Advice/Help Would you enjoy using pinboards in place of descriptions in a character profile?

[AnnJam]

I'm curious as a roleplayer I often use pinterest to create pinboards as a visual aid in describing and developing my characters. I create wardrobes, facelcaims, weapon lockers, location details all for visual purposes. I wanted to ask if you were required to create a pinboard in place of writing a bunch of descriptions for a profile would you do it?

As a note I don't need anyone to tell me that "it all depends on the person" or "depends on the roleplays plot and if I'm interested" because I'm aware of those aspect, people are fickle I know! I'm more concerned in general, overall, would you do it for a profile for your character? Is that a nice alternative to writing descriptions? Is it easier for you to do? Is it engaging enough that you'd enjoy that? Would it be faster? Or a simple yes or no! XD

Or does the very idea of using pinterest just short circuit your brain and you nope the fuck out?

And no you wouldn't use it in place of personality / background / history sections about your character. Only things like wardrobe, weapon lockers, faceclaims, what your bedroom looks like, your house, yard, things like that which I find boring to write into a profile but fun details to view visually.

 

[Crayons]

I would do it, and I like the idea of it, but I'd want to have the option to write as well. Sometimes you just can't find an image of a person who looks like your OC, or their exact hairstyle, and so I'd like to be able to add "they look pretty much like this but with one giant eye in the centre of their face" or "this hair but longer" etc. Pinterest boards are so much fun, even though Pinterest is evil I still love using it.

 

[Murdergurl]

While I think the idea of a lot of visual help is neat, I prefer roleplay to be a mostly textual experience. Like, even with a character portrait, I still go ahead and lay out a physical description. I've made character boards before, basically it's a grid of pictures that is supposed to encompass the notion of a character in place of descriptions. Personally, I don't like a character sheet to rely purely on visuals to relay information. Visuals are great, don't get me wrong. A nicely laid out CS with plenty of art to accentuate it looks wonderful. But when the visuals are the ONLY thing put in place to describe things, I'm not a big fan.

Spoiler: character board

This is a character board I made for a witch hunter of mine. Belinda Van der Vennen

And no you wouldn't use it in place of personality / background / history sections about your character. Only things like wardrobe, weapon lockers, faceclaims, what your bedroom looks like, your house, yard, things like that which I find boring to write into a profile but fun details to view visually.

IMO, a faceclaim shouldn't be the only thing I get to see for a physical character description. I want to know their build, their height/weight, any other details about their physique that a pic doesn't tell me. Tats, scars, a limp, etc.

As far as things like wardrobe, I've never really seen the point of including stuff like that in a CS. Unless it is part of an armory loadout... who cares? Stuff like a character's clothing can be left to in-game narrative. Weapon lockers should DEFINITELY be given more than just a pic for reference. This is because the RP might require some ballistics info for a scene/action, and the GM and/or other players will find the information rather necessary. This is also an open end to be OP with your weapon abilities if they are not clearly defined. All of this, especially if it's sci-fi or fantasy because the weapons and armor tend to be completely made up and the parameters of such gear need to be given.

As far as a house and yard and such... I don't think those would really need to be in a CS to begin with. To me, that seems to be a lot of boring fluff that needn't be included. That kinda stuff should be a mention at best. But a character sheet is about the character, themselves.

 

[Onmyoji]

No. I don't like doing that and I usually don't do that for my rp.

I've had a rp partner once who did it for both our characters. I liked it and it was beautiful and added to the visualizing our characters for sure.
But at the same time, it's not something I would do personally. I think it's nice but too time-consuming to be worth doing it, and I'm more used to text descriptions. I don't even use faceclaims for the most part. It's definitely not easier for me to do and would take more time than writing a description. I'd rather write a longer description than spend hours looking for an image that fits.

 

[Sara Sidereal]

what is a pinboard?

 

[AnnJam]

what is a pinboard?

Pinterest board, basically a curated gallery of pictures you collect from around the site.

 

[Crow]

In place of descriptions? Nah.

Sounds like they could help but Pinterest is a last resort thing for me anyways.

 

[SP3CT3R]

God, no. Just finding one picture to use as a faceclaim is asking way too much from me. This is, like, an entire--ass school project.

 

[Blemmigan]

Sooo I know you said not to tell you that it depends on the person but... I mean that's probably the answer to this question, because some would like it and some wouldn't :v
I think there're two types of character creators. There are those who find it easier to have the image/s first and then build up a character from that (I'm guessing that's how you prefer to work). The other type have the image in their heads and then write about what they're thinking, and this can make finding image/s to describe what they want to convey really difficult.
Also, it can take a long time! Particularly for people who don't typically do things like this, so aren't familiar with gathering images or using pinterest, or are very picky about which particular images they want to use because none of them are exact enough.

But if you had it as an optional extra, that may be more appealing. Like how some CS forms have optional fields for a theme song, others could be a separate section for aesthetics, pinboards and other details. Then those people who do have the time and the mindset to make something like that could do it to enhance their form, and those who have no interest won't have to.
And things like that are often more fun to make when they're not compulsory.

(And yeah, I'm the make-character-first-struggle-to-find-images-later type, so this wouldn't be ideal for me)

 

[Murdergurl]

Sooo I know you said not to tell you that it depends on the person but... I mean that's probably the answer to this question, because some would like it and some wouldn't :v
I think there're two types of character creators. There are those who find it easier to have the image/s first and then build up a character from that (I'm guessing that's how you prefer to work). The other type have the image in their heads and then write about what they're thinking, and this can make finding image/s to describe what they want to convey really difficult.
Also, it can take a long time! Particularly for people who don't typically do things like this, so aren't familiar with gathering images or using pinterest, or are very picky about which particular images they want to use because none of them are exact enough.

But if you had it as an optional extra, that may be more appealing. Like how some CS forms have optional fields for a theme song, others could be a separate section for aesthetics, pinboards and other details. Then those people who do have the time and the mindset to make something like that could do it to enhance their form, and those who have no interest won't have to.
And things like that are often more fun to make when they're not compulsory.

(And yeah, I'm the make-character-first-struggle-to-find-images-later type, so this wouldn't be ideal for me)

I actually DO use pinterest to look for images that might inspire a character idea. But that's usually the extent of it. I build up around that initial image (and I usually art-bash the image to alter it to something I want, anyway). After that, the rest is all writing with possibly some art to embellish.

I definitely gotta agree that gathering up an entire board of images would be extremely time-consuming, more so that ever writing the character out. And the biggest problem I see with using images for the only description is that people might get completely different interpretations on what the character is about. So you might not even get the concept across very well.