Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ohhhh where to begin, well firstly, I'll start off talking a little about character creation.

Now, I know your all thinking "who the hell is this git to tell us how to generate a character?" but hear me out, you might learn something. Now all over Gaia, all I see are the same, tormented angst ridden demon/vampire/werewolf/angel characters, no matter what the setting, personally, I hate that, come on people you can be more original then that. Why not a vampire who's blood loss is so strong he must always find ways to feed as his only concern, as opposed to being angsty about not having a working heart. Also, I don't know about you guys, but think about this for a second, your a vampire, you've had your training, know you history and got some power... now whats likely to be your first reaction "Oh no... what have I become?" or "Right, those ******* that picked on me in high school are having it now?!".

Its all about motive, so first thing you should decide to make your character is whats their motive? power, money, revenge, acceptance, love, hate, honour, glory, knowledge, truth, lust... the motives you can have are endless, and will often put your characters actions into context. As well as defining a bit about your character.

But what is the force behind the motive? is the next consideration. Maybe they seek knowledge to find a cure for a loved ones illness, or maybe the knowledge is for much darker ends like finding and using an artifact to bring about the apocalypse. This adds another level of depth to the character that will give you an idea of what the character does (E.G. curing a disease would mean a raid on a biogenics lab, where as seeking an artifact would mean raiding a history museum).

Next up is attitude: Attitude is a big problem, as its your characters persona, the image your character will portray to everyone else and an image you as player have to maintain. Is your character cocky but kind, pessimistic and violent, self loathing but protective? three very unique and conflicting attitudes, for example, someone who is cocky but kind, will rush to save their friends, but tease their friends about it afterwards. Where as someone who's pessimistic and violent, wouldn't care about their friends, as they are probably already dead, but will go to the fight for the violence. Self loathing but protective, would probably sacrifice themselves (or at least try too) to save their friends, seeing it as the only way too make their life more then an empty shell. Three different reactions, to the same situation, each of them conflicting with the other, to make your character unique from the others.

Lastly powers, this is my biggest gripe, where is the fun in playing a demi god? Someone so strong with no weaknesses and able to blink out planets in a split second. Its not fun to play and its not fun for other players, as it puts them off wanting to interact with that character, instead, why not limit your power. Say for example, you have high powered energy beams, well why not make the energy flow so strong it harms you aswell as your target? Or something akin to a small nuclear blast, but results in the character falling into a coma. Maybe even an attack, that when used turns the character into a berserker, with no idea of friend or foe and whom just wants to fight. You still have power, but the power comes at a cost and opens up, often unexplored avenues of potential roleplay.

I'm not going to tell you about name's, age's, race's, appearance's etc. because they are up to you, they rarely affect your character from a roleplaying stand point. My points above, aren't to tell you what to do, what you can't do. But to guide you, into creating more mature, complex, interesting and ultimately fun characters to play. The kind of characters that will stick in your mind and make great stories to tell your other gaming buddies, as opposed to "I played an emo/vampire/angel again... I hung out in a club and fell in love with two girls." your stories will be "I had to break into the museum of natural history to stop that guy stealing the sword of Ansarok, but only I tripped the security, and got accused of being the thief." I know which story I'd rather hear. wink

I know, i was writing a guide for anyone who wants to create a character but isn't sure how to go about. I wouldn't dream of taking the creative process away, I was just showing mine as an example. smile Because you said observations and suggestions so thats what I offered... if its in the wrong place, just tell me where to put it, and I'll copy and paste it all. smile