WARNING

First off I want to say that I am not trying to control RP, but I have had several people ask me for help in creating back story's and characters in the past and even as of late so I figured I would share my tips with the community. There are several ways to create a character, these are the steps and tips that I (Lars Calhern) use to create a lasting and dynamic character. Alter it to your needs or take pieces of it, but this has worked for me and everyone that I have helped. The following guide if you will is purely my own opinion and in now way endorsed by The Crack Den. I accept no responsibility for anything that becomes of you upon reading this guide, your life and your characters future are in your own hands.

Step One: Out lining

Before you start writing anything you need to sit down long and hard, and get a basic idea of what you want out of your character. What you want the character to become if you had your way (this becomes really important later). If it helps pull out a piece of paper and the top list a series of goals that you would like to achieve with this character. The hardest part about this step is that you need to keep it realistic to the setting your playing in. For example in Hathian your not going to become a supreme ruler of the city, or mayor, or police chief. Its just not going to happen. Keep your aspirations within reach. For example what i did for Lars was I came in and after my first day, and reading all the note cards i decided that I wanted to be a gang leader.. in my head that was my goal for him. (another important note here be flexible on your overall goal, it can change over time). Its perfectly okay to come into the city with a blank slate and not know what you want, but that makes the other steps so much more important. The basic idea of a character can take time to develop if your are new to RP, use this time to walk around and observe RP, ask people questions, even put on your titler a generic name and try some RP. I know a lot of people that were not happy with their first character and are now running around speaking green text. Take your time if your new to the steps it pays off in the log run, there is no rush in creating a good story or character. After you have a basic idea out of what you want from your character you can move on to step two.

Step Two: Creating Your Character

After you have a basic idea of what you want to become you then on that same piece of paper (word document, notepad, notecard.. whatever) create a column, and on that column you write the headings as STRENGTHS. In this column you need to list what character strengths (physical, social, emotional) that you want to portray, for example: out going, smooth talker, fast, 6'3"+, 275 lbs, whatever you want its your character. The things in this column you list as positives that your character has. Its also okay to look at things like shy and withdrawn as strengths in building characters... its basically just a list of things that you want your character to be able to do. Remember when doing this that you need to keep it real to the environment that your in.

Now that you have your strengths down, here is the hard part. Create a second column and label it WEAKNESSES / EFFECTS. In that second column you need to create one to two character flaws for each of the strengths that you have listed. These can be effects of the strength, for example if you are powerful you are often slow, if you have a large body size your stamina is often reduced, if your out going it often gets you in situations where your mouth gets you in trouble.. things of that nature.

IMPORTANT NOTE: These are just the rough outline of your character traits, and are important in your next step. While some of them can be rigid allow for most of them to be able to be changed, your character should evolve the longer that you stay in town, each scene playing into the overall scope of your character development (more on that later too)

Step Three: Who is Your Character?

This is a rather short step but another crucial one that will help give you a better understanding. This step is often referred to as "fleshing out your character", or "adding meat" One that same piece of paper need to start righting out character facts. After going over what traits you want to have your character to have you can start with the loose details to explain the traits. Things like nationality, family history, traumatic events, careers, things like that. These things are often listed in quick info tabs for characters. This step often plays a vital role in your personal understanding of where your character is coming from and how they should act. Once this is done it often makes writing your back story easier.

Something to pay special attention to is the question why? When developing a new character that should be the most commonly asked thing that you ask yourself. Why is this person like this, why would this person do this. Things such as likes and dis likes can play an easy role in this. Perhaps your character does not like over-bearing men/women, so when a man or woman approaches you its a turn off, and you would then know how to act accordingly. There does lie a danger in here which I touched on earlier, and I will later. There is the temptation to over plan your character and make he or she to rigid, thus allowing for no growth. One important thing to remember is that all this is just intinial guide lines that your character will follow (some will change and some wont).

Step Four: Writing Your Back Story

This step is truly an optional step, there are some people that have an idea about who they want their character to be and their character traits, and they develop their back story on the fly; while others develop a deep back story explaining exactly who they were before they entered Hathian (or where ever it is your playing). Now that you have the traits the easiest way to create a back story is to create a secinaro that gives a reason for each one of those traits, no matter how minute that it is. The back story is all the RP that should have happened before you came in to town and helped your character develop into what he or she is now.

Back stories can be anywhere from of a couple of paragraphs to a couple of pages in length. Back stories are for the benefit of yourself (letting you decide where your character came from and giving a better understanding of how they would react) or for the benefit of others that RP with you for the same reason. Just remember that Much like the previous two steps you don't want top be rigid in your planning or your character will grow stale and you will lose interest, and that brings me to my next point. Character Development.

Character Development

This section could perhaps be a guide in and of itself, but is a very important aspect in creating a character in the long run. Once you have everything together and an Idea of how your character will act to scenes when they first enter Hathian you are ready to move froward. The way that character development works is that everything that your character does, much like in real life, effects who they become and those around them. Once you step foot out of your first scene your character should have a slightly new outlook on the world around them, its ever changing with each scene. Don't be to locked in on everything that you previously planned because often an big event will happen that will change the outlook on things totally. Until that day arrives your previous work will help you interact with others on a meaningful scale. While understanding who the character is to start with is a major step in creating a lasting in character, it truly hings on the ability to have a dynamic character that changes and the overall story does. No one wants to read a book where nothing happens after 300 pages, allow your character to grow, fail, succeed, along the way to the goal that you set in step one.. hell step one may even change as well

I hope that this guide helps someone, and any comments are welcome. Like i said use it in part, use it in whole, don't use it at all. This is just the process that I found works for me

most importantly

KEEP IT REALISTIC TO THE ENVIRONMENT