Horse's Guide for Creating Character Forms ♞ WIP NO POSTING

[Horse]

June 18, 2017 Edit: I just saw that this post was placed in a new forum created for role-play guides and such! I actually started making this topic in 2014 ;u; , but now that this help forum is actually a thing I'm definitely going to continue working on this post and revise what I've already written (since my writing skills have improved since 2014!) when I get a chance to! Happy role-playing!

My own to-do list for this thread;
Revise introduction post [Almost finished!]
Revise/rewrite other posts [Started revising the basic character information post. I haven't even touched/started the others yet. Will get to them soon!]

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xxxxxWelcome to Horse's Guide for Creating Character Forms! Here I will take you through the steps of creating a role-play character, from a character's basics to the very details about them! This thread only covers creating character forms, so it will go into quite detail about creating them! Happy role-playing!


introduction ♘
basic character information ♞
character picture ♞
"prettying up" your form ♞
more detailed forms ♞
character's perspective ♞

[Horse]

xxxxxWhat is a role-play form? What do forms do when you post one of them in the role-play forum? What are they for?

xxxxxRole-play forms tell people about your character! A role-play form gives information on your character, such as their name, who they are, what they look like, and what their personality is like. Many role-plays require people to submit character forms to whomever runs the role-play for their character to be accepted into the role-play. Why is this? Role-play owners may want to see if one's character is suited for their role-play or not. People in the role-play may also want to "get to know" your character before they begin to role-play their characters with your's. It may be easier for them to establish friendships or other relationships between your character and their's if they have an idea of what your character acts like and how they would interact with other characters. In addition, like all people, all characters have unique traits and personalities that must be portrayed by their role-players (unless the characters happen to be robots or something of the sort!), thus making a form full of a character's information helpful to role-players who need to portray their character's personality through their writing.

xxxxxSo, what are we waiting for? Let's stretch our character development skills in this first post about learning and creating the basic information about our character! ♞

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Establishing the Basic Information About Your Character

xxxxxLet's begin with first picturing a character we'd like to write about. Think about the type of role-play you're joining with your character, or think about their purpose if they would be in a role-play. I generally base the characters I create off of the role-plays I join or I will create a variety of characters with different personalities to ensure that at least one will be suited for the role-play I'm joining, thus boosting my chance of being accepted into it. What would they be like in the role-play? What would be their role in it?

xxxxxI tend to join many humanoid role-plays that include supernatural beings with all sorts of cool powers, so let's say we're creating a supernatural being for one of those role-plays! How about creating a werewolf? Seems pretty cool. A werewolf would definitely fit into a role-play with a plot that suggests different supernatural characters would be in it, and it would totally fit into a role-play just about werewolves! With a werewolf character I can join many fantasy humanoid role-plays involving supernatural creatures. What role-play do you plan on joining and will your character fit in?

xxxxxNow that we've gathered what our characters will be and what role-play they will fit into, let's gather the basic information about our characters. What are their names? What are their genders? What are their ages? You can choose any name, gender, and age for your character, but I'll choose the name Max for my werewolf and make him a twenty-year-old male.

xxxxxWoot! We finally have thought up the very basics for our character! Now we can begin to write down this information for our form. First you should write the "skeleton" of the form (pictured left) based on the information we have (the name, gender, and age of our character) and then "fill it out" (pictured right)!

Name:
Gender:
Age:

Name: Max
Gender: Male
Age: 20

→ ✎ →

xxxxxSince our character is a werewolf, we could list in his form that he is, in fact, a werewolf, but if we join a role-play with only werewolves in it we don't need to because others could assume that he's a werewolf. However, if we join a role-play where there are all kinds of supernatural creatures, we should list that he's a werewolf so people know.

Name: Max
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Creature:

Name: Max
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Creature: Werewolf

→ ✎ →

xxxxxGreat! Now that we have the very basics of our character down in a "form," we should start writing about our character's personality. The next section of this post deals with forming the idea of what our character's personality should be. ♞

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Discovering Your Character's Personality Traits

xxxxxBefore we get started, let me bring to mind that a character's personality is one of the key "ingredients" to the character itself- it's something that defines the character! Like people, characters have all different unique personality traits that make them who they are. For example, you might know one of your friends to be very energetic and optimistic. Why? Because these traits your friend has reflects in their personality, or what they show to you! You may know or identify your friend as your "energetic friend" or "optimistic friend." The same "identification" goes with characters! Would your character be considered your "energetic friend" too? Or would they be more mysterious? Who is your character? Based on what you choose for character's personality, you'll need to reflect their personality in your role-play posts.

xxxxxLet's begin! When deciding a character's personality, you should ask yourself these questions;

1. Will your character be successful in interacting with others?
xxxxxBefore you join a role-play with your character, check out the character forms of the other characters in the role-play and read the characters' personalities. See what the dominant personality is amongst the characters- for example, are most of the characters in the role-play more quiet and reserved? Well, joining the role-play with another quiet and reserved character might not work out so well. Why? If all of the characters in a role-play are quiet and reserved, they will be too shy to approach each other in the role-play, thus making character interactions take longer to begin. Joining the role-play with a character of the opposite personality (loud and outgoing!) may be a better choice because the character will initiate conversations with the other more reserved and quiet characters who may be too shy to do so. Characters' personalities should balance out in role-plays.

2. Will your character fit the role they're playing in the role-play?

3. Can you portray your character's personality in your writing?

Wip!

[Edited/rewrote the above June 18/19, 2017 - Haven't touched below yet since 2015? Lol. I'm planning on rewriting the below very soon after I finish rewriting this section! Don't pay attention yet to the below posts I made because they aren't even relevant to the above character ;u; .]
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[Horse]

l e t ' s . g o . e v e n . d e e p e r . w r i t t i n g . f o r m s !

Detailed forms contain more information on a character. For example, even if one includes the basics on a form ( name, gender, age, etc. ) , he/she may also include "likes", "dislikes", "history", and more. He/she may include more information on these topics than a word or a sentence or two. There are all different types of "detail" in forms, and I'm going to take you around some detail that I think would be great to add to a form!

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more sections
Whenever I add more detail to a form, I first usually add more sections so one can get to know my character better. More information will be given on my character!

Let's begin with the form that we have created above:

Name: Lily
Gender: Female
Age: Four
Species: Wolf
Personality: Friendly and Curious
Crush: None
Mate: None

Whenever one gets to know another, the two usually find common interests, correct? In a role-play, it will be easier for characters to "become friends" if they know what each other's common interests are. This is a reason why one should include "likes" and "dislikes" in their form, aside from adding more sections!

So, let's add two sections to our form: "likes" and "dislikes".

Name: Lily
Gender: Female
Age: Four
Species: Wolf
Personality: Friendly and Curious
Crush: None
Mate: None
Likes:
Dislikes:

NOTE: Before we go ahead and fill these two sections out, let's move on and add more sections in so we can fill out the information all at once!

Adding a "history" section to add a backstory to your character is a great subject to add into your form. If your character has a bad history, for example, it might show why your character is cold and sad. Though, if your character has a happy history, for example, it might show why your character is happy and optimistic!

Let's add a "history" section to the form.

Name: Lily
Gender: Female
Age: Four
Species: Wolf
Personality: Friendly and Curious
Crush: None
Mate: None
Likes:
Dislikes:
History:

It's nice to know what your character is good at in role-plays! It's up to whether your character is strong in anything or weak in anything, but in role-plays, it gets annoying when a character gets all knowing and all powerful [ see godmoding ].

So, we will add "strengths" and "weaknesses" to the form!

Name: Lily
Gender: Female
Age: Four
Species: Wolf
Personality: Friendly and Curious
Crush: None
Mate: None
Likes:
Dislikes:
History:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:

Does your character have any family? Let's add a "family" section to our form so others know who our character is related to [ if related to anyone ] ! We can also add an "appearance" section to add on more details that our [url=wheeee]character picture*[/url] won't show!

Name: Lily
Gender: Female
Age: Four
Species: Wolf
Personality: Friendly and Curious
Crush: None
Mate: None
Likes:
Dislikes:
History:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Family:
Appearance:

Awesome! You now have a bunch of sections added into your form, so now lets fill all of these sections out!

Let's start by creating likes and dislikes for your character. Again, when filling out these sections of the form, we will have to use our imagination [ it sounds cheesy, I know, but it helps c; ] ! Let's connect the "likes and dislikes" of Lily to her personality [ friendly and curious ] . What is Lily curious about? Lily has to be curious about something. Maybe she is curious about an object, like flowers- for example- or maybe she is curious about what other wolves "talk" about! Maybe she is curious about flowers because she likes them! This can be one of Lily's "likes". But maybe she is curious about other wolves that talk about behind her back- "sneaky" wolves can be one of her dislikes!

Name: Lily
Gender: Female
Age: Four
Species: Wolf
Personality: Friendly and Curious
Crush: None
Mate: None
Likes: Flowers
Dislikes: Sneaky wolves
History:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Family:
Appearance:

Let's connect Lily's "likes" and "dislikes" to her "history"- to "like" or "dislike" something, one would have to experience something to trigger what they like or dislike. Therefore, this "trigger" may have happened in Lily's past! The same would go for Lily's "personality". So, let's create a history for Lily based on her likes, dislikes, and personality!

Name: Lily
Gender: Female
Age: Four
Species: Wolf
Personality: Friendly and Curious
Crush: None
Mate: None
Likes: Flowers
Dislikes: Sneaky wolves
History: Lily was born into a small pack of five wolves in a rocky den outside of a large field lined with bright, blooming flowers and bushy shrubs. She had two litter-mates, Echo and Valentine, that enjoyed playing with her in the field outside of their den. They used to jump over the flowers together while their mother watched them as she picked flowers into her jaws, leaving some for Lily and her litter-mates near their den. Lily's father always kept a watchful eye on the pups, especially when he lead them into the darker parts of the forest where prey was scarce when the pups were sad, teaching them to be happy they had enough to eat and to live in a beautiful, sunny area.
As the pups grew older, Lily became more independent while Valentine and Echo grouped together, often spreading rumors between each other about Lily behind her back. When Lily overheard the two talking one day, she realized that their conversations focused on her. The she-wolf was hurt, but always kept an ear up to hear what the two were talking about, making sure that they didn't speak these false rumors to her mother and father.
A big storm rolled over the area when Lily and her siblings her were about one year old, forcing Lily and her family to flee the area. Lily was separated from her family as a flood began, never to see them again. She wasn't sure what happened to her family, because as the flood ended, she went to their den to see no-one there. Though, she did see flowers that her mother collected scattered around the den, and remembrance of her family filled her heart. She didn't cry, though, as she had felt happiness of having something of her family left after the flood. The she-wolf left that den after a day, on a journey to find a new pack that her parents would have liked her to stay in.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Family:
Appearance:

Even though the history has a sad ending, you can now see how Lily's history and likes, dislikes, and personality connect together. Lily likes flowers/is curious about them because they remind her of her family, and she dislikes sneaky wolves/is curious about them because her siblings talked about her behind her back. You can also see that Lily holds an optimistic view throughout the story because her father often showed her places that is harder for wolves to live in than where they lived when the pups were sad- teaching them to be happy and grateful.

From Lily's history you can see that Lily does have some family, even if though they may not be in the role-play you're joining. Let's go ahead and fill in the names of Lily's family members under the "family" section, along with what these members are in relation to Lily ( mom, dad, brother, sister, etc )

Name: Lily
Gender: Female
Age: Four
Species: Wolf
Personality: Friendly and Curious
Crush: None
Mate: None
Likes: Flowers
Dislikes: Sneaky wolves
History: Lily was born into a small pack of five wolves in a rocky den outside of a large field lined with bright, blooming flowers and bushy shrubs. She had two litter-mates, Echo and Valentine, that enjoyed playing with her in the field outside of their den. They used to jump over the flowers together while their mother, Dew, watched them as she picked flowers into her jaws, leaving some for Lily and her litter-mates near their den. Lily's father, Sparrow, always kept a watchful eye on the pups, especially when he lead them into the darker parts of the forest where prey was scarce when the pups were sad, teaching them to be happy they had enough to eat and to live in a beautiful, sunny area.
As the pups grew older, Lily became more independent while Valentine and Echo grouped together, often spreading rumors between each other about Lily behind her back. When Lily overheard the two talking one day, she realized that their conversations focused on her. The she-wolf was hurt, but always kept an ear up to hear what the two were talking about, making sure that they didn't speak these false rumors to her mother and father.
A big storm rolled over the area when Lily and her siblings her were about one year old, forcing Lily and her family to flee the area. Lily was separated from her family as a flood began, never to see them again. She wasn't sure what happened to her family, because as the flood ended, she went to their den to see no-one there. Though, she did see flowers that her mother collected scattered around the den, and remembrance of her family filled her heart. She didn't cry, though, as she had felt happiness of having something of her family left after the flood. The she-wolf left that den after a day, on a journey to find a new pack that her parents would have liked her to stay in.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Family: Dew ( Mother ) , Sparrow ( Father ) , Echo ( Sister ) , Valentine ( Sister )
Appearance:

Fabulous! We're almost done with the "more sections" part! Let's fill out our character's "strengths" and "weaknesses" section!

Name: Lily
Gender: Female
Age: Four
Species: Wolf
Personality: Friendly and Curious
Crush: None
Mate: None
Likes: Flowers
Dislikes: Sneaky wolves
History: Lily was born into a small pack of five wolves in a rocky den outside of a large field lined with bright, blooming flowers and bushy shrubs. She had two litter-mates, Echo and Valentine, that enjoyed playing with her in the field outside of their den. They used to jump over the flowers together while their mother, Dew, watched them as she picked flowers into her jaws, leaving some for Lily and her litter-mates near their den. Lily's father, Sparrow, always kept a watchful eye on the pups, especially when he lead them into the darker parts of the forest where prey was scarce when the pups were sad, teaching them to be happy they had enough to eat and to live in a beautiful, sunny area.
As the pups grew older, Lily became more independent while Valentine and Echo grouped together, often spreading rumors between each other about Lily behind her back. When Lily overheard the two talking one day, she realized that their conversations focused on her. The she-wolf was hurt, but always kept an ear up to hear what the two were talking about, making sure that they didn't speak these false rumors to her mother and father.
A big storm rolled over the area when Lily and her siblings her were about one year old, forcing Lily and her family to flee the area. Lily was separated from her family as a flood began, never to see them again. She wasn't sure what happened to her family, because as the flood ended, she went to their den to see no-one there. Though, she did see flowers that her mother collected scattered around the den, and remembrance of her family filled her heart. She didn't cry, though, as she had felt happiness of having something of her family left after the flood. The she-wolf left that den after a day, on a journey to find a new pack that her parents would have liked her to stay in.
Strengths: Swimming, Running
Weaknesses: Hunting, Battling
Family: Dew ( Mother ) , Sparrow ( Father ) , Echo ( Sister ) , Valentine ( Sister )
Appearance:

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[Horse]

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n e e d . a . l i t t l e . e x t r a . h e l p ?

'Need some help with your form? wip