Questions 3

<h2>Basics</h2>

Name: This is pretty self-explanatory, full name, maiden name.

Nicknames/Alias: Again, self-explanatory. If they have nicknames explain the meaning behind them (unless its an abbreviation).

Face Claim: I normally write bios before picking face claims but some prefer to do it the other way. This is a very general rule but try not to deviate too far from the FC’s real age, no more than three years either way.

Age: For some supernatural/fantasy/sci-fi genres you may need “appearance/physical age” as well.

Gender: Again, self-explanatory.

Sexuality: Again, self-explanatory.

Date/Place of Birth: Time and place of birth is quite important as it’ll effect other parts of the bio like name choices or childhood life.

Currently: Location-wise.

Nationality/Species: Self-explanatory. Please note that ethnicity and nationality are different. If there are different species in your roleplay, you might also have sub-species groups.

Occupation: If applicable.

Rank: For roleplays that feature hierarchies like royal families or schools where there are no jobs, a ranking system might be more suitable. Can also be used to describe social class.

<h2>History</h2>

Childhood/Family Life: Who they grew up with, family life in general? Does your character know who their parents are, are they the biological parents, what were their expectations for your character? Any particularly memories, traumatic or life changing? Did your character grow up in a specific type of culture or belief system that shapes who they are now? Any lingering health problems or hereditary family illnesses?

Education: For the real life based roleplays set in the present, level of education can be important. For roleplays set further back in history, how much education can be important. I find education to be an important factor because it effects who we are, who we can be and who we want to be. Education and wealth is also intertwined with social background.

Accomplishments: Mention those relevant to the personality development or plot. For example, if your character received a music scholarship, you can have them memorize numerous Mozart pieces and still be realistic. Or if your character graduated top of the class in sword fighting, it might explain why they started hacking away at zombies with a machete as opposed to running in the opposite direction. There can also be negatives to some accomplishments, for example, receiving a military medal can show a character as courageous and dedicated to their country. But (depending on the medal) it could also mean they were the only survivor of an air raid which resulted in long term guilt causing them to avoid meaningful relationships that could lead to their happiness (Survivor’s guilt).

Regrets: Everyone has regrets; if only I could turn back time, if only we had known earlier, if only you had seen the other choice earlier. Regrets can be a huge part of a character’s subplot (talked about later) because when someone acknowledges they’ve done something wrong, the first reaction is normally to fix it. Someone who has no regrets, also says a lot about them.

Secrets: Everyone has secrets, how big are your character’s? Think about things like who knows, how many people does it effect, anyone in particularly that cannot know the secret, consequences of certain people knowing.

<h2>Personality</h2>

Positives/Virtues/Skills: In general, positive traits are aspects that make that your character likable whether it’s their attitude, behaviour or actions. Positive traits can also be skills your character is good at, placing them at an advantage.

<ul>

<li><a href="http://thewolf-rph.tumblr.com/post/45391575091/">1000 Character Flaws and Strengths (thewolf-rph)</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.creativeaffirmations.com/positive-character-traits.html">Positive Character Traits</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.gurusoftware.com/GuruNet/Personal/Factors.htm">Traits of Human Consciousness</a></li>

<li><a href="http://ideonomy.mit.edu/essays/traits.html">638 Primary Personality Traits</a></li>

<li><a href="http://writeworld.tumblr.com/virtuelist">Huge List of Virtues (writeworld)</a></li>

</ul>

Flaws/Weaknesses: Flaws make your character real and believable so think before you write something down for the sake of it. Read the history again as qualities will emerge from events in the character’s past. To me, flaws include negative aspects (especially in abundance) which have a negative effect on themselves and/or others, traits that prevent your character from being ‘perfect’, or just weaknesses like phobias.

<ul>

<li><a href="http://thewolf-rph.tumblr.com/post/45391575091/">1000 Character Flaws and Strengths (thewolf-rph)</a></li>

<li><a href="http://writerswrite.posterous.com/123-ideas-for-character-flaws">123 Ideas for Character Flaws</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.darkworldrpg.com/lore/flaws.html">Character Flaws List (Dark World RPG)</a></li>

<li><a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterFlawIndex">Character Flaw Index (TVTropes)</a></li>

<li><a href="http://scriptshadow.net/screenwriting-article-11-character-flaws-to-use-in-your-script-right-now/">11 Character Flaws To Use In Your Script Right Now!</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.gurusoftware.com/GuruNet/Personal/Factors.htm">Traits of Human Consciousness</a></li>

<li><a href="http://writeworld.tumblr.com/viceslist">Huge List of Vices (writeworld)</a></li>

</ul>

<div>Do not just come up with a random list of traits totally plucked out of thin air. A number of personality traits are often directly related to our history/background - so re-read what was written above and make logical connections. Personality is revealed by behavior, how one interact with others and what decisions they make. Also be careful that you don’t contradict yourself; someone who is childish will probably not be the leader of a political rebellion any time soon. Likewise, someone who is physically weak will probably not be jumping into every bar fight they see. A classic Mary Sue contradiction is lack of self-confidence even when every male character is lusting after them. I read a very interesting piece on <a href="http://katharinehelpburn.tumblr.com/post/45354798480/5-stupid-habits-you-develop-growing-up-in-a-broken">5 Stupid Habits You Develop Growing Up In A Broken Home</a> which is a great example of actions/events and consequent personality traits.

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you no Mary Sues and Marty/Gary Stus. Or Anti-Sues. It’s all about balance, I’m not sure if there’s a general rule but it’s best to try for one negative trait for each positive.

Even with positive and negative traits, there can be different types of positive and different types of negatives. Some traits can double as both strengths and flaws depending on the context; some flaws are only viewed upon as flaws by a certain demographic; certain positives that are shown habitually can come off as a flaw instead and then there are those traits which aren’t really flaws at all.

(*) Stubbornness is generally viewed upon as a negative trait but at the same time perseverance is a positive trait. I call these neutral traits where context is most important. If Character A is refusing to even listen to why Character B thinks A is doing something wrong, this is viewed as negative. However if Character A refuses to give up on their dream job even if Character B says they don’t think they’re suitable, this is viewed as positive attitude.

() I have no idea if being sarcastic is considered positive or negative (another neutral for me) but sometimes the younger generation will see sarcasm as being snarky and sassy, thus cool whereas the older generation will just see it as being rude and/or argumentative.

(*) Confidence is a positive trait, too much confidence can make a person cocky and arrogant, over-valuing themselves. Same with intelligence, one can turn arrogant and look down on others less fortunate. Another popular one I see is cautious characters who can be seen as paranoid.

() Clumsiness. To be totally honest, I don’t even know what ‘clumsy’ is. Is it a lack of co-ordination, a lack of grace, a lack of common sense (tripping over your feet when walking across a flat platform is not clumsiness; thats just the inability to walk across flat platforms., in which case I would be more worried about their health) or an excuse used to cover up mistakes/accidents? Well anyway, this is not a personality flaw because the majority of the time it’s used to portray the character as cute instead.

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Personality Type: Sometimes for my own characters, or major characters in a story I will give them one of the sixteen personality types.

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html">Myers Briggs Personality Types</a></li>

</ul>

Archetype: Again, this is when I want to be detailed or sometimes I use to plan out bios to make sure there are different types of characters.

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.myss.com/library/contracts/determine.asp">Caroline Myss Archtypes</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.soulcraft.co/essays/the_12_common_archetypes.html">The 12 Common Archetypes</a></li>

<li><a href="http://goteenwriters.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/list-of-character-archetypes.html">A List of Character Archetypes</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.tamicowden.com/villains.htm">The 16 Villain Archetypes</a></li>

<li><a href="http://okayophelia.tumblr.com/tagged/archetype%20series">Okayophelia’s Archetype Picspam Series</a></li>

</ul>

Likes & Dislikes: This is more of a fun section. Favourite colour, foods, places in the world? Music, books, quotes? Types of clothing? Hobbies? Preferred activities in their free time? For people your character dislikes, leave it to the relationship/enemies section.

Dreams/Ambitions: Dreams will often change due to circumstance or age but I would still make a note of short term ambitions and goals which can later tie in with the character’s subplot (mentioned later).

Fears: Can include phobias that will be relevant but also fears related to the plot. For example there’s a zombie outbreak, their greatest fear could just simply be turning into a zombie. Or if these zombies are soul-losing, flesh eating zombies, the character’s greatest fear could be hurting (a.k.a. eating) a family member.

<h2>Relationships</h2>

Parents: Including whoever was the acting guardian. Details on how the relationship was. Was it more like mentor and student or best friends, how close are they now.

Siblings: Those bound by blood or by factions or cults. Again details on how the relationships worked. Favourite sibling, sibling rivalry, twins?

Children: If applicable, make the ages realistic.

Spouse: If applicable.

Current Partner: If applicable. How stable is the relationship, is marriage something both people are thinking about?

Ex-Partners: If applicable. Maybe small details on why/how the relationship/s ended.

Boss/Employer: If applicable.

Co-Workers: If applicable.

Friends: If applicable. How did they become friends, how do they interact with each other, does your character behave differently in front of their friends and the outside world? What do the friends think about your character, are they truly friends or is there an ulterior motive?

Enemies: If applicable. A good one to include for creating future drama though have a realistic reason. She has better hair than me is not really enough to imply they are enemies (I guess unless it’s a high school RP?).

<h2>Supernatural/Fantasy</h2>

Weapon of Choice: I noticed a number of fantasy characters tend to name their weapons as well?

Physical/Magical Strengths: If you have a vampire and all vampires in your world have super strength, include it here.

(Unique) Powers: If you have a vampire and all the vampires in your world have super strength, don’t include it here. Write about powers that don’t come collectively to the same species/group.

Physical/Magical Weaknesses: With every power should come a weakness, again to make your world believable. Maybe the more power used by your character, the quicker their body runs out of energy. Or maybe a classic elemental approach, water kills fire and fire melts metal?

<h2>Physical Description</h2>

Build: Includes height, weight and general build.

Hair Colour: Remember to find a face claim who has gifs with the same hair colour.

Eye Colour: Gif-wise I don’t care about eye colour because you can barely see it, personal preference.

Distinguishing Marks: If I have a face claim in mind, I tend to skip over this section apart from distinguishing marks and tattoos. Making a note of physical features can make description paras easier. If you have a shape-shifting/glamour species, what do they look like in their ‘other’ form?

<h2>Subplot</h2>

Where was your character just before and at the start of the roleplay? Firstly, a physical location is important. So for a town RP, is your character a resident, a tourist or a new citizen who moved in just before the start of the RP. If we use the zombie outbreak example again, was your character at home, were they on vacation and got stranded, are they able to contact their family, etc. Next is where their head is at. Did any events happen just prior to the start of the story, any deaths or life changing events? Who is the most important person in their life prior to the RP starting, will it change during the story?

What is the storyline unique to the character? The plot/setting on the main RP is a group plot, each character needs their own subplot. Their own goals, their own motivational reasons and a conflict which stops them reaching that goal (can be tied to the main plot). Is their conflict internal or external, does your character even know how to reach their goal, if so, what is their next step?

<h2>Write The Bio</h2>

So now that you have a clear idea of the character, it’s time to write the actual bio. There are a number of formats out there and just use the information above to fill in the blanks. You do not have to include EVERYTHING you wrote down.