Character Creation: A Helpful Tip

[jamalMV]

I thought i'd put this out there hoping it may be useful to someone on here. I'm in the process of writing a book and i have made two very interesting characters so far and they are both based around me. One of them represents who i am now in my present and One of them represents who i want to become i thought this would be an interesting thing to apply to creating characters in your RPG Maker game. Make characters based around yourself.


There so many possibilities as well you don't just have to use the two example i described for example:

• who you were in the past
  
• who you wouldn't want to become
  
• your greatest strength
  
• your biggest weakness
  
• what you believe in
  
• hobbies and interests
  
• favourite animal
  
• cultural background
  

I hope this make sense and helps anyone currently making an rpg

 

[Kes]

I am not clear what your discussion point is.  Perhaps you could clarify that.


You might also find this thread helpful in providing a range of views, if that is what you are looking for, on using oneself as the basis of character creation.

 

[jamalMV]

I am not clear what your discussion point is.  Perhaps you could clarify that.


You might also find this thread helpful in providing a range of views, if that is what you are looking for, on using oneself as the basis of character creation.

In short, take an aspect of yourself and make that into a character for example a person you want to become, your cultural background, your favourite hobby etc.


so Kjiro is the main character in my story and he is based on the person i am now (lonely, unhappy, in an unfulfilling job and finding it difficult to accept himself). K'Oni is the other character  in my story and he is based on  the person i want to be (happy, fulfilled, accepting of myself and accepted by others, a dancer, a risk taker)

 

[Kes]

@jamalMV Please do not quote whole posts simply to indicate who you are answering.  It makes loading the page and scrolling down it much slower, especially for those accessing this on their phones.  If you want to make it clear who you are replying to, just use the @membername convention as I have done on this post.


I can see that you are making a suggestion when you say "In short take an aspect of yourself ...." but a suggestion is not a discussion.  Is it that you want us to discuss whether we think this is a good idea or not?  Or whether some aspects of the person are more suited for this than others?

 

[jamalMV]

@ksjp17i think might of picked the wrong place to post this on the forum sorry.

 

[CallMeKerrigan]

I think that's some smart advice but I wouldn't recommend sticking to strictly that type of mindset when creating characters for a couple different reasons. 


1.) It makes the game very personal. if you make your characters modeled exactly after you, it can make accepting criticism harder because it could feel like a personal attack when someone dislikes the character or game. 


2.) making characters what you want to be is a great way to pave the path towards a Mary Sue character. If you put this type of character in your game you would definitely want to avoid making this the main character. typically what everyone wants to be does not include flaws like selfishness, ugliness, pettiness, stupidity, immaturity, etc. 


3.) I think it's really imporant to balance the traits of your characters. if you have a positive outlook on who you were in the past, it may be hard to conjure negatives. if you have a negative outlook on who you were in the past, it may be hard to conjuread up redeeming qualities that will help your players like your main character. 


I think experiences and emotions make great framework for any type of art, but just that. You don't want to throw away imagination when you don't have to.