RpNation

Well, OCs have a ton of individual parts and really any one of those could be worth several threads worth of discussion. That being said, both in general and regarding your particular problem I think the main thing I would say is to use what I call the "golden rule of consistency". It has two parts:
1.Internal consistency (you're free to set the rules you like, but once set they have to be consistent with themselves and each other. If the character has a bad temper then they should actually get angry at things easily. There can be times when they are not angry easily but this should be consistent with why they have a bad temper. For instance maybe their temper has to do with feelings of inferiority so when they are in an environment where they feel they aren't being judged against their peers they can let their guard down and relax).

2.Consistency of Consequence (assume that almost without exception, things have causes and effects consistent with the rules you set. Using again the example of bad temper caused by feelings of inferiority, well how did they get those feelings of inferiority, why did they develop? And if they get angry so easily what they have they done to try to cope with it, and how has it affected their life and specifically their relationships with other people?)

What the principle of consistency does is it lets you take some very simple core ideas about the character, plot, world, or whatever else and gradually follow the consequences and causes to create almost a feedback loop where each new thing generates additional things and thus you end up with a developed character whose various parts are all tied together. I always start making by characters with some core concept or ideas that I really want for that character so this method has served me pretty well and I think it would for you as well.

So this is the main tip at least if we're keeping things general. Here are a few more:
-----> If you have very vague concepts, try making them systematically more concrete. What is the appeal in heroic you want to capture? What exact type of martial artist are they? Try to pin it down and establish both what that means for the character and how you want to accomplish it.
----> Half following through on the previous tip, if you can't define it into something more concrete, I would be careful, because you might be trying to emulate a feeling or an experience. I see this a lot particularly in fandom characters where someone tries to emulate the experience or the feel of how a particular character in cannon comes off, and unfortunately that tends to backfire because the overall story structure and other characters that allowed that character to be badass, wise or so on... is not what those people end up emulating, they only go for the surface-level details and fail to account for even the other aspects of the character, let alone those surrounding details that they don't have control over. You should try to avoid goals that are too vague like being "badass" or "the most X" because they'll keep you going around in circles, and you're most likely going to end up disappointed both at character creation and later. The more concrete you make your goals, the more easily you can achieve them and find a path to do so.

---> A lot of people have this notion that characters are supposed to be like real people. I would disagree, and say that we should move out of notion. Real people are extremely complex things and we don't really understand ourselves let alone others. This isn't to say a character shouldn't try to be realistic, but it's a plausible rather than real, and nomatter what you do the character is always going to be in some ways a caricature. Contradicting traits or even a lack of a real personality entirely is one of the frequent consequences of trying to make characters too real, because it assumes depth equals muddling the waters rather than adding layers. Point is, if you want strong characterization start with figuring out the basis of your character's personality and then commit to it. Is your character a fighter for justice? Don't just make them stand up for it only after a bunch of airbag conditionals are met. Make them actively chase after it, make them have a habit of putting things in categories of just and unjust, etc... Is your character a wise-cracker? Make them resort to that even in bad situations for them, like maybe they get nervous during a difficult time and just blurt out a joke without thinking. These may not be the most realistic things, but strong characterization is pronounced, and sure more subtle characterization does exist but that needs to be built up and usually comes from the depths or the culmination of the rest of the characterization, something far more fundamental and thus more difficult to properly handle. It's the cherry on top of the cake perhaps, but it's still more important to have the cake first.

---> Consider your fellow players and the RP you're going in as you make the personality. Lone wolves are fine, IF you can make a series of posts solo without issue or you are skillful at finding organic ways to get a solo character to join in with a group. When picking traits, those traits that encourage cooperation and engaging with the plot, world and the characters of others are generally great for an RP. For instance cheerful extroverts are often quite great in terms of getting to quickly engage with others. I personally make almost all of my characters very curious, as this lets me give them an interest in the world and others characters, as well as do things for the plot driven by their sense of curiosity which otherwise they wouldn't be reasonably expected to do. Also, reading other sheets in your roleplay will give you even more possibilities. Maybe there is a personality niche to fill, or maybe say you find a character that either loves or hates showing their skills, so you make a character that is very competitive to stimulate that other character.

---> Backstories are a very hard topic to pin anything concrete as good or bad because it varies immensely with the character. For the most part, so long as a backstory properly justifies how the character came to be the way they are, provides some kind of motivation for them, and is consistent and not contrived then it's a pretty good backstory. Bonus points if it includes some prompts your partner/GM/DM can use as story hooks.
--> So this tip doesn't apply to all characters, but I do think it applies in most cases: Your character should be the main driving force of their own backstory. Successes, failures, tragedies and happiness, it should for the most part be driven by their nature and their decisions. The big exception to this is characters whose themes are specifically about things like knowing you didn't earn what you have and therefore maybe you don't deserve it. But even many themes that may seem appropriate for exceptions tend to be better with character agency, like a theme about how you don't really control your life works a lot better if your character tried to do something about it but ultimately failed. Backstories where things just happen to your character are often related to characters that are flat, unengaging or in the worst cases effectively treated as flawless or like the world revolves around them (read: A Mary Sue). Furthermore backstories have the word story in them for a reason, and what story is ever as engaging if the protagonist is just a recipient rather than an active agent?

--> Backstories are most for set-up not pay-off. A lot of great backstories do have payoffs and are even built for those payoffs which ultimately kickstart the character but again I'm trying to address the general case here, and that general case is that A) your backstory shouldn't be one you want to write in more than the one you're actually writing / playing through and B) backstories have a lot of opportunities to set up things for your character to deal with, whether external conflict or internal, as well as things like potential rewards for them and future arcs. If roleplaying is a journey, then a backstory is like packing your bags. You may find things, maybe even most things, from whatever you get your hands on abroad, but the more you have there (in quantity and strategical quality) the more situations you can open your bag and pull what you want/need.



So those are the tips today. I hope they help, best of luck and happy Rping!

Note: Phew that took way more messages than I figured it would...

That was a wonderful breakdown! I enjoyed reading every bit of it! The part about falling into the trap of trying to emulate a feeling or experience rather than generating a concrete idea was something I hadn't even considered, but when I think about it... that's defined a lot of my recent endeavors to create original characters. I'll have watched a movie or TV Show and become enamored with something awesome I've seen onscreen, and attempted to channel that vibe into a full fledged character without delving deeper. The "heroic martial artist" I mentioned, for example, was something vaguely inspired by my recent watchings of Daredevil and clips from an upcoming video game called Sifu. But, I digress.

Thank you so much! Not only for answering, but for giving an extensive, general breakdown of building characters. It's incredibly helpful and will give me lots of great things to consider.

Haha, well I'm glad you liked it, even if really I only touched the very tip of the iceberg. So I guess I'll give one more tip for the way: Most of the feelings or great impressions we get of characters tend to be built over a long period. Sometimes you might get the lucky perfect storm or maybe you just get really good at introductions. But those factors I spoke of earlier that are often forgotten, those are things you establish over time to really solidify the character's place. A truly heroic character comes across as they overcome the fears or challenges that they couldn't supplant for a long time. The redeemed villain needs first to go through a villainous arc before they can be defeated and finally turned around as they come to terms with the disruption to their old worldview. Characters like the badass don't so much need build-up as set-up, they are usually the product of surroundings that need their help and a threat that can truly be feared, and at that point the badass can do something really cool as they deal with the threat in a way the weaker characters could. In a roleplay this will not usually be your fellow characters, but it may for instance be your character standing up for a group of children or innocents while getting the crap beat out of them, but standing up again and again to keep the villain busy. Still, even set-up takes time to construct if you want to do it right.

So yeah, best of luck with everything! Now off to sleep I go....

Well, I did it. I wrote up the OC, ready and able to be deployed to superhero RP's (and of course tailored to match whatever said RP entails, but I digress).

Thanks again for your help