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+--- Thread: How did you come up with your character? (/showthread.php?tid=13004)
RE: How did you come up with your character? - Frogpants - 08-17-2015
Someone makes a comment/ I watch a movie/ read a book. Then my mind just melts it together and brews it into something.
RE: How did you come up with your character? - ZacharyVolfire - 08-17-2015
My first and foremost character i ever make in a universe will follow this ismple question- With my current skills and abilities and life what would i do in this universe.
Then my other characters are based on a mix of old short stories I wrote plus Random Number Generator shorts
RE: How did you come up with your character? - ɴᴘᴄ - 08-17-2015
Well, I haven't developed a character for tabletop in many years, so I am a bit rusty at the practice.
With Ancel, he started out as a Gladiator, and I wanted to main Paladin. I looked the the nations of Eorzea and thought, from his perspective, "who needs it most?" It seemed that Gridania was leanest on this type of fighter, so he threw in his lot with the Order of the Twin Serpent.
At this point, I only had a vague idea of what this character should be, plus there wasn't much public RP on Ultros. A few months into the relaunch, two different issues, namely network latency and GPU woolliness, started making tanking an impossibility. So I took a hiatus, chalking it up as a serious injury which required time for Ancel to recover.
Once I moved and got a new rig, I had to rethink how I wanted to play. I was way behind on the tanking meta and had forgotten most of the dungeons, so I decided to hang up my Paladin hopes and start from scratch. The only class that seemed to fit was Bard, so that's what I went after.
From this, you can see that the character started out only as a sketch and that responses to gameplay circumstances were central to filling in the story. In Ancel's case the background elements were all fleshed out retroactively and piecemeal.
I would like to have a more well-planned RP character, but finding room on Balmung is problematic, to say the least.
RE: How did you come up with your character? - Mae - 08-17-2015
My original character, I ended up burning out on her in just a couple months -- I had made something so far from my normal character type, she was just... mentally exhausting to RP for more than twenty minutes every few days. Great concept, she was just too dumb for me to wrap my head around.
Kara was the result of me saying "Okay... if I don't come up with something new, I'm quitting the game", because by that time I hated my original (Silke) and just wasn't feeling it with my other existing alts. I spent a little while in character creation, just making something I liked the look of while actively not thinking about any RP stuff. I randomized names until I got a last name I didn't mind, grabbed a random name off of my project name list for a first name, and ran with it. After that, I played until I got my airship license, then grabbed a friend to RP with. I had no backstory, no idea on personality... so we just ran with whatever popped in my head. The whole session was non-canon, and maybe only a third of the stuff that happened in that actually made it into Kara's ultimate concept.
RE: How did you come up with your character? - Rising - 08-17-2015
I'm not very adventurous when creating a character. I love the Ranger archetype and in games I like to play the Ranger/Hunter/Archer. So that's always where I start. My Rangers may have different personalities but they all usually have certain things in common, like Neutral/Good alignment, serious demeanor, personal code of honor, a sense of duty or obligation to her faction/people/friends/family/etc., and a willingness to do what needs to be done.
That's my framework, familiar and comfortable as it is. So for me, that's the easy part. The rest lies in a little lore research into my setting. I figure out what species/race 1) Most fits the archetype, 2) Figure out a rough idea of where they came from. Trust me, I do mean rough.Â
Next step is the character creation in game. I actually derive a bit about their personality as I create them. Not sure why that is, but it is. I also find naming extremely important. I was very unfamiliar with FF so actually playing an Archer has helped develop the character in my mind.
As I play, explore, and learn the lore a bit, the personality and backstory emerges. Most my characters are pretty closed so I can get away with giving little info when I RP casually but that casual RP really helps develop and set the personality of the character for me.
Anyway, I suppose I would say that I take the class/profession/job I enjoy playing the most and work from there.
RE: How did you come up with your character? - Addison - 08-17-2015
I role played a character in Everquest 2 for a long time. I liked her concept. I enjoyed the way she grew. It opened a lot of doors for a lot of different types of roleplay.
My character was the beta twin in a brother/sister set of twins. The brother was a real asshole. The trouble I learned with playing assholes is no one wants to roleplay with them after a while. So I roleplayed the sister, who went through a lot of training in a military setting. It hardened her, perhaps a bit too much so. After several years, she was angry and bitter and went from the good guy to the bad guy. That was fun for a while but then it lost its allure.
So my idea for Addison? Create the exact opposite of what my previous character was.
RE: How did you come up with your character? - Sig - 08-17-2015
I came up with the general concept for Sig while drinking an imperial IPA, watching BoJack Horseman, and listening to the four songs linked on his RPC wiki profile. Â The music really guided my inspiration for the character on an emotional and aesthetic level. Â I performed some basic online research to confirm his background lore. Â Sig is extremely difficult to RP at times because he can be highly volatile and alienating, likely as a result of the initial brain storming session. Â Â
But, it's been just as enjoyable thus far, because he's slowly stomping out various inner demons IC in-game and turning into a better person. Â They'll probably never go away fully, and he'll never be a saint (or "good" in any sense), but he's already tipping much closer to neutral.
Good times!
RE: How did you come up with your character? - C'kayah Polaali - 08-17-2015
I like character creation, so I seldom recycle character concepts at all.
I started out playing FF on Siren with a few friends who didn't RP, and C'kayah (then C'kayah Tia) was just this storyless avatar. I liked the looks of Miqo'te, so I made him a Seeker.
When my friends stopped playing a month or so later, I thought I'd check out the RP community here, so I re-made C'kayah on Balmung. Exact same thing as C'kayah on Siren, so I had a few things already set up: He was a Seeker, he was tribal (hence Tia), and he was no longer with his tribe. I started out an archer because I played a hunter (archer) in LOTRO and liked that mechanic, so he started in Gridania where there normally aren't a lot of Seekers.
I liked the idea of playing a criminal, so I figured I'd make him a smuggler. It gives him a reason for moving around, and I thought it would be interesting playing a grey area criminal (as opposed to a "Doctor Evil" type). I'm a huge fan of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, and brought his tendency to drink like a fish from those stories.
I happened to be reading Casanova's autobiography at the time (it's long, but it's really entertaining). Casanova had a very interesting approach to social interaction, and he wrote down entire conversations in his autobiography - embellished, of course, but you still see Casanova shining through in them. I thought it would be interesting to bring that into C'kayah. His womanizing tendencies, his attitudes towards life (easy come, easy go) and people (enjoy them while they're here, appreciate them for who they are, don't fuck them over; love is love, business is business, and the rest is bullshit) all come from Casanova, as well as his style of speaking. In a game world filled with straight talking upright good guys and dark villains, this all makes him a very slippery fellow.
From this point he started to evolve. I'd been toying with the idea of him having a Keeper ancestor in his past, so when I met Miah Polaali, we decided to codify that: They're cousins. His maternal grandmother was from Miah's clan, and some sort of great aunt to Miah. When name changes came in, I changed his name to C'kayah Polaali (ICly this was because he decided that Tia didn't fit, him not being part of a tribe anymore). Of all the things I've done with him, I've gotten the most mileage out of this one decision. He has family ties now with other players, and that translates into limitless hooks for RP opportunity.
RE: How did you come up with your character? - D'aito Kuji - 08-18-2015
tl; drÂ
I wanted a character inspired by the Lore, without a tragic backstory, who seeks adventure and opportunity for the thrill and freedom it provides.
I've almost always played a self-insert character in previous games. Â For D'aito Kuji, I wanted something different than me and so I had to think about her personality and the experiences she must have had to be like that. Â I looked into Seeker lore (there was ZERO doubt that I'd be playing a Miqo'te. Â It's the sole reason I play) and there was a lot of good opportunities there.
I wanted her to feel uncomfortable and caged by her tribal tradition. Â I wanted her to have a deep need for adventure "to chase the horizon." Â She respected her people and their ways but she didn't want to be a part of it, at least not until she saw the world. Â All she needed was an opportunity.
One thing that I always try to avoid is the "tragic backstory" and while I'm not 100% successful, I think if one understands the lore, her sire's death is not the primary motivating factor. Â It's expected that the Nuhn will eventually be defeated. Â They will either be banished or killed, that's just the way of things. Â But the how of the defeat is important.
His brother cheated to become Nuhn. Â This would mean that his predisposition for treachery would be carried forward in the next generation. Â D'aito knew what he had done but understood that exposing it could mortally destabilize her tribe. Â Rather than recognize Kujo has the Nuhn, D'aito ran away.
So with this backstory, I feel that D'aito is respectful but uncomfortable with tradition, she longs for adventure, and has a strong sense of what is right and wrong. Â Her leaving the way she did also makes me think that she's an opportunist. Â That trait has served her well as an adventurer, as she often brags "No job is too big, no fee is too big."
I wanted a character inspired by the Lore, without a tragic backstory, who seeks adventure and opportunity for the thrill and freedom it provides.
RE: How did you come up with your character? - Kalooeh - 08-18-2015
Basically it's a general idea for the character, sometimes just from screwing around with a character creator, as well as going through lore info (if I can find anything. Or sometimes I just get an idea from reading through lore) and then derp around on them until I get more of a feel for them and they start to develop and more or less take on a life of their own.
Like we'll take Dheina for instance, since what I remember the most for that.
Started off as wanting to make a troll because all the current rp friends at the time had taken up trolls (warcraft) and I was being left out of rp because they were mostly in troll/troll only areas and mostly just rping with other trolls. So I start reading on lore and come up with basic looks for Dei'fon and where she'd come from and so on. And then just worked on leveling her and as I went on for whatever reason certain traits started sticking with what felt right for what'd work and eventually she was fleshed out as this skittish skinny troll that's somewhat obsessive and protective about food, cries easy, is a bit slow in the head, has a weird obsession with pink and pretty things, and can be kind of bossy/loud when she'd feeling braver/is angry about something.
And coming over to FF there was a bit of an overhaul with her because would be far different experiences in background while growing up, but kept her key personality points and just been adapted to here.
Like FF Dhei hates hurting people and fighting and is more just a healer type, and is a lot more soft hearted. Her view of cannibalism is a lot more passive than Dei's, as cannibalism for trolls is a LOT more common. She still isn't disgusted by it, and would be fine enough with eating anything, but she'd be upset if someone else was actively hunting other people to kill and eat (unless the victim was a horrible/mean person. Then her attitude is "GOOD! They were mean and now they can't be mean to people anymore! D:< I will eat them too!"
Whereas troll her doesn't really have any issues with it as long as someone's not trying to eat her or people she likes. She also commonly enough hunts people (Mainly gnomes or other "Alliance" races) to eat because normal enough and just another meat. Dei'fon is also a druid, and while she trains mostly for healing, she knows more offensive magic and shape-shifts and is bolder with fighting because while she tends to run away if she can, she will also fight for survival reasons and is a lot more familiar with death and killing than Dheina.
And for Kal, she started out a semi-self insert all those many years ago (Seriously like near 10 already? Shit), but I quickly enough got bored with it and ended up horde-side with a loud-mouth brat tauren and after worgen/human hunters came out I ended up picking up Kal again and redoing her background and personality and over the years she evolved as well from being kinda quiet/reserved/shy and temperamental to being the loud, aggressive-but-friendly brat she is today
And other alts always started out kind of awkwardly too or were meant as something that wasn't planning on really having as an actual character because just was mainly bored and wanted to derp around on a new class, ended up in random casual rp with people who'd initiate something (and if I'm not doing something like for a quest or crafting I'll play along instead of being the killjoy and can be a fun way to keep entertained) and end up developing them as an actual character. Other times it's because friends wanted to make new characters and level together with someone and rp with them but eventually lost interest but I liked how the character had developed so kept them.
Oh yeah and sometimes a character was made to kind of explore a specific concept/trait or something and researching the related subject helps with fleshing them out and drawing somewhat on my own experiences and expanding on my own experiences and traits.
Ignore Twin Rova. She's my lololol zelda derp character and I've done shitall with her so far :I She's still in the awkward phase, if I even decide to do anything serious with her