Character Creation 101: Better Characters are a Click Away!

[Common Territories]

In retribution for probably being the one to suggest the last link (I suggested it an OP added it, I didn't see it up there myself), let me provide two more generators.

http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/ A fake identity generator with name and pretty much everything else real life you need.

http://fantasynamegenerators.com/ And some random fantasy generator that has tons of options to choose from.

Hopefully these may help too.

[Svomakia]

Nathaniel Teft
Role: President
Motivation: To ensure the freedoms and security of his people at any cost.
Strengths (3): Strong in the face of judgement, highly intelligent, willing to make sacrifices for the common good.
Weaknesses (3): Disregards the personal feelings of others, staunchly by the books in military and political procedure, stubborn in the face of both friends and enemies.

Backstory

Born April 12th, 1976, Nathaniel was brought into a world of instability and division. Born on the border of two very different nations; Saigonias, an expanding, liberal nation with highly intelligent, yet emotionally fragile citizens. And Moloszya, a radically communist, oppressive nation with a Sociopathic leader. By 1982. Moloszya and Saigonias were locked in a massive war on both borders. Entire cities on each side were absolutely massacred, the buildings turned to rubble. Nathaniel was born on the border, but in the city containing a shared diplomatic embassy for the nations surrounding the warring giants, so the area was declared off-limits by both sides. So while he had a front row seat to the slaughter of his neighbor towns, his ears assailed by the screams of women, the wails of children, and the sharp cracks of guns, he himself never experienced the terror of the events that hammered down on the unfortunate people around him.

October 14th, 1987, the war finally ended. Saigonias was the victor by size and technology alone. Millions of soldiers left dead, tens of millions of citizens; men and women, old and young, littered the streets. Saigonias fully overtook Moloszya, assassinating the leader and positioning itself further as THE world power. Unbeknownst to the people, the president, William Smith, fell ill with a terminal heart disease. Once he died, his distraught wife came into office by election.

Her policies were less liberal as they were the left wing reenactment of Moloszya. She started with fining those who made racist, sexist, and homophobic demonstrations. Then moved to jailing them, and eventually executing them. Her policies soon extended to those who didn't follow her ideology, which she called "Treason" which varied from speaking against her to not paying their "Privilege Tax". Finally, she rallied enough support to start a national purge.

Nathaniel witnessed in terror as the purge of all religion, enacted by President Lisa Smith, took away his friends. He watched, his heart breaking in two as he saw his friends and family be systematically taken and handcuffed to lamp posts on the streets to be mocked and belittled by the populace, and then get taken away at the end of the day, never to be seen again. Hatred for the nation, for the populace, and for President Smith rose and heated, seething, scorching on the inside. He joined many different secret groups, becoming affluent in the underground, listening to sermons by secret preachers and smuggling people out of the country or recruiting for his organizations. Most of which he ended up either leading or helped lead. He had a knack for speaking, and even publicly advocated for freedom of expression and personal rights while surrounded by a few intimidating looking members from his organizations, which kept the police at bay.

During all of this, he attended Saigonias' University for the Gifted to study politics, communication, and history. Within the university, he created two organizations that expanded beyond campus; The SLC (Student Lineage Club), which teaches and discusses the true, unedited history of the world; and The FLC (Free Love Club), which was a subtle way of creating an organization for religious people to promote their beliefs without fear of persecution. In 2000, he graduated off the Dean's List and left campus with an considerable amount of popularity trailing behind him.

2006, president Smith died, which preceded an election, in which Nathaniel won by a landslide. It is 2015 now, he promotes universal free speech, worker and owner rights, and re-legalized the institution of religion.






Critiques?

[Soldati Senza Confini]

Nathaniel Teft
Role: President
Motivation: To ensure the freedoms and security of his people at any cost.
Strengths (3): Strong in the face of judgement, highly intelligent, willing to make sacrifices for the common good.
Weaknesses (3): Disregards the personal feelings of others, staunchly by the books in military and political procedure, stubborn in the face of both friends and enemies.

Backstory

Born April 12th, 1976, Nathaniel was brought into a world of instability and division. Born on the border of two very different nations; Saigonias, an expanding, liberal nation with highly intelligent, yet emotionally fragile citizens. And Moloszya, a radically communist, oppressive nation with a Sociopathic leader. By 1982. Moloszya and Saigonias were locked in a massive war on both borders. Entire cities on each side were absolutely massacred, the buildings turned to rubble. Nathaniel was born on the border, but in the city containing a shared diplomatic embassy for the nations surrounding the warring giants, so the area was declared off-limits by both sides. So while he had a front row seat to the slaughter of his neighbor towns, his ears assailed by the screams of women, the wails of children, and the sharp cracks of guns, he himself never experienced the terror of the events that hammered down on the unfortunate people around him.

October 14th, 1987, the war finally ended. Saigonias was the victor by size and technology alone. Millions of soldiers left dead, tens of millions of citizens; men and women, old and young, littered the streets. Saigonias fully overtook Moloszya, assassinating the leader and positioning itself further as THE world power. Unbeknownst to the people, the president, William Smith, fell ill with a terminal heart disease. Once he died, his distraught wife came into office by election.

Her policies were less liberal as they were the left wing reenactment of Moloszya. She started with fining those who made racist, sexist, and homophobic demonstrations. Then moved to jailing them, and eventually executing them. Her policies soon extended to those who didn't follow her ideology, which she called "Treason" which varied from speaking against her to not paying their "Privilege Tax". Finally, she rallied enough support to start a national purge.

Nathaniel witnessed in terror as the purge of all religion, enacted by President Lisa Smith, took away his friends. He watched, his heart breaking in two as he saw his friends and family be systematically taken and handcuffed to lamp posts on the streets to be mocked and belittled by the populace, and then get taken away at the end of the day, never to be seen again. Hatred for the nation, for the populace, and for President Smith rose and heated, seething, scorching on the inside. He joined many different secret groups, becoming affluent in the underground, listening to sermons by secret preachers and smuggling people out of the country or recruiting for his organizations. Most of which he ended up either leading or helped lead. He had a knack for speaking, and even publicly advocated for freedom of expression and personal rights while surrounded by a few intimidating looking members from his organizations, which kept the police at bay.

During all of this, he attended Saigonias' University for the Gifted to study politics, communication, and history. Within the university, he created two organizations that expanded beyond campus; The SLC (Student Lineage Club), which teaches and discusses the true, unedited history of the world; and The FLC (Free Love Club), which was a subtle way of creating an organization for religious people to promote their beliefs without fear of persecution. In 2000, he graduated off the Dean's List and left campus with an considerable amount of popularity trailing behind him.

2006, president Smith died, which preceded an election, in which Nathaniel won by a landslide. It is 2015 now, he promotes universal free speech, worker and owner rights, and re-legalized the institution of religion.






Critiques?

I have a minor nitpick:

On the last paragraph, you are starting with "2006", if you could start with "In 2006" -- which is more stylistic but whatever.

Also, I'd recommend to expand on examples on the different kinds of policies he is trying to pass in government to achieve the goals of "Universal Free Speech" "Worker and Owner Rights" and "re-legalization of religion" because they're too vague. But that is my personal opinion.

[The Alexanderians]

Character Dev and Creation:

http://fuckyeahcharacterdevelopment.tumblr.com/post/50825149893/character-sheets-and-character-creation
This one has a lot of resources, be warned though some of them can be very time consuming if you plan on completing them.

http://www.be-a-better-writer.com/creating-characters.html
This one is a bit of a typical writer's aid rather than specifically for RP or individual characters, though it can be very easily used as such. The rest of the site beyond just this page is worth a peek too.

TVTropes
'Nuff said. This site is the proverbial Bible for all things entertainment. Spend some time browsing it and you'll learn the ups and downs of certain "tropes" and how to avoid being cliche/overpowered/boring. WARNING: The Wiki effect is at full power on this site, if you are not careful you WILL waste a lot of time.

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/most-common-mistakes-series-is-your-2/
Again this is good advice for any kind of writer, but it's good to have for NationStates purposes.

Name Generator:

http://www.thinkcalculator.com/generator/
Thinkcalculator has practically everything from businesses and SSN and Canadian and UK equivalents to names from specific franchises. It can also be used for a ton of other things regarding calculations and conversions (go figure).

http://fantasynamegenerators.com/


http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/namegen#.VdPZMbJVikp
A lot of variables with this one including things like band names and strippers, downside is things can be random to the point of being nonsensical some of the time.

http://www.chronofus.net/wargames/amazon/names.htm
This one is less of a generator and more of a list, all female. It is comprised mostly of Amazon names but does include female names from other cultures such as Greek, Arthurian, Celtic, Roman, and Norse (And a few others). Most of the names are warriors or prominent figures in mythology with some listed with a meaning or explanation of their fame.

http://www.behindthename.com/
A site normally used for parents to find a good name for their baby. I use it for getting unique names for characters from specific cultures. It also gives meanings, origin, and nationality(s) as well as variations of the name.
Edit: I done goof'd, it seems this one is already on the OP's post.

Great links. I'm wondering if we could use a similar format (like the above post) to separate name generators from character development in the original post, just for organization purposes.

My pleasure to provide, I thought the format would be good to use so people could pick out what they needed without having to go digging through the entire post since many of the links I gave are time consuming all to themselves. That being said I may be able to get some more if you want.

[The Salvatagard Republic]

Strong Heroes!
Lovely Damsels!
Mischievous Villains!

There are thousands, if not millions of different characters that have been created on this website alone. Used to move roleplays forward or demonstrate national power. Someone to bring to influential weddings, or play on sports teams. With so many different types of characters and characteristics to give them, how can someone new, or someone old create a character that they will be happy to use, time and time again?

Welcome to Character Creation 101!

---

(Image)

This thread will allow people to begin character creation, or to continue it into something you will be happy to use. Discuss anything relating to RP characters, such as motives, backstories, emotions.
Help each other create that true hero, dastardly villain, or even that perfect morally gray masterpiece.

Classroom Rules:

1. By posting here,you are accepting the fact that your characters and designs will be criticized and critiqued beyond imagine. People will be trying to help, but it is your decision to listen or not.

2. Don't offer useless critiques. Make sure to be constructive and thoughtful. If you do not like another's idea, do not assume that your ideas will fit theirs.

3. Be respectful to everyone. Most importantly, the Principal. AKA Rhodevus

4. All site rules apply here.

5. This thread is mostly OOC, but if you wish to, posting in IC is always allowed, if not regular.

Moderator Gold Stars
We have received a gold star from everyone's favourite Game Moderator:
Euroslavia!

Websites that might help out with character creation:
Name Generator
Backstory Construction
Character Profile Generator
Tips for creating Memorable Characters
Character History Help
Creating believable characters
On Writing Morally Ambiguous Characters
Morality, Alignments and Loyalties
Point of View Writing
Character Personality Development
How to RP good characterization
Use of Astrology in Character Creation
Astrology Chart
Helpful Character Dev and Creation/Name Generators

hi

[Singaporean Transhumans]

hi

How was that relevant to the topic at all? Or are you just going around forums spamming useless stuff?

[The Alexanderians]

hi

How was that relevant to the topic at all? Or are you just going around forums spamming useless stuff?

Might be tagging it for later.

[Common Territories]

How was that relevant to the topic at all? Or are you just going around forums spamming useless stuff?

Might be tagging it for later.

Tags are spam. Bookmark it like a rational forum member.

[Singaporean Transhumans]

Might be tagging it for later.

Tags are spam. Bookmark it like a rational forum member.

plus who dafuq would quote an entire op post for teggin

[Port Island]

Nathaniel Teft
Role: President
Motivation: To ensure the freedoms and security of his people at any cost.
Strengths (3): Strong in the face of judgement, highly intelligent, willing to make sacrifices for the common good.
Weaknesses (3): Disregards the personal feelings of others, staunchly by the books in military and political procedure, stubborn in the face of both friends and enemies.

Backstory

Born April 12th, 1976, Nathaniel was brought into a world of instability and division. Born on the border of two very different nations; Saigonias, an expanding, liberal nation with highly intelligent, yet emotionally fragile citizens. And Moloszya, a radically communist, oppressive nation with a Sociopathic leader. By 1982. Moloszya and Saigonias were locked in a massive war on both borders. Entire cities on each side were absolutely massacred, the buildings turned to rubble. Nathaniel was born on the border, but in the city containing a shared diplomatic embassy for the nations surrounding the warring giants, so the area was declared off-limits by both sides. So while he had a front row seat to the slaughter of his neighbor towns, his ears assailed by the screams of women, the wails of children, and the sharp cracks of guns, he himself never experienced the terror of the events that hammered down on the unfortunate people around him.

October 14th, 1987, the war finally ended. Saigonias was the victor by size and technology alone. Millions of soldiers left dead, tens of millions of citizens; men and women, old and young, littered the streets. Saigonias fully overtook Moloszya, assassinating the leader and positioning itself further as THE world power. Unbeknownst to the people, the president, William Smith, fell ill with a terminal heart disease. Once he died, his distraught wife came into office by election.

Her policies were less liberal as they were the left wing reenactment of Moloszya. She started with fining those who made racist, sexist, and homophobic demonstrations. Then moved to jailing them, and eventually executing them. Her policies soon extended to those who didn't follow her ideology, which she called "Treason" which varied from speaking against her to not paying their "Privilege Tax". Finally, she rallied enough support to start a national purge.

Nathaniel witnessed in terror as the purge of all religion, enacted by President Lisa Smith, took away his friends. He watched, his heart breaking in two as he saw his friends and family be systematically taken and handcuffed to lamp posts on the streets to be mocked and belittled by the populace, and then get taken away at the end of the day, never to be seen again. Hatred for the nation, for the populace, and for President Smith rose and heated, seething, scorching on the inside. He joined many different secret groups, becoming affluent in the underground, listening to sermons by secret preachers and smuggling people out of the country or recruiting for his organizations. Most of which he ended up either leading or helped lead. He had a knack for speaking, and even publicly advocated for freedom of expression and personal rights while surrounded by a few intimidating looking members from his organizations, which kept the police at bay.

During all of this, he attended Saigonias' University for the Gifted to study politics, communication, and history. Within the university, he created two organizations that expanded beyond campus; The SLC (Student Lineage Club), which teaches and discusses the true, unedited history of the world; and The FLC (Free Love Club), which was a subtle way of creating an organization for religious people to promote their beliefs without fear of persecution. In 2000, he graduated off the Dean's List and left campus with an considerable amount of popularity trailing behind him.

2006, president Smith died, which preceded an election, in which Nathaniel won by a landslide. It is 2015 now, he promotes universal free speech, worker and owner rights, and re-legalized the institution of religion.






Critiques?

An interesting character who you can expand upon, but for the purposes of the game and diplomatic etc. interaction I don't think that will be necessary. Well done really pretty ccool

[Auroya]

Tagging this, incredibly helpful.

[Ethane]

This looks useful for future use.....

[Zahraistan]

In retribution for probably being the one to suggest the last link (I suggested it an OP added it, I didn't see it up there myself), let me provide two more generators.

http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/ A fake identity generator with name and pretty much everything else real life you need.

http://fantasynamegenerators.com/ And some random fantasy generator that has tons of options to choose from.

Hopefully these may help too.

Oooh I use fantasynamegenerators.com A LOT. I love it <3 Haha

[Tsokeiku]

Generally, springhole.net is the best site to visit, I'd also like to recommend seventhsanctum.com and all the other sites linked so far.

[Dahon]

Didn't notice this till now. Very useful little thread this is.

[The Alexanderians]

Generally, springhole.net is the best site to visit, I'd also like to recommend seventhsanctum.com and all the other sites linked so far.

Half of the linked addresses are springhole ones. There are also alternatives provided.

[Miscreantia]

-snip-

[State of Belka]

Looks like a helpful thread. I'll keep myself posted on this one.

[Rhodevus]

Well, it has been quite a while since this thread had a major lesson, so I thought now would be a good time to teach in the form of a small discussion. A huge question I see from people who hope to create memorable, long-lasting and all around interesting characters, is whether or not to use Character Sheets. Now, for those of you who are unsure of what a character sheet is, it is this. And this, and this, and this. Not to mention this, this, this, and this. (for those of you who like character sheets, these are some pretty lengthy and well-rounded ones for your use)

So in general, a character sheet is a list of questions that the author answers to completely describe a character which they are creating. Now, for a pros and cons list!

Pros	Cons
Fully describes a character	Leaves very little room for imagination or expansion
Great starting point to think of different scenarios or aspects of the character, that the story may not get to	May lead the author to try and incorporate ideas/scenarios that do not fit with the story, just to use that piece of information
Enjoyable	Time consuming

(If you have any more pros or cons that you would like to add to this list, please telegram me)

Now, my belief is that a character sheet is wholly unnecessary to the creation of a good character. Although I have used character sheets many times in the past, most of my memorable characters come about through the story. I design the characters while also building on the story lines which I have placed them into. In my personal opinion, this allows the characters to grow and change; something that I find a character sheet does not allow. For instance, why go through all the trouble of describing how much your character hates their nation for its wrong-doings, when by the end of the story, the character understands why the nation acted as it did? Or, in a more simple and extremely easy to understand sense, why write in the character sheet that a character hates broccoli when, either broccoli never comes into play in the story, or the character likes broccoli by the end?

So, while I value character sheets and fully understand their use, the best characters in my experience come from the stories themselves, not some arbitrary list of features. As it is said, "the story chooses the character, Harry. Not the other way around." (wait... I think I screwed up that quote. Welp, it works nonetheless)

So my fellow students, what is your take on characters sheets? Do you use them? Either way, why or why not? Have you ever tried (not) using a character sheet?

[Razonica]

Hello everyone one I'm back.

I have created a new character, Miria, whom I want to use as my main character in an upcoming RP. I, however, don't want her to be the girl-who-doubts-herself-then-succeeds female character I usual make. I need a different kind of emotion to convey.

Suggestions?

Oh and Miria means "The Future".

Then there's also Érika (ruler/smart) who is a member of an Amazonsque tribe. She is a military leader, but I don't want a cardboard cut-out general.

And also REALLY need a male character.

[Rhodevus]

Hello everyone one I'm back.

I have created a new character, Miria, whom I want to use as my main character in an upcoming RP. I, however, don't want her to be the girl-who-doubts-herself-then-succeeds female character I usual make. I need a different kind of emotion to convey.

Suggestions?

Oh and Miria means "The Future".

Then there's also Érika (ruler/smart) who is a member of an Amazonsque tribe. She is a military leader, but I don't want a cardboard cut-out general.

And also REALLY need a male character.

Well, Razonica. Something that usually helps when all your characters seem to follow the same path, is to base the character off of either someone you know, or someone you have read about.

Yes, it is important to give a character a back-story, and yes the most interesting back stories usually have the main character fall in some sort of way (the tragic backstory as it is commonly called), but when building a world of characters, not all of them need to fit this main character trope. Sometimes a happy backstory can help the character become a more happy person in general. Or a sad backstory might make the character fierce and competitive instead of somber and self-doubting.

Take for example Finnick O'Dair from the Hunger Games. Many do not realize that his backstory is truly tragic. Having won the Hunger Games and fallen in love with a mentally ill victor, he had his body used against his will by the people of the capitol, just so she could live. Yet, every time you see/read him, he is just smirky and charming. Same with Johanna from the same book. Tragic backstory (entire family murdered) and all you see of her is a maniacle woman with a kick-*ss personality.

Or Merlin (from the BBC television show 'Merlin'), who had to hide his entire life from everyone, just so he would not be executed for possessing magic. Not as tragic as the other two, but still a very interesting backstory. All we generally see from Merlin, is a fun, sometimes awkward and clumsy guy.

From these three examples, it is pretty obvious to tell that I usually use backstories to shape a person's future self. Not many do this, and there are many ways to shape a character during the story. But, in every method, it is important to keep the character's personality somewhat constant. Yes, she/he can go from doubting to heroic, it is still important to keep the core personality constant. That will make all your characters feel unique, even if they follow the same pattern.

[New Axiom]

http://www.nationstates.net/nation=new_ ... /id=583795

When you all have enough time, will you read this and let me know if it's any good? It's about my national leader.

[Rhodevus]

http://www.nationstates.net/nation=new_axiom/detail=factbook/id=583795

When you all have enough time, will you read this and let me know if it's any good? It's about my national leader.

Emperor Cyrus Silva is a well put together leader with a nice story behind him. Besides the occasional grammar mistakes, I only had one real question about the character. Right after Cyrus took control of the government (by murdering the emperor, and proclaiming himself the new one after his coup d'etat), how did he manage to give New Axiom more land, respect, money, etc? This seems like it could be an important part to his life. Especially if this leader is loved by his people after overthrowing the old government. But great job over all!

[New Axiom]

http://www.nationstates.net/nation=new_axiom/detail=factbook/id=583795

When you all have enough time, will you read this and let me know if it's any good? It's about my national leader.

Emperor Cyrus Silva is a well put together leader with a nice story behind him. Besides the occasional grammar mistakes, I only had one real question about the character. Right after Cyrus took control of the government (by murdering the emperor, and proclaiming himself the new one after his coup d'etat), how did he manage to give New Axiom more land, respect, money, etc? This seems like it could be an important part to his life. Especially if this leader is loved by his people after overthrowing the old government. But great job over all!

Cool, thanks so much! I'll try to fix this soon. I probably should have mentioned this in the factbook: Silva was much more aggressive on the domestic and international stages, and was much quicker to go to war than his predecessor, and with the military might of the empire, wars were easy to win.

Edit: okay, I added said things,and fixed some grammatical errors.

[Jersey Republic]

This is a character I created

His name is Harold spritzer

He fought with the Americans in World War II and is president of the Philippines

Any criticism you guys have?