Making THE character (third try)

[Kitsunestume]

Since we seem to have meandered in the direction of discussing charchter voice:

For me, it is always a struggle to be able to make my character express, in emotes and actions, what ideas I am trying to get across to other players. I tend to gravitate towards characters who are never exactly what they seem. Their goals and agenda are often not right up front for everyone to see. It is a challenge for me because I have an idea in my head of what I want or what I am trying to do. But that isn't always what others perceive when my character is emoting or speaking.

I can relate to this: using emotes to convey complex concepts and participate in discussions without 'talking' is a unique challenge. My standard method is to just constantly update what I'm doing, which at the end of one event had lead to my contributing over a third of the lines in an 8-person expedition while being one of the three least talkative (IC) people. That was indubitably excessive, and I've tried to scale back since then, but James' inability not to fidget is just as much a part of his character as anything else.

I'll admit that I'm biased towards "Actions speak louder than words", but given the medium, words are speaking for actions, tone, volume, even inactions. If Alice is ignoring Bob, you get three different replies if Alice says "Not listening", *blatantly ignores Bob*, or just doesn't reply at all. The first establishes dialog because clearly Alice IS paying attention but wants to rebuff Bob, the second is a deliberate indication of intent without compromising itself so Bob can at least react appropriately, while the last most of us are usually polite enough to wait for an actual answer before aquardly shuffling off because the player is AFK.

On a similar vein, the words "Go away" have completely different meanings when whimpered, yelled, calmly and distractedly commented, or gravely punctuated. for. emphasis. They can demonstrate emotion that we normally see and hear passively from body language and tonal fluctuation that two quotation marks simply can't convey by themselves.

That being said, I totally admit to being one of those people who talks to their machine-spirits and physically practices an action so I can properly emote whatever my chars are doing at the moment. Nothing like writing up entire articles on fantastical thesis subjects and lecturing to whoever is in the room at the time.

[greypawn]

I live for the day when I see a dwarf speak with a midwestern accent.

The next dwarven council, with Bill Swerski.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBnnon_iZOM

[Fuzziebunny]

I often use the way my character speaks as well as they words they use, to try to help others see their personality. I also think that things you don't say, or the phrases you don't use, can be just as huge an impact as what you do say as well. An example of this was Chime. Chime was painfully polite. She would not utter a rude phrase, not even to an enemy. I tried to express her dislike of various people in a different way.


For me, it is always a struggle to be able to make my character express, in emotes and actions, what ideas I am trying to get across to other players. I tend to gravitate towards characters who are never exactly what they seem. Their goals and agenda are often not right up front for everyone to see. It is a challenge for me because I have an idea in my head of what I want or what I am trying to do. But that isn't always what others perceive when my character is emoting or speaking.

[nezzerscape]

See, when I play a dwarf, when it speak Common I speak like a dwarf. When it speaks dwarven, it's proper English.

High Ho!

[nezzerscape]

That's North-Central American English.

Well, Michigan is considered Mid-West and we speak that way (in da UP) where I lived for years.

[Grand Unified Theory]

That's North-Central American English.

Yuuup. Especially the "Ya, you 'betcha" and "don't'cha-know". Pretty stereotypical, but it's surprisingly rare to hear it.

What's more common is the "uff da" expression. (0:28) Should be incorporated by all nordic-Dwarven types for sure. lol

[Talleyman99]

See, when I play a dwarf, when it speak Common I speak like a dwarf. When it speaks dwarven, it's proper English.

[zypherman]

I live for the day when I see a dwarf speak with a midwestern accent.

This is some heresy right here.

[[DM] Grinning Death]

That's North-Central American English.

Just a regular, "Hi, my name is Grubnar Blackrock. It's a fine day today, isn't it? I think I'll have a beer."

Or! A female dwarf, even:

[nezzerscape]

I live for the day when I see a dwarf speak with a midwestern accent.

"Ya, you betchas. Its a fine axe dontchaknows."

[Lotus]

Would mark out for a transatlantic dwarf.

[[DM] Grinning Death]

I live for the day when I see a dwarf speak with a midwestern accent.

[zypherman]

Hay, I do voices! (even when playing)

Typing out a dwarven accent when rping was the most fun but time consuming thing I did while playing the character.

[AsuraKing]

I generally start with the faith of the character and adapt everything from there. My biggest challenge with making a new character is figuring out their accent/how I'll have them speak. For example do I want them to speak proper english and sound educated or do I want them to speak with broken english and sound more peasant like. I'm not a huge fan of writing their background out before I make the character as I tend to "wing it" at first (and generally when I pre-plan a bio I end up getting bored of the character pretty fast). I'm more creative if I'm spontaneous about the character rather than if I pre-plan. It's only until after I've decided I like the character and want to stick with them that I usually go and make the background story.

[nezzerscape]

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.

Hay, I do voices! (even when playing)