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I was reluctant about roleplaying again, but your post has enabled me to decide. Definitely a great contribution.

Wow.. I am about to join an RP and this was posted in the rules for us to read and take note of. At first I didn't want to read it because I thought that it was just another one of those I-hate-every-aspect-of-every-roleplay-alive-and-I-am-going-to-make-every-roleplayer-feel-like-s**t rants. It wasn't though, you had some very good points. It made me think a little more about the nitty-gritty parts of making a characters. I haven't been at roleplaying very long and I am getting better and still learning. I think this helped me a lot, thank you for posting it.

I completely agree that people should make better well-rounded characters. I can't begin to tell you how many times my character seems overly emotional compared to some others, or when I'm the only one without some kind of magical powers in a world of elemental ice/fire farting dragon warlocks.

By far the best guide I've read, and when I say "the best" I mean its the only one that dosen't condone using vampires, warewolves etc. ( friggen sick of them) in role playing. If I had one gold for each catgirl character I've seen, well, I guess I would have somewhere around fifty something gold.

Thank you for saying this. Specifically, the part with the example character sheet in which the cat girl was posted. No more... I can't take those annoying characters anymore!

Ok buddy. I'd like you to read that part of the guide where the satirical profile is. After I made that I clearly stated Catgirls and Vampires are not bad characters but that they at least need a good story behind them. Honestly, you've taken this way too far. I can understand you want something new and you want something nice and fresh and yeah i get it, there's a lot of generic RPs and RP characters out there but at the same time you can't turn your back on everyone that has that kind of preference. In every sea of bullcrap there is a pearl of pure goodness to be had.

I myself have a very good friend who played as a cat girl in this very guild when I first got here and she was the only cat girl in the RP and I have to say her cat girl was better than most non cat girl and non vampire characters purely because her character was well thought out and rounded. I'm not condemning Vampires or cat girls or any other kinds of RPs or RP characters of a certain type unless it is generic. My Guide is making the point that no matter what the character is it needs good writing to back it up.

Maybe I misinterpreted you, but you seriously sound like in your thread, these posts, and the PM you sent me that you believe that there is no way to make a good version of a certain kind of characters. If you truly believe that then you are being closed minded and honestly you can really be missing out on some good partners for your RP(s). I don't mean to put you under the hatchet but I needed to make that clear.

I read some of it and I really like the section on stereotypes blaugh And the part on "sword vs gun" is great as well, logic rules!

As a total nerdburger, most of my role playing originally came from writing plots, characters, and descriptions from D&D. I've got extensive plots, maps, NPCs if not more detailed and real than the characters my players tend to use, and a good mix of every kind of enemy; rivals, villains (both purely corrupt and unintentional) and even some that are of the same alignment but of different ends. This guide touches on a lot of subjects I've thought about when making these NPCs and plots for myself and players and really helped clear up a few blind spots I had regarding such things.

I am happy to mention that I have a cast of eight high fantasy (D&D based) characters commonly used, not including a library of over 300 NPCs and none of them fall into any pitfall mentioned in your guide. *thumbs up* Took a while to build them up, too.

Which kinda does lead me to point you may want to consider: Experience makes a character. A good back story is he key to a good start and a good personality, but experiences change a person. They get wiser, more scared, more weary, or more inspired as things go on, and epic scale events can have a profound change on someone's outlook, which is something that too many people overlook in the course of an RP.

Second, changes in a characters attitude and views can occur both slowly and rapidly, but most time people simply forget the change, or when they do change, there isn't a clearly defined reason. Change is what drives a good character, for better or for worse. leaving it out leads to a stale persona, while introducing it without good cause leads to confusion amongst other players.

But on the third hand, too much change can cause problems, as well. Too much change can completely rewrite a character or turn him into someone other than who he was originally. This can cause unwanted conflict amongst players as well, as they would have to get used to or deal with, effectively, a new character.

Just wanted to put out a bit of my experience with annoying characters.

*Reads Chapter 2*
YOU ARE GOD! emotion_kirakira
Ugh, you can not believe how much i agree with you on the demon/parent background. And why are nekos overused so much? The common GFC is almost always a neko that falls in love with the GHC which usually is also neko. And why are some character the weakest just because they have limited abilities, (Everyone can suddenly produce weapons of mass power while i'm stuck shooting feathers and flying and i'm not even an angel because angels are also used way too much.)