Forums » RP Discussion » What are your do's and don't's for characters?

Basically what the title says. I'd love to hear about the things that you find important in characters, and things that don't work as well for you. Can be for your own characters, or for those you encounter.

To be clear, though, I don't want this thread to become an outlet for passive aggressive jabs at people, I just want to see what makes an interesting character for different people, so please do keep things a bit in general when it's not about your own characters.

for characters i'm rping against? INTERACTION is essential. I've been in a few rps over the years with characters or players who just avoid all conversation, all attempts to get them involved and I always wonder what the point is. I mean, what do they get out of it and what am I doing wrong that I can't get any interaction? it baffles me and makes me really wonder what I did wrong.

As for characters I play, I like to have a broad idea of personality before I start but I love allowing a character to grow and develop as I play. I also like to have character development carry over, as in, I like long term rps that allow a character or group of characters to really grow as people and then don't like to throw all that building away. So often those things make their way into my character's backstory after the game collapses and woven into their story somehow. I can't stand to lose all that work lol.

I also have this NEED to justify stuff to myself. Not just character behaviours but also coming up with reasons why i'm retconning some established stuff to make it work in this timeline (I rely on alternate timelines a lot for my own sanity, makes me feel better to not totally retcon large rps and just have them have happened in a different universe, still there, somewhere heh)

For me, the thing I love most about rp is interaction and character driven stories. I honestly generally find the interrelationships and such between a group of characters far more interesting and emotionally engaging than a quest to fight some big evil. Ideal scenario is to have some big goal, but the focus to be the journey there and the people involved, rather than the quest itself... if that makes sense?

I'm in a long term rp atm that i'm LOVING because the majority of the "big heroic goals" are all things that are personally important to the individual characters, and because they have that emotional investment it's for me, more investing.

The uh, soap opera nature of character interaction makes me happy. I love me some epic fantasy soap opera lol.

I think I'd have fun RPing with you.

Back on topic! I agree with most of what monkfish said, lol. I also always make sure to give the person who I'm replying to plenty to work with when I post. It is essential that my partner has some kinda stimulus to respond to after reading my post, regardless of whether it's a fist, thoughtful words, some spectacle to observe or just my character's clothing falling to the floor (which might go under spectacle, lol).

I also just kinda have logical do's and don't's for a character, but that's on a case by case basis. It's kinda hard to really say without looking at each character individually.

And, like monkfish said, I tend to be very descriptive as to why a character does something that they do. I like to make it very clear what a character's thoughts and motivations were behind their actions as well as how they percieve the situation.

Again, I know that everything that I say is very vague, but that's because this topic seems very subjective to me :b

Seems like we're all quite on the same page here! I basically relate to all of these :')
I'm particularly feeling the bit about making sure everything about your character has a proper reason.

Another one for me is that I make it a personal rule to always make sure my character and the RP complement one another; if I'm going with a shy, withdrawn character, for instance, I make sure they're in a setting that forces them to interact, wether they enjoy it or not; passiveness really kills a story for me.
Charismatic and extraverted characters are a bit easier, but those types also have their time and place.

I agree with all of the above!

I would add that it really bothers me when my character becomes just that, a character in the other person story as in they already have the whole story mapped out in their head and it them becomes very one sided, like my character is only there to do their bidding and they other person makes it very hard or goes all 'grumpy' if you deviate your character. Nope not for me.

I prefer a mutual rp story, wether 1x1 or group, that can go off in all kinds of directions on the journey to the goal, on the spot character development and fun! Light god modding is ok, sometimes even needed but not all the time.

Good description is what I like. Good direction without it going random or off the rails. I been in some where they go off the rails and nothing makes sense.

Most of my characters are under 18, so no smut for them.

I detest combat.

I'll list off some do's and don'ts, and examples of them.

DO:
Flawed characters. This is the big, important one. Give your characters weaknesses, this makes them fun to write a story with, both to play as and play with. The point of roleplaying is to have fun, and a character who's boringly better than yours and doesn't have any emotional problems is not fun. See any number of flawless or nearly flawless Mary Sues, and imagine playing with them. That doesn't sound fun. And that's why you've gotta be flawed.

Interact: I understand introverted characters, shy characters, outcasts, or even mute characters in some cases. I've played them all, successfully, and have seen them all played successfully quite effectively. But they still interacted, had conversations and attempted to influence their surroundings. They still were people, and people need to talk or bond with someone. I've had mute characters express themselves beautifully. But there have been characters that don't interact. A big example was someone on this very site. I had set up an RP and tried to engage in conversation as my most-played character, and he kept responding with me being ignored. I cut that RP short quickly.

Be respectful:
This is an obvious one. Even though you can only interact with text, there's still a person on the other end of the screen, and they have feelings too. In the above example, I tried conversing OOC, asking to have the character respond to me, and I was flamed and blocked. Needless to say, I was miffed and will not RP with them in the future. Try to be respectful.

DON'T
Trail off topic to fill space:
This one bothers me sometimes. Not everyone can write a paragraph a post, and sometimes will have to veer off into character thoughts or describing every tiny object to fill space, and this can be distracting from the bigger picture. Don't be afraid to make shorter posts. And this leads me to...

One word or sentence replies (all the time).
Short replies are fine, but I always try for at least three sentences, otherwise I can't RP that quickly. Exceptions are in chat more when you can just shoot out conversations in real-time, which is perfectly fine.

Elitism
This is the big one. "Literate," RP'ers fall into two categories, for me at least. People who liked to describe and have objects describe, and people who demand that their character be given pages of attention. The first is fine, I'm in a RP with one now, and he's great, but the other kind can be obnoxious, so if you make a short response and they get mad, that might not be the RP partner for you. There's tons of people on the site, so they can find someone else if you don't want to RP anymore.

And that's the basics.

This is kinda late, but I figured I'd throw my hat into the ring.

This may sound odd, but I find a character's opinions to be more interesting than backstory, personality, or description. The reason? Because opinions make people react. Often I see characters that have a defined personality but no real opinions on anything going on around them. It makes that character feel unrealistic, and it often leads to the situation where a character doesn't react to anything going on in the rp.

People have opinions on almost everything: The best food, the best way to spend your money, how someone should deal with a moral dilemma, etc. Even if these opinions aren't strong, they'll still influence a character's behavior. A character will argue, fight, and side with someone because of their opinions, which leads to engaging rp where a character not only interacts with others in a dynamic way, but also engages with conflict instead of passively shrugging everything that happens off. If their opinion is especially strong, a character will even drive the plot in a direction. Just because a character has a timid or apathetic personality, it doesn't mean they won't stand for or against some things- even if they show this off in small ways.

That being said, it can be equally as interesting to allow your character's opinions to change through the events of the rp and the interactions with your rp partners. For example: a character who originally believes all mercenaries are evil changes their opinion to believing some mercenaries can be good after interacting with a mercenary player. Just keep in mind most people will fight tooth and nail to maintain their opinions. They won't just change after one conversation, and neither should your character.

Another thing I'd recommend is to try and create characters with different opinions than you, their creator. Not only will this lead to some fun moments of character exploration, but it'll lead you into adventures you'd never expect.

I think I've only got a couple of "don't"s as of yet, and it's only because I've come across 'em in person recently.

The first don't is, "Don't swoop in and fix all of the problems."

RP is a storytelling endeavor, right? And a good story takes just a little bit of time to craft. You put those ingredients in and you let them simmer. However, when a character arrives on the scene and their post is basically a checklist - noticed this problem, fixed it with convenient skillset; heard an argument brewing, pulled out a one-line conversation-ender; perceived that x character was facing an internal difficulty, crushed the obstacle they hadn't surmounted yet and threw in a "You're Welcome" for good measure - I just feel... well... deflated. People enjoy things in different ways, but "solving" a plot like a rapid-fire Rubik's cube just feels antithetical to the spirit of roleplay.

The second don't is, "Don't force familiarity when the character relationship isn't there yet."

My core-deep love for the "found family" trope is the furthest thing from a secret. It's one of my long-term RP goals to organically develop a found family relationship between one or more of my characters and those of some obliging future soul(s) I haven't inflicted myself on yet. Despite this, it feels anywhere from confusing to unsettling to be engaged with a character and to suddenly find that many steps have been skipped and now you're ensnared in something artificial. This goes doubly for characters whose descriptions imply that they find it tough to get close to others. I think the problem here is a case of the showing not matching what I was told, but some of it might just be a boundary thing, haha.

Anyway, my "do"s are basically just the reverse of these things. I like a character who does things organically - who acts as advertised/is true to themselves. I like to know what a character is feeling or thinking. I love sensory details. Good pacing and description come with time, I think, and experience - but I like seeing even those first steps toward becoming a good storyteller and, therefore, part of a good story.

Like, as in character creation or just roleplaying with someone?
Character creation - weaknesses. Every character needs a GOOD set of detailed not-impossible-to-find weaknesses.

Personally, I don't mind how powerful and strong your character is, they can literally be shining with power lol, but they should have a considerate amount of weaknesses to counter-balance those powers, enough so that even a regular human character could get the advantage over them.

My characters are powerful shapeshifters but I give VERY detailed weaknesses for each of them and I've had many roleplays where normal humans kick their asses thanks to the weaknesses I've given them. And they are weaknesses that aren't impossible for the other person's character to find.

Depending on how powerful your character is, they need a decent amount of vulnerabilities. I don't like it when I see these super incredibly powered characters with like one or two weaknesses.