So, I often get new ideas for characters, and usually go through with making them, but one problem I almost always run into is that, even if I plan the character all the way from where he is from to what socks he would be wearing and when, I can never seem to work out a way in which to RP said charatcers.

So I often just think, throw them in there, I'll come up with somehting once I start RP'ing, but it doesn't quite work out that way, I end up playing the Evil doer who stands there quietly not wanting to talk to anyone, because he has no reason to, or a goody goody that just smiles alot offering to heal someone who passes that is injured.

Even when I plan out how exactly I imagine their personality to be, I always run into the snag that I can't figure out how I want them to react in certain situations and so on, then I seem to get a mental block not knowing how'd they react in any way at all, and eventually, I get bored of the character, usually for this reason.

So I was wondering if anyone had any good tips on figuring out ways to keep your own character(s) more interesting, or how you come up with a personality that you stick with and not get bored a week into playing?

While I'm on the subject, I'd also like to know what peoples opinions are on how to make a Monk enjoyable to play, also.

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Ael'thil Rilyn'tlithar
Previously known as: Anubis

There's no magic trick. Personally, though, I find it's good not to start off awfully serious. Casual characters that actually have some concrete to do in the world work much better for me than heroes or villains with great goals and deep psychology. All that can come through RP, once you've established the PC as something you like to play.

Take clerics, for example: if your goal is to establish and further the goals of your church, you're never going to run out of things to do. Whenever my Oghmanyte has nothing better to do, no exploring or such, he simply preaches to people, tries to raise funds for the church, makes connections left and right, etc. It's pretty individual, though, what floats your boat.

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I come up a General idea, then i start playing said General idea. If the characters not working i know by about level 6 or 7 that i'm not going to get enjoyment out of him and at that point he ends up on the refuse tip.

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I play: Gage le Gris
Socially and recently politically Inept Knight of Xymor

The biggest mistake I've made is to have the characters entire history planned out as soon as they arrive. The reason for this is that the characters history will influence the decisions they make for their future. This can lead to plot dead ends if the character accomplishes THE goal they have(there are plenty of these; revenge, enlightenment, recognition) too quickly.

I had been having similar issues and decided that the best solution was to have a character whose story would begin when they got to Amia. The only back story I gave him was that he is a sailor, has been for 30 years and wants to get a ship.

The other classic to throw in is a twist in the characters RP story. If you're going to multi-class or use a special race then keep that a secret at first. Say your character is going to be a RDD; he doesn't discover this until he sprouts scales after working on a powerful new spell or singing a really tough song. The character doesn't know their future, you do. RP can work from that.

With a monk; make them about finding enlightenment... please. I've never met a pure monk build that just wants to find spiritual enlightenment through the perfect body deal. Or do the guy from Kung Fu Master or whatever that 70's show was. Just 'walk the earth' (like a hobo); shun all material wealth, donate all your money to your monastery, wear rags and be bald. No more smart mouth assassin monks!

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Jess Incognito:- Ah, but the phoenix may fly only when its feathers are grown...

Olaf Grudgebringer: Stroppy Cleric or Morradin

Krunk (Underdark): Stay back! He's a bit mad.

the_incognitos@live.com

I like to start my characters off general, give the a physical appearance and come what may. Personality will grow in time, after I decide on a base trait (e.g. arrogant, friendly), and everything after there is free form. I have only slightly more control over my character herself than the environment does.

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2009's Second Most Overall Contributing Player

يمكنني استخدام مترجم جوجل

Think of a character, plan the character carefully, play the character and then when you get bored to it, make a new character.


How to make a monk enjoyable to play? At the moment I'm playing a monk of Waukeen, a capitalist bastard whose divine service is to help the economy run. It's great fun. Personally I had a lot of help from Iron with the character.

Evidently monks are very religious people, for true inspiration you should look up some information of real life's monasteries and beliefs.

Also, of course an enjoyable build helps keeping the character enjoyable to play. Monks are very easy and fun to level, very capable in PvM and you don't really have to bother to buff them, which is a great thumbs up.


This is off-topic, but:

Joining a faction permanently is a pretty good anchor for not losing your interest. However, if the faction becomes completely inactive, it sucks hairy balls.

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UCE THIS, YOU COW.

Thanks everyone.

I was thinking of a Monk of Selune, not sure though. I've got his build all set out ready, just working on his Bio and stuff.

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Ael'thil Rilyn'tlithar
Previously known as: Anubis

Aye, I would say that has kept my interest in my older characters.

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2009's Second Most Overall Contributing Player

يمكنني استخدام مترجم جوجل

Okay, so I got further with planning my Monk, the mental block broke momentarily and I got some more ideas down on word before I forgot them.

Now I come to think of it, Ilmater seems a good choice, the Broken Ones Monk order.

*Edited a bit.

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Ael'thil Rilyn'tlithar
Previously known as: Anubis

All of my characters on Amia, and other servers, have a long and variably complex backstory. Each character is somehow connected with at least one other (more often several) in some way. They are all a part of a larger story and while they each have a past on the mainland, and a present on Amia, they also have a future where some will meet for the first time and others will end up killing each other.

Only one character had a concrete goal that was reached on Amia - to learn to control her shape shifting and become a lion in order to be accepted back home. This goal was reached within three weeks and she "went home"... ie was put in semi-retirement. Part of her story, however, is that she is still not accepted back home so there is room for her to make a return.

While I am more attached to some characters than others, for me it's the off-Amia story that keeps me interested in the characters and even when I stop playing them, they still play a role in the big picture. Their time on Amia is, in some cases, a side-trip. For other characters it's an accident and for still others they were sent by their superiors with a specific long-term goal in mind. Regardless of their reasons for being here, their time on Amia allows me to get to know the characters and in doing so I have learned a lot more about the bigger picture which just keeps getting more interesting.

My protagonists are sisters (one of whom will likely never appear on Amia because I can't find an excuse for her to come here) and both believe the other was killed at the same time as their parents who were Harper-connected adventurers. The one that came to Amia (my WM, my first Amia character) took the wrong boat from Waterdeep, due in large part to alcohol and a horny sailor, and was separated from her companions... some of whom have come looking for her (and, of course, they never find her).

The antagonist is a Wizard, a ranking member of the group responsible for the death of girls' parents (he was trying to retrieve some powerful artifacts, now in the possession of the girls and their friends). He arrived here with his daughter and no knowledge of any of the good guys being around. This is where it starts to get interesting because I gave his daughter an item that summons a Wraith and one day I realised that that Wraith was actually her father's master - the apprentice proved himself by turning on the master and gave him to his daughter to torment him. The ultimate goals of these evil characters will not come to fruition on Amia, but they will in Cormyr, and eventually there will be a showdown near Raven's Bluff.

I had for a long time wanted to play the protagonists' parents, but it wasn't until I started playing on a NWN2 server that I found a time-frame suitable. It was while playing him that I discovered that the Wizard was in fact his brother, and therefore uncle to the protagonists, and that that character (a Favoured Soul) is in Baldur's Gate searching for his brother that's "been up to something", while his wife is in Cormyr with his two baby daughters.

I didn't know what that something was, though.

Until, when the latest patch came out and there was a bug with Epic PCs that lost, rather than gained, XP whenever they killed something (-10k XP for killing a single Goblin... ), I decided to make my Wizard's master. What was he doing in Baldur's Gate? He was looking for his erstwhile apprentice, but I couldn't figure out why for a couple of days and then it hit me - he had stolen his master's spellbook.

Neither my FS or my PM on BGSCC will find my Wizard there, but I will learn a lot about all three characters and may even find out something about the backstory that I don't know yet.

The characters that I have played the least, including my Druid, turned out to not be major players in the overall story (actually, I knew from the outset that that Druid was a peripheral character because the main Druid has a completely different name... and Race for that matter). They each have a part to play, but they are bit players, not core cast members. Each and every character is interesting simply because they are all a part of a larger story.

People that have written stories before will know the sorts of things I'm talking about - the characters demand creation and then tell the author the story. Amia is just a small part of that story - all of my characters arrive from, and all will eventually leave for, the mainland and it's there they will finally meet their destinies. Failing to achieve a life goal on Amia thus means very little.

I guess what I'm getting at is that you can have complex backstories and big dreams for your characters, but just because they don't come to fruition on Amia doesn't mean they don't achieve them somewhere else (even if you never actually play them on another server or in another game). Your PC needn't spend their entire life on the tiny islands surrounding Amia. But, if you're lucky, you might find your character telling you something completely different to what you originally planned for them - a teenager coming to Amia to prove his manhood by killing Yuan-ti before returning to the mainland may just find himself in the employ of the Cordor Guard and spending 20 years here. In other words, plan for your character to leave, but remember that, hope that, events may prevent them from doing so (also bare in mind Amia's rather loose interpretation of time... ).

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"Where's my pony?"
"I'm sorry, baby, I had to feed that pony to a dragon."
"Oh. Whose horse is this?"
"It's a Warhorse, baby."
"Whose Warhorse is this?"
"Zed's"
"Who's Zed?"
"Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."

Sokar, you don't find that this makes character development stilted or contrived? I had the problem of wanting to direct RP towards achieving my characters history(if that makes sense) because I'd already planned their life from start to finish.

Having a David Copperfield history made it harder to 'go with the flow', particularly in group RP. This was not a case of being good enough at RP to get through the situation, it was a case of maintaining interest in a character who is forced to leave potentially fun and interesting RP because of a predetermined future.

Then again it can depend on how much time you have to spare per character.

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Jess Incognito:- Ah, but the phoenix may fly only when its feathers are grown...

Olaf Grudgebringer: Stroppy Cleric or Morradin

Krunk (Underdark): Stay back! He's a bit mad.

the_incognitos@live.com

What if the character's story and future, however outlined and predestined, is still vague enough to let every path be a potential path towards that goal? Let's say the character is on a path of self-discovery, which I've found is always a good starting point - you might know the end of the path (he discovers he's an RDD, or his true father was a demon, or he's got an affinity for elemental magic, anything really), but you don't have to have every key-point of his path predetermined. Thus every kind of rp, every new turn could potentially become a key-point.

Regina: That's pretty much exactly what I was getting at.

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Jess Incognito:- Ah, but the phoenix may fly only when its feathers are grown...

Olaf Grudgebringer: Stroppy Cleric or Morradin

Krunk (Underdark): Stay back! He's a bit mad.

the_incognitos@live.com

You're confusing character development with plot development.

Your Druid, for example, witnessed a Necromancer torturing zombie kittehs in Luskan and that set him on the path to eventually becoming an Arch Druid. All your time in Amia is spent with character development with some minor, and often unexpected, plot points.

OR

Your Druid witnessed a Necromancer in Amia Forest torturing animals and this led him on the path that would lead to becoming the Arch Druid of The Grove. Everything happens on Amia and this is where it all becomes contrived - you are bound to the plot you created by virtue of the fact there is no way to escape it without abandoning the character.

The former is a completely open plot and allows for free character development, while the latter is a completely closed plot and forces the contrived situations you mentioned.

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"Where's my pony?"
"I'm sorry, baby, I had to feed that pony to a dragon."
"Oh. Whose horse is this?"
"It's a Warhorse, baby."
"Whose Warhorse is this?"
"Zed's"
"Who's Zed?"
"Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."

Making characters interesting means you have to give them a noticeable hook.

Arr! *waves hooked hand around*

On a more serious note, getting noticed is something you can do subtly or not subtly. Whichever one works for your character, that's the one you do. But don't be too subtle or other players will have no clue what you're trying to get them to notice about your character.

For example:

*Looking unshaven and unkempt, the man hobbles down the street on a cane*

*The man walks down the street with a limp, giving unsavoury glances to anyone he passes*


These could easily by the same guy, but in each instance there's a different emphasis. The first one will make you feel kind of sorry for him if you don't know who he is, the second one probably won't. However, the second one is more likely to provoke an emotional response, instead of just being read as information.

Why?

(and bonus points if you have an idea who the example character is)

Is it Mr Mago?

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Jess Incognito:- Ah, but the phoenix may fly only when its feathers are grown...

Olaf Grudgebringer: Stroppy Cleric or Morradin

Krunk (Underdark): Stay back! He's a bit mad.

the_incognitos@live.com