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Character Development

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Character Development ( )

Postby ConvolutedMusings on Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:33 am

The grand lecture hall where developing your character will become a skill much like walking - you won't need to think about it.
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Please tell me now what life is, Please tell me now what love is... Again, tell me what life is.

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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby LitomoSilver on Tue Feb 19, 2008 7:33 pm

Character development is an essential part of the roleplay that occurs literally everywhere.

With that in mind, to develop a fully fleshed out character is an important component to the roleplay. But some roleplayers prefer to develop their characters through RPs themselves, such as Melfina, Saladin and myself, just to name a few.

Developing a character through roleplay is difficult, as sometimes all you have is an idea of a character. A name, or a image. Or possibly even a mood.

These are all catalysts to the creation of a character.

But for basics, which is what we'll do for now till each one of you are able to develop a very basic character sheet, and able to RP with that character, this is what you will be doing.

As we progress, you'll slowly get into the developing of your character, using the character that you created through the character development process.

Be warned, however, as you create characters for various roleplays, you will get attached to one, or even a few. In essence, you would simply feel that character's emotions, think like that character when the time comes for it.

This, however, is a very dangerous thing. But unfortunately, it happens all too often. We all have roleplays where we're unable to separate ourselves from the character, or the character from yourself.

I will not say no to you, because I know this will be useless. Each one of you will learn then, what it is like to be attached to a character, to watch your character experience his/her lives.

Shall we begin, then, on the journey to creating a character from the depths of your mind, your emotions, and even your soul?

Are you ready to commit? To take the risk of creating a character that you'll grow attached to? To learn, and improve your character and overall, your roleplays?

If so, then come, and join me as we learn together, how we roleplay, with our characters that we make with our hands, minds and hearts.
A Fallen Warrior am I, as I lay upon my back, knowing as I raise my eyes to the skies, as I lose the battle of my life, that I will never see again...those that I love. Blood and tears flow gently down my face as I await the final judgment...knowing that I am forever free, yet forever damned as I close my eyes and release my breath for the final time...

Dovie'andi se tovya sagain....It's time to toss the dice...Mat Cauthon-Robert Jordan...Wheel of Time series

"How do you prove that you exist? Maybe we don't exist..." - Vivi

"Having sworn fealty, must I spend my life in servitude?" - Steiner

"To be forgotten is worse than death." - Freya

"The only dependable thing about the future is uncertainty." - Amarant.

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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby LitomoSilver on Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:38 pm

Alright!

Students, I would like all of you to consider a character that you will use for Character Development.

We will be, at this time, creating name, age, sex, a very short ability, (Basics, mind you. No supernatural powers or any of that. We will introduce that later.)

What I want from each of you is to think hard about a character that you are willing to work with, to learn and to develop with.

The following basics:

Name:
Age:
Sex:
City:
Brief history:

Then I will take a look at each one of your posts.

First, I will post my own as to give you an example.

Name: Kelric Skolia
Age: 20
Sex: Male
City: Kenshia Planet: Lyshriol (Optional)
Brief history: A piliot in training, graduate of the local high school, Kenshia High, born from a wealthy family that is known as the Imperialate.

The empire is known as the Raylicarns.

Alright, this is a very brief list and doesn't give you much information other than who the character is, where he comes from.

In the coming days, you will learn more and more about my character, about your own as we progress in our lessons.

Enjoy!
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Veste on Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:29 pm

Name: Joshua 'the Bear' Archer

Age: 18

Gender: Male

City: Mattheson, Ontario, Canada Planet: Earth

Brief History: Josh grew up without a mother - she died during child birth. His home town was quite small, and had few facilities to make use of. There was no library, the only hospictal was two towns away, and there was a single, locally-owned corner store that held the only available food. Oddly enough, there were two bars.

Josh grew up going to a school that had only a handful of students, and was picked on by every classmate in the place due to his large size. Due to this, as soon as Josh learned how to drive, he began exploring the area around where he lived. Eventually, he discovered the properous city of Toronto. He was quite amazed by its size and sheer volume of residents, but eventually made his way back home - he was quite unable to give up his rural lifestyle.

Skills (?): Simply living in a rustic, country-like environment has afforded Josh a strong body, especially in his chest and arms. As well, he is a talented grappler, although he has almost no experience with the ability.
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby LitomoSilver on Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:15 am

Veste,

Good! You've made a great short profile!

However, I did say the minimum, as in, the absolute basic. Name, age, sex, city and a short history, and while you've made one, my intention was for everyone, myself included, to make a basic profile.

You expanded quite a bit beyond the basics.

That's a no no.

As I said in the beginning, we're to start with literally the absolute basic. As if your character has no memory of who he/she was.

We will, through our development of our characters and roleplaying them out, learn how to develop the history behind the character, how they think, act and say, as well as their history.

grins In any case, you have shown that you can expand even with the basics.

I'd like for you to not jump the gun just yet. Let the others have their chance. Let me too, have the chance to show each one of you students, how I develop my characters, though, with the format, my intention is that every one of you will be able to develop your own style, through developing your characters and fleshing them out.

Until then, we'll be working with the basics.

This may seem boring to you all, but it will make sense in the long run.

You'll see this as you roleplay.
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Clyodna on Fri Feb 29, 2008 10:42 am

Ok, sorry for the late reply ^^; Right, here goes:

Name: Elisabeth Raeven
Age: 70
Sex: female
City: Amsterdam, planet Earth
Brief history: Elizabeth is a retired GP and although rather well to do she has no family of her own.
Skills: Rusty medical skills, a good general culture ( she speaks five languages ) and a lot of life experience.
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby LitomoSilver on Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:07 am

Good, Clyodna!

Though I'm wondering what GP is. :P
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Clyodna on Sun Mar 02, 2008 10:11 pm

GP is General Practitioner or physician. The term physician is a bit confusing for me so i use GP instead. Known as "docteur" in French and "huisarts" in Dutch, this kind of doctor specializes in family practice. So my character would have only very general medical skills.
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby LitomoSilver on Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:16 am

Ahhhh. General Practitioner.

Gotcha.

Understandable. :D
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Sir Alban on Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:01 am

sorry, about the late post.

Name: Akio Horoshi
Age: 27
Sex: Male
City: Yokohama, Japan
Brief history: Has lived alone for a few years, just finished training as a designer, no close family.
Skills: fair skills at shooting, goes clay pigeon shooting sometimes, knows basic medical skills, good at eorking things out. good at designing things (obviously)
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby LitomoSilver on Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:06 am

Good, Vengence!

Basic profile, check!
Short detail, check!

:D We will definitely be having a good time. Quite a range of RPers here!

Now, let's see what the others have in their bag of tricks! :D
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Sashay on Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:59 pm

Name: Anna Love
Age: 21
Sex: Female
City: Wichita Falls, Texas, US. PLanet: Earth.
Brief history: Has been wandering (mostly alone, though there is sometimes another with her) for the past six years. Doesn't have a home or family.
Skills: Musician (voice), empathy.

There's more that could be said, but just for the sake of simplicity...yeah.
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Miss Erin on Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:13 pm

Name: Grace Smith
Age: 19
Sex: Female
City: Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Brief history: Living on a horse rescue farm in Kentucky with her father, she has been working with horses her whole life. She wishes to be a champion horse trainner, racer and breeder, though she likes the work they do. Her mother died when she was 3, when thrown off a horse.
Skills: Horse trainning, riding, and general care. She can draw very well.
Why yes - I am a Disney princess, thanks for asking.
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Sir Alban on Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:41 am

[When do we get the next assignment?]
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby LitomoSilver on Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:48 pm

I apologize for the delay.

I've been having BSoD errors for two days straight... and I think I've successfully wiped it off the face of the earth. So far, the computer has not rebooted due to the BSoDs. (Blue Screens of Death.)

As it is, I will be watching this system for at least another 12 hours. (The computer would reboot at least 30 minutes to an hour to anywhere up to 12 hours.)

I really am sorry for the delay.

By around noon tomorrow I will have a post up, hopefully.

(Blast, that took several tries to get posted.)
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby LitomoSilver on Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:43 pm

Wow, that took a lot longer, after the stability tests were done.

My computer is now fully stable.

The next assignment is this: We will gather together, and during the travel to the gathering, you will begin creating some of your character's background.

As we proceed to the gathering, I want you all to consider what direction your character will be going in, as in how your character develops.

I will set the scene below.

It is day-time, and morning has passed, yet it is not noon. A park is seen, children playing on the playground. Young children laughing, smiles gracing their lips, innocence soon to be lost, in the near future. Some are playing on the slides, others on the monkey bars, still yet others in the sand, making sand castles and the like.

Mothers and fathers watching, walking. Dogs jumping around, barking and fetching toys thrown from large and small hands alike.

Nearby are tables and grills standing next to them. Restrooms in a large brown building is also nearby for convenience. Some are in use, cooking various BBQ food. Others are not.


This is the barest scene.

We will flesh it out with our characters' memories. The goal here is to flesh out the park with your character's memories of their childhood.
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Sir Alban on Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:18 am

ok, so you mean we write a post concerning how our character felt when they were a child in this place, and other places like this? cool, I will enjoy doing this....
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Sir Alban on Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:31 am

Ok, here goes.

Akio looked round at all his friends, who were talking to each other. he himself preferred to sit in silence. Outside of the car, the noise suddenly increased, as a park came into view. He smiled to himself as they passed by, thinking back to his childhood. it seemed like such a long time ago.

He used to love going to the park, feeding the ducks, dipping his hand into the water, soaking the bread he was holding out in the hope that one of the ducks would come and take it from him. he had enjoyed this, but his favourite part of the park had always been the playground. He used to spend hours there, mainly alone, playing in the sandpit, or swinging on the monkey bars, crying and running over to his father or mother whenever he fell.

He remembered the first time he had attempted to go down the slide, sitting at the top, while his father crouched at the bottom, trying to get him to slide down. He had wanted to, but had been too scared. For many weeks that had gone on, and his father would always say the same words of encouragement. 'Come on Akio, it will be fun, come on Akio, just let go and slide down, it will be over very quickly. Akio had to hide a grin as he thought back to how he had finally gone down the slide. A boy behind him, bored of waiting to go down the slide, had pushed him in the back, taking Akio by surprise and before he had figured out what had happened Akio was at the bottom of the slide. He had thoroughly enjoyed it, and went back up again and again to slide down, much to the delight of his father.

The swings were something he had never cared for, he had only been small, and older kids would always push him out of the way so that they could have a go. He was always scared to go too high on the swings anyway.

Outside of the playground he was always more withdrawn. He made few friends, and spent most of his time on his own. He had not enjoyed those times. Through his childhood the playground had been a place of happiness, a place to escape from the rest of the world.

Akio turned and watched as the playground slipped out of view. He sighed. That place brought back a lot of memories.
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Sir Alban on Mon Mar 10, 2008 1:15 pm

hello?
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Re: Character Development ( )

Postby Clyodna on Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:01 pm

(( Ok, sorry for the late post. I hope your computer with be fine from now on Litomo :). And Vengence I usually give people at least a week before I start getting worried ;) ))

The dog stood waggling its tail and waiting for the ball to be thrown. Elisabeth tried to trick it the first time, like she had seen the other man do, but the animal wasn't fooled by her poor imitation. Finally she threw it as far as she could, with her five year old strength, watching as the dog bounded after it. She clapped her little hands with excitement when the ball was retuned to her a few moments later and hugged her new source of amusement around the neck as a reward. Of course she had to wait her turn, after the other kids, to throw the ball again but watching the dog running around was great all the same.

Dropping with a great thump after climbing over the fence, the ten year old girl waited for her other companions to join her as well. They had all been waiting for this very moment, when the door to the taps controlling the sprinkler system would be left open. She sneaked in and with the others watching that no one was coming she opened all the taps as much as she could. Cheers from the outside soon turned to screams, followed by loud barking. Her heart leaped and in a moment she was at the fence, climbing it. The dogs were snapping their jaws at her heels and before she made it over one of them managed to scrape her leg with its fangs. All the others were already out of sight so she made for her family's table as well. Even though she tried to stay calm her heart thumped in her chest all day.

The old woman stopped dead as the dog bounded towards her. She watched it as it streaked past her and then returned with a stick in its mouth. After all these years Miss Reaven didn't trust dogs. Her history with cats wasn't all rosy either but she liked them all the same. Seeing it was no threat, she continued her walk through the park and even petted it the next time it came round. Even so that first moment always made her feel apprehensive.
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