Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Jinx jinx@*******.com
Subject: Character Creation (was: Re: Ironic...)
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 12:25:27 -0600
At 05:51 PM 3/21/00 +0000, you wrote:

>Somewhat related questions, how exactly do people go about making
>characters? Stats -> background -> name? archtype -> name -> stats?

Usually, I have a name or a personality in mind, and try to find stats that
fits that mental image. More rarely, I see something in a book that I want
to try out and start with the stats to see if it would work. If I like it,
I name the character and work on fitting a story and personality to the
stats. That's a bit more awkward, and they generally don't come out great.
When I'm truly inspired (admittedly a rarity) I'll get hit with an idea
that fits with something I did three months ago and I'm dying to try...
Those turn out as my favorites.

>And how did your favorite character's personality get formed? By runs, or
>settled when you started, or both?

Mostly I know the personality before we start the game, though it tends to
change, drift a bit, as the runs come and go. Usually, the drift is
intentional, the result of fifty little things that have happened and my
prediction of how it would really affect the character. Which is sort of
the point of roleplaying, anyway...

Jinx




http://www.redrival.com/jmenning/roleplaying/sr.html
Message no. 2
From: Erik Slof e0slof@********.cs.adelaide.edu.au
Subject: Character Creation (was: Re: Ironic...)
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 11:48:53 +1030 (CST)
On Mon, 20 Mar 2000, Jinx wrote:

> At 05:51 PM 3/21/00 +0000, you wrote:
>
> >Somewhat related questions, how exactly do people go about making
> >characters? Stats -> background -> name? archtype -> name -> stats?
I usually choose one element of myself (or attempt the opposite) and work
from their this could either be character/ background / skill and slowly
work from there

A good background helps alot what are the characters peers/family like in
detail it helps you play the character so much better.

> Usually, I have a name or a personality in mind, and try to find stats that
> fits that mental image. More rarely, I see something in a book that I want
> to try out and start with the stats to see if it would work. If I like it,
> I name the character and work on fitting a story and personality to the
> stats. That's a bit more awkward, and they generally don't come out great.
> When I'm truly inspired (admittedly a rarity) I'll get hit with an idea
> that fits with something I did three months ago and I'm dying to try...
> Those turn out as my favorites.

> Mostly I know the personality before we start the game, though it tends to
> change, drift a bit, as the runs come and go. Usually, the drift is
> intentional, the result of fifty little things that have happened and my
> prediction of how it would really affect the character. Which is sort of
> the point of roleplaying, anyway...

Agreed the RP should influence the characters behaviour but having a
starting point helps due to the fact that you know basically how it will
affect the personality

My fav chars are those i have worked a history for - A pitty i have since
left the game for other activities i feel are important but i still think
in these chars ideals (history based on mine ...sorta) and thus have
trouble playing chars that i havent a background for i have 2 chars like
that atm i need a history as it affects everything about the char
enormasly(sp?)


> Jinx

Nemo the labour

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about Character Creation (was: Re: Ironic...), you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!