Where to Start

First and foremost, you must decide what sort of character you are creating. This will depend largely on the roleplay. For example, you wouldn’t create a space pirate in a Tolkien-esque fantasy roleplay. So you need to ask yourself a few questions:

• Is my character of a race that ‘fits in’ with the roleplay?
• Will my character be a lead character or a supporting one?
• What role does my character have?

Of course, these are very basic questions to ask, but they allow an initial outline idea of your character. By answering these questions, you’re on the way to creating an awesome character.

Names

For myself, I start by naming my character. Certain races have expected naming conventions, but that doesn’t always matter – your character’s name needs to simply fit in with the roleplay.

Names can be difficult to make up, but help is available! Check out the following links to name generators:

• Seventh Sanctum has a good name generator section, with many generators for all kinds of situations
• Dragon’s Mark is another service that offers multiple name generators, focusing mostly on fantasy names
• Another good name generator can be found at fantasyrole.org which again focuses on fantasy names
• PHP Geek is another site with a name generator. It’s pretty basic and works based on your own information – surname, first name, mother’s maiden name and the name of the city you were born in. Of course, you don’t have to enter real information though.

Others exist, of course, and you can use Google to search for them.

Appearance

Your character’s appearance is important. Often it can be a reflection of your character’s personality, an indication of their position, or simply what they look like. A few things should be considered:

• How tall is your character?
• What build? Slim, muscular, chubby, some alien-looking abomination?
• What does their face look like? Hair colour, eye colour, ugly, pretty, handsome?
• What clothes do they wear?
• How does your character ‘carry’ themselves? Do they seem confident, nervous, arrogant, flirtatious? This is often directly linked to the character’s personality.

Personality

A character’s personality will determine their of the world, how they interact with others, and predominantly, how you play the character. A personality can also change over time, as in real life. Often, the character’s history will link into their personality – perhaps being the cause of the personality.

• What is the general attitude of your character? Fun-loving, happy, enthusiastic, serious, stoic, loud, bashful?
• In what way do they view others? Friends, acquaintances, enemies?
• How does your character view the world they are in?
• What standards/morals/principals does your character have?
• Is your character liked by others? Immediately, after getting to know them, not at all?
• What is your character motivated by?

History

A character’s history is one of the keystones in character creation. It is what ties everything together. Much like a real person, a roleplay character will inevitably be moulded by the events in their life. The history of a character can also explain why there are where they are in a roleplay. A few things to consider, when writing a character’s history:

• What was their childhood like?
• What events in their childhood helped to shape them, if any?
• What have they spent their life doing up to this point?
• Are there any influential people they’ve met ‘along the way’?
• What jobs has the character had?
• What trials helped to make the character stronger, weaker, less trusting etc?
• Has your character moved from their home town?
• If so, why?
• If not, why?

Some people like to have a very detailed history, some don’t. The choice is up to you. If you write a history, try to keep at least to the key points in their life that led them to ‘now’.

Abilities and Equipment

A character’s ability and equipment needs to again fit in with the roleplay. Your character wouldn’t have a phaser in a fantasy roleplay, typically. A few things, without going into specifics, should be considered:

• Do the abilities and equipment match the roleplay?
• Are the strength of my character’s abilities too strong? (After all, you don’t want to god mod.)
• Where did the character learn these abilities? Do they match up to the history?
• Do the abilities coincide with other character points? (For example, would a 15 year old really have mastered a technique that takes fifty years to do so?)
• What equipment does my character have?
• For what purpose?
• How many of each item?
• Is it realistic for my character to carry all this equipment?
• How does the equipment assist in my character’s role?
• Are these abilities and equipment necessary, or do I just want an ‘uber character of doom’?

Part 2

We’ve looked at the basics of creating a character here. But, we’re not quite finished yet… We need to keep balance. A balance character is generally more interesting, and helps to suspend disbelief.

In the second part of this tutorial, we will look at how to maintain balance in your characters.

Lord Saladin is an experienced veteran RolePlayer and wordsmith, and long-time tutor of RolePlay and writing. He runs his own proof-reading business and has been published on several websites for his articles about sales and business.

It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written.

André Gide says it pretty well here: We sometimes want to focus on the aspects of RolePlaying aside from the literary, which is perfectly acceptable. Yet, it does sometimes mean our writing suffers as a result. So, we must be entirely certain that we make words just as important as everything else.

Why?

Communication and understanding. To put it in a nutshell. As writers engaging in a collaborative effort to write a story, it is of utmost importance that we all understand what it is the other has written. How else can we expect the next person who posts to understand what just happened, and then continue the story in a coherent manner? Can we at all?

But remember also that we write not only for ourselves, as a RolePlayer, and our group of writers; but also for people who may be reading what we have spent valuable time and effort in creating. That’s an important fact to remember, one we often forget – even myself.

So…

Be sure to write in a way that makes sense, follows a logic that most can understand, and most importantly, make it an enjoyable read. What are the easiest ways to do that?

• Spelling: Spell your words out in full. There’s no need for ‘txt-tlk’ at all. I know that, perhaps, it will save you a quarter of a second here or there, but not everyone uses the same ‘code’ for writing shorthand. This means that your readers may have to spend a few minutes deciphering exactly what you mean; this will detract from the post itself – meaning your actions, narrative, character development etc could quite easily go unnoticed.
• Grammar and Punctuation: Grammar – which includes punctuation – adds to the meaning of your words. Emphasis can be placed in certain areas through punctuation, grammar and sentence structure can help convey the feeling of your character and their mindset or personality of your character better than the words themselves sometimes. Now, I don’t know the origin of this, but Miyumi quoted the following on RolePlay Gateway:

  Dear John: I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy–will you let me be yours? Gloria

  And, in comparison (also from the same quote):

  Dear John: I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, thoughtful people, who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men, I yearn. For you, I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be? Yours, Gloria

  Notice, if you will, firstly that the words and their order are identical. Then take note of the entirely different meaning and tone. That’s the importance of grammar.

In Conclusion

The above two points are only the very basics of the importance of words. Utilising the above will certainly put you soundly on your way to creating exciting, gripping and easily read, easily played RolePlays.

I know a lot of new RolePlayers, and young writers, feel that spelling and grammar are unimportant when RolePlaying, as this is ‘only the internet’ and just some harmless fun. We need to remember, though, that just as the writing is collaborative, so too is the fun made by each of us working together. A lack of understanding, like trying to decipher post-graduate algebra, can take the fun away. Unless you’re a mathematician with a post-graduate degree.

Help is Available Though

No-one expects each RolePlayer to have perfect spelling and grammar, or to be able to maintain a high level at all times. We all make mistakes, which is perfectly fine. The following tools and methods can help you improve, though.

• Word Processors: Microsoft Word, or any other word processor with a spelling and grammar check will make sure that most errors are removed from your posts. Type your posts first there, and copy/paste into your forum.
• Mozilla Firefox: This awesome, free, web browser has built-in spell checkers though (as far as I’m aware) no grammar checker. Its default is American English, but you can easily install most languages, meaning it doesn’t matter in what language you are writing (unless made up), you know you’re spelling things correctly. It can be downloaded here.
• Proof Reading: Read through what you’ve written after you’re finished and before you hit ‘Submit.’ You will likely spot errors. Then read it aloud, you’ll notice grammar and punctuation mistakes. Read it once more. Then maybe let a friend or family member read your post – they’ll notice things you may have missed. Now you can hit the ‘Submit’ button with a secure knowledge that your post makes sense and is easily read.
• Time and Effort: Writing a 500-word post in five minutes may well mean you have a pretty decent typing speed, but likely you’re going lack the quality of someone who takes ten, or even fifteen minutes to write the same amount. If you’re going to write something, do it well. People can generally see when effort has been made, and they will respect that from you. Spending a little extra time, making that bit more effort, will also make your work all the better.

Lord Saladin is an experienced veteran RolePlayer and wordsmith, and long-time tutor of RolePlay and writing. He runs his own proof-reading business and has been published on several websites for his articles about sales and business.

In its most basic form, roleplaying is just that: playing a role other than yourself. The most prevalent and well known form of this would be acting, where someone becomes a character either for the stage or screen. They study the character, his/her personality, accent, thoughts and then throughout the film/play, the actor essentially ‘is’ that character. Another place we can see roleplaying, and perhaps in its most ‘innocent’ form, is in childsplay – a perfect example would be when kids play ‘house.’

However, what is more pertinent to this site is Play-By-Post Online Roleplaying. This is generally played on forums, and takes upon itself a role similar to acting, in that you are taking the role of a character (or several) and throughout the roleplay you essentially become that character. The major difference, of course, is that online roleplaying is performed through writing, rather than playing the actions yourself.

Writing the varying aspects of your character with other players who also are writing their character, you work together to create a story. Each character’s actions and individual histories come together and through each post your story develops. It also is the job of each player to not only write their character, but also the environment in which the characters are in. In this sense, then, online roleplaying could very well be more aptly defined as ‘collaborative creative writing.’

You are working in collaboration with other writers to write creatively – each person taking the point of view of one character in your story. That is what Play-By-Post Online Roleplaying truly is.