This is just something I've noticed lately, but why do people not think of any sort of weaknesses for a character or complication for one of the beneficial traits they might possess?

It greatly confuses and frustrates me, especially when you go to the trouble to construct a weakness for a character and someone says ,"Well I don't see a weakness here." or "I don't like this."

What would you consider a viable character weakness? Should it be physical or otherwise?

It depends on the ability or character, I would say. If it's some kind of power, then it should have some kind of limit (can only use it for a certain amount of time, energy drain), a side effect on the person using it (while using it it makes them sick, etc.) or some kind of environmental condition that makes it impossible to use. Of course, a 'realistic' power (I realize none of them would be truly realistic, but you know what I mean) would have a balance of all three. But, say you have a power that has no limit to it--It should have a side effect where the more you stretch yourself, the more it hurts you.

For example, a super powered character I have in one of my roleplays now can induce dreams in people around him. This power technically has no limit, but the consequences of trying to induce a dream in more than 16 people make it so even if he COULD go more, he never would, as it would cause his heart to stop.

As far as more personal traits, it comes down to making the character believable. No one is a perfect human being, and everyone has a point at which they would do anything. There is no character trait in realistic people that would stay consistent in EVERY situation you threw at them. Creating a character is deciding what those traits are in normal conditions, how easily they change in the abnormal situations to come in the RP, and WHY that particular trait will react to the situation that way.

Another form of weakness that I have noticed as well, and that I have done in some of my characters (not on the forum of course), is Magi or Mages. A weakness would be this; Taking the time to cast a spell. Or if your a blood Mage or necromancer, then you have to give something to receive results. For example, A blood mage has to use their own blood to conjure their magic, that is a form of weakness and one people don't particularly like, but when playing a character, you need to add some. You have no God-like character, that would be God Modding. So if someone makes a character, that should throw in negative traits to counter-balance their positive ones. I understand where you're coming from this, and it frustrates me to no end when I see characters that seem to have "No weakness".

I think it's because we all imagine our characters "perfect" because we create things that we can identify with. So, having them physically maimed is difficult and uneasy and we don't understand well how human flaws really work outside of blatant ways instead of the subtle ways and how it can root out and affect other key parts of a personality.

TV shows have a trend to take a flaw/characteristic, exaggerate it, and make a character from it and I believe it's what many RPers do. Nothing wrong with that per se but if every character is like that a lot of people will see a lack of depth as the characters seem to have one fault they need to overcome before becoming perfect.

I believe one of the problems is that RPers are used to not having strict GMs and strict ideas/rules to adhere to so they can pretty much do and be anything. While in a more structured environment they find their skills in story writing/character developing more limited and will dislike the game because of it.

It's all about pushing yourself and doing your best to go in depth with your characters and making them real to yourself. I, personally, have been writing stories since the age of 5-ish so creating things and doing my best is easy as pie.
But I know not everyone did and some people struggle, and I think they need to spend more time than me on such things to do their best. I believe there are tips and tricks you can use such as pretending to be the character, writing out scenes that would reveal info about your character, and so on to give them a better idea of who their characters are.

But... who's gonna put that much effort in an RP?
Most RPs are too simple to bother for things like that, right?

No one particularly wants to say that their characters are flawed in one way or another. Some do it naturally and accept that their characters can't be perfect, but others just don't want to be taken advantage of. Me for example, I had a character who's weakness was water, of course it was risky as he could of easily been defeated by someone throwing a bucket over him. However I put my faith into the other members and thus he never actually suffered terrible damage, I actually wrote him being hurt much more than anyone else doing so. People are afraid that if they put a weakness, others will exploit it and thus their characters will be killed or beaten easily. It comes down to trust and not surprisingly, not many people have it. Unless you're Rping with a bunch of people you know well, you cannot tell what the others will be like. No one wants to join a Rp to have their characters easily beaten and their excuses being; "Yeah but I used something which he was weak against." It's just a little fear and we all have to realize that not everyone is like that and we do respect each other and our characters.

As for what type of weakness, I believe that a physical weakness (rather than mental) is much more effective. In one of my Rps called Heaven and Hell: Second Wave (sequel to Children of Heaven and Hell, which uses the same technique) I get people to add a weakness into their character's sheets. Taking two of my own characters for example, one of them was of course weak against water (it would burn his skin), whilst the others' weakness was ticking (clock ticking; it would make him go insane slightly). Naturally there are so many ways around the ticking weakness, but not for the water. Therefore proving that physical weaknesses are much better in the sense that they can't be easily avoided. I remember at one point, someone put their weakness as Being alone meaning that the person couldn't stand to be alone. Is that really a weakness?

As for the fourth-wallers, I think one solution to that could be having a weakness, but don't put it in your profile. Instead, keep it to yourself or PM it to the GM so there is someone to force your adherance.

I totally agree with Pieluver. I'm the same way (though my characters tend to have deep rooted emotional and psychological problems instead of physical disabilities). Characters that are temperamental, or alcoholics, or womanizer and such have a rich history as to how they got that way. Personally, I love screwing up my characters' lives in some twisted fashion, and having other characters push their buttons to see how they'd react.

Even better yet, when you come across another diamond character, they can assist your own as they overcome whatever issue happened that messed them up. I'm a hopeless romantic, and coming across a good plot and developing a really beautiful love story is pretty rare because of roadblocks like perfect characters with no depth or substance. I think it's funny how the "flawless" ones are the most boring, horribly underdeveloped and premature.

I don't know if any of this made sense or was relevant but I had to get it off my chest. Lol

It makes sense Valentine, and honestly the psychological problems are the hardest to portray. This is usually because you as the author may or may not have such issues or know someone with such issues to give you any sort of feedback as to how a person would react.
I've done some with physical limitations and weaknesses, but I haven't given them that much thought over the years.

Yes the newer characters tend to have some kinks, and I've found that some people seem more receptive to a character that has no development though. This might be because they want to develop more through a RP session and add onto the character as time progresses. I'm not sure on this one though.

Oh, Izoi, if you look at the demographics on this site and the amount of time these people have spent on it, you will see that most of the members are angsty teenagers/tweens and young adults and their expiration date lasts for about a year, maybe not even that. Most people who are involved in writing want to move away from reality. Flaws = realism. It's a no go.

I know when I started writing (when I was around 13) that I couldn't possibly kill off anyone in my stories or give them a stump or put them in a wheelchair or afflict them with a horrible disease. As I am growing older I am becoming more and more cynical; I have seen horrifying things - I practically worked in a home for children with mental illnesses and I have seen many people in my life die with disgusting diseases.
Now I relish in killing off my characters. I love to explore the human spirit by looking through another set of eyes and ears.

It is maturity that you are seeking and I'm afraid that the internet is not a mature place. It's a place of escapism where you can hide behind anonymous accounts and do things you never could do in reality. This should not bother you unless you are actually trying to make a very VERY good RP with people who can add something new to your story. But the very fact that you've noticed this portrays that you have the skills capable in making "real" persons in your stories.

Dox

Character weakness is extremely important to the composition of a character. I prefer to think of it as the dynamic of the character's strengths. The character should be good at something, even if it is only one thing, and then be either marginal at everything else or perhaps even sub-marginal in certain areas. I, personally, have never really had difficulty constructing character strengths and weaknesses, but I can understand why it might be difficult.

Character weakness, as a phrase, implies that the character has failed in the past. This is related to the development of the character and their history. And...few human beings in this world like to fail. It can be an uncomfortable subject for anyone and that would include those who are trying to define a character concept. If a character is designed to be fallible or less-than-perfect then that character should not be role-played in such a way that they appear to be anything other.

Those are my two bits about the general subject and a response to the first post. Making a list of what I think to be valid character weaknesses would...be a little long and exhausting for a simple forum post as this, I think. Good luck to everyone hunting for capable role-players.

To be honest with you Doxology, I take offense to that. I am a teen, sixteen actually and have been writing since I was about twelve years old. I've been told I am much better than most teenagers which is good, ah whatever. I don't take offense, I take it back. All i'm saying is that not every teen on this site has issues dealing with character development or letting them die. In fact, i'm all for letting each and everyone one of my characters die. I will admit sometimes I like to use the same character in a different universe, but mainly because I like their concept. This was ages ago now and currently I don't ever double up my characters. I've also improved a lot more since I first started anyway. At the age of twelve I wrote a story (yes it was terrible) but actually... most of my characters died in it. It actually opened with the main character researching a theif, but then being killed, someone took his place obviously. I understand what you mean though, many don't want to kill their characters and double them up to probably -- as you say -- develop them more. Many Rps may not last for too long anyway and if you have taken a liking to that character, you'd want to use them again. We all have our own ways of doing things is what i'm trying to say. ^^

Psychological weakness, I myself, tend to stray away from. My characters always have flaws in their personalities, like they would be extremely stubborn or arrogant to the point of pushing everyone else away. However... psychological weaknesses are a hard thing to pull off, mainly because I can't think of a good enough one. Being lonely could be classed as a weakness, depending on how far you take it. If your character is in desperate need to company and cannot survive without someone there for them, then okay... that's a weakness... if your character just states they don't like to be alone as their weakness but then sits at home watching tv by themselves, then where is the weakness showing? Of course it takes time for such a thing to show, but I would always hint at such things through the RP, gradually revealing their true emotions and the problems they suffer with psychologically.

I think some of the most natural weaknesses to attribute to a character are just that... Weaknesses in character. Greed, pride, honesty, empathy, anger problems etc. When worked in well with a backstory, these can serve as serious obstacles to overcome throughout the course of a story. Also, some of these character traits can double as strengths in specific circumstances. I think it makes sense that people focus on what their character excels at, much like we do in real life. We don't dwell on our weaknesses because we'd rather we didn't have any.

A very good point Ninja!
I personally find the more interesting flaws to be that of what real people might have, if that makes any sense.

Weaknesses come in all shapes and forms and to even label them as such is slightly deceptive. I balk slightly when I encounter a character sheet requirement that requires you to list strengths and weaknesses because this sort of implies they are different parts. I much prefer a solid 'personality' requirement because this just provides so much flesh to your character then a series of bullet points. Also, often I find that things don't seem to balance, if you feel you can't have the same number of strengths and weaknesses, don't stress out too much. It makes your character that much more realistic.

I find that most of my characters just automatically have personality weaknesses and strengths and they blur. I must admit I've created characters to have them totally awesome and I really don't like them to lose combats. Yet even these turn out to have inherent flaws. Even if they were pretty much awesome at everything there would be a personality weakness somewhere. I don't go for physical weakness because, well I like my characters and I'm not keen on maiming them or something. So in that way I'm guilty. Yet also, don't be in such a hurry to label a physical disability as a weakness because it generally must have a twin mental effect to really have a influence on the character, it could even be a strength once translated as a personality trait.

This takes me on to my second point, duality. As I mentioned before some of my characters I've made quite powerful. This is there strength but also their weakness. To draw on a specific character. A Kirata is a brute of a creature, with hardly anything to match it in combat. Yet for this very reason they are large targets and can't really use guns. They are proud and honourable, which can be good and bad. Voila, strength and weakness in one package. You could have a theoretically perfect character, but because of the influence of realism there will always be another side to the coin. The problem occurs therefore with whether the writing is realistic or not.

So returning to the initial question there are always weaknesses in a character in terms of a roleplay, although on a character sheet they may seem to lack any. Any strength automatically has an associated weakness, although the opposite is less true. What is really needed is these weaknesses to actually be shown, which is more down to skill at writing and realistic roleplaying. Certainly this is no excuse for everyone to have Mary Sues since not everyone has the quality of writing I mentioned and even going that far breaks reality.

Anyone disagree? Agree? There may be holes in my argument that need patching. Otherwise I hope this is enlightening.

My character's weaknesses are usually somewhere in their personality or something mental about them. For instance, I have characters that are very prone to emotional manipulation and characters who are not 'mentally healthy'. In a few cases I have characters who have physical weaknesses, but they are not the norm.

For instance, one of my characters is an angsty teen who is prone to being manipulated. She is also prone to working way too hard at the expense of her physical health and despite this doesn't have the sheer talent to be the best of the best at what she does. (She is a sad character to watch develop)

Another one of my characters lacks a formal education, which can heavily effect her interactions with others.

Another one of my characters is a psychopath who is mentally unstable to the point that her actions and thoughts don't often make complete logical sense, causing her to be virtually incapable of living amongst other human beings due to her tendency to suddenly desire to slay them without regards for the consequences of her actions.


They all struggle with their own problems that have a pretty significant effect on their lives. The reason I don't normally give my characters physical weaknesses is because I don't find it all that interesting. They aren't really strong enough to justify it either. It would be like giving humans a weakness to the cold... in DBZ. (That is to say, giving weaknesses to people who are weak enough as it is.)

Well I've been mulling around a character for a fair bit and I think the best weakness is always the first thing to either come up or the first thing to make sense in the puzzle that is character creation and progression, take one of my new characters, he's a mutant, not the ugly type but the radiation scrambled his molecular structure since birth giving him the ability to vibrate himself though walls but the weakness to this?

A weak heart and the inability to deal with sudden and violent shocks as quick as normal people can, I think it's a great weakness and setback as it can add to a story, and it's all about the story and fun to me.

In my opinion, weaknesses can fall into six specific subtypes:

• Chronic Physical Disability
  
  A lifelong physiological condition appearing either at birth, during development, or caused during adulthood, that is expected to last indefinitely, and that inhibits one or more major areas of life skills or typical functional abilities.
  
  Examples: Blindness, deafness, stuttering, amputation, cancer, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, muscular dystrophy, or partial or complete paralysis.
  
  
• Temporary Physical Disability
  
  A physiological condition expected to last for a specific, determinable period of time that inhibits one or more major areas of life skills or typical functional abilities, or which interrupts homeostasis.
  
  Examples: Dizziness, broken bone, concussion, torn ligament, burn, frostbite, flu, fever, knife wounds, bullet wounds, splinters, or insect or animal bites.
  
  
• Limit to Power or Ability
  
  Restrictions on when, how often, or in what way or types of situations a power or ability can be used, and the extent of its potential effects.
  
  
• Lack of Knowledge or Training in Specific Area
  
  Restrictions on level of education or training in areas of specialty or expertise, as well as identifying areas of no knowledge or training.
  
  Examples: Certifications, professional licenses, apprenticeships, substantive degrees, experience, or lackthereof.
  
  
• Chronic Mental or Neurological Disability or Deficit
  
  A lifelong mental, emotional, psychiatric, or neurological condition appearing either at birth, during development, or caused during adulthood, that is expected to last indefinitely, and that inhibits one or more major areas of life skills or typical functional abilities.
  
  Examples: Mental illnesses, behavior disorders, phobias, personality disorders, learning disabilities, mood disorders, or developmental disabilities.
  
  
• Temporary Mental or Neurological Disability or Deficit
  
  A mental, emotional, psychiatric, or neurological condition expected to last for a specific, determinable period of time that inhibits one or more major areas of life skills or typical functional abilities, or which interrupts homeostasis.
  
  Examples: Illegal drug use, drunkenness, injection of unknown drugs, or sleep deprivation.

Of that list of six, four categories can be considered while developing a character and two can occur during a roleplay or in the course of a story.

Examples of some applications I have had:

The character Fatin Farah has several chronic mental or neurological disabilities or deficits, mostly stemming from an abusive childhood. While developing the character Arianne Drulović, I noted that she had chronic physical disability in the complete loss of motor control and sensory input in her left wrist down to the fingers, as well as chronic mental or neurological disability or deficit in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder. In one Multiverse scene, she was injured with temporary physical disability after attempts on her life. The character Natalie Schultz was last seen in the Multiverse roleplay before her death while inebriated, a temporary mental or neurological disability or deficit, and Natalija Drulović was arrested while drunk after being provoked into a bar fight.

XoShattereddreamzoX wrote:Another form of weakness that I have noticed as well, and that I have done in some of my characters (not on the forum of course), is Magi or Mages. A weakness would be this; Taking the time to cast a spell. Or if your a blood Mage or necromancer, then you have to give something to receive results. For example, A blood mage has to use their own blood to conjure their magic, that is a form of weakness and one people don't particularly like, but when playing a character, you need to add some. You have no God-like character, that would be God Modding. So if someone makes a character, that should throw in negative traits to counter-balance their positive ones. I understand where you're coming from this, and it frustrates me to no end when I see characters that seem to have "No weakness".

I think the main issue with giving weaknesses to super-powered characters is that sometimes they can be really arbitrary and nonsensical.

Look at Superman. The whole point of Kryptonite is to give him a weakness, but it has no justification beyond, "he needs a weakness so here's a glowing green rock".

In any case, I think this is a problem when people don't use a similar power source. If you have a wizard roleplay, have specific rules for magic. Wizards in Harry Potter have no weakness, but everyone else is a wizard, so it's all balanced out. In a setting where you have wizards mixed with non-magic users, or magic users that all follow different rules, it gets more difficult.

And with some characters, it doesn't make sense for them to have certain physical flaws. If you're playing a Spetznaz or a Navy SEAL, you are going to be playing a character that is physically peak, of at least above-average mental abilities, and possesses a variety of skills. But no one's going to argue that they, for their lack of obvious disadvantages are by any means perfect individuals. (Admittedly, when you get superpowers in the mix, it complicates things, but really, you shouldn't use superhuman abilities unless everyone's going to be on the exact same level, or everyone involved is prepared to deal with a evel of disparity).


To be honest, I'm the kind of person who never puts down weakness on a sheet, since I define weak points by what a character "can't" do, rather than something that has an active effect against them (i.e. my Navy SEAL earlier doesn't have any real 'weaknesses', but there are a lot of 'strengths' he doesn't have, even in a military context).

Tabris wrote:Psychological weakness, I myself, tend to stray away from. My characters always have flaws in their personalities, like they would be extremely stubborn or arrogant to the point of pushing everyone else away. However... psychological weaknesses are a hard thing to pull off, mainly because I can't think of a good enough one. Being lonely could be classed as a weakness, depending on how far you take it. If your character is in desperate need to company and cannot survive without someone there for them, then okay... that's a weakness... if your character just states they don't like to be alone as their weakness but then sits at home watching tv by themselves, then where is the weakness showing? Of course it takes time for such a thing to show, but I would always hint at such things through the RP, gradually revealing their true emotions and the problems they suffer with psychologically.

When it comes to "psychological weaknesses", I would say that, yes, loneliness and such, is a weakness, but it obviously requires roleplaying that often doesn't get done (this is most egregious in D&D-style roleplaying games where people try to get "points" for psychological faults). I wouldn't even have points for crippling phobias.

if your character just states they don't like to be alone as their weakness but then sits at home watching tv by themselves, then where is the weakness showing?

Ironically, this is probably totally accurate to what person who can't stand being alone would actually do, since they probably suffer confidence issues that prevent them from seeking companionship. But yeah, I guess most people wouldn't describe it that far.




Again, I think these issues are mostly relevant to super-power RPs, and are characteristic of not checking the positive attributes in the first place, rather than trying to mitigate them with negative ones, and are relevant to challenge-based plotlines where it is character-ability vs. some other factor.