Written by Keira and edited for use on SOTARP.org
The are many things in a game that will help you determine things about your character. Abilities, skill, statistics and game lore will all have an impact on your character and how he/she/it may interrupt or react to things that happen in-game. You will need to keep in mind how your character acts, speaks, thinks and how they express their personality, quirks, strengths and weaknesses. Being consistent with your character in important so others will be able to playfully react to your character. If you wrote your character to be cool and aloof, then you wouldn’t want them being buddy-buddy with a complete stranger. You would need to find some other way, an IC way, for your character to get to know that other person.
This is a lot to remember; especially if you are just starting out. It can help to write things down or take notes which you can refer to it when you need help. Making use of our character’s Bio page (either in game or on a community forum) can be useful as well.
Handling Character Growth
Some of you might be asking “what about character evolution or growth?” No of this stops you from evolving your character as you play. However, change doesn’t always happen in an instant, and most things from lengthy practice or life changing experiences. It’s hardly possible that a once powerless creature would, suddenly, the next day achieve super abilities that would allow them to do this or that. Like in real life, you cannot learn to play the piano beautifully without first going through a least a few years of practice. You might want to ensure you RP your character practicing or gradual attempting to gain your new ability either before actually achieve it in game or use it rarely until your RP catches up. By RPing these activities others around you get the enjoyment of your efforts as well, and help give authenticity to your RP later down the line.
“What about dormant abilities?” you might ask. Sure through game mechanics they’ll appear, seemingly, out of nowhere, but that doesn’t mean that they’ve already mastered it. Dormant abilities means they haven’t been used either ever or for a while; this means that if your character has learned to use the abilities at one time, they should be rusty when it appears again. Of course, this doesn’t mean you have to start from the bottom rung again; your character might just have to do a bit of tweaking and fine tuning to regain their skills completely. It’s like playing a sport – you learn and you become great at it but then you don’t play for several years and when you finally do try again, you aren’t as good as you used to be.
The main thing here is to keep a feeling of realism or believably. Don’t try to do things too fast or too much at once, like you wouldn’t in real life. Developing your character through RP can be a long journey, but it can be a lot of fun: not just for you but everyone around to see!
Character Flaws
Sometime the most interesting things about a character may be their flaws. Its natural to want to be the hero or be perfect in some way to stand out. However, bad traits can help better define your character and make them more memorable or fun to play. Having a low intellect can lead to tons of funny comments when other characters say things your character cannot understand or misunderstands. Having a weak physical can make for great RP when running for your life or having to perform other skills of strength. Most characters from fictional stories have flaws that drive them to success or ruin either in a ruthless cycle or toward a point of redemption or self-growth. Use these weaknesses to make your character more believable.
