Role-Playing for Dummies

Chapter 3: Building my character

“OMG!!! No I know how to play so I will make a character!!” ***Two seconds later*** “I'm done!!”

Wow kitty!! Slow down!! Are you allergic to writing, that character sheet is composted of three lines, what is that?

Yes, I've seen this too often and ... the salt... ow, please no more, it hurts. O, lets learn how to make a character shall we?

To start off with, there are things to remember when you create a character and you should always and yet again I say ALWAYS remind yourself of these things before, during and after you create your character.

- Make sure you decide what type of character you want to create.
- What type of personality it will have.
- Where it comes from.
- How it lived and how it lives now.
- Have a good background history to back up the way its personality is and maybe the way it dresses.

These things are what will reflect who your character is over all and decide what kind of influence your character has on others and such things. They will also allow you to start off with a good base and make your character evolve in a humanly way... that is as long as you role-play correctly. If you have noticed, everything goes in circles. Ask yourselves the following questions when you make your character.

- Why is he dressed this way?
- Why does he know those skills and not others?
- Why does he act this way and not that way?
- Why did this or that happen in his history instead of that or this?

Everything comes back to another make sure it holds itself together. Everything has a reason, everything has a beginning and an end. Remember this and you'll do great. Don't just answer these questions with: “Because he likes it that way.” or “Because that's how it was when he was born.” Go for further than just what he is currently and what happened since he was born. If you need answers go get them.

Other things you should remember when you make your character.

- Make sure you will be able to play your role properly at all times. If you think it might be too hard to play a child because you think too maturely then don't at least, not until you believe you can.
- Don't be afraid to give too much information on your character, it's only for OOC use. No player IC should know anything about your character unless it's already planned things between the both of you or with the GM or that your character has mentioned it before.
- Don't be afraid to give detail. DETAIL MY FRIENDS!! People lack it badly and that's why we end up with 3 line posts.
- And lastly, make sure your character makes sense and is original! We all want an original character. Also, a side note, original doesn't necessarily mean tragic history.

This rule has been taught to me by the one and only [Duredhel]. It’s really simple for the ones that have some slight sense of logic. It allows you to balance things out and not make characters extremely powerful and have only pitiful weaknesses. Basically, it goes this way:

Either _______________ or ______________

And you fill in the blanks.

Examples:

Either fire power or ice power
Either lots of armour or high speed
Either large weapons or fast attacks
Either powerful magic or high strength

Usually, character sheets are pretty much all the same demanding basic information on your character such as age, gender, name, looks, race, history, skills, personality and other though the sheets do vary slightly from one role play to another.

Here's the model I usually use for basic characters.

Name:
Age:
Gender:
Race:
Position(s)/Job:
Appearance:
Personality:
Skills:
History:
Other:

Usually you should be able to fit two or three pages worth of descriptions and details with that sheet for it to be decently detailed. At least try to do one page for starters and slowly expand or fill the sheet in with your essential ideas in form of a brain storm or short simple sentences and garnish them afterwards.

In terms of sheet models, there are several more complicated or simpler models you can use for your characters. I have a few examples I've managed to gather around in some role-playing games.

One in particular which is very elaborate but organized is the one used in Fantasma the following can be found at Fantasma Character: Blank Profile.

Character Sheet Examples

Coming soon

Coming soon

Elements and powers, things we all love and want, I agree. But we can;t be all at once now can we?

There are just a few things to remember about this yet some still seem to be fully ignorant about it. It pisses me off when I see someone go around sayng: "I am the shadow element!" and then watch the cast lightning I mean wtf! You're shadow not lightning!!

Another thing to remember is that you ARE NOT indestructible no matter what element you are! Being invincible and all mighty SUCKS! It gets boring people don;t want to play with you or it causes soemthing like this:

Person1: "You can't kill me! I'm the elemenet of air!"
Person2: "Yes I can!"
Person1: "No, besides air si indestructible."
Person2: "Not it isnt" -goes off an some explaning about how air is produced-

Aaaaaaand so on! Do you want to look like that? Seriously I don't and I don;t want ot see people spend half the RP session explaning hwy they are indestructible when in the end they really warn't and no one around isn;t. You're all affraid of losing if you do so!

And finally, if you choose an element play that elelemnt and that one only not 50! You can't have it all! I'm sick of saying it!

Some of the following content may have been said by me previously or can be said later on. That's probably because it's important no?

I've recived Captain Kiva's autorization to use her article for my tutorial. Go to Captain Kiva's Article for the complete version of it. On this oage I will post the essential that I want to point out.

This has been mainly quoted off things Mischeif Dragon has said.

Clichés - Hey, you're a monk exiled from India and the chosen one too? COOL!

Specifications on certain things people don't seem to understand even after being told over and over again.

Vampyres: They are not vampires, Vampyres are a subspecies of "Fire demons" That are able to heal faster by fire, and die faster from cold. While they suck blood as well, and can make someone a vampyre the way a vampire does. They are not a vampire. The term vampyre as reference to a vampire is HIGHLY overdone.

Chosen ones: You're not the last savior of your race, people, planet, and kingdom. You are not the most powerful mage, bard, pumpkin in the universe. People too often claim to be the last and or only hope for their people. If you're original, this is fine and dandy but too many use it as an excuse to god mode instant revival from death.

Royalty: Princes, Princesses, Kings, and Queens. If I had 1g for each prince, princess or other royal type person I've seen I'd be richer than bill gates. Royalty is overdone, if we took the planet and assumed it was earth sized not smaller or larger. The amount of kingdoms that would have to exist for this many royalty would make each of them as small as New Jersey, and likely as prosperous with such small land mass and few people that would have to be there for farming food and self sufficiency.

This has been quoted off from Captain Kiva's article.

Tragic Sue
Why do bad things happen to beautiful people?

Tragic Sue is the beautiful (I have yet to see an ugly Mary Sue, but there's always next week) woman with the hideously tragic past. You know her, you've met her. There's at least one Tragic Sue in every RPG I've ever seen.

The thing about Tragic Sue's problems is that none of them are her own fault. Tragic Sue is always the victim of her environment, be it family, classmates, an evil cult, whatever. There is always some outside group who, for no reason, are targeting Tragic Sue, and making her life very, very sad.

This is a classic escapist fantasy. For when people want to believe that something is NOT their fault. There are problems in your life which may or may not be out of your control, but exhibiting twisted visions of these problems, putting them on display for us, that's not something we want.

Having a little tragedy with your character ISN'T the problem here. We are not saying that your character shouldn't have a difficult past, or some serious problems. It's when your character is faultless. When your character is only a victim, and not an enabler, or perhaps even one of the very problem causers. None of us are faultless in real life. The sooner we accept this, the sooner I can stop seeing some Tragic Sue weeping about her tragic past in a tragic way at the drop of a TRAGIC FREAKING HAT.

Tragic pasts should be a main revolving point, if you choose to have them. You should NOT reveal them within the first five minutes of meeting someone. How boring is that? No building. It is, as one saying goes, "Without meaning, without climax, without conclusion."

Angry Sue
GRRL POWER!!!1

Who is Angry Sue? Why, you see her everywhere you turn these days. Staring at you from web sites, fanfiction, and even popular media, Angry Sue is the beautiful, tough, no-nonsense chick who knows ten different martial arts, fires two guns at once, claims she wears the pants in the relationship, but often ends up crumbling and crying to the first bit of Manmeat that pays attention to her. Angry Sue is often just another part of Tragic Sue. She is jaded, tough, and wears her shit-kicking boots knee-high.

This doesn't sound like a problem, many of you are saying. We'll discuss this in more depth in Chapter Three, but I feel the need to point out some of the COPIOUS flaws that plague Angry Sue. Angry Sue is, often times, so obsessed with being a total badass, that it becomes outright Godmoding (discussed more with Gary Stu) and she fails to be realistic. None of us want to see ANYONE entirely capable of taking on an army by themselves. That isn't realistic at all, and usually bores us to tears.

Perfect Sue
Martha. Freaking. Stewart.

You know that girl you know who gets perfect grades, and is nice to everybody, and can sing beautifully, and has time to throw wicked-cool parties, and never has a hair out of place? You don't? Me neither.

Because she DOESN'T EXIST. Not outside of crazy freaking RPGs where she rules with an iron fist. Perfect Sue often has an angsty Stu boyfriend who she taught how to love. She is everyone's friend, and usually a princess in disguise or some crap. When the time comes, Perfect Sue might die a noble death, and then everyone can sit around weeping for their loss for a couple pages, and her sacrifice will never be forgotten or some crap.

Basically, Perfect Sue is that girl in high school who you wanted to beat the crap out of, but later you found out that she actually was addicted to cocaine and was obsessive compulsive and got knocked up by her boyfriend and dropped out of college. Only Perfect Sue doesn't do any of the bad things.

Once again: LACK OF REALISM.

Half-Sue/Half-Goddess
That frisky Zeus!

1/4 Vampyre (bring me to life oh nooooo), 1/4 angel (might only have one wing), 1/4 elf (related to Legolas!), 1/4 demon (with photoshopped picture of Ryoko as their signature) and ALL ANGST. Her tragic parentage makes her the target of many people who don't understand her. Her tragic parentage also gives her a METRIC ASSLOAD of powers with NONE of the drawbacks of any of those races. Elvish grace, demon sturdiness, angelic beauty and holy powers, badass vampire who can go out into the sunlight?

Wow, you guys. I don't have a lot I can say about this Mary Sue that the full parentage doesn't say for itself. Let's just leave it at this: Don't play this character. In fact, try to stay away from half-breeds entirely until you are past the age of eighteen. While there's still a very high chance you might be an idiot who will play Mary Sues, there is that snowball-in-hell percentage that you will have grown out of it.

At least... I hope so.

Sex Me Up Sue
Just another facet brought to you by your local rampaging hormones.

Sex Me Up Sue is one who you rarely see alone. You usually see an Angry Sue with Sex Me Up tendencies, or a Tragic Sue. Sex Me Up Sue is just another way for me to complain about you people who don't want to RP as much as you want to hook up with someone else and have a happy Gaian wedding and four billion Gaian children after you're pregnant for about four weeks and then all the children are all grown up within another month. Jesus, what is this, ALIENS?!

Sex Me Up Sue also can't seem to resist prancing around with whatever flavor of the month she has hooked up with. (Or... two months, if you want to go with the cycle. Whatever.) She is beautiful, doesn't play by the rules, is usually strangely a virgin (no matter how many times she's been through this cycle) and is trained in the arts of LOOOOOOVE.

Wow, you guys. Just... wow.

Please stop role-playing if you play this Sue. You are beyond our help entirely, since the worst case we saw of this was played by a forty year old woman. In fact, you might want to destroy your computer and never darken the internet with your wicked presence ever again.

Coming soon

Return to Role Playing for Dummies
On to Chapter 4. Building a free form RPG