Forums » RP Discussion » How much of Yourself is in your Characters?

I just had a thought for an interesting discussion about our characters: how much of yourself do you put into them? How much do they share with you? Is it a little bit, or a lot? For me, I always put something of myself into every single character I make, temporary or otherwise.

For example Glaceia is the sweet cheerful little child I was so long ago, the part of me I can barely remember. While Rashinnu my most evil and bloodthirsty chracter is my rage and a corrupted form of my protective instincts.

What about you guys, how much of yourself lives in your characters?

Downpour is the hero I wish saved me as a child, and the fantasy I can be lost in.
Byron is closer to the man I am, ravaged mind and a jaded heart.
And my other, the dark things that haunt me.

Though I need a happy one.

My Cheshokiesh is my happy personality personified (when i'm happy i'm like Chessie)
and my Myuze is my darker self...she is most like me as i nearly completely based her off myself...down to the scars, mental issues and history...i added her demon side as something to cover the reality behind her because i severely dislike my own reality and don't wish to Rp it...i actually avoid using her in her own personality mostly because i feel it is too dark for most
my Rinya is the manifestation of my bad habits...
my Kiro Lynn is my dream what i wish i had (the strength to change and move forward in life)
my Chaesequah Hyatt is my need for a protective figure in my life put on a profile...that's where his "i kill for cash but i will not harm an innocent person" comes from...
Dijinzal Xazumach is what i feel like most of the time...a rotten monster/demon with irrational fears...i tried to be comedic by making him scared of bathrooms but the fact he was murdered in one killed the comedy there and dug up a past incident of my own...


i think thats it...except my furrsona Cinnafox being related to my favorite spice...

oh wow i let loose on that...

While their Profiles won't say much, absolutely every character of mine has a part of me in them. Take Ray- she is everything I want to become but also everything I don't. I want to be that cool, dashing prince that saves the princess every time, but I also don't want to hurt people. I want to be able to express my emotions, but never let them take a hold of me.
Ziroh is my risk or no risk character: He either puts everything on the line or nothing at all.
Astrea is the part of me that still hopes I can follow and achieve my dreams, no matter how strange and unlikely they may be.
Rose is the one who wants to be accepted, even if I have a huge sign hanging from my neck telling everyone about all the 'undesirable' things I am.
Mitch just wants to 'go back', but accepts that he can't by bottling up his emotions.
Azael is everything I find undesirable about myself- the part I don't want anyone to know about. You could say Azael is the pesky demon that sits on my shoulder and whispers in my ear, reminding me constantly about all my sins. They know all about me, and aren't afraid of letting it all spill.
Jakl is the me that couldn't quite fit in with all that 'normal' crap. He also somewhat is the cause of the dangerous disease in his story that turns people just a little bit more into ugly, horrifying demons every time they commit a 'sin'. Sadly, he is also how I view myself.
Jay is borderlines on a rather dark place in my mind I'd rather not talk about.
The Author was a reference to my online persona being 'a Dragon that loves writing weird things.'
Virus was the character I thought my story needed for awhile until I realised it didn't.
I have no idea who Dani and Zach were going to be, but Rowrf is a buff, fiery cat monster that is turned into a talking cat.
Echo is truly birthed from the darkest, deepest depths of my mind. I have no recollection of how she was created, but she's a thing.

I'm sorry for such a long post I'm not even sure if this is what you wanted to be honest.

I don't have any expectations or demands, just discussion about the topic at hand. I thought it would be a rather insightful one and I'm happy to see these replies.

It's cool to see this topic. I think that at least a little bit of everyone is in their characters, even if it's just to the point of, say, the amount of love you put into cookies when baking.

I have cookie characters that are pretty much nothing like me but I put my sweat and tears into them, and then I have my Sycha character who I created when I was 13 specifically to be me (I did a project with a friend where we put ourselves into a fantasy world) but with all the things I wanted and didn't feel I had. Her story is only recently branching away from my story, and I channel my own faults to write hers. Maybe someday her story will catch up with mine again, but she has to get out of her villain phase for that.

Then I have characters all in between with little traits of me here and bits of my heart and mind there. I think it nearly impossible to write something without at least a tiny bit of me somewhere

i feel this. if i can't personally relate in some way to a character, no matter how small, i find it difficult to invest in them. this applies to antagonistic characters too. my favorite villains in media have always been the ones which cause me to examine myself, because while their behavior may be irredeemable now, at one point i might have sympathized with them, or even agreed with their outlook on the world. i do like to push this limit and play characters with as alien a mindset as i can manage, but eventually there comes a point where i'm sacrificing my enjoyment. i think most people's favorite characters are ones they can relate to.

I agree entirely! Villains that make you think are the best written. It gives them depth and connects you to their plight. Whenever I cry for a villain or hate them for their faults, I know I connected.

I commend you. It's a challenging exercise to write something alien! Something you might know or feel nothing about. It can improve your skill as a writer, but I think it can sacrifice your reader's enjoyment on top of your own. Stretch the limits but don't fall off the cliff, ya know? I guess it could be scary either way though, because you also don't want to risk having all of your characters be too similar. It's a good idea to practice different things like that

Hmmm, most of my characters don't really have much of me in them. I feel like i can make them a lot more diverse if they're not based on aspects of my life in any way.

The only one who's really like me is Ryujin, who has my determination to reach greatness. I actually want to become well known for something in the art community and even though my goal is much more reasonable, Ryujin's desire to 'become' a god is similar in nature. Except he never meets his goal for it is impossible.

Hmmmmm.... well I do put a bit of my personality in each of my characters...
Phoenixheart is actually pretty much my personality: Just a sweet, weird, kinda shy girl just trying to find her own place in the world... (I actually use her as a persona on a webcomic site)
Arizona shares my adventurous attitude and love for mysteries and being family oriented... and sarcastic attitude haha
And as for Hunter... he shares my sort of shy personality
And all of them share my love for animals and sort of crazy and random personality
So yeah, I do put a lot of my personality in my characters... and I also try to make them relateable

This, oh god this. I get turned off certain villains whose main personality is just asshole villain without much other personality. I adore villains who are more gray since I see more of how I might act and I sympathize completely (see Lady Eboshi - Princess Mononoke) and try to make my villains as human as possible, or at least motives that will make sense no matter how odd and foreign their mindsets are.

---

When it comes to how much of myself are in my characters? On a whole spread across multiple characters: a lot. I don't put my whole personality in any of them, but I do put bits in myself in - so one has my salt, the other my stubbornness, another my dark humor. I find it easier to play with them or adapt them if there's some bit of myself since it allows me to explore that function and how that might manifest if xyz.

Heart, soul, spit & blood.

I like to think they all have both the beautiful and ugly parts of my humanity in them & that they can evolve and be as potent and convincing as they need to be.

Re: villains, I don't play them very often ( because I develop them far too much to constrain them to that one clean cut Hollywood archetype & they always end up on a redemption arc). They are a strange dance for me because on one hand they demand empathy and understanding -- but take that too far and you've cut their teeth out and made them impotent. People don't see the danger then, the evil loses its razor edge.


Certain villainous archetypes and tropes largely rely on play styles and settings more than anything, I think.

To be honest. Out of all my characters, i Relate to only two. Monteasie and Samuel. The rest I have nothing in common with them.

I just create my characters. They appear like 'poof' over time. I work on them, they start building themselves, hold the pen with me and help me along by introducing themselves and giving me ideas

And after that I go to those psychological depths, see with the development on what part of me they seem to have taken, either a part that exists in me or a part that I've sworn to never be like.

But yeah, the character you grow the most fondest to is usually very similar to yourself, which, for me, happens to be Toffi. Oh my boy~~ He was a complete accident~ I just kept bringing this little NPC boy back and back again into the most random RP ever, and he started developing because he was unique in his own way, being just a regular everyday person among all these others that were so big and threatening
Even still, he managed to make himself known and with some random sketches, he started taking form and becoming just that bit more himself than just a random side line person. He was never that important, but with me finishing up highschool and moving away from home to study elsewhere, oh boy, he started to grow and develop a lot more.

Toffi is now pretty similar to me, and I can find my shyness, kindness, caring for others and the love for sweets in him. He's such a sweet boy and I'd not mind giving him a hug for all I've had him go through, poor thing. But a bullied lonely person is a little cruel to their characters, but now that things have been better, his life has been better as well.

But of course there are parts of me in my other characters as well. Like Sergei. I would like to be as stoic and strong as he is (or more, how he appears to others. He isn't exactly what he looks like, but people are judgmental)
And Dim is simply the factors that I don't want to let out. I'm sure there's some psychological unconscious things about him with the fact that he's half blind, usually has his hair at least partly covering that blind eye. And of course, he's a knife enthusiast. Because daym, I like knives, but they are more of a decorative element to me. Dim himself on the other hand. Well... I'd never be cruel to others, unless they hurt me real bad, like real Real bad, but nah, still likely couldn't get myself to it. But with the mind of a creator, Dim is the side of me that actually wants to do something to those dangerous bottled up feelings, and he's lethal. I am sure that everyone would be capable of being a monster, but some are able to keep them under control. There's just that being there that always appears when you're on the edge and you just want to do something, but you don't. They would, but you won't. Hopefully


Lol, that sounds way too serious of a topic
Umm...
Ummmmmmm.........
Here.
Lighten up the mood.



I think of this subject way too often, and way too deeply~

Each one of my characters represents a different aspect of me. Ellie is the one I am more bonded to as I've had her for over 10 years, therefore we've been through awkward teenage and young adult stages. Even though she's had about 3 reboots, her personality has always remained the same.
Teala is the headstrong, sexy independent woman I always wanted to be and she is the femme fatale that lurks deep inside me I believe.
Kirsty is the part of me that remains happy even in times of hardship, and reminds me to see the good in everyone. She is the innocent part of me that still exists to a degree.
Henrietta is my clubber girl who was all partied out at university, whom I never really said goodbye to. Like an old friend, she's there when I just need to go wild!
Finally, Chase is my anger and aggression; the part of me that still remains independent and harbours some resentment. He's like the front I put up to protect myself.

I take a part of myself and inject it into my characters, which is how I find that they stop being words on a screen or 2D images, and become their own people who take over my mind when I am replying.

I make all my characters with a little bit of myself in every one of them. Some more than others but there is always a little bit of an injection of myself into all of them. Some of them are my personality while others story's revolve around something that happened to me in my past.

Karloff- has to be one that is very centralized around my own personality. His flaws represent a lot of my own. Even his Russian nationality gives way to one of the many I've been blessed with.

Homicide- is a character that I've always dubbed my alter ego. He does everything that I would not. He does all the things that I desire to do. His fashion for wearing grey suits represents my own favorite color. It also represents my belief in neutrality in being neither good nor evil. That is something that strongly revolves around that character.

Gannicus- is a character that has always shown my blindness and my manic side. That urge to be wild and forget about what is to be civilized and just live. I think deep down that's all of us. Sometimes I don't ever really feel understood and his inability to communicate anything is kind of a metaphor for that.

Orien- is the version of me who doesn't want to give a crap about anything. His want to be selfish and not care about himself or others. He's the part of me that wishes it didn't have a purpose and that it could just drift from one place to the next. That part of me that doesn't care how I end up or how I die or the bridges I'll burn. My self destructive side.

Henrik/Crixus- if I could take all the good parts of me and shove it into one being it would be this character. He is all my strengths and characteristics that make a good person. He represents one of my oldest desires to be a detective/P.I.. My love for solving puzzles and helping other people. The honesty and loyalty that I can sometimes so blindly show. If you're a close friend of mine, you know the kind of loyalty that I bring to the table. The knight in shining armor.

Heylel- He is the most unlike me. He does have little parts that I've injected into him but there's not much. I'm of Hebrew descent and I've always wanted to put that into character. His back story is based on one of my favorite band's songs. It's also an experience I've gone through. He loves to eat or rather drink blood and try and different kinds of blood. He wants to mix them and create new flavors. That part is my love of food and craft beers.

I think that's all of them. So yeah all of them got some tie to their creator.

Another thing they all have in common with the player is how much of a loooooooser they are.

LOOOOL