Experiences Struggles with Personalities with Characters

[NotinthisUniverse]

Through my roleplaying journey, I've always found myself struggling with portraying and getting into the mindset of that character. I'm not very consistent with the traits, I either change them midway or I just completely turn into a different direction and it just flops. Or I get lucky and figure out their personality, then when it comes time to play it doesn't really portray what I wrote. Is there anyway I can fix this? Any advice would be helpful, thank you.

 

[Bone2pick]

N NotinthisUniverse How much do you consider and develop their backgrounds?

 

[rae2nerdy]

I have found basing my characters off real people to be helpful in getting them consistent. Note when I say real people I mean like family members or co-workers. People whose personalities and quirks I'm familiar with.

Then I just change bits about that person to fit the story I want to tell and voila.

Ex. I might make one character like my middle sister. Who is kind of pragmatic while at the same time slightly insecure. I would take those traits and put them in a character for the story.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

My advice is to not make the traits for the character, but make them from the character.

Instead of going about it like a jigsaw puzzle, in parts, picture a full concept first. What kind of people are they? How would they react to that and that situation? How is their life like? How is their family like?

The more you see your character as an actual person, as a whole, the easier it will be to portray them accurately. By the time you look for traits to describe they will already be engraved into your character's self, it will be part of them, who they are.

Start from a simple idea such as a trope or an archetype you want to use and just go bonkers from there!
And don't be ashamed to use the CS as a guideline for the first few posts, that thing exists to be consulted, so use it whenever you feel like you're running away from the concept and need a memory refresh. Eventually, you're going to be comfortable without it.

Just remember to always make yourself the question "If my character is this type of person, who has had this kind of life, and is in this situation, what would they do?"

Sounds complex, but when you have a planned concept, it's a lot more easier than it looks like.

 

[NotinthisUniverse]

Thanks, I've now started to base some characters off friends or family taking traits and working with them. I don't really plan things it sorta just happens, so I think planning and actually mapping things out will probabaly help me alot more then putting random traits and calling it a character.

 

[Strawberry]

I agree with Necessity4Fun and how she suggested using a character sheet. For the longest time, I roleplayed with just a basic idea of what I wanted my character to be like. Whether it was a brief explanation of them when planning it out with my partner, or if I had a small description of them, that worked out from time to time.

Lately, I've been creating character sheets for my characters. For example, when I'm trying to come up with their personality, I put down some traits in a short list and go back to elaborate on it later. Recently, one of my amazing roleplaying partners, K Elizabeth told me she puts a somewhat equal amount of good and bad traits for her characters. I think it's a good reminder that my character can't be some amazing god or some useless damsel in distress. Well, they can, but it might not be as much fun unless they have other traits that give them something to grow and develop into a well rounded character.

Besides that, I work on a history/backstory/bio for them too, so I can understand what makes them who they are, why they do and say the things they do, etc. I work back and forth between their personality and their history to make sure nothing clashes with each other. Thinking about things like "Okay, because his parents are like this, I think he would react like this in front of his friends... so... he'd probably have a personality like this." or for a more specific example, "Hmm, well if I want her to be dependent, then maybe she's hesitant and whiny. Maybe she'll avoid working because no one's there to help/teach her and refuses to do it on her own because every time she did something by herself, it only ended in mistakes she couldn't fix." In turn that makes me think, "Then something big had to have happened in her past that made her feel like she can't do anything on her own," further strengthening my reasoning why her personality should be the way it is.

It's a lot of work, but I think it's honestly worth it because it's serves as a good reference to look back on when I'm stuck writing a reply.

Of course, it doesn't have to be as elaborate as that. You can go simple and do bullet point style and say
For his personality, he'll be:
-Lazy
-Caring
-Smart
-Lonely

and you can be satisfied with using that as your reference when you're making new replies.

I think there are times where you do understand your character very well and it still doesn't end up going the way you intended when you start writing posts, especially if it's a new type of character you've never really written before. I think continuing the roleplay, even if their traits seem off in the beginning, is a way to understand your writing and your character better.

Another way to help you get into the mindset of your character if you're struggling with the character sheet or if you don't want to make one, is to make a playlist of songs that you think would suit the character and the mood/setting of the RP. I know some other roleplayers do that, and I think listening to music that you associate your character with is a good way to get into the right writing mood for them.

Anyway, I hope I was helpful even though I rambled. Good luck!

 

[NotinthisUniverse]

This

I agree with Necessity4Fun and how she suggested using a character sheet. For the longest time, I roleplayed with just a basic idea of what I wanted my character to be like. Whether it was a brief explanation of them when planning it out with my partner, or if I had a small description of them, that worked out from time to time.

Lately, I've been creating character sheets for my characters. For example, when I'm trying to come up with their personality, I put down some traits in a short list and go back to elaborate on it later. Recently, one of my amazing roleplaying partners, K Elizabeth told me she puts a somewhat equal amount of good and bad traits for her characters. I think it's a good reminder that my character can't be some amazing god or some useless damsel in distress. Well, they can, but it might not be as much fun unless they have other traits that give them something to grow and develop into a well rounded character.

Besides that, I work on a history/backstory/bio for them too, so I can understand what makes them who they are, why they do and say the things they do, etc. I work back and forth between their personality and their history to make sure nothing clashes with each other. Thinking about things like "Okay, because his parents are like this, I think he would react like this in front of his friends... so... he'd probably have a personality like this." or for a more specific example, "Hmm, well if I want her to be dependent, then maybe she's hesitant and whiny. Maybe she'll avoid working because no one's there to help/teach her and refuses to do it on her own because every time she did something by herself, it only ended in mistakes she couldn't fix." In turn that makes me think, "Then something big had to have happened in her past that made her feel like she can't do anything on her own," further strengthening my reasoning why her personality should be the way it is.

It's a lot of work, but I think it's honestly worth it because it's serves as a good reference to look back on when I'm stuck writing a reply.

Of course, it doesn't have to be as elaborate as that. You can go simple and do bullet point style and say
For his personality, he'll be:
-Lazy
-Caring
-Smart
-Lonely

and you can be satisfied with using that as your reference when you're making new replies.

I think there are times where you do understand your character very well and it still doesn't end up going the way you intended when you start writing posts, especially if it's a new type of character you've never really written before. I think continuing the roleplay, even if their traits seem off in the beginning, is a way to understand your writing and your character better.

Another way to help you get into the mindset of your character if you're struggling with the character sheet or if you don't want to make one, is to make a playlist of songs that you think would suit the character and the mood/setting of the RP. I know some other roleplayers do that, and I think listening to music that you associate your character with is a good way to get into the right writing mood for them.

Anyway, I hope I was helpful even though I rambled. Good luck!

This was perfect, just what I needed to kick myself into gear. Also I never thought of music, being a music junkie myself I never thought it could be used for character us so thank you for that.

 

[Saccharine Cyanide]

Oh, I actually know of a great way to develop a character's personality.

Character questionairre!

My other advice is: Don't worry too much about your character changing from how you first imagined them. It's just the natural process of writing and revising.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

I agree with Necessity4Fun and how she suggested using a character sheet. For the longest time, I roleplayed with just a basic idea of what I wanted my character to be like. Whether it was a brief explanation of them when planning it out with my partner, or if I had a small description of them, that worked out from time to time.

Lately, I've been creating character sheets for my characters. For example, when I'm trying to come up with their personality, I put down some traits in a short list and go back to elaborate on it later. Recently, one of my amazing roleplaying partners, K Elizabeth told me she puts a somewhat equal amount of good and bad traits for her characters. I think it's a good reminder that my character can't be some amazing god or some useless damsel in distress. Well, they can, but it might not be as much fun unless they have other traits that give them something to grow and develop into a well rounded character.

Besides that, I work on a history/backstory/bio for them too, so I can understand what makes them who they are, why they do and say the things they do, etc. I work back and forth between their personality and their history to make sure nothing clashes with each other. Thinking about things like "Okay, because his parents are like this, I think he would react like this in front of his friends... so... he'd probably have a personality like this." or for a more specific example, "Hmm, well if I want her to be dependent, then maybe she's hesitant and whiny. Maybe she'll avoid working because no one's there to help/teach her and refuses to do it on her own because every time she did something by herself, it only ended in mistakes she couldn't fix." In turn that makes me think, "Then something big had to have happened in her past that made her feel like she can't do anything on her own," further strengthening my reasoning why her personality should be the way it is.

It's a lot of work, but I think it's honestly worth it because it's serves as a good reference to look back on when I'm stuck writing a reply.

Of course, it doesn't have to be as elaborate as that. You can go simple and do bullet point style and say
For his personality, he'll be:
-Lazy
-Caring
-Smart
-Lonely

and you can be satisfied with using that as your reference when you're making new replies.

I think there are times where you do understand your character very well and it still doesn't end up going the way you intended when you start writing posts, especially if it's a new type of character you've never really written before. I think continuing the roleplay, even if their traits seem off in the beginning, is a way to understand your writing and your character better.

Another way to help you get into the mindset of your character if you're struggling with the character sheet or if you don't want to make one, is to make a playlist of songs that you think would suit the character and the mood/setting of the RP. I know some other roleplayers do that, and I think listening to music that you associate your character with is a good way to get into the right writing mood for them.

Anyway, I hope I was helpful even though I rambled. Good luck!

I am amazed!!
That's kinda what I was trying to say (except for the music part, totally didn't touch that subject), but oh my god! You worded it so perfectly, like I could never have??
10/10 freaking well done, I applaud standing!

Holy moly that was beautiful and I just needed to show my appreciation for it +O+

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Oh, other thing! Character Development.
You can't expect them to be stagnated forever with the same base traits you've set up for them in the start, because people change based in the experiences they have.

Traits have a maleability depending in the variables of a situation presented (someone they know are in danger and they're the only one that can help, for example) and these responses can sometimes make them re-think what they had been doing before! So if eventually one or other trait stop to 'click' fully with your character, this could be why.

Won't be a day to night change, but if things work out once they could be feeling more confident and try to be a little more assertive next time, for example. On the other hand, if they fail too much they could start piching less and less ideas because they feel discouraged.

And that's okay, characters can have they own growth arcs too. It's part of the fun >w<

 

[Caroline1539]

I noticed that no one really mentioned it, but I personally use the mbti/Myers Briggs type indicator to work out characters once they're in the later stages of development. ^^ The online tests aren't the most accurate thing in the world but if you dig into what's known as the "functions" of the type your character settles on, you can often times get a better and more grounded sense of how they perceive everything/themselves as well as how they process the information they gather.

It's a little bit time consuming but I find it to be a very useful and accurate tool. ^^

 

[Necessity4Fun]

I noticed that no one really mentioned it, but I personally use the mbti/Myers Briggs type indicator to work out characters once they're in the later stages of development. ^^ The online tests aren't the most accurate thing in the world but if you dig into what's known as the "functions" of the type your character settles on, you can often times get a better and more grounded sense of how they perceive everything/themselves as well as how they process the information they gather.

It's a little bit time consuming but I find it to be a very useful and accurate tool. ^^

That's really interesting! I read some of that to fill up the question about it on Charahub to my, uhhh, I'll call them 'main four', but I hadn't really thought of using it beyond that, really : O

 

[Kylesar1]

I rarely ever follow the personality I put on my CS unless I plan from the beginning for them to be that personality. Why? I find it..........less...........creative or realistic to put it all down then just stick to it. In fact, I'm take Personality out of most of my Character Sheets when I GM.

Emotions can change pretty dynamically at times and time doesn't pass by fast in most RP settings. A day in an RP can go for hundreds of posts, yet the emotions in a character can change plenty of times in the RP. An emotion change in an RP can last a pretty good amount of time, which can mess with people's perception of how they view their character's personalities. An uncharacteristic action or interaction in a character can spark a bit of thought about a character's overall personality. It's sort of like how you get mad and tell someone off, then you start wondering if you're an asshole overall. Or you do something nice for someone and you think of yourself as nice overall.

Sometimes, I find that the personality doesn't...........match the character I make. As if something changes between what I envision a character doing and how I feel when I make that first post with a character. It's 2 different ballparks, I guess. When I find that a personality "works," I nail it hard from then on.

 

[AlbaGuBrath]

I don't know if this would be to everyone's liking, but I can share the process I go through. Maybe it can help a bit.

Something that I find to be helpful is to build a kind of 'skeleton' to start with, then allow other things to be the 'flesh'. (Eww, now that I say it out loud, it sounds a little icky.) But what I mean is, I'll first choose some sort of basis for a character. Some people have mentioned their friends/family, a particular song, etc; I like to choose a concept I want to explore. So, to use one of my current characters as an example, it might be excessive pride and fear of ageing, which I've built into the greying chief of a warrior culture.

So then, with that concept in mind, I begin thinking of traits that are likely to stem from the concept in mind (example - Pride) and those that I think will make an interesting dynamic or be influenced by background (examples - familial loyalty (cultural background) and curiosity (a personal trait, but at odds with stubbornness and dislike of strangers)). Often, I'll then think about how these traits developed, how they manifest themselves, and how the character/others think of that trait. This helps a lot for keeping responses and self-talk consistent, not to mention giving plenty of fodder to work from.
As someone mentioned before, having a balance of good and bad is important, so I find it useful to limit myself to three major good traits, three bad, and three neutral for the 'skeleton'. Everything else can be developed or added in, but those nine traits and concept are at the core of the character, so that's likely what they will fall back in times of stress or what will fuel their strongest convictions.

This makes it easier for me to write because I only have a few major elements to keep in mind, but they give direction for the character's actions while I can figure out smaller details. Also, with the process of working through a concept in this way, I find that it's easier to see how the personality, background, and beliefs fit in together. Everything else can just be extra, so changing from them isn't really a big deal.

Finally, though some may disagree with me, I find that the characters I personally enjoyed the most and feel the most comfortable writing with are the ones I've used in many different rps over the years, not the ones I created specifically for the story I'm about to start. Sometimes that does work well (after all, all characters start from sonewhere), but I find that the ones that have the most writing behind them are my favorites. By putting them in multiple situations with varying characters, conflicts, and obstacles, you can learn more about how they act in many settings. Even if those experiences aren't 'canon' in your next story, having them in mind may help inform how they act in a similar situation or add small quirks or details to be added later (example- because of an embarrassing word-play contest with a demon in this story, this character hates riddles in the next). This can be done alone with just a short story featuring your character or built over multiple rps (including the 'failed' ones, because you can still learn from them, which makes them a success). It sounds cheesy, but really, I do think that practice with a character is the best way to develop them and keep them consistent.

Anyway, I don't know whether that will be helpful or not, but I hope it was useful! If not, just ignore all my rambling just now, haha! (x

 

[Jules8008]

I actually try to avoid writing down my characters traits/personality. Why?

A. I usually don't stick to it
B. Their traits are usually a secret and are prone to changes
C. I really hate deciding on their traits. It usually gets decided mid-roleplay.

But most of my characters traits are based on tropes, funnily.