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I tend to keep my characters balanced by putting some of my own traits into each of them.
Kildra is my desire for adventure, Trinitera has my love of new things, Desecra is my rage, Sabbath shares my adoration for art... that sort of thing. Playing completely different personalities still feels natural, regardless of how varied they are, because I have a little something in common with all of them and can branch out from there!
I've even noticed some psychological associations, like the fact that my ma and I don't really get along, so several of my characters are missing their mothers.

So what about you guys, do you do this?
In what ways do you relate to your characters?

I've always had a drive for variety. I get bored of any one thing, so I always need a change. And my characters, aside from being varied and experimentative, have also often been shapeshifters and wanderers. There are a few I've held particularly close, ever since I created them...

I've always been fond of Kyra's attitude and her willingness to say what she wants and get things done, whereas I have been shy for years, and a sort of lazy that's difficult to overcome. As she developed into a Sand Elf, she also became increasingly practical, to the point that it didn't fit common social standards.

Chaser was created as a grey balancer in a black and white world, something to show that no side is truly pure and you can't mark someone as "bad" just because you don't understand their actions or reasoning.

Gregor... is my personal evil. He's my pet bastard. Practical, calculating, and merciless. He is able to do things I could never do.

Taryn is similar, but more playful. She makes people uncomfortable, and finds as much amusement in it as I learned to in high school (though I was never quite so persistent and mean). She has also become that voice that always tells me I'll never be good enough.

Loki Nightblade was partly another statement about ideas of good and evil - a half-demon who's one of the sweetest people you could meet, and cuddly to boot. It was also a chance for me to be charming.

And then... Novalyyn and Nashyll, the two I have held most closely and most personally. Novalyyn is a shapeshifting silver dragon, which in itself I associate with strongly; my desire to be anything, my fondness for both silver and dragons, and how I relate myself to silver dragons in particular. Add to that that she is calm, kind, and clever, always willing to help however she can - as I wanted to and wanted to be, more than anything. To help her, she was telepathic, able to hear what troubled someone even when they wouldn't say it, and able to send calm directly to their mind. And then came her daughter, Nashyll, initially something of a rebirth of Novalyyn, but steadily taken by an in-born darkness over time. She still desired to be kind and helpful, but her emotions were wild and it made her a threat to those she loved - allowing me to express those same feelings that I had. She also came to dislike telepathy, mostly from the idea of her privacy being invaded; did I ever mention that I've never liked psychologists and such, and can't open up to them?

And now I have revealed my insanity.

Ara I think embodies my need for adventure and the need for displaying kindness. Like, how much I try to care n' things like that. She's a lot different than me in the fact that I'm not ballsy whatsoever and she seems to be able to work through her fears to do whatever it is she wants/needs to do.

Gunellie is sorta a way for me to expel the bitterness I have, since I'm too skittish and kindhearted to really be outwardly bitter.

Luna sort of... embodies my violent streak. I'm terribly shy but I get so, so mad sometimes and have problems expressing it right. Luna is fun to play for me because if I'm ever mad, I can just start a roleplay with her because that's just about all she feels. She's so grumpy lol.

Nadir is my level-headedness. The part of me that likes to stay calm and think things through, but also the part of me that wishes I wouldn't be afraid of death.

Nameless and Panna are two characters I'm not really like at all. They're very feral and dumb and they're quite fun to play! But they're not like me in the slightest.

Pela is my skittishness, but also that need to do something big in my life. I gave her those traits because I feel the compliment eachother perfectly for story-purposes. A sort of inner-conflict almost. Like. "I wanna do this thing but I'm scared to do this thing siiigh."

Robin is new, so I haven't gotten to play her yet. But I feel like I've let her embody that childish side of mine, but also the spiteful and vengeful side that I just... don't really express. I might have made her a psychopath though shh.

That being said, they all seem to have a part of me they're centered around, little personality quirks that make them who they are. Together, they each let me participate in things I normally wouldn't be able to do, though indirectly. It's fun for me to be able to express things I want to do and say in character because otherwise I'd never get to say/do it.


I have more characters but! I don't play them enough. Or like them enough lol.

Ohh this is interesting! This is honestly something i never think about when creating characters but something i discover afterwards.

Kingfisher - KF is my silly side and the expression of the part of me that loves and understands animals.

Morgue - Morgue seems to be the times when i've felt most lonely, unwanted and misunderstood. I've had various troubles with depression that i've had to work through piece by piece.

Urgoth - Urgoth is my longing for companionship but most of all my compassion and kindness even where sometimes it's not due.

Jaspur - Jaspur is perhaps the strongest representation of me on the surface. Antisocial and reluctant to be around other people, enjoys being alone and LOVES animals and rescues them on a regular basis. Though Jaspur is snappy and grumpy, he's a lovely guy at heart.


That's just a few of them but yes! It was fun to think about :>

Something I hadn't really paid much attention to until now/forgot about is that music is a common theme among a number of my characters, though mostly ones I've never played much. And I've always loved music, and tend to sing and hum all the time.

I also have a character who's a writer, a career I wanted for a long time.

I would say that all of my characters share the same traits I do, except that theirs are just more pronounced than mine.

Arien is the sarcastic jerk that has no filter. He's my 'fun-loving' side. The part of me that wishes I could just sit back and cut loose. Which, he really takes a step too far for my own personal morals, but, meh, whatever.

Sterling is my 'loyal to a fault' guy, who sees the world in black-and-white. He takes no guff from anyone, and he's ready to mete out his own revenge.

Samuel, the blind man, was fun because I learned during the course of writing his story, that I was blind to my own path in life. So through writing him, it opened my eyes to things I had previously been blind to.

Um, I should point out that despite my long list of MALES, I am, in fact, female. I don't have many females because I tend to stereotype them ()--with 1 out of 10 actually growing their own personalities and becoming their own 'person'. Lexi is one. Deanna and Terri are two others. I've deleted the worse offenders, I think.

So yeah. TLDR: my characters share the same traits I have, but to a much higher, more concentrated degree than I exhibit.

Eh, don't worry about being a female more comfortable playing males. I know a guy who pretty much exclusively plays females, and he does it quite well. I don't think I've ever seen him play a male...

That's awesome.

This seems interesting:

Bird of Prey: basically the "Mama Hen" type: feels that everybody is her children and needs to be led. However she is my most true or basic character; basic as in viewing the world; she doesn't see people as people per say but how their actions dictate them. She will never see a king as a king because of title, but, however, a king because of actions. Saying something to her doesn't mean anything. And she'll tell you how she feels, even if she is the lowest caste of them all. She in a sense is true nature- not judging anybody by the what but by the who

Telelia: the embodiment of a chaotic being- she is my main OC, my pet: she is sadistic, masochistic, cruel, cunning, calculating. She is my evil yet is an anti-hero in many sense of the word: she is my tribute to all antagonist to the point she is a protagonist in many senses. She is my pet- my corruption, a view of a dystopian/anarchial futuristic being who deals with things and tries for a sense of 'right' or 'justice' even if in our standards its wrong

Muahattie Muchealo: Playful, quirky- she is the child. The one who is an adult yet acts like the 5 year old with ADHD. She's the one who's tainted by ill luck yet still seems to see the world with rose-tinted spectacles and is fine with it.

Ibel: Even tho I adopted Ibel I still feel he is a part of me- he's my first real male character and thus ma baby; he is my critique at the whole gender issue- he himself being forced into a gender change due to RP- and thus it'll play at his sexuality and who and how he views himself; he is my confidence and yet my fear- confidence in how I view myself as cissgendered- and so does he, and yet fear because we are both very fluid in our relationships and thus the whole 'is this real' or not. It may be even a critique in the whole affair of Love. He is my passionate character- ruled mostly by the Second Chi, or Scorpio like traits... or the color red/pink...

Grunewald: another male character- the analytical one. He is power yet self bound: in a gilded cage of laws and rules and is actually abiding by them, even if when he watches as his rules prevent protecting people from harm: he is my critique I guess at self imposed rules as well as the laws of staying "True Good": as in preventing a time lord from changing time because its selfish, even if it saves the world by saving a person. He couldn't justify it.... weird I suppose

Ystlumnest: My play at spirits and how I view things of that realm and nature..


I could go on: I realize many of my characters are my opinions and my heart. Many can't love/won't fall in love due to personal issues on it; and when they do fall in love its tragic
In fact most of my characters have tragic stories- if its a happy story its bittersweet. I have a lot of dark themes and it may be due to life issues, some of which Even I'm not aware of just simply due to my mind blocking them out
Realize this- all of my characters are me exploring things- view points, myself, stories- they are all me trying to unlock my mind after years of pinning it up.

BTW If this reads weird or I misspelled a lot its because I was typing this with one eye due to issues with the other- I have terrible perception of depth and typing with one eye really screws with my head

All of my characters have inherited at least 2 of my personality traits. Like Pen said, these are often pushed to one extreme or magnified in some way. It's something I usually do to help me connect to my characters

I may be the odd one out. I cannot connect with a character that I consciously know has much of anything in common with me; in fact I strive to make them the farthest that they can be from the way that I am either in mannerisms, objectivity, moral standard, looks or goals. I had one character that I cut a little too close to the fold, and he has been sitting in a shallow plot grave ever since, despite it being my intention to have made him take after his creator. I just could not keep to it.

I wonder what the psychology is behind that. Ha.

There's multiple possibilities, really. The one that comes to mind first is some form of repulsion by the norm or by the idea that it seems arrogant/pathetic to place oneself into these worlds and, often, idealized and with powers and such.

I know that I feel a little weird if I think too much of me is going into a character, for such reasons. Even with the pair I consider to be most personal, I still make an effort to consciously separate them from myself.

One idea that comes to mind is avoiding the Mary Sue/Gary Stu version of roleplaying essentially "yourself". It's not a bad thing, per se, so long as you also include flaws and faults with said character--flaws that you yourself may have.

On the other hand, if your character is TOO similar to yourself, it's easier to take everything more personal. So really it just comes down to what you're more comfortable roleplaying.

I don't view my characters as sharing my own traits. I don't consciously make them -opposite- of myself either, though. I'm sure quite a bit of me leaks into them, of course, but I myself just view them as their own entities. Like they are whole, real people, who I just happen to be able to see into the head of. I feel very connected to them, but just not in a "they're part of me" way.

I mean, I empathize with them enough to reduce me to tears in the face of their tragedies, but it's the same sort of empathy I get when I am reading a book whose characters I love. Those aren't my characters, they're just people whose lives I am audience to. I feel like an audience to my own characters in a very similar way.

I'd actually be surprised if people set out specifically with "this character will be based on my [x]." I've always felt it just became an expression naturally. *shrugs*

I think you're right. Though as I rp and develop then I notice they sort of embody a part of me. It's really neat. C:

Ah, yep, that's what I meant! I didn't specifically base them off of my personal traits, but I do instill some into most of them.
And as far as characters being viewed as individuals, I can completely relate. My characters are sort of like "children" to me, in the sense that they have parts of me, but all {except one} are majorly different from myself. I've never had a specific plan for how my characters will develop, because roleplay stories are as spontaneous as reality {in the character's eyes especially}. All of my characters have turned into their own person over time! Many of them developed traits that I wouldn't have dreamed of when I was first designing them. They're very much "alive" in their own way.

Takurasho, one of my favorites, works as a psychologist in some of his roleplays. I didn't initially plan for him to, but in hindsight, I was extremely interested in psychology as a teen. I debated becoming a therapist when I was older, but ultimately lost my passion for it. I learned a lot but started to detach myself socially. I think that's had an impact on Takurasho's personality... he thinks he understands how the majority of minds work, and it's made him a very bitter character, because let's face it- the majority kind of sucks.

I really adore all of these answers. It's something that's fascinated me ever since I started noticing it in my own characters, so thanks for sharing {whether you relate or not}

I don't really find that my characters have specific trait of mine, though sometimes they act in similar ways to how I would. Not really that Everenne embodies my anger, but I play him in a way where his temper resembles mine. There is definitely relating there. Especially with Lear, who has been my main for so many years. When they feel, I feel. And try to tune in to their emotions. In that sense, I am like them. My current characters are far more dark, bitter and angry than I am. Or, in one case, someone I would like to be more like.. honorable, confident and proud. They came from my mind, so it is impossible to keep them completely away from me! Because of the way I feel an emotion, when I describe it, it is probably similar to the way I experience it. If that makes any sense. I think I'm just rambling.

Some of my characters have actually frustrated me with the way they'll just sort of take off on their own things.

I think one of things that skeeves me out the most is self-inserts, especially when they want to do pairings with my characters. I really don't want to be psuedo-dating a stranger, especially if sex has any chance of happening in-game.

All of my characters reflect my interests in some way, and naturally have bits of my personality in them because of this; but mostly how I keep the muse strong is something I learned by debating, which is to put yourself in someone else's shoes and argue for their point of view, even if you don't believe in it yourself. If you can make a compelling enough argument even without agreeing with the material, you're doing a good job at writing.