February 22nd, 2004 UPDATE: Fixed some typos and would like to take the time to thank my Dad for reading this thing and fixing the errors. Love you dad! ^_^

________________________

Many people LOVE to create their own characters. Male, female, human, demon, angel, elf, straight, gay, bisexual, you name it someone has most likely made a character for it.

The problem is though a lot of those people don't completely create them. They give them a personality, description, weapons, etc but they don't give the character a life. They don't give them a history other then what they make up on the fly. They constantly change it as they go and eventually someone picks up that they have no idea what the hell their character should be doing in the situation and take advantage of that.

Mostly in RPs where they find flaws in the character that lets them call the person a "Moder" or "Newbie" and totally screw them over.

Original Characters get called "Mary Sues" and the writer is written off as some twelve-year-old moron who just wants to have sex with a fictional character because they can't get a boy/girlfriend offline.

I really dislike OC/Character stories myself, but if the character is BELIVEABLE and not some super god who has everyone dropping to their knees to kiss up to them so they can get into the char's bed, then I'll admire the hard work the person put into their character.

Below is Kobura's Guide to Character Creation I hope it helps out some of you who want to create your dream character or helps those of you who are in need of a muse to finish your in progress ones.

~ Kobura
"Listening to the Voice's Direction since 1986"

The first thing you have to do is figure out what you're going to use this new char of yours for. Are you going to write them into a fanfic? If so what kind? Yaoi? Yuri? Het? Rape? Maybe you want to use them as a villain or just a simple side character.

You need to know what you're character is going to be doing before you can create them. Would you create a Demon character if you needed someone to help a Human through some sort of problem? I'd think not. Unless it was said demon/Human character centric pairing then yeah. Otherwise its not happening.

If you're creating your character for an RP, what kind of RP? Gundam Wing? Ai no Kusabi? Tekken? Legacy of Kain? Static Shock? Original? You aren't going to create a Meta-human to use in a Legacy of Kain RP. It doesn't work, Meta-humans are Future!RP chars and the Legacy of Kain vampires are Past!RP chars. They don't mix. You can't use a Bazooka in a 1600's RP. Future chars, unless brought to the past through some form, CANNOT be used with Past chars. It's an unfair advantage in some cases and just plain stupid in others. A guy with a Laser sword vs. A girl from the 1600's (women were considered property and housemakers remember) is going to last all of three seconds and is really going to piss a few people off. Bounties are a BAD thing. Don't go making a large amount of enemies. Your character won't last very long if you have multiple clans fighting for their carcass.

Now that you know what your character is or is supposed to be, what is their personality? You can't have a very interesting character if they don't have emotions. Do they feel sad? Or happy? Maybe they don't show any emotion at all but have a sadistic streak they flaunt by their actions. Whatever it may be EVERY character needs a personality. I'd say you should try for a unique personality but I don't think its all that possible anymore. I've seen carbon copy characters a lot lately and very few personalities are unique anymore. The most important thing is does your character's personality match them? I know that sounds weird but this is what I mean. Would you have an Angel character that you wanted to help people be cruel or sadistic? No. You want them to be kind, smart, creative, maybe naïve. You're character's personality is a reflection of what you want them to do. You might want a fierce personality that will eventually melt with a little TLC or a stubborn, manipulative, cold bastard of a man who will NEVER sleep with someone he loves because he doesn't love.

RP characters don't have so much to worry about Personality wise. You rarely see the same people but if you do they are usually your friends and they won't say anything if your emotionless demon suddenly giggles for some reason. Though its nice to have an idea what they'll do should they be attacked by something. If you change your personality too often though the "Oldbies" will immediately either attack you whenever they see you or get you branded as a "Newbie". It's not fair, but that's how the online RP world works. If someone is popular enough in an RP room then you best stay on their good side.

Thought I was going to do appearance next didn't you? Well normally yes but I think you need your character's history before you can give them a look. If a character had a run in with an Elf and their fight left a scar across his face you'll need your history before your appearance or you're not going to add that scar until later. Which can mess you up.

If a character suddenly gets a scar and they say it happened years ago when in the last chapter they didn't have it is that going to look good?

If you give a description of a random Elf and claim hatred for him, what happens if there is a character that has that appearance and you didn't know?

If you run into one of these situations you could be screwed. Lying to get yourself out of it isn't going to work either because when people think something about you they don't tend to change it easily and its really not worth the headache to convince some stubborn guy that your character isn't magically sprouting scars.

If your character used to be a farmer then they aren't going to have smooth hands. Their hands are going to be callused and rough from the work. If your character is a prince who has lived a pampered life and never picked up a sword before then he damn well isn't going to be able to swing that sword around like Kenshin in one chapter/RP session. If you don't know what happened to them in the past then how are you going to know how they got the personality they did? If you wanted a character with a kind personality having them raised by Barbarians who rape and murder isn't going to give you that. Unless of course something would happen that would cause them to become nicer then the others. Would make a lovely plot twist but only if you do it right. You have to think carefully and have as many details as possible before you move on. A loophole in your character's past can cause trouble in the future.

Now we get to the fun part. What does your character look like? Well as I said before your character's past and personality have some say in what your character looks like. There is a list of things you should consider when you create a character's appearance:

• Age (If they're older they should look it unless they're Vampiric, Angelic, or Demonic.)
• Height (This will help you in those Fic/RP scenes where your character does something with another character. If your character is taller then your going to type something different then if they were shorter)
• Weight (Are they fat? If they have muscle how much do they weigh because of it and if they weigh more because of muscle that will alter their look a bit won't it?)
• Hair Length (Short? Long? Medium? If its long does it go to their back or their ankles?)
• Hair Colour ( It helps with descriptions for Fic Scenes/RP sessions when you know what to call your character when you don't want to use their name. Brunette, Blonde, Redhead, Blunette?)
• Eye Colour (Do they have piercing eyes that will paralyze anyone in fear just by looking at them? Does their eyes tell you all about them? Can they not hide their feeling in their eyes and it can be used again them?)
• Distinguishing Marks (Does your character have a tattoo that marks him as a member of something? Do they have scars that tell the tales of their past? Do they have something that would make any RPer of a certain type of character attack you immediately?)
• Attire/Clothing (What does your character wear? Do they run around buck naked for some reason?)
• Species (If your character is an Angel then they are going to look slightly different from a character that is a Demon or Werewolf.)

Those are just some of the things you should consider when you make your character. There are tons of other things but I'm sure you can think of something else. The appearance requirements change between RPs and Fandoms so you should always pay attention to were they are going to be so you know you aren't going to mess up. Like having a Legacy of Kain vampire hanging out with the Vampire Chronicle Vampires.

Abilities. The best part about an RP character and one of the most fun things to create in any character. Abilities would be along th lines of Magic, Skills, etc. Strengths if you will. Can your character leap tall buildings in a single bound? Can they move faster then a speeding bullet? Are they in the right Fandom/RP for those abilities? If your character can bring Duel Monsters to life is that really going to help in the Gundam Wing fandom were there is no such thing as Yu-Gi-Oh! ? I didn't think so. When you figure out where your character is going to play then you can decide what they can do. You have to be careful though. In RPs if your character is immortal, prepare for the worst time ever. RPers HATE and I mean REALLY hate Immortal characters. If your character is all powerful and can't be killed what's the fun in that? What's the fun in mearly glaring at another character and they burst into flames and die? If you even get to do that. Immortal characters tend to be ignored or mocked until they leave simply because immortal chars are against the rules. If you can't kill it, you can't use it.

Fic characters don't have to worry too much over that type of stuff. They still can't do things like, Survive being squished by a Gundam or a high Voltage shock from Static. That's BAD and gets shouts of "Mary Sue!" quicker then anything.

Another thing every character needs is weaknesses. If your character is just TOO good then, as I said before, they're no fun. If they have too many weaknesses then they're just boring. If they're a bookworm, suck in gym class, don't have very many friends, have zits like crazy, bad hair, and other things like that then they're just too plain. You can't have an "Anti-Mary Sue" because that's just as bad as a "Mary Sue" in terms of Stories. Would you read a story about a character who just has it so bad and they never have anything good happen and so on? Not many people would.

RPers don't really have to worry about too many weaknesses. Whenever you have a certain weakness then be prepared for someone to have something to exploit it. So you want to be careful not to make your character too weak or they won't last.

You never know when someone is going to come along and throw you for a loop. You never know when someone is going to get interested in your character and want to be near them. You should always be ready to come up with new things just in case you need them. Some of the things I can think of are:

• Astrological Sign
• Family
• Clans
• Favorites (Colour, Book, etc)
• Birth Date
• Birth Place

People ask a lot of different things about characters when they're interested in them. Whether the question applies to the character completely or not doesn't matter. They just want to learn everything they can so they can maybe write a side story for your fic or RP with you. You should always come up with small random bits of information. You may never need them or you may need them. You never know.

This is a list of things you may need for your character should you use them in a story. As with the last lesson. Some of it you may need some of it you may not. Its just best to be prepared.

• Likes
• Dislikes
• Hobbies
• Pairings (Who are they paired with in your stories? Do they have a set partner?)
• Fandom(s) (What fandoms are you going to use them in? If your character is made specifically for one fandom they may not be able to be used in another.)

Basic things that you most likely thought of in Lessons 1 and 2 but I wanted to mention them just in case.

Same as Lesson Seven just with RP characters this time.

• Weapons (Every RP char has some kind of weapon.)
• Weapon's History (How was the weapon made? Why was it made? How did your character acquire it?)
• Weapon's Description (What does your weapon look like? What does it do? Does it have an evil/good power inside it that helps your char with certain enemies?)
• Fighting Style

Again just basic things. You will need the things listed above but it all depends I'd guess on your character.

Well that's it. That's my small (x_X) Guide on creating original characters and RP characters. If you have any suggestions then please e-mail me at [email protected] ^_^

This is a section of links that will help you in creating your new characters. If you have any more links let me know.

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/gens/ - The Page of Generators : This site has tons of generators that will help you in everything from naming your character to what they will look like and even story lines to help you get those characters into play!