Character Creation
Now, onwards to building a character frame for the players that will be generated in your RP. It’s your job to tell the prospective players what you want for their RP representations, whether they’ll have weapons or skills or special powers or not is up to you. This is largely affected by the genre and setting of the RP. There are, however a few key things that you should always have in a profile skeleton.
Name – this one is self explanatory, as all living things need a name. Try avoid, however, the use of names that stem from your own screen name, as that creates unnecessary sentimental ties to that character. You know what they say: Variety is the spice of life. Also avoid using names that don't match you characters appearance and/or background (ie. A Japanese name for a kid with no ties to Japan)
Appearance – The part the usually contains a visual description of what an RP character looks like. It might contain parts about armour and weapons and accessories used in combat. Some creators would be fine with just putting in a picture for this part. But for some reason, I have a seething hate for those kinds of people. Also for those who only write down the basics, (i.e. A black coat, with long silver hair and a katana on his back), I demand description and detail! For description breeds training, training builds experience, experience builds maturity, and maturity builds literacy! DO not join the dark side!
Age – Something just to measure how old a person is. Really, some creators don’t even put this in here, and instead, start to put it alongside with appearance. Very self-explanatory, really.
Biography/History/Background – Again, like appearance, no one-liners. Remember the chain I stated above. A longer bio would give more insight as to why a certain character would act that way, but treat it like a storyline, do not include any extraneous instances in your biographies. Too long of a biography and the person reading it would cringe. Please don’t make anyone’s eyes bleed. Thank you.
Personality – You might or might not have this part in your profile skeleton. This part itself is self-explanatory. There are very few things available to describe what this part encompasses, but in essence this part is how a certain character will act and react to certain situations, and how that same character will speak and what type of emotions they might commonly show. Some experienced RP creators choose to forego this part as they see Personality as something to be developed and discovered during the duration of the RP.
Weapons/Skills/Spells – This part is entirely up to what you need in the roleplay itself. Just remember that people tend to go off on a tangent in this part and start to create multitudes of spells/skills, or even ‘supersize’ (god-mod) their weapons, armor, skills and spells. Regulate this part according to what you want and according to what the RP needs.
Remember that this list isn’t final and you may add or take out sections to the profile skeleton depending on what your RP needs, or what you want.
And that’s basically the composition of a very bare-bones RP. Now all you need are a few players, and you’ll be good to go. Okay? Good luck!
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