Creating a Realistic Character

[Milo Ventimiglia]

xx. Creating a realistic character.

Making a character who is somewhat realistic and challenging is part of the fun of RPG.

Note that when you write your bio, your character will not be complete unless you have pulled them from another site and have played them for years. Characters always develop and grow over time as they are played! Watch any long-lasting television program. Characters change. The actor changes as well which can actually have an effect on the character, though generally, characters change quite a bit as their relationships with other characters change, as well as due to their response to conflict throughout the series. RPG works much the same way. Your character will meet other characters and will grow and evolve as a person, just as you and I do.

So where should you start? Here is a list of basic attributes to consider:

Physical traits
We all need a good description. You may use a character model; for example, I have used one for my character Max, but you still need to provide a description. Max has hazel eyes and dark hair, olive skin and is around 5'8. I chose to keep his height consistent with his character model, but you may not choose to and this means you should detail height and weight also. These are just a few ideas:

xx. Hair colour
xx. Hair style - wavy, bald, long, short, straight, dyed etc
xx. Eye colour
xx. How many eyes?
xx. Skin tone/colour, tanned or pale
xx. Height
xx. Weight - wide, thin, muscled, lean, gaunt - better to describe than use a number, or use both.
xx. Body type - also used to describe weight
xx. Clothing - what they generally wear
xx. Glasses or contacts or neither
xx. Jewellery
xx. Other accessories
xx. Wings, tail, horns, scales etc and describe those
xx. Scars, other markings
xx. Fur, what sort of fur
xx. Facial hair
xx. Description of alternate forms
xx. Any sort of disability?
xx. Old or young looking for their age
xx. Sharp/normal teeth, fangs, claws
xx. Do they look ethnic in some way? Example: Max looks Sicilian. Someone else might look distinctly African.

Make sure you are descriptive with each of these things. For example, Max has a tail. What sort of tail? His tail is very long; he can wrap it around his waist twice. It is cat-like. Dark brown fur. Fairly strong; he can hang from things with it, it is prehensile, but more feline than a monkey's.

xx. Personality
Your character's personality will be based on their history and on events which will unfold in the future during RPG - this means that they will probably evolve a lot from their original profile! Profiles can be updated any time. Some points to cover, both personality and circumstantial:

xx. Evil or good
xx. Apathetic or empathic
xx. Irritating, annoying
xx. Immature or mature
xx. Tortured past, distrusting
xx. Mean
xx. Friendly
xx. Ethics/Morals
xx. Religion and religious beliefs
xx. World beliefs and views
xx. Diet
xx. Likes and dislikes
xx. Weather/season preferences
xx. Educated or non-educated
xx. Snobby or down to earth
xx. Sense of humour
xx. Sarcastic
xx. Witty
xx. Smart
xx. Smart-ass
xx. Sexuality - homo/hetero/bisexual etc
xx. Too trusting
xx. Naive
xx. Feisty
xx. Street smart
xx. Sense of fun and adventure
xx. What they enjoy
xx. Musical
xx. Hippie
xx. Hobbies
xx. Thoughts on today's technology
xx. Political stance
xx. Careless
xx. Carefree
xx. Emotional
xx. Douchebag
xx. Easy-going
xx. Careless about life - e.g. drugs, dangerous things
xx. Gentle or rough
xx. Abusive to others; women, kids, other people in general
xx. Violent
xx. Aggressive
xx. Arrogant, boastful, bragging

xx. History/Current
History determines how your character will react to any new situations and to other people. You should consider where they were born (country, world, farm, city, etc), what year they were born, what their parents were like if they had any, or whether maybe they grew up in an orphanage or on the streets, any crimes they committed, whether they are rich or not. Also, you should consider what ethnicity they are and/or what species they are, religion etc. Sob stories are fine as long as we don't get a million! Surely someone had a happy childhood! Sob stories can make interesting characters, but those with happy childhoods/easy upbringings can be fun too; they get shocked by the hardships of life fairly easily.

Here are some ideas in point form:

xx. Race/Species
xx. Ethnicity
xx. Nationality (country they were born)
xx. Religion
xx. Parents, if any
xx. Family, if any
xx. Career/job
xx. What their boss is/was like if significant
xx. Crimes committed, or done to them
xx. Anything tragic
xx. Happy or bad childhood
xx. Rich or poor as a child
xx. Rich or poor now or as an adult
xx. Age
xx. Accent - e.g. Irish or Australian or another world
xx. Diet
xx. Culture from somewhere else
xx. Language - bi or multilingual
xx. Sexuality
xx. Place of birth
xx. World of birth
xx. Skills gained over the years
xx. Relationships - love, family etc
xx. Did they lose someone important to them
xx. Easy or hard life
xx. Did they attend University
xx. Did they graduate school
xx. Grew up at a monastery
xx. Lost memory somewhere along the line
xx. Lost memory after coming from another world or time
xx. From another time period on earth
xx. Learning now that they aren't human
xx. Slave or not
xx. What their master is/was like if significant
xx. Interests, hobbies, food, music
xx. Pretending to be human if a paranormal
xx. Ethics/Morals/Beliefs
xx. Cold, callous, evil and reason why
xx. Good, empathic, gentle, kind and reason why
xx. Knowledge given by parents/family

xx. Skills
Everybody has skills. If you didn't have skills in imagination and writing, you wouldn't be here. Make sure they aren't overly skilled to the point of perfection and boastfulness. This is annoying.

Some examples of skills, just a few in a world of many. These are not based on magical or supernatural abilities, but of course these may be enhanced by those abilities.

xx. Weapons skills - what sort of weapons and why
xx. Trained by who
xx. Intelligent
xx. Education - where, studied what
xx. Sixth sense/intuition
xx. Good with kids
xx. Can read people easily
xx. Good actor
xx. Good liar
xx. Spy skills
xx. PI skills
xx. Wrestling
xx. Martial arts
xx. Arts and crafts
xx. Musical talents
xx. Painting talents
xx. Ability to read very fast
xx. Photographic memory
xx. Genius level intelligence
xx. Amazing social skills
xx. Emotional manipulation
xx. Empathic skills
xx. Writing skills
xx. Analytical
xx. Mathematical
xx. Scientific
xx. Creative
xx. Amazing at video games
xx. Good at their job - what job?
xx. Read the weather without powers, general sense
xx. Fishing, camping, outdoors
xx. Hunting
xx. Bows/guns - accuracy
xx. Can drink a lot of beer
xx. Mimic bird cries
xx. Mimic accents
xx. Fashion sense is phenomenal
xx. Diplomatic and political skill
xx. Patience with people to the point of zen
xx. Meditation and spiritual skills
xx. Athletic skills
xx. Hold breath under water

xx. Weaknesses
Everyone also has weaknesses, in personality and in life in general.

xx. Impatience
xx. Bad temper
xx. Addicted to drugs
xx. Clingy in relationships
xx. Distrustful
xx. Boastful
xx. Nasty personality
xx. Not physically strong or athletic
xx. Slow runner
xx. Bad eyesight
xx. Disability of some kind which affects life adversely
xx. No creative skills
xx. Not very smart
xx. Uneducated due to poverty or slavery or similar
xx. Poverty stricken
xx. Slave
xx. Criminal behaviour
xx. Violent tendencies
xx. Poor social skills
xx. Rude and unpleasant to be around
xx. Absolutely no diplomatic skills
xx. Can't empathise
xx. Suffering a mental issue - depression, bipolar, etc
xx. Sociopath
xx. Very immature for age
xx. Young and inexperienced
xx. Naive
xx. Social situation, gender and race inequalities etc
xx. A natural bully