Giving Your RP "Sparkle"

Part III -- Smart Character Design

 

There are so many bland, beautiful, nice people in the MU* world.  Some of them have backgrounds that would do a soap opera writer proud -- but those backgrounds have not done anything to make them less bland.  They just give them something to talk about, usually during some sort of background info-dump RP.  In the worst case, it gives them something to whine about endlessly, without ever making them anymore interesting.

 

You can actually salvage a character like this by fleshing her out a little bit and applying some basic principles, so never fear.  You won't have to rewrite your characters to give them sparkle in this way.

 

The Initial Character Description

 

MUSH life takes after Hollywood sometimes.  Everyone is beautiful or handsome, looks about 25 despite their real age, is generally white, and is a snappy dresser.  And while this is serviceable, it's not very interesting.  Because of our culture we think we have to be beautiful to be liked, so our tendency is to describe our characters that way.  Then again, some of the most loved characters in the world had physical flaws.  Think of it this way: Hermione Granger had long teeth, Ron Weasley had big ears, and Harry Potter had bad hair. 

 

I once received very good advice on this.  "Just describe what the character looks like. Let me decide if she's ugly or beautiful."

 

So, ask yourself questions.  Is she tall or short? Skinny or plump, or even, god forbid, fat?  Most people have eye color down, but do those eyes have any crows feet or laugh lines? If your character is anywhere near thirty, they should.  Does she wear eye make up?  Is her nose pert, broad, large, small, a button, patrician, a hatchet, a beak?  Does she have a wide mouth or a tiny one, big lips or thin lips, a gap in her teeth?  Are her cheekbones high?  Is she gaunt? Pale? Tan? Is her face rounded, square oval? Does she get acne? Does she have a firm jawline or a soft one?  A wide forehead?  What about her eyebrows?  Are they the same color as her hair?  Are they soft, bushy, thin, slanted?  At first glance does she look like she's stern, or daydreaming?  Some people have "pleasant faces prone to smile", but that's not most of us.  Most of us look a little tired and haggard, truth be told.  Maybe we look intense, focused, driven, stressed.  Some women do indeed set out to look deliberately seductive.  Some try and fall a little short, looking like overdone clowns instead.  If you have big breasts, ladies, are they sagging just a little bit?  Let me tell you, it's hard to find and maintain truly good bras if you have big breasts.  It's hard to stand up straight, too: your shoulders are constantly pulling forward.  If she's tall, does she hunch her shoulders to try to blend in, or milk every inch for its intimidation value? 

 

And what about clothes?  She's wearing a shirt and the shirt is blue, but is it tucked in sloppily or precisely?  Does she forget to iron her clothes? (I forget to iron my clothes).  Do her stockings run?  Do her shoes need a good polish?  Do her socks match? Jewelry is good.  Some people overdo jewelry.  How much is she wearing? 

 

Most people find hair easiest, but sometimes I think if I see another hair description that talks about raven wings sweeping upward I'm going to scream.  I have never met a person with sweeping raven wings.  I have met people with bottle black hair that they pull back into a bun though. 

 

The point is, get real.  By getting real you can generate RP.  Most people have physical problems they struggle with.  Acne. Unwanted body hair.  A nose they don't like.  Hair that is a constant source of aggravation.  Tall kids feel self-conscious.  Short people climb on counters to get at the soup.  Big breasted women sometimes hitch up their bras and hope nobody notices.  We do not have SWAT teams of designers and hair stylists to run out to fluff and primp us between shots, and unless your character is a movie star, neither does she.  Consider your desc -- and then consider what scenes you can generate with that description.  If your character's shirts, like mine, are always wrinkled because they're so frazzled, then another character can come and try to beat some fashion sense into them.  Maybe your character is mortified because her boyfriend comes into the apartment to surprise her with flowers -- only she's got Nair smeared across her upper lip.  Someone's sister wanders in while the character is checking out her butt in the mirror and grimacing.  Our bodies can be a constant source of conflict, aggravation, and discussion, why can't they be for our characters? 

 

Change Your Character Description

 

As people grow and change their look also grows and changes.  A girl who was never allowed to wear tank tops grows up, moves away from home, and buys as many tank tops as her poor wallet can stand.  People go get new hair styles.  Sometimes those hair styles turn out to be awful mistakes.  People gain scars, get bloodshot eyes from staying up too late, loose weight, gain weight, buy new clothes.  When they do these things, other people notice and comment.  RP is born.

 

You can alert people that your desc has changed with a quick OOC, or you can just make some reference to it in your pose.  Most people will have a look at your desc if you indicate a significant change in your pose.  This can provide fodder for those opening poses (see Part I).

 

Personality:

 

Everyone should not like your character.  A lot of people try to make their character as likeable as possible, hoping it will give them more RP, because they'll have more friends.  In truth, having enemies is better fodder for RP.  You don't want to be utterly friendless, but you don't have to be Pollyanna, either.  Even good, admirable characters should have one flaw or blind spot that pisses others off. 

 

I once played a good, honorable, amiable, polite swordsman.  He was also a chivalrous chauvinist.  He got irritated when women wanted to learn the sword and tried to discourage them.  He didn't insult them, but he did treat them to long lectures on why they ought to be worrying about raising babies instead of trying to bloody their hands.  He was okay with women doing just about anything else, but he hated to see a woman fight.  It was thematic, though it was a part of theme that was rarely played, because there were almost more female swordspeople on the game than male.  He doggedly went on, even going so far as pushing a political platform to get them barred from training.  Of course it didn't go through, but it sure did give people stuff to talk about.  It also led his wife to push him into a river in disgust, even if they did make up later.

 

Eventually one of those female swordswomen saved his life, and he had to revise his stance a little bit.  Or so she thought.  Instead he merely allowed that she had proven herself worthy of the blade, but that didn't mean every other little girl should run out to pick up a blade.  They became friends though.

 

That was just one of his flaws: he had an anger management issue, could be deliberately stupid at times, was under confident, and despite being an acknowledged master of the sword who had shown a brilliant tactical mind in training, he nearly wet himself the first time he had to be on a battlefield. 

 

The thing is, you don't have to deliberately sit down and figure out your flaws or what people are going to hate about your character.  You just have to ask yourselves some questions.  What pisses your character off?  What do they do when they're sad?  Are they blunt to a fault?  What do they do if someone is crying?  What sort of morals do they have? What do they believe in?  People can be disliked for their politics as much as their personality.  Do they have any bad habits?  What about their background? Did they have a rival?  Do they get intimidated or jealous when people are prettier, more accomplished, smarter, better fighters?  Are they competent enough but always seem to lack for acknowledgement or love?  Are they always playing second fiddle to someone else?  Is there some dream they've had that has been stymied?  Do they hate their jobs?  Just because you can chose to give them a new job whenever you want doesn't mean that they can reasonably run out and get one whenever they want.

 

Do this and you'll develop a three dimensional character, and you will express their strengths, flaws, and those times when they don't quite live up to their own ideals in a natural way.  You won't even have to think about it, you will simply know what your character will do, and it will flow effortlessly from your fingers as you type.

 

One Note Does Not Make A Song:

 

I really love combat scenes.  Offer me a good fight and I'll never turn it down.  I tend to play characters who are good in combat, too, with the occasional exception.  Maybe you have your favorite type of scene, too.  Romance, TS, angst, dark deeds, mysteries, puzzles, taking classes.  Whatever your favorite type of scene, you're going to get a bad reputation if you pursue only that type of scene ever, especially if you have multiple characters who also only pursue that type of scene, ever.

 

If you do combat exclusively you'll end up looking like a twink or a PK monster, if its TS you'll get a reputation as a TS hound, if its dark deeds you might end up with a reputation as a sicko.  Even a bad guy has to wash his laundry.  You can do a scene around that.  If you're always writhing in angst people are going to think you just want attention and can't share the spotlight. 

 

You can avoid this by doing what makes sense for your character to do.  Your character might be a lusty young lady, but if she's also a hard working scholar who does some research scenes, people are less likely to label you as a TS hound.  You just play a lusty scholar.  If you have alts, and one of them is a lusty scholar, one of them is a dried up old prune of a politician who slaps men at the thought that they might be looking at her ankles, and one of them is a warrior who also happens to arrange flowers, then people are just going to think you have a pretty good range of characters.  If all you do is run around trying to pounce every single person who logs on (and really, would you do this in life?) then you're going to get a rep, and that's that.  Anyway, if you're going to do that, go to one of the games where that's the norm.  Don't bring it to games looking for serious RP.

 

Development

 

In every good story, the main character at the very least undergoes some sort of fundamental change.  A cynic learns to love again.  A shy man learns to take up the mantle of leadership.  The uncertain become confident.  A naive person learns to take a little caution.  And so forth.  Your character should grow and change as a result of her experiences.  If she's naive and gets betrayed, she shouldn't stay naive forever.  If she won't wear dresses because she thinks she's ugly but a handsome man falls in love with her and buys her a pretty dress, she might just wear it with a smile.  If she holds fast to a belief and then has an experience that challenges that belief to the core, she should RP out struggling with that, grappling with it, until she either changes her belief or comes out the other side with a stronger faith than before.

 

Characters who remain sort of stupidly cheerful for life are more the norm than not on MU*'s.  It is annoying.  If you've just been kidnapped you're not going to walk back down to breakfast the day after the rescue acting as if you haven't missed a beat.  (Now if your character is upset but PRETENDS to be okay, that's different.  You should find ways to show it in your RP.  Have a normally sure handed character get clumsy, for example, a sure sign of distraction).  Characters who have children are going to have different priorities than characters who remain single.  Allow your character the breathing room to grow and change naturally.

 

Next Article: Finding RP, Think Outside The Box