[RP Discussion] Characters and You in Roleplays

[Maeriberii Haan]

Guess I'll revive the weekly discussion thread for the section. Since characters are one of the most important (if not the most) thing in an RP, let's talk about them.

 

What kind of characters do you like to play in RPs? Is there any kind of characters that 'clicks' more with you when you play them, or do you play different characters out with the same sentiment for the most part? And how do you see the relation between you and your character? Avatar of yours in the story, an extension of your will, as a character and individual of their own, or simply as narrative tool used to build the story? As role playing has difference from solo writing, seeing the difference in perspective here might be interesting.

 

And you can talk about the favorite character you have RP'd as, here or outside of the forum.

With that said, time to commence the discussion~!
 

[Lunar Origins]

I have a bad habit of only playing women.  They're really the only type of characters that click with me; and, on top of that, they're always tragic.  I wish I had the capability to write a nontragic character, but they just never work out for me.

[Aix]

Oh yeah, thanks for reviving these. I forgot about them.

 

I have a bad habit of only playing women.  They're really the only type of characters that click with me; and, on top of that, they're always tragic.  I wish I had the capability to write a nontragic character, but they just never work out for me.

Freud says you carry deep scars in your heart and uhhhh, something something sex something sex.

 

I roleplay characters that really appeal to me. My characters tend to be strong-willed, refined, serious, talented, intelligent, aloof, optimistic, and/or confident. In terms of flaws, they are often conceited, fragile, callous, close-minded, selfish, inexperienced, and/or naive. Pride is probably the most common character trait among my characters. My preferences for characters extends to physical appearances; in fact, I'm even more narrow regarding my character's appearance. Most of them are slender and beautiful, usually of reasonable height; guys are bishounen with the occasional trap or shota mixed in; girls are bishoujos with medium to small bust size.

 

How I view my characters... I just like them and to an extent admire them, they'd be people I'd think would be pretty cool to see. If you go deeper, for some of them there's certain degrees of wish fulfillment and self-insert.

 

If I go outside of this zone in RP, it's due to novelty or because of something story-related.

[Cosmo.]

I realized that except for 2 occasions ( which were my first two eps on here ) i've only made female characters. As Kate said, they just click with me more. And i think i can be a bit more original with female characters, idk why, but with them i have more varied ideas, while with male characters they end up with basically the same personality (both of the two characters were named Alexander...).

 

Also, my characters are usually either the calm ones that care a lot about others, or very eccentric. And i also think i quite like some of them to be somehow related to royalty.

[Dad]

I find myself playing a lot of underdogs.  Though I won't be role-playing much longer.  I'm losing my passion and my patience.  I find myself constantly put into a losing position and it doesn't feel very good.  So the last character I will ever play will probably be in Synchro Frame.

[a bad post]

I tend to usually write more female characters, just because it's more comfortable for me, and they tend to be easier to play. I used to only really play younger characters, though recently I've been playing older women, though I've stuck to younger guy characters for the most part. I tend to play the field in terms of personality, though I don't really my characters more in depth because I want them to them to have room to grow.

[Ren✧]

I try to play a variety of characters, although I definitely go through random bouts where I fall into creative ruts. When I first started RPing I almost always played male characters named Kallen. These characters were incredibly generic, and to this day if I type a generic character you can bet that it will be a male character with a first name that starts with the letter K. Somethings never change I guess.

 

Since then, I've tried to play a host of other characters and I am making an effort to diversify my character portfolio when it comes to gender, race, sexuality, background, mental state, etc, etc. Anyway, long story short, diversity is fun. 

[Astolfo]

I usually RP females as of recent, but I do males too every now and then, and usually around teenagerish age, give or take a few years?

I really like RPing, as the characters become and feel like an extension of myself or at least my creative spirit or something I dunno.

The type of characters I RP sorta change a lot, and I'm fine with a good number of things.

[Aix]

I usually RP females as of recent, but I do males too every now and then, and usually around teenagerish age, give or take a few years?

I really like RPing, as the characters become and feel like an extension of myself or at least my creative spirit or something I dunno.

The type of characters I RP sorta change a lot, and I'm fine with a good number of things.

lies you only make moeblobs of lewd cuteness

[Astolfo]

Eh, I've made like, Deadeye for example.

And I'm currently RPing as Lotte, although Toyo made that one.

And I had made Zeta for Clockwork Souls too, so on and so forth.

 

But yeah, I sort of end up making pretty outgoing/happy-go-lucky/cheerful kind of characters recently, but it's not like I feel like I can't do anything else or anything.

Just feel like doing it, since it usually goes along with any cast well, and it's fun to RP as.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

I feel characters are my strong suit ^^;

 

I tend to make a huge variety of characters. Like from the psycho sadist/masochist Mary, to the polite, anxious, and noble Louise, to the honorable general Micheal, to the narcoleptic and chill Naomi

to the best of them all, me.

And yes of course Morgan.

 

I have more females than males so far but I am fine writing either. I like to make many different types and don't like to stick to a single idea. To be honest I am bad at looking at my own patterns so I'm kinda curious if anyone's noticed one with my characters.

 

All my characters are super important to me and I get really attached to them. They aren't extensions of me really though, they're almost literally their own person, and they've surprised me quite often.

 

My favorites are probably Valerie, cocky and headstrong, Louise, Naomi, and Morgan. (mentioned above)

Hmm. My females tend to be more fun to write, though that's probably more to do with personality. Since I really only give whatever gender feels right for the character it's not exactly a "I prefer RPing females".

[VCR_CAT]

I've RP'd for quite some time, but it was back when I was a snot-nosed teen. My characters back then were suuuper sucky and ranged from 3edgy6me to absolute mary sue/gary stus. Anyways, after that I took a two year hiatus from all things RPing, and took a lot of time to learn what it meant for a character to be good, believable, and immersive.

 

So I came back, and I really changed how I wanted to make my characters. The first big change I made is I wanted to prioritize making them feel human. One thing I noticed is that in a lot of adventure stories, a lot of the characters never seem to have any interests or hobbies outside of running around and killing things. Another thing is pursuing themes; where and how I wanted my character to grow and develop in order to convey a message of sorts. As well, FLAAAWWWSSS. Character Flaws!! Working those in was a big priority in humanizing the characters!

 

So my first character after this hiatus was Nicolas Goodman, who was a stark deviation from the characters I usually made. The first difference is that I made him as a rogue; none of his magic was specked offensively or remotely defensively; all of it worked towards stealth, hiding, and escaping. Personality-wise, he had a love for both literature and live performance. His character was designed around theatrics and a dramatic personality. The themes I wished to pursue with him lied in honesty and opening up to others; and I worked this thematically in by having his attacks all named after stage terms, his "attacks" all being stealth/hiding techniques (one being a literal disguise), and the fact that he had such a love for acting. In-practice he was a fantastic character with a ton of great moments. The flaws I worked in was a lot of dishonesty and shady acts. On top of that, he could be rather manipulative. All of these I planned on addressing, and working with.

 

The next big character that I'm super proud of is Aria Ampilous. Probably my absolute best character. This little gem I made with a very, very tragic backstory riddled with really bad bullying and being caught by criminals after attempting to "stand up to them" out of panic. On top of that, people began to respect her after she started acting tough and owning the "Oh yeah, I totally stood up to those bandits" persona. This lead to some really complex characterization. On the one hand, her emotions were incredibly volatile. The themes I wanted to pursue with her laid in expressing your emotions (look up what an "Aria" in an opera is, and you'll see why I accidentally picked the absolute most perfect name). Considering her character was bottled up tighter than a bottle of compressed CO2, this was perfect. Her interactions, from her persona of tough bravado to her softer side in her love for music (singing and playing), to her deep, deep insecurities in that and the people she interacted with. I don't think I'll be able to make a character better than this, and I really hope to make use of her in a writing setting where money is involved.

 

Finally, a character I never got to use. This one was a middle aged asian woman in a post-apocalyptic universe. Yu Yamauchi. Designed to be a sort of... anti-antagonist... where should would work with the protagonists and get to know and understand them, and even respect them, Yu was meant to be my best villain. I went with the nihilist route, kind of. Yu's backstory was that she was born before the apocalypse, lost her parents in that because they couldn't fit in the bunker, underwent multiple attacks from bandits, and ultimately was almost raped/killed after her boyfriend was unceremonously killed in front of her. She escape when her powers surfaced and she brutally killed all the bandits; then hunted down their hideout and killed everyone inside. Her power was that anything she touched would be destabilized atomically and ultimately explode. Her beliefs were that the world was in a purgatory, and that the good people had been saved and brought into heaven, while the rest remained looking for purpose. Most of them bad. So her plan: Find a way to "finish the job".

 

 

Yeah, overall I've loved making my characters and now I've found myself recycling beloved ones instead of making new ones. Especially Aria, who's my absolute most favorite character.

[Tinkerer]

Heh, I guess I'm the only one here who hasn't role played a female? I haven't been involved in too many RPs and I can't honestly say that I'm ever really in tune with my characters. I guess I kinda like the process of making a character more than actually playing as them.

 

As for my characters themselves, I know only one thing that they all have in common... A mysterious old man who goes by the name Anonymous. I hope to eventually write something that incorporates Anonymous as well as my RP characters.

[Saiba Aisu]

I've actually struggled with making my characters from different RPs sufficiently different. I think part of it is that I'm never involved in more than one RP at a time, so rather than take a gamble and try something new, I usually just rehash the old model in some way... I tend to favor young male characters (late teens or early 20s), slender, rather pretty. A tragic past isn't necessary, but it usually shows up in some form. Personality-wise there is a bit of variation, but usually I go for sarcastic, a bit stand-offish or cold (of course, they always end up warming up to the right people). But selfless, with a good heart, and strong ideals of justice. And finally, in terms of powers or abilities, they usually have some kind of acrobatic fighting style, very gymnastic, or magic. I'm not one for brute force. And if they wield weapons, then dual wield. Always <3

 

I think I have a lot of these qualities in myself, which might explain why they keep popping up. Or, perhaps, I wish I did! 

[Cosmo.]

Also, if i have to include a favourite character that i made it would be Luna Divona for :Alive: First Warning. Looking back at the app now, it needed some polishing, but she was definitely my favourite character that i created. With Cordelia in second place.

[Super Chaos Sonic]

For me at the very beginning, I usually made that one typical shonen hero character. Originally, I suppose it was because I was envisioning myself as the character and also due to watch WAAAAY too much anime, I always thought it was great to be the hero. However, recently thanks to a few RPers here that I'm proud to say have sort of mentored me, I've done my best to actually branch off.

 

However, when I create characters, I tend to add just a bit of myself in every character, so I can have that connection with my various characters. Whether its personality wise or appearance wise (cause my life is boring...no way am I adding that to a characters bio xD), I try my best to just toss a bit of myself into their character.

 

On a different note, usually all my characters (with an exception of some) love swords and any sharp pointy weapons...not only this, but a lot of my character's design stems straight from different cultural mythos (the one I normally turn to being Japanese).

 

But, all my characters have been male, only cause...well I'm not at all like everyone else who can play off a female character so well. But the other reason is, I don't think I could see myself in them. Again, it goes back to me putting myself into each character, but I am trying to expand my horizons on character creation...so who knows!

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

I really have no tendency for what character I play, usually I just do whatever strikes my fancy at the time. Usually I play more cheery females, but I play males too at times. Though, this also means I dont have any real attachements to any of the characters I make, because I really just see them as a tool or means to convey a story and not an actual property.

[Sethera]

When I make a character, I like to have a certain "idea" and build off of there. For instance, Garth, British idgaf person. Tatiana, yandere rich girl. And probably my most famous: Matthias, bullied plant boy. I also hate overlap since it feels like I'm just making copies of a character instead of a whole different character. The only exception is Quinn, but I put a bit of justification there and they have a whole different set of problems anyway. Key word being "they."

 

The only actual "pattern" I have is inner conflict. As someone who has had to deal with inner conflict their whole life, it can be cathartic to create a character that represents that. Probably the best example of that is Noah, who speaks to me on many levels. But I've created quite a few characters who break that pattern, so it's not a set thing. Almost all the characters do share an aspect of myself, however.

 

As for gender, it really depends on whether I feel like RPing a boy or a girl. I don't have a set preference, though I often do boys, if only to even out the gender ratio in the RP. Sometimes however, a fully-fleshed character idea comes to me instead of just a vague impression that I work off on, and they almost always have a gender attached. Or maybe, in the context of the RP setting, I'm more interested in exploring one gender over another. It just really depends.

[Maeriberii Haan]

I like playing selfish, assholish characters that doesn't get tied down by conventional, outside morals, and also inexplicably named Alice or a variation of that

 

Usually, I guess I create characters from concepts on something that i have in mind at the time. If we talk about patterns, I play female more than males, though most of the time I play characters that either don't really care about gender roles at all or actively trying to subvert society's expectation on it, so probably in the end the genders of my characters ended up being kinda...cosmetic for the most part. Though I do play males too whenever I feel like it.

 

They're usually strictly self-motivated and having a strong personality, with a strong inclination to fulfill a personal goal or ideal. This also at times make them pretty self-centered, and my characters often ignores society's morals to do what they want, whether for the better or worse. Yeah, even if the above sentence with the strike through is a joke, this often end up with my characters being qualified as selfish and kind of a jerk. Now that I think about it, I almost never really played a character whose actually motivated for a non-personal cause, whether it's for good or evil or something.

 

My characters are usually deeply flawed, in ways that I presume would give a reader an actual reason to dislike them. Though at times I struggle to make them actually have something to allow them to be likable due to them being too flawed. Like once, I have a character who's pretending to be a nice outgoing girl while she's actually effectively an utterly selfish manipulative delusional person (but she doesn't accept these traits as being a part of her) that never really listened to other's words on her and who constantly fails to change herself for the better. At one point it can get pretty ridiculous.

 

Still, I'm still trying to get myself to diversify on this. Though, because this is talking about RPs, I usually would rather stick to what works for me rather than not, since not getting the feel of a character in an RP is kind of a risky thing since that'd make me less inclined to post as them.

 

When it comes to backstory I usually use it mainly to shape the character's current personality and probably set up things for the character's future. Kinda felt it would've been a waste otherwise.

 

Not sure how my characters relate to me tbh. Perhaps they're just a tool, or perhaps not. I can get quite attached to them, but that depends on whether I get that certain click when writing as them or not.

[Aix]

Though, because this is talking about RPs, I usually would rather stick to what works for me rather than not, since not getting the feel of a character in an RP is kind of a risky thing since that'd make me less inclined to post as them.

Oh yeah, in addition to just my preference for certain characters, this is also a thing. If I get bored of a character, it becomes a chore to post as them. I'm perfectly comfortable playing basically anything otherwise.