Praetor 1548 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Characters, Roleplay & Writing I’ve got time to kill so here’s a bunch of tips I’ve gathered through my time on LoTC, from a few writing books and from my critique group. (Don’t agree with them if you don’t want too, don’t follow them if you don’t like them. Not my problem.) Firstly, Characters Creating characters isn’t always an easy task. Making engaging ones can be even harder for some people. Here’s something I find essential when writing stories, this applies to roleplay as well. Give your character Values. Values are core truths for your character. They are things that your character will believe to be true above all else. In general, they can’t even explain why, it is just because. We all have these, for some it might be killing is wrong, or racism is bad, etc… example: In the Godfather Don Corleone’s core values are -Respect is the most important thing in my life -Family is the most important thing in my life This brings me to my second point Conflict Conflict is essential in any story and any roleplay more complex than simple banter. Now, some might see conflict as fighting but this isn’t true. Conflict can be both mental and physical and is what gives spice to roleplay. Conflict is a man proposing to his beloved while she debates over whether to say yes or no. Conflict is tightly linked to your Values. Why? Because your values Need to be conflicting to avoid creating a two dimensional character. A two dimensional character is one that is easily predictable and who’s decisions rarely change, why? Here’s an example Emma’s values are -Family is the most important thing in my life -Bread is good Kind of incongruous but oh well. The point is, her values don’t really conflict and you will rarely see a situation where she must make a decision between the two. A situation where the outcome is unknown, where the others are not sure what your character will choose are an essential part of roleplay. In a book this would be when Frodo is about to throw the Ring into Mount Doom. Will he do it? Will the Ring take over? You don’t know until the last moment and the keeps you reading/ or watching. Another good example is Don Corleon again. When his son disrespects him in front of another Mob boss his values come into conflict, will he punish his Family for Respect? His decision motivates the whole story line. Don’t forget to give your characters Ambitions and ’Story goals’. An ambition, according to ‘Fiction for Dummies’ is a vague objective they wish to attain, while the ‘Story goal’ is how they will do this. Since I know my character well, he’s a quick example with her. My characters ambition is to make the High Elves the uncontested Master race. Her ‘story goal’ is to reach this ambition through science and technology. While there is much more to building a character of Don Corleon or Dumbledore or Arlen Bales caliber these are excellent things to add to your own. Remember, they can change in a characters lifetime. Secondly, Roleplay. These are more attitude oriented but they fit in with the Roleplay category anyway. Roll with the flow. Don’t try to jam yourself into a certain nook of roleplay and not accept anything else. If you’re roleplaying some romantic **** and some Necromancer comes calling, don’t ignore him. ‘Embrace’ the roleplay and enjoy it. The only thing really stopping you from having fun in these situations is your belief that they are intruding in your roleplay. People can’t intrude in your roleplay, if they are roleplaying. Roll. If you’re fighting in RP and both of you are arguing about the other powergaming and how one guy blocked something with a stick when he’s not supposed too...Then just roll. Now I know a lot of people think rolling isn’t a roleplay type of fighting. I beg to differ. All it takes is a little creativity. If you’re an orc fighting a Halfling and you both decide to roll, yet you roll less then be creative. Maybe your orc tripped on a root and fell to the ground by accident, allowing the halfling to stab you in the eye while you were stunned. There is always a way if you’re not fixated on winning. Use your environment. Don’t just roleplay yourself. Roleplay small things like a bird shitting on your shoulder or a fly buzzing around your head. Perhaps you try to knock it away and spill a vase. Boom, RP generated because of a stupid fly. No thoughts. Avoid writing an emote that just says ‘Eric thinks this is stupid.’ It’s useless and not conducive to RP. Interact. Roleplay is a two way road. If all you do is react to what another said, then role-play will very quickly become dull and uninteresting, especially for the one making all the action. Example *Johnny walks up to Mike and claps him on the back. "How y'a coin' mon?" He bellows. *Mike smiles. 'Hey man.' As you see in this case, all the action comes from Johnny. Of course here Mike can't do all that much but the point is, always do things that force the other to react too. This way everybody can keep the role-play alive and fun. This wasn’t really long, but Aedan covers most of the other points in his excellent roleplaying guide found here. http://www.lordofthecraft.net/topic/94760-10-ways-to-be-a-better-role-player-an-adaptation/ Seriously, go read it. Finally, this brings us to the Writing. NOTICE: These are a mix of my opinion and the opinions of both Stephen King in ‘On Writing’ and the authors of ‘Writing Fiction for Dummies.’ *Don’t use ‘Due to the fact’. I hate this as much as Stephen King and FFD do. It’s not pretty, it’s heavy and weighty. Avoid it, avoid it like the plague and replace it by because. Avoid long winded explanations about obvious fact. Example: Michael collapsed next to the camp fire. His feet were aching due to the fact he had walked for miles that day and it had tired him out. This holds two bad things. The first is of course the Due fo the fact. The second one is the whole part about walking miles that day and that it had tired him out. Stick to the fact his feet hurt, people will guess the rest. Don’t use very all the time. Try using words like ‘Gigantic’ instead of ‘very big.’ Don't post your thoughts in a Forum RP thread. If you don’t agree with these, you don’t have to follow them. As I said before, I don’t really care. However, I hope some people found this helpful. tottally did this fur rep :^] 24 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
excited 10833 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Pure truth on the subject. Major +1 due to the fact it's a good guide. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merkaken 516 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Love it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkeypoacher 6993 Share Posted July 12, 2014 +uno Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RK9ify 86 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Amazing guide. Really well done, visually nice, and really well put together. +1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aedan The Bard 350 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Adding my guide for reference is a nice touch :3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
knightly11 | lotc_fox 111 Share Posted July 12, 2014 good good Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britfirefox 10 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Very informative and helpful guide +1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyuin 65 Share Posted July 12, 2014 A character guide useful in multiple areas of role-play or even writing. Plus le one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demotheus 649 Share Posted July 12, 2014 Can you explain that circle chart thing please? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Praetor 1548 Author Share Posted July 12, 2014 Can you explain that circle chart thing please? I don't agree with all the words on it, but basically it takes a general emotion/feeling and gives you a few more specific terms for it. The more it splits up the more specific the terms. A chart made of synonyms. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyrr 137 Share Posted July 12, 2014 +1 t'is grate Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lym 849 Share Posted August 10, 2014 THIS DESERVES A BUMP FOR ABSOLUTE JUSTICE Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faunherer 44 Share Posted August 11, 2014 Your core values don't necessarily need to be conflicting with themselves as long as they clash with those of the rest of the server ;) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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