Making a Character

The two most important things to keep in mind when making a Character are:

Choose something that you will enjoy playing.

Choose something that those around you will enjoy playing with.

That is, after all, the point of the game… to play, and interact with others. The Character you choose to play could seem very interesting to you, however might not provide much of an opportunity for the other Players to really work with, or might be considered “unfair” if you give it too many powers, and not enough weaknesses. This will depend on the individual Players and the setting or plot in which your Character will be placed, and most of all, how you go about playing it.

You should also know ahead of time what kind of gaming you intend to do with the Character. Do you want to simply act out your Character but not try to kill or harm other Characters with it? Or will you be playing your Character in combat? It is important to understand the difference….

Non-Combative Characters

If you don't intend to use your Character to combat and force harm on the other Players' Characters then your choices when making a Character aren't so important. This way of RPing is done with much less friction between Players and is more like group storytelling than a competition. Just about anything goes when making such a Character, but still if you want to have good interaction with the other Players you will want to have a Character that is interesting and entertaining to them as well as you.

Combative Characters

If you intend to use your Character to combat against other Players and their Characters at some point then you should take care to make a “fair” Character. What is “fair” will greatly depend on the situation. For example - a 5000 year old God with the power to snap his fingers to kill people, might not get a good reaction from a group of people who regularly RP in a simple local tavern as less powerful Characters. But also, you might not find it much fun to try and keep a very simple swordsman Character alive, in a setting where the other Characters are all warring Gods.

If you don't have a planned setting, and instead prefer to wander to different rooms and settings and plots with your Character, then it becomes more important to choose fair abilities and weaknesses. However, if you make a powerful Character and find yourself in a combat situation with much less powerful Characters, there are always ways to keep it fair and fun for everyone. More on that under “Interacting with others”.

Not all Players or Characters will fall strictly as either Combative or Non-Combative Characters. If this is your case, you should make sure to use your Character appropriately in each situation.

Character Sheet

It is not necessary to submit a Character Sheet to any site or board to play in Ayenee. It is, however, a good idea to have one, if only for your own use, as a reference for your character. If you would like a link to your Character Sheet from this site, email the URL here and the Sitemasters will add it to the Links section. A good character sheet should include the following:

1. Name

a) Yahoo Screen Name

b) Character's full name

c) Any aliases you choose to mention

2. Physical Appearance

a) Gender

b) Race

c) Size (height and weight)

d) Body type (trim, medium build, well-muscled, fat)

e) Hair Color

f) Eye Color

g) Skin Color

h) Raiment (clothing, accessories like RP'ed items, etc.)

i) Etcetera (tattoos, piercings, jewelry… if it has 4 arms…)

3. Abilities/Advantages

a) Inherited Abilities (powers it was born with)

b) Learned Abilities (powers it acquired, i.e.. conjuring)

c) Useful Skills (ice. blacksmithing, woodcraft, knowledge of horses)

d) Trade (how it makes a living)

e) Other

4. Items

a) Armour

b) Weapons

c) Magical Items

d) Other

5. Disabilities/Disadvantages

a) Inherited Weaknesses

b) Drawbacks to your abilities (ice. a mage's exhaustion after strong spells)

c) Old Wounds (curses your character suffers, an old injury it favors, etc.)

d) Other

6. Associations

a) Family ties (NPC or PC)

b) Friends (NPC or PC)

c) Financial Affiliations (corporate ties, anyone it owes money to, etc.)

d) Enemies (NPC or PC)

e) Other

Character Name

There are no standards by which Ayenee Players make names for their Characters. Anything goes really. However it is to be noted that since a lot of non-gaming chatters use names with numbers at the end, if you choose to do so for a Character name then you take the chance of getting received badly by other Players. It is unfortunate, however it is a result of the overcrowding of Yahoo. So the suggestion is to find other ways to make unique names for yourself. Try different spellings, or words from foreign languages.. Or just a short visit to any RP room in the user rooms section will give you many examples of ways to do that. Also, it is easier to pick a name that no one has registered yet if there is more than one word in it. There are also several suggested sites at the links section if you need help finding the perfect name.

History

To give your character depth, you will probably want to have some kind of history set up for it. This does not have to be written down anywhere, or on a site, but should at least be kept in mind by you when playing your Character. The other Players do not have to be informed of your Characters history, and neither do their Characters if you do not wish. An air of mystery is often called for and that is up to your discretion. However, having a history will help you decide how the Character would act in situations, and also provide for topics for your Character to talk about with other Characters in social settings (example: sharing past war stories with other Knights).

If you've already decided on how the Character will be in the present, then of course you will want to keep it's past in line with that. Also if your Character has abilities or special items, you could use the History to explain how it got them. When deciding on it's History, here are some things you might want to consider:

Associations (parents, siblings, family, friends) - who are they, does the Character know them, are they alive etc.

Abilities (i.e., magic, supernatural, knowledge, etc.) - was the Character born with them or did they learn/acquire them, and how

Items (i.e., money, weapons, magical and other artifacts etc.) - how did the Character obtain them

Major experiences - anything else not mentioned in the above that you want to establish for the Character

And of course, add in anything that might be relevant for the Character. Include everything up to the point where the Character starts being played by you. At that point you and those you interact with, will begin making the Characters history as you play.