How do I make a Character?

If you go to the character profile section of the site you will find a pinned character profile sheet. You don’t have to supply all of the information on the sheet, and you can add more information if you like. A character history and/or background information is good, but if you write too much background (ie pages and pages) it doesn’t leave you much to improvise later and it makes too much reading for other RPers who are just looking to get the gist of your character.

As for what to write, you can make any character you like. However, it’s best not to make overly powerful or cliché characters, and you should consider the context of the fantasy world before writing the parameters of your character.

Where can I get help with my character?

You can get help by posting a topic in the Shrine of Thoth. Post your character profile there and other members and/or staff will give you feedback. Please do not PM your character profiles to the moderators or admins.

I can make ANY character I want on Abydos without objections from the moderators? What’s the catch?

Excellent question, and the catch is thus: The creator of a story has the authority to decide who can join their story. If you create a good character, people are more likely to let you join their stories and, in turn, they will want to join your stories. If you create a character that’s too powerful (god-moding) or one that’s horribly cliché (a half-elven knight whose parents were killed by a demon when he was a child so he endlessly quests to kill the demon who ruined his life and rescue his true love from its evil clutches with his mighty silver sword of destiny!) people are going to be less eager to role play with you than if you have a more feasible character that is not cliché and, most importantly, is interesting to interact with.

In short, if you can find other people who want to RP with your character, then it’s ok if your character is less than perfect. And if you decide you want help improving your character, post in the help section. But as long as you’re within the rules, whatever you want to write is ok on Abydos.

Simplicity, and the Importance of Interaction

Role playing isn’t all about you and your character, it’s about interacting with other people. Lots of role players try very hard to make their characters unique and special, but they wind up with overly complicated characters that aren't very good for interaction because they're horrendously set apart and unapproachable.

A story doesn't need complicated characters. Most fantasy stories have some humans, elves, dwarves, throw in a dragon... you don't need a complex version of Kurosaki Ichigo with the dark powers of Orochimaru to best your enemies. What you should be thinking about are subtle (but not necessarily complex) characteristics to someone's personality and how they might change once you interact with others in a story. It shouldn't be boring to work with a plain character, it should be a challenge to develop them into something more. A character doesn't need to be unique in the universe with special accessories or mental powers in order for you to achieve something that's both uniquely yours and that people like. One might even say that having so many extra details detracts from your goal, it’s actually harder for you to deal with a complicated character because that character is so far apart from the norm. Also, if the character starts out complicated, where are you going to go from there? Why not start out simple instead?