Character Creation – How to develop a dynamic, interesting character!
Creating a character for any roleplay environment can be a tricky endeavor. Every character tends to take on a life of their own once they hit game play but it helps to have an idea of the individual going into said game. This guide is meant to assist in the planning and development of characters in the Pern Universe of Dragonflight: An Alternative Pern, though the basic ideas can be adapted and applied to any setting.
There are generally five sections to any character’s profile: Name, Age, Gender, History, Personality. We’ll go over each section in detail below.
Name
The name is often a fundamental part of character creation. It’s often the first thing and only identifier needed to evoke images and situations with your character. First things first: avoid cliché or completely inappropriate names. Take into account the world/regional setting and consider if a traditional Japanese/English/Indian etc name would really fit in. In most cases such odd names require a reason since, in our world, naming someone Mountain would likely raise a few eyesbrows as much as naming someone Ryuu in the Pernworld would. Be unique, certainly, but keep the name to an in-game context. If you’re stumped, there’s usually name generators online you can access and alter the results to suit. Other methods include randomly typing gibberish on the computer and selecting combination. I personally like to take my favourite letters and play with them for a certain ‘feel’ to the name, again adapting as needed to the setting.
In Pern, specifically, last names aren’t usually something to worry about. However, if you plan on playing a Rider character, remember that males often contract their names down to one or two syllables for the sake of their dragons. That may be one place to start – come up with a neat sounding (or looking) contraction and fill in the space the ‘ takes up. For example: H’ex comes from Hivex. G’dan comes from Giadan. Etcetera.
Age
Age is another thing to consider context for. Always, always, always remember that the younger the character is for their race, the less wisdom, training, and/or experience they have – what experiences they do have is entirely up to you, but the younger they are the less chance they’ve been out and about to see the whole circle of things. Additionally, remember the effect of age on appearance as well. The more youthful a character, they more ‘childish’ they appear – no large-breasted twelve year olds, for example, or deep-voiced prepubescent boys, etc. On the flipside, however, youths tend to have a more wide-eyed view of the world and can be much more intuitive then their elders whose lives had ingrained in them certain preconceptions and/or biases… so considering how age fits into the greater picture is definitely an important decision.
On Pern, considering the age for your character is especially important as it determine eligibility for a great many professions and classes. To become a rider, a character must be between the age of 12 (inclusive) and 21 (exclusive), so the age at which you set your character influences how long you can try for a dragon. This is a huge motivating factor for many new applicants and is an important decision. Additionally, the more complex or dangerous crafts require their apprentices to have some life experience and some self awareness, limiting their apprentices to at least an age of 18. Most crafts allow apprentices from 12/13 onward, however, and many ‘walk the tables’ when they hit 18 to become Journeymen. An Apprentice is responsible for basic tasks and learning the ropes, the journeyman is someone who’s learned the basics is now applying those concepts, many are journeymen for most of their lives as masters are only recognized after years of training and work. The basic comparison to real-world would be this: apprentice = elementary/highschool, journeyman = university grad, master = doctorate degree. Remember the trade-off between age and impression, and you’ll be good to go. The game isn’t just about dragonriders and there is great character development opportunity in ageing out or even dropping out of Standing if the character becomes disillusioned with the whole affair – more on this later.
Gender
Again, this is an important piece of information as many societies have gender roles. In deciding the gender of your character, consider the effects it would have on their upbringing, their future prospects, and the social expectations placed upon them. Generally speaking, most setting attribute women to more house-related jobs and careers while the men are more associated with more provision-based tasks…. Consider the effect of placing a woman in the opposite field, or vice versa. Is this something you want to play with? Such contrasts can be incredibly rewarding to play but it is important to remember that as special as it is, it will not be without its trouble. Sexism, racism, etc etc are all problems people must deal with in any situation and it is exacerbated when they walk a slightly different path then their peers. Sexuality can fall into this category as well, as the gender to which a character is attracted can often impact both their view of themselves and others’ view of them. Whether they appreciate the opposite, the same, or both genders can greatly influence the kind of person they want to be, depending on if they are confused, accepting, or rejecting of their sexuality. Again, these differences in approach can be awesome fodder for character development.
In Dragonflight, gender roles are less obvious in the Weyrs then they are in the Holds. In the Holds, it is very much women in the household and men at work kind of approach due to the differences in biological function. Women birth and raise children, instilling in them their sense of social identity and their sense of duty whereas the (usually) stronger men are expected to provide and discipline. There are exceptions to this social template, of course, but it is something to consider. In the Weyrs, gender roles are less pronounced at the general scale – the Weyrfolk do their jobs regardless of gender. Men and women both cook, clean, work, raise children, etc. Among the riders, however, only men Impress to Bronzes and only women Impress to Golds due to the genetic coding developed by Kitti Ping. Beyond that, however, any gender can impress to any other colour.
History
Now we get into the meat of the profile. History is, personally, my favourite point of a profile. This is the section you tell your character’s story – where they came from, what events marked them for good or ill… basically what they experienced that has made them who they are. Everyone, real and imagined, is the result of two things: innate traits and quirks that develop as a result of their personal experiences. The history section is the part to describe that latter part. Given their age, race, gender, and name… what sort of family were they born into? What class, trade, wealth? How would these different social conditions affect their access to peers, education, entertainment… how would they also affect biases, interests, hopes, dreams? Chances are someone who was born into poverty isn’t going to be well dressed or very picky about what they eat and they’ll know the value of a coin whereas someone born with a silver spoon in their mouth probably won’t value money and objects and strongly but may, in fact, appreciate the value of a true friend due to the often corrupting influence of wealth. Again, I speak in generalities, but the approach I often take is this: If x happened to my character, what would their response be, how would it affect them?
For example, take imaginary character A. Say he’s a middle class young man hailing from a family of merchants. That sentence right there gives me three key bits of information: middle class means he’s got money but not a lot of it, so treats and the occasional special bit of clothing are within his grasp if he works for it, he’s a young man so that means he’s probably expected to carry on the family trade if not join the military or some other society-dependant male thing, and the family he comes from are merchants meaning he’s likely travelled a lot and has a sense of how varied the world is. From there we start to ask questions like ‘what if his family was robbed when he was too young to help defend the caravan?’ or ‘what if he fell from a horse in his teens and broke a leg when it was spooked by a predator?’ or even ‘when he hit puberty, magical abilities awakened within him?’ Each of these questions would have different impacts on the character. If the caravan was sacked when he was young, perhaps that instilled in him a sense of hatred and bias towards highway robbers or maybe it instilled in him a sense of fascination for these wild and terrifying men… the options are endless. If he fell from a horse, perhaps he’s afraid to get on one again or maybe it’s made him determined to show he’s capable of doing that and so much more… you get the idea. Ping ideas back and forth and you’ll start to see traits come from these experiences. Tragic events and joyful events alike both influence the person… sometimes for good, sometimes for ill, take some time and play with the history, with your questions and note what you like or don’t like.
No solid ideas are really required with this approach but you have a concept you want you follow then apply the same approach. If they’re a haughty, over confident, always late but possessed of a bitingly sharp wit then how’d that come about? Confidence likely comes repeated successes and sustained support/good fortune… ask what sorts of things would allow for such circumstances. A sharp wit might be the result of a good education, or constantly dealing with sarcasm, or even been an innate trait that’s been honed with experience in verbal duels. As mentioned previously, experiment and note the things you like the most and start to build a history via this play.
On Pern, technology is severely limited and magic doesn’t exist. However, this doesn’t mean that someone can’t have a really interesting background. You can apply a typical history or you can morph that typical history into something special for just that character. Sure they were born and raised in the Weyr, but a Weyr’s a big place. Did they ever get into trouble with the dragons? Why did they get in trouble? What happened after? Were their friends close or did they tend to drift due to the communal nature of child rearing and how did that effect the individual? The Weyr’s a bustling place and everybody helps out… where did they help out? Did they help receive the tithes and talk to the traders, learning of their travelling abroad or did they keep to kitchens and hear the gossip (and from that develop a love of gossip?).
Of particular note, here, is the effect of metaplot on character creation. I cannot stress this enough – the metaplot has over arching and often long reaching consequences to social and political climate. Read the metaplot (they’re not that long of posts) or ask around about the current (and past situations) and consider what effects these events have had on your character, personally. You are more then welcome to state their involvement in the metaplot as a in-the-background style person, or to have them been present at any of the in-game hatchings (but unsuccessful in impressing, as the case may be). The metaplot is there not only to drive the shop epic but also to provide inspiration for use in the creation of new characters. Great examples would the tension between Benden and Malvren or the growing tension between Wherhandlers and Riders… or the fact the riders can’t seem to keep their stuff together. Every characters has an opinion of this, just like in real life every person has an opinion about the news of the day, so be sure to speak up about it! You never have to agree with what’s going on, in fact disagreeing is awesome. It is lack of communication, cooperation, and the development of conflict that makes a story interesting, so explore, play, and NEVER be afraid to disturb the status quo in-game (always remember that OOC =/= IC, however, and do try to be polite when speaking OOC).
Personality
Ah, the second big chunk of information in a character profile. Personalities are fun as you get to really flesh out what makes your character tick, but they can also be particularly difficult because you’re distilling the whole of person into a few choice words and we all know how inaccurate that can be. To begin, however, it’s usually a great idea to consider their history. Where did they come from how, how did they get to where they are now, and consider how those events are reflected in the kind of person they are. Actions often speak louder than words, correct? So pay attention to what the character’s actions are telling you about them, you’d be surprised to find how many good AND bad things just pop out this way.
Additionally, consider their innate traits. Has this character always been the optimistic sort? Or maybe they’ve always been one to have anger issues and get into fights. Having a core set of positive and negative traits can help build history as well as fill in the blanks of the personality. Of utmost importance here is the emphasis on positive AND negative traits. No person is perfect, no matter how lovely their life has been. Every single person has biases, prejudices, preconceptions, misconceptions, beliefs, desires, insecurities, hopes, dreams, and whatever else makes people tick. The personality section of a profile is meant to showcase all this. Show how human they are, their vulnerability, their strengths, their weaknesses… I can GUARANTEE you that when you work to develop a well rounded, dynamic character that they’re more fun to play and they’re ‘easier’ to develop. Any interaction in roleplay is opportunity for character development – arguments and well as agreements alike are good things. Just remember that just because Character A HATES character B’s guts doesn’t mean Player of Character A HATES the character of Player B – getting past this hesitation and concern really opens up opportunity for role play and tends to deepen it, making it richer. Personally, some of my favourite roleplay has come from characters that absolutely hate each other’s guts or from someone who’s manipulative asshat that’s trying to toy with some victim or other.
That said, what constitutes a strength/virtue and what makes a weakness/vice? Strengths are those things that other people find attractive/appealing, such as courage, honesty, thoughtfulness, optimism, etc. Strengths are traits that people (usually) approve of in others, they are things that assist a character through life, be it curiosity, naivety, etc etc. A weakness/vice is something that other people find repulsive/unattractive, such as greed, vanity, sarcasm, aggression, etc. Weaknesses are things that detract from a character’s ability to live life, they are things that distance the character from society or make it more difficult for them to navigate social circles – they are always present, even if they are present in varying degrees. It is the combination of positive and negative that makes a character interesting. In fact, the more completely positive or the more completely negative a character is, the less interesting and compelling their story is. Some of the best villains in stories have been ones with some positive aspects about them that make them human, likewise with heroes – some of the best have been ones with flaws that tarnish their golden image and bring them down to a level where compassion and interest reign. I’m pretty sure it’s been said someone or other but the whole idea of the personality part of character creation is ‘imperfect perfection’ – counterintuitive, I know, but when you work to round out your character it really shows, on paper and in play.
One last comment on developing personalities – don’t pick traits that are opposite. Pick traits that are complimentary. Think if someone is greedy, is that because they’re insecure, a spendthrift, confident, etc etc? When you describe someone, you generally don’t condense them into a single word that easily, there’s often a set of words to describe them, yea? Try that with the character you’re creating.
Character Development
This is, by far, my most favourite chunk of character creation. Once you’ve got your profile and an idea of the type of person your character is, including history, motivation, and appearance, then you start to play. However, almost every time (for me, anyway) they seem to take on a life of their own and not react quite the way I would have expected. The core values, the core traits, and the core history are still there but the character acts or speaks differently then you might have guessed at the beginning… this is normal, it’s called character development.
Character development is the entire point of roleplay. You take someone, you define them, and you toss them into some set of circumstances and walk a mile in their shoes – no one ever stays unaffected by their experiences and that’s the beauty of roleplay. Through interactions with other players’ characters, events, circumstances, happenings arise that your character must respond to and grow from. Whether it’s a good experience or a bad one, HOW they respond then marks them in the future and becomes another notch on their staff, another battlescar on their heart.
I tend to play without a set direction for development, taking a sort of ‘sandbox’ style approach but a lot of people have set x-y-z development process. Any change, whether it’s scripted or not, doesn’t happen over night – it occurs in gradual steps, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but it’s almost never instant. If you plan out your character’s development, remember this. Plan your interactions and key events over a handful of encounters and toss your character into these varying situations and watch how they respond. You’ll find it’s usually a more organic, natural development then going ‘oh this was a bad day so Character A now hates you’ at random.
For character development, it’s as widely varied as the creation process. Every encounter is different and every player is different, find something that works for you and most important, have fun when you roleplay and don’t worry about conflict – conflict is Good!