It's always neat to step back and look at the development of a character and see where you're reflected in their life and persona. RP can be a fascinating tool for self-analysis...
In coming up with a character, what makes them come alive? What makes them fun to roleplay? What have you learned from playing them that you can apply to future characters (or changes to the existing ones)?
An idea I've had for a while - it'd be cool to have occasional characters, maybe spoofed, or maybe renamed existing characters. For those times when you have a cool idea that probably isn't gonna go anywhere serious, but just want to mess around and see if it sticks. (See Players Wanted.) Maybe they do turn into something more, maybe they're just a bit part.
Or perhaps we have characters that anyone can sign on as and play. OR's mentioned wanting to have people play the Statues - maybe something similar. A roster of existing characters with passwords made public (on the muck). You can sign them out like library books. :D
Postscript: Thanks to Cascade, we now have a page for these characters... and a name for them: Masks.
I've pondered what Twin means to me in my Livejournal. How (she)'s [somewhat the same as my previous characters] yet vastly different, and some thought on that [later] when (she) devoured an old identity. And how [playing (her) may be changing me]. There are some notes on Sosael as well, but mostly private. -Twin
There's an element of self-therapy in a lot of my characters here. And elsewhere. An unconscious part of Peganthyrus was exploring seeing myself as a woman. Twin began as a semi-conscious experiment in seeing myself as a woman without the clear boundary of sexual characteristics (admittedly, (her) neuter body was also a bit of a rebellion against the fact that PB was promoted as an openly-sexual muck at the time - Twin's never been anti-sensuality, just scared of losing control, but (she)'s not a sexed creature). Charlotte-Sophia could be me wondering what it's like to be smart, yet happy in a way I never used to be. I'm using Puzzlebox, sometimes, as a place to experiment with who I am as I go through gender transition and try to shed a lot of my old problems.
A fun character shares something of yourself, but not all of you. Has urges and drives. Has a desire to have fun. It's hard to be sad when you're trying to think like a Bubble Doll might...
Blue has a lot of self-analysis on her page. She set out to be pure fun for the player, but evolved into something else. Orange? is a personification of those aspects of his player that are the most frightening to said player. He kinda just happened, was born out of RP. -- Blue
Isn't it amazing how often that happens? After a while, I find I get attached to those frightening aspects. Which drives me batty, and frankly frightens me. I do this often while writing. A character that I based on things I don't like becomes dear and loved. Then you start doing nice things for 'em, and after a while, you consider them a darling child with some issues that you could help with... -- Trilogee
The characters I play are very reflective of what I'm going through. The Twins were created roundabout when I got married. A high-stress (if happy) time of life. Trilogee is an outlet of sorts, and has... Things that go on. Houm was also created in response to my wedding. I was frustrated. I needed a security blankie. So I wrote one that I spotted briefly in a dream.
Tril reflects a lot of the insanity I go through, though she seems a lot stronger than I admit to be. Crazy stuff I go through. She's tough to take it. Not as tough as she thinks she is, for various reasons, but tough. Because she wants to go through weird and dangerous shit.
Unlike ojou and shinsei, who want to do weird and fun things without severe injury. They do. Often. And they love it. Houm just does the housewife routine. Stay at home, take care of the kids, and be intimidating and protective when something nasty comes to smack 'em. Do I really have all that in me?
Zoe is someone from somewhere else. A while back, a good friend and I were involved in a collaborative free-form story (where I learned a lot of my writing techniques from) as we were both learning about magic. Zoe came out of the blue. But then there came the time when we were finished with those stories and Zoe got put away. But then came Puzzlebox, and I was thinking of a character and thought up "Hey, what if this is where she really is, and that our previous stories were a video game of her addiction to that world?" and then, after about a year, I got the description down and it's gone on from there. It took a while though to get into the Zoe of Zoe. She used to be just a supplemental character; with Puzzlebox, she's grown into me, or I into her -:) I love OR's description of her in early days: Strawberry Shortcake meets Hunter S Thompson
I love serendipity. Zoe means life, as in full of; that fits with one of my interpretations of the High Priestess card (vibrant existence through which everything exists)
I've always seemed to be on an exploring kick and using my characters as a tool to do that with. Mixed in with magic, my personal philosophy, a bit of teaching and a desire to let go have fun and make new friends
It's fun when I find Zoe doing things that I don't expect
And I know she's a creation of not just me, but others as well (which I list at the end of my description)
Th'thsthn is a creature which frightens me. Dedicated and focused - fanatical even. Dangerous. Not just thinking instinctively, as I normally do, but deeply, intuitively and rationally - thoroughly. Analyzing everything for personal advantage. Designed to manipulate - the hardest for me to consider, killing with relaxed ease and not worrying about the perception of these actions. One who no matter how eager forces xirself to be slow and patient, to take very deliberate and considered steps so that each one must count toward a goal. I need to play her more often, despite that I don't like manipulating people. Some of these lessons are things I need to learn. - Echo
Alizarin is proving to be horrifyingly easy to play. I seem not to be the first person who's observed this of their high-angst characters. I'd be seriously distressed about this, if I didn't keep breaking down into giggles at his self-importance and sheer pathos.
I had a lot of trouble matching his stride at first. I tried to play him as a creative angst character. But I learned the hard way that writer's block is, by definition, not one of those neuroses you can play out online. It's not comforting that Ali has nothing to say, when his player has nothing to say.
Of course, Ali's true calling proved to be as a critic. It's not just his misery, it's making sure that misery spreads to others, through the noble work of pissing on everything that's not pure enough for him. (i.e., everything other people enjoy) The dismissive mindset is an addictive one. I'm hoping this little taste of just how addictive it is will put me off of it for good. -- OR