Who Are You?

By Anomalous Silence

So… now what? You’ve debated over whether to join a PvP or PvE role-playing server. You’ve tested the various servers and server forums, and have analyzed the overall quality of these same servers. You’ve picked your server and are ready, finally, to play. What next? Character creation of course! This goes far, far beyond the simple physical appearance of your avatar (the selection of which, in Vanguard, can undoubtedly take hours or even days). In order to properly role-play on a role-playing server, and to maximize your experience, you must develop an in-depth personality and background for your character.

Starting with the personality of your avatar, you must first ask yourself “Who am I?” in terms of your future self within the world of Telon. By this, I mean your race and class. You can then base your personality around these two aspects. You next need to ask yourself various other questions, including:

- What kind of character do I enjoy playing?

- What seems to “fit”?

- How do I wish to play the game?

- What will come naturally to me while role-playing?

- Do I want to role-play with the lore and generality of Telon or create a wholly unique character?

Firstly, your character must give you enjoyment as you role-play, and needs to fit both you and your personality. This alone may take a while to decipher, as you contemplate who you wish your persona to become. Character personality must also be based on how one wishes to play the game. If you wish to role-play with ease, pick personality traits that are similar to your own, either wholly or partially. If you would like more of a challenge, try completely or partially opposite personality traits. Or, for the greatest challenge, choose traits that are completely unique from your personality.

Regardless of the path you take, your character will become a part of you, thus making your character development much simpler than you may have originally perceived as an element of role-playing. Eventually, you will not even think about how to role-play all the time: you’ll just do it. With all of this advice, however, keep in mind that role-playing is a way to have fun and should never seem like work. It should occur naturally, though for new characters it may take a little time, at first.

Keep a mental note throughout character personality creation that you will NOT be unique if you role-play a “holier than thou dark elf” or an “evil dwarf due to a traumatic childhood incident.” While these make amazingly interesting characters in a fantasy novel, it becomes repetitious when every other dark elf you meet considers himself a force for good. I highly encourage everyone to create your avatar with the normal, general characteristics of your race and class within Telon in mind.

I am in no way saying that every dwarf should be a drunken warrior braggart, but rather a dwarf should have the general burly, jovial characteristics of the dwarven peoples.

This leads right into the history of your new self in a new world. Go to a role-playing server and you will most likely find that the majority of characters have an intriguing, and possibly even dramatic, childhood or past. This can become boring, to the point where one doesn’t even care about the pasts of the various people one meets in Telon. When creating your character’s history, whether mentally or writing it down in a story, remember that your entire past doesn’t have to be dramatic in order to have an interesting character.

A simple past, such as a human growing up on a farm in a normal family, can be interesting if your avatar has an engaging and intriguing personality. This doesn’t mean the past has to be bland: a few interesting events strewn about can make things more interesting. It’s when your entire past is full of drama and death, however, that things tend toward the dull side.

As in many aspects of gameplay, there are several things to avoid while creating a character, some already mentioned above:

  • an overdramatic past
  • a perfect character (physically or personality wise)
  • drastically different personalities from the norm
  • traumatic past for all “evil” characters, such as the Necromancer.

Two complete, very unembellished examples of a character are as follows:

  • An evil dark elf, raised the ways of his people, who doesn’t see himself as evil. He is a Dread Knight who feels what he does is necessary for his gains or his people’s survival. He may be a bit clumsy, though quick-witted, and his nose is most certainly not perfect: it could look like a hawk’s beak.
  • A human Necromancer who, at the age of sixteen, lost the love of her life. Never wanting to part with him, she studies the art of necromancy recklessly in an attempt to summon his spirit into the body of an undead minion. She is obsessed with this to the point of destruction.

Like I said, these are very simplistic. Characters should be much more detailed. Also take care to remember that as you play the game, your avatar can grow and change in personality due to various people you meet or certain events, just like in real life.

Tune in next week for the do’s and don’ts of role-playing.

 

 


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Karen is H.D.i.C. (Head Druid in Charge) at EQHammer. She likes chocolate chip pancakes, warm hugs, gaming so late that it's early, and rooting things and covering them with bees. Don't read her Ten Ton Hammer column every Tuesday. Or the EQHammer one every Thursday, either.

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