How do YOU go about character creation?

ToxSin

ToxSin

Moon
Joined
Nov 5, 2019
Hi all! ToxSin here.

I was thinking about my experience creating my characters, and it occured to me that I hadn't really thought too deeply about how other people may go about creating their characters, as I'd assumed we'd all do it pretty similarly. Since this is not obviously the case, I pose the question; how do you go about character creation?

Personally, my character creation process is pretty fluid and relaxed. I tend to go into roleplays without too many guidelines about how my character is going to act or behave, and I may not even have a name for my character until I begin writing my first post. Thusly, the story ends up driving my character development to a large degree, and I make tweaks as I go. If something sticks, I sometimes pull a character idea out of one story and stick them into another roleplay in the future.

So, to summarize my curiousities..

Do you have a decided method to developing your characters? Do you tend to go into a roleplay without a character idea and let the story shape your character? Do you do something entirely different?

My curiosity is peaked, let me know what you think!
 
It depends, like you I sometimes have a story or premise in mind and build a character that suits what I want to explore. I tend to like contrasts and multi faceted characters as well so they tend not to be all good or all evil etc. They also have flaws that counter balance their better traits.

I generally play human males. So lets say the premise calls for a good looking guy, I will make him shy or some kind of hidden physical flaw that he may like keeping secret. Maybe he is socially awkward etc. Likewise if he isn't great looking maybe he has something that makes up for that etc.

Or I will play the average normally good guy who is pushed to do something extreme, like rob a bank and take a hostage for example. He isn't going to be out and out mean to his hostage, if anything he is going to try and keep her on side. But in the end he knows he may have to do some nasty stuff to keep her in line or she just might piss him off lol.

Lots of variations as I have played various roles and RP's but as a general rule I like contrast a lot. So that is where I tend to start as contrast adds to the depth or the RP and my interest level. I don't have a stable of characters as some people do although I tend to use the same two names over and over again lol.

Also like yourself I leave room for my character to develop rather than paint myself in a corner early on and I love it when a RP takes on a life of it's own and goes places that neither writer counted on.
 
I've got a couple of methods, one being the reuse of characters from previous roleplays and ideas. There are also the fandom based characters that developed over the years into something separate from the previous universe. I don't think I could go into an RP with no idea what my character was gonna be like. If I'm making a character up on the spot for a specific idea, I've at least gotta have a couple of general traits, a name, and a brief discussion about the dynamic or else I feel like it'll be crap on my part lol
 
A lot of times, the creation starts from a kernel of functionality. What do I need them for? What role are they filling in the story? What will they be doing?

That being said, it is always done at the moment of story opening. I have a ton of story prompts with vague ideas of character personalities/types I'd play for it(usually between 2-5). But I leave them unskinned, uncooked until a partner and I are prepping the story for dinner. Very often, who my partner is playing will influence the development of my main character, so, it's best to come at it as fresh as they are, without any preconceptions or firm expectations. I like to leave everything on the table for them to imagine when inserting their character into the story(gender, age, appearance, personality type, etc.) Mostly because I have so many branching ideas for how a story could go for this or that character combination. It's best to allow the other person to decide. ^^;;

I do not have a stable of characters either. Each character is tailored only for that storyline. They die with the rp. There might be similar tropes, especially if I reuse faceclaims, but they are clean slate character sheets every time.
 
For the majority of characters that I use, I usually start by isolating an aspect of my own personality, and pushing that aspect up to 11. From there, I usually work out a few of their normal responses to thigns, and then let them develop from there.

I absolutely have a toolbox of characters, most of them aren't going to get used again, but there are a few that can slot easily other situations. That's how I tend to get a lof development done, as I can have the character experience a lot more over the course of a few stories.
 
Since alot of my inspiration comes from stuff like fighting games I tend to go with that route.
Say I want a character whose main thing is that he wields a Great Sword, then I kinda just work from that. Is he a focused and stern character, or is he a cocky asshole who wields the sword like a toy? Same deal for other characters like Zombies, Martial Artists, Mech pilots, super heroes etc. Start with a basic concept (sword user, magic user, wrestler) and then work from there.
 
I base aspects on real people who are interesting in some way - a facial feature, a mannerism, personality, etc etc, and grow it out from there :)
 
I usually take a look at what I'm creating or joining and do a mini RP in my head to get a feel for the character and start writing bits down. As I think more I add, delete and modify until I have a character I am happy with.
 
My style of character creation is much like yours. Once I know what the plot is generally going to be about, I try and mold my character to fit into that plot. Over the course of the first few posts, I don't truly have a feel for the character.

What is great, though, is when I no longer have to write a post in either a forced manner, such that they carry "my voice." Instead, after a bit of getting to know them in the RP, the character starts to form a voice of their own. It's hard to describe, but when an RP can give a character I make a voice, that is when I'm invested in it.
 
I adore character creation.

I have absolutely no process.

Sometimes a whole idea pops into my head. Sometimes I start with an overall character motivation, and construct details around that. Sometimes I see a great piece of character art and build it from there.
 
Honestly it's not really.. much of a process? I just let my characters come to me!

I try to get an idea for them, like a general aesthetic or a few key words and then build from there, but I don't have too much of a structure.. what comes is what comes!

For OCs outside of roleplaying, I like to make Pinterest boards for them! Sectioning them off really helps to figure out who and what they are. All in all I sorta just trust them to come to me if that makes sense!
 
I personally just get huge flashes of inspiration. Rarely does a character I just want to make happen happen if I don't have that.
 
My process can vary greatly but shall try to explain a few various methods. The easiest and in a way laziest is that of canon characters that I relate to or would like to be. But thats not even really character creation at all.

Some characters I develop off myself for plots of which I have hypothetically put myself in or personal fantasies. This is also a fairly low effort approach for me, the character just shares most of my personal ideals, morals and decisions.

However I do like developing full characters that are their own beings so to speak, depending on my partner and the plot I vary how in depth they are fleshed out before we start actually writing the plot, but by no means does that mean that they can't grow and develop throughout the story, just that they have a base to evolve from. In making these characters I generally try to make sure to give them flaws and weaknesses, as I find perfect characters uninteresting. I generally like to keep a few flaws or dark secrets for my partner to possibly find out in the plot, I find it keeps my interest more and with regular partners they've enjoyed trying to expose such things in my characters. Developing characters ahead of time keeps me honest in my plot development and makes me think of original ways for my characters to navigate situations instead of being able to just give them attributes to breeze through scenarios. I feed off friction and drama and it seems to produce that quite well.

I definitely don't do well when I partner has a very specific oc character they want me to play. I feel I'm not adept enough to pull it off most of the time and in some cases feel like my partner is just trying to use me as a mouth piece to tell them what they want to hear and already have played out in their head which just feels awkward for me personally.
 
It always starts from what role they will fill.

Are they a protector of their lands? A fighter pilot against a tyrannical Empire? A lewd deviant who will use sex appeal to get their way?

Whatever the story demands, I start there and build.
 
It can vary but usually I have a plot or a kink I want to build the plot around. Then I start thinking about personality types that would fit that story/kink the best for what I want to explore. I like contrasts and conflict so usually the character will be new to what is happening or has fantasized about it for a while, is nervous about it.

Perhaps they have been pushed in some way to it like a young man who is down on his luck and gets desperate and robs a bank takes a hostage and runs from the cops. So for me I like that he is a nice guy not a career criminal, he is awkward and clumsy, he tries to be nice to the hostage but she perhaps provokes him, his nasty side comes out.

That is what I tend to like that inner conflict or struggle so I build around that. A married woman going to work in a brothel for the first time, a shy girl learning to strip. Things like that. I want to create tension and an interesting story so you will rarely get from me the eager and willing slut who doesn't care.
 
First, I ask if there's any physical and/or personality traits my partners like. If there is, I incorporate, if not, I look through my other characters and pick through. If I have mainly tall women, the next woman will be short; if I have mainly uptight temperaments, the new one will be looser (I have a thing for variety lol). Otherwise, the way they are forms via the plot and how my partner's character behaves, the writing dictates and they roll into themselves that way.
 
Like most everyone here, I base my characters off of one thing. The most prominent to me is a female character I created for a roleplay involving superhumans. My first question was "what's her thing going to be?" I decided that she was actually four times as old as she looked, and she wasn't from that world. I branched out from there, asking myself how she makes herself look younger, where she's from, how she got there. Eventually I came up with an entire continuity of sorts that I now slot a majority of my characters into.
 
It depends on why I'm creating the character. Often times I'm just doing it because I want to make something and toss them out to see who wants to rp with them. Other times I'm doing it at the request of someone.

I start from the beginning, when were they born, where were they born and often times let that shape what type of childhood or in the case of things without a childhood, the type of experiences had in their early life. For an extreme comparison as an example, my succubus who came into existence in a hell dimension ruled by demonic entities is not going to have the same temperament as my street punk who grew up in New York hustling in the 1990s. Of course I let the setting in the rp guide what I do, that has to be appropriate after all. Their development to their current age generally comes first however. If my partner has any specific traits I take them into consideration when building the backstory so that it makes sense for my character to have said traits. I will rarely build around one single kink, mainly because I have so many of them that doing so kind of feels meh, to me. Often times my characters personality encompasses a LOT of things.

As for appearance, if my partner has a preference on that, I'm generally gladly willing to work it in. Certain things have to jive with me between how I write a characters history and their looks however. A supermodel still working as a supermodel isn't gong to have horrible facial scars, that doesn't work, and an elite special forces operative still in the service isn't going to be 400lbs and obese. Sometimes people can be a little unreasonable with requests. If left to my own devices, I often think about what my characters exact skills are and let that kind of develop their physical qualities.

I do often recycle old character's as well, give them a new name, perhaps a new look, and adapt them for use in new settings while keeping their backgrounds as similar as I can to the original. I often find that rather fun, to see how it makes me stretch my creativity to find a new use for something I enjoyed playing in the past. As someone who is often an alt addict, it also gives me a use for all the time I spend coming up with different concepts. It always seems such a shame to me to simply create a something and only get one or two rps with them, then have to shelve them. A lot of the times people ask me how I can come up with a character concept so quickly, well.....mwahaha, I guess you could say I cheat a little bit by doing this. :p

When I pick a character's skills I let the setting, their age and their history decide. If they have a lot of history they'll be a lot stronger. Power levels to me have to make sense and yet still be balanced out. I don't like all powerful characters, but neither do I like things to be ridiculous, like a 19 year old paladin outfighting a 300 year old vampire one on one. I generally tend to keep this in mind when creating a character of my own as well, the younger you are, the less possibility for experience you have, the less time you have to get experience, that just makes sense unless some other weird plot device comes into play, which I'm fine with as well but I'm rambling. Back on track, when I pick a characters strength I put a heavy amount of consideration on how long they've been alive and what they've been through, that means other rps they've done as well, within reason.

Anyways that's my two cents on the subject! :)
 
I usually use Aaron Sorkin's approach

Sorkin says, “It all boils down to intention and obstacles. Somebody wants something. Something standing in their way of getting it.”
Click to expand...

They need to want something, and to make them more real, I usually set short-term – immediate goals and wants, what do they want right now, and long term, where are they want to be at the end of the roleplay? Or the chapter doesn't matter.

You can then set yourself as their own enemies. No plan is ideal, and we all self-sabotage…for example I could study more, instead of being on this forum. Self-sabotage doesn't have to be huge and dramatic, it can be minuscule.

Then I get a kind of human, who can be sympathetic, have struggled, and they can accomplish something, have small or big wins.
 
Haphazardly.

Actually, I was talking about this with my friends on discord recently, let me pull the posts [friends' commentary removed]

Lazarae — 05/12/2021
I have the dubious superpower of being able to build characters out of spare parts pretty much instantly. The downside is that now they live in my head.
Lazarae — 05/12/2021
Oh a lot of mine share some of the same parts
I just tack on extra stuff and accidental Frankenstein
Just like. Imagine a dude messing around with spare body parts and the corpse goes "yo" and he goes "FUCK"
Lazarae — 05/12/2021
that's me making characters
Click to expand...

A lot of things just fall out of my head when I'm writing. Do I know what my character's favorite food is? Nope, but as soon as I start a scene where food comes up and their opinion is relevant there it is. Did I ever active decide this? Nope, it just kind of Happened, and is now an immutable aspect of that character.

I've been known to create characters for single scenes only for them to stick around in my head until they're fully formed. Like fuck, you were an NPC, you had two lines of dialog! Go away! And then I have six pages of backstory for a character who'll never show up again.
 
I'm more like OP; I don't have a strong sense going in. Though I typically gravitate to a few ideas anyhow.
 
Listen to a song that captures what I'm going for and then plan from there. I usualy wing it, and effort is based on how much is required of me. A one off smut thing? Done fast. A more long term plot focused endeavor? I may fmtake a few days to debate with myself on how to proceed. I like to argue worh my self out loud when alone lol
 
It depends on what I'm making the character for. For system games, I usually start with the most basic details then start fleshing it out as I crunch the numbers. It's not unusual for me to end up with something different than the original idea.

For everything else, it typically starts with an idea (which may be nothing more than knowing which character I want to rp him with) and builds past the most basic details as the story unfolds. Of course, pictures help immensely. I try to have one of those picked out before I get too deep into the process.
 
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