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What You Should Do: Good Character Development

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ZeroKirbyX:
Good Characters

Wait - What?
I have explained bad characters to you in the 'What not to Do' thread, but that is not what this thread is about. It is about the search for good characters, and this point on will express what is 'good', and not as much of the bad things.

Good characters help enhance everything in a Role Play. The setting flourishes under a good character's footsteps, the plot thickens around a good character's actions, and the Role Players tend to Role Play better with a good character.

This good is not referring to the good-evil scale, but a well-developed character that has balance. What is balance, you ask?


Balance

What is Balance?
Balance is the trait of a character that equals out strengths and weaknesses. This is the fundamental part of a character.

All characters have their own strengths and weaknesses. But how much of them is extremely important.

Let's start of with the strengths of a character. This is what your character can do well, and any good skills he/she has. These skills should be a good size; they can't be too big. Imagine if there was a currency with your strengths. A good strength costs $5. A super strength costs $15, and a godly strength costs about $50. You do not have any money, but you can have a tab in the Strengths and Weaknesses Shop. You decide to buy an amount for your tab. Note that it is hard to get off a high tab. Naturally, you want a good amount of strengths without going too far into debt. So purchase skills for around $10-20. This is a good place to start off a character.

But right now you have a character with all these strengths and no flaws. What kind of good character is that? A bad one. To get you out of debt, the store manager decides that if you take some weaknesses, he can take away money from your tab. A good weakness is $5, a strong weakness is $15, and a godly weakness is $50. What to buy? Your goal is to get $0-5 on your tab, so you should have about as many weaknesses that are as big and noticeable as your strengths.

Do not get the godly weaknesses or strengths. These can make Min-Maxers, as seen in the Anti-Munch quote. You should stay within a budget.

The strengths and weaknesses should compliment each other and flow together well, like good upper body strength and bad lower body strength. They are conceivable together.

While Role Playing, your character should maintain this balance. They should not do anything in the Anti-Munch Quote box, no matter what. Keep that balance, and you have a major trait in a good character.



Tipping the Scales: When and Where To Use Balance
Editorial submitted by omgtehsuiso

Part One: Balance of Self

As detailed by Roka, balance is terribly important in your character. However, being realistic about what you use to keep the scales even is equally paramount. For example: a pirate RP I joined awhile back had a system of points you'd allot in three categories. These were Ship Skills, Knowledge, and Fighting Skills. One point would mean little knowledge/experience with the subject and five was mastery. I developed a sharpshooter character, who will be referred to
here on in as Rae. Rae, of course, was an expert with rifles and strictly that. Most characters in the RP had maxed out their Dodge stat, but I decided to keep Rae relatively low in that area. Sharpshooters are, after all, kept far from the actual close-range fighting. Yes, this meant whenever someone was too close to him, he'd get hit, and it happened often. But it wasn't an annoyance at all. It was just another weakness.

In other words, weaknesses should match the strength their counterbalancing. A burly axeman shouldn't also be able to dodge like a quicker fighter would. Also, said quicker fighters shouldn't be as strong as a burly man. They can get more hits in, but normally, they'd be quick swipes, not huge blows. We're not talking disappearing and running across the room in an instant to deliver a lethal uppercut to the jaw. This would be something like your typical assassin, not Kenshin's Soujiro Seta. Watch the lightning-quick assassin cliche, though. When caught in combat, it would be odd to see an assassin actually fight. They rely on sudden, easy kills to get what they want done. The whole point is to make sure your weaknesses are realistic with your strengths. Being unable to drive a car should not compensate for being a master at shooting guns.

Part Two: RP-wide Balance

Often, larger roleplays will need several people to watch over the general roleplaying group. In the pirate RP mentioned above, we had three moderators, myself included. Of course, godmoding and the like were not common, as it was a literary roleplay. It happened, though. Members with low dodge rates would be able to dodge bullets, something impossible to do in reality, especially against someone trained to use rifles well. It was a great annoyance, and the RP slowly died because of it. A few members started going on a lengthy spiel about ghosts and spirits, something the creators never intended to happen. If you're going to roleplay in an organized manner, let the creators take the reins sometimes. It IS their plot and world, after all.

If you have an idea that you think might be controversial, ask the creators/moderators first. If you see someone else doing something that might affect the plot in an odd way, then yet again, let the creators know as well as the roleplayer. It can't hurt, and it'll help them roleplay better. Of course, they might get mad at you for it, but don't let it get to you. As it happens, most roleplayers are very prideful towards their characters. Make sure you're not harsh, though. Constructive criticism is the best type. Two positives for every negative and all that rot.

Part Three: Accepting Weakness and Death

We love our characters, but sometimes, others will be able to capitalize on their weaknesses and defeat them. Battles happen often in any roleplay, and are the main driving force behind them. Whether you're trying to stop the world from ending or just topple the wicked corporation, you'll be fighting a lot. Understand that your characters CAN be defeated, and even killed. Surviving every attempt on your life and coming out unscathed is virtually impossible, unless you're some superhero. And even then, Superman was weakened by Kryptonite.

Be careful with using weaknesses of other characters to your advantage. Your character won't be able to scan their brain and find every little flaw they have. It takes many battles and long analyses of their fighting style and habits to even begin to understand what can defeat them. The same goes for your opponents. If they magically know how weak you are against a certain form of attack, protest. Remember, this isn't Dragon Ball Z. You can't find out power levels. An exception goes to Dragon Ball Z roleplays.

Midnight9795:
*sticks* :D

X_marks_the_ed:
*Approves of it's quality.*

Meiscool-2:
I actually read this, and it sounds pretty good. Though I probally won't join any RPs, I'll keep this in mind should I choose to.

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