CHA 2015 Beginning Level of Character Development: Skall

CHA 2015 Beginning Level of Character Development
COURSE SYLLABUS

Instructor: Skallagrim

A. DESCRIPTION

This course involves a careful examination of character creation as a tool of storytelling. Emphases are on development of basic characters, visualization, and history. It is an exploratory, first course in character creation designed primarily for students planning to enroll in the regular-program Character Development courses upon completion of this course. However, it also meets the needs of many students with other interests, as a refresher course in character development, a course for upgrading your current skills, as a course that provides students with a general "feel" for the subject of breathing life into characters.

B. ORGANIZATION

This is a lecture-lab course in which topics are presented by the instructor, concepts are explained, and fleshing out of characters are completed by students both during lab periods and outside of class. Objective quizzes are given weekly, and there is a comprehensive final exam. This basic character development course assumes no previous writing experience or training, so the initial emphases are on the creation of characters and basic development.

C. COURSE OBJECTIVES

1. To introduce students to the development process, to character appearance, and to acceptable mental concepts that well rounded characters have.
2. To introduce students to various forms of character development and to selection of representations appropriate to specific needs of their role-play.
3. To introduce students to the definition of a Mary Sue/Gary Stu character and how to recognize your own creation as one.
4. To orient students to the range of writing methods, topics, and occupations that will help them develop a "real" character.
5. To provide students with opportunities to develop basic character development skills that can be used in future role-plays.

D. COURSE TOPICS

The course will cover the following topics:
1. Basic character creation procedures
2. Naming
3. Physical attributes
4. Mental attributes
5. Professions
6. Emotional Views
7. Psychological Views
8. Developments and growth.


F. GRADING PLAN

Coursework will be weighted as follows:

1) Character Development
2 Weekly Quizzes
3) Final Exam
4) Participation




Character Development:

An aspect of character development will be assigned almost every class period. Each writing will be graded unless there are major errors or omissions and it is returned for correction or completion. Writings with minor detail or other non-conceptual errors will be graded as submitted, and letter grades will be given. Writing due dates will be given to you for each assignment

Quizzes:

There will be many development type and other concept quizzes. Quizzes will relate to current and previous topics. A quiz may be given at any time during any class period -- immediately after a lecture, at the beginning or end of a class, etc. There will be no make-up quizzes -- none even later during the same class period.

FINAL EXAM:

The final exam will be comprehensive and entirely based on character creation. It will be given at the last week of class and submitted at the end of that week.

Accepted CHA 2015 Beginning Level of Character Development class roster:

* zardude (Stuart Tusspot)
* Jai (Alec Grossman)
* Korobug (Ayren Harmen)
* Maharg (Jared Ross)
* YueShine (Luna Stellar)
* livet (Ash Erben)
* trungo (Taka Caden)
* Terryer (Terry Roraus)

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The classroom sparse, with several dozen seat-desk combos filling nearly a third of the room, a wooden desk, a dais and podium and two white boards at the front filled the rest of it. On the white board scrawled in bright red marker are the name of the class and the professor's name.

CHA 2015 Beginning Level of Character Development
COURSE SYLLABUS

Instructor: Skallagrim

Standing at the podium is a tall man, older, wearing a kilt and a gray shirt. From his mass it is clear at a younger age he was thickly muscled, with short-cropped black hair and hazel eyes that peer from under brushy brows he appears stern.

"Well sit down. Moreover, welcome to Beginning levels of Character Development. You are all here because you want to learn. You want to make better characters for your stories and your role-plays." Leaning on the podium Skallagrim stares at each of them in turn.

"Characters are the most important thing in role-plays and in stories. Neither medium can proceed without them. What makes a character special though is how they are made; if they aren't compelling the reader loses interest, if they are too perfect the reader gets bored. The key is making a character that is both compelling enough to hold a readers attention, as well as flawed enough to make the reader care about them."

Straightening, peering at each student a lingering moment before continuing, " I want to know what each of you think makes a character compelling."

Please note you need not reply in character, just reply in the first person as if you were seated at this lecture.

I think the most imporant thing about chractor devolopment is about the chractor.
It tells you the bio and the ages and what races too.
it even helps you out if you dont know who the person is or what race.
I mean comeon if we didnt have chractor development then we wouldnt even have
chractors.
Taka then exit and went to 2015 grammer.

Grade: B

What makes a character compelling, hmmm. I would have to say experience. Not the role players experience, but the characters experience. And I don't mean that history people write up to have a fully fledged character either, I mean what they gain through actual roleplaying, the actions and choices they encounter that really shape and change the character. Without these, regardless of how well designed or though out the character is, they could just pass by as a short term or secondary character meant to die. Most people probably don't agree with me, but that's what I believe, basically even the worst character in existence can become one of the best through their own experience in a roleplay.

Grade: B

LESSON 1: All right, since the registered number of students in the class didn't come the first day I am going to move on and allow them to simply pick up where they come in. This is beginning character development, which means making characters for storytelling and role-plays (role-playing is collaborative storytelling).

What makes a character compelling is a simple one, a compelling character can answer the three questions any reader will ask.

1) Why should I care? Why should I care about this character, this story or this role-play? Why should I invest my time in this, either reading or writing and interacting? Why should I care about this clichéd character/situation/story?

2) Believability-Why should I believe this can happen? Why did that happen? Do you, the writer, think I am dumb enough to believe that supernatural/ fantasy/ sci-fi crap?

3) What is going on? What just happened? Where is this story happening? Why are they just talking? Isn't the world more than just these two people?

Questions any reader will ask when they look at your role-play or story; these are questions that you, the writer and creator, need to answer first. After all, you are the first audience for the character/story/role-play you are creating.

Three words to remember when creating a character should be Belief, Caring, and Clarity. When you make a character, can you believe they are real? Can you care about what happens to the character and their situation? Finally, when you write the character and situations the character is in, is it clear and understandable?

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I will give you a series of questions. You need to answer the questions in order to construct the character.

1)   Male or female?
2)   How old?
3)   Why this particular age?
4)   What can you do at this age?
5)   Where can you go at this age?
6)   Why do you want to go there?
7)   What happens when you get in trouble?
8)   Does getting in trouble hurt others?
9)   Who does it hurt and why?
10)   Does it hurt you to hurt these others? Why?

Ok that is a very basic realistic character we are building, give the character some thought because we are going to use this character until the end of semester. Only answer the questions I have asked.

You have until Tuesday 10/6/2009 to submit this character.

NOTE: Put your character here in this database: CHA 2015 Database Our class time is for discussion. I want characters here.

I want to know what each of you think makes a character compelling

I believe a compelling character is created with the choices the role-player gives it. Certain choices give the character a reputation. Good choice for a good character, bad choices for a evil one. Much like the Chinese 'ying-yang' there are certain consequences with certain actions.

It also counts along with the history, experience and different ways it has been created. Therefore an ultimately compelling character is unique, interesting and over-all a addictive to those the character is aimed for.

Grade: B
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Please cut and paste this character to the DATABASE so we can edit them without ruining the discussions.

1) Male or female? - Female

2) How old? - 18

3) Why this particular age? - Its well rounded and gives me a good age to construct a character. It is also fairly common around the site.

4) What can you do at this age? - Most of the things any human can do at 18.

5) Where can you go at this age? - Taverns, nightclubs and other places 18 year olds can go.

6) Why do you want to go there? - There is more of a choice of people to interact with

7) What happens when you get in trouble? - I can get repremanded.

Does getting in trouble hurt others? - It depends on hat happened.

9) Who does it hurt and why? - It can hurt those involved

10) Does it hurt you to hurt these others? Why? Because I never anted to hurt said people

I'm missing from your student roster I think...

"I want to know what each of you think makes a character compelling."

What makes a charater compelling, I think is if you can relate to him/her and their situations. Of course if it's not theme isn't realism, it would be their history and their abilities, personality etc.

Grade: B

Please hurry to catch up with the current assignment.

LESSON 2: Alright everyone who submitted a character and placed it in the Database great job.

I have looked over your characters. I want you to continue to use this as an editing place so I can look over and evaluate them. But I want you with the name assignment to place them in your character's tab.

Two reasons for this, 1) so you can show them off when this class is done.
2) It willhelp Master test his system for characters and you will then be adding substantially to the development of RolePlayGateway.

Thanks guys.

Skall
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Quiz time: PM me your answers.

1) What are the three questions a reader will ask?
2) Define one of those questions, and provide an example.
3) What are the three words to remember when making a character?
4) Define one of those words.

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The next thing that we are going to do is name our character. Names are very important, think I am joking. When you say Luck Skywalker, Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Darth Vader, you get an impression right away. You know whom I am speaking. The name carries an iconic imagery with it.

Names are a fundamental thing, they tell the reader who is speaking, who is doing what action and who to root for and to boo. A good name, a great name is legendary. Our next task is going to be naming the character we have started.

You are going to give your character a first name, a surname and a nick-name they are known by. Sounds simple yes? Wrong.

In addition to this name you are to name the mother and father, and their parents, and then their parents. You are to go back three generations from you. In those generations, you are to name each person in that generation the same way, a first name, a surname, and a nickname.

Here is where it gets interesting. You will then provide small synopses of those people. Where they are from, where they were born, what they did, and how they died if they are dead. I want no more than a maximum of two paragraphs for each name. I want your character to have a lineage, a history of people who they can trace back. Be creative, don't give me vanilla. If you give me vanilla, it will reflect on your grades.

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Ok so to sum it up:
Your Name.
Your parent's names,
Their parent's names,
Your great grand parents names.
Where these people were born.
Where they are from.
What they did in life.
And did they die?

A maximum of two paragraphs per individual explaining the above.
You have until Saturday to flesh this out.


I want to know the name lineage of your characters family.I want to see the history of names that led to yours. Names are important they are your only identifier and are unique to you. Others may have names similar to you but your name is uniquely yours because it has history behind it.

Ok, I'll just do 1 and 2.

1) Male or female? Male
2) How old? 22
3) Why this particular age? He's young enough to be considered in his prime, he's on his own and just about comfortable like that. He still has a lot to learn and a lot of growing up to do.
4) What can you do at this age? He's considered a legal adult, and is over 21, so just about anything no matter where he goes.
5) Where can you go at this age? Anywhere, depending on money and time.
6) Why do you want to go there? Fun or necessity, I wasn't very specific in 5.
7) What happens when you get in trouble? Depends how bad. Anything from nothing to prison.
Does getting in trouble hurt others? Yes, especially if the trouble he gets into happens to result in prison.
9) Who does it hurt and why? Friends, family. Anyone and everyone who cares about him.
10) Does it hurt you to hurt these others? Why? Of course, why wouldn't it hurt him to hurt those who care?

Does no one actually read what I write in terms of lessons and where to place certain things? I have asked that your characters please go in the database as well as your personal character tab. I ask this so that I can write notes in your database sheet while your character tab will be the final product and project for this class.

Lesson 3: Alright everyone who submitted a character and placed it in the Database great job.

Ok great job everyone. Now that we have named our character lets look at the visual aspect of this character shall we? By doing the previous lesson we established a familial lineage going back three generations on both sides of the family. Now we will use those to build our visual appearance.

We, all of us, are visual representations of dominate physical traits. If you recall I asked where these people in the characters line came from and what they did. From that, you are to tell me, what each of those people looked like in a brief paragraph that includes tall, short or average height and their hair color, eye color and skin color. Their weight as describe by the words thin, average, husky, or obese and if they have athletic, pear shaped or apple shaped bodies. I want to know their weight and body shape. Moreover, for god sakes I don't want a family of perfect people because that is not realistic. Be honest, if you need an example look at your own families, look at how the bodylines are similar/different and how they blend from the two family branches to have created you.
That is the exercise; construct your characters physical appearance off what you created for the ancestors. Look at dominate traits in the family trees.

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Ok so to sum it up:
Describe the appearance of you family.
Identify dominate traits.
Determine which trait will supersede the others in you.
What is your eye color? Why?
What is your body style? Why?
What is your skin color? Why?
What is your general body shape? Why?

I want a detailed explanation for why you describe yourself and from which side of the family you gained the traits. I want this well thought out and done by next Thursday.