Let's discuss character creation methods.  For those of you who role-play, where do you get your character ideas and how do you develop them into fully realized personalities beyond just a few words or what inspiration you had to start with?  

I often base my character off ones that I know, saves me from building a massive background myself and allows me try and stay true to the nature of that person and not let my own personality slip into them.

I think that a lot of people do that olivia and it's not a bad idea.  While some folks think it makes for cliches or trite over done characters, I see it this way:  history is full of stories with rehashed ideas and concepts.  Some say there are no original tales - just new ways to tell old ones.

I sometimes do "what if" when picking a character based off one l like.  "What if... Batman was raised by the hitman who killed his parents?  Who would he have grown up to be?"

The places playing "what if" can take you can be pretty silly sometimes, but also produces really neat results.  Thanks for sharing!

That Batman angle is intriguing actually. Very good concept to consider!

I actually just handed off that idea (very similar) to another player.  He's using it I think but you can twist it a thousand ways.  

What if Bruce Wayne had been a poor kid from the ghetto?  

What if Bruce's parents were the villains and a hero killed them?  

What if Bruce Wayne was the reason his parents died that night?  

What if Bruce's parents lived and instead his dad beat the mugger to death in front of Bruce with his bare hands?

Could go all kinds of places.

What if Bruce's parents lived and instead his dad beat the mugger to death in front of Bruce with his bare hands?

Made me think of Wilson Fisk aka KingPin. Just shows you the different routes it can go (I know I jumped DC>Marvel.. oh well) 

LOL I LOVE king pin.  

#MakeMineMarvel

But seriously... yes, it does show how easily one person's hero could be another's villain with tiny changes.  The line is pretty darn thin when you live in a dark story world (like say, the mafia!)

What if Bruce's parents lived and instead his dad beat the mugger to death?

3 words

Flash Point Paradox

Husky - thank you for making me aware of this.  I have to watch that!  

Good thread.

I sometimes use a real person that lived in this era, and other times just let my imagination run wild.

As to developing them, I think that's the best part. You have an idea. Maybe a bit of history to the character. Some personality. And then over the 'days' and posts you expand on it.

Maybe they start out shy and become confident, even arrogant. Or they start out a hot head and mellow into a political thinker. Or they go back and forth between being somewhat likeable, and an ass.

That's where I get my rocks off. Taking an outline, a shallow idea of what I want my character to be about, and then RP by RP they grow, evolve and change. It's crazy fun.

And it's also spontaneous. Because you never really know how another character may affect yours until after the role play is done and dusted. And you realize, from your characters perspective, he/she probably won't be the same again.

In the end we journey from a nobody to somewhat of a somebody, and maybe more. So naturally the character should evolve too, along with the unit and rank progress.

And where do the ideas come from? Other ideas. Movies. TV shows. Books. Personal relationships and experiences. Whatever makes me feel excited or enthusiastic when I think of it, or makes me curious to write about.

Evolution and growth are a HUGE part of good story (something I'm going to write about here in another post.)  So I love that you mentioned it, Seraph.

Another tool that could be helpful to you in developing a character to start role-playing here or on another site, is using a Character Questionnaire.  It's basically a series of questions meant to help you think about things you hadn't considered for your upcoming character.  Some are very short (maybe 5-10 very generalized questions) while others get very specific (100s of questions!)  

If you google search:  "Role-playing Character Questions" or "Writing Character Questions"  you'll find many of them so take a look and find one that works well for you.  I'll share a shorter one here.  By no means is this a definitive Q&A but it is one that will help you get started in a pinch.

• What is your characters name? Does the character have a nickname?
• What is your characters hair color? Eye color?
• What kind of distinguishing facial features does your character have?
• Does your character have a birthmark? Where is it? What about scars? How did he get them?
• Who are your characters friends and family? Who does she surround herself with? Who are the people your character is closest to? Who does he wish he were closest to?
• Where was your character born? Where has she lived since then? Where does she call home?
• Where does your character go when hes angry?
• What is her biggest fear? Who has she told this to? Who would she never tell this to? Why?
• Does she have a secret?
• What makes your character laugh out loud?
• When has your character been in love? Had a broken heart?