A Character's Greatest Weakness

[Diana]

We ALL have a weakness. Sometimes this is something that's really obvious, and sometimes it's totally unexpected. The same principal goes for our roleplay characters! No matter how powerful they are, there has to be something that, if exploited, could lead to their doom. Without those weaknesses, characters would fall flat and be uninteresting!

What are some more "obvious" weaknesses do you often add to your characters?

Have you ever given a character a really unique or "weird" weakness that you rarely (or never) see characters have in roleplays? What is it?

Fears can be a weakness if it's great enough! How have you utilized a character's fears as a weakness in roleplays?

 

[Vay]

Fears and weaknesses:

Drake:

Obvious weakness:

He puts very little thought into what he does and runs on impulse most of the time. He is also easy to anger and ca be easily tricked.

Unusual weakness:

He is addicted to blood and needs a constant supply. even more that a few hours without it gives him the shakes.

Fear:[/b]

He fears the withdraw symptoms that come from going without blood and can easily be reduced into a sniveling servant if someone though get control of his supply.

Geoffry:

Obvious weakness:

Inexperience and a unrelenting drive to prove himself. This makes him take risks and puts himself and his ship in danger.

Unusual weakness:

His ship is a pile of crap, mere scraps welded together and a weak midsection, and yet most believe it to be a solid vessel and she is given the normal tasks for a ship of her size.

Fear:

He fears the ultimate defeat which seems inevitable. This may be used to get him to bargain rather than fight. he save his people is his goal, even if it means surrender.

 

[Kitti]

What are some more "obvious" weaknesses do you often add to your characters?

Hmm, often it will be emotional. They'll either be sensitive deep down, or impulsive and brash.

Have you ever given a character a really unique or "weird" weakness that you rarely (or never) see characters have in roleplays? What is it?

Hmm, well, for 6 Princes, it wasn't shown very much but I had a character with a severe weakness to the whims of his little brother because his brother was the only one who still trusted him to be acceptable and he was afraid of letting him down. It's not extremely rare, but it was one I don't see much.

Fears can be a weakness if it's great enough! How have you utilized a character's fears as a weakness in roleplays?

Most fears I play on involve other people: the fear of being hurt, of being alone, etc. which influences how a character reacts with others and how much introspective commentary they will share and how introverted they tend to be.

 

[Sakura]

What are some more "obvious" weaknesses do you often add to your characters?

Mmkay. Obvious ones ? That would be like physical frailty, emotional explosiveness, && overanalysing, to name a few.

Fears can be a weakness if it's great enough! How have you utilized a character's fears as a weakness in roleplays?

Haha. This made me think of this one Gaia Rp about some haunted house thing where the characters all go inside as a dare. My character was this teenage girl who had a crush on one of the cute boys with her. So using the fact that she was 'scared of ghosts', I could have her pounce, snuggle, cling, and cry on the guy all I wanted. It was fun. xD

 

[Diana]

I'm surprised more people aren't answering this one. >:D What's the matter? Do the roleplayers of Iwaku only play godly badasses with no weak points?

C'mon now. >:] I bet someone has some interesting characters here somewhere.

 

[Paorou-sama]

Diana is researching everything about our characters so that she an make an uber character that can kill us off one by one. D:

Paorou's weakness is that he is too fatalistic and particularly extreme about it. It puts him at odds with everyone else almost all the time.

 

[Ampoule]

OH. EMO. PAOROU.

Since Ampoule's strength is EAT then I guess Ampoule's weakness would be NOT EAT. Or something like that...

 

[Paorou-sama]

I just wrote that so that Paorou could actually have a weakness.

 

[Palonis]

My usual tactic when writing characters is to determine if my character is strong, fast, durable, or intelligent. If I have one of those traits, then I will reverse one of the other traits to compensate. For example, if a character can do a lot of damage, he or she will usually be gullible or have slow reflexes or something like that.

For most of my characters, speed and power are my yin and yang, and Palonis in Iwaku World is no different. I decided to make him a fast character with good magical talent (speed and intellect) who doesn't have the muscles of a lot of other characters and can't take a hit (power and durability).

Another obvious weakness that I tack on is the concept of elemental weaknesses. If a character uses elemental powers, then he has to be weak to the opposing element. So for Palonis, since he uses the powers of darkness, he's naturally weak to the powers of light.

One unusual weakness I added to a character once was on a different forum, where I made a character who was lactose-intolerant. Surprisingly enough, not too many people in RP land are diabetic, asthmatic, or something similar. No dyslexia, almost no characters with obesity problems, and so forth. I found that amusingly odd, because adding these common physical problems to a character would seem to me like a good way to make them more human.

I believe that fears are very effective weaknesses, because they challenge roleplayers to write effectively in situations where their characters might not be completely in control. One thing that I've noticed is that many roleplayers don't want to have their characters lose their competency, but fears do that to you. And let's be honest here. A fear doesn't count as a weakness if your character overcomes it the first time that something that he or she fears pops up, so you've got to weaken your character at least once, or just not make it a weakness at all.

Anyway, enough of the rambling. One case where I made a character completely lose himself was also on another forum, when I made a character who was afraid of heights, and one part required the characters to be up on a building. For almost that entire scene, my character was huddled up against the door to the stairs, afraid of going anywhere near the edge of the building, despite the fact that the rest of the characters could have used my character's help in that scene.

 

[Clover]

I swear everytime I create a character her weakness is ALWAYS men! .... D: