Character Building Tutorial

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11-24-09 07:08 PM

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Main - The Landfill - Character Building Tutorial

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CyclopsCaveman

Posted on 08-09-09 03:06 AM

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Level: 37

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Since: 01-02-08

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Let's face it, your character probably sucks. This is because you rely on making them hilariously powerful and some sort of uppity hero type who is sickeningly, cheesily happy about everything and acts and talks like a five year old despite their age. This tutorial is meant to prevent that from happening.

Step One: Picking Sex

No, I don't mean choosing a prostitute, I mean if you character is going to have a rack or a pole. Depending on the type of character you choose and what his/her sexuality is (even though there's not much to pick) a big choice you have to make, since you can make very unique combinations from it. And it also limits how you can write later on, which makes things doubly interesting.

Step Two: Picking Class

Depending on whether or not you're going for a Dungeons and Dragons feel is not the case here, since every character can be boiled down to a specific class anyway.

Let's say you have a character named Bill. Bill is gay. What kind of class do you want to give him? You could give him a BORING CLASS, like a priest or a civilian, or you could make things interesting. A gay warrior? Bill the Homosexual Barbarian. Has a nice ring to it doesn't it? The more unique your character combinations are, the more fun they can be to write for. Class can also be an awesome way to mix things up. Maybe Bill the Homosexual Barbarian was forced into being a warrior by his father and in direct defiance became a pacifist as soon as he left his training? Having unique combinations like that can help lead to wacky situations that you can profit from. Bill the Homosexual Barbarian versus Linda the Legless Lesbian? Sounds like a fun fight to watch!

Step Three: Personality

Oh no, Marty Stu is going up against the Big Bad, but he's been trapped in a situation he can't escape from. Naturally, with the power of friendship and teamwork, he escapes from it!

BOOOOOOOOR-INNNNNNG

Optimism is good in small doses, but if your character is always a teamwork loving goody-two-shoes it can get boring. More interesting characters are species hating assholes, or, in a previous example, a Homosexual Pacifist Barbarian. Interesting combinations lead to interesting personalities, remember that.

Step Four: Abilities and Weaknesses

Your character is able to crush a world by blinking, and he has no weakness. Nobody can beat him, and he uses his powers to help the world. Who are you, Superman? Very powerful characters need pitfalls that can seriously handicap them in battle, especially if they're evil, even moreso if they're good. A good character has good weaknesses. A bad character is invincible.

Step Five: History and Plot

Okay, so you've worked out Bob the Lesbian Florist from Bupiter to be a nice, effective character. But how did he end up in the universe? Time travel, Wormhole, what? Having a good, plausible history makes your character look better in comparison to someone who just arrives. If your character is mean to be a drifter from outer space, then give them a big, expansive history with lots of exciting encounters with aliens and planets and tests of physical will. Hell, make it into a big book if you have to, not saying many people will read it, since a concise history is better than a long one, since it gives you your basic history to work out a ton of stories made to benefit his backstory, but his history should still include some interesting tidbits about his species, and about his parents and early life, we want to know WHY he became a drifter, you can fill in the blanks later in separate roleplays.

Remember, a well developed character starts out with almost no history, and then you start to develop them over time. There's no need to go terribly in depth with his history when just starting out with the character. Also, make sure you give them fair abilities and weaknesses, there's no need to create another happy-go-lucky goody-two-shoes, and the a unique and unheard of combination makes things doubly awesome and helps your writing greatly.

____________________
brb should've used majhost

Stark

Posted on 08-09-09 02:22 PM (rev. 2 of 08-09-09 02:24 PM)

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Miraculous Hero of Sunshine

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Since: 02-19-07
From: Bellevue, Washington

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Man how did this thread get stickied? It has a pretty laughably ridiculous way of designing characters. I can tell from the pixels and by having seen quite a few pretty laughably ridiculous character designs in my day.

Edit: Screw you, Omi

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A requiem in your honor.

Omi

Posted on 08-09-09 02:27 PM (rev. 2 of 08-09-09 02:29 PM)

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By Request
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Since: 07-03-07
From: Glasgow, Scotland

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Depending on the type of character you choose and what his/her sexuality is (even though there's not much to pick) a big choice you have to make, since you can make very unique combinations from it.

the only unique thing you've shown us is that you can be gay or a lesbian

More interesting characters are species hating assholes, or, in a previous example, a Homosexual Pacifist Barbarian. Interesting combinations lead to interesting personalities, remember that.

i don't see how a homosexual pacifist is interesting, i mean look at marzens characters

A good character has good weaknesses. A bad character is invincible.

no a good character is a character you get inspiration from to write for, a bad character is trapsters who is just really him and he acts the way he would in real life for the same situations

Oh no, Marty Stu is going up against the Big Bad, but he's been trapped in a situation he can't escape from. Naturally, with the power of friendship and teamwork, he escapes from it!

i don't get how this relates to personality either

in any case, i'm closing this, for very obvious reasons.

____________________

May be an asshole, but I do not want to break the community.

Stark

Posted on 08-09-09 02:29 PM

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Miraculous Hero of Sunshine

Level: 78

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Since: 02-19-07
From: Bellevue, Washington

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At some point I would probably want to write a real character building tutorial, but I'm pretty sure that no matter how much effort I could put into it it would never be any more useful than "learn to write good, dummy."

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A requiem in your honor.

Stark

Posted on 08-09-09 02:33 PM (rev. 3 of 08-09-09 03:46 PM)

Link | Quote | ID: 112930

Miraculous Hero of Sunshine

Level: 78

Posts: 2435/2611
EXP: 4239147
Next: 143079

Since: 02-19-07
From: Bellevue, Washington

Last post: 5 hours
Last view: 5 hours

Yeah, I'm taking this thread out of the trash and opening it. Because, uh. I plan on doing something cool with it later.

Edit: No I'm not

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Main - The Landfill - Character Building Tutorial

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