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General advice, please? It's not too difficult for me to come up with a character concept and form a coherent backstory, but how do you really make a distinctive personality for your OC? It's easy to throw out some vague buzzwords ("quiet and timid", "bubbly and flirty," "brooding and badass"), but in practice it's very tempting to just have them react in the most convenient manner at the moment, and they end up being really vague and flat that way. Any tips on making them more focused and having a consistent voice?

Or any advice, really. I've never really played an OC before and I'm very nervous about joining a game.

This anon's opinion is that you should treat OC personality sections pretty much the same as canon/fandom character's personality section.

Don't just list a trait, like "brooding", relate their traits to something in their history. For example, "Name is prone to brooding, as when he went to the roof to think, after the fight". If an OC doesn't have a long history or backstory, then use hypotheticals to demonstrate personality. Like: "Name is the kind of person who would laugh when insulted, but would show less humor if his friend's or family were insulted instead; he's very protective".

Let their actions and choices form their personality, and vice versa. If they once reacted one way, and later another, be sure to explain why or how they changed. Like: "In the past, Name would rise to any challenge and was prone to fighting whenever insulted, but after the terrible fight he lost, he learned to control his temper. On a later occasion, he struggled to find the strength to resist taunts, but ultimately resisted fighting, and instead walked away."

This isn't generally how I form OCs, but it's something that you might find helpful so I'll babble a bit anyway.

Roleplaying is primarily about interaction between characters. So if you're worried about behavioral consistency, here's a whole bunch of questions you might want to think about:

How do they act around someone they really like? How do they act around someone they really hate? At what point on the like-hate spectrum do they start feeling or acting on each of these things? What can someone do to move one way or another on the like-hate spectrum, and how much? Does it take a really long time for them to reach a certain place on that spectrum (say if it takes someone doing multiple absolutely horrible things before your character will actually hate them)? What are things that most people would expect to move them in one direction on that spectrum, but if they do it around/to your character, it actually moves them in the other? Are there certain types of people your character is more/less forgiving of? How easy do they trust someone? How reluctant are they to let go of that trust if it's shown that it's misplaced? What makes them fall in love?

It's a long list and there's probably more that I'm not thinking of, so feel free to add anything that you think should be on there. But I think if you figure out the answers to these sorts of questions and then follow that guideline, you'll be pretty good. And if your character goes through development that changes any of this, that's fine! But make sure you can justify it so that you're not just changing things when it's convenient.

As a final disclaimer, YMMV. I don't claim this will work for everyone, so don't be discouraged if it doesn't feel like it's working for you.

My favourite way of figuring out an OC is to be able to play them against someone or write them - which, if you're scared of them reacting conveniently, would probably be the better option - until I start figuring out more details and intricacies to their personality, apart from just the general stuff. But while doing that - especially if I'm rping - I keep the personality section nearby so I can go "well, what *should* they be doing, within the confines of what I know right now?" I like giving my characters little vocal quirks, personally, or some personality quirk that can be used to further conversation (for example, I have a writer who asks people a lot of questions about themselves to learn more about people, and a police officer who is too nice to admit they don't get sarcasm so they end up inadvertently playing along). Kind of a cheat, but it helps keep the character interacting with people.

Also! A good beta reader is the best thing you could have with an OC app. It's so easy to write things you think make sense that completely don't to an outside party.

For OCs, I've found well written setting and background sections to be vital to figuring out their personalities. Though there's not necessarily any one right order to figuring this stuff out. I've started out with an idea of their personality and then used background and setting to flesh that out. I've also started with the setting, then threw major life events at them, and figured out how it might've influenced their personalities.

Having a strong sense of your character's place within their setting and how it's affected them is a huge asset to roleplaying any character. Figure out where they live, what kind of place it is, what kinds of problems they would've had to deal with, what kind of upbringing they would've had, stuff like that. Also, any major events (anything affecting the region(s) they lived in) that might've particularly affected them.

Once you have that, look how they reacted to that stuff. What did they do in response? Why did they do that?

Also, background elements specific to your character, such as family. Family's actually a huge one. How did your character's family treat them? What kinds of childhood experiences did they have? How did they react to all those?

Oh, a huge one: what do they want, and how do they go around trying to get it? Strong desires can really help bring a character to life. For extra fun, you can give them contradicting drives. For example, desires for money, love, and a good reputation. When it comes down to conflicts between the three, which ones tend to win out? And how do they feel about it afterwards?

Addenda: strong desires and personality traits can help you play your character such that they'll make choices that'd be inconvenient for them, just for a chance at attaining that desire. It's fun to have your characters screw up sometimes!

For example, having them, in the heat of the moment, pursue their desire for revenge against someone who wronged them, forgetting that said wrongdoer is important to someone your character loves. In a more cool-headed moment, they might not pursuit that revenge!

Alternatively, a character who's less hotblooded might choose to seek revenge in more subtle ways, so that said love won't notice.

That's another thing. People'll react differently depending on the situation. Do consider that. The other responses have some good advice too.

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