What Drives Our Characters (and Us)

[Naza Sutera]

Hello, and I would like to thank you for making your acquaintance!

There has been a little thing on my mind, and I just wanted to put it out there to anyone interested in talking about it.

Couple of questions: What drives us to make our characters? What drives our characters themselves?

I'm just curious about what drives others and their characters. I reminisce and re-read old RPs involving Amelia and my other characters, and I wonder, "What was I thinking?" Not in a bad way, mind you; I just love my characters, and I am very proud and happy that I can share my imagination with others. The question to myself was meant more literally. What was I thinking at the time to make me come up with my characters, especially Amelia?

Back in 2012, The Saurian Adventure was the first RP I had joined in years. Prior to that, I had been out of the game for, what, five years? During my extended absence from the internet land, I had spent some time writing stories about some of my old characters from long ago, just developing them on my own, and keeping my imagination fresh. I didn't occur to me that this would help me on my return to RPing. I say that because when I did return, I came back better than ever, despite my absence from actual role-playing. Didn't know how powerful simply writing on my own was until I had to collaborate with others again.

In SA, most everyone had... Um... How should I describe them? Well, how about I start it off like this: they were all unique in their own rights and offered something unique. To point out a few, Ren's character was a psychic/telepathic "soulsmith" and something of a government experiment who was able to create swords and weapons out of psychic or spiritual energy; Russiandog's character was a sniper was a man of few words, who moonlit as a super-religious bible thumper with a strong and silent intensity; Manthony's character was a competent solider while having the maturity and ego of a teen-aged alpha male. These were all unique and fleshed out characters in their own rights. But what they all had in common is that they weren't "normal", and as well, what made them not "normal" were roughly similar reasons: they were combatants, they didn't have to prove themselves to anyone, and that shaped who they were as characters. Those aspects about them made them powerful characters and fitting for the RP.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with those characters, and it was fun to collaborate with them in that RP. But, for me, those types of characters are not really my speed. What I mean is that they aren't the type of characters I normally make. Not to say I would never make that kind of character. But because so many of the SA rp had so many similar traits, I wanted to make something of a foil to them all. I didn't want a character where toting a gun was a part of their nature, nor where brute force was their best asset. But I still wanted to make a character that had something to offer to the other RPers and/or the RP itself. So, enter Amelia Cimmaron. I made her a different as she could be. She was college-educated "spoiled warm-blood" (as one character put it) who had as much spunk as she did smarts. She couldn't fight and had to depend on the other characters for physical protection, wasn't the most mature as compared to some of her team mates, and also didn't get along with some of them as a result. But she was intelligent, competent as a scientist, and was strong-headed to where she wouldn't let her team mates walk all over her. That was a very fun rp, and it was great to have our characters work together in spite of their polar-opposite differences.

There is also Amber-Lynn Dionne Rose (or simply Amber) who I have yet to get around to making a profile for. Despite that, she is very much as alive as Amelia. When I first brought her into existence, she started off as the token best friend of Amelia in a high school RP that I and the other RPers of Saurian Adventure made to entertain outselves while Rob was too busy to update his RP. I didn't really have a backstory for her then, other than that she is a more cool-headed and earthy than Amelia, despite having similar interests. She would be a voice of reason as well as someone people could go to for advice. Not to say that Amelia is none of these things, but she would be more nurturing, kinder, and more forgiving than Amelia. As time went on my depression often kicked in, and it took me to very dark places in my mind, resulting in my writing going to some dark places. A friend said I started abusing my characters in my writing; such as having Amelia arrested for a DUI when she was actually unmedicated for a couple of serious mental illnesses. I had at that point given my characters their schtick; Amelia battles an internal struggle with mental illnesses, and Amber being a survivor of abuse--both being strong women in their own right. Let me be more clear and concise: I had actually already given Amelia her struggle. It is more or less an expy of my own issues that I deal with. It wasn't set in stone with Amber just yet. Not until a couple of characters had an argument with each other in an RP, where one was trying to one-up the other with their miserable life experiences. Apparently, the characters' respective home planets had been at war, and the squabble was both of them saying to each other, "If it wasn't for your planet, I wouldn't have had a more terrible life than you". Which was kind of stupid to me. Not in a poor rping kind of way, but more that it was just stupid for them to be arguing about who had it worse and demanding precedence over the other , when both of them had been screwed over equally by the same circumstances. So I got to thinking: Why did these characters think their struggle was more important than the other's? That sparked something within me. I had decided what I wanted Amber's backstory to be. I wanted her to have war stories to share, and I wanted it known that one doesn't have to be a warrior, soldier, or mercenary to know what death, destruction, and pain was. One of the first actual things I wrote about Amber was a vignette about her being assaulted and nearly murdered by an acquaintance she dated, then stalked for a year by the same guy. And as a result of that, as well as more situations from her backstory which I am still working on, she decided to dedicate her life to victims and survivors of abuse by being a domestic violence advocate. The whole thing with that was to make a character, an every(wo)man much like I did with Amelia, to show that no matter who the character is or where they come from, there is always suffering, and no one person's misfortune is more important than the next. We all have something to offer, and you never know when you will be the one who needs a helping hand.

Anyway, that has been my disclosure on what drives me to develop my characters, and what drives them. Now, I'd like to know: What's the story behind some of your favorite original characters and you creating them? What thought did you put into creating them that you want to share? I'd love to get the discussion popping.

Cheers!

[Monokuma]

Since my beginning, i've always really thought about how each of my characters had a piece of whatever emotion I felt at the time of making them. The Cornerian Complex was my first ever place to try and RP at all, with me seeing the odd wonders of BallisticWaffles, Arashikage, SFC, StarKid, and Star_Dragon work their magic around each other's words. Like you, Naza, I often had a slight double take to what I wrote back in the day, possibly amounting to nervousness at the time.

Wolf, my first, was the product of many hours of sweat. I wanted to be a part of the mainstream 'mercenary' crews, and yet an adoration of the military drew me to try and make someone with all of the qualities of what I considered the whole branch. Looking back, i've given him more of the qualities of the old shyness back in my readings, and i've redone him to feature all of the lightheartedness and determination I had with him back in '13.

Kimari often gets the silent card to me, as he's the outright brute in the wake of the 'mercenary crew' deal. I wanted a person to be a silent hitman of sorts, earning a reputation as an outsider, even in his own teams. Looking back, i've added in a backstory to him, featuring a drive for what he does and exactly why.

I view characters as one of Majora's Masks, in a sense where I put one on and record how I feel, making a story and a background to try and follow. It's a tactic I use to make stories and lore as well, after extensive research. Either by mask or by wooden puppet, it's how this bear makes characters.

[The VGM Lover]

For me, my character was inspired by two things: My love for the Cornerian Army, and questions that arose as I tried to compete in the One Up Contest here:

For my ideas, I thought about various things throughout each game, like why fighters won't chase Fox on the ground in SF adventures, and the Anglars and why they don't seem as big or threatening as they could have been in SF Command. I then imagined what could've happened. You can see where this is going, right?

As I posted, I developed a character to help narrate and give my posts more weight, more context, more meaning, until eventually, I decided to give him an official character profile: 

I seriously have the One-Up Contest to thank for my guy. I haven't touched him since, though. Never could bring myself to put him in an RP yet.

[LoneWolf]

I've had a few OCs in the past (way in the past, I haven't RPed in years). Most of them were really shitty cyberpunk-esque Mary Sues with powers that made them basically unstoppable. I was really shit at RP. Most of them were like "hey I want to fuck up the meta here we goooo" because I was that fuckin kid. I'm glad I didn't spend more time doing it.

I had kind of an early fursona in mind, if I remember correctly he was a black and purple wolf named Drake, kind of an edgelord DJ/Raver type. He was fun to RP for a while and I still retain the name "LoneWolf" on this site because of him (the king of entry level/edgy furry names). I ran him for a while in a few casual RPs, DJing clubs etc before eventually abandoning him. I later spent quite a bit of time hashing out an actual fursona that I could identify and stick with, and one that I could use in casual RP. The result was Sawtooth, the only North American Fisher (at least that I've met) in the furry community. The DJ/party identity stuck from Drake, but I dropped the edge in favor of positivity. I created him as a way to project myself and put myself behind an identity online, but also as an ideal/goal of who I wanted to become. I created him to be a lot more outgoing and social than I was as the time, and I've kind of grown into who I wanted him to be; I actually party and I'm actually a locally successful DJ and I actually try to express myself a little more. I think this'll be my 4th year with/as Sawtooth.

As far as what drives him/me? Partying, spending time with friends, food, and all of the generic "good" things in life. He keeps his best foot forward and is a fountain of optimism; always looking ahead of him to what lies next. I try to at least emulate that as best I can since the optimism and shit aren't exactly my specialty. 

[Tiger Carson]

In general, my characters were made for a more or less specific purpose of a fan game concept.  If I ever get around to making fan games, and a Star Fox game is one, these guys would be the major stars of it.  That was the gist of it, with a unique Arwing type to allow for SF0 style game play, but with the computer handling one of the characters while you handle the other no matter what's going on.  Piloting the ship?  The computer does gunner duties.  Handling the gunner seat?  The computer does the flying.  And a competent AI too, something that learns from your play style, and works with it.  Along with seamless switching between the two positions, and it learning your strengths and weaknesses and providing a suggestion of when to switch based on what it's learned your strengths and weaknesses are.  Anyways, I really got to developing my characters when I joined SF-O, with Tiger sharing my personality, but more idealized, what I would like to be.

Zera is basically a female Tiger, with a few differences, and a near total tomboy.  Jeena's more feminine, but can be quite rude, and is still something of a tomboy.  Copper's the old man father figure.  Hawk's the hot shot pilot.  Kola's the stealth expert.  Of course they're all mercs, but they don't all have military backgrounds.  Hawk and Jeena have differing backgrounds, with Jeena more or less an everyman who is an excellent pilot, and is good at fighting.  Hawk having a bit of an unsavory past, with Kola also having a similar past in both the Cornerian and Venomian armies.

Carmondy is one I created originally as a Sonic FC, and she was heavy, HEAVY influenced by Samus Aran. (I was on a major Metroid kick at the time, and newly a fan of the series.) I've since toned it down, but she's still a bounty hunter, and has some original stuff for expanding the Star Fox universe.  Funny enough, I unintentionally based her personality on my ex-girlfriend, and you'll get a chance to see that when I can figure out a good RP to use her in.

Mai was made when I simply wanted a Coyote character, and needed a good name for her.  I learned that the Navajo word was Ma'ii, and the name stuck.  I also wanted to do a proper respectful service to the Navajo by making her true to how the Navajo actually are.  Native Americans were never savages, neither were they super connected to the earth and as spiritual as pop culture makes the native people out to be.  They were spiritual, but about as much as any other group with a religion as their foundation.  They would willfully alter the landscape to suit their needs, and had the same concerns as most any human does.  The Navajo themselves have well integrated into modern society, though they keep their traditions and cultural identity alive.  And Mai as you can clearly see, is intended to embody this.  I being a small part Cherokee(I think, I know I have some Native American blood in me on my Mom's side), it's important to me to do right in this, do my homework, and be as respectful as possible.

As for Star Wyvern, they're the usual sorts of bad guys but most have good qualities and could be redeemed in the future.  Zack being the most likely to reform, and Kirk being the least likely.(Kirk was a name I came up with at the time that seemed to fit best.  Not supposed to be a dig at Star Trek or the JJ Treks.)  Everyone else, Wyvern, Steed, Fern, and Hare are somewhere in the middle.  Of course, their stories have yet to be finished, so we'll see what happens to them.

Ultimately, in order to play them well, I have to rely on my ability to act, and I am a talented actor, or so I've been told.  With such big groups, it's a challenge, but a fun one to develop them.  It'll be interesting to see where they go in the future.  Also, you may note a lot of them have military backgrounds.  I know the OP isn't that drawn to them, but I am.  What with the fact I have an ancestor who had fought in most of the US' major conflicts like the Revolutionary War, the Civil War(One Union one Confederate), one in World War 1, a second in  World War 2, and my Grandfather on my dad's side who was in the Navy during Korea and Vietnam.  The military is in my blood.  I just am the odd one out along with my dad, having never served. (Though to be honest, if I have kids, I would hope that they would someday willingly serve their country.) So it makes sense that having military service so heavily ingrained in my family history, I would be one with the utmost respect for it, and have a knack for making characters who have military backgrounds.  It's just who I am.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

It's mainly a sort of outlet for all of this creative (and other) energy that I have in me that I just need to put somewhere.

You see this? You don't need a massive wall of text to explain something.

[Guest]

Role playing... Well despite most people here who Forum RP, I am actually a chat based one. But I'm mainly beginning
to start forum based Role playing. I think Role Playing for me started in 2009 on ROBLOX what with there being places at least facilitated the Role playing style. Then when I gotten around in xat in 2011 (chat based website) most of the RPs were mainly just.. "Battles" of one another or in team, I used to be an Earthbound fan so of course most of my moves for my characters were PSI attacks or somethin'. And since I haven't RP with a group of people for awhile the only time I did was in 2011. But I guess what drives me is creating a world with inhabitants, nations, technology etc. and that's what I have all to say basically.

[Gestalt]

For that matter Arminius, no text limit, either way, is appropriate for nuancing the landscape of our minds. Writing in this setting - the forum setting - while hopefully not reaching length of a manuscript ready for publication, should be in service of our conscious before it is in service of our reader's convenience.

Now, I maintain two or three rp characters of varied depth and design. They all share origins in my small but present desire to bond with the individuals whom I keep the company of. In my later years, I've lost the drive to actively pursue video-games and memes, both, in my mind, popular modes of sociability. Yet, role-playing with competent friends is a willingness I have yet to lose in total.  I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader as to why that might be the case.

In contrast, I will always encourage those who largely role-play for role-play's sake to not shy away from exploring new outlets to do so. Simply because, that is what I would do if it were me.

[Naza Sutera]

8 hours ago, Arminius H O Fiddywinks said:

It's mainly a sort of outlet for all of this creative (and other) energy that I have in me that I just need to put somewhere.

You see this? You don't need a massive wall of text to explain something.

That's fine. But allow me to add some clarity.

It is not as though RPing pays our bills or anything, but I know that we put a lot of passion and creativity into our works--the characters and RPs themselves. I know that I dig deep when developing my characters, and because other OCs are so well fleshed out and played, I only assumed others did the same.

For me, it goes without saying that this is merely a creative outlet to spend extra time and energy, and it doesn't take a long explanation to simply say that. But that wasn't all I was trying to say, nor was it simply what I was asking. I felt that what was on my spirit couldn't be summed up by simply saying we do it for fun.

I can't think of a better way to waste my free time than spending it on this site, with most of that time spent in the RP section, just soaring with everyone through the stratosphere on wings made of our imaginations. We have some very creative and imaginative people in our midst. I appreciate how much everyone puts into this little hobby. I wanted to take it a step further and know the stories behind the magic. To me, there is no greater way to appreciate someone's hard work than by knowing why they work so hard to share their finished product.

Again, it's fine if you want to say you simply do it for fun. It is fun. But I just thought there was more to it.

[Tiger Carson]

I agree with you Naza, I've found the answers everyone has given to be quite fascinating.  It's like getting a look into the mind of Walt Disney himself, first hand, if you will.  Since I love rping almost as much as I love Disneyland, that's why I make the comparison.  It's just fascinating to pick the minds of others, see what's going on in there.

The more one does rp, the more they have to draw on other things like feelings and experiences, the hobby pushes you that much.  And in other fandoms, I've done the same thing to some extent.  I'll definitely be doing that with future characters I make, as I am far from done in making new characters.

[Snys93]

   Well, what definitely helps me when writing a character is personal experience. Not that my life is so interesting that I have a lot to base things (lol its not believe me). No it mainly has much to do with emotions. Emotions play key roles in life and in fiction. When creating a character from the ground up you have many choices and these choices coupled with experiences that you choose to expose your characters to should affect them.

 

   You'd do well to ask yourself questions: Is this character a hero, villain, victim, bystander? Are they purists or something closer to human? Are they gods, something beyond our understanding or are they imperfect and flawed creatures who view themselves as godlike? Where did they come from, what motivations do they have, what are their goals? Do they have a set of personal rules, a code or way of life that they live by? How do they view others around them?

 

   To put it simply, our characters are us in some small way. We give them life and in turn we see us and how to deal with things and possible issues.

[Arminius H O Fiddywinks]

In reality, my reasons for RPing are far too personal to share publicly.

That, and I don't want Quadroline to know.

[Renardfrost]

To be fair.. Renard originally started out as "Yet another Mccloud sibling ^TM " And I'm at once impressed and astounded at the progress he has made.

I took so much time and effort to fully integrate him into the SF universe through as many phases he went through.

Phase two: An old academy acquaintance of our favorite vulpine hero. Scrapped for unnecessary romance that kept appearing in my writings.

 

Phase 3: An aspiring mercenary prodigy hoping to work under Starfox's tutelage. Scrapped because that's an annoying cliche among starfox OCs

Phase 4: A hero who traipses aimlessly through his life, shirking responsibilities he has at home,

Present:  Pretty much the same, but now with a more troubled backstory and end goal. Well, Other than the fact that he has a whole original world and story build around him now, but i still like using him for Starfox rp.. it's kinda like going back to a childhood home.

I, myself used to rp as an escape. it seemed the perfect outlet for a professional bystander, but when i saw how diverse and intricate it could be come, it made me want to look for stories in the real world, too.

[Guest]

On 7/4/2016 at 0:26 PM, Arminius H O Fiddywinks said:

In reality, my reasons for RPing are far too personal to share publicly.

That, and I don't want Quadroline to know.

 

On 7/1/2016 at 1:28 PM, Quadroline said:

Then when I gotten around in xat in 2011 (chat based website) most of the RPs were mainly just.. "Battles" of one another or in team, I used to be an Earthbound fan so of course most of my moves for my characters were PSI attacks or somethin'

I did not want to say this either but hey, there it is.