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 Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 7:51 pm
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It could be safely assumed that the vast majority of people here have, at some point in their lives participated in a Roleplay of some sorts. Following this, it also stands that those who have participated have had some sort of outlet through which to express themselves, some sort of medium through which each fantasy world can be shaped by their thoughts and actions.
I am talking of course, about characters. (Thought if thereis another medium, I'd be interested to hear about it.
So tell me all, how is is that you bring about these manifestations of will? For myself, character crafting falls under two main categories.
1) Start From the Defining Features: In any... okay, most literate Roleplays I'm in, every character has certain defining traits that signify who they are. Most common is in the "gifted" genre where each character has their own unique supernatural power. Generally personalities become shaped from this feature, an ice summoner generally has a 'cool' disposition for example, but like anything, that's not always the case. Personally I tend to neglect personality in this instance, as I become too wrapped up in thinking of uses or causes of the power. A prime example would be Verdigris. While I spent so much time in figuring out how his rampantly-destructive-in-a-modern-city powers could be logically brought about, his personality can be summed up as 'sad'.
This tactic is a lot easier to do, but my main problem is that once you take away the power, characters aren't left with a whole lot.
2)Amplify Facets of my own Personality: This one is more interesting. While I may cringe at the thought of making a self-insert, I console myself by saying that this isn't reaaally the case. With this tactic I create a character around the thought of "What would I be like if my own haughtiness and contempt for others was raised far beyond it is now?" In this case, the characters become sort of 'vents' for inner emotions, and as such become much easier to play. Downside is, slipping into this character in RL can become a bit more possible since you've been 'practicing', you get more offended if someone points out character flaws, and after a while, the core of all your characters gets to feel the same, and they get a little stale (though that could do with the fact that I only play guy characters too...).
Anyway, them's be my thoughts on character creation. I'm sure that I don't have a monopoly on this thought process, so I'd love to hear what all of you guys (and gals) out there have to say on the topic!
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Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 8:09 pm
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Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 8:14 pm
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.:: Like a butterfly through a paper shredder...
I try to make a character that will fit the role given to me and make sure the character has a balance of talents and faults (after all, Mary Sues and "pity me" characters are just... horrible). For example, for Masked Marked, I needed a character that would fit a certain tarot card. I was SO fortunate to pick the card that focused on neutrality, passiveness, and thinking for every action before doing. Well, that's boring, so I added a layer under that that hints at child abuse, giving him faults under his seemingly-perfect angel facade. Yay for well-rounded characters! (xD)
A few of my characters have some aspects of myself in them. I think it's a necessary thing, really. I mean, how else can you add actions and a voice to a character without playing it out in your own mind? The thrill of putting oneself out there in the world of roleplaying is one certain reason why I keep coming back, why I love this so much. What you said about the downsides is certainly true. A certain character of mine holds (I think) perhaps a bit too much of me, so it gets difficult for me to roleplay this character being picked on. But hey, it certainly gets the blood pumping. ;D
...so fricken' awesome. ::.
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Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 8:20 pm
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Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 8:22 pm
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Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 5:04 pm
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Lord-Miles o_o What's this?! A tarot themed RP?!
...If this is still active I'm definitely going to have to take a look-see.
Getting well rounded-characters is something I still need to work on. I think generally I do a pretty good job, even if I'm nowhere nearly as good as my sister, but there's always that tiny temptation to try and become the protagonist, and give yourself just a little bigger boost over all the others. Ah well...
:3 Heheh, and yep it is Jade. I'm taking a stab at FFXIII insisting that it's only building off of its predecessors, and the most popular games in the series.
>.> Not to mention, the main character's hairstyle looks eerily like the Main characters' from FFVI and FFVII combined. It's true!
.:: Like a butterfly through a paper shredder...
It's very active. (Right now we're at a standstill, though, 'cause we need the GM to post, and she's busy. xD) But yeah, feel free to join Masked Marked. =) Hoshi's an amazing GM.
And yeah, there's always that temptation. But practice makes perfect. (At first, I always made my characters so emo and tragedy-ridden that every chance I got, I would make a conflict. Thank goddess for progression, eh?)
...so fricken' awesome. ::. |
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Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 8:45 pm
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Mr. Eccentricity .:: Like a butterfly through a paper shredder...
It's very active. (Right now we're at a standstill, though, 'cause we need the GM to post, and she's busy. xD) But yeah, feel free to join Masked Marked. =) Hoshi's an amazing GM.
And yeah, there's always that temptation. But practice makes perfect. (At first, I always made my characters so emo and tragedy-ridden that every chance I got, I would make a conflict. Thank goddess for progression, eh?)
...so fricken' awesome. ::.
The whole thing just looks... amazing. I took a precursory look earlier, but now after looking through all the posts and the section on the castle itself.. well I have to say I'm a bit intimidated now.
On the plus side, I found my inspiration for a character. I've been re-reading Tanith Lee's Flat Earth series (very excellent, look up Night's Master if you get a chance) and well... after getting through Delusion's Master I'm currently enamored with madness.
So! I already have three things picked out, his name: Vyrkomod Chuz, his Mask and his fun quirk: he's crazy.
Beyond that however... no clue. Also, I don't know how feasible he would be, I mean yeah, they have to take in all the CardWeilders from all walks of life, and I think that he would be an... interesting character. But I can't figure out what card he could own. From what I can tell, there are no more Major Arcana left, and I'm not too familiar with the minor. Also they go by numbers, not King, Queen ect. so I don't feel I can choose one anyway, since I don't know what's what.
:3 But on the plus side, if things do work out, this thread can have a front row seat to the process I use to create my characters, hopefully providing an example or something.
Oh, lemme tell ya, I can relate to that with my first characters. ^^ Though in my case I didn't make them emo, more like Gary Stus. I distinctly remember one time where my character (who was like 14) offering to 'cure' another character's blindness, a MAJOR characterization at the time. Not to mention he held the power of perception which was... well easy to abuse.
:I I have to admit though, as terrible as those first characters were made, there was something just more... honest about them. I didn't think about RP norms or convention, I just wrote what I want. Having lost that is well, it's kind of bittersweet. |
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Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 11:01 am
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Aww, don't be intimidated by Masked Marked. It's just really well organized. There's a lot of info and prep that went into setting it up, but that's only so that we have a lot of reference information should we wish to know something. It'll hopefully help keep everyone on the same page if they're paying attention. ^^ (we won't have people suddenly walking from the common room into the kitchen cause, hey, they're not attached! XD) Must say, it's an RP pet peeve of mine when you have people completely disregarding a setting layout to write whatever they want, even after someone before them has specifically said 'this is how it looks'. >< Having the RP creator lay it all down specifically was very smart. <3
Anywho, yes, all that extra info is just to keep everyone from being confused (or deviating from what was intended.)
As for your character idea: If you're not sure what card would best suit your character, Hoshi actually linked a couple of sites that explained the different tarot cards and their meanings. You could take a look at the websites she linked and have a gander at the minor arcana descriptions. ^^ The 'tarot teachings' website was perhaps the most comprehensive and detailed one of the three. (since the DA artist only sums things up a little and the other site is more focused on the relation to constellations if I remember correctly.) If I were you, I'd probably take a look at the swords, since they often seem to pop up when there are trials, tribulations and all around nasty things happening in a reading. XD Somehow, that seems to fit 'crazy' in my head. I don't know exactly what their meanings are, so I could be way off the mark on that one... but...yeah. XD Gotta start with one of the suits anyways right?
As for your original topic here about character creation... I don't think I have a set method of creating characters. It completely and totally depends on the roleplay or story that I am making the character for and who I'm doing it with. I've made so many characters that I'm pretty sure I've come at the process from just about every angle you can think of. XD
If the roleplay is based around something specific, like masked marked is based around the tarot cards, then I find it easiest to start with whatever the RP owner has focused on. So for instance with Obsidian, Zack or Anabelle, I picked their cards before I even started looking at making a character. I chose cards that I knew I could work with. However, I didn't follow the same process with any one of the three after that.
With Sid, I knew I wanted him with his brother, so the second piece of his character after deciding he'd be a male with a twin that I put together was his personality. I picked a personality that would work well with his brother and hopefully with the other characters that were going to follow or were already in play. He's not quite a neutral party, but he's tolerant of most things because he puts up with Oni's antics a lot. XD
For Anabelle, after deciding her card and then deciding she'd be a girl, I picked her power. Because the magician card is unique in it's implied limitless power, I knew I needed to find a way to garner that power without making an OP character. The magician is a symbol of limitless possibilities, and having everything at your disposal to accomplish it and what worried me most with her, was trying to come up with something suitable. In doing that, I realized that to have her really strong with her gift, she would have to have had a lot of practice, so I came up with a reason for her to practice a lot. She became a shy and more withdrawn character, secretly hell bent on getting revenge for the death of her uncle.
Zack....well... zack was fun. XD The first thing I knew about him was his theme song, because I'd come across it while looking up one for Sid. I knew I wanted Zack haunted by the ghost of someone before I even knew what card I wanted him to have. When I picked the death card, I did so because I knew it would tie him to Kiora Nyx. I'd read in her profile that her mother had held the death card before she died, and so I'm sorta hoping for some sort of interaction between her and Zack to be spurred because of how he got his card. I wrote up a past for him, to explain how he might have gotten his card and mask without Radik giving him either, because I wanted him separate from the cardholders until now. I wanted him completely unused to the ghosts and freaky crap.
So how I make characters is completely determined by the circumstances surrounding each individual character creation, and I like it that way. ^^ I find the flexibility not only allows me to create more in depth and unique characters, but it allows me to adapt to every type of situation I've been placed in. By not tying myself down to one method, I'm never stumped by the creation process. I also like the freedom of working my characters into the story in unique ways as well as leaving room for expansion. There have been numerous times where I've started out with a scant skeleton for my character, but the more I plot and plan with the other members of the RP, the more filled out my own character's past becomes because I find ways to weave their stories together, or to potentially bring them together in the future.
Also, you mentioned creating characters from yourself, and I find that there's not a single character I have ever made that does not contain something of myself in them. Even the most vile individuals that I have created, hold some part of me. Hell... some of them hold very large parts of me. ^^;; I'm working on creating a character right now that is supposed to embody my inner self. Everything I would normally hide from other people because it's not right, or it's immoral. Everything that would make others look at me like a freak... and this character is all of those things brought to the surface. It's... interesting to look at the darker aspects of oneself and come to terms with the parts of you that nobody likes. ^^
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Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 1:31 pm
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Ahh, creating characters is my favorite part! =]
Like Algaliarep, how I create my character varies every time. It usually starts with the seed of an idea - I may come out of nowhere with a physical feature or personality trait that I want to use, then I built around that, adding piece by piece until I have a full character.
Many times it depends a lot on the role play I'm creating the character for. If there are set characters or sides, I can figure out a rough idea of how my character would need to act. As I develop their story, more personality traits come out due to what life has been like for them.
Something I've recently found pretty helpful is looking up the zodiac signs, where they provide personality descriptions for each sign. XD That way, you get both positive and negative character traits, giving you a more balanced character. It also lets you see a wide variety of personalities, so that you don't create copies of yourself, or previous characters.
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Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 7:09 pm
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e_e Yeep, that's one thing that intimidates me about Masked Marked. You guys WRITE SO MUCH!
I mean, I consider myself Literate-Moderate Advanced at the least, but there's no way I can crank out walls of text like that...
But I will agree with you on the layout thingie. ^^ I don't know how many times I've been in an RP and the OOC has had conversations like:
"Wait, you're sitting in a tree, watching us talk?"
"Yeah, so?"
"But we're talking on the roof."
"...It's a really tall tree."
Okay, actually that's never happened. But I HAVE had headaches trying to discern whether my character's room is in a tower or just a hallway.
I have looked at the cards, and I have a bit of prior knowledge with the Major Arcana as well. The problem is, as I told Mr. E, that the groups she has for the minor (King, Page, ect.) don't correspond to the cards as far as I can tell except for the Ace. The rest of them are numbered. I originally had planned to use a Cup, since I like bows quite a bit, but I don't think that a nutter would have the... discipline to use it well. >.< Though that COULD be another interesting plot point.
I do need to figure out just why Vyr would be crazy though. I scanned the 'Spirits' list a little bit ago, and do you think possession could be a viable reason? It just would be a little odd if he was, since I would think that the Arcane Society would be able to sense that sort of thing, and exorcise him if need be.
Perhaps there's some reason they can't... it's a friendly spirit, something from early childhood, or maybe it's caught up in his card somehow. Hmmn, the delicious possibilities.
^^ This is my personal favorite part of making characters, like -Blurred_Dreams- said, it starts out from just a single seed, and from here could branch out in so many different ways.
o_o I have to say though, the Zodiac idea sounds really good. Mind if I pick that up as well?
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Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 9:11 pm
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*snerk* You think that's a wall of text? And here I thought I was being reserved. XD Sympathetic and I have a one on one we're doing where each reply is about 7000 to 8000 words long right now. They started off somewhere closer to 4k or 5k each...but well... the more you're given to work with, the easier it is to write more in response. (hell just our little plotting sessions in IMs often max out my character limit so I have to post in separate paragraphs...)
If you consider yourself a moderate to advanced literate roleplayer, then you should also have the skills needed to keep up. That's one thing I've found about a lot of roleplays that I joined out in Barton town. You either step up, or step out. I would make a character, start writing, and then the only ones who would stick around would be the ones that were not intimidated by the amount written and could in fact, rise to the challenge and match it. It's how I met Meatie and Sympy. ^^ I joined an RP that a guildie friend had made that they were already a part of. By like the 10th page or whatever it was, we were almost the only three really writing in it. XD
Also, another point to us writing a lot, it just gives you more to work with. It drives me absolutely up the wall when you wait around for someone to post, and all you get is this itty bitty response where they essentially might as well have shifted from one foot to the other for all the good they've done. The point of a roleplay is not simply to react, but to also give others something to work with. A good writer will not simply read what others have put up, but they will take that and further the story somehow.
If I have Jimmy go to the store, whoever is writing with me should not simply sit there and watch Jimmy go to the store. The onus is on them to have their character perhaps follow him in and start throwing tomatoes at his head. Or to start up an armed robbery that poor Jimmy somehow gets stuck in. If all you do is watch what I do, well... I can do that myself, y'know? So the amount that some of us write may look intimidating, but if you take what's written and reply to it systematically and then add on yourself, you'll be amazed at just how much you are writing yourself. People tend not to realize just how much text goes into putting up a reaction, let alone reacting and then adding onto it.
Long story made short: It might look hard to keep up with, but if you actually want to, it's not. You can do it!
As for possession being a source of your madness... perhaps your character doesn't start out mad in the story? Perhaps he is indeed possessed, and the card holders sense this and remove the spirit, thinking they're doing him a favor, but that particular spirit has been embedded in him long enough that removing screws up his brain somehow and that's why he's crazy. ^^
>.> I'm not sure how the cups relate to bows...but then again, i haven't had internet for a while now and therefore haven't seen the changes that Hoshi put up regarding the minor arcana. ^^ I probably should review those sometime before she actually gets a chance to reply and kick this thing back into action.
...if she ever gets a chance.
I don't think I've ever met someone quite so darn busy. She's doing everything and then some. Every time I see her she's working, doing homework, doing a project, at school, or just about to eat dinner or sleep. Honestly. XD I don't think I've managed to ever speak to her when she wasn't doing one of the above.
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Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 10:02 pm
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Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 10:28 pm
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Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:55 am
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Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:52 pm
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crying You're laughing at me? Gee, that totally doesn't make my self esteem go down. ( razz )
I see what you're saying, though I think there can also be points where writing a lot can become overdoing it. Por ejemplo, I once was reading through an RP where the posts were even longer than this one (I believe the front page said the minimum post was like, five paragraphs), anyway for one lady's intro post, it literally spanned three years of her character's life without any major timeskips, and it wasn't a flashback. I mean, I respected her for being able to type that much out, but there come a point when there's just too much information that a lot of it becomes irrelevant. I also find that with much longer posts, the possibility for performing ten bajillion actions within a short time becomes greater.
Though, this may a problem unique to me. I'm aware of the fact that as a writer, I'm ill-suited to write novels. I just can't get a lot of the meaningful fluff in there that makes up a lot of the book. I'm not lacking per say, I just my writing style to be more concise.
Of course... my tendency to use size ten font could also have something to do with post size. ^^;
Hmmn, yeah that's along the lines of what I was thinking for the possession as well. The thing is, his mask is indicative of his madness I think, so it needs to be something deepset in his mind for that to work.
Or rather... when is it that they get the masks again? It's after the card right? >.> That's the other thing, I really like the idea of the spirit being tied up in the card somehow. But that looks like a dead end at the moment unless I get some sort of inspiration... maybe I'll take a shower later. That always helps.
Hokay, the thing with the Minor Arcana goes like this. The GM has the Minor Arcana divided into different groups, so that each group (like the Cups) has an Ace, a Page, a Knight, a Queen, and a King. However, with the link she provided to explain all the cards, the Minor Arcana does not have any of the above except for an Ace. Therefore, I cannot choose any card since I don't know which ones (if any) she has assigned to the Page, Knight ect.
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