Forums » RP Discussion » Help me create more diverse characters

Hi want to wright a more diverse array of characters. Both when it comes to Race, Sex, Sexualty, Nation Ect. But the issue is the further away I wright some one from my own life experiences Or at least the experiences of some one I know the more likely I am to make them unrealstic.

When wrighting alone I feel like I'm stuck either making a cast of characters who are all a lot like me and the people I know Or risking the chance at making a character that might being inaccurate to the point of being offensive.

For Example right now I want to make This Character

But I'm not sure what kind of name to give them and how to wright them. I am not sure what kind of culture they are supost to have. And I want to find some one who knows stuff about the real life culture this person is likly based off of and then tell me about it.

But even if you don't know about this person maybe we can all help each other. I think it'd be cool to get a bunch of wrights of verying backgrounds helping each other make Characters .

So far as names go, where there is a similarity to an existing culture but not a direct parallel, I've sometimes either combined names together or found a name that is close to the intended meaning I am looking for but with a few letters altered.

Can you tell me what main existing cultures you see so I can at least look them up?

Does it have to been an existing culture?

No but it should at least be some what based off one

Why?

because I would like it to be.

Presuming you are asking what culture they could be from, on the outside looking in I would say something tribal and maybe earthy, yet in a futuristic setting. I'm picturing like....native American cultures from the United States.

Say america was never "discovered"....and the native Americans were able to develop themselves to the point of reaching interstellar travel. This individual could be one of their first travelers into space.

As far as name goes, I would start with some more traditional native American names (though any tribal culture of long ago I would say could work here) and write it down. Change one or two letters and write it below that. Continue to do this until you've molded the name into something you like, and sounds fitting for the individual and culture.

Hope this helps you somehow! My DMs are open if you want to bounce more ideas around and I don't respond here (I don't get push notifications anymore and probably won't subscribe to this thread).

You're going about it backwards.

You shouldn't take a fantasy design and try and force a real life culture onto it. You should research a real life culture and use it to inspire your design. For example, many cultures who use tribal paint have very specific designs and very specific meanings attributed to them, and your design won't ever reflect that reality.

Or you can make up your own culture to fit the narrative.

As long as it's not the romans.

Yes exactly this. I may just be stone cold white, but it's completely uncomfortable to watch as people try to force a clearly stylized character into a real culture that they... do not belong to. Especially when the tone has already started to slowly shift into "Indigenous people are the people of old and undeveloped (and do not exist in the developed modern day.)"

LordFantastic, your best effort of making a good BIPOC character out of not your locality out of this specific character is probably gonna be in

1) If it wasn't it you who designed this character, you could find out who designed this character and what their intentions were with the design. If it is a fictional culture, don't try to shoe horn any other culture into them.

2)And just make them a person who is from a culture and not a caricature of a culture, especially if they weren't designed with a culture in mind They might just like the red paint, maybe it reminds them of... their highschool football team days. There's not gonna be a big ethnic reason for why they may do things.

3) Checking into blogs/websites like https://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/ Writing with Color. This blog is written by BIPOC for people who want to write BIPOC but aren't. Their content is dedicated to helping people write good characters who feel like actual people and not stereotypes of some.. ~ tribal ~ days gone past. This blog will help you throughout your efforts of trying to write a more diverse cast too, not just in this instance.

Sorry to be on the shorter end in temper here but this post just.. skeeved me out a little. I can't be very helpful here beyond any of that.

I find your link to be most helpful and I think there is a strong missunderstanding here. Some thing like this link is basicly what I was looking for but i was hoping for some advice as well.

The whole reason I made this post is because I don't want the character to come off as a stereotype. I was hoping that some one with more knowlge about that kind of colture could help make them authentic and realstic.

I agree with picking some kind of native name for her. Perhaps she is from futuristic earth and is a ruin or artifact hunter. Their people's have evolved to be able to handle the amounts of radiation or some other toxin that other futuristic species have little to no immunity to. And so they have more of a flexibility in reaching ruins that are otherwise inaccessible to the other species. Imagine if humanity was divided in those that had either evolved in space along with other interstellar species, or those that remained and survived on earth after world war three had left it decimated and irradiated for the most part. These branch of humanity's family have then had to start over and adapt to their quickly changing world. Consuming foods laced with radiation and learning to tame and use the mutated animals. They've quickly evolved to catch up to their other branching cousins but their cultures now vary widely, with the grounded humans having a more tribal futuristic society and living off the "us" and "we" mentality rather than the "us vs them" mentality that is so traditional with humans these days. The shift in mentality is due to there being a lack of food and resources. Perhaps they even see death and cannibalistic sacrifice as something sacred and the ultimate form of love for your people. Up to you how deep you want to go into this, but here's just my idea on it.