Benji's Character Design Guide For New Players (Or Anyone Else.)

[Xerxes_XIII 2 200]

Hello! And welcome to my guide to making a fleshed out, realistic, balanced, and unique character.

 

First off, allow me to give you a few guidelines that you should always keep in mind when making a character. We'll call these 'The Five Rainbow (because gold is for losers) Rules.'

 

-Realism over Idealism.

When designing a character, it is important for you to think about them realistically, not idealistically. This is a very easy way to help make a balanced character.

 

-Compare them to yourself.

If there is an event that you are using for motivation, think about how it would affect you instead. Would it really motivate you? Or would it cripple you. I see too many people who’s parents were murdered by bandits/orcs/etc, who have a hatred for these races/groups and actively hunt them. Realistically, I think that instead they would be instilled with a great fear of these races or groups.

 

-Pay attention to detail.

Of course, the more detailed every aspect of your character is, the better.

 

-Realize that nobody is perfect, and that a lot of the time being imperfect is more fun.

Your character cannot be good at everything, and honestly, sometimes its a lot more fun to be an inept character. Having characters that are clumsy and have no particular talents is a great way to bring good, often funny roleplay, and it also opens up a whole lot of opportunities to develop that character.

 

-Keep the concept of a Linear Character in mind.

A Linear Character, in the way I define it, is simply a character that 'flows well'. For example, a happy-go-lucky bard who dressed in black leather armor covered in spikes would not be a linear character, because the appearance does not suit the personality. This isn't to say that you can't have quirky, unusual characters, but rather I'm saying that you just need to be careful about how outlandish they are.

 

~NEXT~

 

Alrighty! Now that we have that done, lets get on to the more specific aspects of a character, here I will take you step-by-step through my process of creating a character.

 

Firstly, I start by choosing an alignment. If you are familiar with dungeons and dragons, then I'm sure you know what I mean. If not, however, please click THIS LINK to read about the different alignments.

 

Once you've chosen an alignment, you have a basis for your character. We can now get to work on their personality. The reason I choose to do the personality next instead of the Bio or Name as you would probably have expected me to choose, is because I feel that it is really the base for the rest of the character. 

When designing a personality, I tend to go through this checklist of questions:

 

1:What is their basic outlook on life? Do they have an idealistic outlook on the world? Do they think everyone and everything sucks?

2:Are they stable in temper or moody?

3:What would two activities that they enjoy be?

4:What would two activities that they hate be?

5:*The character is stopped on his way down the road by a kindly, talkative old man. "Hello!" he says with a weary smile, "I'm so sorry to bother you but I uh... I appear to be lost." he gives an embarassed laugh, "Could you perhaps point me in the direction of the nearest city?"* Respond as your character would.

{Your response}

 

Once you've got that down, you should have a (basic) idea of their personality. This understanding of the character will develop without you even realizing it as you go through the rest of your design process- you'll feel attached to them as you write the bio, get a deeper understanding of who they are when you really have to think about how they react to certain situations, and how their upbringing affected them.

 

Congratulations! You've finished step one of creating your character. Hopefully now you have a fairly good idea of what your character is like, and as such we may move on to the next section.

 

~NEXT~

 

NAME! Aha, you think this will be simple, won't it? (HERE is a link to an Elven naming guide)

Well... Yes and no. If you're like me, then the answer is definitely no. If not? Then... yeeaaaah it'll be pretty easy. I personally always have to have the perfect name. It needs to fit in with the character's personality, the personalities of his parents which I get a vague idea of from writing about his childhood, it also needs to fit in with the racial norms. You might not be this picky, and you aren't, all I need to say is that you should pick a name that suits the race, and seems to suit the personality. Skip the next little bit on names if you don't care~

 

I'll start with what a name needs, and give you an example of one that lacks all of it.

-Originality (without going over the top.)

-(Portrayal of) Personality

-Accuracy to one's Race

-Pleasantry

 

(Note that I can't really speak from anyone's opinion other than my own, so if this sounds wrong to you, that is of course fine!)

A name with none of this in my opinion, is 'Bob' (no offense to anyone named Bob... >.<) and lets say Bob is an elf. Now lets go through the checklist.

-Originality. Nope, Bob is a very, very unoriginal name.

-Personality. Nope, Bob could just as easily be a scholar as he could a farm hand. The name reveals very little about the character's personality.

-Accuracy to one's Race. Nope, Bob is the least elven name I can think of.

-Pleasantry. To me, Bob is a guttural, rather plain and unpleasant name to hear or say so... Nope for me, but that's a matter of opinion.

 

So now that you know what a bad name is, certainly you'd like to hear a good name. Lets take my elven character's name. Elsillen. The name is not elegant, nor is it particularly musical... This, in this case, is good, because Elsillen is a very serious, generally stuck up High elf. His name sounds elven, but also denotes a simplicity that I used to reflect his excessive amount of affiliation with humans in the past. Lets go through the checklist.

-Originality. Check, don't recall ever seeing that name anywhere before.

-Personality. Check, I feel that it shows his personality very well.

-Accuracy to one's Race. Check, its a mix of the words 'elsil' and 'len' which means 'Sword Song'. The translation, admittedly, doesn't suit him well, but I did that with the purpose of having him complain about his parents' idiocy in naming him it.

-Pleasantry. I feel that while not musical or elegant, Elsillen has a particular ring to it that makes it quite pleasant to hear or say.

 

Congratulations! Hopefully now you understand how to create a good name for a character.

 

~NEXT~

 

Now, with names out of the way, all we have left is the biography and their skills. This is by far the most strenuous part of the character creation process. A biography should show a few key things that you haven't already worked out:

-A character's appearance.

-A character's early life, how they were raised, what their family (if they had any) was like.

-A small event somewhere within that allows you to actually roleplay the character a little.

-A lead up until the current date.

 

For this I will simply leave you with a few tips on how to write a good biography.

-Remember the Rainbow Rules.

-Note that you can figure out a basic idea of the character's past based on their personality (i.e. a happy-go-lucky character probably didn't have a huge traumatic event, and likely had a fairly normal, happy life.)

-Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of detail. The more effort and detail you put it, the better.

-Roleplay out interesting events in the character's life throughout the bio. (cut out from story telling mode and, with a bit of a transition, start roleplaying the character in that situation. This will make it more interesting and, if you're applying, really demonstrate your writing and roleplay abilities.)

-Have fun. I know that it's a sappy, stereotypical thing to say, but if you don't enjoy the story you're telling, why would anyone else?

 

~NEXT~

 

Skills. I feel that this is a fairly simple subject as far as character creation goes. By now you should hopefully (if this guide doesn't suck as much as I think it does.) have a good idea of what your character is like, now all you need to do is factor in his interests and natural abilities. Remember that the character needs weaknesses equal to if not outweighing their strengths.

 

I will be attaching a link to a file of a character planner that you can use to work out the much finer details of a character shortly. (I'm not sure who made it, I'm fairly sure that it was someone on the server. If it was you, just shoot me a PM and I'll be sure to give you credit :3)

 

Edit: HERE is the planner thingy. 

 

Thank you for reading my guide! I hope it was helpful and not as crappy as I think it is! :3

 

PS. All feedback is good feedback! I'd love to hear what you thought of my guide.

 

(03/22)EDIT: Now with a poll to encourage feedback! :D

[IrishPerson 693]

A good read, and not a bad read too ;)

[Shadeleaf 1022]

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

[Jistuma 1996]

Well, this is personal tastes, but I HATE character alignments. For me it makes them one or two dimentional characters, and if I try to go by them, they seem like my new chars actually are two or one dimentional. Just think about it, no one is ever just one thing, they are always a combination of things. You can say they are evil or good, but can you? I know a lot of evil characters who are just evil in certain situations and are good in many others, and are grey in most. Every character would have all seven sins, and probably a few other sins that aren't said. A character that doesn't feel all of them, even if just a tiny bit sometimes and forces himself not to act on them, is a two dimentional character which (for me) does not have much depth.

I really think this would be a good adition to the guide perhaps, naming circunstances where the character falls victim to the seven deadly sins, and a few others. I'll try to state all:
 

• Lust - This is normally never associated with children, and some might not have it. But most are affected by lust, even if it means that they find someone else atractive
• Gluttony - This exists in everyone, every single char should have weakness towards at least some type of food. It's like IRL, there are just some kinds of food you like a lot more than others, even if you resist at the temptation, the temptation is still there.
• Greed - Everyone has something they want, and that they always want something more of that. This doesn't have to be money or material goods, it can just be emotions or actions that people love and want more and more.
• Sloth - Everyone sometimes wants a rest. This might be apparent in some a lot more than others, but everyone some day will just get tired, or anoyed, and just want to laze away.
• Wrath - Everyone gets angry at something, again, they might not act on it, but good and bad characters feel anger and rage. They all have something they don't like that just makes them angry.
• Envy - Oh, others have things the character wants and doesn't have. Be it material goods, emotions, or just friends or a family, they always exist. Your character can never have everything they want.
• Pride - This one is not really that good of one. But there are some things that a character is better at then other things, and he will be even if just a little, proud that he can do them.
• Fear - Everyone feels fear, there are no fearless characters. They can act fearless, not afraid to die, but there is always something they fear. Losing something, something happening to them, a phobia, etc. They can fight the fear, and sometimes even use it, but it's always there.

There would be a few others, but I don't remember them. I think all players should have these in acount when creating their character, a lot more than they would the character alignment.

[The Cleaning Crew 571]

Very good character creation guide. But I'm here to remind everyone that you don't have to reign in your imagination too much. This is a fantasy server, after all.

[Xerxes_XIII 2 200]

I'm thrilled that you all seem to like my guide~

 

Regarding your suggestion, Jistuma, I'd love it if you wrote up a little add-on for the guide that explains it in a bit more detail. I'd happily incorporate it and (of course) give you credit!~

[hartham 0]

I am going to use this to complete some of the harder parts of the all-powerful application (personality, biography, etc.) :D

[Aptrotta 162]

So I have decided I need to make one character and flesh him out. At the most , two characters. I dot know which I want to kill off or not play. I love my dwarf with all my heart and I love my hobbit with all my heart too. Both amazing characters and I don't know which to not play. I have a this character I am fleshin out to start a new journey and have fun. I am excited and worried about my characters. I don't know what to do

[Xerxes_XIII 2 200]

So I have decided I need to make one character and flesh him out. At the most , two characters. I dot know which I want to kill off or not play. I love my dwarf with all my heart and I love my hobbit with all my heart too. Both amazing characters and I don't know which to not play. I have a this character I am fleshin out to start a new journey and have fun. I am excited and worried about my characters. I don't know what to do

It isn't as if you need to kill off your other character. I'd suggest just focusing on whichever you feel like playing as at the moment. Personally I am horrible at sticking to one character, at current I have:

-Shen.

-Tivaen

-Elsillen

-Haruki

-Saeleyun

 

All mostly active, I just play whichever I feel like at the time. I'd suggest picking whichever character you're in the mood for, and try to stick with them. If you get bored, there's nothing wrong with playing a different one.

Its all about what you enjoy, so do whatever will give you the most enjoyment.

[Belgian Badger 5]

Very nice guide. I wish I found this before I replied.

[Xerxes_XIII 2 200]

Very nice guide. I wish I found this before I replied.

I'm glad you like it! ^.^

[TheBareSheet 194]

Moved to the Archive. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.