I love your post Zhavi!!
A couple of things that I always try to keep in mind, is that this is an MMO RPG, not a table-top one. Sometimes in a table-top it can be fun and rewarding to take on the character of the unique, the prophesied. Your group can be the Fellowship. As you start to add more and more people it starts to become clear that you can't be set apart by some obvious trait. You're no longer the only bard, the only wizard, the only elf, the only princess, the only dancer, or so on.
In a community the size of Balmung no character is unique based upon any collection of identifiers and traits, and if that is what you are aiming for in order to be satisfied you're bound for disappointment. There are so many characters that we instead mirror the real world: they are unique because they are themselves. Just as every person is different, despite there being thousands who share our collection of traits and identifiers (ever our names!) we're still our own individual, so too are our characters.
I always feel better when I dismiss that weight to be different and unique, and instead focus on just being the character.Â
My last comment is a more personal one. From my vantage point I appreciate all sorts of characters, but what always tugs and pulls at me are those little hooks I can grab on to that make someone relateable to my own experiences. Challenges, family, frustrations, hopes and dreams, these are what make me sit up, pay attention, and care. I don't really care about your "powers", your traumatic history, or your gadgets (though these all do have their place in things), but when you explain that you're just trying to make gil to support your unfortunate older brother while struggling to live up to your father's expectations that you follow in his footsteps as an engineer, well, suddenly those gadgets you've made in your spare time seem a lot more interesting.
Through such things a character becomes a human, someone that you can come to know just like you do a friend. That's when things really seem to work for me.
Actually, one very very last comment: Tropes are not bad. Tropes are the collected wisdom of thousands of years of story-telling by millions of people. There is nothing new under the sun, we are all drawing upon the concepts and ideas that we have been steeped in since birth. Do not fear them: embrace them. Both as aspects to conform to (it does help people very rapidly come to grip with your character), and expectations to subvert ("OH NO SHE DIDN'T!").
A couple of things that I always try to keep in mind, is that this is an MMO RPG, not a table-top one. Sometimes in a table-top it can be fun and rewarding to take on the character of the unique, the prophesied. Your group can be the Fellowship. As you start to add more and more people it starts to become clear that you can't be set apart by some obvious trait. You're no longer the only bard, the only wizard, the only elf, the only princess, the only dancer, or so on.
In a community the size of Balmung no character is unique based upon any collection of identifiers and traits, and if that is what you are aiming for in order to be satisfied you're bound for disappointment. There are so many characters that we instead mirror the real world: they are unique because they are themselves. Just as every person is different, despite there being thousands who share our collection of traits and identifiers (ever our names!) we're still our own individual, so too are our characters.
I always feel better when I dismiss that weight to be different and unique, and instead focus on just being the character.Â
My last comment is a more personal one. From my vantage point I appreciate all sorts of characters, but what always tugs and pulls at me are those little hooks I can grab on to that make someone relateable to my own experiences. Challenges, family, frustrations, hopes and dreams, these are what make me sit up, pay attention, and care. I don't really care about your "powers", your traumatic history, or your gadgets (though these all do have their place in things), but when you explain that you're just trying to make gil to support your unfortunate older brother while struggling to live up to your father's expectations that you follow in his footsteps as an engineer, well, suddenly those gadgets you've made in your spare time seem a lot more interesting.
Through such things a character becomes a human, someone that you can come to know just like you do a friend. That's when things really seem to work for me.
Actually, one very very last comment: Tropes are not bad. Tropes are the collected wisdom of thousands of years of story-telling by millions of people. There is nothing new under the sun, we are all drawing upon the concepts and ideas that we have been steeped in since birth. Do not fear them: embrace them. Both as aspects to conform to (it does help people very rapidly come to grip with your character), and expectations to subvert ("OH NO SHE DIDN'T!").
![[Image: 21282370099_a814a08664_o.png]](https://farm1.staticflickr.com/590/21282370099_a814a08664_o.png)
