Story/RP idea inquiry

[Yunas13]

Hey guys, 

I have some questions about story/RP/writing. 

 

I've read so many ideas and I was wondering how do you come up with them? I need some direction as I used to be able to do it myself but now I can't seem to come up with original ideas of my own.  I've got two characters I adore and I want to write more about them.  

 

Help this fellow Rper/Writer out, please?

[Iex]

Sadly, a lot of stories start like this:

 

Think of something really horrible, and then ask what if it happened to my character.

 

Or you could go with:

 

Think of something really good, and then ask what if it happened to my character.

[C'kayah Polaali]

Honestly, just practice.

 

I carry a notebook around with me everywhere, and I'll jot down ideas as they occur to me - this is more important than you'd think! Try to remember all the times you had a good idea and then forgot it. Now imagine having all those ideas written down for you to use later.

 

I'll get ideas from pretty much anything. Stories, books, movies, plays, operas... If I'm playing in someone else's arc and I see something that's cool, it goes into the notebook. Dreams. anything.

 

A good creative exercise is to take a story you like and try to alter it as a RP premise. For instance: A small caravan is traveling along a dusty road in Thanalan, when it is attacked by a large force of Brass Blades. The caravan guard at first attempt to resist, but eventually surrender. One of the travelers in the caravan is a minor noblewoman who's accused of conspiring against the Sultana. The captain of the Blades is convinced that she's carrying details of a plot, but he can find nothing on her. He brings her in, figuring that a few weeks in the gaols might loosen her tongue. Meanwhile, two of her servants have snuck away in all the confusion, and one of them is in fact carrying the details of the plot. The noblewoman, you see, had given her servant instructions to carry the details to an old man who'd once been a knight under her father's command...

 

Sound familiar? It should. Now I'm not saying you should make a story based on Star Wars, but you can see how any portion of this could make an interesting event. What if your characters stumble upon the servants? What if they're on the caravan as innocent travelers? Maybe they're Blades, or maybe they've been hired by the Syndicate to help the noblewoman...

 

The more you do this, the easier it'll get, and pretty soon you'll be in the enviable position of having simply too many ideas to actually play out. Keep at it!

[Kyrio Lamansque]

This is what I did with Kyrio. I hope the example is helpful when deciding how to write more about your character. 

 

I didn't RP until I reached level 15 and cleared the inter-city travel quest. 

 

I traveled the cities and checked out what was going on there. Looked at every nook and cranny. Saw what the NPCs said out in the open.

 

Noticed when walking through the Pearl Lane that the Brass Blades talked a lot of trash about the people in the Lane. Also noticed the people in the lane were in really bad shape. 

 

Started coming up with a past where Kyrio would be from there, in a general way as possible to try to minimize incompatibility with the lore without being too cookie-cutter, so that it would make sense for Kyrio to be from the Pearl Lane.

[Chris Ganale]

It's cliche but I draw a lot of parallels between my own life and some of them. Ganale's history largely reads as a brief blurb of my own life. Tahz's specific number of failed nunh challenges reflects my bad relationships.

 

Others like Chao, who are pulled from other settings, I adapt their backstory and overarching goals as necessary, though I had to basically make up everything for Chao.

[Kellach Woods]

I incorporate many OOC aspects that usually resolve around : "Wouldn't it be funny/interesting/awesome/etc. if...?" and then it just writes itself.

 

After that, RP happens, and now Kell is on an epic quest to find some tonberries so he can barter for a chef's knife while worrying if he didn't accidentally transmit voidsent corruption to a conjurer he knows and wondering what the fuck is up with the postmoogles and their handing off a package with no name with a mission to deliver it.

 

Which is to say, having fun, if others buy what you're selling, will lead to amazing stories.

[Flickering Ember]

Here are some of my tips for ideas:

 

-Watch more movies, read more books/comics, play more games. 

Get inspiration from stories and characters. It's not that you should be looking for characters to mimic but rather even small details can lead to the creation of a character.

 

-Go on a walk, bike ride, car drive into the country. 

Go someplace calm and peaceful. There is something about going on a journey that lets your mind wander in ways just sitting in a chair in front of an empty notebook or empty word doc doesn't.

 

-Read tvtropes.org 

Beware it's addictiveness though. Anyway, tvtropes breaks down story and character themes into articles. It is the sister site of wiki and can be a good source of inspiration as well.

[Nebbs]

I go yo an area in game and wonder about the stories that could be happening there. Then I refine the ideas until I have an out like for and RP. After that I get someone (s) and start the story as RP and see where it goes.

[Warren Castille]

Me personally? I try to imagine that one Awesome Scene - diving out of the window as the room explodes, or the dramatic car crash, or the crushing line of dialogue, or the reveal as to who the killer REALLY is - and then I start with that. Backtrack to draw the line how you get there - Okay, so we find out the killer's identity in the middle of a dinner. Clearly it was someone we knew, hence the casual atmosphere. Alright, if we knew them, how did we meet? It's someone we trusted, so it could have been a work contact. How long did we know them?

 

So on and so forth.

[FreelanceWizard]

I'm reminded of a T. S. Eliot quote: "Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal." (Or the more modern Jobs version, "Good artists copy; great artists steal.") Read stories, watch stories, think of things in your own life that could become stories. Take other stories and change them around, improve them, and expand them.

 

In MMO RP, I usually think of, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if X happened?" and run with that. I'll often riff off others' stories in an MMO situation, as I tend to work better when improvising than I do when planning in advance. In tabletop gaming or writing, like Warren, I get some scenes or concepts in my head that I think would be really cool, then figure out ways for the story to get there.

 

One practice you can try is to come up with a random situation and a random tone, then write a short story around that. A fun random generator for this sort of thing is at Seventh Sanctum, though you might have to massage some of its results to make them workable.

[D'aito Kuji]

All great suggestions!

 

I generally riff off the game's story but try to keep it vague and never as adventerous. My character is after a murderous man-in-black, to collect a bounty and get revenge for all the embarrassing defeats she's had at his hand.  But that man isn't the one featured in the game.  She complains about having to train her Chocobo, complains about having to walk and run so much, and complains about the stranger or more boring jobs she's sent on.

 

I try to think about what if FFXIV was really real.  How would a character react? What would their lives be like outside the main story line.  I've always been fascinated with what say, superheroes do in their spare time.  What shows does Batman enjoy?  Is Wonder Woman secretly addicted to Lifetime movies?  Is Superman into alien abduction stories?  How do these extraordinary people face the mundane things in life?

 

D'aito isn't so extraordinary in one way, but she is in another.  She can't be just a regular person, no one tells the story of our daily routine like laundry day, the commute to work, sitting in school or work all day.  I mean, stories might reference it, detail it a little, but stories are almost never wholly about those things.

 

And yet...that's exactly the kind of thing I'm fascinated by and love to write about and it's the kind of thing I tend to RP.  Telling tales of being ripped off by a Lalafell, her money bag stolen by a sweet looking old Hyur, or commenting about the weather, comparing weapons, armor, and where the best fish can be found, are all things that have been at the center of my RP.  I mean, most people might find that boring and I do have more classic RP adventures, but I do prefer to examine the mundane lives of my characters while minimizing the adventure.

[Zelmanov]

I created my character as Ishgardian initially because I thought they were cool (before they were cool) and it so happens with the heavensward expansion and all that I have situated myself in a position to witness history, conflict, adventures, etc. 

 

To which I say that if your character is trying to get into plots of some sort. Position yourself in a place where its not a stretch to get a character involved. Do you have relatives that could be harmed by the events of the MSQ going on? I've seen lots of characters with no moms or dads to speak of, no troubling relationships that make life so much more than the selfish wants of a singular, detached entity.

 

Does your character have a duty to someone or to some ideal? These are all good ways to cause conflict and interesting RP. 

 

Do not get all too wrapped up in the Quicksands RP, I mean this in the best of ways. In the classic D&D campaign, it always starts at the tavern, you prod the NPCs for rumors and information with your pals and then you LEAVE THE TAVERN to investigate. The Quicksands are a fantastic place to talk, socialize and the like but rarely does greatness occur in a bar.

 

Also, do not be afraid to go along with plots of your friends. You do not always need to be the "Main character" And sometimes, when lacking inspiration to form your own story, it is best to test the waters of your character when greatness is thrust upon them from an outside force.

 

I hope this helps.

[Melkire]

Do not get all too wrapped up in the Quicksands RP, I mean this in the best of ways. In the classic D&D campaign, it always starts at the tavern, you prod the NPCs for rumors and information with your pals and then you LEAVE THE TAVERN to investigate. The Quicksands are a fantastic place to talk, socialize and the like but rarely does greatness occur in a bar.

 

This is probably the best and briefest summation of the positives and negatives of Tavern RP I've seen yet.

[Faye]

Here are some of my tips for ideas:

 

-Watch more movies, read more books/comics, play more games. 

Get inspiration from stories and characters. It's not that you should be looking for characters to mimic but rather even small details can lead to the creation of a character.

 

-Go on a walk, bike ride, car drive into the country. 

Go someplace calm and peaceful. There is something about going on a journey that lets your mind wander in ways just sitting in a chair in front of an empty notebook or empty word doc doesn't.

 

-Read tvtropes.org 

Beware it's addictiveness though. Anyway, tvtropes breaks down story and character themes into articles. It is the sister site of wiki and can be a good source of inspiration as well.

 

These were going to be my suggestions, so just gonna quote them instead of repeating them. Just be forewarned, though--the addictiveness of TVtropes is not to be taken lightly! Once you're there, you'll never get out.

[Seriphyn]

I base my characters off of people I know IRL rather than a fictional character. Kale is heavily inspired by a collection of Army/AF noncommissioned officers I know IRL, and an amalgamation of their best traits while creating a unique set of negative traits. By this point, he is his own character, however.

 

When people base their characters off of other fictional archetypes, it really is hit or miss. Some people just don't know how to play that particular archetype, and it comes across as forced or cheesy. Certainly, I can't play some of the more cool, collected, calculated, wordsmith type characters.

[ShoggMommy]

 

-Read tvtropes.org 

Beware it's addictiveness though. Anyway, tvtropes breaks down story and character themes into articles. It is the sister site of wiki and can be a good source of inspiration as well.

 

These were going to be my suggestions, so just gonna quote them instead of repeating them. Just be forewarned, though--the addictiveness of TVtropes is not to be taken lightly! Once you're there, you'll never get out.

 

I'm going to agree with these. Lol they are suuuuuper addictive, and I always end up losing time there.

[Mercurias]

The thing about generating ideas is that everyone does it. The trick is to realize what is you're doing and hold onto the good ideas.

 

Start small. Start with a thought. Then look at the thought and see what lies underneath it to discern whether or not it's good ground on which to build a story.

 

The basic part is just a simple "Hey let's take (insert character/s here) and put them into (insert situation here) and see what happens".

 

Once you have that thought, poke at it. Think about what needs to happen for that thought, that scenario, to take place. Consider who would be affected by it, as well as what the central conflict is and if it's going to be engaging. Sometimes it'll be a dud. Sometimes it'll be awesome.

 

An example, you ask?

 

Hey let's take M'sato Tia (my main) and Erik Mynhier (picked at random because he posts a lot) and get them both kidnapped and shoved into an illegal fighting ring where they're going to be forced to fight one another to the death to see how they'd fight or work together in order to escape.

 

...Now this idea actually isn't too bad. It gives the following:

-Two characters who don't know one another and could thus get acquainted.

-An illegal underground coliseum, which means there will be bad guys involved who profit from and/or enjoy this. Given that this is a rich person's game? That means the Syndicate.

-A chance for the FRIENDS of Erik and M'sato to get in on it, hunting them down through a trail of clues and rumors.

-A complex conflict. Sato and Erik don't know one another. M'sato isn't a trusting soul, and he comes off as a bitter, angry little ass most of the time. He's also affiliated with a group that has a really shady reputation. Erik is a known Paladin, generally fairly well-liked by the people who know him, and is a known associate of the Immortal Flames. If they don't get a chance to stop and talk things out before they're forced into the ring, they could very well kill one another. We can only imagine that their captors would try to spin any lie they can to keep the two at one another's throats to make for a more entertaining event. Given how the story goes, they might end up working together...Or going at one another with real murder in their hearts.

-The chance to bring in others as additional captives, or even bring in new characters as criminals or guards for the baddies.

 

 

So now you've got a story idea. It took me about five, ten minutes to iron out this far after picking Erik, including placing it more or less comprehensively into a post. It gets complicated fast, and I haven't even gone into the things that can be done to nudge the story along.

 

Just start with a thought, then once you think it's something you can build a story on, go to work.

[Steel Wolf]

Okay, so here's how I wrote Steel, and I'll try to verbalize my thought processes as I crafted her, starting at 2.0

 

I never played this game before--or at least, I never played it to any great length of time. I had no idea of an RP community until I found this website. So, my first instinct was to place her story after Dalamud went kerplooey. So, how to hide in plain sight? Be a regular-ass resident. Limsa was chosen out of personal preference.

 

So why do I like Limsa? Pirates, seaside, the leadership, the whole "rogues gallery" with just enough civilization to keep it together. Okay...so a warrior lady. Well, no, swords. I like swords and shields. Born and raised Lominsan, but to a Sea Wolf mother and Hellsguard father as an illustration of the whole "port of many people" thing.

 

Now, to think of a linking event to her and Dalamud. Well, Carteneau was a terrible event so...someone dies there. Someone she cares about. A husband. Bam--trite as hell, but it works. Write out their romance, write out his death. Have her react from being a simple armorsmith to someone who wants to follow her husband's example. Boom. I has a charrie!

 

Over the course of my play, I found Paladin to be boring. Didn't like their playstyle--too easy. So...going back to the drawing board. What's happening in the game now that I can use....Beast Tribe dailies. I checked out the Amalj'aa, and liked their line of thinking. Use that. Make her want to become like them. Okay, so what was the triggering event? ...look to the husband again. He's already dead...but....perhaps something....

 

--SHE'S ACCOSTED BY A PAIR OF THIEVES WHILE SHE VISITS HIS GRAVE. Boom. She's disgusted. She's furious. She's realized she hasn't really made a difference with her current line of action and thinking and seeks a better way. Play with the Amalj'aa. Roll Marauder. Enjoy Warrior tanking, which not only feels good mechanically, but fits her current tone. Awesome.

 

Dark Knight's coming. She wants more power. She wants to become more than what she is. Her martial prowess is at what she thinks is peak....so now she has to tie it to magic. Become a reaver. Rip shit apart for the good of the realm and to sate her rage against those who started it all.

 

The first triggering event.

 

The Empire.