'main' (which it is good to have one) and are starting to come less in consitant in how the character would act/speak they simply log on their other character who is the polar opposite of their main and they are no longer bored, more enthusiastic than ever and get to roleplay completely differently to how they have recentley been doing.

*I'm not saying anything bad for the record, it is just what I've picked up. Nor am I telling you to go roll loads of alts or delete loads of alts! This is just something that I found intresting!


So what's the deal with your character(s)? How did you create them? What was your inspiration? Is it your only character? If so are you keeping consistent with it all the time and is it anything like you? I look forward to seeing your replies (if there are any )

I just come up with a cool premise and toss the character into the game. During play, the premise will dictate the character.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The characters that work I end up playing a lot, the characters that don't... I don't.

Then, the more I play them, the more they gain depth as stories start to require it from them.

Didn't we have a thread like this not all that long ago?

Small wrote:So what's the deal with your character(s)? How did you create them? What was your inspiration? Is it your only character? If so are you keeping consistent with it all the time and is it anything like you? I look forward to seeing your replies (if there are any )

I get the basic outline and then expand as I go along. Drustai's original concept was simply 'repentant demon', and it fleshed out from there.

As for who she's based on, she has elements of several fictional characters though the primary inspiration is Demona from Disney's Gargoyles. A lot of the outright evil elements were axed (as it wouldn't fit draenei), but her anger problems (and tendency to hiss and flare her eyes) and the effects of a massacre on the character's psyche are still there.

Maiev from WCIII was also a big inspiration.

Dru does have some elements of myself, though these are downplayed. My alt, Saphra, on the other hand is a much more obvious self-insert.

Blacksmith turned soldier.

That's what I started with.
He was a peacefull and naive untill one day.
He was just minding his own bussiness, killing demons for the greater good, when he got attacked by a group of Winterblades. Rest is history.

My character(s)? I just thought of something as I moved along. My first character on Defias (Eowale the Paladin) was the first character I ever tried RPing with. I had no clue what RP was, I had no clue that you even needed a story for your character. I didn't even have a -decent- story until the end of The Burning Crusade. And even after that, when my lil' Paladin took the unfortunate turn and became a Death Knight, I kept writing the story.

For all of my characters, I pretty much come up with their story as I go. With my first characters that was mainly because I didn't really have any experience of roleplaying and later on I just haven't bothered to. I was suppose to write a background story for one of my goblins, among other things, but that idea also got scrapped once I began playing.

...uuh, reading the first post completely, I don't think I can give a full answer without repeating myself x amount of times, so I'll just leave it at that!

Also; Why is it that after every post like this I make, I read the one message posted before mine and it'll appear like (to me, personally) I just copied what the person before me said? GAH!

WELL. I was playing about on a little belf mage at the Crossroads one day, excited about starting this awesome new game. Joined Defias for friends, you see. Suddenly, the Stranded Pirates out of nowhere. Start hitting on my little mage. I'm like.. SO THIS IS RP WHAT DO I DO LOL. I tried my best, I still cringe as I remember putting a smiley on the end of one sentence. Aaaanyway, they kindly offered to teach me the ropes! So I made a pirate called Morynth. My guild at the time "Shadows" was an OOC guild and said Morinth was better, so I remade her. Then I meet Arenfel and he keeps making blue jokes at me! I understood them after he explained, and now I love Mass Effect too. xD

Morinth came about out of pure curiosity. As my first ever character, I didn't have a proper backstory or anything, just some stuff I had set out in case anyone ever asked and she felt like answering.

Should also shout out to the Red Blades, they were a help too as the Stranded Pirates and the Blades were constantly at war, so I RP'd with them a lot in my noob-days.

I still remember feeling proud when Ruarck demanded I remove the 'beginner' tag from my RP add-on.

Z is a plagiarist!

I personally try to avoid Author advocates but each to their own. The main thing I have learned as from Dru regarding DK RP but is a good idea for all chars, that is have a good understanding of your Chars background and history at all times. Without these your char can be bland and you will end up filling in the blanks with your own personality.

I am also a fan of taking a consept and letting the char evolve organicly as you RP. I had no idea how Una would work really and just took the background and the themes I wanted and started to RP and he turned out amazingly.

I wouldnt say there is a right way to do things, some chars are walking cliches and turn out well, others are boring and suck. And some deeper chars are so deep that you cant possably RP with them as the RPer behind them wont alter their char from a plot line that they have decided on.

rembember "Your RP might not be my RP but it is ok".

I make a basic outling of the character based on lots of things. People I know, characters from shows and books, famous people and so forth. Generaly just interesting chacters, they are fun to play and fun to play with. Come up with some things and let the personality grow from there. I don't play a lot of chacters at once since it can get a bit messy and complicated in the longer run, but I do think the ones I play are extensions of people I'd in some way would either like to be or meet. Exaterating certain things about them makes them fun, but I do try and keep them within a limit of wackyness.. Except one char.. But then again she was based on Pinkie Pie from my little pony so that was good fun.

I start with blank plate.. Input about 70% rarial steryiotypes.. Put in one or two odd charicteristics that are neather breaking or mary sue.. work story for those basic oddities then let it fly.. the toon if I did it well will in essence .. create itself threw rp as i start having to answer questions people ask ic

I actually usually do exactly NOTHING. I just level my char untill stumbling into RP and then just start thinking about my char at that point. The only thing I knew from the start with Kavalis was that I wanted him to be a living person, and with Ixirar I figured she'd be a rather old elf, but that's basically it.

I put a lot of thougt and effort into my character. But I still think I can rougly split the things that I take in consideration before creating another roleplaying character into a small list.

1: Think of race.

2: Think of gender.

3: Randomize untill he/she/it(draenei) looks hot!

4: Check interwebz for names.

5: Think of RP concept.

6: Trash last RP concept and think of a new one.

7: Make a mindmap on how to solve the global warming problems.

8:Decide that my RP concept is lame and ask a friend for help.

9:Decide that last friends RP concept is bad.

10: Ask another friend if he likes my RP concept and then force him to say yes.

11:Decide it's a bad idea to make the character and don't.

I'm such a trend setter.

<3

Sun damn rage-draenei.

Depends. I have two rp chars at the moment, and they were built and created, and as well played, very differently.

The first one was my first char at all, rp and non rp-wise (experiments apart), and I honestly didn't put much thought in it. Yes, read the lore, yes, tried to be and act realistically, but it was just when I stumbled in rp that I began to think seriously to the char's past and behaviour in a coherent way. As such, it was a char with many flaws and acted awkwardly at least though, just because I decided consciously in the end to fill the blanks with my personality, it became a good char, and one who gives me much fun and entertainment, and honestly hope it does to others as well. In any case, much of who he is now is due to what happened roleplaying.

The second, whom I play rarely(even because the first one has the bad habit to end involved in many things, often dangerous things), was created very differently. I had a sort of project in mind, and I tried to build him on tropes and some clichés, and though as such the character is interesting, I find him sometimes difficult to handle, and difficult to get played at all, which is the main reason I play him less often. In short though, he became the other side of the coin: if the first one has a tremendous past but decided to keep to a certain self-coded moral and behaviour, this reacted to such issues way differently: he became proud and deceptive, in the end at war with the world.

I think, in the end, that to create a char is good: 1) To make it be natural and somewhat coherent, 2)To define the lines of the char in a generic way, and the reasons why he would be in those, and not others, and 3) Let the char, most importantly, change with the time. Naturally of course, not forcing him/her, but let rp events affect him/her. Nothing's more boring than a static character.

I tend to make my characters interesting by creating them small in the beginning, and then growing them in their roles. Most of my characters have, maybe somewhat exagerated, traits. My main is a lock, a fel and power addict. And that's her core. All that she does comes from that trait. She also loves Silvermoon more than anything else, and that sounds like a great combination.

What I did wrong with my paladin is that I did not create 'conflict in his being'. He is serene, a proper and neat knight etc. (Your own) characters are in my opinion the most fun when they have a conflict in being. They can be the most powerful knight there is, but a tendancy to corrupt when there is a persuasive (fe)male around.

I usually have some very basis outline for my characters which I enhance further through RP (some things I need to find out about my own characters on the go)

Emrys started out as a rather young elf, a teenager to elven standards that had lived a protected life and somewhat rebelled from her family. She mellowed out quite a lot after that, becoming a rather sweet and peaceful young lady, maturing as she learns through experience.

Endalynne I mainly wanted to play well as a Death Knight, I took pride in trying to pinpoint the essence of playing such a character after which I defined the characteristics that made her a person, the fact she is a true lady, well-manered, and a somehwat lost in translation atmosphere when she has to deal with the emotions of others. I also centered her around the love of her well... former life, and even though she does not feel love the way she used to, she still holds great respect for him.

As for some of my other characters, I find especially Siluen a lot of fun to play. An assassin that is still in training with a Forsaken and somewhat took over his ways, both in views as in humor.

There is chitt chatt about pets and other trivial things.
Why is nobody mentioning where their character stands political wise??

Gogol wrote:There is chitt chatt about pets and other trivial things.
Why is nobody mentioning where their character stands political wise??

"Go Blood Elfs, fuck the rest" doesn't really need an extra mentioning.

Generally.. How it goes for me is like this:
1) I concieve the idea for a type of character: a witch, a beaten down paladin, the uber nerd priest, the boyish squire, the most common of commoner peasant that turned into a militia man.
2) I think about the character, background and details befitting the concept.
3) I let experiences, books or movies inspire me to add to the character... if they fit. They don't often do.
4) I let needs and roleplay steer me to enrich the character as required. But this I try to keep to a limit.


Now to break this down into your 3 topics:

Part one. Detail prior rolling.

I need to have the basic concept in mind before creating the character. This is partly because I want the look (race, face, skincolor, class) to match the character I'm making.

At this point I'm already building an intro story on the character in my mind. Much like a movie trailer, I try to picture a scene or something very thematic that lays down the basic concepts of the character. I don't write the story yet.. I let my mind mull it over a couple of days.

The rest of the details, I add as I do the low level quests. I usually end up with a TRP/FlagRSP description of my character by the time I reach goldshire. The next day, I probably scan wowhead and other resources to get a fitting outfit.

Within the first 2 weeks, I write out my story on the character. By this time, I have the sketch, outlines and a few details of the character. If he's a philosophical character, I'll have the basic of his philosophy. If he's a fighter type, I'll have his combat style ready.
I'll also work out their natural habitat... which I need to reflect on how they'll behave in the RP scene. As the RP with the character begins, details are added about the background.

Part 2. Inspiration.

My characters are... ehm.. well some of them appear out of the blue, but I find that a bold statement to make in a world with so many blue-prints. Even though I do not concieve my character with a particular example in mind, say a book character or myself, it's hard not to end up resembling one or another at some point. I try to stick with "archtypes", though not necessarily the "hero" archtypes: the nerd, the hooker, the beaten down paladin, the troubled squire.

I may then enrich my character with inspiration from books or movies... but in an abstract way. I could sometimes try to mimic the impression a character makes, by copying his pose... but take looks and a behavior that differ immensely.

For JP, I needed clumsyness and philosophy, for which I found inspiration in slap-stick humor, french comedies and Paulo Coelho's writing.
But that would be my most detailed character. I try not to go in such detail for other characters.

Part 3. Keeping up.

I prefer playing "not me" a lot more. I consider RP like a theatre, or an interactive book/movie. I'm not interested to play myself in a wow universe. I'm interested in writing a story of an idiot of a priest, or a nuisance of a squire.

But never the less... my main, JP, would have some treats like me. It is not because I liked or designed him to have those similarities. It's simply because he was my first real RP char, and as I learned RP through him, I often wondered: how would I express that emotion? How would I describe my reaction?
I would often change that description to make it more "JP" and less "me" but there are some similarities never the less. I actually don't enjoy those similarities. I would prefer to increase the differences between him and me, but how he is, is now stuck in my head.

Gogol wrote:There is chitt chatt about pets and other trivial things.
Why is nobody mentioning where their character stands political wise??

Dru is a National Socialist.

I'm serious.

Gogol wrote:Why is nobody mentioning where their character stands political wise??

There is no democracy. Politics are reserved for the nobles and lords strifing for land and power.

Don't need a democracy to have political leanings, JP.