Characters of Sentiment

[IceChateau777]

Have you ever made a character from the bottom of your heart? Have you used some part of your beloved relatives and/or yourself for them? Did you love them do much that you cried upon the finished product?

I have! Yes, I DID!
One of my first characters happened to be one I made for my birthday. Ervin Iliad III happened to be my first male character in two years. He always had a smooth voice and wore a signature vest. The jazz he played was from a handmade saxophone. His scarf was also his beloved "wife"'s soul. She morphed into a human to take care of Ervin's pain.

The signature vest is modeled after my grandfather's vest. Ervin's was golden and grandpa's was red. He was known as " Red Passion" or "The Man with the Gold Vest". My grandfather was nicknamed, " The Man in the Red Vest". Ervin's affinity for jazz derives from my grandfather's disc jockey career in St. Louis.

And before I cry, I leave you with that. Tell me!

 

[Minibit]

I did once, I based a character on a close friend of mine: even named the character using my friend's middle name. I wanted to make a character not only in homage to our friendship, but as a channel to extend the fun I had hanging with my friend into the time I spent writing.

NEVER AGAIN.

Since that character I specifically avoid basing characters on sentiment; it's fun and fulfilling to write them, a totally different experience from objectively written characters, but there are horrible cons that go with

When people criticized my character, I felt they were criticizing my friend, and I lashed out defending the character as I would if my friend were bullied

I never wanted to let my character take serious damage of any kind, because it felt like hurting my friend or tarnishing our friendship which the character was built from

I didn't want to write my character as being terrible in any regard; she couldn't be a terrible swimmer, she just wasn't professional-athlete level. She couldn't have a debilitating speech impediment. Maybe just a stammer when super duper nervous. If I assigned something bad or non-admirable to the character, I felt like I was smack-talking my friend

The list goes on, I personally am now 100% against getting sentimentally attached to your characters; it makes it too easy to blind you to the errors, inconsistencies, and rotten points that need changing or removing.

 

[IceChateau777]

I agree to some extent.
I feel that you should take parts of things from people you know. For example, my grandmother used to make hats and my cousin likes bugs. You could morph those two traits in common and get something unique. A little sentiment is better than a giant scoop of it.

Otherwise, you could end up crying at the GM for something personal. Ervin was a character that I shed my tears into. He reminds me of a comic book in mint condition. I would never want to use him aside for what he was made for.

 

[Minibit]

I agree to some extent.
I feel that you should take parts of things from people you know. For example, my grandmother used to make hats and my cousin likes bugs. You could morph those two traits in common and get something unique. A little sentiment is better than a giant scoop of it.

Otherwise, you could end up crying at the GM for something personal. Ervin was a character that I shed my tears into. He reminds me of a comic book in mint condition. I would never want to use him aside for what he was made for.

Oh for sure; there's a huge difference between taking a few elements from something personal to make a character, and using so many that you become sentimentally attached to the character and unwilling to see or correct anything bad about it

 

[Diana]

I have created characters inspired by things and people that I love! I have thrown all of my self in to characters. I have looooved characters very much.

Buuuut, I have never gotten sentimentally attached to characters or let my feelings get too wrapped up in them. O_O Roleplay is a personal therapy for me, a way for me to detach from the real world and exist in another one. If I allowed myself to get too personally involved with the characters or attached too much sentimentality to them, that would be dangerous for my mental health. I WANT to feel what they feel and experience what they experience, but not to the extent that it harms me in real life. If that makes any sense. >>

 

[Fijoli]

Sentiment is ok in moderation but not letting go is for the weak, this was just how I was raised and I was raised by Asians 8D , I create most of my characters for the soul purpose of writing their beautifully tragic deaths. I do it for many reasons, But DnD Hardwired me this way as well as my family...I learned very young with DnD at age ten that I could put all the effort into a character and spend days drawing and thinking about them...but one wrong roll or sneaky critical fail. that's it. that character was gone and it was time to RE-ROLL.

Every character I draw I am always some what sentimental for and they aren't always MY characters, even character others create I feel for at time. I spend hours and sometimes DAYS drawing every little line that makes them come alive, but even I know there is a fine line between genuine sentiment and attachment and the Latter proves to hurt us and be less productive when collaboratively writing a story.

I am also strange and morbidly obsessed with death so...take this as you will. Life would mean nothing without it's eminent end, amIright? Its just my way of appreciating being alive while I am alive.I have come to Appreciate characters just as I do real people much more because of my method of character creation. keep in mind my creations are about 85% visual. LMAO

you can't waste your time on mourning whats lost when you're too busy appreciating the fact that it was here at all.
~Fijoli's Grandmother

its a perspective thing for me, but in all honesty, Our sentimental characters are for our novels, not collaborative Writing, Other people are involved and we can only hold ourselves accountable for putting ourselves out there like that. That is exactly what you do when you create such characters, you set yourself up for something Personal and drag other unknowingly into it. In my experiences I caught on quick and really considered others involved when creating ALL my RP characters.​

 

[Kyo Chapelle]

For me most of my characters I get rather attached to but I'll just talk about some of the closer and more interesting cases. The first one was a girl based on the Pokemon latias but purple like this:

She was my closest friend and unlike other characters who I built a personality for I just kind of talked to her and made her respond or say whatever felt right. This lead to her feeling far more genuine than other OCs to the point I only call her my imaginary friend because character doesn't FEEL like the proper word. She has a human form now and we always talk. She was sassy but caring and would always look out for me. Sometimes my friends even indulge in talking to her because they understand how real she is to me. Others assume I am hallucinating because I give her so much realness I guess you could call it. In fact every time I look at this picture I just get images in my head of when I was in elementary school. To me she is my closest friend I love her like a sister and a child you know?

 

[LogicfromLogic]

No.

Because it devalues the relationship you have with someone or yourself, as crazy as that sounds. I use some things that have happened to me in my past before, but i make them very distant. like putting a little cinnamon in food, you can't taste it almost at all. Besides, you are not roleplaying to tell your story or a friends, you are there to tell the story of that character.

Why ruin it for yourself?