DELETED jdl3932

Reality's Champions

But even that needs a cause, preferably one that isn't too petty as to be unrealistic. Getting triggered over stupidity is a good one, for example, but again this is essentially one of the many things that upsets me here in real life, thus making it a copy really.

Reality's Champions

Hmm. Well I've been trying to come up with a few ideas, though none have really stuck. A character that's always angry needs a reason to be after all, and because I don't want their reasoning to be a carbon copy of mine, I'll have to think a rather solid one up. So far that is proving to be quite the challange.

Reality's Champions

@ZAVAZggg The key part of a roleplay is that its cooperative. If you write a character with a specific story or specific arc you want to tell then you are effectively discounting any input other characters could have on how yours develops. At that point you may as well be writing a book or a short story. The point of this format is telling a story together.

Like, looking at my character, I'm interested in exploring how trauma at an early age shapes her outlook on life but beyond the basic theme, I'm not deciding how that will play out because maybe the others do something unexpected which causes a gear shift in her arc. The point is ti play off one another, not write separate stories in the same space.

If what you know is constantly being angry, then write someone who is angry. Maybe utilizing those impulses in a space like this where the consequences are fictional will help you deal with them in your life. The meme about D&D secretly being therapy is extremely accurate and applies to this medium in a very similar fashion.

@Prince of Seraphs

Hmm. A sound suggestion, but does that not have the potential to put people off as well?

Reality's Champions

@Prince of Seraphs
Touching on the care part, while that is part of writing a good story, I don't think I've necessarily written any with that express goal save for the ones that I cannot bring into this roleplay. But even in those cases it was more out of a desire of catharsis, because I had a character idea I wanted to write and then did. For the most part I feel like most of my writings aren't centered around making one care about the character, moreso exploring a concept or telling a story, and the only reason I try to make characters more than planks of wood is because it's a good idea to do so. At least that's what it seems like anyway.

And true, not being a god doesn't also mean that they aren't a power fantasy, I was merely trying to convey the fact that most of the characters I've written or read that I regard to be power fantasies generally are. Not in official works mind you, just on some roleplaying sites and forums in general. Usually characters who aren't literal gods tend to be more fleshed out from what I've seen, or actual characters in other words, rather than a vessel for an inordinate amount of powers. Even if their own power is some form of reality warping or similar.

Lastly, as for writing what I know, again that just results in characters that are typically less empathic and more edgy. Or angry, depending, because that is quite literally what I know. While my life is nowhere near as bad as that of others, some of the things that happened during it combined with most of the ridiculous and stupid things humanity does on a daily basis have shaped me into a largely cynical and pessimistic person. Though I could possibly make this work. I do have an OC of Lucifer I could remix, make him less from Milton and make the adventure something he sees as a potential path to redemption. A way to show that he's done being evil and whatnot.

Reality's Champions

@ZAVAZggg If I'm being honest, that sounds really sad. Maybe excitement is the wrong word, but shouldn't you have some kind of investment in your characters? What do you get out of writing them if you don't care about them as people and only see them as tools? Maybe try asking yourself, what part of you are you imbuing into the character. What part of them is a reflection of you, the piece that no one else could write, even if they had the same base concept, because they aren't you?

Again, really trying not to be mean, but what part of the vampire lord who killed the ancient Harkon, final boss of one of the Elder Scrolls games and only being capable of siring pure-blood vampires, took his throne, his sword, and his court, and has a bunch of gems made for stealing the souls of powerful beings, wasn't a power fantasy?

As for Arcamor, if you've decided he won't work, he won't work. It's that simple. You're the author, you can make changes to alter the character so they suit the setting. Naturally if you don't want to do that then they aren't going to suit the setting so a new concept is probably warranted.

@Prince of Seraphs

I mean a major weakness is sunlight. I'm not going the ES route of being weak to it, I'm going the route of if he stays out longer than say a minute at stage four, it's going to incinerate him. Something like that which effectively forces him to work at night or from within the shelter of some manner of darkness. And granted, he killed Harkon. I've written characters that casually destroy entire universes with nothing more than a thought, hence why it doesn't seem as much of a power fantasy, at least at first glance for me. Because my typically experience regarding power fantasies are characters who can literally just move the plot from a necessity to a suggestion.

Given all that him killing the sire of an entire vampire clan seems rather inconsequential in my eyes, again, at least from the get-go.

As for the first part, excitement is indeed not the correct term for it, though honestly I have no idea what the correct term is myself. In any case I suppose there's enough investment to keep me writing for some of them, but I can't count the amount of characters I've just left to rot because they no longer interest me. As for what part of myself I imbue, that I do not do. One because it feels dangerously close to self-insert territory, and two because there's not a lot about myself that should be put into something else. Unless you want more edgy characters that is. As for meanness, don't worry about it. Again your points are valid, though again compared to what I have written Arcamor is the least powerful being I've ever thought up. He has weaknesses, he actually has some character, and he can't shatter a universe simply by snapping his fingers. He can also be injured, he'll need to heal himself using Vampiric Drain or feeding, hence why there is a noticeable lack of healing spells in his sheet, and he can't even access his most powerful ability for the majority of the roleplay. At least not if we start out in direct sunlight anyway, and that itself is a threat as I've mentioned.

Finally, touching on the soul gems, I honestly only have them there in case he ever needs to recharge his weapons. It didn't even occur to me to use them for more powerful entities until it was brought up, as again, they were just a logical fallback for his enchanted weapons.

Granted, I might genuinely just make a new character. It honestly doesn't seem like he'll fit even with the above.

Reality's Champions

<Snipped quote by ZAVAZggg>

You could just roll him back a few hundred years. Make him a fresh vampire struggling with if his vampirism means the loss of his humanity, a deep seated sense of betrayal gnawing at his soul from what his brother did to him, caught between a desire to return home and exact vengeance or if home would even be a good place for him to be now that he's a monster. There's plenty of places to take a monstrous character struggling with if being a literal monster means they have to act like a monster and being tempted by how easy it would be to simply stop caring about anyone or anything but themself.

Incidentally there's nothing wrong with writing to explore a concept you find interesting but have you tried writing one you simply find enjoyable? My experience is that you get more out of writing something you having fun with over something that feels like a chore. That doesn't mean everything always going smoothly for your character, conflict is the basis of stories, but it means making a character that excites you to write about, even if it's not particularly complicated. (You may actually find that less complicated is better because it leaves you more to explore in the roleplay itself.)

@Prince of Seraphs

Thing is, most characters I write I don't get excited for. At least not after the initial wave of it wears off anyway. Past a certain point I started seeing them mostly as tools to further a story or an arc, etc. The last time I actually had long term excitement for a character was for one that was both overpowered and not really even a character as far as personality went. Like they were easygoing yet loved a fight, and were arrogant/cocky because of their godlike power, and sometimes real edgy/monolouge-y.

Other than that they really weren't that deep nor interesting. More just a power fantasy.

Now, as for Arcamor, while the idea of him starting this way is a sound one, it does little to solve the lone wolf problem. In fact it makes it worse since he's now a fledgling and out for his brother's blood. Meaning he wants to return home even more so he can find and kill Lokil, and has less impulse control regarding what he feeds on, as well as less of a desire to actually stay with the group unless they're able to get him back. Because again, at this point he wants to find and end his brother. Like sure I could explore the whole becoming a monster thing but one, I've seen it done so many times it's started to bore me mainly because it ends up being a drawn out period of self-loathing followed by acceptance or denial or a begrudging acceptance, and two because even when I initially wrote his story he had already gotten over any qualms he might have had.

Because while his life was destroyed, the one who destroyed it was still running about freely. He could sit and mope about his losses or get revenge on the one who caused them. He did choose the latter, hence why I'll probably have to make a new character. That or I could just say that during this adventure he realizes threats from beyond his world both exist and would mean trouble if they are not promptly stopped, thus why he sticks around and aids the group.

Reality's Champions

I suppose a new character will be mandated, though what kind they will be I do not know.

Reality's Champions

<Snipped quote by ZAVAZggg>

Hey I'm playing a character (or at least when I get around to it) whom isn't good or bad, I'm in no way a hero. Anything could happen because the characters are unknown variables.

@Dark Cloud

Except Arcamor is mentioned as being cold, pragmatic, and very much not empathic for the most part. Sure he feels some sense of care for certain individuals, but that's the problem really. As beyond that he has absolutely no reason to care about the group here unless it aids him in getting back, and like Seraph said, that just makes the RP itself an exercise in how fast I can get him out of it. Especially since he's in his end state, having nothing left to gain save returning to what he already fought to attain centuries ago.