(10-03-2016, 04:19 PM)Arsi Wrote: A question to all those that pass by this thread - how do you prefer to flesh out a new character?Â
I had made a note to myself to sit down and answer this when I had a moment earlier and completely blanked on it. I'm here now, though!
As for me, I made a general idea of the character based off what little I knew of the lore and what sort of character I felt I'd have fun with. Then, as per my own personal neuroses, I tend to muse on all sorts of little details - some important and some non - things like background, family members, reasons for being where they are, any unique abilities they might have (though I've had a few I thought up, later had explanations all thought up for, and later discarded as unnecessary for the character).
The greatest solidifying of the characters themselves, though, has come from actually RPing with them. I may have designed Chachan to be cheerful and friendly and want to make all the friends, but it was interactions with various people that made me realize his deep-down fear of loss and making the big choices and his penchant for becoming a worrywart. Figuring out Judge as "a character whose story is over" was in his base design, but how he went about it and how he acts in general in that regard was fleshed out through trial and error. Even things such as how Gogon acts when drunk was actually figured out through RP.
So, in short... it's good to have a base idea - and how deep you go into it is up to you - but some of the biggest discoveries and characterization moments will likely come just from how you have your character interact with others.
As for how you insert yourself? Just toss yourself in. You're a fresh-faced adventurer who just struck it out on his own, or perhaps you're someone who has been "around" but hasn't started making any sort of waves until now. There isn't some grand, overarching RP story going on. It's a bunch of people telling their own stories with each other. So it's pretty simple to add yourself into someone's tale as you start your own.
~