4scorelightnings
𝐭𝐞𝐥 ★
(Content warning: discussions about self harm and abuse in this thread)
Intro: Hello, my name is Maya, I'm 21, and I have been roleplaying for about a decade with some gaps. Before I found RP Nation, I used to roleplay on another forum for years, and even have a few finished roleplays on it. I want to relay some information that has really helped me become a better role-player, but also writer and overall human-being when creating characters and OCs from scratch.
I feel we often have to encounter people who roleplay to write--or be--a perfect character with a perfect appearance, godly powers, and faultless personality. But this makes our writing unrealistic, more egotistical, and overall, doesn't teach us much about ourselves or others.
This is mainly a dos & don’ts, but there probably won’t be many ‘dos’ because I complain more than I compliment.
But seriously this is just a list of things that annoy me and other friends that share the same views. Like you actually DO NOT HAVE TO follow this at all, because you can do anything you want with an RP. These are just our pointers--And we are extremely pretentious when it comes to RPing. Follow your dreams and do what makes you happy, so long as you’re not hurting anyone. We’re just complaining and ranting here.
1: Forgive us if we start sounding like broken records
2: We learned from our mistakes. We have made most of the mistakes here before and we’re always on-our-toes to make ourselves better. Heed our advice and do the same.
Contents:
Appearance (Euro-centric beauty standards, Cultural Appropriation/japanophilia, etc.)
Backstory (Romanticizing Not-Okay things)
Personality (Realistic faults, realistic strengths)
***In the first post in this thread after this post I will be going over subsections such as:
-White-washing
-Queer characters and harmful stereotypes
-Gender diversity and the topic of “genderbending”
-Body diversity
-Book based character stereotypes (Hogwarts will be used for reference)
-Drama-based characters and people’s feelings
Appearance: I know we all love having beautiful characters. But think about it--is everyone around you deemed beautiful by the euro-centric society we live in? Not so much. If you can believe, fans of books like The Hunger Games when I was in my preteens were enraged about the fact they casted Rue to be a black girl, EVEN THOUGH she was literally described as one in the books (Look it up, I dare you.)! Many people, often white, are so used to imagining a whole fantasy world where all the "good" characters are white or have only Eurocentric features that it makes them feel uncomfortable when there is diversity. Don't be like this. Sure, make your characters appearances pleasant. But they don’t all need to be that societal "drop-dead-gorgeous", because you don’t see a person and literally drop dead because ‘dayum’, ok? Also, I am a bit tired of seeing people only think that pale skinned, bright eyed (blue, purple green what have you), slender, long flowing haired girl are the epitome of beauty. They are not. They are just the Eurocentric white epitome of beauty, don't fall for it being the only beautiful traits.
Let me just say - Sparkling emerald eyes *Very first RP character*, ice blue eyes *guilty*, purple eyes, *Also guilty, hell they were siblings*, are all really rare. (Like Jesus Christ guys brown eyes are a thing, y’know? Your character isn’t any less special if they have brown eyes.) So if you want your character to have an uncommon eye color, take a step back and wonder why. This ties into heritage too. I am half Japanese and half Indian (and will get into the japanophilia in the role-play community in a minute, but) I have sh*t brown eyes. I am sorry I do, and I love them. They are what most people in the WORLD got. They shine golden brown in the sun.
And magic. Magic is great for appearances. Have a werewolf character with one blue and one brown eye? *Guilty*Makes sense. (Just don’t do the whole “Everyone hates me because of my eyes because they’re different” thing when in fact the other characters have no problem with it. If the other characters do have a problem with it, go for it.) Anyway, you can go crazy with magical appearances as long as it makes sense. And won’t get your character killed. Like if you’re going to have a medieval witch with bright purple hair, she gon’ get burned. Just saying. *Burn baby, burn...*
Of course I’m not saying that your characters can’t be beautiful. Just think of the non-typically-beautiful adorable lil’ butts. *Heh. Little butts*
Back to my point two paragraphs ago. Think about where your character is from. Where their parents are from. Where their great-great-great grandparents are from. This affects eye color, skin color, height, hair color, everything.
You don’t need to over-glorify your characters. If they are beautiful, good for them! They don’t need to change a thing. If they’re not conventionally beautiful, then I’m sure that they’re adorable as frick. Maybe you made a character who you would describe as ugly? Well they’re beautiful to someone. Just like people in real life. You don’t have to be “perfect” to be beautiful.
Back to specifically eye color. Even more specifically, purple eyes. The purple eyes mutation {Alexandria Genesis} DOES NOT EXIST. It was made up specifically for a fictional story, and people jumped on it.
I could dip into cliches here as well (*AHEM*, black hair, ice blue eyes) but honestly cliche people exist sometimes. Just they don’t exist everywhere.
On the note of similar characters, if two people in a roleplay create characters that are really similar in some way- Maybe they look the same, have the same/similar name, etc. - Don’t be afraid to say something about it. I know sometimes in my experience, people make characters so similar to mine it’s like they don’t even read my forms before they make their characters. Read people’s character forms or talk about it before you make your own. If you have to tweak your character a bit, too bad. If someone has something unique to their characters- Don’t do the same thing. At least make sure it’s okay with the person who put their idea out there first. Because despite how many months you've had the character, someone else may have posted in the roleplay thread before you. Sorry, bad experiences.
BODY TYPES!
First off body types are really important when describing a character. Just as important as describing their hair length and color. And you can’t just say ‘tall’ or ‘short’. It’s really not that hard to come up with an actual height. Here’s a hint to keep in mind -
Average height for girls in the US is 5’4.
Average heights for guys in the US is 5’10.
Keep in mind to mix your character’s body types around. Not every girl is a size 6 with a flat tummy and boobs that’d make Dolly Parton envious, and not every guy has the shoulder-waist ratio of a Dorito like Captain America.
Here’s the thing- ALL BODIES ARE BEAUTIFUL *CONFETTI*
Skinny and lanky with no curves? Gorgeous! Pudgy arms, a squishy tummy, and short legs? BEAUTIFUL AS WELL! The body of Kate Upton or Channing Tatum? You go, bro! Boys don’t need to have six packs and broad shoulders and girls don’t need huge fun-bags to be awesome (as well as everyone in between), but there’s no shame in having a character with these said features so long as it’s not your stick-to formula. No character is lesser for having a A cup chest or D cup chest, or being short or tall, or having abs or not.
Let’s follow this up by talking about vocabulary. Watch out for your oxymorons when you describe characters. It’s literally impossible for a girl to be curvy and lean because when talking about body types, those two words are opposite.Not sure what a word means? Want a more accurate description? Google is a thing. As are multiple dictionary/thesaurus sites. (And actual dictionaries.)
Be realistic with it! It’s not practical to give your lazy boy character who only sits around playing video games rippling pectorals, or a girl who is only 13 with ridiculous curves. (Seriously, can we stop sexualizing different types of lumps and bumps in different areas? Sheesh) It’s really annoying when people have characters that are always trying to blatantly fit society’s standards of being “hot.” Sure it’s ok to have a stereo-typically hot person, but remember that everyone’s views of beauty are different, and people aren’t cut from cookie-cutters. On the other side of that coin, don’t make your character so stunningly plain that they’re always complaining that there’s “Nothing special” about them. They can have "plain" looks, but keep in mind that they’re probably beautiful anyway.
Having brown hair and brown eyes doesn't make someone plain.
Let’s just talk about races! No, not like the olympic kind. I mean the fact people look different. TTM and I personally see a lot of RPs where every single character is white (given if it’s a location or time period where this is untypical), *In all honesty, some of us have been guilty ofonly-white characters for a really long time. But we’ve stopped that BS and tried to diversify, and learning from mistakes is what counts folks* *We learn from our mistakes and try to better educate because seriously the entire world is not one whole race*
Now think about how friggen diverse this planet is. A lot of people try to make their characters different from other’s looks by giving them purple eyes or naturally bright red hair, but really, can we consider racial diversity before we go ahead and give them some ‘supposedly natural’ unnatural feature? Maybe a short girl who likes wearing elephant hair pins from Sri Lanka *What does that even mean*, or a person of Spanish descent who enjoys skiing. *I don’t know what skiing has to do with appearances but yeah, you go* Try to make your own personal characters diverse.
Let me say - I understand if it feels weird at first roleplaying someone who isn't from your own culture. {Even more so when all of the rest of the characters are one race.} Especially if it’s something different than someone who was, say, born and raised where you live. If you roleplay a boy who comes from Hawaii and follows Hawaiian customs- Learn about those customs.
I often see people using face claims that are Japanese art styles and that's amazing, but what about the ethnicity and culture of that person you are face-claiming or drawing? Are they Japanese, or are they of white/European descent like you? Race isn’t always just skin tone - it’s culture. If you have a culture different from your own make sure that you learn about it. It is in no way offensive to write accurately about a different culture. JUST LEARN ABOUT IT WITHOUT PRETENDING TO BE SOMEONE YOU ARE NOT!
Backstory:
Let’s talk about family life, shall we?
Holy Drama Queens, Batman. *Holy hypocrite Batman* If you have a simple highschool RP going, you do not kill off parents casually. *Holy hypocrite Batman intensifies* *Sidenote it happened once and I have learned from my mistake* Yes it does happen of course, but at least make parent-deaths realistic. I cannot say how lazy saying a or the parent/s died in a car accident, because this is the most cliche of the cliches, even if it sadly does happen. *I speak from experience* If a mother or father has passed or is gone from their life, a more realistic approach is either sickness or abandonment, just please, be kind to your OC’s, and don’t kill off all of their parents if the setting is modern times and there is no explanation for it. This is not an anime. (Even more so if they are then just living on their own with no support.) They WILL have money problems. Like, be realistic about it, the world that we often role-play in is a nasty capitalistic one that doesn't care about kids with no parents (look of foster care statistics in the United States alone).
Now let’s talk about siblings! People can have anywhere from none to too many. *It varies a lot, really. This is why deciding a parent’s personality is also really important.* And not all siblings are little angels, or really freaking annoying little-*UNBELIEVABLY CENSORED*
Also, consider age gaps. It’s pretty unrealistic if all your 26 year old character’s biological siblings are only 3. Not to mention siblings can actually be pretty funny little side people in your RP to liven it up, so try to give them a bit of a personality, and a name. *Always a name* Not to mention you should probably decide whether or not your character is going to have siblings when you make them, not 120 pages into the roleplay. *And don’t change it.*
Unhappy childhoods are a thing. So are happy ones. You need to think about this and why. So much stuff for everything is dependant on why. If their parents were teen parents {No support from family}, then odds are your character is going to have a terrible childhood. Maybe not, but there needs to be a reason why they did or didn’t have a bad childhood. This is speaking on the simplest terms of how they were raised - Nothing extremely dramatic.
Are they poor? Are they rich? Where do their parents work - Because I can assure you if their parents are both teachers and they have three kids, they aren’t going to be extremely well-off. You need to consider this. Also consider how your character gets money. Do their parents give it to them? How much of an allowance do they get, if so? Do they have a job? If they have a job, what is it, and when do they work? Nothing is worse than saying that your character works at the bowling alley, but never having them actually go work there, just so they can have play-time with the other characters instead. Keep jobs realistic. Again, google is a beautiful thing. If your character works five days a week, but then goes on four dates around the time they’re supposed to be working - Well, not only are they not getting the money that you say they’re getting, but they are probably out of a job. *Guilty*
You have to think a lot about family life and how it affects people. The same set of parents might have two completely different effects on two different characters, because they’re different people.
DRAMATIC BACKSTORIES AND HOW YOUR CHARACTER IS AFFECTED! Depending on the setting, your characters may vary a lot depending on their dramatic backstories. Let’s set the example that they’ve had an abusive parent/guardian, significant other, or something else affect their life. *AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD PEOPLE ROMANTICIZE AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP. EVER. NO. MATTER. WHAT. I WILL TURN INTO A DRAGON AND SET YOU ON FIRE.*
Your character may be really traumatized and they get panic attacks, or are clinically depressed. *Again, no romanticizing allowed unless you wanna deal with an angry dragon* However, keep in mind that real people go through this, and there for is a shady, uncomfortable topic for a lot of people. If you DO have a character with said illness, note that this is a DETAIL of your character, and it is NOT THEIR ENTIRE PERSONALITY. They were someone before their tragedy, and the tragedy does NOT DEFINE THEM AS A PERSON.
Also, Teen Pregnancy- If you choose to RP this, I won’t judge you, but do remember that for a teen mom in an RP- It’s game over. She can’t stick her kid with her mom for hours on end to go party or hang out with friends, no, that’s irresponsible parenting and also when I will judge you. Unless you’re trying to make her look like a bad person. Don’t forget that you character probably does not have unlimited money and that kids are so expensive. REALLY THINK ABOUT how a child may affect someone who is still in highschool, with no job, and also think about how the father of said child may be affected as well.
Don't just add in an unwanted pregnancy {Teen or not} for shock/drama value.
Also consider, would your person really get pregnant? Condoms rarely rip in the way that would deeply affect a semi fertile 15-18 year old who is not at the peak of fertility of their life. Other methods of birth control are basically handed out at a lot of teen cliniques and they’re really not hard to find. The odds of getting pregnant from a first time is basically 0/100. SCIENCE.
Another subject that makes me personally really uncomfortable, but certainly needs to be addressed is self harm- Yes, it happens, yes, it’s unfortunately common. But you do not need to RP any sort of act of self harm. Those you may be RPing with can be very uncomfortable with said action and you need to respect others. Please don’t make a display out of self-harm. I cannot stress these points enough, because you really need to be sensitive of all suffering in any way. RPing is supposed to be FUN, and when you add said topics to your character. Please do try to understand that others use this site as a fun distraction from said issues of stress. *Those people would be us* Any sort of blatant exploitation of mental illness, rape-culture, abuse, self harm, or even body-image issues will not be tolerated by me personally, and I will come to your house and duck-tape you to a chair to make you watch a constant loop of the entire Transformers movie series. With Shia Lebouf. *Such bad movies are not worth it*
If you’re going through self harm or other mental illness yourself, and need a way to channel it, RPing the topic isn’t the best way. There are multiple sites where you can talk to real live people to ventilate your problems; Here’s one - blahtherapy.com/
Some people get really uncomfortable if a character is unnecessarily and easily agitated, sad, or just down-right relying on others to cheer them up and blanket them through life- because it’s hard to do this. If your character’s mom died about 4 years ago, it’s fine to have them remember her occasionally, but please do not have your character be an emotional wreck constantly because of this one event. Time heals and helps to cope, but this doesn’t mean they can’t be affected.
I’m going to make another short note about the baddies. We all have characters that we dislike as people. Good character, bad person as I like to say. Sometimes they’re just A-holes {Just don’t make them 100% a dick}, but sometimes they can be actually abusive, or worse. Not only do you need clear okays from everyone else, but you should also clarify that you know this isn’t okay. Backstories are explanations, not excuses. A bad childhood might explain why your character is awful, but it doesn’t make it okay. Please be very mindful of your subject matter. Make sure that you’ve made it clear with the other roleplayers what you’re going to do - make sure that they are 100% okay and comfortable with it. Consent is really important in this kind of roleplaying too.
We also have those characters who think making fun of others or being destructive is ‘cool’. Don’t have your character light fires in the school because they think arson is cool, because FIRES ARE DESTRUCTIVE AND COULD KILL LITTLE JOHNNY FROM 6TH PERIOD. *Fires are dangerous, who knew? Please be mindful of what would actually kill your character or those around them*. Also, ‘badass’ characters don’t need to be a-holes or mean to everyone. It does not make them cool. However they may be an important character, and it’s fine to have one as long as people are ok with it, try not to blow it out of proportions. Not to mention that someone with such actions will probably be shunned for being a dick, so don’t complain when no one wants to be around your character.
Make your characters as dick-like {Or ditzy/clueless for that matter} as you want, but don’t be surprised when the other characters don’t want to be round them. Character development is always a thing, maybe there’s a kind-of-redemption available? Ask the other person you’re RPing with if there is. Ask what the breaking point is, where it’s too far to have this character like this other one. If it’s too far, then just stop, maybe make a new character. And remember, even in RPing, no means no. Constantly pursuing someone after they have refused you is not romantic. It’s creepy and it’s r*pe culture. Seriously, stalking people is gross.
Personality:
I’ll start by saying something that doesn't have much to do with personality.
This, I feel, is a good basic form for starting out an RP -
Full name: (The entire name- First, last, middle - It’s all extremely important. At least first and last.)
Age: (Agree on a set age range for the roleplay beforehand)
Gender: (Don’t be afraid to have someone non-binary or transgendered!)
Looks: (Be the most detailed here- Personalities develop, but at the beginning of a roleplay, looks are set in stone. Make sure you include hair color and length/style/what have you. Eye color and maybe shape. Height, and body type. Never, ever just put a link to a picture of someone as your appearances. It’s extremely vague and hardly let’s the other people know about your character’s looks.)
Personality: (Again, decide how you want to do this before the roleplay. You can either be really detailed here from the start, or agree to develop as you go. I know that personalities can be hard to decide right off the bat, but make sure they have one that makes them unique!)
Details that pertain to the roleplay: (Hogwarts house, district in Panem, magic powers. Anything that is specific to your roleplay. Make everything as simple as possible. If you need more than one category for specifics, go right ahead.)
Family life: (This one also pertains to roleplays. If they’re going to be around their family a lot, work it out now. If not, then it’s not as important.)
Other: (Always have an ‘other’ category. Sometimes people might have extra things that they need to add, even if you do not. If you don’t have anything extra, just write N/A and leave it blank.)
Once you’re pretty far into the roleplay, and you have your characters almost completely developed to the point where you and everyone else is happy with them (Note: This could take anywhere from two weeks to a year. Take your time.) You should be able to fill out a more complicated form like this -
Name (Full name, obviously. Middle included.)
Birthday/Age/Sign (I usually format this like MM/DD/YYYY (Currently __) {Sign})
Gender
Sexuality (Be pretty technical here. Can range from just "heterosexual" to "biromantic, homosexual & demisexual")
Religion (This can be any number of things, and yes, it is important.)
Eyes; (This is specifically for a extremely detailed description of their eye color, shape, eyelashes, eyebrows, etc.)
Hair; (This is also meant to be detailed. Length, color, style, bangs, everything.)
Face shape (This can be simple or detailed. If you don’t know face shapes, look them up and decide. You can/should also include different types of noses, lip shape/thickness and cheekbones here.)
Body type (Very important. Leave height out of this one, just focus on muscles, fat, places that are simply lean. Whatever your character may have. It’s not a bad thing to put sizes in here too. I tend to put foot sizes in mine, or chest sizes. It’s better than describing them as vaguely “big” or “small”.)
Skin tone (Skin tone is something in itself. You can say dark, light, caramel, anything that gives a good visual. This is also the place to write about freckles and blemishes.)
Height; (Simple enough. Give a height.)
Weight; (I always have to look this one up, but it’s best to give an approximate weight.) (www.freedieting.com/tools/ideal_body_weight.htm here’s a helpful link for that!
)
Style (I usually write about clothing style here. Style reflects their personality a lot.)
Personality (This is where you really need to go in-depth. Write about what makes your character tick here.)
Interests (Some characters or people don’t really like anything and that sucks. So if they’re interested in anything, list it here.)
Fears (What are they afraid of? Everyone is afraid of something, even if they don’t admit it. There’s always the cliche “Losing the people they love” which is a legitimate fear, don’t get me wrong. But it could also be something as ridiculous as spoons. Phobias are fun to play around with.)
Family life (Even if they didn’t have much of one, talk about their family. I don’t care if they’re orphans, they still had a life and an experience there. Say they’re married with kids? Talk about their childhood family as well as their current family.)
Relationship status (Just, who they’re in a relationship with, if anyone. Maybe just write their best friend here. Or “Single”. Of course, it can get a lot more complicated.)
FC; (FC stands for face cast. This is an actor, model, musician, etc. that resembles your character. Make sure that you choose someone with a name, that you and others can look up again easily. Don’t just type in “Boy with brown and and green eyes”, try to find an actor. And don’t worry if they don’t have the same exact hair color, or the same eye color. As long as their face is the same and their hairstyle is at least somewhat decent, they work. Use your imagination.)
Overall, I don’t have much advice for character personalities. They vary so much, just like ours. Make sure that they’re unique enough. Try to avoid blatant cliches (Extremely shy person with long hair covering their eyes *Guilty*, jock despicable person person *Guilty*, punk person that doesn't care *guilty*, extremely random “crazy” girl that might try to kill someone. Yikes.) but overall do what makes you happy. And please don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone! Whether this means RPing someone who’s the polar opposite of you, or just a guy maybe- Do it. Trust me, you’ll be glad that you did.
Something else that’s important about personalities is remaining consistent. There can be a lot of different factors to a personality- And sometimes those change in certain situations. However if you have an despicable person character who wants to get the girl- He isn’t going to become the sweetest person ever on the spot. He may act that way- But huge personality changes like that take time. Lots of time.
My personal biggest problem with personality changes is when someone has a shy character. {Which, in my opinion is a no-no in the first place, seeing as they’re really hard to roleplay with because A. they never make any decisions and B. they’re always by themselves and expecting other people to approach them first.}. Anyway, I see this most with shy male characters. They stammer, they stutter, they blush when someone touches their hand and they go completely red when someone kisses their cheek. {Not making this up} But as soon as things get heated, the shyness melts away. Don’t get me wrong, I know adrenaline in a thing. But when your character gets incredibly un-shy just in time for sexy-times- No. (You can’t go from awkward virgin who can’t even look at boobs in a biology textbook to the Dean Winchester of Sex Gods). That’s not how it works. Even if your character is down to do that, the shyness is still going to be there. They aren’t going to be fiercely pinning anyone against the dining room table anytime soon. (And seriously, who the hell does that?)
That got a little saucy. Anyway, try to stay consistent with your character’s actions. Honestly, I don’t think much when I post. It’s not like “Hur-dur-dur lemme reply and make a drama”. No. It’s just that when I roleplay my characters, their personalities come really naturally to me. Something that I’ve been thinking about recently is “How would my different characters reply to this one, simple sentence?”
Scenario example - Character A invites character B {Your character} to a small party that’s a 30 minute drive away. Character B doesn’t know many people there. Example reactions -
“I really don’t want to go.”
“Nah- I don’t really want to go.”
“Do I have to go?”
“I’ll go, but only if you stay with me.”
“Yeah, cool, I’d love to go.”
“Will there be boys?”
“Will there be girls?”
“Maybe- What do I get out of it?”
“Hell yeah! Lemme get ready.”
“Hell yeah! You ready now? Let’s go!”
“Who shall I kill, master?”
Those are all different examples of how a character may react. They all pertain to different personalities, moods, and preferences. If you have an extremely shy character, they’re obviously not going to be saying my last example there. But if they’re in a good mood, they might say the fifth one. Same thing with a people-person. They’re probably not going to be saying the first one, but if they’re in a bad mood- They might say the third. So sure, responses and reactions depend on mood at the time. But an introvert in a good mood is probably going to be different than an extrovert in a good mood. Same with bad moods.
While all introverts and extroverts vary, just know that most of the time, an introvert will want to be left alone if they’re upset, or at least at home with a very close person. Most will not want to go out to be cheered up, or go do something fun where there are other people. Likewise, most examples of extroverts are the opposite. But really, do whatever you want with your character, since all people are different.
So this is why you have to decide how your different characters would handle things. Anything from “How do they react to stubbing their toe?” to “How would they react if their significant other died right now?”. A person with anger issues would act differently than a person who’s really chill and calm about things.
There are some stereotypical personalities but the worst one is punk. Like seriously have your punk OCs all you want but punks don’t only wear red and black they wear a bunch of stuff and they’re actually pretty chill people that don’t really care like they don’t have those terrible tempers that I always see characters with. Punks just don’t care and they also wear like green and blue dude give your punks some colors other than red and black.
While this list is ridiculously long, these are just basic pointers of how general RPing works and what I have learned personally in my years of experience. Note that you can do whatever the hell you want, really, because I don’t know what type of RP you’re doing, and also in a more real way, I won't know so I don't really care that much. This is more general awareness of the “don’ts” of RPing, and we hope you enjoyed! I hope that you learned something.
Intro: Hello, my name is Maya, I'm 21, and I have been roleplaying for about a decade with some gaps. Before I found RP Nation, I used to roleplay on another forum for years, and even have a few finished roleplays on it. I want to relay some information that has really helped me become a better role-player, but also writer and overall human-being when creating characters and OCs from scratch.
I feel we often have to encounter people who roleplay to write--or be--a perfect character with a perfect appearance, godly powers, and faultless personality. But this makes our writing unrealistic, more egotistical, and overall, doesn't teach us much about ourselves or others.
This is mainly a dos & don’ts, but there probably won’t be many ‘dos’ because I complain more than I compliment.
But seriously this is just a list of things that annoy me and other friends that share the same views. Like you actually DO NOT HAVE TO follow this at all, because you can do anything you want with an RP. These are just our pointers--And we are extremely pretentious when it comes to RPing. Follow your dreams and do what makes you happy, so long as you’re not hurting anyone. We’re just complaining and ranting here.
1: Forgive us if we start sounding like broken records
2: We learned from our mistakes. We have made most of the mistakes here before and we’re always on-our-toes to make ourselves better. Heed our advice and do the same.
Contents:
Appearance (Euro-centric beauty standards, Cultural Appropriation/japanophilia, etc.)
Backstory (Romanticizing Not-Okay things)
Personality (Realistic faults, realistic strengths)
***In the first post in this thread after this post I will be going over subsections such as:
-White-washing
-Queer characters and harmful stereotypes
-Gender diversity and the topic of “genderbending”
-Body diversity
-Book based character stereotypes (Hogwarts will be used for reference)
-Drama-based characters and people’s feelings
Appearance: I know we all love having beautiful characters. But think about it--is everyone around you deemed beautiful by the euro-centric society we live in? Not so much. If you can believe, fans of books like The Hunger Games when I was in my preteens were enraged about the fact they casted Rue to be a black girl, EVEN THOUGH she was literally described as one in the books (Look it up, I dare you.)! Many people, often white, are so used to imagining a whole fantasy world where all the "good" characters are white or have only Eurocentric features that it makes them feel uncomfortable when there is diversity. Don't be like this. Sure, make your characters appearances pleasant. But they don’t all need to be that societal "drop-dead-gorgeous", because you don’t see a person and literally drop dead because ‘dayum’, ok? Also, I am a bit tired of seeing people only think that pale skinned, bright eyed (blue, purple green what have you), slender, long flowing haired girl are the epitome of beauty. They are not. They are just the Eurocentric white epitome of beauty, don't fall for it being the only beautiful traits.
Let me just say - Sparkling emerald eyes *Very first RP character*, ice blue eyes *guilty*, purple eyes, *Also guilty, hell they were siblings*, are all really rare. (Like Jesus Christ guys brown eyes are a thing, y’know? Your character isn’t any less special if they have brown eyes.) So if you want your character to have an uncommon eye color, take a step back and wonder why. This ties into heritage too. I am half Japanese and half Indian (and will get into the japanophilia in the role-play community in a minute, but) I have sh*t brown eyes. I am sorry I do, and I love them. They are what most people in the WORLD got. They shine golden brown in the sun.
And magic. Magic is great for appearances. Have a werewolf character with one blue and one brown eye? *Guilty*Makes sense. (Just don’t do the whole “Everyone hates me because of my eyes because they’re different” thing when in fact the other characters have no problem with it. If the other characters do have a problem with it, go for it.) Anyway, you can go crazy with magical appearances as long as it makes sense. And won’t get your character killed. Like if you’re going to have a medieval witch with bright purple hair, she gon’ get burned. Just saying. *Burn baby, burn...*
Of course I’m not saying that your characters can’t be beautiful. Just think of the non-typically-beautiful adorable lil’ butts. *Heh. Little butts*
Back to my point two paragraphs ago. Think about where your character is from. Where their parents are from. Where their great-great-great grandparents are from. This affects eye color, skin color, height, hair color, everything.
You don’t need to over-glorify your characters. If they are beautiful, good for them! They don’t need to change a thing. If they’re not conventionally beautiful, then I’m sure that they’re adorable as frick. Maybe you made a character who you would describe as ugly? Well they’re beautiful to someone. Just like people in real life. You don’t have to be “perfect” to be beautiful.
Back to specifically eye color. Even more specifically, purple eyes. The purple eyes mutation {Alexandria Genesis} DOES NOT EXIST. It was made up specifically for a fictional story, and people jumped on it.
I could dip into cliches here as well (*AHEM*, black hair, ice blue eyes) but honestly cliche people exist sometimes. Just they don’t exist everywhere.
On the note of similar characters, if two people in a roleplay create characters that are really similar in some way- Maybe they look the same, have the same/similar name, etc. - Don’t be afraid to say something about it. I know sometimes in my experience, people make characters so similar to mine it’s like they don’t even read my forms before they make their characters. Read people’s character forms or talk about it before you make your own. If you have to tweak your character a bit, too bad. If someone has something unique to their characters- Don’t do the same thing. At least make sure it’s okay with the person who put their idea out there first. Because despite how many months you've had the character, someone else may have posted in the roleplay thread before you. Sorry, bad experiences.
BODY TYPES!
First off body types are really important when describing a character. Just as important as describing their hair length and color. And you can’t just say ‘tall’ or ‘short’. It’s really not that hard to come up with an actual height. Here’s a hint to keep in mind -
Average height for girls in the US is 5’4.
Average heights for guys in the US is 5’10.
Keep in mind to mix your character’s body types around. Not every girl is a size 6 with a flat tummy and boobs that’d make Dolly Parton envious, and not every guy has the shoulder-waist ratio of a Dorito like Captain America.
Here’s the thing- ALL BODIES ARE BEAUTIFUL *CONFETTI*
Skinny and lanky with no curves? Gorgeous! Pudgy arms, a squishy tummy, and short legs? BEAUTIFUL AS WELL! The body of Kate Upton or Channing Tatum? You go, bro! Boys don’t need to have six packs and broad shoulders and girls don’t need huge fun-bags to be awesome (as well as everyone in between), but there’s no shame in having a character with these said features so long as it’s not your stick-to formula. No character is lesser for having a A cup chest or D cup chest, or being short or tall, or having abs or not.
Let’s follow this up by talking about vocabulary. Watch out for your oxymorons when you describe characters. It’s literally impossible for a girl to be curvy and lean because when talking about body types, those two words are opposite.Not sure what a word means? Want a more accurate description? Google is a thing. As are multiple dictionary/thesaurus sites. (And actual dictionaries.)
Be realistic with it! It’s not practical to give your lazy boy character who only sits around playing video games rippling pectorals, or a girl who is only 13 with ridiculous curves. (Seriously, can we stop sexualizing different types of lumps and bumps in different areas? Sheesh) It’s really annoying when people have characters that are always trying to blatantly fit society’s standards of being “hot.” Sure it’s ok to have a stereo-typically hot person, but remember that everyone’s views of beauty are different, and people aren’t cut from cookie-cutters. On the other side of that coin, don’t make your character so stunningly plain that they’re always complaining that there’s “Nothing special” about them. They can have "plain" looks, but keep in mind that they’re probably beautiful anyway.
Having brown hair and brown eyes doesn't make someone plain.
Let’s just talk about races! No, not like the olympic kind. I mean the fact people look different. TTM and I personally see a lot of RPs where every single character is white (given if it’s a location or time period where this is untypical), *In all honesty, some of us have been guilty ofonly-white characters for a really long time. But we’ve stopped that BS and tried to diversify, and learning from mistakes is what counts folks* *We learn from our mistakes and try to better educate because seriously the entire world is not one whole race*
Now think about how friggen diverse this planet is. A lot of people try to make their characters different from other’s looks by giving them purple eyes or naturally bright red hair, but really, can we consider racial diversity before we go ahead and give them some ‘supposedly natural’ unnatural feature? Maybe a short girl who likes wearing elephant hair pins from Sri Lanka *What does that even mean*, or a person of Spanish descent who enjoys skiing. *I don’t know what skiing has to do with appearances but yeah, you go* Try to make your own personal characters diverse.
Let me say - I understand if it feels weird at first roleplaying someone who isn't from your own culture. {Even more so when all of the rest of the characters are one race.} Especially if it’s something different than someone who was, say, born and raised where you live. If you roleplay a boy who comes from Hawaii and follows Hawaiian customs- Learn about those customs.
I often see people using face claims that are Japanese art styles and that's amazing, but what about the ethnicity and culture of that person you are face-claiming or drawing? Are they Japanese, or are they of white/European descent like you? Race isn’t always just skin tone - it’s culture. If you have a culture different from your own make sure that you learn about it. It is in no way offensive to write accurately about a different culture. JUST LEARN ABOUT IT WITHOUT PRETENDING TO BE SOMEONE YOU ARE NOT!
Backstory:
Let’s talk about family life, shall we?
Holy Drama Queens, Batman. *Holy hypocrite Batman* If you have a simple highschool RP going, you do not kill off parents casually. *Holy hypocrite Batman intensifies* *Sidenote it happened once and I have learned from my mistake* Yes it does happen of course, but at least make parent-deaths realistic. I cannot say how lazy saying a or the parent/s died in a car accident, because this is the most cliche of the cliches, even if it sadly does happen. *I speak from experience* If a mother or father has passed or is gone from their life, a more realistic approach is either sickness or abandonment, just please, be kind to your OC’s, and don’t kill off all of their parents if the setting is modern times and there is no explanation for it. This is not an anime. (Even more so if they are then just living on their own with no support.) They WILL have money problems. Like, be realistic about it, the world that we often role-play in is a nasty capitalistic one that doesn't care about kids with no parents (look of foster care statistics in the United States alone).
Now let’s talk about siblings! People can have anywhere from none to too many. *It varies a lot, really. This is why deciding a parent’s personality is also really important.* And not all siblings are little angels, or really freaking annoying little-*UNBELIEVABLY CENSORED*
Also, consider age gaps. It’s pretty unrealistic if all your 26 year old character’s biological siblings are only 3. Not to mention siblings can actually be pretty funny little side people in your RP to liven it up, so try to give them a bit of a personality, and a name. *Always a name* Not to mention you should probably decide whether or not your character is going to have siblings when you make them, not 120 pages into the roleplay. *And don’t change it.*
Unhappy childhoods are a thing. So are happy ones. You need to think about this and why. So much stuff for everything is dependant on why. If their parents were teen parents {No support from family}, then odds are your character is going to have a terrible childhood. Maybe not, but there needs to be a reason why they did or didn’t have a bad childhood. This is speaking on the simplest terms of how they were raised - Nothing extremely dramatic.
Are they poor? Are they rich? Where do their parents work - Because I can assure you if their parents are both teachers and they have three kids, they aren’t going to be extremely well-off. You need to consider this. Also consider how your character gets money. Do their parents give it to them? How much of an allowance do they get, if so? Do they have a job? If they have a job, what is it, and when do they work? Nothing is worse than saying that your character works at the bowling alley, but never having them actually go work there, just so they can have play-time with the other characters instead. Keep jobs realistic. Again, google is a beautiful thing. If your character works five days a week, but then goes on four dates around the time they’re supposed to be working - Well, not only are they not getting the money that you say they’re getting, but they are probably out of a job. *Guilty*
You have to think a lot about family life and how it affects people. The same set of parents might have two completely different effects on two different characters, because they’re different people.
DRAMATIC BACKSTORIES AND HOW YOUR CHARACTER IS AFFECTED! Depending on the setting, your characters may vary a lot depending on their dramatic backstories. Let’s set the example that they’ve had an abusive parent/guardian, significant other, or something else affect their life. *AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD PEOPLE ROMANTICIZE AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP. EVER. NO. MATTER. WHAT. I WILL TURN INTO A DRAGON AND SET YOU ON FIRE.*
Your character may be really traumatized and they get panic attacks, or are clinically depressed. *Again, no romanticizing allowed unless you wanna deal with an angry dragon* However, keep in mind that real people go through this, and there for is a shady, uncomfortable topic for a lot of people. If you DO have a character with said illness, note that this is a DETAIL of your character, and it is NOT THEIR ENTIRE PERSONALITY. They were someone before their tragedy, and the tragedy does NOT DEFINE THEM AS A PERSON.
Also, Teen Pregnancy- If you choose to RP this, I won’t judge you, but do remember that for a teen mom in an RP- It’s game over. She can’t stick her kid with her mom for hours on end to go party or hang out with friends, no, that’s irresponsible parenting and also when I will judge you. Unless you’re trying to make her look like a bad person. Don’t forget that you character probably does not have unlimited money and that kids are so expensive. REALLY THINK ABOUT how a child may affect someone who is still in highschool, with no job, and also think about how the father of said child may be affected as well.
Don't just add in an unwanted pregnancy {Teen or not} for shock/drama value.
Also consider, would your person really get pregnant? Condoms rarely rip in the way that would deeply affect a semi fertile 15-18 year old who is not at the peak of fertility of their life. Other methods of birth control are basically handed out at a lot of teen cliniques and they’re really not hard to find. The odds of getting pregnant from a first time is basically 0/100. SCIENCE.
Another subject that makes me personally really uncomfortable, but certainly needs to be addressed is self harm- Yes, it happens, yes, it’s unfortunately common. But you do not need to RP any sort of act of self harm. Those you may be RPing with can be very uncomfortable with said action and you need to respect others. Please don’t make a display out of self-harm. I cannot stress these points enough, because you really need to be sensitive of all suffering in any way. RPing is supposed to be FUN, and when you add said topics to your character. Please do try to understand that others use this site as a fun distraction from said issues of stress. *Those people would be us* Any sort of blatant exploitation of mental illness, rape-culture, abuse, self harm, or even body-image issues will not be tolerated by me personally, and I will come to your house and duck-tape you to a chair to make you watch a constant loop of the entire Transformers movie series. With Shia Lebouf. *Such bad movies are not worth it*
If you’re going through self harm or other mental illness yourself, and need a way to channel it, RPing the topic isn’t the best way. There are multiple sites where you can talk to real live people to ventilate your problems; Here’s one - blahtherapy.com/
Some people get really uncomfortable if a character is unnecessarily and easily agitated, sad, or just down-right relying on others to cheer them up and blanket them through life- because it’s hard to do this. If your character’s mom died about 4 years ago, it’s fine to have them remember her occasionally, but please do not have your character be an emotional wreck constantly because of this one event. Time heals and helps to cope, but this doesn’t mean they can’t be affected.
I’m going to make another short note about the baddies. We all have characters that we dislike as people. Good character, bad person as I like to say. Sometimes they’re just A-holes {Just don’t make them 100% a dick}, but sometimes they can be actually abusive, or worse. Not only do you need clear okays from everyone else, but you should also clarify that you know this isn’t okay. Backstories are explanations, not excuses. A bad childhood might explain why your character is awful, but it doesn’t make it okay. Please be very mindful of your subject matter. Make sure that you’ve made it clear with the other roleplayers what you’re going to do - make sure that they are 100% okay and comfortable with it. Consent is really important in this kind of roleplaying too.
We also have those characters who think making fun of others or being destructive is ‘cool’. Don’t have your character light fires in the school because they think arson is cool, because FIRES ARE DESTRUCTIVE AND COULD KILL LITTLE JOHNNY FROM 6TH PERIOD. *Fires are dangerous, who knew? Please be mindful of what would actually kill your character or those around them*. Also, ‘badass’ characters don’t need to be a-holes or mean to everyone. It does not make them cool. However they may be an important character, and it’s fine to have one as long as people are ok with it, try not to blow it out of proportions. Not to mention that someone with such actions will probably be shunned for being a dick, so don’t complain when no one wants to be around your character.
Make your characters as dick-like {Or ditzy/clueless for that matter} as you want, but don’t be surprised when the other characters don’t want to be round them. Character development is always a thing, maybe there’s a kind-of-redemption available? Ask the other person you’re RPing with if there is. Ask what the breaking point is, where it’s too far to have this character like this other one. If it’s too far, then just stop, maybe make a new character. And remember, even in RPing, no means no. Constantly pursuing someone after they have refused you is not romantic. It’s creepy and it’s r*pe culture. Seriously, stalking people is gross.
Personality:
I’ll start by saying something that doesn't have much to do with personality.
This, I feel, is a good basic form for starting out an RP -
Full name: (The entire name- First, last, middle - It’s all extremely important. At least first and last.)
Age: (Agree on a set age range for the roleplay beforehand)
Gender: (Don’t be afraid to have someone non-binary or transgendered!)
Looks: (Be the most detailed here- Personalities develop, but at the beginning of a roleplay, looks are set in stone. Make sure you include hair color and length/style/what have you. Eye color and maybe shape. Height, and body type. Never, ever just put a link to a picture of someone as your appearances. It’s extremely vague and hardly let’s the other people know about your character’s looks.)
Personality: (Again, decide how you want to do this before the roleplay. You can either be really detailed here from the start, or agree to develop as you go. I know that personalities can be hard to decide right off the bat, but make sure they have one that makes them unique!)
Details that pertain to the roleplay: (Hogwarts house, district in Panem, magic powers. Anything that is specific to your roleplay. Make everything as simple as possible. If you need more than one category for specifics, go right ahead.)
Family life: (This one also pertains to roleplays. If they’re going to be around their family a lot, work it out now. If not, then it’s not as important.)
Other: (Always have an ‘other’ category. Sometimes people might have extra things that they need to add, even if you do not. If you don’t have anything extra, just write N/A and leave it blank.)
Once you’re pretty far into the roleplay, and you have your characters almost completely developed to the point where you and everyone else is happy with them (Note: This could take anywhere from two weeks to a year. Take your time.) You should be able to fill out a more complicated form like this -
Name (Full name, obviously. Middle included.)
Birthday/Age/Sign (I usually format this like MM/DD/YYYY (Currently __) {Sign})
Gender
Sexuality (Be pretty technical here. Can range from just "heterosexual" to "biromantic, homosexual & demisexual")
Religion (This can be any number of things, and yes, it is important.)
Eyes; (This is specifically for a extremely detailed description of their eye color, shape, eyelashes, eyebrows, etc.)
Hair; (This is also meant to be detailed. Length, color, style, bangs, everything.)
Face shape (This can be simple or detailed. If you don’t know face shapes, look them up and decide. You can/should also include different types of noses, lip shape/thickness and cheekbones here.)
Body type (Very important. Leave height out of this one, just focus on muscles, fat, places that are simply lean. Whatever your character may have. It’s not a bad thing to put sizes in here too. I tend to put foot sizes in mine, or chest sizes. It’s better than describing them as vaguely “big” or “small”.)
Skin tone (Skin tone is something in itself. You can say dark, light, caramel, anything that gives a good visual. This is also the place to write about freckles and blemishes.)
Height; (Simple enough. Give a height.)
Weight; (I always have to look this one up, but it’s best to give an approximate weight.) (www.freedieting.com/tools/ideal_body_weight.htm here’s a helpful link for that!
Style (I usually write about clothing style here. Style reflects their personality a lot.)
Personality (This is where you really need to go in-depth. Write about what makes your character tick here.)
Interests (Some characters or people don’t really like anything and that sucks. So if they’re interested in anything, list it here.)
Fears (What are they afraid of? Everyone is afraid of something, even if they don’t admit it. There’s always the cliche “Losing the people they love” which is a legitimate fear, don’t get me wrong. But it could also be something as ridiculous as spoons. Phobias are fun to play around with.)
Family life (Even if they didn’t have much of one, talk about their family. I don’t care if they’re orphans, they still had a life and an experience there. Say they’re married with kids? Talk about their childhood family as well as their current family.)
Relationship status (Just, who they’re in a relationship with, if anyone. Maybe just write their best friend here. Or “Single”. Of course, it can get a lot more complicated.)
FC; (FC stands for face cast. This is an actor, model, musician, etc. that resembles your character. Make sure that you choose someone with a name, that you and others can look up again easily. Don’t just type in “Boy with brown and and green eyes”, try to find an actor. And don’t worry if they don’t have the same exact hair color, or the same eye color. As long as their face is the same and their hairstyle is at least somewhat decent, they work. Use your imagination.)
Overall, I don’t have much advice for character personalities. They vary so much, just like ours. Make sure that they’re unique enough. Try to avoid blatant cliches (Extremely shy person with long hair covering their eyes *Guilty*, jock despicable person person *Guilty*, punk person that doesn't care *guilty*, extremely random “crazy” girl that might try to kill someone. Yikes.) but overall do what makes you happy. And please don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone! Whether this means RPing someone who’s the polar opposite of you, or just a guy maybe- Do it. Trust me, you’ll be glad that you did.
Something else that’s important about personalities is remaining consistent. There can be a lot of different factors to a personality- And sometimes those change in certain situations. However if you have an despicable person character who wants to get the girl- He isn’t going to become the sweetest person ever on the spot. He may act that way- But huge personality changes like that take time. Lots of time.
My personal biggest problem with personality changes is when someone has a shy character. {Which, in my opinion is a no-no in the first place, seeing as they’re really hard to roleplay with because A. they never make any decisions and B. they’re always by themselves and expecting other people to approach them first.}. Anyway, I see this most with shy male characters. They stammer, they stutter, they blush when someone touches their hand and they go completely red when someone kisses their cheek. {Not making this up} But as soon as things get heated, the shyness melts away. Don’t get me wrong, I know adrenaline in a thing. But when your character gets incredibly un-shy just in time for sexy-times- No. (You can’t go from awkward virgin who can’t even look at boobs in a biology textbook to the Dean Winchester of Sex Gods). That’s not how it works. Even if your character is down to do that, the shyness is still going to be there. They aren’t going to be fiercely pinning anyone against the dining room table anytime soon. (And seriously, who the hell does that?)
That got a little saucy. Anyway, try to stay consistent with your character’s actions. Honestly, I don’t think much when I post. It’s not like “Hur-dur-dur lemme reply and make a drama”. No. It’s just that when I roleplay my characters, their personalities come really naturally to me. Something that I’ve been thinking about recently is “How would my different characters reply to this one, simple sentence?”
Scenario example - Character A invites character B {Your character} to a small party that’s a 30 minute drive away. Character B doesn’t know many people there. Example reactions -
“I really don’t want to go.”
“Nah- I don’t really want to go.”
“Do I have to go?”
“I’ll go, but only if you stay with me.”
“Yeah, cool, I’d love to go.”
“Will there be boys?”
“Will there be girls?”
“Maybe- What do I get out of it?”
“Hell yeah! Lemme get ready.”
“Hell yeah! You ready now? Let’s go!”
“Who shall I kill, master?”
Those are all different examples of how a character may react. They all pertain to different personalities, moods, and preferences. If you have an extremely shy character, they’re obviously not going to be saying my last example there. But if they’re in a good mood, they might say the fifth one. Same thing with a people-person. They’re probably not going to be saying the first one, but if they’re in a bad mood- They might say the third. So sure, responses and reactions depend on mood at the time. But an introvert in a good mood is probably going to be different than an extrovert in a good mood. Same with bad moods.
While all introverts and extroverts vary, just know that most of the time, an introvert will want to be left alone if they’re upset, or at least at home with a very close person. Most will not want to go out to be cheered up, or go do something fun where there are other people. Likewise, most examples of extroverts are the opposite. But really, do whatever you want with your character, since all people are different.
So this is why you have to decide how your different characters would handle things. Anything from “How do they react to stubbing their toe?” to “How would they react if their significant other died right now?”. A person with anger issues would act differently than a person who’s really chill and calm about things.
There are some stereotypical personalities but the worst one is punk. Like seriously have your punk OCs all you want but punks don’t only wear red and black they wear a bunch of stuff and they’re actually pretty chill people that don’t really care like they don’t have those terrible tempers that I always see characters with. Punks just don’t care and they also wear like green and blue dude give your punks some colors other than red and black.
While this list is ridiculously long, these are just basic pointers of how general RPing works and what I have learned personally in my years of experience. Note that you can do whatever the hell you want, really, because I don’t know what type of RP you’re doing, and also in a more real way, I won't know so I don't really care that much. This is more general awareness of the “don’ts” of RPing, and we hope you enjoyed! I hope that you learned something.
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