Guide Character Creation

[Valiant 96]

Get the Character Template here!

 

Overview

Your character is not God, not immortal, and not invincible. The most human character is one that readers relate to the most. Make your character believable. Your character profile is the how other players get the first impression of your character. Providing detailed information about your character gives your character a good start in the role play.

A good character biography helps other players get to know you and your role play skills. In some sense, this is a "sample RP" that is required by some RPG sites.

 

Character accounts

Your main forum account is your out-of-character (OOC) account. Use this account when engaging in OOC chat or interacting on the boards as yourself.

Create a character account for each character you play. Enter the link to your character profile's in the character account's signature. You can select the characters you wish to post as from the user menu bar. We will add more features to character accounts when the forum grows in activity and size. So stay tuned!

 

Name

Your character should have a proper name. If you are using the same family name as another character and are not related, state so explicitly. If you wish to play a relative of another character, please seek permission from the character owner before doing so. 

Ideally, you should use a unique name to give you character individuality. Names of canon characters are not allowed. Avoid naming your characters after real life persons or famous characters. Be original.

 

Avatar

Each character must be represented by an avatar. The avatar helps other players to identify your character. You can change the avatar to signify a change in the character. However, avoid switching avatars too often as that would defeat the purpose of having an avatar.

 

Personality

Many people tend to be very vague about their characters' personality. Try to avoid stating "Depends on the situation" or something along that line. Give something solid that other players can relate to. Or describe a specific situation that highlight a particular character trait. Unique traits make your character easily recognizable.

 

Strengths and weaknesses

To create a good character, try to keep your character as realistic as possible. Strengths and weaknesses are not always what they are. A strength in a situation can be a weakness in another. No one is perfect. Everyone has a flaw which might turn advantageous for them in certain situations.

Personality oddities add an extra dimension and realism to your character. Play around with them to find a blend that suits you and create a character that is real, one that you can call your own.

 

Appearance

A big mistake in describing your character's appearance is to state "See avatar" or simply post an image of how the character looks like. It shows that you are not too interested in the role play and your character. Do not let the character avatar limit the appearance of your character. Let you imagination run free! Be creative!

You can choose to use the fields provided and tell us about your character. It would be more interesting and a good practice if you describe the character's appearance in prose form. Describing the appearance is a good practice for your descriptive skills and it shows that you are serious about the role play.
 
Never refer to things outside the role play. Saying something like "She wears a suit like the one worn by Aeon of Aeonflux." wouldn't make sense since there is no Aeonflux in the role play. You don't see a novelist using that kind of description.
 
Be realistic. Try to let your character's hair colour be natural. That does not mean that a character can be born with blue or green hair. They can have their hair dyed but remember to state the natural colour too.
 
Identifying marks can range from birthmarks to tattoos to scars to simple things like thin-framed glasses or neatly trimmed moustache. Scars and tattoos are overused. Small details can still be unique.
 
Please note that ambidextrous characters would be able to use skills as competently with both hands but would suffer a penalty compared to a character who favours one hand. In other words, the a right-handed character can write better with the right hand compared to an ambidextrous character while the ambidextrous character would write better with the left hand than the right-handed character.

 

History

Try to think of certain important experiences your character has had. Personal history does not mean writing down your character's life story. That would just be too boring. Try to be creative and think of unique situations your character faced that shaped him or her into the person he or she is.

Characters can develop and change as time goes by. We change in real life, so can your characters. They grow with each experience they gain. They would eventually die, either of  old age or die a glorious death in battle. We encourage you to update the history section to document the changes to your characters as a result of their encounters in the role play.

 

Possessions

Be reasonable when creating this list. Only list notable items that may affect the role play and how other players interact with your character. Link to items that have an entry in the Compendium. You should be able to show or prove that you earned the special items in the role play.

 

Role plays

This helps readers to follow the journey of your character through the RP. This is a list of the RP threads that the character has been involved in. It is good practice to do this when you join a role play thread so you will not forget to do so later on. If you have a long list, consider categorising them by events, such as battles or wars.