BrokenPromise

Have we been writing Character Sheets wrong?

I think there's a ying and yang for all things. Too little description and the character feels blank, too much description and people start skimming or the scene slows down. I guess that's what makes writing art.

All I really want to know is the character's name, roughly how they look, their non-combat skills (something sorely under spoken for in this topic), and maybe a brief description of their past, just to get to know them better. It doesn't have to be their super secret past, just what the neighbor picked up from them.

Another interesting trend on another forum I saw was that someone actually wrote a post for the bio. It was a sort of mini adventure with the character in it that had nothing to do with the RP. After that, everyone started doing it. What a great way to sample someone's writing ability and see how a character acts.

Have we been writing Character Sheets wrong?

@shylarah I wasn't being very clear. In that particular instance when I said motivations, I was specifically talking about motivations for the GM's agendas. My character is kind of a brat, but they will do things to help out the lower class. The GM didn't initially know that and tried to get my thief to party up with some other thieves so that they could rob some commoners blind. That wasn't ever going to work. The scene still ended up working because the thieves decided to rob some pompous nobles instead.

We don't typically discuss everything in OOC because we like to surprise each other with reveals, but we do discuss how we'd like a collab to go. So far it works pretty well.

And ditto on the keeping super secret stuff hidden. It's more fun for everyone that way, as long as you keep it consistant and don't use it to power play. Nuttsnbolts let me enter an RP with a super secret character. <3

Put some salt on my name

Salt and Sanctuary!

Erm.

Salt and Salt!

Professor Oak Asks: Boy or Girl?

Most character sheets actually have a spot where you define the sex of your character. It's a fairly important choice, but what does it mean to you?

Do you feel there are many differences between male and female characters? Do you tend to favor one sex over the other, or only play one sex? Do you feel a roleplay needs to be balanced with its sexes? Are there certain rolls that you feel are better played by a certain sex?

The Mysteries of Awilix (A Planetary, Magic RP)

Sorry 'bout the extra long post. Posts should be getting smaller now since I have the generic stuff out of the way.

Also, another NPC

Rose Frewen

_{» C A T E G O R Y}

Miner (drone operator)/Fashion designer ● Memory player

_{» D E S C R I P T I O N}

Rose is one of the youngest people in landing, and has to both adjust to her new world as well as her new self. She has a few obsessions, namely fashion design, celebrities, and social media. While she claims most things outside of her obsession bores her to tears, this is just the whining of a bratty little girl who was spoiled her entire life. As a side note, she handles both Lenna's and Holla's Emails, so she's moving up. right?

Memory player is Rose's lunos ability. She can close her eyes and relive her life in perfect clarity. Every sensation from sight to smell. Well, parts of her life. If a memory is too old, her senses aren't as greatly stimulated. It's also impossible to relive moments she's entirely forgotten about.

If I'm going to be honest, i don't like the picture very much. But for some reason it's impossible to get a picture of a futuristic engineer or mechanic that A: actually dresses for work or B: is in Rose's age group. So meh.

The Mysteries of Awilix (A Planetary, Magic RP)

Teeth brushed? Check.

Curls holding? Check.

Outfit looks reasonably tidy? Check.

Borr was smiling at his reflection in a window. It wasn't often he got a visit from someone so important, certainly not one as important as Cerridwen. Or did she prefer to be called Lankerfield? He had heard that she was gruff and mean, but people said the exact same thing about him. The nature of their meeting was not especially friendly, but it was important to be friendly in this kind of situation. He could yell and hound his own crew until they pissed themselves, but he knew this would require more finesse.

He wasn't worried.

Everything he was about to do was a simple precaution for a worst case scenario. In all honesty, Cerridwen sounded like someone Borr wouldn't mind taking out for a drink sometime. A shame she she didn't have a real body at the moment. Not in landing anyway. Such a gesture could be taken the wrong way fairly easily.

But he wasn't worried about offending her, not at all.

He needed to talk to Cerridwen Lankerfield about the equipment. The scaffolding generators seemed to be reacting to interference, the caulk guns were obviously inspired by Vein busters, and some of the cable packs on the rappelling booms were already starting to wear out. Was he really suppose to work with such tools? That is to say, this was a good reason to make a fuss right?

But he wasn't worried about the request, not at all.

Not at all.

Nope.

Worrying wouldn't solve anything. All he could do was make a reasonable effort to appear like an overseer who could handle his work load. Yea, that was the ticket. A finished building, clean swept, nobody could argue against that.

The building hadn't been clean swept.

Borr was starting to worry.

Borr approached his desk and moved around some notes. The office building he was standing in was almost done. Keefer and his slow friend were probably putting in the last windows right now. He had fifteen men on the outside of the building, so the building would be complete soon.

The door to his temporary office swung open.

“Keefer?”

The newly arrived closed the door behind himself. “Jobe and I just got the last window in place. Is there another build site you wanted us to go to?”

“No. I want you to join the cleaning crew and perform the finishing sweep. Once the exterior is finished, the exterior crew can join you. I want this place swept clean.”

Keefer turned to leave, but stopped himself. “I thought you wanted us to hurry up and start another job site.”

“Plans change Keefer.” Borr stood up in front of his desk, casting a shadow over his employee. “Priorities...Change...”

“I-I understand!” Keefer chuckled nervously before turning around to leave.

“Wait.”

Keefer turned back towards Borr, his hand was resting on the open button. “Yes?”

“They would probably work faster if I appeared personally, wouldn't they?”

“Yes, that is true.”

“Well then.” Borr walked around his desk. “Let me personally appear before them. The cleanliness of this building is of utmost importance!”

“But sir, I thought we had droids for that!” Keefer stopped talking when Borr spun him around and walked out the door with him.

@NuttsnBolts

...

Rose's nose still hurt. It probably would for a while. Worse than the pain, she could feel how deformed it was. There would be no long term effects though. A quick dip in a medical healing pod and her nose would be as good as new. Her ego was hurt far worse. Did Lenna really have that kind of power? To literally smack around miners who didn't bend to her whims? It must have been so, because none of the other miners came over to help Rose. Or was that just because Lenna had successfully brainwashed them all?

Rose came from a prestigious family. She wanted for nothing during her upbringing. The only thing she ever had to work towards was becoming a fashion designer. She got her business license at the age of twelve. But then that little twelve year old girl went to sleep on earth and woke up as a seventeen year old woman somewhere else. At first this was exiting. She could fit into the outfits that had inspired her. She didn't have to pretend to be a grown woman anymore. She could go on dates, own property, the works. Her exiting future had already arrived. But what happened? They made her go through some training simulators and determined she would be good as a drone miner. She was suppose to be using her creativity to tailor outfits, not perform these menial tasks.

“Just as I anticipated.” Lenna's voice pulled Rose out of her thoughts. “They wouldn't have had any interest in the blue fluid before. Now that I reported how volatile it is, they are quite eager to study it.” Lenna looked all around herself at the miners. “We are to stop mining for today. The mechanics can catch up on the maintenance, but there's no reason for the miners to stay here. You are dismissed.” After her announcement, Lenna walked into an elevator to be taken to a different floor.

One by one, the miners started to get up to leave. Some happy for the time off, others disappointed in the cut in credits. Rose was not among them. She remained seated after they left. Rose was about to get up when her PDA vibrated. She had received a private message on one of her social media feeds. The young woman quickly picked up her PDA and woke it up.

Holla(IfYaNeedMe): Hihi! How is my follower today? <(^v^)>

What. Was. Going. On? That was definitely the handle of the internet sensation everyone knew and loved. But why did she get a message from Holla? They never actually spoke to each other, and she must have had thousands upon thousands of followers. Rose was exited, yet skeptical. Rose typed a message back, avoiding the use of her typical speed chatting.

Rosey78: I'm fine. How are you?

Holla(IfYaNeedMe): Peachy peachy! ^(^o^)^ Is that typically how you write?

Was it bad that she chose to write differently? Her heart started to pound a little harder.

Rosey78: No. But I think it's easier to read this way.

Holla(IfYaNeedMe): It most certainly is! ~_^

She breathed a sigh of relief.

Rosey78: I'm really glad we're chatting. It almost feels like a dream. Do you chat with your followers often?

Holla(IfYaNeedMe): Sadly no. I don't have time to chat with all of them. V-V I do read all of their comments though!

Rosey78: If you don't mind me asking, why am I lucky enough to be chatting with you?

Holla(IfYaNeedMe): Haha! It's not “all” luck! I screened my followers for very specific criteria. I was looking for someone who was younger than 18, a girl, had a reasonably sized social group, and had a playful personality. You were the first one I chose. <(^v^)>

Rose's smile grew and grew as their conversation went along.

Rosey78: What would you like me to do?

Holla(IfYaNeedMe): I just need someone to manage my work Emails. An online secretary! How much would you charge me to do that?

Rose didn't even think before typing.

Rosey78: I would do it for free.

Holla(IfYaNeedMe): You sure? I'll be rolling in it once I land that movie deal! ~_^

Rosey78: It's okay. I'm happy just to be your friend.

Holla(IfYaNeedMe): Oh hoh! ^(^o^)^ Well if you change your mind, do speak up. Also, while I do find your new “voice” much easier to understand, it lacks the same emotion that your old way of speaking had. You can still use acronyms and emoticons when you type like this.

Rosey78: I'm happy to be your friend! : D And I get paid pretty good for what I do. Lol

Holla(IfYaNeedMe): Haha! Much better. ~_^ What do you do for a living? how is your boss? I personally find my boss kind of boring.

Rose couldn't wait to type a response.

Rosey78: OMG do not talk to me about bosses right now. I'm working in mining and she is (pardon me) little Hitler! No I'm serious. It's so easy to picture her dressed up as a Nazi in one of those vintage world war movies. Or like that villain in the fourth, twelfth, or sixty-eighth Indiana Jones movie. I'm just waiting for her to burn the jews, lol!

Rose wondered if it was a mistake to write something so negative to someone who had brought her so much joy. Holla seemed to be hesitating in her reply.

Ding.

Rose had received an Email... from Lenna Bernstein.

Dear disgruntled employee

You seem to have forgotten that I was keeping tags on ALL of your social media feeds. Even your private messages cannot escape me. You might want to be more careful with what you type into your work PDA. Most overseers would fire you on the spot for such misuse of company property.
...However, I am happy that you are taking on more responsibilities. Doing work for free shows the kind of drive you really have. Since you find this job boring, maybe you'd like to be my secretary too? Multitasking adds complexity to any job, and you look like you could use all the help that you can get. If you abuse your new duties, I will be revoking your internet access. So please don't disappoint Holla just to spite me.
Looks like you still have some work to do. You will not go home with the other miners. Email me with any questions.

Lenna Bernstein
Overseer of mining #11

Scratch that, Lenna deserved the entirety of Rose's wrath, negative or not. Was there software on her PDA that allowed Lenna to look at her private messages? Rose's thoughts were interrupted by a new private message.

Holla(IfYaNeedMe): your boss sounds scary. Σ(ﾟдﾟ;)∑

You can call me Knuckles; Unlike [Avatar Above] I don't...

... proclaim that I'm a token black guy.

(or swing from web)

Have we been writing Character Sheets wrong?

@shylarah

When it comes to descriptions of objects, I'm more inclined to give a short history of the object instead of actually describe it's appearance. I also like to give characters small visual touches so that I can avoid using their name redundantly. Like I might give a guy an eye patch, and his nickname would be cyclops.

@The Elvenqueen

It did work much better than I had originally anticipated. The only problem is the GM doesn't really have anything to go by to decide on good motivations for our characters. Though it's okay in the RP I mentioned because those of us that aren't making our own plots are heroic enough that they will pursueany evil that is put before them.

If I woke up beside you Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

Is it going to be a good day? I don't know...

Wait, I woke up beside spider man!

Yes, yes it is going to be a good day!