Guideline to making a character

Ok, so I know you probably already have a cool concept in mind for whatever demon, hybrid, witch, kung-fu specialist. Or you have no idea whatsoever.

Either way.

Here are a few do's and don'ts you want to keep in mind when designing your character. These steps should insure you stay interested and able to work with any character during your roleplays in an efficient manner, as long as they're taken into account during the application's construction.

1. Dialogue - Not a huge stickler, but you should try to decide how your character will speak, answer questions, and react. Contemplating this can also give you hints to how to construct their history, since their way of speaking would have probably developed over time. It can also help to dictate their personality. Evil masterminds usually have a master dialect.

2. Well rounded - Make sure to give your character the ability to react in all situations. Now I'm not saying to cheat the system and never give your character a way to lose, but making sure they can't be one hit killed or at least have counter measures for situations where they're facing people stronger/more powerful than them, obstacles that are unsolvable by their regular means, or others who wield their weakness. Especially if this is your MAIN character.

3. Humble beginnings - Characters need to progress, thus you give yourself a problem if you make them masters of their powers or solve all their conflicts at the start. There's no shame in having them just discover their heat vision or making a God lose their power and have to gain some of it back. It makes the roleplays more worthwhile as they discover their powers and enhance them as the story progresses.

- Keep in mind powers on the apps CAN grow, but for a huge spike in ability it will need to be approved.

4.  Weaknesses - Do NOT fear weaknesses. Weaknesses are what make characters great.  Superman's weakness appears quite often. Batman is human in a world full of super beings, yet he's the most popular superhero of them all. Being in situations where a character must outsmart their weaknesses is much more fun than situations that aren't really dire, because your character was never in any danger to begin with.

5. Conflict/Desire - One of the biggest reasons that a roleplayer will ever lose interest in a character is that they didn't establish a strong enough conflict for them at the beginning. Your character NEEDS to want something, even if they don't know it. A God wants to become mortal, a villain wants to take over the world. Getting rich isn't good enough, because that can be achieved. You want a very HARD goal to reach which will govern most of your character's decisions.

EX: "I want to be human, so maybe I should do these chores I was asked."

or

"I want to eradicate all humans, I would never do their chores."

^ Goals are everything for a character and a roleplayer's inspiration.

6. History - History is a writer's best tool. The way your character grew up gives insight to many of their decisions as well. A female who works out everyday and wears tight dresses probably wouldn't just eat a giant cake to herself. Adventurous characters would recklessly jump out of a plane with no fear, while other's may not. History is a great tool to help you decide character actions, use it.

7. Muse overload - The phenomenon of watching, playing, or seeing something so EPIC you decide you want to roleplay it. While this is not a problem within itself you must also consider if this type of character will work on the site with our rules a regulations. There's no doubt the character would work in the context you originally discovered it, but on a superheroes roleplay site where the power levels are toned down and we live in a city? Would a Tarzan like character who has control over Gorillas be  a good fit in that type of setting?

- Don't forget you want them to be well-rounded, as in they work for every situation they come across and you never feel like you don't know what to do or say.

8. Strictly combat - On a superhero site you will do quite a bit a lot of fighting roleplays, but not always. Give your character some personality. Abilities and things they like to do besides punching people in the face or spouting off motivational speeches of right and wrong. Not all threads will require this, and having normal interest or maybe even a curiosity to gain some interests can make other types of threads more worthwhile.