Building a Character Part 1
Making a character that feels real
In Role Play characters are one of the most important things. Perhaps even the most important of all.
Often you will be allowed one character per thread or sometimes even just one character for the whole forum, so you need to make sure it’s a character you are interested in and want to keep playing for a long time. You also have to know your character well so that you know what they will do when faced with various situations. Even if you are allowed multiple characters it will still be so much more enjoyable for you as well as your fellow players if you know how your character ticks and enjoy playing them.
There are many character sheets out there, but I advice against relying too heavily on them, because they have a tendency to simply become lists of facts that are of little use.
It is of course useful to know some of these things - maybe even all of them - but it will not be those things that makes your character come to life and allowing them to stand alone is to set yourself up for a difficult start once you start playing.
A good start for a Harry Potter themed character might look something like this:
Often you will be allowed one character per thread or sometimes even just one character for the whole forum, so you need to make sure it’s a character you are interested in and want to keep playing for a long time. You also have to know your character well so that you know what they will do when faced with various situations. Even if you are allowed multiple characters it will still be so much more enjoyable for you as well as your fellow players if you know how your character ticks and enjoy playing them.
There are many character sheets out there, but I advice against relying too heavily on them, because they have a tendency to simply become lists of facts that are of little use.
It is of course useful to know some of these things - maybe even all of them - but it will not be those things that makes your character come to life and allowing them to stand alone is to set yourself up for a difficult start once you start playing.
A good start for a Harry Potter themed character might look something like this:
Name:
Age/birthday: Pure-Blood/Half-Blood/Muggleborn: House: Wand: Family: Short Physical description: Short Personality description Interests: |
But this is still only the beginning. This is the short biography of a character, but it doesn’t make it a good character yet, because they will still be fairly flat and without any history to make them a ‘real’ character. Think of it Pinnochio; they’re still made of wood at this point and still needs to become a real person. Luckily it will be easier for them than Pinnochio. All you need to do to make your character real are ask questions that are less fact driven and point more towards something deeper. Here are some suggestions for questions that might be useful in making a character stand out as a real person rather than just a wooden imitation of one. These are by no means the only ones that could have been asked and for different characters or different players that will certainly be other questions that reveal more about a character, but these will give you an idea of what questions could be useful in making your character real to you and other players.
Describe one goal the character still wants to attain.
Describe one real fear the character has. When did your character feel the most angry? What is your character's best memory? Tell me one thing your character wrongly believes. What has your character done that they regret. What is your character avoiding. Tell me a secret your character has - and why this is a secret. When does your character lie? What is your character proud of? In a spring clean, what would your character find the hardest to throw out? What trait is your character most ashamed of? |
These questions forces you to look deeper at your character and answer both something about how they view the world, as well as some important moments of their history.
Having answered these or similar questions will also give your character something to talk about right from the start of the Role Play before they have enough experiences from the play itself to talk about, and it will help you know how they will react to certain situations. Let’s take Molly Weasley as an example. In describing a real fear of hers we will know that what scares her more than anything is the death of her family and Harry Potter as seen in the books when she encounters the boggart. In a play, knowing this would make it much easier to make her react to the Battle of Hogwarts in a real and compelling way that makes her feel alive to both the player and the other players reading the posts.
Having answered these or similar questions will also give your character something to talk about right from the start of the Role Play before they have enough experiences from the play itself to talk about, and it will help you know how they will react to certain situations. Let’s take Molly Weasley as an example. In describing a real fear of hers we will know that what scares her more than anything is the death of her family and Harry Potter as seen in the books when she encounters the boggart. In a play, knowing this would make it much easier to make her react to the Battle of Hogwarts in a real and compelling way that makes her feel alive to both the player and the other players reading the posts.