Character Creation 101

Character Creation 101
From concept to account creation


Preamble: Character creation, like all aspects of a creative endeavor, is a personal experience; as such there are no real 'good' or 'bad' ways to do it. What works for me does not necessarily work for you. I have decided to document how I create a character and will share it in the hopes that it could be useful for you. The subtitle ('from concept to account creation') should not mislead you into thinking that this text is only meant for the creation of a player character: the process can also be used for the creation of nonplayer characters (NPC).

Finally, I wish to thank Harrad, for editing this guide instead of playing games or writing his own stuff.

→ character creation can take days or even weeks, so it's best that you keep all the files of your future character in one place. I recommend making a folder for each character you run, so when you start a new character you should immediately make a new folder (best named 'new character' for reasons I'll explain below). Once you have a name for your new character you can rename that folder.

→This guide is aimed to create characters that will have a long or even indefinite lifetime, and who will be in the spotlight. Obviously you should not go through the process for some faceless mook, or a throw-away character that will only appear in a few posts and disappear forever after.

The Reason

Before anything else, you should have a decent reason for creating a character. This 'raison d'etre' can in and of itself give you an indication whether or not you should make a character in the first place, and how much effort you should put into it.

Good reason(s) to make a character are;
● It offers a way to explore RP opportunities that you cannot do with your current character roster.
● It fits into a storyline you're planning.
● You want to help another player out by providing a companion or an antagonist for him/her to play against.

Neutral reasons to make a character are;
● I have a point I want to make.
● I want to try something out that I think could work.

Bad reason(s) to make a character are;
● I have an empty spot in my character roster that just needs to be filled.
● I have thought of a cool name and I need to register it before anyone else can 'claim it'.
● Oh look I can create another character by clicking the register button.
● I want to do a solo thread showing off how cool I am... I mean how cool my character is, but I don't want to look like a loser so I will just make a second account so it looks like I have someone to play with, I am so smart... LOL.

The reason I want a new character is to allow me to participate in action-oriented RP threads, something that my current characters are unable to do for a number of different reasons.

Now the reason has been given that I feel justifies the creation of a new character I can move on to creating a character concept. 



The Concept

The character concept is a few lines that describe your character. These lines are not meant to describe everything about your character (or be its biography), but it should give a decent feel for things. Character concepts are also a snapshot of the character 'here and now', so its past and entourage/family should get as little attention as possible. The statement: 'His parents are dead but he got over it' has no place in a character concept. After all, 'he got over it'.

If you are working with another player to provide an ally or antagonist for their character, both of you will probably end up working on the character concept together. Make sure that the concept is, in the end, something you are satisfied with. You might have to give on some concessions to the other player so it fits in with his character, but you should always have enough freedom to make it 'your' character. Another player once told me that "if a character is merely defined by their relation to another character they're not really a character, they're a NPC" which is true. The relationship between characters should not define the character to any greater extent, otherwise you've just playing a flat NPC. (Not that this is always bad, sometimes you need a flat NPC, but they generally don't deserve so much attention.)

Finally it should be noted that concepts are by nature liquid- different characters concepts will emphasize different aspects. Below are some ground rules I use to construct my character concepts.

Note: the list below is to give a feel for what is important. It isn’t necessary to go through them 'by the numbers', just pick and match what would be best for your character. The 'never' list, however, is not optional. Putting any of the listed items in your character concept is a great disservice to yourself and your character.

A Concept should;
● be no longer than 7 sentences
●mostly focus on the external, concentrating how other people experience your character over internal motivation. (notice I said 'mostly', not 'always')
● give you an idea how the character interacts with the world
● give an idea how the character interacts with other people
● give an idea where the character’s interest lies
● give an idea how the character got where it is today

A Concept may include;
● the character's profession
● the character's motivation (but only vaguely; 'is revenge-driven' is okay, 'is on a quest to avenge the murder of his parents' is not so okay.)
● past, (a line at most, don't worry about the details.)
● family status (only if relevant, and keep it vague)

A Concept should never include;
● the species or gender
● a visual description of the character
● the equipment/armor/weapons the character has, let alone a (visual) description of them, or a reason why they're so special
● a name

Feel free to iterate on the character concept and rewrite it as you work on it. The character concept should change over time.

Anyway, the character concept for my character is as follows:

An easy-going guy unless credits are involved. He can get real nasty when that happens. Not that he holds onto them for long, because he likes to buy the latest gadgets and gamble. Gadgets he collects, rarely disposing of his old stuff- his hideout is full of old 'junk'. He doesn't like drugs much, and gets really anxious even when just talking about them. He likes fast aircars (he participates in 'street-races',) and loose women.

I use 'he' as a stand-in. Honestly, I do believe that he will remain male, but I'm open to change.

→A note on 'Expies' (exported characters; a character from one series/medium/real life, that is deliberately and unambiguously exported to another series, some details may change but most of it is recognizably the same.) Try to avoid making them. They are difficult to do right (both in knowing what to keep and what to change, and how to play them), they lack originality, and they tempt others to do the same thing.  



Determining the Character's Theme

Behind every character lies the character's theme, around which most of the character's behavior and personality revolves. This theme or kernel colors the character's view of the world. Now that we have concept we can determine the character's kernel.

The reason you would want to investigate and uncover the character's theme at this point is that it can be a powerful tool in fleshing out the character's biography. Much like the character concept this can change over time and should not be considered 'set in stone'.

For this character I believe the kernel is 'risk' or 'gamble' 



Filling In The Details - Elaborating On The Concept

Now that we have our character concept we can fill in the details. The first step I generally do is to brainstorm and elaborate on each line of the concept blurb. It should be noted that these elaborations are just things that come to mind, they are an unguided stream of consciousness that is evoked by the character concept and shaded by character theme. Feel free to contradict and change stuff that you write in this process; there is no 'right' thing to do or fixed length, you simply write what each line evokes. Afterwards you can pick and match, or ignore the stuff that comes out of it.

● An easy-going guy unless credits are involved. He can get real nasty when that happens.
He's a mercenary, he has been on the job long enough to know when to focus and when to relax, and he never had any formal military training. The fact that he does it for the credits and is willing to do anything for them makes him reliable as long as your credits are good.

● Not that he holds on to them for long.
He lives 'for the moment', much like the 'easy-going going guy' comment in the first line. He doesn't worry about things until they need to be worried about. This might combine with his mercenary attitude and mean that he doesn't do freebies, follows his contract to the letter, and doesn't do 'due diligence' even if doing so might put a strain on future business relationships.

● he likes to buy the latest gadgets and gamble.
Maybe he considers himself especially lucky, maybe he figures that he'll always end on his feet. The fact that he likes the latest gadgets indicates that he has some tech affinity.

● Gadgets he collects, rarely disposing of his old stuff- his hideout is full of old 'junk'.
This could be indicate he has an underprivileged background where 'waste not, want not' was very much applicable. It also offers an interesting possibility as a character quirk.

● He doesn't like drugs much, and gets really anxious even when just talking about them.
He probably had some bad experiences with drugs, as it is unlikely that he has a moral objection to them. He was more likely hurt directly or indirectly hurt by them. Maybe they are the reason he has an underprivileged childhood in the first place, or maybe one of his first missions involved drugs and it went wrong big-time.

● He's a speed junkie and tries to live the life; he participates and loves 'street-races', and loose women.
Yet more of the 'live for now and screw the future' attitude, maybe he doesn't want to commit himself to a sedentary life-style. Interesting enough, even though he likes and tries to live the 'speed junkie' lifestyle, he has a big disconnect with it, as drugs are a part of that lifestyle and he isn't fond of them. Also, street races tend to be centered around higher income brackets. Not something you would expect someone from an underprivileged background to find interesting, unless he wants to fit in with the clique.

Remember the elaboration are just ideas that pop-up in your mind. They are not set in stone. 



Filling In The Details - Writing The Biography

Now it's time to try and use some of the above ideas (and new ones) to try and come up with a biography. From the above efforts there is plenty to work with. You could even run with it as it is and end up with the following biography:

The character had a poor childhood, envying the rich. As he grew up he got involved in petty crime and drugs, which gave him more problems than profit. Luckily, he survived his trials and is now a mercenary. He uses all the spare credits he can get his hands on to live the life he once envied so much as a child.

The above story could work in some cases, but I think it is boring. The (different) parts of his concept are addressed, but there is not much interconnection between them. I believe there is a better biography in the concept (and it will be the one I will be using for this character.)

The character had a good childhood, enjoying the luxuries it afforded him. As he grew older he became more and more restless and reckless, and got involved with the 'wrong crowd' early on. One night one of his friends asked him to just carry and deliver a package to another friend, and that's how he became a drug runner and for a time. He profited greatly from it, especially because he was paid in credits and not drugs.

Sure he saw what the drugs did to others but it wasn't as if he forced the junkies to take them. Not three months after he started his career the winds of fate turned on him at the worse of times. The local boss himself asked him to carry a very important package from one safe house to the next. He lost the package. He offered in vain to pay for the damages but his offer was refused, they wanted his blood.

He started to run and didn't look back, afraid of what he would see, leaving everything he had and everyone he knew and loved behind.

Trying a to make a new life in the Terminus is difficult, but he was strong enough to survive. Initially he began to work as a techie for a small mercenary group, they were the ones that taught him how to fight.

Never sure if the people that wanted him dead were still after him, he parted company with the mercenary group after a year. Working as a freelancer he made sure he didn't make a name for himself. As far as he is concerned each day could be his last day. The only link with his privileged past is the occasional street-race he participates in.

→ Keep those parental figures alive! It might be tempting to have dead parents, or have a schism between them and the character because it's an insta-drama button. Another reason is that you might not want to handle the familial relationship, which is a lazy thing to do. Finally you might just expect that parents are dead. This expectation is an outgrowth of experiencing stories meant for children and teenagers. In those stories parents are usually disposed-off as a convenient way to afford the protagonist the freedom they need to have an adventure. In all cases it is best to resist that temptation! In only a few very specific cases should you kill the parents and even then there are generally much better things you can do. 



Filling In The Details - Selecting A Species, Gender And Age

Now's the time you want to select the gender and species. There are a few species that could work, and each have their own good and bad points;
● Asari: I know myself, and me playing a biotic in combat scenarios would not end well.
● Drell: I believe that they are overrepresented on the board; we have multiple members on the board whose total numbers is between 200,000 and 300,000 individuals.
● Human: fits into this scenario almost perfectly but there are two strikes against humans; first of all timeline wise I believe it would be hard to shoehorn him in an appropriate environment for his biography to work, unless I make him Earthborn. Second of all there are already many human mercenaries on the board.
● Krogan: like asari, it would end very badly if I used a krogan in combat scenarios.
● Turian: can yet again work but brings with it its own problems, most notably in relationship of his service.

In the end I feel that both a human or a turian would work best and I just rolled for it and ended up with a turian. Since I have had a lot of problems identifying with females (I just can't get the hang of it,) I decide on a male turian.

I now need to incorporate the whole 'why not in service' part into the whole story, I believe it could be worked out as following.

He's a one of the sons of a turian couple that betrayed the Hierarchy. They fled to one of turian Terminus colonies, and made a home there. The nature of their treachery made them wealthy enough to live comfortably, but obviously they could not send their children to boot.

Age can sometimes be tricky. With age comes both skill and experience, but on the other hand it causes people to slow down just a tad, no matter how well they keep in shape.

I want my character to have some experience, but still be on the young side. 29 sounds like a good age so he's 29.

→ know yourself and play on your strengths. Some species are easier to play than others (elcor and hanar impose specialized speech patterns, as do volus and quarian to a lesser extent). When selecting a species you should be familiar with the species in question, and you should have studied the codex and wiki entries about the species in question to get a feel for them. Try not to "wing it." 



Filling In The Details - Determine The Appearance

This is pretty much based on personal preference. If you want, you can detail every little thing about him or her, or just go over it with broad strokes. Personally I believe noticeable details should be determined, these are the details most other characters would refer too when they don't use the characters name. In humans this tend to be height, build, hair and eye color. Facial hair, tattoos and scars are also very common. Other things can be ignored. Very few people will remark on earrings, for example. Clothing is handled in the next section.

The character is barefaced, (which would fit with his upbringing), his skin and carapace pigmentation is silvery grey, he has few remarkable features and could hide in any (turian) crowed if he had colonial markings. 



Filling In The Details - Material Possessions

This section will handle the material possessions of the character. It should cover the basics but you should not try to be comprehensive.

First off lets handle his wardrobe. I tend not to bother describing clothing in too much detail, but I do like to have a clear idea of the style of clothing my character wears.

For my character I'm going with a few simply tunics, all have an head cover and tend to be dark primary colors with few frills, he almost always dresses for comfort not looks. Although he sometimes wears armored shirts, just to be safe.

Next step, decide where the character lives. To decide this you must work from two pieces of information: how much money a character has, and what his situation is. If your character is always strapped for cash he or she won't live in a big house. You should remember that houses are not a one-time cost. They take money to maintain. Even if a poor character wins a big house, he may not be able to maintain it. Likewise, even a wealthy character that is on the run from the law can have trouble spending his money.

Now my character is not wealthy, but he can afford some luxuries. Unfortunately, he is also deadly afraid that he'll be found out. So I picture him having a small shed-like home on a (nearly) uninhabited planet far away from anywhere else. He might also have a small safe house on Omega; a nook he has secured where nobody would come and look for him.

When it comes to equipment try and use standardized equipment where possible, especially if you're dealing with a character that is still an active part of the military or law-enforcement agency; the turian military will be equipped with gear by Armax Arsenal, as they are one of the main suppliers for the hierarchy.

The only reason to have customized gear is either because the character has a specific goal in mind, or to show off. Showing off is usually a bad reason for custom gear, especially with special one-of-a-kind weapons or weapons with a name. Even if your character typically equips himself as the task dictates and does not have a standard load-out it can still be handy to have a list of his 'most used' equipments handy so you do-not have to scramble around for it when the time comes.

In our case the characters standard equipment list will is:
● Armax Arsenal Crossfire Assault Rifle
● Armax Arsenal Brawler Pistol
● Devlon Industries Firestorm Shotgun
● Hahne-Kedar Medium Mantis Armor
● Ariake Technologies Logic Arrest Tool
● Standard Combat Knife, Flashbang, Smoke Grenade and Normal Grenade (High Explosive Variant.)

Also use equipment that makes sense for the character. For example, my new character doesn't have a sniper rifle on his list, because the character either doesn't have the patience or aptitude to learn how to use it. It also has to with his risk-taking attitude: he feels that you should take care of things at close range. 



Filling In The Details - Skills And Abilities

Determining your skills and abilities can be tricky. On one hand it's easy to give a character too many skills, but at the same time you forget to put some essential skills on the list. The good news is that the list can change, and you can always adjust skills (it is hard, however, to justify removing a skill when he/she has previously used it, best is being conservative). Besides, the list is not meant to be all-inclusive. It should be used to get a feel of your characters abilities, and whether or not the character is over- or underpowered.

My new character has the following abilities;
● Use and Maintenance of firearms (Pistol, Shotgun and Assault Rifle)
● Use and Maintenance of Armor
● Knowledgeable in Hacking, Decrypting, Electronics, and doing these things while being under fire.
● First Aid.
● Operating and Maintaining an Aircar
● Operating a Small Spacecraft (Personal Shuttle) with the aid of an onboard VI
● Outdoor survival skill 



Filling In The Details - Relationships And Sexuality

I have noticed that my characters tend to get into sexual encounters, Dippy, Rez, Vincilum, Tellix, and Ashwood all had sexual interactions with other PC's. As such I personally take a few minutes to just think about this aspect for all new characters. If you do not feel like doing this feel free to do so (or not do so), I just felt the need to quickly add this section for the sake of completeness. The key is to keep perspective: sexuality can be a part of a character, but you should not dwell overly long over it. When in doubt, look at the environment he/she is in and decide what would be most appropriate.

Aspects you will want to consider when working on this part of a character are;
● sexuality (heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual)
● if they are open to relationships with other species
● what their current relationships are, and maybe their past relationships (especially those that stand out)
● how they present their sexuality and relationships to the world. Are they open about it or guarded, do they actively lie about it or not?

In this case we know he sleeps around. He doesn't look for a stable relationship, and will probably strike-out a lot of times unless he puts some effort in it. I don't think he's bisexual. If he is he would probably try to emphasize his heterosexual encounters and downplay the homosexual ones. Similarly, he might be interested in people outside of his species but he would downplay any such notion. 



Give That Man A Name

Well we're almost done, so we can finally come around to actually naming the guy. It's really not that difficult: just think about it for a bit. Talking with others and shooting names around helps. Remember try to keep the name in-line with the culture and species from the character.

→ Usernames do not have to be the same as their 'real' name, in fact it makes sense that they are not the always the same.

I'm going to name him Canos, and his username Charnel. 



The Final Step

The last step in the creation of any new character is playing and interacting with other players. Doing so will reveal any faults in the character you might have made. Try keeping retcons to a minimum, but don't be afraid to do them- especially earlier on. More often than not, retcons can be avoided either by having the character claim he made a mistake (everyone can makes a mistake), or by adding some new piece of information that mitigates the offending statement. This, however, requires playing the character and is outside the scope of this text.

An other topic that was not covered in this guide but that is equally that should not be ignored is research, you should do research about the topics your character has an active interest in. You don't need to do extensive research, still you should develop a familiarity with the subject at hand. If your character is an archaeologist you should know at least the bases of why and how people perform archaeology. Wikipedia, far all its (many) faults is generally a great way to start your research.




-- FIN
 



Version Information
1.0.0 - Initial Release
1.0.1 - Amended the 'dead parent' tip, incorporating an astute observation made by Corvax.
1.0.2 - Transfer to the new site.

My name is Ichabod and I approve this message.

Editorializing because Dippy said it was allowed.


This was included in the geth rules because it's a key rule to creating characters in general, not just getting geth approved. Before creating a character, it's important to make sure you have a concept - somewhere you want to go with the character, something you want to accomplish. This can be as specific as "I am desperately lonely in real life and want to RP my self-insert's girlfriend" or more abstract and open to being influenced by what happens on the boards, like "I want this character to be an exploration of leadership in an otherwise-oversightless war situation and the unsavory decisions that the pressures of that position can drive a person to".

You knew that already, of course, but the catch here is to make sure that you have a concept, not a conceit. A conceit is a passing whim, something that briefly catches your creative attention, but it'll rarely support an entire character on its own. Conceits also include characters borrowed entirely from other media; it's okay to be inspired by something you saw in a movie or game and use an element of that as a building point, but copying extensively makes the character suffer. (It will also probably get you moderated, if you're flagrant enough.)

It's okay to be inspired by a conceit, but you have to build on it or you'll end up with a shallow two-dimensional cutout...which, in some cases, serves the concept, but then we're getting sort of metareferential.

For example: "I want to play a turian dentist, and I want to interact with the rest of the board in a low-key non-action setting" is a concept. It's very bare-bones, but you know what you want to do with it.

"I want to play two volus operating an elcor suit" is a conceit. Its structure is based entirely on one detail that doesn't involve personality or interaction with other characters (unless the fact that the elcor is two volus is a secret, and secrets in RP are a whole different can of worms).

"I want to play a krogan, because I like krogan, and I want to get together with other krogan and have threads where we fight the enemies of our clans" is a concept. You take something that appeals to you and set a goal with it - plus it's an open-ended enough goal that those threads could later develop into a metaplot, plus you're having fun with others.

"I just played Dishonored and I want to play a disgraced masked assassin" is a conceit, and one that everyone will immediately recognize. Getting the character accepted by others beyond 'oh hey it's Corvo' might end up being an uphill battle.

Similarly, "Juhani is a successful character on CDN and I like what he's doing, so I'm also going to make an alien who joins the Hierarchy, but this time it'll be an asari instead of a human" is a conceit, and not very distinctive. It's good to be inspired by others and to let them know you like what they're doing, but if you're too close, once again, everybody is going to think "oh it's that asari who's basically Juhani" whenever they see the avatar.

What the above conceit is missing, for example, is that people don't like Juhani because he's a turiboo, that's a surface detail to the character. Rather, they like him because his player uses that unusual situation to set up unique interactions with other characters, and develops his character as a person through it. Copying the superficial 'gimmick' of the character is missing its heart, the part that makes it three-dimensional and relatable.

shit

18/q/f , you might be as well okay, because according to Ana:

>For example: "I want to play a turian dentist, and I want to interact with the rest of the board in a low-key non-action
>setting" is a concept. It's very bare-bones, but you know what you want to do with it.

or

>"I want to play a krogan, because I like krogan, and I want to get together with other krogan and have threads where we fight
>the enemies of our clans" is a concept. You take something that appeals to you and set a goal with it - plus it's an open-ended
>enough goal that those threads could later develop into a metaplot, plus you're having fun with others.

I guess you could replace turian dentist or Krogan with "adolescent female quarian" .... depends if you can fill out what comes after that - if it's more than "...and want to troll the boards" :)

so listen to your fellow quarian.

I'd like to start off by saying that this guide is wonderful and you should all read it.

I would also like to say that you should not do what I did. I essentially did much of this guide 'on the fly', so to speak. There was no initial concept, I just dove in. All the silly mistakes and contradictions that you make when you're writing your character? I did them all in play, and they should have never seen the light of day (rhyme not intentional). I've lost count of the amount of times I've contradicted myself or ended up stuck with a stupid idea that I came up with on a whim (especially the latter).

Protip:
If you ask in IRC whether something is a good idea, and the answer is a resounding no, do not do that thing.

To be honest, I find the bit in this about leaving species and gender out of the initial concept a bit confusing. While gender admittedly may not count for much in the Mass Effect universe (at least for most species), I'd imagine that species is pretty much essential to a character. There's some concepts that simply won't work with some species, or only work with one. It might not be necessary for the very first character concept, but it's certainly something I'd decide on a lot earlier then the guide suggests.


That seems a bit overly harsh, given the nature of your character.

I'd agree that for some characters, species is a fundamental part of the concept. You can't really talk about RTB's current concept (Ex-Cerberus spook who is trying to rebuild the organization without falling to the same mistakes) without needing stating (implicitly or explicitly) that he's human. His entire world view is shaped around some twisted notion of what's best for humanity.

For other characters, species is entirely incidental. The Maw Doc, for example, is a ecologist who studies thresher maws and just happens to be a salarian. Previous conceptions of the character had him as a human or krogan, and neither changed the fundamental idea that he was a scientist who loved researching the most insanely dangerous animal in the known galaxy. In that case, selecting species would be better saved for later.

pl@c3hold3r
RTB

All 'rules' as they are, are given with assumption that the player reading them understands that there are of course obvious exceptions to them. Of course some concepts have implicit gender and species restrictions. A recent mother who has given birth to twins will obviously be a female or an asari and not be an salarian (since they lay eggs.)

The rule is there (and once again I want to state that all rules in the OP are more a kind of heavily encouraged guideline than actual rules,) to make sure people understand that gender and species are in general not that important compared to other aspects of a character concept. There are people who think that "a gender species" is a well rounded character concept. A concept is there to help you focus, and yet again there are obvious exceptions to it.

I've done none of those things for any of my characters. Mostly just started playing and filled in as I went. Wish I had gone through all of these steps. Wouldn't have made so many mistakes or had useless characters. Thanks for the guide, I'll definitely be looking at it for any further characters I make. Maybe they won't have as glaring flaws or wholes in their backgrounds as my current guys.

Yay, Dippy! :) Very nice guide, I'll definitely use it in the future.

Here's my two cents:

"Being Someone's Girlfriend" is not a character concept.

That's a relationship, and a role, but it says nothing about personality, motivation, dreams, fears, history....

You'll see this too often in shows, comics, books, movies...cardboard cutouts whose only role is to Be Someone's Girlfriend.

And that's why, when I found myself in a planned storyline involving creating a character to Be Someone's Girlfriend, I thought long and hard about who else this character might be.

First: what traits would this person have to have to make this relationship work the way we wanted it to? What are these characters going to see in each other?

Second: What kind of events in this person's life would have created, or reinforced, those traits? What does this person want out of her life? What does she do when her girlfriend's not around? What are her beliefs, her fears, her goals?

Third: If this character comes from the same place as Sicaria, how do I make her substantially different from Sicaria? I don't want to play Sica twice.

Vindi's the end result.

For my own characters, I tend to pin down a particular worldview or ideology early on, sometimes with conflicting views because people aren't always consistent, and then extrapolate from there. Figulus is heavily influenced by classical liberalism. Jemak on the other hand was heavily founded on the idea of 'might makes right', however he does have ideas about how things should be (a "right" way of practicing slavery, certain ideas about honor, and so forth).

My character, when I was making it, was nothing more than a self-insert. It's not the most favoured starting position but that's what I took. What if the person I am was three years older and living in 2186? And there it went away. Self-insert was just a starting point, from where I began to build more to Juhani's person and distancing it away from my own self (this was not the end-goal though). I have other characters too, but they have not seen as much use as Juhani as, per the very personal connection I had with the character.

Self-inserts are not for everyone, but for me it was the best way to start up and maintain focus on Juhani. Others may argue getting too attached with your fictional characters is not a good way to deal with RP and they might be right, but this is the method I've used, and it works for me. We all have our own ways to handle the characters in our head, that was mine.

Throwing in a few things of my own I've learned if anyone is interested.

1) Allow room for growth and don't be afraid if the character is going against what you had planned. Jo was based on a single line in the codex referring to the fact that turians keep their biotics in separate units from the main military. She was supposed to be much more disillusioned with the Hierarchy, a lot more materialistic, and her general motivations were going to glamorous parties and spending time with rich men, buying designer clothes, and making lots of money as a consultant while never going near the military again. She was going to hide her biotics then maybe "come out" later as a major point in her character development.

So anyone who as played with me might notice the parts I kept from that are...biotic turian, likes fancy clothes. Okay then.

2) Make sure you're comfortable playing the character. It doesn't matter how cool they are if playing them feels forced. Aisha the asari opera singer is a character I'd love to revisit someday but she's hit with a one-two punch of being an unusual type of character to easily use for interaction with this board's demographics and more critically, I was doing a lot of world-building with her that I wasn't sure about. Personally I world-build a lot with my characters, usually without realizing I did it until it's too late, and I felt fine basically creating an entire pre-boot biotic education system with Jo that other people actually use sometimes in RP (which still flatters and astounds me). But somehow making up an asari opera company felt weird and awkward, so the character stagnated.

3) Take advantage of the fact that this is a forum-based (literally) RP. I love my prose and descriptions but what really helped me get Jo's voice down was just posting as her in random threads. Use that to your advantage - think about what your character would post on, what arguments they would get involved in, and do accordingly. You'll find a much richer personality crop up that way. If I made a character who consistently made snippy comments at hanar in the forum over several posts it would go a lot farther than doing a intro thread in a bar that went "He hated hanar. They were big stupid jellyfish."

Remember: Show, don't tell.

My advice: Figure out where your character will consistently make mistakes.

We often don't want our character to make boneheaded errors, because we want them to be cool, competent, and effective. But mistakes are a great source of character development, plot, and all those other tasty things that make great RP. Kayana is impulsive and lets her mouth run. Hansa is a workaholic and a bit controlling, etc...

When the opportunity arises to have your character indulge in their flaw, take it, because the temptation is to have them do the 'right' thing, and that's less interesting.

On the note of indulging in flaws...
What I come across in fanfiction (that bad ones usually) is "bad temper" as a flaw, in that the character likes is prone to argue irrelevant stuff, is disrespectful to people he shouldn't and so on. The problem I usually see is that the character doesn't suffer consequences. A harsh word from his or her superior is usually the only thing and then somehow that flaw ends up beneficial in one way or other.

If you want to see how that particular flaw is done well, look at Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry at that time is hitting the puberty hard and the hormons turn him into a ball of rage with a short fuse and this in turn causes him to go into action way before he thinks over it. He alienates people with his attitude, he antagonizes the worng people, he doesn't realize when he needs to keep his mouth shut and in the end it is part of the reason his godfather gets killed.

I think there are no "good" or "bad" flaws but rather inconsistent and consistent portrayal.

Extra Credits just released two very good videos on working with exposition in gameplay. While you're not designing a video game, the tips and tricks listed there are just as applicable to basic storytelling and character design as they are for gaming.

In particular, keep in mind the comments about flow and reading your lines aloud. These are critical steps in making sure your character doesn't sound...well...like Tethys Reave.

Just chiming in to keep this thread going and to share some advice =)

My favourite method for creating a character, rather than just a figure, is to use something I picked up at drama school (LAMDA called it the 'three-dimensional model of character motivation', but hey).

The idea is that all good characters (in theatre, but it applies here as well) have at least three dimensions, or levels, of motivation and characterisation: the surface, the hidden and the subconscious.

How does it work? Let's look at Lights as an example (because Corona's far less fun).

I like my villains to be at least a little brash and dismissive - stemming from a love of villainous monologues - so Lights was always going to follow this trend. So for the surface, I chose pride as her trait, which fits well with her role: She's proud and overbearing and utterly convinced that both herself and her ideology are infallible. Because this is her surface trait, it should be a key feature of how she acts around others. Hence her Dirk Black villain monologues in the distress thread, her pompous replies to the Encrypted Messages (note that she never admits how close to ruined her ship is - proud people don't show weakness if they can avoid it), and her reaction to rescue in Non-State Actors.

But surface motivations are easy. It's when you delve deeper that this gets fun, because now you've got to figure out that hidden level.

The hidden level should always mesh with the surface, for obvious reasons - if Lights' surface trait describes how she reacts to other people, it's because her hidden trait drives her to.

For Lights' hidden trait, I picked 'desires control'. Every action she takes (or plans to take, in Brainstorming) is, in some small way, an attempt to regain control. She's proud because she knows she's right, and she will always seek control for the exact same reason.

The final level of motivation is the subconscious one, a character trait that your character doesn't know (or doesn't admit) they have.

For Lights, it's fear. Fear of aliens, fear of being weak, fear of failing. It's why she joined Cerberus, it's why she's always looking for that angle, and when all's said and done, it's the entire driving force of her character.

So there you have it: Surface, hidden and subconscious. I won't say it's the best way to create a character (there is no best way, imo), but it's a handy one that lets you really play around with what you want to write about. Enjoy!