Matching Your Character Up For A Game
When you join a game do you create a character to match the world, or do you start the other way around – create a character and find a game to match them to? This article is written by Ellen, (aka TotallyAwesome from RoleplayHub). Ellen has been roleplaying for over 15 years and is a regular member on Harry Potter RP ‘Vault 713’.
Ellen has been roleplaying for over 15 years
So, you’ve got your favorite character and you can’t imagine ever *not* playing him or her, but your RP site starts to get a little lack-luster, or maybe goes in a direction you’re not liking. What do you do? You’ve got this sixteen-year-old, shy, gay, Jewish Ravenclaw, who’s dad is a professional broom designer, and you want to take him to a site where Neverland is real, or Rita Repulsa is back with a vengence, or there’s a sudden dyer need to get to the fountain of youth. I think I have your solution.
Bringing characters from site to site is easy, once you know how to do it. You can take any character from any site and change certain things about them so that they fit into the new surroundings.
For example: Ben is my favorite character that I’ve ever created. He was made for a Harry Potter site, and transferred around a bit to a few other sites. Originally, he was 16, pureblood, Ravenclaw, super shy, heir to the Firebolt design, and very into his childhood best friend, Lauren.
I brought him to a different HP site, and changed things around a bit. On that site, he’s gay and in a long term relationship with another boy. He’s 19 now, due to the game progressing.
This is a small change to make, and only that small because he’s still a Ravenclaw, still the heir to the Firebolt legacy, etc. Still a Harry Potter game.
However, I could bring him to say, a Power Rangers game, or just into an AU-style RP thread. In that thread, he obviously isn’t a Pureblood wizard, or the heir to a magical item like the Firebolt. There, he’s just another shy kid, who happens to be gay, but not really outwardly. He also happens to be the blue ranger, partly because of Ravenclaw, and partly because his favorite color is blue.
The basics of taking a character from one place to another is to change small things about them, things that aren’t really required of them to make them the same person they were before. You can easily change their abilities, or their location, or other small details to fit the new game. When you make their profiles, keep things like that in mind, especially if it’s a character you plan to use for a long time.
Now, if you’re starting from scratch, this makes things a little easier. Most RP sites will have a character template that they want you to follow, so that they get all of the information out of you about your character. This is so you can’t go changing your character’s entire personality halfway through the game.
For these, you can easily create things specific to the game you’re playing. Neverland RP? Are you a pirate, a Lost Boy, a pixie, or a regular kid? Maybe an adult? How about joining a Pirate RP? Are you a pirate, a lady, royalty, a Navy crew member? And think about where they’re from. Chances are, if you’re joining a game that’s set in France, your character speaks French at least a little, and they’re probably not from Mexico. If they are from Mexico, how did they come to be in France?
There are a lot of things to think about when planning a character and matching them to the game you want to play. Take your time and think of their entire life up to the point of the character application. The most important thing is that it makes sense, and you’re not pulling your hair out in a few months trying to remember the little details.
