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Dusk of Sentience; Player's Lounge

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Fusionman Since: Nov, 2009
Colonial1.1 Purveyor of Obscurity from The Marvelous River City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Purveyor of Obscurity
#1902: Oct 17th 2011 at 1:41:43 AM

But, Mister Fusion, surely you know how to happily go about the business of role play? I've seen you do it before. Through this, you learn how to do so competently as well. Just combine the two.

"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."
Fusionman Since: Nov, 2009
#1903: Oct 17th 2011 at 1:42:50 AM

I used to be happy.

But you've seen me recently.

Anno actually banned me of talking about my self-loathing in depression on anything AGOG-related.

SOCR Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Get out of here, STALKER
Colonial1.1 Purveyor of Obscurity from The Marvelous River City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Purveyor of Obscurity
#1905: Oct 17th 2011 at 1:48:24 AM

But, if you regain that state with the knowledge that you're doing better, isn't it more genuine?

Come on, you've reached a degree of acceptance. Time to either get to work, or go to bed, Then get to work after that.

"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."
Fusionman Since: Nov, 2009
#1906: Oct 17th 2011 at 1:48:40 AM

Sleep Col. That is what I require.

edited 17th Oct '11 1:49:15 AM by Fusionman

SOCR Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Get out of here, STALKER
#1907: Oct 17th 2011 at 1:56:51 AM

Lesson Two: Making a Character.

The thing about this lesson that is both cool and very, very confusing, is it’s a process that starts long before you actually make a character. It’s a constant thing. It happens when you’re bored and have nothing to do. It happens while you read a book or play a game. It happens when you can’t focus on your homework because your mom didn’t refill your Ritalin prescription, or it happens when you’re on the verge of falling asleep from it because she did.

Many ‘higher-caliber’ roleplayers will have a stable of around half a dozen or more general concepts they work off of when they make new characters. They are the vaguest of outlines that evolve into a new product every time, but at the core of these player’s stables are these same seeds. When many people speak of recycling characters, they could be referring to the fact that they evolved one seed a similar way to as they did before. These are usually archtypes they either found they could play well or enjoy playing, and therefore revisit in different forms many times. This is the part that comes when you’re not even anywhere near an internet connection. These archtypes can be formed whenever you have idle thoughts. Read about a certain character or concept somewhere, say to yourself “That may be fun to play!” Develop it in a generic sense, just to see if the idea is doable.

The second important aspect is good old inspiration. Forcing yourself to try and play a character you don’t feel connected to is a disaster waiting to happen, and it won’t be fun for anyone involved. If you didn’t get even the roughest of character outlines in your head by the time you’ve finished reading the general description or overview of the RP you’re looking to join, it’s probably not an RP for you. If inspiration strikes you when you’re off doing something else, a bit of “Oh, that idea would be awesome in this RP I looked at a few days ago”, power to you, type it up and take it for a spin. But if you just sit and stare at the RP for a couple hours and cobble something together using nothing but sheer force of will and a couple random tropes from a hat, it’s probably not going to end well.

Now for some people, there are exceptions. Pen-and-paper roleplays find this more or less a necessity due to the structure, but even then many people approach a game with a vague idea of how they want to play. But in a play-by-post, especially a freeform one, a character will always need a life underneath the block of text that is called a character bio. You can never convey, in a single document, all the nuances of a character that make it realistic. Those nuances are usually fueled by an idea or spirit that was given life through other means, and that’s what you get from that crucial spark of inspiration or experience having played that type of character before. When players talk about getting a picture or an image of a character in their head, or speak of the ability to get in the character’s mind and play from their perspective, most of the time this is what they mean; those forms stem from this root that lies beneath the plain words that merely describe. Playing a character to the letter of a bio is a very bad move, as it makes the character exactly as flat as the bio describes, and gives no room for flexibility or growth.

Sometimes a character doesn’t unfold as the bio described when you wrote it up. You need to really look at it, especially if this happened early in the game. Maybe the character gained a life of its own you didn’t foresee, or managed to encounter several situations which you didn’t account for and led it down a different path. I approach this by pacing the character through several mock scenarios in my mind, seeing how they react, and if it is consistent with the changes I’ve been seeing, I accept the character has turned out to be different than my original vision and I change the bio accordingly. This is just fine. Healthy, in fact, because it shows your character really does have that life of its own that is essential to good play.

If these mental tests come back erratic or wildly varying in how the character responds with regards to the initial characterization, it’s a sign you don’t have a good image of your character, or that it isn’t well-defined. You should probably either drop the character or refine it and continue these mental tests until you get something you are confident is stable. If it never stabilizes, you should wait around for that next flash if inspiration to come around, because this character came stillborn.

Now a lot of you are thinking that this is all a bunch of stupid horseshit. “I’m the writer, damnit! The character does what I want!” you scream in defiance, not understanding the point of Lesson One. Go reread it and write “I am a dumbshit” on the board a hundred times. The writer is always constrained by audience expectation and the fluidity of the story itself. There’s an additional shackle imposed on you in a roleplay, because you’re not the only writer. If your character is wildly inconsistent, that affects the play of other characters, and this will most certainly have in-character consequences you are seeking to avoid, like people thinking you’re a batfuck lunatic. I will go into further detail on this phenomenon in lessons six and nine. Until then take it for granted and don’t ask stupid questions. Only stupid people ask stupid questions and I’m trying my hardest to make sure you’re no longer stupid. Your failure only makes me angry.

Character creation has three parts. It really has four but three is an awesome number and the fourth part can be, if you want to be edgy, ignored. Let’s put our hipster hats on and listen to some underground, indie music because four is taking a hike never to be seen again, at least until a couple paragraphs down.

First is your character’s appearance. This shit is simple, and I can’t believe I’m about to describe it for you. This is what your character looks like, if you don’t know the definition of any word longer than two syllables. Hair, eye, and skin color, complexion, hair and clothing style, scars, tattoos, other significant marks, and measurements if you want to be kinky. Each of these can get its own sentence, in varying levels of prose, the clothes alone can get their own paragraph if you have a good picture of how they dress, or you need to pack a duffel bag of Chekhov’s Guns. Detail in this sector isn’t padding, it’s content. The first is like rice; Cheap, plentiful and has little flavor raw. Content is a good bacon cheeseburger, or a chocolate milkshake. It’s the stuff that fills and satisfies. Now since we’re not poor Chinese farmers we can eat a lot more than just rice, be a good aspiring chef and make Mommy what she really wants.

Your Personality is usually next, by formatting convention. You told us what your character is like on the outside, now show us the ugly bastard on the inside. That’s right, make it as horrifying as sin. Now dial that back about four notches because you look like Nick the Swing. You want to be sitting just on the negative side of ‘Morally ambiguous fucktard’. You make a character too sparkly clean and you turn into a Mary Sue, the equivalent of that one TV dinner nobody ever eats no matter how good it may taste. That’s because it actually tastes really terrible, what happened to your sense of food? You can’t make a chocolate milkshake without tainting that pure white vanilla ice cream with a bit of dark, sinister chocolate syrup. What I’m trying to tell you metaphorical myopics is you need both good and bad to get a well-textured and flavorful character everyone can enjoy. Average Joe Retard walking down the street with Master’s in history but can’t get a job, man has a heart of gold but is so stressed by his bad luck he snaps at anyone who walks by. Your goody two-shoes can’t do wrong because all the wrong was already done sometime in her past, and comes back to haunt her occasionally. She’s mal-adjusted because of whatever that is that firmly dissuaded her from Louis Cypher’s cause and she doesn’t work well with people because she’s afraid of messing up again. These two getting together would be a much more interesting read than say, two saints or two mob bosses. Mixing the good with the bad also in itself needs moderation; taking a bunch of extremes turns your character into a caricature. You can’t take a bunch of stuff that is mildly good and mildly bad because no matter how realistic, it’s precisely as bland a character as you are a person. Nobody would ever write books about you, and you’d be hard-pressed to write a compelling autobiography. That’s why you’re not the character here.

This brings me to another, related point. Every character is to an extent a self-insert, because you know how to write yourself the best and you write what you know. It should not, however, be a complete mapping of either you or your ideal image into whatever setting you’re joining. Attachment to a character is good, encouraged. Making it all personal-like is a big no-no. A good entry exam for this is making the character with the following assumption in mind;

Your character will die a horrible yet unremarkable death during the course of the game.

That’s right, the negative perspective bus is back, and you have a one-way ticket back to chapter one if you don’t see why. In a roleplay, you’re not the hero. You’re one of many maybe-heroes, just another of the group of characters that is every bit as important as your own, if you’re lucky. You’re one of the crowd and quite possibly completely replaceable. Don’t write the character as if it was not. You only get the privilege of feeling important once your character has established itself, and made a couple connections with some others. Become a part of the interaction web. Just remember the GM is the spider, and may decide the web needs some renovation and redecorating, throwing your ass to the curb either IC (dead) or OOC (kicked). Also remember some of the strands you’re connected to may want to split, and leave you hanging. You are entitled to exactly nothing, and that should be what you expect until the ball really gets rolling. And even after that, there’s the chance your fellow players are simply douchebags.

Next is history, because while your character really did just come into existence out of nowhere, we don’t mention this fact around polite company. What happened in your character’s life to get it to come to this point? How has your character developed to the way it is now? Your history is dependent on the first two, just as they are dependent on each other. The backstory is what explains the rationale behind the personality and appearance, but at the same time how someone looks and acts is going to affect how their life went up to the point you actually brought their sorry ass into existence. If you don’t want their poor souls to look like a complete spastic, you’re going to take great care in making sure all three are interconnected and done well.

Ironically putting a hipster hat on our hipster hat, and flipping indie rock to symphonic metal, there is a fourth addition to our trinity. This is The Ever-Present Bulleted List. It’s basically a summary of what people can tell about your character from a glance, exactly what they’d be looking for if they’re perusing your profile for what to include when their character passes yours in the street, completely disregarding their presence. By including this list, with helpful items such as height, hair color, and skin tone, you save the other player from gouging their eyes out trying to read your horrible mangled character bio. Hell they may even include a part of your precious brainchild in their post! Everybody wins!

In short, character design is the most delicate part of roleplaying by terms of effort spent over time consumed. For the love of God do research if you’re using anything even approaching something in the real world, or you’ll suffer the wrath of a thousand furious big-game retard hunters unloading buckshot of knowledge into you skull. If you get the character creation process wrong, it’s going to mess everything up for the rest of your roleplaying tenure at whatever site you just joined. Take great care in doing it, and make sure you have a well-defined, living, breathing character before you step forth and start babbling incoherently into the ‘Add Post’ box, because you’ll need all the help you can get.

edited 17th Oct '11 2:13:17 AM by SOCR

How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?
GeekCodeRed Since: Sep, 2010
#1908: Oct 17th 2011 at 2:41:17 AM

Is it wrong that I'm agreeing with all these lessons, and already seeing that I am complying with them?

Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#1909: Oct 17th 2011 at 2:42:26 AM

I don't understand why everyone's hung up about their skills. I've been RP'ing for about six years and I'm still not brilliant at it.

"Yup. That tasted purple."
Colonial1.1 Purveyor of Obscurity from The Marvelous River City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Purveyor of Obscurity
#1910: Oct 17th 2011 at 2:43:22 AM

Good news, gentlemen and ladies, a certain Northman is on his way to us!

"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."
Colonial1.1 Purveyor of Obscurity from The Marvelous River City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Purveyor of Obscurity
#1912: Oct 17th 2011 at 3:00:34 AM

HO HO HO HO HOOOOO no.

Lemurian.

"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."
GeekCodeRed Since: Sep, 2010
Colonial1.1 Purveyor of Obscurity from The Marvelous River City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Purveyor of Obscurity
#1914: Oct 17th 2011 at 3:12:48 AM

...Vox is an Englishman, not a Northman.

"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."
Lemurian from Touhou fanboy attic Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
#1915: Oct 17th 2011 at 3:34:46 AM

Yes. I am here. And I intend to play a Touhou-character. And I suppose you are all shocked about that last part. tongue

Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
Colonial1.1 Purveyor of Obscurity from The Marvelous River City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Purveyor of Obscurity
#1916: Oct 17th 2011 at 3:36:38 AM

Welcome to the camp.

Send zat avatar, please.

"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."
Chabal2 Since: Jan, 2010
#1917: Oct 17th 2011 at 3:37:46 AM

Hmmmmm...

Trying, trying...

Nope, can't find any trace of shock.

Lemurian from Touhou fanboy attic Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Buried in snow, waiting for spring
Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#1919: Oct 17th 2011 at 3:45:51 AM

You're not the first person I've run into playing one.

"Yup. That tasted purple."
Chabal2 Since: Jan, 2010
#1920: Oct 17th 2011 at 4:13:25 AM

Yeah, but see, Lemurian is Lord of All Things Touhou. To choose otherwise would be akin to Sullen forcing a disturbingly-detailed thirty-paragraph description of a Mary Sue GMPC on us: not going to happen.

Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#1921: Oct 17th 2011 at 4:15:26 AM

That sounds like you speaking from experience.

"Yup. That tasted purple."
Chabal2 Since: Jan, 2010
#1922: Oct 17th 2011 at 4:27:23 AM

You should read the Mary Sue and Bad GM-type threads on tg sometime.

Extremely... enlightening.

Colonial1.1 Purveyor of Obscurity from The Marvelous River City (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Purveyor of Obscurity
#1923: Oct 17th 2011 at 4:37:33 AM

And entertaining, for a certain value of "entertainment".

"He could not know it. For it was not all a joke."
Deadbeatloser22 from Disappeared by Space Magic (Great Old One) Relationship Status: Tsundere'ing
#1924: Oct 17th 2011 at 4:38:14 AM

What; you mean you don't laugh at other people's stupidity?

"Yup. That tasted purple."
Chabal2 Since: Jan, 2010
#1925: Oct 17th 2011 at 4:38:43 AM

Point-and-Laugh Show mostly. Some of them you can't help but feel pity for.


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