Tips and Tricks of Character Creation

[Girdio]

First and most importantly, I would hope that this would be a team-effort. I am by no means an expert on good character creation, and I don't want to pretend I am. In turn, hopefully people are able to add their own pieces of advice. In an ideal world, players would be able to look over the thread, and find posts from their favorite roleplayers and follow their advice, since Aurora currently has some very skilled roleplayers. But, that's being dreamy. The intent is to provide players (who are primarily) new to roleplay and SS13, a resource they can access when it comes to creating a character.

Secondly, this is not necessarily a guide to roleplaying a character. You can create the perfect character, and then when it comes time to actually play them it all falls apart. That's okay! It's all about trial and error, and working through what characters you can pull off and what ones don't really hold up when it comes time to test them in action

Personally, I have been involved in roleplay (should it be Aurora, DnD, forums, or other formats) and story-writing for quite honestly a lot of my life, and character creation is always a blast. I adore the ability to paint a character in your mind, craft their lives and their personality in your hands. I will be stealing points from other people as I've watched tons of character creating videos because I'm always terrified of my characters being unrealistic, no matter the medium.

Finally, before getting into tips on my end, keep in mind that none of these tips are be-all, end-all. You don't have to conform to any of these tips if you want, and can pick and choose what sounds helpful to you.

 

Starting off, the biggest thing I like to focus on is the idea of goals/motivation. This may seem simple, but sometimes people don't have a concrete goal in mind for their character. Sometimes, a player will create a character whose entire existence is as if they poofed into existence one day, with nothing in mind besides "I am alive and I must work". Goals are something simple for a character to work towards, and they don't have to be extreme (although they can be). Something as easy as "making enough credits to help my family" or "wanting to see the Spur" are great, because it opens the door to (a theme that helps in character building) asking why. Why does your character want to help their family? Do they have a strong connection to them? Is there something that their family can't handle? Why see the Spur? Does your character want to see anywhere in particular, interact with someone from anywhere in particular? These are straightforward and something you as a player will know, and in time other characters will know as well.

On the other hand, a more tricky concept is the idea of giving your characters needs. In particular, this is referring to the concept of "wants vs needs". To quote the book Creating Character Arcs, by K.M Weiland, "your character will spend most of the story pursuing an outer, plot-related goal related to the thing he wants. But what the story is truly about, on a deeper level, is his growth into a place where he, first subconsciously and then consciously, recognizes and pursues his inner goal - the thing he needs."

In other words. Your characters external goals are what's driving your character forward from day-to-day, but there's something they as a character needs to address about themselves, their need, usually something they're not going to really acknowledge or be aware of. Your character's goal might be "getting enough credits to not have to worry about people again" but their need could be "realizing that it's safe to trust people without getting hurt", or their goal could be "exploring the Spur" but their need could be "finding one's self-worth in the galaxy and becoming confident in their place".*

Moving on, try to nail down a good personality. Unlike goals and needs, a personality is something that is the most overt thing possible, and is the first thing anyone will notice about your character. This is a straightforward concept on paper, but sometimes it's hard to figure out your character's personality. You don't want your character moving through life, and the Spur, without a personality. Focus on your character's beliefs of different regions of the Spur, their attitude towards life in general. Determine why your character acts the way they do. Did some trauma cause them to become more soft-spoken and keeping people away, afraid to tread on feet in case the same happens again? Are they outspoken, loud  and quick to join themselves into a group because they've grown up defending people who can't do it for themselves? Are they constantly cracking jokes at others' expense and laughing to cover up their own fears? These are all good starting points for a personality, but obviously are not complete. Ideally, a character's personality comes from something in their childhood, or their backstory. Something that caused them to be the way they are today.**

Some points to avoid. All of these can be avoided if you truly, absolutely want to have these in mind. And they can be utilized great! But, if you want to utilize them, you have to be aware of the pitfalls they come with. Firstly, if you're new try to avoid making a standoff-ish character right away. Sometimes these characters can go great, and I've seen more than a few on Aurora over the years prosper! The important point here is that they're almost always piloted by a player with experienced roleplay knowledge, who are able to weave a cold and brash character, while also managing to stay involved and interacted with. For a lot of characters, if their main personality or quirk is "they don't talk to a lot of people until they get to know them", then you're going to not get a lot of interaction and unfortunately probably get bored with the character. Your character by no means should interact with everyone they meet, but if you're hoping for people to initiate roleplay with a 'fresh, out of the box' character, then you're going to usually have a hard time. Furthermore, while the concept of mysterious characters with super in-depth backstories is amazing (you love to see it, honest), keep in mind this creates an issue as well when it comes towards interaction. If your character is too mysterious (as in, they don't open up at all) then you're setting yourself up for a tough spot. Sometimes a character who is super reserved and mysterious can have a great reveal when they get super close to another character, but often it will also fall flat. In other words, feel free to make a mysterious character but limit your expectations for how other characters will react to their big mystery, and also be prepared for it to never come up.

Finally, don't be afraid to do something you think other people have. Personally, this is my biggest issue when it comes to writing in general, as I'm always terrified that I'm copying someone else. But, as the common saying goes in writing, "nothing is truly original, someone is stealing from someone else." Every character concept you can think of, most likely has existed in some form or fashion even if you weren't around to see it (keep in mind, Aurora has been around for nearly a decade). Instead of being a bad thing, rejoice! Knowing that your character has (probably) existed in some way means you can create whatever you want (within lore and realism reason).

 

*I'm aware this whole section is a little long-winded and could be a bit confusing, so I apologize. I simply didn't really know a better way to phrase everything without it becoming wordy.

**A video on this idea that I took a percentage of the paragraph from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHPa7HwLkws

 

 

 

[Sniblet]

Personality in Aurora is something that's been on my mind of late, and in an RP setting there are a few archetypes that really just don't work, even if they do in real life or in a story with one controlling author. I think the most offensive personality is cold-standoffish - someone who has no interest in people, cannot be persuaded to be interested in people, has no connections with anybody, and will walk away ASAP if approached.

I have one active character with this trait. It turns out, I wasn't really thinking when I made her this way. The problem this character produces is that you can't RP if you're not at least sharing a screen-width with somebody. People don't have time to give you the time of day if you don't, because there's always a cute bubbly waifu the next door over and they know they'll have a good time there. If you're always hiding in a dark closet, you're not going to be found, especially if no one's looking for you. And you won't be remembered.

You want to be remembered, right? The sole purpose of RP is attention-seeking, right? That's not just me? Okay. Okay, so watch as I contradict Girdio - you may notice if you pay enough attention to literary tutorials that people who pretend to know what they're talking about do this to each other all the time.

Set out to make someone who's different.

I am by no means saying rainbow hair sexy buttcheeks in your flavor text. A, that specifically is a huge turnoff because it says something bad about you OOCly, B, superficial stuff like that won't carry you. This is called "a limp and an accent," and while it's a good thing and can be a cheat to make a character memorable, it doesn't make a character.

The best characters consistently act different in some way. You will be remembered for playing someone uniquely compassionate (healing everyone as a doctor is normal - empathizing even with the worst serial murderers is special), uniquely assholish (griefing is illegal - casually namecalling and never learning from your social mistakes is accepted), uniquely anxious (a stutter is limp-and-accent - concrete, complex, clearly and reliably played fears are not), uniquely loyal (company loyalty is not unique and seldom comes up except when decapping the antag - a self-sacrificial loyalty to say, Dominian primaries, leads to frequent unique interactions). We all remember Keala very clearly, and Aelia, and some of us are always happy to see Cassandra, or Kornelija. If you know those characters, you've probably just thought of all the same things I remember them for.

Here's a test I'm fond of for any character in any setting: imagine them in some absurd situations, and see if you can concretely imagine what they would do in them (they are now suddenly a schoolteacher with no qualifications - they have fallen in love with a viax - they have, oh i dont know, been kidnapped by a changeling). If you can do this test, you've made a functional character. If it's different from what you IRL would do, that's a good sign. If it's different from what most characters on the Horizon would do, you are most definitely on the right track to synthesizing a memorable fake person.

Making a hit is difficult. There are no assembly instructions for uniqueness. Try to think of an archetype you like that has an open or at least non-crowded niche ("sarcastic sense of humor" is extremely crowded, but we don't currently have a lot of "anxious wreck" or "loyal secondary" or "happy person"), and find some more spin to put on it. Agonize over their appearance for two entire rounds. Join. Play more than one round before you write anyone off. And relax. Remember, nobody's watching you anyway, until you get that just-right character.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Sniblet
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