The Character Creation Process (Full Version)

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Apocalypse -> The Character Creation Process (2/13/2016 13:40:38)

Creating a character can take you on many interesting twists and turns as you bring them to life piece by piece. This thread is just to talk about some of the obstacles or wonders each individual experiences during it. Discuss any trends you notice for yourself, any roadblocks, how you overcome them, etc. Might just get an interesting insight and even learn a trick or two.


For example, I find my characters spend a lot of time in the brainstorming stage and one character is an amalgamation of a couple of prototypes. Lucia Deis, my paladin werewolf, originally didn't use chains or light incarnations at all. She had the far more typical appearance and move set of a paladin - armor head to toe and a few light-based spells. At the same time, I had an idea for a character known as Azun, a God-King who who resurrected in mortal form. He used chains that could be moved like limbs and create weapons of light that attached to the chains. Ultimately I scrapped Lucia's armor and weapons, gave the chains, and downgraded them from being to be moved freely and the limited number of uses. I need to give Azun something else now, but I was very pleased with how Lucia came to be.

I'll include more examples of I have time (and if people seem genuinely interested).



Kellehendros -> RE: The Character Creation Process (2/13/2016 14:46:42)

Character creation is, perhaps, one of the most fascinating and frustrating parts of the RP process. World creation is interesting, but at the end of the day, the characters that populate the world always play a more important role than the setting itself, so character creation is probably the lynch pin of the process.

For my part, I find that characters come to me in two different ways. Some characters, like Micha, to continue the thread of discussion on the last EC, come very easily. Micha showed up, somewhat annoyingly, in the middle of the 2014 EC dropoffs and absolutely would not leave me alone. While aspects of her story and history continued to evolve over time, the major components of her creation showed up early and remained largely unchanged. I knew what she was and what she could do. The largest hurdle was very much the who of the Kissa, and, as I found out a bit later, the why.

It is hard, of course, to see character creation through someone else's eyes, but for me, my best, most vibrant characters have been surprises as much to myself as to other players or readers. I follow the thread as it plays out, only to find that the character has lead me to a completely unexpected vista, a place or experience in their history, or an action or word the character seems to insist on that goes against my conception of the main thrust of the character but is somehow still uniquely them.

Tharala, another EC character, was rather a different affair. I would not describe her creation as difficult, but merely say that while Micha was present and ready to talk to me, I had to spend some time chasing Tharala, and she was built much more consciously on my part. In the end, I was not quite happy with her development, but thankfully over the course of the EC itself (and with the assistance of other fantastic characters to play her off) she came into her own, so to speak. She found her voice, or perhaps I found hers.



Remaint -> RE: The Character Creation Process (2/13/2016 19:49:36)

Character creation sometimes come rather fluidly to me. It’s often in the beginning of the process I have a raw template of a personality, and a raw template of supernatural or mundane concepts, and like a plug and socket, they simply fit.

My Ethna Graves began as a reckless, defiant, and joy chasing girl who gives no damns. I asked myself, what factors would lead to such a personality? The supernatural answer? Immortality. The mundane answer? Sword & buckler or sword & targe; an excellent defensive choice of arms that allows an individual to bypass the points of any melee weapon as well as negate a huge factor of reach. While potent, this set of tools is also very portable. Though immortal, Ethna’s not undead, and can be uncomfortable sometimes. So her targe is lined with soft fur on its back, and Ethna can feel nice sleeping on the pillowy shield.

Woyadei. A loyal and dedicated soldier of a cold organisation. He likes efficiency, he wants quick results, and he looks down upon excess flashiness. So I gave him the abilities of lightning and near-immunity to magic. For the mundane piece, I gave him my self-declared King of any single combat weapon of unarmoured context, the Austrian Glaive, a nimble, long and double edged blade with a backspike. It has all the things a duelist wants; a huge amount of cutting area, huge leverage and huge range.

Folliwen. She isn’t very potent naturally, being a small girl, but she wants to be of use; she tries hard. How can I grant her the utility she so desires? Hand her alot of time. She’s an elf, she has the years, and the agility to get her here and there. Give her a musket. Simple to use, and punches harder than most things demanding skill. Folli’s friendly. Maybe she’ll find some friends that will help her out. Folli doesn't like being alone, so I put her in the middle of my post.

Seiserna. She likes pretty things, and she doesn’t like it when she’s powerless. She can be an awful person, and drag people down; she’s also a coward sometimes. So I made her a sorceress, controlling quicksands and hot chains. I gave her invisibility, so she can hide. Seiserna wants a powerful presence, but she isn’t all that tough. I gave her a sword, the longsword. In two hands, such a weapon conserves much energy, and can be crafted to a beauty Seiserna will appreciate.

Qarusis. A lazy, but powerful soldier of a cold organisation. What things could I give him that will emphasize, just how slothy he can be? Associate him with glaciers. He’s always chill, figuratively and literally. Make it so that he’s undead, and so lacking the ability to feel discomfort, can’t be bothered to take off his armour, and so continually wears full plate wherever he goes. He’s tall and muscled, but doesn’t apply himself very often. Like a glacier, Qarusis doesn’t care for much, and though slow most of the time, he is mighty and hard to move, being so physically clad and resistant to magic.

The trouble I come across, is when I don’t know very much about the attributes my character has.

Iesen, Raven of the East, is a doctor-obscuromancer. While I could make up crap for the latter occupation, there are things readily defined for the former, that I have no experience to regard with. Iesen was supposed to be one of the main five characters I use, but I just couldn’t play him with my limited medical knowledge. I have to state as I laugh, that Iesen would have been accused of malpractice had I played him, hahahah.

A less relevant challenge that I come across, is the amount of main characters I could realistically play. There are just so much I want to use; Hollie Malqeles the Fledgling Deathknight. Veliva, the Deathknight Mermaid. Rhea Tombs, the Crusader Conquistador. Cereval, the Gladiator Succubus. So on and so forth.

In the end I settle for a main five, as I likely couldn’t get into the heads of more than that amount.

(I'm genuinely interested in having Apocalypse explain his...well, whatever he wants to explain. Same with everyone. Sentences are delicious.)



Apocalypse -> RE: The Character Creation Process (2/28/2016 13:34:19)

So a little more...

I don't think "amalgamations" is the proper way of explanation. Rather, a character will be formed in terms of mind and personality. Then the exterior and more physical traits are added afterwards (with tweaking to the personality/mind/history as a result). For those physical traits, they come from a pool of skills that I come up with overtime. For example, I have a character (who has yet to grace these forums as of yet) who has pulled certain traits that I had previously designated for other characters. My paladin Lucia originally had a more stereoptyical moveset and armor with owl imagery. For an Orc character, I developed an aura that ties into physical combat (orcs often forego magic, but I wanted to see what it would be like if they had a magic that played to their strengths). The currently-unused character ended up with both the owl armor and aura magic.

(Amusingly, the unused char and Lucia have some striking similarities I noticed after the fact. I wonder if that was my unconscious mind being lazy or creating a sort of "what if?" for Lucia.)

As for other characters, I try to make them go against the typical archetype in some sense. Nilburke is a goblin and a scholar (albeit a rude one), and Hendrik is an elf who took to the seas as a privateer instead of being forest bound. I also have a potential rivalry between an orc and elf where the former is spiritual and the latter more of a blood knight. Also have been going on a non-human binge right now as they seem to be the majority and its fun to be the last man out.



black knight 1234567 -> RE: The Character Creation Process (4/7/2016 23:52:44)

I never planned a bio out to be honest, its all spontaneous.

I paste the bio format into the small white box below when you click ''Fast Reply'' and just juggle around ideas and various inspirations till I like something.



Remaint -> RE: The Character Creation Process (4/8/2016 3:13:19)

Wow. That's rather surprising. I like your characters. They seem to embody the traditional main hero archtype well, something I really enjoy.

You have some fortune just churning out characters without much thought put into them!



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