How to design an interesting, well-written character

Let's face it, your character probably sucks. This is because you rely on making them boring or generic and preventing them from having any major role, too afraid to change anything. This tutorial is meant to prevent that from happening

Step One: Picking Sex

Clearly the most important part of making a character is determining what gender that character will be. As we all know, men and women are fundamentally different and use completely different thought processes. As a result, we have to pick between one of two general archetypes. Will your character be an interesting, dynamic man who can take on the world in any number of ways, depending on your style and tastes? Or will your character be a stupid, worrisome housewife who cleans and cooks for a man played by another person? Which of these roles you choose sharply alters how you will be roleplaying.

Step Two: Picking Class

Depending on whether or not you're going for a Dungeons and Dragons feel is not the case here, since every character can be boiled down to a specific class anyway.

Let's say you have a character named Jayce. Jayce is emo. What kind of class do you want to give him? You could give him a BORING CLASS, like a priest or a civilian, or you could make things interesting. A dark warlock? Jayce the Dark Warlock. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? The more unique your character combinations are, the more fun they can be to write for. Class can also be an awesome way to mix things up. Maybe Jayce the Dark Warlock was forced to become a Warlock because of his bloodline, when he really wanted to become a brooding vampire hunter like his rival Bob. Jayce the Dark Warlock versus Bob the Brooding Vampire Hunter? Sounds like a fun fight to watch!

Step Three: Personality

Oh no, Marty Stu is going up against the Big Bad, but hes been trapped in a situation he can't escape from. Naturally, with the power of friendship and teamwork, he escapes from it!

BOOOOOOOOR-INNNNNNG

Optimism is good in small doses, but if your character is always a teamwork loving goody-two-shoes it can get boring. More interesting characters are species hating assholes, or, in a previous example, a dark worlock. Interesting combinations lead to interesting personalities, remember that.

Step Four: Abilities and Weaknesses

Your character is untrusting of others and has a dark, moody past. Because teams are for pansies, he has to strike out on his own. But with so many other people roleplaying, how can he do this? The solution is to give him a high power level. Perhaps give Jayce the ability to summon up shadows from the dark pits of the underdark to devour his enemies souls. Very powerful characters are naturally more interesting, because their conflicts are on a greater scale. Nobody likes a character too weak to move the plot along.

Step Five: History and Plot

Okay, so you've worked out Jayce the Dark Warlock to be a powerful, interesting character. But how did he end up in this universe? Time travel, wormhole, what? Having a good, plausible history makes your character look better in comparison to someone who just arrives. If your character is mean to be a drifter from outer space, then give them a big, expansive history with lots of exciting encounters with aliens and planets and tests of physical will. Hell, make it into a big book if you want to, as the more depth you put into this the more engrossed in your character the other roleplayers will be. Even if a simple matter of already being here and simply saying why they are who they are. Maybe Jayce the Dark Warlock was the son of a powerful witch who later became a housewife after submitting to a powerful sage, and because of his conflicting past Jayce can cut himself to add strength to his magical darkness attacks.

Remember, a well developed character starts out with almost no history, and then you start to develop them over time. Still, if you go very in-depth with your character's history, you can give yourself a linear path along which to develop, so that you don't have to do any real work. Also, make sure you give them powerful abilities and weaknesses, as there's no need to create another happy-go-lucky goody-two-shoes who can't actually accomplish anything, and a unique and unheard of combination makes things doubly awesome and helps your writing greatly.

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Pay attention. This will be on the test.