Back when I modded on a rp forum, we'd see a lot of people come through with, inevitably, one thing in common:
making their character about the traits.
They'd all end up the same: the traits, alone, inevitably became boring to play, and they lost interest in the character. Why? Because the character was never about being a person, it was about the trait. You can tell this is happening because when you ask questions about the character specific to who they are as a person, it will circle back to the traits. "Why does he carry two katanas around?" "He inherited them because I wanted him to have two katanas because they're cool." And thus, the history was all about allowing the character to have a certain weaponry, and really became about a human-shaped object that had really, really cool swords, yo, and could use them really freakin' well. Which then proceeded to fall apart because it had no depth.
I like to think of it this way: the personality, quirks, and interests of a person often go back to something (or somethings) that happened while they were growing up or, if they are older, something (or somethings) that happened to them during their adulthood. People change, grow (for better or worse), and typically do things due to a learned set of behaviors.
To give you an example, I'll present you with one of my characters: Saruna. She is an ostensibly simple character: a fifty-something housewife who was widowed a decade earlier and whose passel of children left one by one to take up their family heritage in the far west in bigger cities. She lives a lonely life, weaving to get by, growing food in a small garden.
Her parents left the west to be with each other, and she was raised in a small town, met her husband, and lived a quiet life. Her focus was always on family: giving of herself to those she cared about was, to her, the highest achievement one could have.
Her traits, therefore, followed from her history.
Nature: she was a quiet child, therefore was never rebellious.
Nature: she was a caring person, therefore it came naturally to her to want to be a mother.
Nurture: following in her parents' footsteps, family was extraordinarily important to her.
History: as she lost her immediate family one by one, the need to care about others expanded to those in her community.
History: Her tendency to put others before herself and her loneliness made her more likely to be trusting and forgiving of strangers.
Therefore: her strength of will comes from her desire to nurture and protect.
Therefore: she is easy to involve in the stories of others, either as a mark for a scoundrel, a motherly figure to someone young, or as someone who steps out of her comfort zone to aid others in need.
Her traits supported her as a person, never overwhelming the character or becoming the sole reason I played her. She was rewarding to me to play because, due to her simple life, she had an untapped potential that she didn't know about to become strong and stand up for what she believed in, even if that belief was rooted in a desire to protect an adopted family (she eventually went on to become a leading figure in a rebellion, standing up for what she believed was right). She was rewarding for other players because of the depth of her interest and focus in their characters.
Ultimately, her character was about growth and second chances. She was easy to attach goals to and was a believable person.
And that, to me, is what makes for a successful, long-lived character: they are a believable person. No matter how ridiculous their premise, no matter how odd their backstory, no matter how humorously you write them: you can look at them and say - "I know that type of person." It's not just 'oh, he's easygoing' but 'he's easygoing because ____.' If you just slap things on willy-nilly, you're going to end up with a mish-mash collection of glued-on traits that will not be rewarding to play.
Take Verad, for example (FORGIVE ME FOR USING YOUR CHARACTER AS AN EXAMPLE). The character is humorous, but believable. We've all met the silly guy who takes himself too seriously, as well as the shady one who sells shit that he presents as legit. And yet, despite these traits, the character is not all about them. They form the focus for certain rps, but he has a backstory and is never presented as just a gag. There is more to him than meets the eye, and even when he's presented as 2-D, you can always see glimpses of something more just around the edges; an illusion that may or may not be more than it appears. That was what made him rewarding to play with (I haven't played with him in awhile, so I can't speak to his current incarnation). He was the sum of his traits, both more and less than their presentation. They melded together seamlessly and weren't just stapled on because they were unique or cool.
Bottom line: yes, this is a fictional character for rp, but, within the rp this is a person who exists in a world and has a life. If you don't know who that person is, why they are the way they are, and what they want out of life, the rest is just glitter and noise: unsubstantial, and it'll get annoying after awhile.
Don't focus on unique.
Focus on enjoyable.
making their character about the traits.
They'd all end up the same: the traits, alone, inevitably became boring to play, and they lost interest in the character. Why? Because the character was never about being a person, it was about the trait. You can tell this is happening because when you ask questions about the character specific to who they are as a person, it will circle back to the traits. "Why does he carry two katanas around?" "He inherited them because I wanted him to have two katanas because they're cool." And thus, the history was all about allowing the character to have a certain weaponry, and really became about a human-shaped object that had really, really cool swords, yo, and could use them really freakin' well. Which then proceeded to fall apart because it had no depth.
I like to think of it this way: the personality, quirks, and interests of a person often go back to something (or somethings) that happened while they were growing up or, if they are older, something (or somethings) that happened to them during their adulthood. People change, grow (for better or worse), and typically do things due to a learned set of behaviors.
To give you an example, I'll present you with one of my characters: Saruna. She is an ostensibly simple character: a fifty-something housewife who was widowed a decade earlier and whose passel of children left one by one to take up their family heritage in the far west in bigger cities. She lives a lonely life, weaving to get by, growing food in a small garden.
Her parents left the west to be with each other, and she was raised in a small town, met her husband, and lived a quiet life. Her focus was always on family: giving of herself to those she cared about was, to her, the highest achievement one could have.
Her traits, therefore, followed from her history.
Nature: she was a quiet child, therefore was never rebellious.
Nature: she was a caring person, therefore it came naturally to her to want to be a mother.
Nurture: following in her parents' footsteps, family was extraordinarily important to her.
History: as she lost her immediate family one by one, the need to care about others expanded to those in her community.
History: Her tendency to put others before herself and her loneliness made her more likely to be trusting and forgiving of strangers.
Therefore: her strength of will comes from her desire to nurture and protect.
Therefore: she is easy to involve in the stories of others, either as a mark for a scoundrel, a motherly figure to someone young, or as someone who steps out of her comfort zone to aid others in need.
Her traits supported her as a person, never overwhelming the character or becoming the sole reason I played her. She was rewarding to me to play because, due to her simple life, she had an untapped potential that she didn't know about to become strong and stand up for what she believed in, even if that belief was rooted in a desire to protect an adopted family (she eventually went on to become a leading figure in a rebellion, standing up for what she believed was right). She was rewarding for other players because of the depth of her interest and focus in their characters.
Ultimately, her character was about growth and second chances. She was easy to attach goals to and was a believable person.
And that, to me, is what makes for a successful, long-lived character: they are a believable person. No matter how ridiculous their premise, no matter how odd their backstory, no matter how humorously you write them: you can look at them and say - "I know that type of person." It's not just 'oh, he's easygoing' but 'he's easygoing because ____.' If you just slap things on willy-nilly, you're going to end up with a mish-mash collection of glued-on traits that will not be rewarding to play.
Take Verad, for example (FORGIVE ME FOR USING YOUR CHARACTER AS AN EXAMPLE). The character is humorous, but believable. We've all met the silly guy who takes himself too seriously, as well as the shady one who sells shit that he presents as legit. And yet, despite these traits, the character is not all about them. They form the focus for certain rps, but he has a backstory and is never presented as just a gag. There is more to him than meets the eye, and even when he's presented as 2-D, you can always see glimpses of something more just around the edges; an illusion that may or may not be more than it appears. That was what made him rewarding to play with (I haven't played with him in awhile, so I can't speak to his current incarnation). He was the sum of his traits, both more and less than their presentation. They melded together seamlessly and weren't just stapled on because they were unique or cool.
Bottom line: yes, this is a fictional character for rp, but, within the rp this is a person who exists in a world and has a life. If you don't know who that person is, why they are the way they are, and what they want out of life, the rest is just glitter and noise: unsubstantial, and it'll get annoying after awhile.
Don't focus on unique.
Focus on enjoyable.
