Post by Hez on Apr 24, 2015 13:59:24 GMT -5
Lesson 0201: Identity Crafting
So a lot of times players who are new to RP ask me for help developing their characters. This is always a bit difficult for me, because it's hard to invoke in someone else my own internal process. I'm usually somewhat decent at helping people develop characters related in some way to my own, but that's because I have a good clear sense of them and how they relate to each other. So I'll see if I can jot down some good blanket advice here.
Start with yourself and your own life experiences, but frame them in the appropriate context. If you're attached to a certain species, get to know the accepted lore surrounding them (bearing in mind Wookiepedia can often suck and contradict itself). Context is crucial to a well-developed character. You can divide different aspects of your personality into different characters, making them distinct, or can explain similarities as two characters having come from the same background.
Personally I like to use music and literature to inform my characters, sometimes both. In writing the intro to Hez's backstory, I tried to frame Kerouac's style with an unreliable narrator (ala Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury), peppering in classic sci-fi references every now and then. There wasn't anything musical to him other than he needed something to waltz to. With Jarface, I had in mind the spoken word version of "Get in the Van", a memoir by Henry Rollins (a personal hero) from some of his younger, angrier, darker days. I wanted that post to read like something straight out of Rollins' journal...you know, if he lived in outer space and woke up with amnesia one day. If & when he or someone else ever explores or exposes his past, I'll have something at the ready. Right now it's a loose sketch, hinted at my post in this thread.
That's just how I did it with these two. By no means do you need to overthink things like I do. Just go with what you know! For inspiration, elsewhere on this forum you can read up on our members' backstories and character theme songs, by clicking on the pretty purple links in this sentence.
Good evening. Welcome to the second semester of the Chorba Intelligence Academy. This semester we’re going to be doing things a tad bit differently from the first semester. Whereas previously, each lecture was designed as a standalone lesson designed to add to your general pool of intelligence-related skills, this semester the syllabus is designed to culminate in an exercise for our graduates—though I may call on assistance from the faculty and cadets as well. This mission carries a degree of danger with it…however, it’s no more or less dangerous than work in the field, or as we oft times witnessed last semester, merely operating as a public institution. For these reasons we’ll be focusing on a few significantly less ‘public’ activities…but more details on that will be given in person.
In order to prepare for this exercise we’ll need to begin by focusing on crafting a new identity. The applications of such an exercise should go without saying. One of the obvious methods is to modify your physical appearance. The extent to which you need to do this depends on the mission itself. It can go anywhere from wearing a disguise, to applying prosthetic makeup, and in extreme situations, plastic surgery. Thayta, would you care to demonstrate the disguise you mentioned before class?
…
…err, yes. Well. Not a bad start, but remember, class, if your infiltration assignment involves somewhere where your face is known, it MAY take more than a mustache to do the trick. Aside from superficial disguises, you’ll need to focus on developing a false persona, with some history.
You may be wondering why even spend time on this skill, as most of the agencies you’ll go on to work for from here will assign identities for you. If so, remember that I’m not just training you for an entry-level position in the field—I’m training you to lead. You may have to be the one inventing the identity one day, and it’s my desire that you be prepared. Now, naturally some of us will be better than others, so we’ll need to work as a group to catch everybody up to standard. I don’t want any of you who can’t improvise as well to feel ashamed. Not everyone’s been trained in this prior to arriving here. Additionally, some of us may be more creatively inclined than others. Again, it is my strong and sincere belief that each of you assembled here this evening have the potential to become top-grade field operatives. My job is to unlock that potential.
In crafting a new identity for yourself, you need to choose one you can relate to, but be able to abandon at a moment’s notice. This means that while pulling from personal experience is a good idea, it can also be quite the risky one. You can also pull inspiration from cultural examples. You are limited only by your imagination…and perhaps a little by your ability to lie. That’s it for class tonight. Remember to check your syllabus for your take-home assignments.
In order to prepare for this exercise we’ll need to begin by focusing on crafting a new identity. The applications of such an exercise should go without saying. One of the obvious methods is to modify your physical appearance. The extent to which you need to do this depends on the mission itself. It can go anywhere from wearing a disguise, to applying prosthetic makeup, and in extreme situations, plastic surgery. Thayta, would you care to demonstrate the disguise you mentioned before class?
…
…err, yes. Well. Not a bad start, but remember, class, if your infiltration assignment involves somewhere where your face is known, it MAY take more than a mustache to do the trick. Aside from superficial disguises, you’ll need to focus on developing a false persona, with some history.
You may be wondering why even spend time on this skill, as most of the agencies you’ll go on to work for from here will assign identities for you. If so, remember that I’m not just training you for an entry-level position in the field—I’m training you to lead. You may have to be the one inventing the identity one day, and it’s my desire that you be prepared. Now, naturally some of us will be better than others, so we’ll need to work as a group to catch everybody up to standard. I don’t want any of you who can’t improvise as well to feel ashamed. Not everyone’s been trained in this prior to arriving here. Additionally, some of us may be more creatively inclined than others. Again, it is my strong and sincere belief that each of you assembled here this evening have the potential to become top-grade field operatives. My job is to unlock that potential.
In crafting a new identity for yourself, you need to choose one you can relate to, but be able to abandon at a moment’s notice. This means that while pulling from personal experience is a good idea, it can also be quite the risky one. You can also pull inspiration from cultural examples. You are limited only by your imagination…and perhaps a little by your ability to lie. That’s it for class tonight. Remember to check your syllabus for your take-home assignments.
So a lot of times players who are new to RP ask me for help developing their characters. This is always a bit difficult for me, because it's hard to invoke in someone else my own internal process. I'm usually somewhat decent at helping people develop characters related in some way to my own, but that's because I have a good clear sense of them and how they relate to each other. So I'll see if I can jot down some good blanket advice here.
Start with yourself and your own life experiences, but frame them in the appropriate context. If you're attached to a certain species, get to know the accepted lore surrounding them (bearing in mind Wookiepedia can often suck and contradict itself). Context is crucial to a well-developed character. You can divide different aspects of your personality into different characters, making them distinct, or can explain similarities as two characters having come from the same background.
Personally I like to use music and literature to inform my characters, sometimes both. In writing the intro to Hez's backstory, I tried to frame Kerouac's style with an unreliable narrator (ala Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury), peppering in classic sci-fi references every now and then. There wasn't anything musical to him other than he needed something to waltz to. With Jarface, I had in mind the spoken word version of "Get in the Van", a memoir by Henry Rollins (a personal hero) from some of his younger, angrier, darker days. I wanted that post to read like something straight out of Rollins' journal...you know, if he lived in outer space and woke up with amnesia one day. If & when he or someone else ever explores or exposes his past, I'll have something at the ready. Right now it's a loose sketch, hinted at my post in this thread.
That's just how I did it with these two. By no means do you need to overthink things like I do. Just go with what you know! For inspiration, elsewhere on this forum you can read up on our members' backstories and character theme songs, by clicking on the pretty purple links in this sentence.