How do I create a Character?

[mansa]

How do I write a Character for ArmageddonMUD?

[mansa]

When creating a character in ArmageddonMUD, there are three requirements:

Main Description
Short Description
Background / History

I usually prepare a character and save this information in a simple text file on my computer before I apply in game.


Let's approach the main description first.


Writing a character description
When other characters look at your character, the game will display your character's main description.  This is a paragraph that describes what your character looks like in a neutral setting.  Your character may be in many different movement states at the time, like sleeping, fighting, sitting at a bar, riding a mount, so it's best to not describe an action that your character may be doing.  It looks a bit funny if your description says, 'This woman standing here....' or 'This elf is grinning while he wiggle his fingers...' or 'As he flexes his gigantic and powerful arms, a muscular dwarf...' when your character may be resting on a cot, or in the middle of a battle.
Your character's main description will remain your character's main description for most of their life.  You can request a change to your character's main description through the request tool after a certain amount of time has past while playing the game, usually once every real life year.  See Description Change for more details.

When thinking of what your character looks like, I do it this way. I fill out these points, and then build up from there:

• What does their Face look like.
• Their Hairstyle...
• Their Eyes...
• Their Nose...
• Their Mouth...
• Their Body Shape...
• Their Height...
• Their Weight...
• Their Hands...
• Their Race...
• Their Sex...

...And then I add any other feature I want to display.  Are they disfigured?  Do they have prominent tattoos or major scars that will never be covered up?

Here's an example:

Face	Narrow and Long
Hair	Shaved
Eyes	Blue
Nose	Flat and crooked
Mouth	full, luscious lips with perfect teeth.
Body Shape	Tall and Skinny
Height	Tall
Weight	Skinny
Hands	Narrow fingers, dirty fingernails
Race	Human
Sex	Male
Other	Has a peg leg

From there, I put the words together into sentences.

This human male is tall and skinny.  His hands have narrow fingers, with dirty
fingernails.  He has a peg leg attached to the stump of his left leg.  His
face is narrow and long.  His hair is shaved, his eyes are blue.  His nose is
flat and crooked, and he has full, luscious lips with perfect teeth.

That's it!  I use this method when I'm not sure what my character will look like.  As you create more and more characters, you can be as descriptive as you want in your main description.  But for your first few, don't stress it out and make something simple that includes those major points.
There are many ways to write a character's description!  ArmageddonMUD is primarily a writing and roleplaying game, so some players spend a lot of time on their description to get it just right.
Here are other examples:
http://armageddon.org/intro/sampledescs.php


Next,
Writing a short description
Since the main description is usually a paragraph, it would be cumbersome to have it echo to the screen each and every time you walk from room to room.  The Short Description is a few words that summarize your character's description, in a bite-sized chunk (It's up to 35 characters in length.)

Typically, it's set up like this:
the <something>, <something> <race>

As in:
the tall, muscular man
the tall, tattooed dwarf
the small, blue-eyed woman

The goal is to summarize or to pick out key features of your main description and display them in your short description.   Let's look at the main description from the example above.  Some of the key features of that character are:
He's got a peg leg.
His head is shaved.
He's tall and skinny.

I could make his short description any one of the following:
the tall, peg-legged man
the shaved, peg-legged man
the tall, skinny, human male
the skinny, peg-legged human

It's good to have the short description describe things that are also in your main description.  Since the Main Description has a lot of space to be as descriptive as you want, trying to shorten it and summarize it into a short description is usually the harder task.  Your short description has the same limitations to changing as your main description, which is typically once every real-life year.


Finally,
Writing your character's history and background
In my opinion, this is the most fun part.  Who is this character, who is their family?  What are their motivations?  What are their goals and what makes them a real person?  There are a lot of resources for creative writing characters.  I'll include some links at the end.  For the most part, I try and answer the typical questions posed by Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.

• What's their Personality?
• What's their Ideals?
• What's their Bonds?
• What's their Flaws?

Sometimes I answer these questions:

• How do I treat and deal with elves?  What about dwarves?
• Do I like the place I live in?  Am I fed up and want to travel and explore?
• Where is my family?  Are they alive still?
• If I were to get into a fight, would I run away immediately and come back with friends, or would I stand my ground?
• Would I sign up to work for the nobility?  What about one of the merchant houses?

After you write the history of your character, your traits, flaws, and other things that help flesh out your character, it gets saved in the game as your biography.  What's interesting about ArmageddonMUD is that you can ADD to your biography as your character explores, has fun, joins groups, leaves groups, and murders your enemies.  You can add more to the story of your character and it becomes chapters of your characters life.  Once you're in the game, you can pull up your biography by typing the command Biography or Bio  See here for more information: http://armageddon.org/help/view/Biography

Where is your character from?  Where are you going to start playing?
When you want to include where they are from, I suggest to say they are from the large citystate of Allanak.  This is a major city that a lot of other player characters will be in.  Here is a brief outline of the city:
http://armageddon.org/help/view/Allanak
More details here:
http://armageddon.org/help/view/Allanak%20Details
Even more details here:
http://armageddon.org/intro/what_you_know.php


More Examples of Backgrounds:
Here are some sample backgrounds from the website:
http://armageddon.org/intro/samplebgs.php
Check it out.  There's some fantastic ones there.


Bringing Characters Alive
In my opinion, Acting and Roleplaying are the same thing.  I asked the player, Vox, for some acting tips.  This is what they said:

Three basics in acting hold true here:

1. Who am I? (the background of my character, what events have occurred and how have they shaped my character's personality? What's my status in society, and how do others see me vs how I want to be seen.)
2. Where am I? (do I understand the location in the world my character was raised vs where I live now? What are the politics and social stratus? What's acceptable etiquette based on location and my character's background?)
3. What's my objective? (Major and minor goals, what are my character's desires and how am I striving to attain them?)

When roleplaying, it's more fun when you get to live outside your own skin as someone else.  Try not to be yourself in another world, but to be someone else, like an Actor.  These are some tricks that I do:

• Try to have one particular motion that your character constantly does.  You could sniff every couple minutes, like you have a constant cold (or maybe it shows they are addicted to some illegal substance.  You could wearily look towards the entrances of the building you are in because your character doesn't like to feel trapped.  You could have your character repeat things other players say, changing the words slightly, like your character is hard of hearing and doesn't quite understand what people are saying.  Repetition of simple motions really make your characters unique and stand out.
• Have something your character fears, and be vocal about those fears to other characters.  Nobody is a superman character, and they all have fears.  It may be Sorcerers.  It may be half-giant mercenaries.  It could also be city rats.  When your character shares something to others about their weaknesses, it allows others to react to you as a person in game, and it lets interesting things happen.
• Try and wedge yourself into the politics of a city.  Ask around who is in charge, and ask them if they need help reaching their goals.  Try and figure out what that merchant from House Kadius wants to accomplish or see what that merchant from House Kurac is trying to sell or search for, and volunteer to join in that.  When a player has a character that is a leader within an organization, they usually have multiple things or quests on the go that they want to reach.  These players are great for helping out new characters and giving them that small push to show that the world of Zalanthas is alive and moving.

[mansa]

There is a player created website (that has been archived) here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230307133325/http://www.generator.synthasite.com/

You can always click the button and then modify it.

[najdorf]

Also, you can use the one in the link for a main description generator.

https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,59175.0.html

[MarshallDFX]

A list of descriptive words:

http://web.archive.org/web/20011208073914/http://www.ci-n.com/~darklyn/armageddon/char.html

[ShaiHulud]

Excellent. Is this stickied yet?

[mansa]

Excellent. Is this stickied yet?

There is a FAQ post that is stickied.
This thread is linked in that FAQ post.

It's easier to have a single FAQ post than to have a large number of pinned posts in a channel.  It's basically an index.