Guide for Writing Good Character Profiles

Argent Dawn
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I think this is all fairly basic stuff. There is so much more you can do to make a better rp character.

Also two things I disagree on. First of all history. I never write down my characters history in my trp profile. I do not want to give people the chance to meta game and also give them the opportunity to find out by actually roleplaying with me.

A voice is a personal choice that gives a bit more flavor to your character. It is not about freedom for the person who roleplays with you, this is your character. If you feel like your character has a unique voice, you can share the voice actor. It is up to someone else if they actually check it out. I only do so with people I rp with often.

A tip I want to give people is about personality. A lot of people slowly turn their characters into themselves or create unrealistic personalities who move all over the place. Give your character an alignment and google up personality profiles. That is if you really want to make an effort in fleshing out a character.

History is the second thing that influences it. Past experiences often influence your actions now, the same goes for your character.

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personally I only write a backstory about my characters in TRP
a few have gotten some other details but most of them have a short run down of events that took place before they manifested in the game world or some quick background detail about their family or the likes thereof.
I usually also leave it pretty open ended so it feels like i picked up exactly where the story ends when I start rping.

edit: if people meta game me on the small stuff I can ignore it, by assuming they most have heard about it somehow.
if they meta game on the big plot twisting secrets, that is another story and I often keep those out of my TRP.

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A good profile should be like using your eyes. You look at Brigante you can see he has a limp, you can see he is short for a male Blood Elf, if you are a Blood Elf, Nightborne or Mage you can see he has been arcanely branded. You can’t see that he is married, you can’t see that he is a father, you can’t see how many Dragonhawks he has ever flown, you can’t see the fact that he has two living siblings and one dead one, you can’t see that his parents are both dead and how…

I hate the ‘history’ box on profiles. I don’t want to read that shizzle, I want to find out that shizzle from interaction with the character. Describe your character in terms of what people can -see- and let the rest of it come out through Roleplay…

I mean that’s how people work. If you look at me, you can tell my sex and my race, and guess at my age. Nothing else. Not what jobs I have done, not whether I am a father, not what I do for a living, not my political affiliation, none of that. unless I have a face twisted in fury you can’t tell if I am angry, and unless I have a stupid grin on my face you can’t tell that I am joyous. You can’t tell if I am English, French, German or Russian until you hear me speak, All of these are things you can only learn through interaction, or in this case ‘RP’. You can’t -see- them, so why put them in a profile?

You should know your own characters well enough to know their story, so why write it down in a profile, it makes it dull. It means I already know everything I need to know about a person before I approach them, so whats left to talk about? The Weather?

Sometimes, as the axiom says, “Less is More”

I firmly believe that to be the case in RP…

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234

I hold the same belief for the most part.
Though I don’t mind people that have a history portion in their TRP.
First of all it’s an option to read, and for some it can be fun to read a characters history just to read it, since they might never interact with the character.

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Not necessarily you could have grown up in a area with multiple languages in which case you would perhaps have a accent not matching your ancestry or you wouldn’t be able develop a accent.

Which could add another layer of mystique for your character.

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I know its not really the place for it, but the only thing I put in my history is how to pronounce my character’s name.

Otherwise I leave it blank because you should find out about that through RP.

EDIT: i used to put OOC information in there too, but now we have a box for that on MRP.

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I have a lot of characters with names that cause pronunciation mishaps, it’s quite funny actually. Most of the time you just say the name how it’s spelled and I get people putting weird emphasis on a particular vowel or something.

Wedding rings.

Can be assumed by appearance.

Language is a visible thing though.

Exactly so, I have one character who’s accent is a merger between Gilneas and Stormwind simply because they’ve lived in both places for parts of their life. What that sounds like is open to people’s interpretations.

I have another who hasn’t got a natural accent, they can mimic other ones with eerie efficiency though. No one had heard his “natural” voice, because he’s always affecting an accent.

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I know! It’s really weird.

When i used to raid, they’d call the people by their character names and the pronunciation of some names is just; why?

Hence why i now just put the pronunciation down somewhere so at least if I ever hear it verbally ever again, its at least correct.

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Its even better when people completely IGNORE your character’s first name and start referring to them by their -middle- name that they’ve never mentioned before in character.

“Oh I thought your first name was a title…” seriously? It’s a traditional (if a bit old fashioned these days) English name, it’s a name that’s found in Arthurian romance. ITS NOT A TITLE.

The lesson to be learned from this is people don’t actually pay attention to much, if anything, on our profiles.

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I read your name as ‘‘Kro-Cell’’, or ‘‘Kraw-Cell’’.

CAN YOU GUESS HOW MINE IS PRONOUNCED!? :smiley:

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Like ‘Rodríguez’ except not at all.

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If that is like; Crow (the bird) then that is correct. then cell

Which is probably why I get lewd whispers occasionally on my middle-aged, definitely-got-wrinkles, greying, brawny and battle-scarred blood elf warrior.

Jessica?

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So smart.

And yeah, I think of your name as ‘‘Crow-Cell’’. People actually mispronounce that? :o

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Oh yeah, I have heard like the name Chloe then cell (So Crow-ee-cell). Also heard Crow-kell, I’ve also heard some amazing pronunciations that has made me be; “huh, are you talking to me?”

Also been called Croissant before.

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245

What in the hekin’ hek.

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246

Great now I’m hungry.

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247

Good Character Profiles, pffft, everyone knows it’s all about being voluptuous redhead no 138. why originality when you can just pander to the norm.

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Am I like the only guy who wants just a standard girl, that ain’t anything particular? Like, a straight up basic looking girl.

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No I don’t want I read head, I just want my damn noodles back.

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Sorry, but they are mine, as I’m currently boilin’ 'em.

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