Forums » Smalltalk » Long Character Profiles

Hey, guys! I was just curious as to why people put a lot of information on their character pages. I, personally, don't put too much information on my pages. In each rp, my characters act in the manner on my profile, and I do have pre-determined preferences for things like their familial history even if it's not on their pages. (I'm really bad at updating stuff, and it makes it easier to tweak something for a new rp.) I just think it's cool to fluff a character out during a rp instead of knowing 100% just what I'm getting into beforehand. Like, I enjoy reading about the personality, so I know if our characters are compatible, but that's 2D. The 3D comes through rp, in my opinion.

So, I was just curious about all the people that do create long character pages. The majority of the ones I've seen have been very thorough with pages and even tabs under the pages. I've never actually taken the time to read all the information on the pages, though. I know you guys put a lot of time and effort into creating those pages, but it honestly overwhelms me. So yeah. Why do you make long characters, and do you wish that more people did?

I can see where you're coming from with this its like watching a 'how to' video on youtube about say a brush type I don't know how to make, I want the 'this is how you do it' not 'watch me use it for 2 minutes straight talking about how great it is'

I don't know about others but I feel like it might be the case for most is they'll just simply be making their character but then they find themselves WAY into them and want to do more with them, my character Heama was one of them he was simply meant to be a demon that could turn wounds around into massive strength but then I wondered 'wouldn't this be an odd ability even for a demon?' and came up with him being born an unwilling vessel for a cross dimension god which drew me in further and then went into who that god was and such.

With backstories I cant fully explain its just something I find happens (also just something I feel I'm obligated to do )but if the character is in the universe of a game or something that person might feel they want to put them into the universe itself. There can be characters that have certain looks to them like a robotic arm or even just a special looking arm band which the creator might feel they might want to put some backstory to, the robotic arm guy could have server in the military somewhere in the future and lost it to an explosion or the armband person it could have belonged to someone important to them either dead or just somewhere else far away.

Other than this people like myself might just like going into specifics and/or creating stories on their own from time to time (and I just noticed I've basically done the '2 minutes longer than it needs to be' youtube video example)

I think there's a difference between letting a character grow through RP and find out things about them, and starting with a 'blank' character that has no set goals to achieve that would further plots, where you make up things about them as you go along. I'm not into the latter but definitely into the former.

I personally enjoy it when I have a character who already exists solidly in a setting or specific world. It means I know the character and know what stories they will work in. It means that when I join in a new RP, I don't have to think long and hard on how they will respond when a situation arises because it's already established. It allows me to stay solid and realistic for the situation at hand and reduces the amount of 'That's a nonsense move you just thought up because it was convenient!' situations.

Does that mean the character won't ever change? Goodness no. My character Panne started out as an entirely different character. She was fierce, didn't take crap from anyone, she fought tirelessly for her freedom. It was this knowledge of who she was that allowed me to develop her so thoroughly. She went through a really traumatic experience (which was roleplayed out) that changed who she is. Her demeanor was totally different after that, she developed phobias, she moved from one roleplay location to another where her previous situation influenced the new story. She grew as a person and while she won't ever be the same as who she used to be, she is constantly developing with every new story. She is like a real person to me. I think this is fantastic. Years of plots and development are showcased in her profile, in her stats, in her background info and because of this, also in the roleplays she's involved in.

This is true for many of my other characters. I have nothing against characters who don't fit this way of roleplaying and profile building, it just isn't for me. I get very attached and invested in the characters I play where my goal is to make them feel like real people others can connect to and feel for them, and their extensive/detailed profiles are a reflection of my efforts (and sometimes the years of work). Sometimes I do wish more people did this. I typically skip over short profiles because it gives me the impression that person doesn't share the same type of connection with their characters as I do, and it just makes me think we'd be a poor match as we seem to be looking to get different things out of our roleplays.

I only have one profile that fits the "long" category and it isn't public, so I won't link it. However, that said, I love making long profiles, I just don't finish them for a long time.

I'll mirror some of what Sanne said; I love having an established baseline for my characters. I currently have 15 characters and I could delete them all without losing too much work. There is one that I would lose everything, but that is because they are from a game I play and I would lose the whole character sheet.

I also have been using the profile building as a way to "roleplay" by myself. Writing a profile to me is different than writing a novel and it comes with more direct questions in the moment of who the character is. I genuinely enjoyed building my long character sheet and I have plans for more.

I know that a lot of people who have long profiles need to account for not only their character but the entire species. when you make up a species, it takes a lot of work to know how things work. When you play a normal human boy in high school, there is not much you need to do to create him. He's human, we know all about humans. I recently went through the process of creating my own species and I have 3964 words - and it isn't finished yet. With all my formatting, it is 11 pages long.

All of that? It has nothing to do with the individual character I plan on playing within the species, but I can't make the character without that information. To me, adding in that info makes it easier for me to make sure I have a point of reference.

I also like reading about other characters because I can begin to tell if this person and I will get along in roleplay. It is hard to judge on small profiles. I'm not saying I won't take chances because I have, but I've also been burned by this. I will skip over unfinished profiles or extremely short ones because it tells me little about the person who created them. I am very pretty picky about who I play with since I have limited time to play. This means skipping over tiny profiles that tell me nothing.

finally, I like reading them because it's entertaining while I wait for something more serious to do. Even if a profile is really detailed, I can skim over what I don't deem necessary in the moment and read the good stuff. Sometimes I look, see that they have all this info and literally just read their character connections, or I look at their physical description. Just because its long doesn't mean I have to read all of it.

Thanks, Sanne I always look forward to reading things your write in forum responses A bit of a creeper fan, since I don't really know you With me and my characters, while I love them, each roleplay I put them in is like they're starting kind of at ground zero. What happened in one rp is "erased" for another, but I do play that same character in different rps at the same time, so building on them the way you do would be kind of hard, I think. If something happens in a rp that I really like for my character, I'll add it to their page, but it doesn't happen often. Who they are is cemented, so I know which types of rps they'd fit into, but it gives them a bit of versatility to play with them a little bit more.

Another reason I don't do long pages is that I might deviate slightly from what I have on the page, and if the person I'm rping with is super technical, then I don't want it to seem like I'm lying about my character or, maybe worse, I don't know how to stay in character.

While you don't rp with people that have short profiles, I don't rp with those with longs ones because they intimidate me a little and make me anxious. I get intimidated because I feel like I have to read it all. The person put a lot into it, after all. I, also, feel like the character is so well developed that they're not flexible... I don't know. I think that's just me, though. Real life people are very developed, after all, and they have room for growth.

Thanks TheHook and Cacophony for your inputs as well ^^ I appreciate it and can see where both of your are coming from, even if I don't really create new species or get too drawn into backstory details. With things like explaining how they got an armband or something, if I'm curious about it, it's the type of stuff I have my character question, so it gets explained through rp.

I would never ask someone to read my entire profile. Honestly, I sometimes don't even read my whole profiles when I go back to an older character! As for not being flexible, I think that for many of us, we write something and then immediately go back to fix something when we start playing with someone. I often find that for my more fleshed out characters, it is easier for me to change something about the character because it makes more sense. I don't change things on my short profiles because it's really set in stone for me when they're small. Oh, I only have this information, so it must always be true.

Does that make sense? I totally get if I went off on a tangent that doesn't make sense.

Yeah. That makes sense I guess it just goes both ways with pros and cons argued for both. I'm glad that at least you don't feel like a disservice is being done when the whole page isn't read.

Pretty much any character I actually keep long term and invest time and art in could be a main character for a novel. Sometimes I put a character into a world I've already build, and sometimes I make the character and build a world for their background, but I have to have all that detail in place. I have to have the in-depth histories, lore info about the world they are in or the one they came from or I just don't stay invested in them or care about them. If I don't care about them why would I waste time furthering their story?

Also keep in mind, some people keep info on their profiles for themselves, not because they expect everyone to read it. When you have 20+ characters with long histories who have interacted with dozens of people, and they all come from different backgrounds it can be hard to keep up with. Sometimes I have to skim through all of that and refresh my memory and make sure I don't contradict myself. On my characters that have huge extensive profiles, the most important stuff, like an overview is on the first page. I have a character I've written four full length novels for. I don't expect anyone to read them ever. Sure if they wanted to, it's there but those were mostly done -for me-

I've also never been able to do the whole separate canon thing where each RP is a new story, because the way I view writing it would just feel like nothing that happened in the RP would ever 'matter' so why do it? I focus a lot on character development and progressing my own characters' stories. I try to approach a new rp as though it's another chapter in their story.

Thanks, Zhi I'm glad there's a growing consensus that the long profiles aren't meant to be fully read. I think I'll fear them less ^^

And I've never really understood the character with growing history. With the separate stories it's kind of like the character gets a new life each rp. Even though I don't put the new story with my character, it does carry over kind of.

For instance, I have a character that's a jerk to everyone right off the bat. Once he gets to know some one, he's sweet as can be, and his heart softens, so while he's still a jerk to others, it's not as bad as originally. But in a new rp, he's back to that initial butt.

An example of stuff carrying over is with my character, Simon. A partner named his dad Marcus, so that's what I call him now.

(Edit: I typed the message on my phone first, so sorry for that funny typo )

I haven't really read all the comments, but I'm hoping everything is still on topic...
Anyway, I was just going to say that I write super ridiculously long descriptions for myself as reference, but post average length bios.

I used to put lots of information on my characters pages. I did it to help me keep my thoughts in order but also in case anyone was curious about their past. However, it was used against me. Someone told me that they could completely predict my character and that my character was a generic princess character (Oh boy is she not) and that they didn't want to play with her despite the fact that their character was also a generic trope themselves. They could not have predicted my character just on some paragraphs. They could not predict how her personality truly was and they were saying that they could predict stuff that was going to happen (They just copy and pasted basically what i said on her page),and they just assumed it would go a certain way. So that really upset me and I just went through my characters profiles and deleted everything. I never want my character to be deemed 'boring' just because my character is royalty. So I put little information about their history on their page now (Probably still considered lengthy). I pride myself on how developed my characters are and I always receive compliments on them-- so I probably should have taken their words with a grain of salt but it literally sparked a rage within me and that I never wanted it to happen again.

I loved having tons of information and I'd rather see a character with a full character sheet vs a blank slate, just my personal preference. As I understand people like blank slates so they can match it to their partners preference, which I think is great. I am not good at creating characters on the spot or manipulating characters to fit a certain style. I respect the ability to do so.

I'm sorry to hear that happened to you, InquisitorCat. That was a crappy way for things to go. When thinking of long profiles, I didn't really think that I was going to learn everything there is to know about that character. I just feel/ felt like they're more firmly cemented in what play styles they'd fit into and what stories, more specifically, so there's less genre flexibility.

I don't really dig blank slate characters, either, but I do kind of have one. Nadia is the closest character I have to one, but that's because the initial idea I had for her didn't work out. I think I just didn't know how to use her/ people weren't really interested so I started double guessing. Anyways, I just didn't have the heart to delete her, so I erased most stuff about her, and now I don't have an idea of how I want to use her. She kind of fits anywhere.

Mostly I do it to keep stuff straight in my own head and for my own reference.
I have a lot of characters, inevitably i'll forget something and it's useful if you haven't played someone for a while to reread their sheet and remind yourself.
Least, that's what I find.

I also use it as a character building/development exercise. Getting history all fleshed out helps me to build the character's personality, what their goals are, their hopes, their fears, how they might react in a given situation.
Our pasts after all define us as people, so I like to have at least a rough outline of that in place before I go on to play.

The other thing is that a lot of my characters are super old and have been fleshed out rather a lot over the years. As I learn stuff about them I add it into the sheet, and so over time the sheets get longer and longer and longer lol.
Also things change, because people change and characters adapt and alter over time as life experiences continue to shape them. In a long term rp, I find it useful to keep track of that.

I do rather like to know a bit about another character. Not everything, some stories are better left to be discovered IN character, but I like to at least know the highlights because it allows me as a player to lay some groundwork for interactions. And it can be used for some interesting interactions or plots.

I'd kinda rather have the info dump happen OOC than IC. I find IC info dumping to be really obnoxious and my eyes glaze over when a character starts to in depth and without prompting tell you their whole backstory/racial traits etc. If my character cares, they'll ask. If my character should already KNOW this, then i'll consult your character sheet.

and that's the other useful aspect to a character sheet. IC knowledge. Sometimes there's stuff your character just SHOULD already know. "this character is a celebrity" "this species are known for XYZ" "the symbol on their face is actually from this cult who were on the news last week"
You can mention it in your post "you might recognize her from the tv." and then the other player can go look up the details on the sheet, which maintains the flow of the narrative without a lot of dry exposition.
The other player can work in elements of your character info to tie in with their own. They have a poster of your character on their wall, they watch your character's Youtube channel, they're a bounty hunter sent to collect that rather hefty price on your head.

I find info on character sheets can often be used as a hook for a story or plot and I like that. Being able to read it and say "oh, now this character might play off this guy really interestingly..." or "ooo I can see why so and so might be interested in talking to this person..."
It helps starting the rp if you want something different than "two complete strangers meet in a park".

My bios tend to be OBSCENELY long, like, waaaay more info than is needed and I wouldnt' expect anyone to read all of it. It's there for me to reference quickly, or to get critique on so I can further flesh things out and fix stuff that doesn't make sense or doesn't' work or whatever.
I think ideally, there's a happy medium. I go all out because I love world building and am never happy unless I know everything.
that said, most of my sheets here are wips, characters I haven't fleshed out enough yet to be happy with. Characters i'm still trying to get my footing with. So their sheets are full of blank sections.

but I AM the person who knows my characters blood type, handedness, vaccination status and er... private... details.. ahem..
I know way... way too much about my ocs.

You cracked me up, monkfish, about the blood types. I never did quite understand the point to those. I'm just not that detailed about my characters, unfortunately.

I can see what you mean. There is stuff that people should just know. While I haven't read super long profiles, I'm not into super small ones, either. Most of the time, I choose to message someone for a rp because I read their character profile and something on there caught my attention, and I developed a little plot bunny. If something doesn't hit me, then I decide that it's probably not the best idea to send a pm. Doesn't mean I won't, though Sometimes I get desperate! At the same time, if the profile is just bare bones, they might not have the post length I'm looking for, so it usually doesn't work out

Thanks for all the input! I think I'll be less terrified of the long profiles, since most of you are saying it's not insulting that people don't read the whole thing. While it's public, it's more so for the creator's eyes.

Also, P.S. I'm like totally fangirling I've seen a lot of you guys around, so it just makes my day that you've taken the time to reply.

I can para and even multi-para. But I keep my descs short. Reason is simple. You shouldn't know about my character beyond the basics when meeting them. Hellhound. Rawr. Fire and chaos. Rest writes itself. there's things that can be found out during RP but those things are found out during RP. Unless it's something you can clearly see.

I also like to wing it for the most part. A long desc about my character isn't "doing" enough. I need some interaction going on.

I am not sure if this has been said or not, but My profiles that are considered 'long' are from me just typing out what I have written down and I just transfer it from the physical notebook to the RpR and I sometimes get carried away. Though generally, I try not to give out everything there is to know about my characters just in case someone likes to take OOC knowledge to IC. It is rare to happen on the RpR thanks to people being respectful in the most part, but I still try not to get to carried away.

That said Some of my characters might be a custom race, so I have decided to try and be nice to some extent and give some information on the race on the same profile, or its info about the country/world around them.

I personally do not mind if the profile is not massive, but I do enjoy reading peoples character profiles, big or small.

Like Ark said before me, sometimes I get carried away. Sometimes I have more to post, than just a simple background and such.

Take my Cat Demon Lord on one of my Library pages.

I have a backstory for him for those who want to rp with him when he's a warlord, back in the Sengoku era of Japan. Then I also have a modern-day bio for Katsu (my Cat demon), in case people want to rp with the modern version over the Sengoku era.

It just depends on what I can come up with for a character.

Take my Lab Experiment 7 character. I have like 4 pages total with info. Not all of it overly long, but there is a lot to go into my character. My Iron Lungs character is a bard. So I have an extra page to post the bard info for him, that I got from the D&D wikia page.