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Jade's Guide to Role-playing: Part Three
Aug. 30th, 2011 11:02 amI bet you thought I forgot about this. I haven't, I've just been busy with life and uninspired. These posts are tagged for your convenience.
Character Creation: The Importance of Personality
You've read about the setting, you've got at least a vague idea of what race and job/class you want, and maybe you've compiled all your stats or are in the process of doing the math. Now comes the big question:
What kind of character do you want to play?
It's easy to say you want to play a warrior, but what kind of warrior do you want to be? Do you decapitate first and ask questions later or do you only draw your sword only when it is necessary to save a life? Are you a new recruit eager for some action or are you a grizzled veteran who has experienced the horrors of war?
Leaving aside your job/class, has your character ever been in love? If not, does s/he have a desire to fall in love someday? (Think about that question especially as it can tell you so much.) Has s/he lost someone near and dear? Is s/he happiest around a group of friends or does s/he prefer to be more of a loner? Answering questions like this are good ways to shape your character's personality. Personality gives dimension to what would otherwise be a flat and boring character. It tells us what a character might do in a given situation which makes role-play come that much easier.
Looking at the campaign/game setting can help you figure out some key personality traits too. If there's been a war or a natural disaster that occurred in your character's lifetime, it might be a defining moment in his/her life, especially if that event wiped out about 90% of your race's population overnight (I'm looking at you, blood elves). Someone raised in the aftermath of catastrophic devestation might not be as well-adjusted as someone else who spent their life in a loving home. Just make sure not to overdo the tragedy angle. Maybe you lost a friend or a relativeand your parents are dead!, but try not to fall into the trap of being the only survivor of an attack no one could reasonably survive, or don't make this singular happening the sole defining incident in your character's life. Even traumatic events are only slivers of time that shape us.
Be wary of being too dark. I love a good dollop of angst in most all of my characters, and many of them are tortured souls one degree or another, but there is such a thing as laying it on too thick and it's hard to role-play with someone who is a Debbie Downer all the time. Also, if your background is gory and full of abuse, it might understandably turn off perspective role-play partners. Some otherwise great role-players seem to turn this into some sort of masochistic contest of whose character has more woe, and that's less than fun and distracts from the plot.
[Side-Note: Rape as part of a character's backstory should be handled with care, though I might suggest you drop that idea altogether. Mostly it's a personal thing of having seen way too many people use rape as an easy way to introduce strife, but the reality of rape hits too close to home for many players and seeing it used as a cheap tactic to garner sympathy can be aggravating at best, triggering at worst. It can be handled realistically and with respect, though experience tells me this rarely happens.]
On the flip side, you might want to be Susy Sunshine to counteract all the emo you will likely encounter. Maybe your character has had an easy life, loving parents, and even a pony, or maybe s/he lost everything in a flood but has made the decision to put it behind him/her and soldier on. S/he is not going to let the darkness win, by golly!
Whatever you decide, be consistent. Unless you're several characters sharing one body (which has been done, surprisingly well at that), you're not going to one day love chocolate and the next day hate it (well, that isn't taking into account the occurence of a sudden horrible chocolate tragedy). If something is causing enough conflict to disrupt the game, sure go ahead and look at what can be done to help remedy it, but otherwise expect the characters to have conflict. No group of people can come together and be the best of friends right away or even all the time, and if your character abhors broccoli then the other broccoli loving character is just going to have to deal with your dislike of said vegetable.
Up next: Character tropes and how to use them, or not use them. Hopefully it won't be another four months between posts. Then again, I'll be visiting TV Tropes, so no guarantees I can pull myself out of that wormhole.
Character Creation: The Importance of Personality
You've read about the setting, you've got at least a vague idea of what race and job/class you want, and maybe you've compiled all your stats or are in the process of doing the math. Now comes the big question:
What kind of character do you want to play?
It's easy to say you want to play a warrior, but what kind of warrior do you want to be? Do you decapitate first and ask questions later or do you only draw your sword only when it is necessary to save a life? Are you a new recruit eager for some action or are you a grizzled veteran who has experienced the horrors of war?
Leaving aside your job/class, has your character ever been in love? If not, does s/he have a desire to fall in love someday? (Think about that question especially as it can tell you so much.) Has s/he lost someone near and dear? Is s/he happiest around a group of friends or does s/he prefer to be more of a loner? Answering questions like this are good ways to shape your character's personality. Personality gives dimension to what would otherwise be a flat and boring character. It tells us what a character might do in a given situation which makes role-play come that much easier.
Looking at the campaign/game setting can help you figure out some key personality traits too. If there's been a war or a natural disaster that occurred in your character's lifetime, it might be a defining moment in his/her life, especially if that event wiped out about 90% of your race's population overnight (I'm looking at you, blood elves). Someone raised in the aftermath of catastrophic devestation might not be as well-adjusted as someone else who spent their life in a loving home. Just make sure not to overdo the tragedy angle. Maybe you lost a friend or a relative
Be wary of being too dark. I love a good dollop of angst in most all of my characters, and many of them are tortured souls one degree or another, but there is such a thing as laying it on too thick and it's hard to role-play with someone who is a Debbie Downer all the time. Also, if your background is gory and full of abuse, it might understandably turn off perspective role-play partners. Some otherwise great role-players seem to turn this into some sort of masochistic contest of whose character has more woe, and that's less than fun and distracts from the plot.
[Side-Note: Rape as part of a character's backstory should be handled with care, though I might suggest you drop that idea altogether. Mostly it's a personal thing of having seen way too many people use rape as an easy way to introduce strife, but the reality of rape hits too close to home for many players and seeing it used as a cheap tactic to garner sympathy can be aggravating at best, triggering at worst. It can be handled realistically and with respect, though experience tells me this rarely happens.]
On the flip side, you might want to be Susy Sunshine to counteract all the emo you will likely encounter. Maybe your character has had an easy life, loving parents, and even a pony, or maybe s/he lost everything in a flood but has made the decision to put it behind him/her and soldier on. S/he is not going to let the darkness win, by golly!
Whatever you decide, be consistent. Unless you're several characters sharing one body (which has been done, surprisingly well at that), you're not going to one day love chocolate and the next day hate it (well, that isn't taking into account the occurence of a sudden horrible chocolate tragedy). If something is causing enough conflict to disrupt the game, sure go ahead and look at what can be done to help remedy it, but otherwise expect the characters to have conflict. No group of people can come together and be the best of friends right away or even all the time, and if your character abhors broccoli then the other broccoli loving character is just going to have to deal with your dislike of said vegetable.
Up next: Character tropes and how to use them, or not use them. Hopefully it won't be another four months between posts. Then again, I'll be visiting TV Tropes, so no guarantees I can pull myself out of that wormhole.
