How Much of YOU is in Your Character?

[Freemoon]

While continuing to nail down character info for my character (Cut me some slack, I like details), I was amused by the thought of some of the similarities between my character and myself, and how past characters have shared similarities as well.  I also got to wondering how much of other players are in the characters that they play.  Even when playing a character completely different from yourself, a bit of you could still bleed through.

 

So just how much of you is in your character?

 

There are a few things that hold true across almost all of my characters, so Ali is no exception:

- Loves sweet things (candy, cookies, fruit drinks, etc.)

- Loves spicy foods (although in reality I'm not supposed to have them due to ulcers, but they are SO GOOD!)

- Wanted to grow up to be an animal (I wanted to be a tiger, Ali wanted to be a Chocobo)

- Finds odd things cute or romantic (actually my entire thought process is a bit odd)

- Disaster when attempting to cook (I burn soup, Ali does too)

- Terrible at pick-up lines (not that I expect it to come up, but my best pick-up line has been either stealing Ralph Wiggum's "So, do you like...  stuff?" or my own "I, uh, like the way, uh, you have a belly button?")

[Val]

I've found that a lot of people's characters have a bit of themselves in it, even if it's just the slightest bit. I would NEVER speak a lot of my thoughts as openly as Val does, but I can't say that I don't share the same snarky attitude as him. Some of his thoughts are me, but without the social filter--mostly when he's laughing at or making fun of someone. 

 

He's also a bit of a stickler about what he eats, which I can be as well.

[CallmeYahweh]

I actively try to avoid putting myself into the characters I roleplay. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Bits of my personality leak into every character I end up creating, I'm sure.

 

Generally they tend to be wry and sarcastic to an extent regardless of who or what they are.

 

It's hard to avoid, I think. Which is why in-character relationships have a tendency to get knotted and messy. Because of the personal nature of the characters we're creating, it gets tricky determining where the character starts and where the player ends.

[WT_Neptune]

Like 85% really. My character is basically me if I looked like that in that world with the general rules and customs of the game.

[Divisor]

I think almost every character I've made has had some part of me in them. It helps me humanize them and it's a lot easier to slip into RP-mode when I'm playing someone that I can identify with. Generally, though, the parts of those characters that are like me are usually exaggerated in some way, which is just me toying with the idea of "what if I was more like this guy". 

 

So from there, Aerius is like me in that he's snarky and optimistic, but he's more of an exaggerated version of me in that he's flamboyant, outgoing, and easily excited. Deep down, there's a part of me there, but on the surface he's more of his own guy. He's someone I think I could be in different circumstances and it's fun to explore that through RP.

[Kismet]

It is very hard to make a character that does not have at least SOME traces of yourself in them. YOU are the one playing them. If another person were to take over and play the same character, the result would not be 100% the same.

 

With that being said, most guides I've seen or tests I've taken that are meant to help writers and/or RPers gauge if their character is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu or not? They tend to suggest that you don't make your character too much like yourself. If your character is "pretty much you", then that's usually a red flag. This is just my two cents that I wanted to throw out there.

 

As for my own characters... Hmm. Y'raja has my sense of sarcasm. Astrid shares my love of adventure, passion for cooking, and fondness of swimming. Finally, Lhei definitely gets her superiority complex from me.

[Darien Cadell]

Bahahaha! Not a whole lot. We have the same hair color.

 

There's something to be said for reflecting your opposites, or playing things you might want to be but would never be able to act out in reality.

 

But as far as me the person and Darien? He's not like me at all and we wouldn't be friends. Ever.

[K'nahli]

I think this is unavoidable to an extent. You surely cannot roleplay a personality you are unable to empathize or relate to on some level very well. That is not to say that you need to have at least vaguely similar experiences as a character. I think simply placing yourself in their shoes and emulating your feelings were you a person with x or y personality is the same as bleeding yourself into them.

 

 

Example:

You could have a savage and moral-free character who is everything you are not who simply behaves that way because they had a very troubled past. It doesn't necessarily mean that you needed to have similar feelings when you grew up, but just to imagine if you were a bit less of 'this' and a bit more of 'that' and THEN thrown into such an upbringing.

 

 

In any case, my good-natured characters likely all share the same moral traits as I do in real life as well as a degree of empathy. I must admit that my own 'bad' character has made me reluctant at times because my insides are screaming at me to be nice to others characters even though that is simply not his style. Other than that I don't think anything else bleeds through. I certainly do my utmost to avoid steering a character in the direction I want as opposed to the direction they want, as strong as the feeling may be.

[Anzio]

While it's unavoidable to have some of yourself in your character I try to make my characters as far away from me as I possibly can. I have to be me all the time normally and it sucks.

 

Being someone else is way more awesome.

[Clover]

I also believe that all characters are going to end up having a part of you, no matter how small. After all, you're RPing what you like!

 

All the characters I've played so far in different games tended to be quite different from one another (in this game, in fact, my two characters are even opposite in many aspects), yet they all have a small part of me.

 

In any case, I certainly don't RP myself. I just might or might not share some of my characters' views, as it's natural.

[ArmachiA]

I suppose there are somethings. I generally try to make characters a bit different than myself, because why play me that's so dull. BUT, that doesn't mean I'm not in there at all.

 

Loki - I tend to be really sarcastic, so she gets that from me. She's a lot calmer than I am though (I tend to like to caps FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT). I'm also a huge flirt, I just run around flirting with ALL THE PEOPLE. She got that from me too, but she's much more open about her sexuality than me, as her flirting usually leads to backroom antics. Everything else is different.

 

Armi - She's friendly, and I'm friendly. That's... about it? Armi is shy and awkward and I'm not either of these things. OH! She thinks she's bothering people all the time and I do too, so there is that.

[Magellan]

I find a lot of times I take one trait of mine, super-exaggerate it, fill in details that have nothing to do with me, and watch it unfold.

 

For example, my current character Claire is a caricature of my silly side. She definitely feeds into my love of humor. But thats just one aspect of me, and its even only one aspect of my sense of humor (though admittedly, it is my favorite kind of humor)

 

I find having that 'tether' makes Claire both enjoyable and easy to play. Occassionally, I venture well outside of my comfort zone with characters I create, and while I really enjoy that too, I often find I return to those characters a lot less than a character that feels like a comfortable sweater.

 

If I can't relate well to a character, it sometimes just takes too much mental effort to slip into their mindset, so those chars come out to play less often. If I try to play those chars too often, they start to gravitate towards becoming 'comfortable sweaters', which is not the reason I created them >_>

[LandStander]

Ummm, I don't think Dennthota and myself are much alike. We share the same sarcastic attitude, love for drink (her's is borderline alcoholic though), and outgoing personality. But that pretty much sums it up.

 

With Cyrinius, him and I only share our love for art, music, and poetry. I used to write a lot back in the day (got called by a publisher once and had one of my poems added to a collection of poems type book). 

 

I think I always add a bit of personality in a little of all my characters as it makes it easier for me to get into character, but keep it different enough so that I can actually get into the mind of someone else. I personally like RPing because it gives me the opportunity to "put myself in someone else's shoes" and further helps me understand people and why they do the things they do. 

 

Science :geek:

[Faye]

I try not to put too much of myself into my characters. Of course, a certain degree of similarity is unavoidable. After all, I'm the person making and playing them--they will be shaped by my experiences and opinions. I have a handful of things in common with each character, but I don't think that's anything significant--I would also have a handful of things in common with each person I pass walking down the street. A lot of people like to role-play to pretend to be better looking, super powered, heroic, video game versions of themselves, but I'm not into that. I'm myself every minute of every day, and I'm already pretty fabulous. The reason I love to role-play is because I enjoy writing as someone else and thinking from an entirely different perspective.

[C'kayah Polaali]

There's always something. I've tried playing characters that have absolutely nothing in common with me, but I've never been able to maintain momentum with them. Having some small thing in common with my characters gives me a point of reference that I can work from.

[Erik Mynhier]

85-90%

 

I tend to play like "If I was born to this, how would I honestly react?"

[Raccoon]

Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Seth, my main, only has some minor aspects of me. I cringe at the things he says and does. Though that's part of what makes him fun to play.

 

Deitrych on the other hand is much more like me than I'd like to admit. It's probably why I rarely play him.

[Freemoon]

Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Seth, my main, only has some minor aspects of me. I cringe at the things he says and does. Though that's part of what makes him fun to play.

 

One of my favorite "bad" characters was something like that.  A decent chunk of what made her so cringe inducing was because I kinda pushed some of my own buttons and gave her some traits that I normally find very annoying.  There were still a few aspects we shared, like my love of cheesy bad puns, but otherwise she was the sort of character that if I met her in the real world I'd probably want to punch her after two minutes.

[Claris]

My "bad" character is a really really horrible person, though it's cathartic to play her since I find her motives so interesting. Whenever I play her, I tend to push myself past my inner censor to go that extra mile and achieve her goal. She's not evil and cruel for evil's sake. She has reasons for doing the things she does.

 

... wait, did I just admit that I'm a bad person?

 

Anyway, she's fine in small doses. The only thing we share is that we have a love for shiny objects.

 

My main, Clalaris, is still kind of an enigma to me in that her thoughts and motives teeter from good to bad to good again. She believes herself to be a horrible and cruel person for the most part, yet most of her intentions are good and maybe even pure. It's really fluid and depends on what company she keeps (or lack thereof) and what's happened to her recently. Blame it on her history, and on family like the bad person mentioned above.

 

I doooo see a little of myself in her as my own intentions are good!... but we can be a little cruel sometimes. Also, together we make some bad decisions!

[Zac Evans]

[align=center]Yes. That is your answer. Zachary Evans is a 100% accurate representation of me in Eorzea-I purposely made him that way. I've made a lot of characters in the past and eventually thought to myself "Man....to have these kinds of adventures." Since that thought, I've always made a character to fully represent myself and immerse myself in the story. Trust me it isn't to be all like "Zac! We NEED you to save us!!!" 'Gods damned right you do.' my ego does not need that kind of boost.[/align]

 

[align=center]Now understand, I've made other characters and given them parts of me. Raging Behemoth got my drive and morals..[/align]

 

[align=center]To wrap all this up, yeah. You can't make a character without using something you know as a building block. Some people may call you uncreative and egotistical. Hells with 'em.[/align]

[Rosekitten]

eh.. there are some aspects I've noticed without me planning it that way. not as bad as some of my past oc's that is for sure. I can't make a female character because odds are they will be a copy of me ^^;

[Maril]

I try to keep it to only being the stuff I can't avoid mixing in, because of the way my head is screwed together irl. What I do instead, and something I find really interesting, is that I carry over some traits/quirks/habits from my past longer-standing characters, which ends up with being rather interesting combinations. Of course not to the point of being an exact copy, but just in the way that the character makes it work - to other people who don't know my past characters, it wouldn't seem out of place or familiar to anything, but I find it a little funny to keep these aspects in the character.

[Xydane Vale]

Hm, Xydane and I do share a few common traits.

 

1) We're both military; both being elite members of an certain group in their own.

 

2) We both like to fight; five years of Mixed Martial Arts for me.

 

3) We're both cocky and stubborn at the same time as well. However, it's not like a bad "rub it in your face" cocky.

The reason behind that is probably because he's... well, human. Therefore I can relate more. My character in WoW is completely different. Let's just say my Orc Warrior portrays who I -strive- to be. The only thing we have in common is our sense of honor but I sometimes find it strange that I have created someone who is wiser than myself, if that makes any sense.