Guide for Writing Good Character Profiles

Argent Dawn
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I get that, people thinking his name is pronounced “Briggant”, whereas it is pronounced “Bree-gawn-tay”

He don’t wear one, he has a different symbol to show his marriage, a miniature silver arrowhead braided into his hair, with his wife’s name on it. He has a fair few of them, they symbolise important oaths he has made. As a Farstrider Ranger and bowman he wants as little obstruction on his hands as possible… and believe it or not, even a wedding band can hamper that.

It can be -assumed- That’s not the same as -knowing-, I mean I know a guy who is an absolute unit, he looks like ten miles of bad road, like he could snap you over his knee (He probably could actually, he is utterly massive) You’d think “That guys a Squaddie” or “in the construction business” or even “A professional boxer/wrestler/athlete”
He’s not. He’s a Nuclear Phsyicist.

Any physical clues to someone’s trade should be in their description, not in their history. I mean sure, you look at Brigante, you can see that despite being short he has a kind of ‘pit bull’ build, very muscular in his upper body, because he is an archer. You can see he has scars, so probably fights for a living. You can’t see that he is also a qualified Surgeon, and a master class Cook. I prefer those things to be found out in play, I mean the obvious stuff, sure, something you can see, that makes sense to put in your profile.

Err…Its not. It’s an audible thing. Unless I spoke, you wouldn’t know my nationality. (I know its different in WoW, you see someone who is green and hulking its fairly safe to assume they’re an Orc) But to use a WoW Example, I specifically put, on my human Squaddies profile “-If- you hear her talking, she has a faint Gilnean accent” Because yeah, that’s something you’d notice, but if she ain’t talking, you wouldn’t know just by looking.

Pretty much exactly the same as my human Squaddie. Born in Gilneas, family moved to Stormwind when a child, before the wall went up.

That’s actually me in Real life. I don’t -have- an accent, it wanders and changes depending upon my whim or who I’m with. Ironically the one accent I can’t do, is the one I was born and raised with, but have since lost. I can only do it if I see my relatives and am exposed to them for a few hours.

Although on the subject of accents, I have two young cousins who have possibly the most surreal accents ever, given where they have lived. A cross between a Geordie Accent, and a Texas Accent. I mean…what even…….

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Never seen Italian speak, have you? :smile:

You don’t have to hear him speak, you’ll see by their motion when they speak (and you dont hear it).

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You’ve never met a welsh man/woman before, we’re very emotive when we speak, especially in the face.

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Just adding my two cents. In games in-particular, or role-playing games, it’s always been a good staple to get a brief or vague hook from the playable character/'s backstory because it might interest you in playing that character more straight from the get go.

I always think that a brief overview of who a character is makes perfect sense.

As per long winded history segments or back stories, I do not think they make for a ‘tidy’ TRP as what most of my thread is geared towards describing, but I do think they’re a good show case of your ability to write and what kind of plot dynamics you enjoy, so it will tell someone whether or not they think if you’re an interesting writer and as a result whether or not they’ll want to role-play with you.

It’s fundamentally the same thing as writing a short story about your character. Superfluous, pointless and ‘yawn’ inducing in terms of role-play, but not bad for showing character development or growth, or I dunno, just giving yourself an ego boost if people enjoy reading and providing feed back on what you’ve written.

Good, talented and skilled role-players that you’ll interact with will know how to harness your character’s history or other factors into stringing together fun plots and events without metagaming. I’ve always seen metagaming as more an issue of ‘player quality’ and it’s not always an entirely negative thing.

I generally just don’t role-play actively with people who obviously metagame. It’s a simple fix.

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As per long winded history segments or back stories, I do not think they make for a ‘tidy’ TRP as what most of my thread is geared towards describing, but I do think they’re a good show case of your ability to write and what kind of plot dynamics you enjoy, so it will tell someone whether or not they think if you’re an interesting writer and as a result whether or not they’ll want to role-play with you.

I don’t have any issues with how people write their TRP unless it’s obviously really bad. Sure, you can get a vague idea on how the player writes, but that’s about it. Not everyone is fluent in the English language and sometimes I think that people tend to forget about that. I just enjoy having bits about my Dwarf in my TRP, long as some parts may be. Whether or not it’s ‘tidy’ enough for some people… /shrug.

It’s fundamentally the same thing as writing a short story about your character. Superfluous, pointless and ‘yawn’ inducing in terms of role-play, but not bad for showing character development or growth, or I dunno, just giving yourself an ego boost if people enjoy reading and providing feed back on what you’ve written.

Ok so writing stories about your character is pointless and yawn-inducing. And if people do it, it’s all for their own vanity and ego-boosting in the hopes of people complimenting them. Gotcha. Everyone writes in their own way and it to me it seems you’re just judging a lot of people while talking about the oh-so amazing good, talented and skilled role-players.

Oh, and aye, metagaming is bad. More news at 11.

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Nope, that’s not what I said. I’m talking from a perspective of role-play. If a part of you role-playing with someone is having to stop to read a story entirely about them for ten to twenty minutes, as a required expectation, then it’s definitely yawn inducing in regards to role-play, because you’re not role-playing.

Not necessarily, but I personally write stories for other people to enjoy, and there are definitely a lot of people on Argent Dawn specifically who write primarily for the sake of their own vanity. Whether or not that’s a bad thing is irrelevant. As a preference, I avoid people who keep their noses stuffed up their own buttocks.

Way to cherry pick that quote. xD

I’m mostly responding to this;

And no, metagaming isn’t necessarily bad, like I said in my post which you’ve quoted but I don’t know if you’ve understood or read properly, so here;

There are times when subtle or light metagaming can be utilised as an excellent means of setting up or pushing a role-play forwards. What I personally dislike, is very blatant and in your face metaming that does nothing to support the plot, story, narrative or characters concerned.

But yes, in my post I was looking at potential reasons for why people might want a background story or history in their TRP in response to people who believe it’s a waste of time.

;/

At the end of the day, people can put whatever they want in their profiles. I’ve never called someone’s TRP bad, or have blatantly said ‘if you do or put this in here, you are bad’. I’ve said numerous times that I’ll role-play with just about anyone, because without role-playing with someone first, you’re hardly going to know if you’re going to enjoy it.

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Heh, I presume you mean the gesturing and so on? Its not restricted to Italians, plenty of people do it, heck, I do it, and I’m so English my blood type is probably “Tea”

They don’t do that when not talking though, by which point you -are- hearing them, so you would know from the sound anyway, if they were just walking down the street, not talking to someone, you wouldn’t really know…

On the contrary, I have quite a few Welsh friends, but like I’m saying, these are things that happen -when- they are speaking, by which point I will already have went “Oh, that’s a Welsh accent, they’re Welsh” I couldn’t look at someone who was silent and go “They’re Welsh” so its not a visual cue, basically.

I understood what you meant, I just shy away from metagaming in its entirety, and probably have a lesser tolerance of it, coming from a LARP background before I started RPing on WoW. At LARP it is a cardinal sin :smiley: I more mean if I can’t see something, how can I possibly know it about a person upon first meeting them. I mean I can look at a person in military uniform and go “Oh, they’re a soldier” I can’t look at them and say “Oh, they served in Iraq” -Unless- they have some visual symbol like a medal that only people who served in Iraq had received, but if that’s the case, then it would be in ‘Description’. Even if they were dressed in Civvies I could -guess- that they were military, but I don’t -know- they’re military.

I think I agree with the basic sentiment of what you are saying, but I tend to place far more credence on what my character can tell by looking at a person, -until- I have roleplayed with them. Its like, walking through Silvermoon and someone behind you goes /Looks at you. Well, that’s cool, don’t expect me to turn around and engage, I can’t see the fact that you are looking at me from behind, can I? Say something, anything, even a “Hey Mister!” will get most men to look around at least. Taking a passive and silent action however gives no hook to work with.

Oh sure, I do get that, I do. I just never read them. If I don’t find out in game, I don’t know it. That goes for game events as well. Brigante has not heard that Saurfang is alive. He’s not the One and only Mighty Hero Of Azeroth! he’s a mid ranking Aerial Cavalryman in Quel’thalas’ army. Nobody has told him that Saurfang is alive, as far as he knows, Saurfang died at Undercity. No one has told him that Baine was Arrested, as far as he knows that hasn’t happened.

If people around me start speaking about it, then its like “Whoah, What, say that again…Saurfang’s Alive?”

Don’t get me wrong, I love stories about characters, I mean obviously I do, I write enough of them, but a story on a forum is sort of ‘detached’ from the game, from the character profile, whilst as part of a TRP or MRP its a bit more…‘involved’?

I think that is what I was trying to drive at. I don’t mind reading someone’s history, or things that happened far away in battles or quests I was not in, I just ignore people’s ‘History’ in their profiles.

Might be just me being a grumpy old man :smiley:

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I usually like writing up a history in story format for most of my characters! In all honesty, it’s very rare I bother reading someone’s history either because a lot of the ones I have read through recently while doddering through Cathedral Square have been extremely ‘samey’.

I always encourage creativity though!

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Exactly, then it would be visible. Unless you’re playing a mute character? (credit due if you are)

Well this is common sense, however there seems to be a strange dissonance amongst some players who think otherwise.

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Only what is apparent. A prominent title for flavour, perhaps. Backstories either emerge in IC interactions, or they do not. Same with family histories, major feats, notable kills, wars and such. Do you carry weapons? Sure, list them - describe them in great detail, even. Flasks, satchels, various points of equipment, armour or clothing, manner in which you walk and carry yourself. Well, your character, of course.

All of these are acceptable to me. A book-long paragraph describing your character is something I likely won’t read. Someone might, sure, but I like to keep it brief.

And, contrary to popular belief, voice references are perfectly fine. It adds flavour, as far as I’m concerned. Same goes with artwork. I don’t mind gaining insight in what your character looks like. Well, unless it’s nudes - another unless, unless your character spends most of their time naked.

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Still audible. Not visible.

Consider: a deaf person is sat across from two people, dressed exactly the same, nothing distinctive about their appearance. One speaks with a texan drawl, the other is an Australian. The deaf person can’t hear a word they say. The two begin talking. Do you think at this point the deaf individual can identify their nationalities?

If the answer is “no” then it cannot possibly be a visual element.

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Ehh, No, it would be Audible, not Visible, You’d hear it, not see it.

And heck no, I doubt I would have the restraint or patience to play a mute character, as most people who know me could probably testify I don’t think I would even be -able- to, I love the sound of my own voice too much…:smiley:

I think it depends how people approach RP, I mean some people might not even know what the term ‘metagaming’ means, which is fine, it is after all a term that is recent and originated with tabletop games, so within the last 50 years or so. I tend to discourage that sort of thing IC rather than OOC, just with a polite “What makes you think that?” if there is no visible sign of something. Like someone walks up to Ginette Nixon “I see you were born in Gilneas” She’d frown and answer (Albeit with a slight Gilnean accent) “How did you know that?”. Some things you just -don’t- know, by looking at a person…

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They RP in a guild that uses a certain system and want an easy way to remember it at all times, why take it off outside of events?

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One is recognizable by the appearance due to clan markings and the like and the other one ain’t.

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Unless they’re worgen.

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I do think some people take liberties with what they can deduce from a person with a glance (ie those who identify class, nationality, alignment, small time meta) .

Whilst it is technically possible to do so, I think a lot of people miss the amount of deductive skill you’d need to have to do so. Similar to how not everyone can do cold calling etc. IRL. So whilst a particularly perceptive character whom has a wealth of experience with various people, their cultures and mannerisms may be able to do so, the average solider or traveller probably won’t have the skills to do this.

And no, someone wearing a robe is not necessarily a sign they’re a mage or priest. In this setting all sorts of people wear robes. It’d be more acceptable if when people did this they made wrong guesses. But often their hunch is 100% correct with scant information.

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while I know it is a sin in its own right
I roleplay my death knight as a necromancer
he wears plate armor because it, unlike robes, stop swords
and people often mistake him for a death knight, even though he walks around with a staff, I use “The Fire Extinguisher” which has a generic Wotlk model
and my TRP class even says necormancer instead of death knight.

yet people still confuse him with a death knight.

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I’ve had people identify my mag har priest as such at first meeting when in the heritage armour set. I even mogged his mace to an axe appearance (can’t remember which it is). I mean he wears face paint, but so do all bleeding hollow.

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Is there going to be a guide on how to find a good guild? Joining the first one in Stormwind isn’t working as well as it should for me.