Making THE character (third try)

[Thief Of Navarre]

I also sometimes make a ritual with a character to get me in the proper mindset of them. For example: always having a cup of coffee in front of me while playing a wacky gnome. Or making sure the room is dark and a candle is lit for a necromancer.

Haha, I love that. Like an actor getting into character (which is essentially what it is!). I think I need to get some routine in my own life before I start thinking about someone else :s.
A couple of times my characters have completely changed class because the class didn't fit the personality; It does get a tad hard to explain why your character has gone from 15th level to 3rd

[greypawn]

I do some research on the setting and the given lore to come up with a concept I dig - and a rough background. Figure out personality, mannerisms, and physical appearance by taking a hand full of characters I enjoy in literature, cinema, and/or history and let them influence me. Mix it up, toss in a bit of my own creativity, and hizzah. A character.

I generally try to keep it simple at first as it allows some flex room to figure out what works and what doesn't. But my desire to write and create sometimes trumps that. While playing I always try to stay true to a few things that really identifies my character like a lisp, a bad leg, a swagger, bad gas .... something. So I try to figure out what that is sooner than later.

I also sometimes make a ritual with a character to get me in the proper mindset of them. For example: always having a cup of coffee in front of me while playing a wacky gnome. Or making sure the room is dark and a candle is lit for a necromancer.

[BedlamX]

I tend to have a full back-story before playing a toon. Mainly cuz I LOVE writing bios (as can be attested by anyone that has taken time to read through any of my novella bios :P ). I also like slightly "off" characters like Ursus (the absolute worst Thayan Knight ever) and Jarrin (on another server...think Han Solo meets Willow's Madmartigan with some old Starsky and Hutch Huggy Bear thrown in for fun). Both had long and fairly detailed bios. But I had no clue how I was going to play them until I got started and found the aspects of my personality fit into each (all my toons are a part of my real personality...usually amplified for effect :P ).

Still not sure what I will make when the relaunch happens. Jarrin is still my all time favorite, so it may well be a version of him.

[nezzerscape]

Hmm let’s see. I do things all wrong and 85% of them fail, but those that do not I love!

I start with the type of charter (class) then sprinkle in the race, feats etc. I try to do this in line with the lore of the land.

Then I start to do voices (yes out loud) saying phrases and such. Once I begin to get IC in RL, I work out a name and work on background to match. This helps me to portray the character even if it goes against my RL persona (which I try to incorporate one aspect of into each toon).

Sometimes I jump in and developed them as they go. Others influence their development and character. Two of my all-time favorites came about this way (Elandra and Grubnar (different server).

Alexandra was an off-shoot of Elandra and I already built most of the background for her before I even thought of rolling her up.

Nez

[Thief Of Navarre]

I think I had kind of forgotten that too much preplanned character development doesn't work for me. I got all excited about planning a new toon and then realised that none of my characters has ever matched the brief (Lester\Percy being the exception). Interaction with others really shapes the RP; it would be nice to be a fly on the wall sometimes just to get the measure of things before you leap down a specific hole. Not in a metagaming sense ofc :s

[Mournas]

These pre-written characters tend to fall flat quite quickly, not because I don't like them (I wouldn't have written them if I didn't) but because the very background I've worked hard to put in has stifled the emergence of the individual.

I agree, upon reflection of my past characters I've always been too worried about maintaining the integrity of that back story idea of the character, as if things in life couldn't ever change a person. This time I'm going to try to allow the RP to fill in the different shades of my character's progression.

[Doubtful]

The characters I've enjoyed playing the most on my time with Sundren have almost exclusivly been the characters who've had the least pre-play thought put into them.

Instead they've been whispy, loosely formed 2-3 sentence concepts that have, through the course of interaction and play and retroactive work, become fully formed and enjoyable characters to play.

This tends to be in contrast to the characters who I've put in pages and pages of history in prior to their play time (I still write lots about the whispy ones, but it tends to be after the fact and looking at what could have shaped the character into who they've emerged into being, not who I'm trying to predestine them to be). These pre-written characters tend to fall flat quite quickly, not because I don't like them (I wouldn't have written them if I didn't) but because the very background I've worked hard to put in has stifled the emergence of the individual.

[Kitsunestume]

My own method is effectively the following:

1: Choose keystone idea
2: Develop supporting details
3: Observe reactions
4: Develop flaws
5: Refine details
6: Compare keystone

Most of my characters have a single keystone idea at their heart. James was "Crafter", Kit was "Spymaster", Janice was "The damned best crossbow marksman in the hemisphere", one was "Blackguard of Helm", my druid boiled down to "I want to walk around as a fire elemental and NGAF". Basically a concept -either mechanical, emotional, or personal- that serves as a solid and tangible anchor for the rest of what the character is.

Next comes fluff; attaching stuff to the character to make them more than a one-dimensional entity. What sort of origin would make sence (racial, national, occupational, etc.) , what religion seems appropriate (if any), why is their motivation for being in Sundren given the lethal and violent wars, etc. This step is actually kinda low priority, but tends to be a good idea to get settled at least a few points before dropping into RP for step #3, so at least a few answers are known before I start fumbling to the RNG of my brain.

I like to think that I don't play my chars, so much as give them a means to express themselves. I've usually found that this is most effective when having lengthy RP sessions at 3 AM and tired enough that my RP is mostly on autopilot - being playable in that state is more or less a requirement for all my character personalities, because it WILL happen eventually. Some of you might have noticed that James is more inclined to wax theoretical during the early morning PST hours than the afternoon; now you know why. You learn a lot, both in now you incline your chars to reacting to people, and how other people react to your character. If I'm not getting the responses I was intending, tweak the playstyle a bit. If a pattern becomes noticeable, it can be internalized into a facet of the character. As RP progresses, details that had not been previously considered are asked and answers given: hopefully they remain consistent, but if not then the character just might be evasive, or have bad memory.

Which brings us to flaws. None of my characters started with an intended flaw, but all of my character have at minimum a single defining quirk - for those of you familiar with the Fate system, consider the RP utility of a reliable Compel. It may not be a weakness, and it certainly isn't a strength all the time, but it gives additional depth to an otherwise archetypal dime-a-dozen fighter, mage, or whoever. Even Kurai Sasayaki, AKA Araman the Mute didn't start off mute. However, after a session or two of play, he just felt a lot more comfortable emoting everything rather than talking and using the ambiguity of the language barrier as a clear indication of his naturally insular personality. So it became a historical fact that his throat was slashed, and its worked since.

One of the lovely things I've noticed about this type of community is that character's aren't constrained by the limitations and choices you made for them before you actually started playing. If, after a couple play sessions, you notice that some facet of a char just isn't meshing and is making you considering hitting a reset button for your char, just continue on without it or change it into something workable: a server of strong RP-worthy characters that we are all happy to play is better for everyone. As SuaL points out, "you may have some 'splainin' to do", but I've yet to see anyone have minor low-level choices held over their heads for all eternity, letalone a week. Take the time to learn the character from their perspective, rather than just OOC player view, and add or change details as required to become a more comprehensive and congruous individual.

And, lastly, after a few days, months, or years of playing a char, look back. Does the current character still align with that keystone declared at the beginning? If so, congratulations, but is said character better for staying true? If not, what went wrong and how might we get back there, what went right and do we even want to? Playing an RPG is a constant process, full of gains and losses, relaxation and tension, friends and foes. People grow from experience and exposure so the only way to go wrong is by having exactly what was started with and nothing to show for it other than a few bigger numbers.

You might notice that due to how I describe playing and listening to charachters, that list can basically be boiled down to:

1: Choose keystone idea
2: Start playing charachter
3: learn your char
4: goto 2

This isn't incorrect: Once that keystone is enough to actually get a char into RP, the rest is basically grown from there.

Cheers,
Kit

[sonuvalich]

My style sounds like some douchebag actor nonsense. I started out with the class/race/gender I wanted to play. Then I just played it and tried random crap to see what resonated with me. Did my evil wizard have a soft spot for puppies? Did my paladin secretly want to bang a superior officer? What felt "right" for the character was a very trial and error process. It makes early interactions with other characters a little tricky, and you may have some 'splainin' to do, but it just felt like more of an organic process. In the end, everything about the characters comes from us so we have to find which parts of ourselves feel right in that little avatar.

[Thief Of Navarre]

So one of the neat things about the relaunched Sundren is that faction stores will no longer define ideal classes for each faction. They've been significantly scaled back. The bulk of your gear will come from crafting and loot drops.

That's nice to hear. It could feel like you were shoehorned into siding with a certain faction because it looked like your only choice given your class. Not that I let that stop me normally Most of my characters had no faction.

[Lotus]

So one of the neat things about the relaunched Sundren is that faction stores will no longer define ideal classes for each faction. They've been significantly scaled back. The bulk of your gear will come from crafting and loot drops.

[Fuzziebunny]

Thanks so much for all the advice! I really do appreciate it.

I think maybe I am expecting to start at the stage of RP where my character is established and I can easily know what her response to events will be. I think, I am stuck on remembering where my established characters were RP wise instead of remembering what it was like to start them. I am positive my new characters were rough around the edges and I am just forgetting that. Mostly I guess I am looking to far a head. I mean, it is easy to forget what it takes to start a character when you have played several characters for long periods of time. And, it has been several months since I have done any sort of RP and I maybe, possibly, forgetting what playing a new character is like. For example, when I first made Chime she wasn't as strong willed and as driven as she was when the time line jumped 50 years. I didn't intend to make a serious, manipulative or dangerous character, just something a little different from the typical heartwarder.

I guess I am going to try asking the character questions and listening to music. I keep wondering what sort of inspiration I will have with country music or grung or maybe even hard core death metal. I love all kinds of music so the thought of building a personality around it really interests me. Also... Pretty sure GSM is on to something with his loot idea. I must look into this!

[jarlexel]

I'm really bad at it to be honest. I have just been rping the same way with all of my toons more or less. I have to stop myself at times, I'm like: "Oh wait I'm not an Ilmatari with this toon." That's why I want to do something totally different like a Dwarf but I'm also going to be continuing a Lathanderite fighter's story from another server with a couple other people hopefully.

[Handsomeman]

The way i do it is watch many movies and play a lot of games. Pick a character i think is cool and mimic their personality and think to myself, what would x do in this situation. Eventually the character will develope their own personality and you will know where to go from there. Character background to me isnt as important as personality. Even today i dont know where any of my characters come from or have any family. The hardest part for me is picking a name for the character.

[Mournas]

I like coming up with an idea I want to explore, something I don't know a whole lot about but would like to explore the idea for my own sake, as if it's an educational tool. Then I would come up with a build to support my character and my enjoyment. This time around I'm leaving out the build and going a more fluid route to see how the RP sculpts him. The leveling will be slow. The only pseudo planned feats I have in mind are Background / Heritage feats. I also decided to push the boundaries here and welcome Permadeath should the RP call for it. I'm really just going to try and cover all the bases I fell short on before. I really want this one to be no holds barred and story driven. We shall see.