Posts belonging to Category Character development
Posted by Ravyn on January 5, 2010
Some characters have roles that encompass most of their personality. Some have traits that are supposed to set them apart from other characters. Still others can be traced pretty easily to a standard character archetype, and then there are those who sling their catch phrases whenever possible. These are all character gimmicks, and they all [...]
Categories: Character archetypes, Character creation, Character development, Character image, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Secondary characters, Technique |
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Posted by Ravyn on December 10, 2009
I had a friend once who had trouble with long-term characters. Give him the same character for too long, he’d run out of things to do—sure, the mechanics might still be fun, but the personality would go static and he’d start casting about for a new concept. When another of my friends started having the [...]
Categories: Character archetypes, Character creation, Character development, Characterization, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
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Posted by Ravyn on December 9, 2009
As elements of characterization go, emotions have got to be one of the most show-don’t-tell elements of characterization out there. People tend to look at you funny if you just say that such and such a character is angry, or sad, or what have you, and leave it at that. (This gave me headaches when [...]
Categories: Character development, Character image, Characterization, Characters in the world, Description, Dialogue, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Mood, Player Advice, Technique |
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Posted by Ravyn on December 8, 2009
Some people write their scenes from big epic images, some from the demands of the plot. But some base what happens on what the characters are currently feeling, whether they actually show the feelings or not. I find emotion to be an important part of any story, cementing the characters’ role as people and not [...]
Categories: Character creation, Character development, Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
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Posted by Ravyn on December 4, 2009
Hoyt keeps a blue crystal ruined by the attempts at carving it in the lining of his coat, and woe betide the person who finds it and tries to take it away. Manar carries a little yarn doll, barely as long as her finger, on a string about her neck. One person might tuck a [...]
Categories: Backstory, Character creation, Character development, Characterization, Characters in the world, Description, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Technique |
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Posted by Ravyn on November 27, 2009
Character arcs don’t just happen out of nowhere, and for good reason. Having somebody just wake up one morning and say “I’m going to change some aspect of my personality!” would be a bit odd, wouldn’t it? You’d expect a cause, even something as improbable as a dream about antelopes, breakfast materials and blackmail, wouldn’t [...]
Categories: Character development, Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Plot, Technique |
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Posted by Ravyn on November 26, 2009
Most people seem to see change in characters as a permanent matter—that once a change is made, it stays made, and the character carries on in that new path. It’s understandable to do that at least a little, particularly since the more action-oriented audiences would probably get sick of it and want to move on. [...]
Categories: Character development, Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Plot, Technique |
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Posted by Ravyn on November 25, 2009
It doesn’t seem right if a character begins and ends the story as the exact same person, does it? But figuring out what kind of change they’re likely to go through is difficult in its own right, particularly for people whose strengths lie more in the range of events or settings. There are just so [...]
Categories: Character development, Characterization, Characters in the world, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
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Posted by Ravyn on November 23, 2009
One of the things I’ve always been fascinated by is character change. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I can spend hours just looking over the behavior of a character and seeing how it compares to when she was created. Making mistakes and coming to terms with them, dealing with old traumas, [...]
Categories: Character development, Character dynamics, Characterization, Characters in the world, Description, Dialogue, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Plot, Technique |
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Posted by Ravyn on June 22, 2009
Many characters are in some way products of their circumstances. Sometimes it was a long-running thing, being brought a certain way by their families or their culture, or adapting to an aspect of their surroundings. Other times it was one or more incidents—sometimes traumatic, sometimes not—that pushed them in [...]
Categories: Backstory, Character development, Characterization, Characters in the world, Exercises, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice |
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