I need your opinions/complaints/suggestions about my character.

[Zafocan]

Hello, I am Zafocan. I've been roleplaying for several years in games, as I progressed I made a lot of characters. And I wanted to tell everyone about my character. I will try to answer questions and listen to you. Please be honest as I need honesty.

Introducing my character, Ronald Volk. He is a man around 6', His age is 44, he has these dark brown eyes and black hair. He is a known detective in a local police department, and has a respect for helping out people. His personality, he is mostly a calm person, he is respectful and tries to find a purpose. Though, he can be angered easily. Especially if loved ones are hurt. He stays away from violence, but is willing to show violent behaviour to agressive people. He served in military for a year in his homeland, since it is required. So he has some sort of military training. Because of his age, he is slower than most people in the department, but can kick someones brains into the next week.

As I said, I am willing to answer any character-related questions, but i'll likely be very inactive here. Hopefully this is not the case. I am not very good at explaining since English is not my native language. Have a good one.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Edit.

So at his age I would focus more on his skills as a detective. He presumably has a lot of experience (both from military and his years on the police force).

So he is going to have a lot of problem solving abilities. He will enjoy figuring out puzzles and working out mysteries.

I might mention that he solves low risk puzzles in his free time OR maybe has a problem being overly nosy about civilian stuff.

I would also say he is “protective” but not over emphasis his capacity to violence. As it makes the character seem very young and inexperienced.

 

[Zafocan]

Edit.

So at his age I would focus more on his skills as a detective. He presumably has a lot of experience (both from military and his years on the police force).

So he is going to have a lot of problem solving abilities. He will enjoy figuring out puzzles and working out mysteries.

I might mention that he solves low risk puzzles in his free time OR maybe has a problem being overly nosy about civilian stuff.

I would also say he is “protective” but not over emphasis his capacity to violence. As it makes the character seem very young and inexperienced.

Well, I can think about the detective skills, it makes sense since he is old and reasonable enough to think about this. He wouldn't go beat up someone to death only because they called someone else stupid, he would only attack if physical force is applied on him or someone, and yes, he can tell what is agressive behaviour or not. I forgot to mention that he is a married man, and has three children, explains his protectivity.

 

[nerdy tangents]

So before I go further how realistic do you want this character?

Do you want them to be like a TV cop/military man or a real life cop/military man? Do you want him to be a good guy, a bad guy, or somewhere in between?

I would say at the very least personality wise I would steer clear of mentioning violence at all. It makes the character sound immature OR contradictory.

Instead I would say something to the effect of :

“Ronald is a veteran detective with the (City) police force. He loves solving puzzles and bringing tricky cases to a satisfying conclusion. He is the old dog of the station and sometimes gets mocked for his slower pace and methodical nature. But he didn’t get to his position by using his fists or his gun to solve his problems. He is fiercely protective of his city and his family and knows the best way to keep them safe is to use his brains not his brawn. “

If you absolutely need to show he is willing to be physical you can change it to this.

“Ronald is a veteran detective with the (City) police force. He loves solving puzzles and bringing tricky cases to a satisfying conclusion. He is the old dog of the station and sometimes gets mocked for his slower pace and methodical nature. But he didn’t get to his position by using his fists or his gun to solve his problems. He prefers to use his brains in a tight situation, but if the need arises he can tackle an opponent with the best of them. “

 

[Crayons]

Good suggestions by Nerdy. I would add a couple of points:

1) 44 is not that old for a detective. Also there are plenty of super fit folks in their 40s so if he's slow that may be because of the donuts rather than age.
2) Saying someone is calm but easily angered is a contradiction. Also I think someone hurting his family is a good reason to be angered and most people would be, therefore I don't really see this as saying anything about his character that you couldn't apply to 90% of people. Easily angered would be if he gets mad someone ate the last chocolate donut.

I think overall it sounds like a decent character!

 

[Idea]

Here's some prompts of things you could talk about:
-His story (what are his accomplishments, how did he get to where he is today, what was his childhood like, etc...)
-His personal goals (what drives him, what are his personal goals in life? These things play a big role in not only making a character more compelling, but also in giving you as a player direction when you play them. A lack of motivation will make you dependent on an external source to get your character to move)
-His skills (its a good idea to concretely define exactly what he is or isn't good at. This way you can showcase what kind of competence you want to have, and what room for your partner's spotlight you want to give)

For some criticism:
The character as it stands has no personality flaws. You should add some.