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- Thread starter Justin
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By the way, this is not mine, It's GR1M's, so I am giving him the credit for it right now.
Whether you're a novice RPer or you've had twenty odd years of experience, creating an effective, fluent and interesting character is one of the trickiest, yet most interesting processes of the RP experience. Unfortunately, more often than not, people muddle it up, and it results in a lot of problems later on.
A poorly designed character profile will often result in a poorly portrayed character that ends up being dropped within two weeks of the character's conceptualization. So, this whole post is all about decreasing the amount of dropped characters, as well as helping you create more interesting characters that will help contribute to the RP world of SWRP.com.
Considerations
Creating a character concept is far deeper than, 'I'm making a Jedi', or, 'A Sith would be a cool character.' Faction should not define character, but if you wish to create a character for a particular faction, you need to keep in mind realism towards that profile. For example, you would not have a trained Jedi fighting with the Mandalorians, so keep universe 'realism' in mind while you start developing your character.
Motive
Now, don't bother with appearance, inventory, even history until you have a motive for your character. Someone without motive really isn't that impressive to RP with, as they tend to amble through aimlessly, and this can be quite dull. Ask yourselves, 'Why is my character doing this? Why do they not just stay at home and let the world pass them by?' THIS is where motive comes into play. I'll use Khavaal as an example here. Why does he wish to become Dark Lord of the Sith? Why does he want to learn about the Grandfather? Aside from ambition and a lust for power, Khavaal goes a fair bit deeper than this. He's looking for a sense of belonging. Khavaal is an unnatural creation, so he needs to know why he was made, as well why he was chosen to have potential for the Hidden Art. Of course, there is a lot more knowledge on the Hidden Art - at least in it's primitive form - that can be accessed by only the top echelons of the Sith. Khavaal is not a freindship type, so he never was in a place of trust with either Nexus or Provin, so he uses violence in an attempt to gain what he desires.
So, you can see why motive is so important, and why it makes Khavaal so interesting, because everything he does is for a purpose. It is not random destruction or ambition, it is a hunt for meaning. Compare that to, say, 'Khavaal kills and fights for no reason other than the want to do violence.' Note how the latter is empty, without purpose, and completely void of anything interesting.
Other examples of motive could be a desire to bring glory to a fallen Mandalorian clan, to restore order and law in the galaxy, or to find the truth of the war regardless of all consequences.
Personality: Beginning
Alright, now we have an anomaly of a character, but with a purpose. Motive also helps you in personality creation. By looking into a character's motive, you can begin to understand the basest of values this character holds. I'll use the Mandalorian seeking to restore honour to their clan for this one. If this Mandalorian seeks to restore honour, they will be loathe to do anything that fall even within the level of questionable honour by the Mandalorian codes. So this Mandalorian will obviously be a very honourable type, and will probably follow any order form a superior as long as they adhere to such tenets. So, you can begin to get an outline of what the character values. This will help you later on in fleshing out personality.
Historical notes
To help develop a sense of motive, now is a good time to start coming up with ideas of why the character is so motivated to do things. Putting down small dot points on why a character is motivated to do evil are very handy later on in writing a biography. Now i'll admit, i'm quite weak at writing bios, as I simply don't have the time or dedication to wrtie a complete detailed ligfe story of a character. But i'm always sure to have at least written up dot points on a few sheets of paper at home which I can refer to. Khavaal is about ten pages of dotnotes now, actually...the more he does, the more complex he grows. But that's not character conceptualization.
Anyway, historical notes. Ask yourself what has happened in your character's life to make them drive towards their goal, what has happened that has motivated them. And for God's sakes, don't just make it a single event. A single event that causes a major turnaround is boring and way overdone. Make it so your character's entire life has been leading them towards such motivations. A fall from grace, a chance encounter, even a friend being injured as a child all help you felsh out your character's history, as well as go towards explaining why your character behaves in the way they do.
Personality: Polishing it off
Now we have a distinct feel of motive, the beginning of a history, and the outline of a personality, it's time to go back to personality and flesh it out even more. Personality isn't just about what a character acts like, or how they will likely react to a random encounter. Personality is about personal preference. What does your character like? What do they dislike? How will they behave if x happens? If given the choice between x and y which will your character choose? This portion is as crucial to a good profile as motive is. The more solid your understanding of your character's behavioral patterns, the better you will be able to respond to situations, even strange ones. If, for example, a character were to describe a snake slithering in a tree nearby, and your character had a fear of snakes, take that fear, compare it with your personality and behavioral patterns, and from that, you can deduct a responce to the situation. Knowing what and how your character responds to things is vital to a fun and interesting character to roleplay.
Also, if you are considering a race that is not human, now is the time you need to research that race, and make an understanding of how they commonly behave, and use that in your profile, as well. From my experience, a Drow (for example) that acts like bloody Drizzt Do'Urden is a bore and an annoyance. They are fun to kill, though, simply for acting like cliche morons.
The Personality Quirk
The difference between a good an an amazing character concept is the amount of thought gone into the character. Not appearance or stat-wise, but again, personality-wise. An excellent way of developing personality further is the Personality Quirk. These are little oddities in the way a character behaves, their use of mannerisms, weaknesses etc. Personality quirks make your character more tangible. For example, a phobia towards certain alien lifeforms, or maybe a peculiar way one shakes another's hand makes them more interesting to roleplay, as these minor points add interest and flavour to your posts. Even a speech impediment can make your character that much more interesting to play. Personality Quirks are more about making your character deeper and more unique, and help you stand out from a crowd. Ideally, every character should have quirks, if only to make them more interesting to read, and to roleplay.
Appearance
Only now, when you have the idea of hwo your character behaves, and why they behave in such a manner, should you really delve into appearance. If you can't find an image that matches your character, then don't bother - a little image isn't going to make your profile amazing, but the content will. Also, remember that what may appear aesthetically pleasing and ideal also may not work for your character. Female warriors in skimpy outfits look good, but as soon as the blasters start firing, they really don't have much protection. Also, keep in mind that factions may have a commonly accepted way of dressing. Changing this may seem a good idea, but it really isn't very necessary - if you've written your profile correctly, you won't need them to dress differently to make an impact. That being said, by making personal alterations to a faction's uniform or acceptable way of dress may in fact make your character more interesting, as it shows they reflect on the outside what drives them on the inside. Tattoos or other bodily marks are a nice way to do this, especially for, for example, a Jedi. This allows them to wear their traditional garb, but these markings show an individual and personal streak, and make your character again, a little deeper and more interesting to communicate with.
Biography
Finally, you may write up a bio for your character. Using the plot points you wrote up earlier to explain your character's drives and desires, and any points of interest you may have come up with while you were devloping the idea of your character. Biography doesn't mean write down everything that happened in your life, from the length of the labour to the number of times they had to go to hospital, but it does mean that most points of interest in your character's life up until 'present' should be at least noted. Major contributions towards motives and vlaues in life should be more detailed than minor points, but other details, such as their first crush, maybe, or a childhood injury, should also be added to create a sense of tangibility. Again, don't write down every detail. You do have to make the profile interesting as well as detailed, though that's a bit more difficult.
If you can't write the whole biography in one sitting, then don't do it. Pace yourself, and take your time. You may find your bio easier to write once you've started RPing with your character, so don't set everything in concrete.
By following these points, you can help yourself in creating a lastable, tangible and interesting character. Good luck, and happy creating!
Whether you're a novice RPer or you've had twenty odd years of experience, creating an effective, fluent and interesting character is one of the trickiest, yet most interesting processes of the RP experience. Unfortunately, more often than not, people muddle it up, and it results in a lot of problems later on.
A poorly designed character profile will often result in a poorly portrayed character that ends up being dropped within two weeks of the character's conceptualization. So, this whole post is all about decreasing the amount of dropped characters, as well as helping you create more interesting characters that will help contribute to the RP world of SWRP.com.
Considerations
Creating a character concept is far deeper than, 'I'm making a Jedi', or, 'A Sith would be a cool character.' Faction should not define character, but if you wish to create a character for a particular faction, you need to keep in mind realism towards that profile. For example, you would not have a trained Jedi fighting with the Mandalorians, so keep universe 'realism' in mind while you start developing your character.
Motive
Now, don't bother with appearance, inventory, even history until you have a motive for your character. Someone without motive really isn't that impressive to RP with, as they tend to amble through aimlessly, and this can be quite dull. Ask yourselves, 'Why is my character doing this? Why do they not just stay at home and let the world pass them by?' THIS is where motive comes into play. I'll use Khavaal as an example here. Why does he wish to become Dark Lord of the Sith? Why does he want to learn about the Grandfather? Aside from ambition and a lust for power, Khavaal goes a fair bit deeper than this. He's looking for a sense of belonging. Khavaal is an unnatural creation, so he needs to know why he was made, as well why he was chosen to have potential for the Hidden Art. Of course, there is a lot more knowledge on the Hidden Art - at least in it's primitive form - that can be accessed by only the top echelons of the Sith. Khavaal is not a freindship type, so he never was in a place of trust with either Nexus or Provin, so he uses violence in an attempt to gain what he desires.
So, you can see why motive is so important, and why it makes Khavaal so interesting, because everything he does is for a purpose. It is not random destruction or ambition, it is a hunt for meaning. Compare that to, say, 'Khavaal kills and fights for no reason other than the want to do violence.' Note how the latter is empty, without purpose, and completely void of anything interesting.
Other examples of motive could be a desire to bring glory to a fallen Mandalorian clan, to restore order and law in the galaxy, or to find the truth of the war regardless of all consequences.
Personality: Beginning
Alright, now we have an anomaly of a character, but with a purpose. Motive also helps you in personality creation. By looking into a character's motive, you can begin to understand the basest of values this character holds. I'll use the Mandalorian seeking to restore honour to their clan for this one. If this Mandalorian seeks to restore honour, they will be loathe to do anything that fall even within the level of questionable honour by the Mandalorian codes. So this Mandalorian will obviously be a very honourable type, and will probably follow any order form a superior as long as they adhere to such tenets. So, you can begin to get an outline of what the character values. This will help you later on in fleshing out personality.
Historical notes
To help develop a sense of motive, now is a good time to start coming up with ideas of why the character is so motivated to do things. Putting down small dot points on why a character is motivated to do evil are very handy later on in writing a biography. Now i'll admit, i'm quite weak at writing bios, as I simply don't have the time or dedication to wrtie a complete detailed ligfe story of a character. But i'm always sure to have at least written up dot points on a few sheets of paper at home which I can refer to. Khavaal is about ten pages of dotnotes now, actually...the more he does, the more complex he grows. But that's not character conceptualization.
Anyway, historical notes. Ask yourself what has happened in your character's life to make them drive towards their goal, what has happened that has motivated them. And for God's sakes, don't just make it a single event. A single event that causes a major turnaround is boring and way overdone. Make it so your character's entire life has been leading them towards such motivations. A fall from grace, a chance encounter, even a friend being injured as a child all help you felsh out your character's history, as well as go towards explaining why your character behaves in the way they do.
Personality: Polishing it off
Now we have a distinct feel of motive, the beginning of a history, and the outline of a personality, it's time to go back to personality and flesh it out even more. Personality isn't just about what a character acts like, or how they will likely react to a random encounter. Personality is about personal preference. What does your character like? What do they dislike? How will they behave if x happens? If given the choice between x and y which will your character choose? This portion is as crucial to a good profile as motive is. The more solid your understanding of your character's behavioral patterns, the better you will be able to respond to situations, even strange ones. If, for example, a character were to describe a snake slithering in a tree nearby, and your character had a fear of snakes, take that fear, compare it with your personality and behavioral patterns, and from that, you can deduct a responce to the situation. Knowing what and how your character responds to things is vital to a fun and interesting character to roleplay.
Also, if you are considering a race that is not human, now is the time you need to research that race, and make an understanding of how they commonly behave, and use that in your profile, as well. From my experience, a Drow (for example) that acts like bloody Drizzt Do'Urden is a bore and an annoyance. They are fun to kill, though, simply for acting like cliche morons.
The Personality Quirk
The difference between a good an an amazing character concept is the amount of thought gone into the character. Not appearance or stat-wise, but again, personality-wise. An excellent way of developing personality further is the Personality Quirk. These are little oddities in the way a character behaves, their use of mannerisms, weaknesses etc. Personality quirks make your character more tangible. For example, a phobia towards certain alien lifeforms, or maybe a peculiar way one shakes another's hand makes them more interesting to roleplay, as these minor points add interest and flavour to your posts. Even a speech impediment can make your character that much more interesting to play. Personality Quirks are more about making your character deeper and more unique, and help you stand out from a crowd. Ideally, every character should have quirks, if only to make them more interesting to read, and to roleplay.
Appearance
Only now, when you have the idea of hwo your character behaves, and why they behave in such a manner, should you really delve into appearance. If you can't find an image that matches your character, then don't bother - a little image isn't going to make your profile amazing, but the content will. Also, remember that what may appear aesthetically pleasing and ideal also may not work for your character. Female warriors in skimpy outfits look good, but as soon as the blasters start firing, they really don't have much protection. Also, keep in mind that factions may have a commonly accepted way of dressing. Changing this may seem a good idea, but it really isn't very necessary - if you've written your profile correctly, you won't need them to dress differently to make an impact. That being said, by making personal alterations to a faction's uniform or acceptable way of dress may in fact make your character more interesting, as it shows they reflect on the outside what drives them on the inside. Tattoos or other bodily marks are a nice way to do this, especially for, for example, a Jedi. This allows them to wear their traditional garb, but these markings show an individual and personal streak, and make your character again, a little deeper and more interesting to communicate with.
Biography
Finally, you may write up a bio for your character. Using the plot points you wrote up earlier to explain your character's drives and desires, and any points of interest you may have come up with while you were devloping the idea of your character. Biography doesn't mean write down everything that happened in your life, from the length of the labour to the number of times they had to go to hospital, but it does mean that most points of interest in your character's life up until 'present' should be at least noted. Major contributions towards motives and vlaues in life should be more detailed than minor points, but other details, such as their first crush, maybe, or a childhood injury, should also be added to create a sense of tangibility. Again, don't write down every detail. You do have to make the profile interesting as well as detailed, though that's a bit more difficult.
If you can't write the whole biography in one sitting, then don't do it. Pace yourself, and take your time. You may find your bio easier to write once you've started RPing with your character, so don't set everything in concrete.
By following these points, you can help yourself in creating a lastable, tangible and interesting character. Good luck, and happy creating!
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Hi, welcome to the site. For the profile in the rp profiles section there is a template for character creation.
And niner you could have just linked it.
And niner you could have just linked it.
Hi, welcome to the site.
And niner you could have just linked it.
you're right, I could have, but were's the fun in that? People hardly ever click on links, at least I don't.
By the way, this is not mine, It's GR1M's, so I am giving him the credit for it right now.
Whether you're a novice RPer or you've had twenty odd years of experience, creating an effective, fluent and interesting character is one of the trickiest, yet most interesting processes of the RP experience. Unfortunately, more...
BAM first post you made gets attacked with a two page essay! (I think)
Hai2u!
Welcome to the site. A more common backstory everyone likes to use is a tragic one ('My parents beat me when I was growing up, QQ' or dead parents) - Its simple enough. To get the basic idea of a Bio you can read others and it should give you the basic know-how you need.
When in doubt (As the other guys said), ask the Admin!
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