Post by Skipper on Nov 2, 2008 16:57:17 GMT -5
Here is where advice concerning Character Creation can be posted by staff. If you are not staff, please do not post here without proper permission from one of the staff. This thread is made for the benefit of the members of Redwall Legacies so that each member can have the knowledge to make creative, unique, descriptive character profiles. This is also where staff members (namely me 
) can rant about the overuse of unoriginal concepts commonly used in nearly every character's bio.
Name: Most Redwall names consist of misspelled and/or combined words, usually ones that describe the character, or his/her species. Another way to determine a name is to use words from foreign languages, though Japanese word-names like Ryuu are overused and unoriginal. My personal favorite method is using names of towns or cities that sound interesting (such as Rivertinn, which I derived from Riverton, Colorado of the United States).
Age: The older your character is, the more history you will need -- a 92-season-old mouse certainly must have a lengthy history (more than 3 sentences).
Gender: In your profile, try to be consistent with this throughout, please.
Species: The species of your character will greatly affect his/her personality, appearance, abilities, and history. Your character should be unique, and there is a variety of species that make this possible. I do not encourage making a fox, river otter, badger, wolverine, or wildcat. Although these can seem fun to role play as, they have reached the point where they are overused. Try to make the best of a different species, but be realistic. A mouse's strength is no match for a badger's, but a mouse could easily be a potential match intellectually.
Marital Status: Is your character single? Married? Widowed? Does he/she have his/her eyes on anybeast? If so, who, may we ask?
Position and Home: What is your character's occupation? Are they a performer, a storyteller, a warrior, a wanderer, a hordebeast? The possibilities are endless, which gives reason to play as somebeast other than a wandering warrior (When a site has 23 wandering warriors out of about 40 characters, there are too many.) Secondly, where does he/she live? Does he/she have a home at all? Again, wanderers are rather unoriginal, so try to give your character some kind of home, be it Redwall, a village, a cave, or ship at sea.
Strengths: Everyone has some talent, some aspect that would generally be considered a good one. Please be descriptive.
Weaknesses: In the same way, everyone has their flaws. I recommend listing at least two, and try to clarify in such as way that we have a good idea of your character's flaws. I don't care how strong or agile or intelligent or good-looking your character is -- everyone has flaws, some common flaws, others unusual. No one is perfect, and this certainly isn't going to change anytime soon. Besides, nobody likes a perfect character.Try to throw in at least one, creatively unusual flaw, and don't forget to consider all of your character's flaws when role-playing.
Alignment: Good, Bad, or Neutral. Not that difficult, right? I don't know about "Chaotic Neutral" or "Lawful Good" or anything like that, as I am the kind of person who prefers things to be as simple as black and white, but if you want to use these types of terms, go ahead. Even so, all that is necessary is Good, Bad, or Neutral. The rest you can explain in the history.
Also, I don't encourage choosing the Neutral alignment -- we don't want the whole site to be full of Neutral vermin. But I could tolerate 1/5 of the characters being Neutral, and 1/2 of that 1/5 being vermin, at most. I couldn't begin to list the amount of Neutral foxes I've seen on Redwall role-playing sites.
Appearance: I understand that it is more fun to role-play as a stronger, better-looking character, as opposed to an average, slightly ugly character, but not every character has to be perfect warrior material. Some of the best bios I've ever read were ones of smaller, less powerful characters.
Also, I don't recommend giving your character snow-white, or pitch black fur, nor do I recommend "strange scars," or scars in the shape of an "x." Such traits are easily overused on role-play websites, and generally as unoriginal as the use of Japanese-anime names.
Personality: This is what defines your character's very identity, which means that this should be one of the most, if not the most, lengthy part of your character profile. But, as with the other sections, I advise making a unique character. A personality flaw is vital, and no one is without such a flaw, so make sure to mention it. Everyone says that his/her character either (1) is willing to give his/her own life for his/her family and/or friends, or (2) is merciless, not bothered by death, has the heart of an assassin, etc (however worded) -- so try not to use these qualities to describe your character. I recommend giving your character some of your own personality, or that of someone else whom you know well. This way, your character has some semblance of originality concerning his/her personality. Try to write as though your character is a real person -- It is called "personality," because it is what identifies him/her as a person.
I also recommend using some examples of how your character would respond to a certain situation, so as to clarify who your character really is. Make sure to be consistent with this when role-playing with your character.
History: Try going for the unusual with this one as well. I don't care, really, to hear how vermin killed your character's parents, because I find that in pretty much every bio. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have your character's parents die, as long as it is done in a unique way -- my character, Rivertinn McHedj doesn't know what happened to his parents, but it is assumed that they were killed, though the way by which it happened was out of the ordinary. I made Rivertinn's history in such a way so as to allow for a sub-plot for him other than merely avenging his parents' death by killing a ton of vermin -- instead, he will go looking for his parents, and they shouldn't be difficult to find, because the place he must go is rather prominent, as opposed to the usual, he-doesn't-know-where-his-parents-are-so-he-wanders-around-aimlessly-until-he-finds-some-vermin-to-kill.
A character's history is that character's story, and stories aren't simply sob-stories about what that character went through. Stories are a work of art, and should be treated as such. I'm not necessarily looking for a Mona Lisa, but I still want more than just a stick figure.
I strongly encourage drawing your inspiration from your own, personal life, surroundings, and relationships -- not anything involving the computer, television, Japan (nothing personal, it's just an overused source), or anything that is generally a part of your average person's entertainment.
) can rant about the overuse of unoriginal concepts commonly used in nearly every character's bio.Name: Most Redwall names consist of misspelled and/or combined words, usually ones that describe the character, or his/her species. Another way to determine a name is to use words from foreign languages, though Japanese word-names like Ryuu are overused and unoriginal. My personal favorite method is using names of towns or cities that sound interesting (such as Rivertinn, which I derived from Riverton, Colorado of the United States).
Age: The older your character is, the more history you will need -- a 92-season-old mouse certainly must have a lengthy history (more than 3 sentences
).Gender: In your profile, try to be consistent with this throughout, please.
Species: The species of your character will greatly affect his/her personality, appearance, abilities, and history. Your character should be unique, and there is a variety of species that make this possible. I do not encourage making a fox, river otter, badger, wolverine, or wildcat. Although these can seem fun to role play as, they have reached the point where they are overused. Try to make the best of a different species, but be realistic. A mouse's strength is no match for a badger's, but a mouse could easily be a potential match intellectually.
Marital Status: Is your character single? Married? Widowed? Does he/she have his/her eyes on anybeast? If so, who, may we ask?
Position and Home: What is your character's occupation? Are they a performer, a storyteller, a warrior, a wanderer, a hordebeast? The possibilities are endless, which gives reason to play as somebeast other than a wandering warrior (When a site has 23 wandering warriors out of about 40 characters, there are too many.) Secondly, where does he/she live? Does he/she have a home at all? Again, wanderers are rather unoriginal, so try to give your character some kind of home, be it Redwall, a village, a cave, or ship at sea.
Strengths: Everyone has some talent, some aspect that would generally be considered a good one. Please be descriptive.
Weaknesses: In the same way, everyone has their flaws. I recommend listing at least two, and try to clarify in such as way that we have a good idea of your character's flaws. I don't care how strong or agile or intelligent or good-looking your character is -- everyone has flaws, some common flaws, others unusual. No one is perfect, and this certainly isn't going to change anytime soon. Besides, nobody likes a perfect character.Try to throw in at least one, creatively unusual flaw, and don't forget to consider all of your character's flaws when role-playing.
Alignment: Good, Bad, or Neutral. Not that difficult, right? I don't know about "Chaotic Neutral" or "Lawful Good" or anything like that, as I am the kind of person who prefers things to be as simple as black and white, but if you want to use these types of terms, go ahead. Even so, all that is necessary is Good, Bad, or Neutral. The rest you can explain in the history.
Also, I don't encourage choosing the Neutral alignment -- we don't want the whole site to be full of Neutral vermin. But I could tolerate 1/5 of the characters being Neutral, and 1/2 of that 1/5 being vermin, at most. I couldn't begin to list the amount of Neutral foxes I've seen on Redwall role-playing sites.
Appearance: I understand that it is more fun to role-play as a stronger, better-looking character, as opposed to an average, slightly ugly character, but not every character has to be perfect warrior material. Some of the best bios I've ever read were ones of smaller, less powerful characters.
Also, I don't recommend giving your character snow-white, or pitch black fur, nor do I recommend "strange scars," or scars in the shape of an "x." Such traits are easily overused on role-play websites, and generally as unoriginal as the use of Japanese-anime names.
Personality: This is what defines your character's very identity, which means that this should be one of the most, if not the most, lengthy part of your character profile. But, as with the other sections, I advise making a unique character. A personality flaw is vital, and no one is without such a flaw, so make sure to mention it. Everyone says that his/her character either (1) is willing to give his/her own life for his/her family and/or friends, or (2) is merciless, not bothered by death, has the heart of an assassin, etc (however worded) -- so try not to use these qualities to describe your character. I recommend giving your character some of your own personality, or that of someone else whom you know well. This way, your character has some semblance of originality concerning his/her personality. Try to write as though your character is a real person -- It is called "personality," because it is what identifies him/her as a person.
I also recommend using some examples of how your character would respond to a certain situation, so as to clarify who your character really is. Make sure to be consistent with this when role-playing with your character.
History: Try going for the unusual with this one as well. I don't care, really, to hear how vermin killed your character's parents, because I find that in pretty much every bio. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have your character's parents die, as long as it is done in a unique way -- my character, Rivertinn McHedj doesn't know what happened to his parents, but it is assumed that they were killed, though the way by which it happened was out of the ordinary. I made Rivertinn's history in such a way so as to allow for a sub-plot for him other than merely avenging his parents' death by killing a ton of vermin -- instead, he will go looking for his parents, and they shouldn't be difficult to find, because the place he must go is rather prominent, as opposed to the usual, he-doesn't-know-where-his-parents-are-so-he-wanders-around-aimlessly-until-he-finds-some-vermin-to-kill.
A character's history is that character's story, and stories aren't simply sob-stories about what that character went through. Stories are a work of art, and should be treated as such. I'm not necessarily looking for a Mona Lisa, but I still want more than just a stick figure.
I strongly encourage drawing your inspiration from your own, personal life, surroundings, and relationships -- not anything involving the computer, television, Japan (nothing personal, it's just an overused source), or anything that is generally a part of your average person's entertainment.
