love ur lack of an ic/ooc divide

[rpanonyoda]

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CHARACTER ADVICE

[rpanonyoda]

Michael de Santa | Grand Theft Auto V

[(Anonymous)]

Handsome Jack | Borderlands 2

[(Anonymous)]

Is the Tales stuff needed for his character or is the main game plenty for getting him right?

Re: Handsome Jack | Borderlands 2

[(Anonymous)]

Tales doesn't tell you anything you didn't already know.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks anon!

Re: Handsome Jack | Borderlands 2

[(Anonymous)]

no, but you should probably play the pre-sequel though

Tachibana Kanade | Angel Beats

[(Anonymous)]

I have finished sobbing after a recent rewatch. Anyone have advice? I know she's kind of from an older series but...

satya "symmetra" vaswani | overwatch

[(Anonymous)]

anything would be helpful!

Nyx Ulric | FFXV: Kingsglaive

[(Anonymous)]

i'm more looking for other people's interpretations of him to round out his character beyond the... snapshot, i guess, that we see in the last days of insomnia's fall while everything's going to hell in a handbasket. what do people think he's like on a more day-to-day basis? i'd also love some advice on balancing out his cocky attitude on the battlefield and with his fellow glaives with his good obedient soldier routine with drautos and regis.

malleable protagonists

[(Anonymous)]

Wank made me curious, as someone who would like to play a malleable protagonist in a game soon, what is OK to add to a malleable protagonist's history? Is there a clear line or test to use? What is annoying to castmates and what is fine?

I'm talking about Bioware protagonists and similar characters whose histories fit in a few paragraphs of a codex entry and may come up a few times in dialogue or side missions, but that's all.

Re: malleable protagonists

[(Anonymous)]

don't add rape or child abuse EVER, also don't add shit that's solely there to make your character ~tragic~ and doesn't contribute to the story or their growth.

+1

[(Anonymous)]

on things like that, if it's not implied in canon, don't stick it in. use what you are given in canon as a guideline - don't try to make them a super special snowflake if there's nothing in canon to back it up.

-0.5

[(Anonymous)]

don't add it in even if it's "implied" because 90% of the time people are completely fucking reaching and outright misinterpreting offhand canon statements to justify it

see: every time someone points to something ambiguous as proof the character was a child prostitute

somehow it's almost always child prostitution that's the extra edgy secret backstory of choice

just

don't

Re: malleable protagonists

[(Anonymous)]

Assume the information you have in canon is the most important information about the character. If what you want to add is of the same significance or more as what you're already given, and if it had happened it wouldn't make sense for the additions to be left out of the write up or dialogue in canon, don't add it.

Re: malleable protagonists

[(Anonymous)]

my first suggestion would be don't app one at all. there's never been a good turnout from a bioware protag. but, if you're dead set on doing it:

- echoing what was said by the anons above. what bioware gives you is canon. the sooner you accept that as word of god fact, the easier things are going to be for everyone else having to deal with your sparkle snowflake. and for the sanity of everyone else, either in your cast or not, don't give them some tragic abuse backstory. no one wants to hear it.

- assume no one gives one single sad fuck about your character. bioware rpers have been around a million blocks with the protags and chances are there have been 999,999 before you who have soured the experience. from wardens to sheps to hawkes to inquisitors and before long ryders will join the bunch. your protag is only special to you. try not to take it personally when no one cares.

- i cannot stress this enough, in the case of dragon age protagonists, DO NOT GO IN ASSUMING ALL CASTMATES WILL KNOW YOURS! don't get a flushed fanny and blur the ic/ooc line when they don't icly recognize your protag! don't bully castmates into changing their own world state just to make an adjustment for yours! i've personally had this happen and it's rude af & admittedly why i'm extra salty toward bioware protags in general.

- tacking on to the previous point but this is important enough to have a point of its own: in the case of romances, DO NOT ASSUME YOUR CANON LI IS GOING TO BE OKAY PLAYING IT IN A GAME. always ask first if you want to do a ship. most smart people who app a protag already know not to go in with a world state romance, but there are a lot out there who feel entitled enough to assume whatever LI is already in the game has just been sitting there pining away for their sweet, sweet protag ass. though, tbf, this mostly happens with the warden/alistair or inquisitor/cullen ships.

- include relevant information of their history in your application. don't spring some stupid shit on the game after you've joined (ie the exxie wank). make that information readily available for castmates & gamemates to easily find in your journal. protags are fandom ocs basically. you have to be responsible for providing proper information.

this is tough love, anon. i say all this as someone who's been rping from bioware stuff for around 7 years. not looking to discourage you from doing what you want to do, but you gotta be aware of this shit before going in. good that you're asking first, though.

Quiet characters

[(Anonymous)]

I'm used to playing talkative characters who always have a ready quip, but I recently apped a very quiet character to a game. He's not completely silent, he just only speaks when necessary, and even then, in a very stilted, not very natural way. He's just not very sociable.

Mainly, I'm just wondering how to play this character against others without having the other people get frustrated, throw their hands in the air, and ask me to toss them something to bounce off of. I can just have him stand there silently, and use some body language, but I still wonder if it's enough to only speak every three or four tags, if that.

Re: Quiet characters

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe. It depends on a lot of things, tl;dred as

1. Does your character like (or tolerate) other people or does your character hate dealing with them?

2. Are they expressing with their body language or is their body language as stilted as their words are?

3. Are there things in the game that would engage your character (such as a taciturn mage being shown new forms of magic) or would they be bored by the setting around them?

If he likes or at least tolerates people and has expressive body language you're good. You might have to write more about what they're doing but talking about how he's frowning and wrinkling his nose and taking a sniff before recoiling and grimly passing a jug along is just as good as him saying, "It looks foul, probably tastes like piss, and smells vile." If he's more understated in his body language then you might have to simply say he took a long look at the jug before passing it along, but then you can describe how the jug looks vile and the contents smell like the bad end of a constipated wyvern and compensate that way. Not all hooks in your tag have to come directly from what your character does.

If he doesn't like or tolerate people then you might be kinda fucked in that respect. I had this one person tag me who was a pain in the ass because their character was taciturn and hated people. Their first tag to me was, paraphrased, "[go the fuck away] What do you want?" Bad enough they're quiet, but quiet and hostile's especially tough to deal with. If they're hostile then people generally want to go the fuck away, and since they're quiet you don't even get the smartass quips and the possibility of an argument. In that case you'll have to get creative.

As a general rule, just look at your tags and ask yourself...if you got that tag could you reply pretty easily or not? If y, post comment. If n, go rewrite.

ORIGINAL CHARACTERS

[(Anonymous)]

what tips do you have for creating good, solid ocs?

Ryan Atwood | The OC

[(Anonymous)]

This is a probably a long shot, but...what the hell. I'd primarily like advice on playing such a quiet and withdrawn character. Most of my previous characters are ridiculously social.