Character Development Guide
Feb 8, 2013 14:03:45 GMT -8
Post by zoi on Feb 8, 2013 14:03:45 GMT -8
This is a list of tips I've put together based on a collective RP experience between myself and Cain which is about two decades. No matter how many characters a person has made during their RP lifetime, we could all use a little help now and then. That's what this guide seeks to do. Perhaps you will discover something you didn't know or maybe you'll just be reminded of something you've forgotten. Regardless of whether or not you intend to use these tips, you should give the guide a read through.
Below I will break it down into two categories; easy and advanced. The easy section is for those who prefer relaxed RP and aren't concerned with their characters fitting a certain role or meeting a particular purpose over a course of time. Meanwhile, the advanced guide is for those who enjoy an in depth character or desire a more complex pursuit in RP. First however, there will be a section to help you decide what kind of character to make. Once you've done that, you can pick and choose from the tips below to put it in motion.
How to Decide:After many failures and a few successes with RP characters over the years, I've started to ask myself a few questions before setting about making a character. They may be questions you easily know the answer to or they may be something you're amazed you don't know how to answer right away. Either way, once you do have an answer, I can guarantee that it will help you start to figure out what kind of character you want.Easy:1. You may not believe it right away, but this is the most important question of the group and possibly the most important thing you will do when making a character; ask yourself what YOU want out of RP. Push away all the expectations you have for your character or that other people have for you and your character and really think about this.
For me, I decided what I wanted out of RP is for it to be a social affair, something I can log on and look forward to in regards for interaction and in character humor. I don't like the stress of constant fighting or having to live in fear (as a character). For me, RP needs to be like a pair of hot pink sweats, comfortable and amusing. Cain on the other hand, when he asked himself the same thing came to a far different conclusion; he enjoys the combat aspect of RP, testing his skills against others in fights, that sort of thing.
For a lot of people, it will be one or the other; those who want the more relaxed aspect to have fun and those who want to spar or have reason to spar often and show off their skills. For some, you may find it's a mix of the two. There may even be a third desire lurking out there amongst you. The only way to find out is take a deep breath and ask yourself. If you're having trouble, look back over your RP history and think of moments you've really enjoyed yourself. Likely, you'll start to see a pattern and the answer.
2. Next comes a question tied very closely with the first so you need to do that one... first! Once you have the answer, keep it in mind and ask yourself, what do YOU want out of a character. Now, I'm not talking about abilities or any of that stuff. What you need to figure out here is what you want that character to be able to accomplish in terms of what RP they make available to you. This can be just the basis of personality or it can include some type of plot you have in mind for the future.
When I asked myself this, it kept pretty much in line with how I felt about RP in general. I wanted the character to be social and easygoing, a little flexible depending on the situation as getting locked into rigid personalities in the past was a problem for me, and still have my character capable of fighting if need be. Because I like the looser feel and a sense of freedom, I decided I wanted the character to have no real goal to speak of.
Cain once again differed. With his answer to the first question being a combat oriented RP style, he wanted a character capable of providing that for him. At the same time, he decided he didn't want the standard brute slugger and needed a balance in the character so that his every reaction wasn't to fight because that is a pitfall many people fall into; they want a character who is centered around fighting or being aggressive, but they set it up so that they can never enjoy normal interaction with people. It makes the character repetitive and at times, annoying. It takes a lot of character development to break them away from that cycle too; so much so that most people who are tired of that set just kill the character off.
3. Next question is the how and why aspect from the IC point of view for your personality (personality and history should always come before abilities so you can give the character abilities that work with their nature, or against it if you're trying that type of character which I don't recommend). How what you want in a personality coming together into a cohesive one and why the personality is the way it is are important. At the very least, you need to be able to put your desires you discovered from the first two questions together to form the how. The why, while not as important, helps you as the RPer of the character, navigate them better through situations.
For instance, the character Sumie (who I created by using this method and the tips below). My key desires are for her to be able to socialize and have an easygoing manner. These two desires work naturally together as is, but for my how and why, I clarify as, "Easygoing and amiable, Sumie is a wisecrack or two away from being the typical girl next door. No one enjoys a good chat quite like Sumie (especially those who happen to be the subject of her newest piece of gossip), which is among the few things that can hold Sumie's attention for very long; work is not part of this exclusive set, though somehow Sumie manages to get it all done."
So for Sumie to be social, she loves talking and sharing gossip. Her easygoing attitude comes from her sense of humor and wisecracking nature as well as her not as interested approach to putting her nose to the grindstone and working all the time. Most character traits you come up with if you are giving yourself honest answers in the first two questions should work together as easily. The greater the difference between the traits you're trying to put into the character, the more complicated and complex RPing them becomes.
Also note that this is where you would handle melding a character goal to fit the type of personality they have or set up the personality to become the one you want, because you should always leave room for character development. Never lock yourself into a personality or personal goal. As my character has no personal goal, I can't give you much of an example, but if your goal and your personality are clashing, you should rethink your goal before you rethink the personality.
4. Now we come to the history and faction choice. As we don't require in depth histories on AK, there is no need to explain how each thing that happened in your history affected your personality and as such, this guide is short. However, histories do shape how a person turns out and factions in part decide what kind of history you can have. So if you have a blood thirsty killer, having a history that is all peachy and full of sunshine simply doesn't work, especially if you're a part of an organized government/military faction like the Shinigami. Be sure that your history, even if it is short, reflects back on the type of character you choose to create and if you have a goal, the history would need to set the background for that as well and that your faction of choice allows you to RP your character to its fullest potential.
In short, the type of personality you come up with shapes what faction suits the character you come up with, and the faction and personality determine what type of history your character would have. These three things must be in line with each other.
5. Your ability should compliment your type of character. If you're less inclined to fighting, you should focus on abilities that protect or can be used for escape. If you're character is sneaky and you're into subterfuge, then you should use abilities that cause confusion or aid in stealth. If you have a combat oriented character and just want to go at it with all guns blazing, then you should have straight forward attacks.
Now, I'm sure this isn't a concept a lot of people are comfortable with the whole not always having an attack type ability, so if you aren't capable of figuring out how to best use a more passive type ability or you can't be comfortable without a personal attacking ability (though each faction has generic attacking abilities) then go with what you know so that you will be comfortable with RPing out using the techniques.1. Rule number one for a basic character or someone who is a beginner is to always keep it simple. Make the personality essentially your own so it's always easy to decide what the character would do in situations. You should be able to sum up the character's entire personality with just three adjectives. Use basic abilities for your personal abilities. This basically means barrier or flat out attack type abilities rather than something like illusion, poison, or space manipulation type abilities which often require planning in a fight to make proper use of them.Advanced:
2. Never form your character around someone else's character. This means a few different things which will be listed below. Long story short, when making a character, only take your preferences and desires into consideration; you're the one that's stuck RPing as the character after all, not anyone else.a. Don't write up a personality or history that puts someone's character in a place of importance right off the bat. This sets your character up to need that person's character to RP normally or provide interaction altogether.3. Never make a character who would encounter situations that require them to do something that you yourself are uncomfortable. Meaning if you're a really nice person in real life, don't make a bad guy who goes around killing people. It's all fine and dandy if it's an NPC, but when you come across an actual player who you're a friend with and the situation dictates your character to act in the aggressive manner, odds are you wont be able to do and you'll end up acting OOC which is against RPing rules. This is just an example though, it applies to each person differently.
b. Don't create a character with a certain personality just because it works well with another character's personality. Nine times out of ten, it's not going to be a personality you enjoy over time so you'll grow bored or frustrated and RP wont be enjoyable. These types of characters are the most likely to be killed off by the owner.
c. Don't create a character set specifically to counter another character. This often gives you a static and boring personality as well as abilities that aren't versatile or suited to your RP style. You may counter one set person on paper, but with an ability you wouldn't have picked normally, it's unlikely that it will help you in actual RP. There's also the 'rudeness' factor which can cause bad feelings between people, which leads to acting OOCly when RPing with one another rather than sticking to the personality.
d. All that being said, you can and should have your character already know some people when you first start and therefore they can be in your history. This is because it makes little to no sense for characters who are going to be interacting to not know at least a couple of the people around them in character. Just keep the other tips in mind; keep it simple and don't make the character's personality or abilities dependent on the other people.1. For those doing the simple and easy creation, I suggested taking their personality straight to the character. For more advanced RPers this can be boring as one of the reasons some people RP is to get away from the norm. However, even if you choose to do a personality far from your own, your character needs to have at least one trait in common with yourself in their personality. This is so that even in difficult situations, you have a common ground with the character to help you decide a course of action.
That being said, I recommend having at least three points of reference so that the RPing of the character stays consistent throughout unless the character is undergoing character development over a period of time, which is natural. As mentioned in the how to decide guide, make sure these personality traits work together though and in the easy section I state not to create a character who goes about doing things you as a person are uncomfortable with.
2. Have some flaws. Too often people try to make the perfect character which is something that more often than not, they can't backup through RP. For instance, a common example is people making the laid back, calm and collected character. I too am using a variation of this. However, they make them so calm and collected that nothing phases them. Then they get into a situation where another character is just really ragging on them or has done something horrible to them. The character personality says they wont react, but nine times out of ten, the RPer isn't going to write it that way.
In my case, though Sumie is a laid back individual character who likes to socialize with everyone and hates direct conflict, she holds grudges almost indefinitely, and with her knack at chatting and gossiping combined with the grudges, it turns into her spreading nasty rumors about the person which isn't a 'nice' or 'perfect character' reaction. She also has set in fears which she can't ignore if she encounters them. The other end of the spectrum for making a 'perfect character' no longer applies with AK's system for stats, skills, and abilities so it isn't something you have to make yourself do as it's set up for you; there wont be a mastering of every fighting style and having maxed stats in every category.
Having flaws is just another way to differentiate between your character and somebody else's and adds another dimension to the character, breaking them away from flat and overdone.
3. To flesh out your character, you should have a set list (you don't need to put it in your profile, though I recommend it, but just have it handy) of your character's likes, dislikes, and fears. This allows you when going into RP situations to know how your character would respond directly to the setting, the activity, the people, whatever rather than just react to what is said and the like. In doing so, your posts become more detailed and people get to know your character better. In addition, most threads with various likes, dislikes, and fears at your disposal, wont get stuck in the same repetitive rut of always doing the same thing and reacting the same way.
4. Much like having your likes, dislikes, and fears handy, you should also list out what your character's job consists of (if they have one) and what their hobbies are. This way when you're bored and want to start a thread, you know what your character would be doing whether they're on duty or off. If you're wanting to join a thread, this functions similarly in giving you the reasons for why you would be entering a thread and interacting with the characters there. Basically this helps to eliminate, or at least reduce, the, "I'm bored and want to RP, but don't know what to do because there isn't an event going on," syndrome. Self-propelled RP if you would.
5. No matter the character type you're creating, whether it be a social butterfly, a loner, or an aggressive spirit, you need to have an element whether it be in personality, job, or goal, that allows for your character to create or participate in RP interaction. Without interactive RP, you might as well go write a fanfic instead. This doesn't mean a character must be friendly and talkative or helpful and nice; oh no, read on.
If you want a loner type character as far as personality goes, then to add the interactive element aspect of the character you can give him a strong desire to fulfill a goal that requires him to interact with people, even if he doesn't like it. Or perhaps this character just seems to be a people magnet, and wherever he goes, people seem to follow or show up, leaving him frustrated but unable to express why as he doesn't like conflict. Or maybe this person is a dedicated worker and puts his job at the top of his priority list and the job requires him to say, deliver messages, or goods, or interview people for information.
The possible combination of character types to interactive element are nigh endless, but if you are having trouble thinking of a way to work it in, then perhaps you need to rethink the character type. When in doubt, go simple. Or you can ask other people for their help, just remember, it's your character, don't force it into someone else's mold because you're the one stuck RPing as the final product.