CHARACTERS COMBAT WORLDBUILDING WRITING MAGIC The pitfalls of poor writing/Roleplay and other observations

[Spooder Queen]

As a roleplayer and writer, I follow a simple rule, I ask myself a question, a basic question. "What do they eat?" If any fictional society is too remain mildly believable it is important to showcase how the basic functions work. While the reader doesn't need to know the housing market, things like food, water, basic work available, and their cultural way of life are vital points that must be addressed or hinted at. The next biggest hurdle is consistency. I can suspend my disbelief that Supermans eye lasers can hurt someone, but, if they suddenly cure cancer, I will feel betrayed or insulted as a reader. This is why large sections of the Star wars community do not like the new trilogy. This also happened to GOT with the teleporting around and out of character/unearned actions.

Also, your characters must have faults. Both in terms of powers, but more importantly, personality. No one likes reading about, or watching a character who is beyond broken with no inherent struggles to endure. It makes them unappealing and not marketable. Lastly, the heroes journey troupe is vital. The audience needs to see your character progress. This is why making a new RP character who is already an anime protagonist at the final arc on day one will tarnish 98% of plots. If you can easily one-shot 99% of threats, there is no tension, no stakes, and your partner and readers will be bored.

One struggle I have run into, is having characters that are 12-16 ooc years old worth of RP, is keeping inherent flaws in their kits to avoid this trapping. So, for example, Somber is purely destructive, she lacks defensive means, and has no great mobility that doesn't trap her in a straight line. Myrriah is a powerful Djinn, however, she has little means to defend against physical, and her attacks are not all-encompassing (As in limited aoe size, and being thin like a card or a 6-inch beam in circumference). This is partly why I prefer OC's that are established, as they tend to be more likely to avoid these mistakes. While a freshly new character isn't inherently bound to these faults, it requires amazing writing to convince me that they have earned their position. And most people are not good writers, just like most people are not good runners. Fandom RP's are the worst in this regard, not because you can't have a compelling narrative and interesting characters with them.

But because more time then not if you're doing a Bleach RP, someone is playing a fantasized version of themselves wearing aspects of Ichigo, playing as their granddaughter with all of his powers earned near or at the end of the magna/anime.

In summary and quick additional points to be expanded soon in more detail.

1) What do they eat, drink how does the world function on a basic level, as well as, the law of magic or tech needs to be explained or hinted at.

2) Mary/gary sues kill plots. Unless the point of the plot is a reference to that cancerous troupe. And if your characters are physically/magically OP that is fine, give them a crippling personality fault to compensate.

3) Consistency, consistency, consistency with the rules of your character and world. Nothing annoys me more than someone who says there character is selfish, suddenly being altruistic because they don't want the ire of fellow players or risk conflict they may not be able to win.

4) Power scaling is vital. It is hard to balance a character, let alone one that has been through many, many arcs or battles. However, a good writer can and will maintain some level of clear weaknesses.

5) Don't play fantasized versions of yourself. This is a huge pitfall, you can clearly tell who does, because, if you have an issue with their character they will take it personally. Because you're not attack Billy the vampire, you're attacking themselves. And no, this doesn't mean your character can't share a small amount of similarities.

6) Roleplay. You are playing a role, it makes little sense to play yourself or someone who fully aligns with your views.

7) Misc. All my characters are vastly different, not just in how they fight, but how they see the world and act. If your characters are all the same, that is a bad sign of your writing capability. IMO that either means you lack any creativity, or you're playing yourself, or you're playing the same character with a different name due to laziness.

Closing thoughts.

This is merely my own opinion, based on about 20 years and roleplaying across countless mediums. It is no way law or fact, though a few aspects are. I felt I needed to add this here to help with the common pitfalls I see people plummeting into it. As all these points will utterly shatter the suspension of disbelief, and by extension immersion. If you're offended by this, I am sorry, but I have the right to lay forth an articulate opinion. Keep in mind that any of the styles I attacked, I did specify they can work, just rarely. If you're not part of the norm, and are that exception, no need to be hostile. I welcome open discourse, especially over pm to prevent the derailing of the thread. Thank you, and I hope you guys take something away from this.

 

[Spooder Queen]

Next, I will cover the importance of theme and world scaling. Both of which, are elements that if properly utilized, will make any settings all the more believable. Before we can start, I need to quantify a few terms that will be used here. Generally, when it comes to Roleplay there are a few categories to fit your character under.


RP- Realistic powers. This means no real magic or enhanced abilities. Following real life combat as opposed to fantasy or scifi. Though scifi can work here, if the science is as infallible as plausible.


MP- MP has two categories really, Mild powers, and Moderate Powers. This to me is where you will often find the most enthralling roleplays, but that is a subjective claim. Mild powers mean that your character can use magic, and enhanced senses but they are only slightly above the realm of reality. So, you can't blow up an entire 30x30 ft room. Nor can you take on a unit of soldiers. The idea is, you can cast fire, but there are countless limitations in how it behaves, range, and efficiency.


Moderate power is the sweet spot, in this setting you can blow up a 30x30ft room, however, such strength tends to require an experienced, earned character, or set up. Defeating a unit as a single person is possible, though not within the grasp of all. On the higher end of the spectrum, it's limited to destroying cities and villages without immense effort and methodology(Such as the use of complex relics earned). So a powerful, seasoned character can blow up a block or three, but it cost a lot of mana, limiting their potential to dismantle a city alone. But a well placed team can.


OP- Overpowered, this is anything above Moderate power. The limitations will vary like any of the categories based on your community and setting. I tend to dislike this scaling method, as most end up bringing in absurd power ranges. This is where a lot of lazy writers like to sit while being an OP character or setting doesn't inherently make one lazy, it is the path of least resistance and often a good shelter for those types of roleplayers. Think "I can blow up cities or worlds if not universes." I find this to be the hardest power scaling to write a plausible world with, because if one many can blow up a planet, what good is the military and society when one emo kid can end it all because bored.


While not impossible to make an interesting world, I feel you need to be one heck of an author to properly account for, and adapt the world to function with such devastation constantly looming over head.


APS- This acronym I will use I have developed to describe the current shift in the roleplay community. No longer are people happy with playing secondary characters it seems, most want to be the center of the story. Which, isn't plausible as more players are added to the pool. Outside of a long campaign given everyone a chance to shine, yet still one player or a few will have to take the lead in narrative relevance. APS stands for "Anime Protagonist Syndrom." We have all seen this, the guy or lady who enters your RP demanding to be the center of attention even when narratively it makes 0 sense. They are often OP in contrast to the party and wish to fell every obstacle with minimum to little resistance.


In a world where everyone is OP, no one is, the only issue is when an OP tries to infiltrate an MP or RP setting. This gap in power will dissolve any tension and make the other players feel utterly obsolete. Guaranteeing the death of your setting and plot, before it can even truly get started, due to the anger and yawns it will birth. The reverse can be true, but I rarely have seen people having an issue when someone is weaker, normally when they are brokenly stronger.

 

[Spooder Queen]

Theme

All of this culminates into the theme of your character and the world/setting, as well as the plot. Theme's are a vital tool to construct a narrative and interesting character/setting/world. I will now proceed to do my best to break down how each can work to build compelling narratives. While there are dozens of approaches, I will limit this to a few for brevity sake to illustrate my points. As per any rule, there are exceptions, so do not take anything listed here as inherent gospel, even if there are a few inherent truths.

The first step to creating a character is deducing their personality, often people will start with a picture, I feel this is a terrible methodology. In life people do not always act how they may appear, we can have a gentle giant, to a short fiery spirit. The diversity of the psyche is admirable, while few traits tend to be shared, I often feel that basing your character on an image is putting them ion a box right away. And in turn will limit your capacity to construct an interesting and unique addition to any community or plot. I will now break down the process of constructing an effective theme that if you use as your foundation, will grant you more leeway and in turn draw the attention of skillful writers.

I will list the order in which I believe a theme/character should be constructed.

1. Their history.
2. Personality
3. Philosophy/theology/ideology
4. Powers and abilities outside and in combat.
5. Weaknesses and strengths tied to not only their build but also their thematic structure.
6. Gear/equipment
7. Picture
8. Anything else that's minor like, favorite food.

I will now proceed to break down why this flow I have found to bear the best fruit for your labor. I will use a character of mine toward the end to express why this flow I personally find the best.

Once you have a history plotted out, you now know your characters rough place in the world. This will allow you to define how these impacts and experiences have altered their personality, as we are products of our exposure and environment. The flow will then lead to "How do they see the world." Once you know their biography, and have pinpointed key personalities. You can construct their thoughts, be it right or wrong, toward the setting and powers that be. To include figments of their imagination like false gods, even fallible conclusions. Without this foundation, players are more likely to create characters who blow in the wind, and a character that isn't semi anchored comes off as a confused mess.

Powers and abilities can flow from what they have experience, adapted to personality wise, and their perceived thoughts of the world. From their skillset, trauma, quirks, and thought processes weakness can be explored that fits the current you have constructed. Gear will follow based on their place, obviously an urchin is unlikely to have the best armor in the land. And a noble is unlikely to favor certain types of equipment as they are of perceivable less lavished quality. If you start from number one, any outliners can easily be explained away, making it believable how the urchin has that high-quality blade, or the noble uses eggs filled with glass and sand to throw at an opponents eyes.

A picture is optional, and I feel using a picture to describe your character to a T is silly. The old saying, "You can't judge a book by its cover" applies here. And if your character is that one dimensional, don't cry meta gaming if people can look at them and deduce everything about them based on their appearance, as you as an author, constructed them that way. But even if you wanted a visage to perfectly match the theme, starting with everything else will help narrow down unfit choices. Making what you're looking for easier to find as opposed to digging through Pinterest fantasy pictures for hours, you can type "Fire belly dancer." to cut out all the fat.

The rest of the stuff is superficial in my opinion, so whatever floats your boat. But by this point you should have a good idea of your character, so the little stuff can make complete sense.

Now example time, this will be the cliff note version.

Myrriah is a Djinn, her past is about being forced to do depraved wishes, being enslaved in a bottle seeking to be freed. Her original form was a pillar of cloud, sand, and fire. Eventually, after a few ooc years she obtained her desire to be unshackled. Her hatred toward vices, greed, sexual prowess, and slavery/abuse of power all stemming from those that utilized her Djinn powers for selfish intent. Leading her to eventually grant them their wishes, at a dire cost, unless she liked them, believing herself as a valid arbiter for justice. Growing tired of being used to make others suffer, she developed an ends justified the means mentality when it came to the concepts good and evil. Finding her freedom to be a fluke, an act of fate or chance, she found herself drawn to it. Eventually desiring true freedom which isn't obtainable.

This led her to evolve a femme fatale persona, using others desires to further both their goals. While honoring her end of the bargain, as the remnants of her prior self still echo. Reaching the philosophical conclusion that only those at the top can have any mild sense of freedom. That, or by becoming fate itself she can cast off the yoke. This led her to pursue wealth, engaging in politics, rising in station as she started creating her network. Agents, plotting from shadows, economical warfare, political assassinations, spies to farm intelligence, technological advancements, and knowledge all tools to further this means.

Being from a formless cloud at first, and tied to the white sands. She has an affinity for manipulating the earth, using sand, or creating sand as a means of defense. Due to her love hate relationship with fate, she inevitably clung to the idea of foresight. Which brought her to the tarot cards she now uses as a weapon and as a skill set. Incorporating a random element into a few abilities, as Djinn by nature can be anything from evil, neutral to good, throwing in a chaotic element into their own personalities. Her lack of physical protection is due to her being originally formless, as such, she hasn't had enough time to evolve to adapt her skills against such attacks.

The sense of being an arbiter birthing cockiness, while the use of manipulation will inadvertently lead to destruction, though, destruction can be used to build new worlds from the ashes, hence ends justify the means. Her philosophy regarding power and freedom, bringing with it a love for lavished things. The deck of cards her weapon again tied to the cards of fate we are dealt with and are forced to play the hand.

I could type out many pages, but the point was to keep it brief. You can see how starting with her history/bio everything else instinctively feel into place. Creating a theme and narrative unique to her, guaranteeing both her and Somber are virtually nothing alike.