Hello, my fair OffTopickles. I have decided to make a new series that assists those who seek to have their own RP experience by giving them tips, tricks and rules to follow on how to begin and how to better themselves. I think this suits me, given the fact that my character is a professor. I was planning on doing this much later on for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that the cycle of OffTopic content is currently in the shitpost and anti-RP stage, where we recently went through a massive spike in RP and story posts and are now burnt out on RP. This was caused by a timing and consistency problem, which we will talk about in the next Lecture. The second is that I wanted to do this after I had finished the RPC storyline (rest assured, I have not given up on RPC, I just want to wait until the time is right). However, to make sure that the next RP spike can be a bit more enjoyable for everyone, I have decided to start RPL earlier than intended. Today’s lecture will be about Character Creation. [b][u]Character Sheet[/u][/b] A character sheet can be very helpful in the future. Not just for you, but for the DMs of RPs that you participate in. It allows you to keep track of your character traits and prevents you from coming up with powers in the middle of an RP session. According to the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/255207617?page=0&sort=0&showBanned=0&path=0]Speaker’s RP Commandments[/url], the Scripture of Aifos states: [quote]"If possible, thou should’st make a character sheet, with set powers & limitations, and follow its general guidelines, and then send it to the DM."[/quote] A character sheet must include basic information about the character you wish to create. This includes the name, equipment, abilities and weaknesses of your character. [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/253778218/0/0]Here is my character sheet as an example[/url] [u][b]Uniquity & Inspiration[/b][/u] It’s okay to have some aspects of your character inspired from some source of media. Heck, I’ve seen people with Titanfall mechs and Density gear before. Just don’t make your character a complete imitation of a video game or movie icon. That would lead to a boring and uncreative person to play as. A character you make must have some sort of uniqueness to it in order to make it interesting. Give your character a little something that you yourself have made up. This could be one of his abilities, personality traits, equipment etc.. Another thing to keep in mind is to make sure that your character doesn’t have the exact same type of power or gear as another user in OT unless you have asked for their permission first. For example, let’s say that Bill has created a character named “Primus”, who is the only one who can wield the power of “The Attunement”. John likes this idea and creates a character named “Morbo”, who can also wield “The Attunement”, even though that Bill stated that only Primus can use The Attunement. This goes against the lore of the character that Bill created. This is also a direct violation of the Eighth RP commandment, which states: [quote]“Thou shalt not attempt to alter the Lore of others, this is thy most heinous act.”[/quote] [b][u]Balancing[/u][/b] Look, everyone wants to feel powerful in some way, but making your character a godlike being with little to no weaknesses is not something you want to do. Coming up with stuff like “he has a black hole cannon that can instantly create an inescapable black hole at any moment” or “if she gets serious, she could erase an entire planet with a wave of her hand” will eventually lead to unfair and unfun encounters in future. Have a bit of modesty and tone down your powers and gear so your RP sessions can be fun for everyone, but don’t make them weak to the point where the slightest hit would kill them. For example, you could say “he has a black hole cannon that can only fire once every hour” or “she is able to leap through time, but doing so constantly will severely weaken her”. You can give your character semi-powerful abilities as long as they can’t be spammed. [u][b]Making Alternate Characters[/b][/u] A few users here have made multiple characters in addition with their original character. These are called “alts”, which usually come with another B.net profile. This could be because they are making a story with multiple original characters, or simply because they just want to play as characters that are very different from each other. Making an alt is completely optional and fine, as long as you follow the same rules as stated above. You must also make sure not to make too many alts. Doing so could lead to confusion for yourself and others. Making about 3-4 alts should be more than enough for you. Alright, that does it for this lecture. If you have any questions, feel free to raise your hand. If you feel like I have forgotten to mention something, make sure to post it below for others to see. [spoiler]Fades Away[/spoiler]