Forums » Smalltalk » How do you make your characters?

It could be a day to weeks depending on how long I need to sit on it.
If the ideas are all there I can finish a profile in a day.

If I'm having trouble on some ideas (or I get busy) it can take a few weeks until that second wave hits

Well usually I will be reading a book or watching something then I get to thinking. If I had to make character what would they be like? I first started off with the idea of the world that they will be in then next comes the personality and I usually start with a general personality traits like; okay their shy okay so what causes the shy is it because of anxieties or another reason. Once that's establish next comes the gender and look. From there I actually take a several days thinking about back stories and how would this character work for others to enjoy. I like each character to feel like someone you could know in real life.

Um... considering I'm crazy fast about getting out the bare-bones fleshed-out concept of a character? Anywhere from like 45 minutes to a day-ish lol

Getting actual art for them done is another beast entirely depending on my art queue and how inspired I'm feeling about doing personal pieces and/or drawing out that specific character at the current moment in time.


As for empty profiles: Personally I look more for information. Aesthetics are obviously nice, but not required. Personally I have an issue with character pages that are like 10-15 bullet points and that's it... For a lot of people that works and that's fine! But personal preferences vary wildly from person to person so...

I don't have any one method, for starting or for expanding.

Some characters started as a name. Some started as a concept for something specific, whether inspired by something else (art, a song, another character, etc) or not. Some happened because there was a niche to be filled. Some were drawn from dreams.

Some characters came together pretty quickly and easily. Some were carefully thought out. Some I designed around a purpose. Some announced themselves for who and what they were, whatever I wanted be damned. Some were reasonably complete before ever entering a game, and some were bare concepts that became people only through play.

Mm, examples...

Alba was roughly inspired by Princess Larana Chroma from Girl Genius - mostly in appearance and being an princess who can handle herself. The actual presentation of their personalities and the nature of their families and kingdoms is vastly different. (I might rework Alba, actually, because her kingdom has seemed a bit dull.)

Ash came out of a dream.

Gregor got his start as a minor NPC antagonist.

Nashyll came about as the daughter of my old Novalyyn character. She literally grew up and developed through play.

Sarí was created to narrate another character's origin story.

Willow was created for the sake of being cute. That's it. And I later on realized she has a lot in common with Grace from El Goonish Shive, and I'm still not sure if I should be concerned by that. (I think Grace predates Willow, so no, I'm not worried about idea theft or anything.)

This is a really amazing topic. It's so awesome to see how people's process tends to go towards making a character. This is a ton of useful information. o: Wow.

My way of usually creating a character generally comes from a mood or feeling. I call myself an empath, because I generally do a lot with my own feelings and I am hyper aware of the moods and feelings of others around me. This can do a lot for me, and sometimes I get settled into a mindset that comes from that mood and this is where a character idea starts to form. It'll start with a feeling, what that character likes and doesn't like, what they generally do and won't do, or how their personality feels in a whole sense. It starts to brew up images of their entire being until suddenly I start to notice physical attributes in my thoughts that I can imagine that feel like they fit that character mindset and then eventually I start looking online at name generators to see what might fit towards that character.

This is how a lot of characters I have are typically drawn up, but it definitely isn't the only way I've come up with a character. This just seems to be my normal concept as of late.

It actually varies quite a lot for me.
At times, I create a character from a burst of imagination, which can be sparked from basically anything. I'll usually start with a mental image, and then expand to major traits, back ground, minor traits and so on. I also often create a character for a specific RP, where the partner I've found have a specific story/character in mind. We then plot the story, and I question my partner a little about what they're looking for in a character from me, and then propose a character based on that. In these cases, I build my character based on "what would happen if so and so happened, how would my character react to this and why would my character do that", and then kind of develop the details as we go. However, I do feel like it requires me to keep a pretty good dialogue with my partner, for it not to get a bit messy (:

For me, usually I just get a random concept idea and build on it. Sometimes the end result is different than what I originally intended (and sometimes over the years my characters change) but I love all my characters like my children.

MOST of my OCs have some part of “me” in them in some cryptic way or another. Not all of them. But they tend to be more unique and interesting the more details I add

Honestly, it happens one of two ways.

1. Browsing Pinterest - I get most of my inspiration from Pinterest. I look up concepts, visuals, etc. and put them in their own little boards. If I see a faceclaim I might use later, I plop it in my Future Concepts folder and stick it in a section based on certain factors. I then think of how I might use this person.
2. Random Stroke of Genious - Sometimes I'll be in the middle of an RP, or I'll be showering, what have you, and I'll come up with a concept on the spot. Then I do the Pinterest hunting, or I look at the collection of images I already have and fill in the blanks there.

Like a actor in a movie role. Then I do journal entries and characters connections to start building a history,past to the characters. This takes a month or even longer to flesh the character out. I love this thread and all the creativity my fellow roleplayers put into their characters.

I curate ideas in Pinterest to create a vision board, create a Spotify playlist that creates the vibe.

It's all the pursuit of a certain mood and feeling at the root of an oc. Which I think is why so many have lusty notes or profound hurt and anger.

History first

I am a true believer their culture, belief, Trials in the past. That's what makes a character. I also make sure to keep up with what goes with them on RP and KEEP them flexible for most of them. (Ailuin would be my first I made very inflexible).

Because otherwise they remain pretty stale and stagnant. Time period? I study that. Their culture. History all that jazz. THEN I come up with whatever trials they would go through or not go through. After that I should have my personality, beliefs, upbringing. So then I hash out what it looks like!

It's kind of a mixed bag for me. A lot of times it begins with an idea. Sometimes an idea for personality is where it all starts and other times it comes from a piece of art. (Had an artist draw me up an icon for halloween and I just couldn't stop writing afterwards.)

Once I have let's say an idea of what I want to do I start thinking about origin. Where are they from? Are they foreign? Are they from the my country? If they're from let's say my home I begin to think well where are their parents from and is where they're from influencing the name.

Then I go digging for a name. That's all personal preference.

The thing I like about doing the origin early on is it gives me added time to dwell on and think about the culture that my character may have grown up in. What qualities did they get from it? The positives. The negatives. It begins to kinda shape who they are in a sense and lets you further expand on the simple personality/idea you may have initially had.

That's more or less where I start and I go from there.

Most of the time I make my characters at random. I see a picture, hear a song, watch a video/movie, and get an idea for an entire character. Then I search for pictures that match what I'm looking for. Usually, I stick to a specific style/artist because they almost always have what I need no matter what it is.


The other way I do it, which is rare, is get an idea of a character I want. Like a specific race or occupation. Then I find a picture that interests me. Once I find it, the picture usually gives me the rest that I need. Like a background.


For example. Years ago I wanted to make a character that was different from anything I've ever made before. I wanted a character that everyone would like. I found Inori from Guilty Crown. At the time I hadn't seen the anime. She physically looked what I imagined a happy, lovable girl to look like but I had no idea what do for a background until I saw one pic that was pretty sad. It inspired me to make her come from an abusive home. I made a very developed character right off the bat. She is still one of my best creations and she is around 10 years old now.

Simple.
I usually take a look at the campaign I'm joining, ask a few questions, read some lore- Then work off that.
That usually gives me the husk of a character, which I implant a few notions and traits into, never going to far into the backstory. Since no one really cares, and putting too much effort into it is pretty much just masturbation.
Only to further develop the personality during the course of the campaign.

It's always a little different. For roleplay there are several methods which I use to generate characters. It really depends on whether I'm building something for an existing plot thread or a free agent character without any world/group in mind. Most often however it always will start with a song, which then turns into a playlist. This is also what helps to power me through determining things like personality, beliefs, backstory.. Pinterest has also been a huge help recently! Once Ihave that done, I start tweaking fine details.

Since I primarily play monsters, I take care to avoid tropes such as the haughty vampire or the gruff werewolf. I believe that in a lot of cases, people can be discouraged from playing with characters of those subraces due to poor experiences in the past with overpowered characters or overdone personalities. Another thing I keep in mind is structuring my characters in a way that is relatable, and also in a way that showcases some redeemable personality traits to balance any trauma or caveats the character has.

Finally, I add a bit of myself into the character somewhere. It helps me make a connection and also helps to diversify my characters a bit, I'd think. For instance, one of my vampires has OCD (contamination, checking.). This is something that I deal with personally. In some small way this adds a layer of depth to her psychology and gives me new ways to describe every day events. Though to be honest, it's also a secret hope that in writing out what some day-to-day things feel like for me, I might help others understand a constantly misinterpreted disorder just a bit better. Additionally, her dealing with something like this does seem to add a sprinkle of humanity and weakness to her so that she doesn't seem like billy badass. I strive to make characters with mental illness be more than the chemicals in their brain, however. It is fun to find that balance in writing, letting subtle hints and unsaid actions help to round a character without being the "bones" of the character.

That is just one example of putting myself into something. Others have more simple touches like occupations in artistic or service industries. Some have shared interests, body proportions, ways of speaking, fears, hobbies or experiences relative to my own life. First hand knowledge is very easy to write about!

For dungeons and dragons however, I generally make my characters to better suit the strengths and weaknesses of other party members. More often than not, most of my everything will go into INT and CHA, because..well, my friends really like to kill goblins, rob people, and burn down villages...so I do a lot of "momming" as the party's face. Hey, get in where you fit in! xD

I get ideas for my characters just by watching gameplays, listening to music or playing some games. At times ideas come out of the blue, and sometimes I spend some alone time thinking what kind of character could I create next.