Getting Into Character

((bare in mind im basicly falling asleep, and trying not to get caught in forums at school XP, never mind my normal stupidity ^^ ))
ok, since your writings big, il make my coloured, harharhar.
hm, thats actually a hard questions, I think i will do it step by step.

"But what really interests me is how you created your characters, what inspired you to roleplay in the way that you do, and most importantly, how you get into character!"
-Right, I think it really depends on how others see wow fantasy. Some may see it as realistic, some cartoony, others manga/anime, not too sure if you's understand what im trying to say . Personally, i try to keep mine as close to realism, not being invincible, taking on thousand without a scrtach and whatsnots =) , though my characters may claim to do so, doesnt mean its true.
Alota my characters could be based on characters personalities, for example, my old rogue would of been a mix from a person called dexter morgan (from the tv series 'dexter' with a mixed sly attitude from a character called 'gin' from an anime a watch).
mainly characters of mine can be based of my personality in general, (torg would be the most obvious example i can think off).

"How do you prepare yourself for a long night of RP? "
Get some water (alcohol if im lucky hehe), and well, I dunno, i dont see long rp as bad, i love it, I just make sure or let people know in advance that there may be something or tell them if something pops up which may leave me afk a moment.

"How do you make sure that the words coming out of your avatar's mouth are your characters and not your own? "
This can be a tough one, well, a problem would be trying not to mix up characterss who both have nearly opposite views on a matter, for example, rp'ing with ryleen with gurkhan is completely different than that of tambjika, and I would have to get that in my mind before/incase I make a mistake ^^

"How do you make sure you stay in that character?"
no idea really, though i guess to vent out any ooc needs or something I wana say i do it on /o or something, though i try not to clog up the chatbox with glowy green. I dont use brackets tho, seem messy, and if i need to say something ooc or a spellin check /1 , /lfrp work well.


Alot of the writing i do on forums i guess is influenced from warhammer/wh40k novels I read. I aint fond of music so I dont think it has any influence.




"It also helps me to think about my characters and their stories in less important college lessons, draw and write constantly!"
hah wish i could sya that, though I end up doing it during any lesson nearly xD

heh, i reckon i answererd this completely wrong lol

Oh another thing I can add which I think is true, defninitely for me anyway.
Your characters inteligence cant go further than your own, can it? ^^
Plenty of times ive seen words or phrases that i have had no idea about, but thanks to my characters theyre eitehr orc smash, or the average joe who just changes the subject.

Well... Firstly, all my characters contain some part of myself. Ryleen especially, since I play her so very much.

I usually base my character around a simple concept that I wish to explore, and then let the character evolve from there, having them shaped by what happens to them. Some times the concept is just something of a funny idea, and some times it's something I intentionally take from myself, to explore further. (Yes, I think too much about my rp and considers it a way to experiment with the real me just as much as my characters)

For Ryleen, the concept was a character who's been bullied as a child and doesn't feel at home with her own people. She also started out as neutral, depending on what happened she could take a path towards good or evil. and.. well, we can all see where that went. Jay was an experiment with a character that starts out at the absolute bottom, with nothing at all, and see how far she come just on the compassion and pity of others. Emeline was created to be 'evil', utterly selfish and cowardly but enjoying suffering in others.

As simple as the concept may be, it usually establishes a pretty clear image of how the character is in my mind. I never think "my character acts like this and that in these situations". Rather, I establish a good background and foundation. Past experiences shapes how you react to new ones, and that's most of the time how I decide how the character acts.

Rping is very intuitive for me, most of the time I don't have to stop and think about what the character will say and do. I have had a few characters that have been harder, where I actually have to think through everything before I act, but I rarely stick to those for long.

As for stories and pictures.. You probably already know how much I enjoy drawing Ry As for the stories, I use them as a tool to show parts of her that would not be seen otherwise. Some times it's things that happen to her when others aren't around, but most of the time it's exploring her thought process, explaining why she's acting the way she is.

Apart from low level characters created for RP reasons, Zanick is the only character I play. I had very little idea about her personality when I started roleplaying her. It has developed gradually and naturally.

As she levelled up I read as much troll lore as I could find. I was hooked and decided that Zanick would fiercely uphold her troll heritage against all opposition. In time I developed a suitable back-story and then added some phrases that Zanick would often say. That grew into creating some suitably trollish swear words.

Early on I wrote some poems that expressed her feelings (one of which I used a couple of years later in the story 'Zanick the Scout'). In time I developed better ways of fleshing out Zanick's personality. I wrote some simple phrases and longer speeches that explain her opinions on various matters, e.g. duelling, blood elves, fighting the Alliance. Now I mostly write stories that I sometimes post here on the guild forum.

To get into character I often re-read my stories and phrases and the many notes that I've made. I even practice what Zanick would say if she were arguing with some ignorant orc or arrogant Sin'dorei about something (but only when I'm all alone, obviously).

I share some characteristics with Zanick: curiosity, sneakiness, caution. But otherwise I try to play Zanick very different to my own personality. When I'm playing I remind myself that the key aspects of her character can be summarised in a line from 'Hamlet', when he tells Ophelia that he is "very proud, revengeful, ambitious". Zanick is very proud of being a troll and of being a Darkspear. She is quick to anger and will not let an insult go unpunished. And she is ambitious, for herself, for her guild, for her tribe and for all trolls.

[ For some reason I'm also inspired by a line from a comedy sketch from many years ago. Someone is described as being "a furious ball of shining beauty". I'm not sure it quite applies to Zanick, but it makes me smile to think about it.]

While she’s not (and never has been) in the heritage, Vypra was my 1st and still is my main rp character.

As such, she was based very much on Me, but with a few attributes and character traits exaggerated for fun and with a little Tia Dalma/ Calypso (pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3) thrown in

She’s smutty, yet spiritual. A feminist, a free spirit, something of a rebel without a cause and an adrenaline junkie

Her background came about as an attempt to incorporate stuff i'd done back on my pvp server into her character ie: the rep from AB and AV, the bloodguard title and the w-pvp in arathi highlands (hammerfall - refuge point), hillsbrad (tarren mill - southshore) and the plaguelands. Over time its developed massively and i have a full timeline of her life now

Getting into character is fairly easy with Vyp as i just have to start thinking in 'troll speak' and ramp up the self-confidence and feminism (the smuttiness and alcohlism is pretty much the same tho ).

I've always thought it would be nice to have a theme tune for her but i could never really find anything that really took me there.

*

Chabat on the other hand is my attempt at forming a character as different from me as possible. She's painfully shy, very feminine and couldn't fight her way out of a wet paper bag. Plus, its not always easy to think back to how it was being a teenager...and i was never -this- kind of teenager so its even more challenging

Her background was very sketchy. 'shy orphan girl' was pretty much all i had and so i threw in that Vyp had sort of 'adopted' her when she was orphaned (though Vyp was only in her early teens at the time ) to give me something to work from. Now she's still shy but she's getting a little more sure of herself (mostly down to Ryleen's encouragement) and is intelligent (whereas Vyp is intuitive), hard working and studious.

And essentially, that's pretty much how i get into her character. Think 'opposite of Vyp'...though now i'm having her grow up a little, that's providing new challenges. She's slowly growing in confidence and every now and then i think 'oops, that's what Vyp would say, not 'Bats' 'cos she's never going to to be as forward as Vyp

How, huh... That's one hard question here, really.
I'll be completely honest then. I have absolutely no idea why my characters do one thing or another. I can imagine what they feel about it at best, but definitely not try to reason with them about their decisions. To me, "roleplaying" has always been a special state of mind, the one where the story unfolds before your very eyes, and you're but a mere spectator. I've always been a terrible storyteller, but i know plenty of great stories that i'd like to share with others, so the best thing i can do is to try not to ruin everything with my interference.
That's what i do, or at least try to do. I don't know if i am a good RPer (not speaking of being "one of the finest"). I can't even put my mind into right words to explain it here.
So i'll try again.

It's not about "getting into character", it's more like "becoming one with the character", like lending it a physical body. How do you do that, i don't know. Specific music or books (as was stated above) or anything else that puts you into right mood might work for you. For me logging is usually enough. Some may argue that it's the player that shapes the character, that it's only a game, that they're not real. I have to disagree here. I mean, how possibly can my character not be real after all i've been through with him?..
That's where my main flaw comes in. I can't roleplay a character that i don't feel. So no evil characters for me (arrogant, misled, cold-blooded, etc. are fine, but definitely not evil). No females either. Just because i can't.

But it's not what i really wanted to say again. It's really hard to put it into words. Anyhow, that's how i feel about it. Gonna stop now, before it turns into a wall of text.

Zul'Ros wrote:[
That's where my main flaw comes in. I can't roleplay a character that i don't feel. So no evil characters for me (arrogant, misled, cold-blooded, etc. are fine, but definitely not evil). No females either. Just because i can't.

I have the same problem. Can't rp male characters for any longer period of time. I've had a few I wanted to play, great concepts.. But I can't. Just as I also found that I can't play a character that's not heterosexual. I suppose it's because both those things are very basic and very much at the core of my own personality, colouring much of what I am and do in ways not always obvious at first glance, making them very difficult to alter.

Zul'Ros wrote:"becoming one with the character"

We have a method actor in our midst!

For some reason I'm also inspired by a line from a comedy sketch from many years ago. Someone is described as being "a furious ball of shining beauty". I'm not sure it quite applies to Zanick, but it makes me smile to think about it.

For some reason, i find things like this really inspiring when creating a character. It helps me to think of their personality as an abstract image, as their nature, then construct everything around them, like how their experiences have affected them.

I have the same problem. Can't rp male characters for any longer period of time. I've had a few I wanted to play, great concepts.. But I can't. Just as I also found that I can't play a character that's not heterosexual.[/quote]

Yes thats the same as me (ofcourse i cant rp females instead of males). I dunno, all my characters have aprt of my personality, unsure about gurk though, he confuses me lol. He would have bits of my personality, but only to those who he sees as being close, which is probably only one person X)

Someone like tambjika or torg would have my thoughts / opinions, only difference being that consider horde/racial influences and how they may alter my opinions.