On Characters

Characters are the meat of any RP. They're the people whom the whole story are about. Without characters, it'd just be a whole lot of worldbuilding with no use and no purpose. Everything else is just the canvas - characters are the paint.

It's important, then, to have good characters: interesting personalities, detailed histories, motivations, purposes, aspirations, all that good stuff. Creating or developing a character for a roleplay is a lot like doing so for a story or fanfic, but perhaps with a few quirks and differences. The purpose of this guide is to give at least some degree of insight into this, and to help people in the quest to make better characters for a better RP experience.

So, without further time-wasting, let's get stuck in!

=RP Characters= The biggest difference between creating a character for a story, and creating one for an RP, is that most of the time (unless you're a GM), the character is going to be the scope of your control - you can't dictate details of the setting, or their relationships with other characters, amongst other things. This means you have to adapt the character to the setting, you have to let relationships develop and progress naturally, and above all else, be willing to make changes to have these things make sense.

Pro-tip: RP is a group effort. Don't be afraid to talk to people - perhaps your character has a pre-existing relationship with one of theirs, or their paths have crossed before. While you can develop a character purely in a vacuum, you don't have to, and it can in fact open interesting possibilities to have characters linked in some way.

It's important to remember to keep your character believable. Real people have subtle details, nuances, hidden facets to their personalities. They have strengths, weaknesses, flaws, virtues... you get the point. Fictional characters need these same details, nuances, facets, etc. or else they’ll feel flat, two dimensional, and boring. But of course it’s easy to screw this up by piling on the wrong details - think of any bad self-insert Mary sue character in a fanfic; details coming out their ears, but still feel as fake as a cardboard cut-out.

Remember also that RP characters, unlike characters in a novel or fanfic, are people you're going to have to be - not just tools that you use to create a story. This means that you both need to somewhat ignore, and pay special attention to, the oft repeated warning against identifying too much with your character. While creating a self-insert is very much a BAD thing, it does help to be able to identify with your character's motivations and goals, to be able to get into their head and wear them like a comfortable robe.

It's often a case that our RP characters reflect facets of ourselves, or possess traits that we wished we had. There can easily be an element of wish-fulfillment to RP, and that's not strictly a bad thing, but at the same time it's important to keep in mind that our characters are NOT us - they don't always react as we will, and they have their own life experiences to draw from, their own motivations that compel them. The key thing to do is to FIND THE BALANCE.

=Canons= As EoP is a "Touhou-based" RP (that also includes broad swathes of Eastern Mythology, touches of the Lovecraft mythos, and a fair bit of wholly original work), "canon" characters are those that are "pre-existing" within the setting, and can be assumed to be there, even if no-one is playing them. In this, Reimu Hakurei and Cirno are both canon characters (this should be obvious), but so are Amaterasu Okami and Daode Tianzun.

The big difference between canons and OCs is that canons have pre-existing personalities and histories, and whomever takes up one of these characters only has to fill in the gaps and expand upon what's already there. This also means that you need to understand a canon character in order to play them, unlike an OC, where you merely have to understand the basics of the setting. You create OCs, but you take canons. Of course, depending on the canon character in question, there may be more or less wiggle room.

All of this can make choosing a canon character difficult, but it can also be a quick way to get into the RP, as canon characters will often have ties to other characters that gives them a reason to go out and get involved in events right from the start, unlike an OC, who will often have to spend more time building those basic relationships.

Pro-tip: Research, research, research - play the games, read through the Touhouwiki and the print-works, read through the EoP background materials, bug the GMs and other players with questions. If you have a feeling a canon character is right for you, then get a good grip on who they are before rushing off to apply. It will help make the whole process smoother.

Place in EoP
Canon characters often help to form the setting itself. They provide a baseline against which other characters can be measured, and in their personalities and mannerisms, serve to outline the "tone" of the setting. Looking at the Youkai of Touhou, we know that they like to try and hunt humans, that they're often playful and sometimes malicious troublemakers, that they see nothing wrong with starting a fight and then afterwards engaging in much drinking of either tea or sake. We can do the same for other characters from Touhou - from the humans who often struggle to resolve the many incidents, to the inhabitants of the village, the various gods and spirits that populate other realms. Using all these people as a cross-section of Gensoukyou's population, we can determine the general "way things are", and create a guideline by which to measure other characters - are they someone out of the ordinary, and if so, why? Are they just another face in the crowd? Are they happy as such?

The other class of characters we can call "canon" are typically those from mythology - people such as the gods of the celestial bureaucracy, or various youkai and monsters of legend. As with characters from Touhou, they tend to have pre-existing details regarding their histories, personalities, and relationships, and so the same caveats apply when considering playing one of these characters. They also serve to outline details of the setting in much the same way - establishing the general behaviours and trends amongst gods and Youkai outside of Gensoukyou.

Keeping Within the Framework
The key thing to remember when roleplaying a canon character, is to remain IN CHARACTER. Unlike an OC, which people will only get to know in the course of the RP itself, everyone is going to have certain preconceived ideas about canon characters - and so it can be quite jarring to have them suddenly act nothing like what all other material might suggest. Furthermore, as canon characters can hold fairly important places in the setting itself, it wouldn't do to have them acting in ways that they shouldn't - nobody wants to see a moe-blob Flandre, or a petty and mean Ryuujin, so it's important for people to play canon characters as they're meant to be played.

Pro-tip: It helps a lot to take canon characters that you can identify with, or at least that you can understand well. For example, I (the author, cxl) draw on memories of the occasionally stressful and at times tiring task of being an admin, to help me play Reimu. Her sense of responsibility towards Gensoukyou, even when she'd rather just spend the day quietly drinking tea, can be similar to how an admin has no choice but to involve themselves in community matters, even when they'd just want to spend the night RPing. Finding that link connecting you to your character can make it a whole lot easier to remain in-character.

Headcanon
EoP welcomes, and in fact encourages headcanon. Whatever isn't specified in the backstory or other information about a canon character is blank space waiting for YOU, the writer, to fill it in, hopefully with something interesting! Some characters will have more of this "wiggle room" than others, and in fact some have so little canon information that playing them is a lot like making an OC that just happens to have some pre-established role or relationships.

Bear in mind, though, that there's a difference between "headcanon" and "just making shint up" - whatever you come up with should still make sense within the framework set out by the setting and the character. Or, to put it another way - one can turn Yuuka into a millennia-old nature spirit, but one can't just turn her into a professor of literature. The general rule of thumb with these things would be: We already have a snapshot of the character as they are, now we (meaning you) just need to figure out how they became to be that person.

Special Note: Fanon is a thing, that exists. We know. And it's very easy to be influenced by it, but generally, just dragging a whole bunch of fanon here and cramming it into place to fill the gaps is A) Quite lazy, and B) terrible. More so if it's memes. Especially if it's memes. Fanon tends to reduce characters to a small set of simple, highly visible traits, and we want to see the opposite - we want to see characters expanded into fully realised, detailed people.

=OCs= "Original Character" - let that sink in for a moment. Original. Character. This is someone you create from the ground up; no small undertaking, and not one that's easily gotten right on the first try. Don't be disheartened if your first attempt at an OC is met by a lot of critique and/or moaning from the GMs, the admins, the moderators, and even the community. However, do try to take what they say under advisement - they're generally trying to help you fix your character and get it workable, not to convince you that you're some manner of gormless idiot who can't write their way out of a paper sack.

Originality is hard. Good originality is even harder. But it's not impossible, so don't lose hope.

Special Note: 'ORIGINAL. CHARACTER' - This means that you have to do the work. Don't create "Nichigo Sakikuro" the half-Shinigami swordsman - it's real groanworthy and the admins will facepalm and raar at you. You can take inspiration from other sources, but remember the old adage: Copying from one is plagiarism, copying from many is research~

Place in EoP
EoP welcomes OCs. In fact, we somewhat encourage them. There are a number of benefits to playing an original character. You get to:
 * Contribute to the setting by adding more detail.
 * Explore Gensoukyou from a new point of view.
 * Become a better writer.
 * Get more characters, and thus more chances to RP, without hoarding all the precious canons.

Of course, OCs come with their own challenges - not only do you have to create a character from scratch and have all the details, great and small, fit together in a sensible way, but you also need to keep it within the framework of the setting, and to not accidentally recreate a character that already exists. However, the experience of creating and playing an OC can be quite rewarding, and besides, there are several thousand people in Gensoukyou, and billions more in the outside world - plenty of room for diversity.

Starting from Scratch
Creating an OC could easily warrant a guide all its own (and indeed, there will be one, and it will be linked here once it's done), so this will just be an overview of the process.

To create an OC, you'll have questions both big and small to answer - everything from "is a Youkai" to "likes pickled Onions" is entirely up to you. You could be anything from an ancient, formless terror, to an average craftsman in the human village. For obvious reasons, however, we can't allow just anyone to walk in and whip-up an Elder God or two to bring to Gensoukyou for spring break - not only can it be challenging to play incredibly powerful characters without running roughshod over everyone's plots, but it's also very easy to abuse things like that, which ruins everyone's fun and is detrimental to the RP as a whole. On the upside, there's no real limit to the number of OCs you can create (except YOU - don't take more characters than you can play, or otherwise cleverly restrict when they might show up), so you can easily start off with a more "normal" OC, and later, once we've gotten to know and trust you and your RPing ability, try to bring a more powerful character in.

Once you've got an idea of what your character is, you'd need to determine the various details that define them as a person - their personality, habits, mannerisms, and history. You'd need to establish all this and make it fit together - so, for instance, someone who's spent much of their lives fighting probably won't be much of an academic, and will probably have a bit of a direct personality. Of course, these things can be subverted and played with, but it'll be up to you to explain how and why.

Keeping Within the Framework
The single most important thing with OCs is that they must fit the setting. This point cannot be stressed enough. As we are trying to fully realise our vision of Gensoukyou, we need every last OC, from the beyond-godlike reality warpers, to the most humble, powerless humans, to feel on every possible level as if they belong there.

This makes both creating, and playing OCs a significant challenge, and in many ways more difficult than simply picking a canon. However, canons are limited, OCs are not.

(A small aside, here, to briefly address the concept of power levels. Due to OCs potentially coming to outnumber canons, and simply going by the law of averages, they are restricted to being mid-level in power AT MOST. Yes, there are exceptions. No, you likely won’t get one. If anything, be glad - the more powerful your character, OC or canon, the more expectations are placed on you as a roleplayer.)

So, the key point I’m trying to bring across here is simply: If you want to make an OC, make sure it fits the setting.

Gensoukyou is in Japan. That means almost everyone will be of Japanese heritage. Their names, mannerisms, and appearance should all reflect this. Research helps a lot with this. There are also likely to be (and indeed there are) a few immigrants from the rest of Asia, but the further away you get, the less likely they are to be around. Also bear in mind that crossing the border is no trivial task, and so most (around 97%) of all the characters should have been born in Gensoukyou. (Basically guaranteed for humans. Youkai older than a few hundred years may have settled here before the barrier came up.)

Diversity is good when it comes to OCs, but be mindful of the setting of the RP - almost all of it happens in Gensoukyou, a word of Youkai and Spirits, Gods and Onmyouji, characters should at least "feel" like they belong here, or else you might find that other people shun you as some weird outcast, and that's if you're lucky. If you're not lucky... well, at least the border of life and death doesn't hurt when you're forcefully shoved over it.

Regulating Powers
Powers in Touhou tend to be limited. Most individuals have one or two powers at most. A human might be skilled in martial arts, whereas a Youkai might have the ability to manipulate darkness, but very, very few people have more than one power. Those that do, will often be older and more powerful, and conversely have less and less reason to list every last skill and ability as a “power”.

Thinking about the above logically: For a human, being a master swordsman or a skilled sorcerer is a great accomplishment, likely the result of years and years of training. For an old Youkai like Yukari, she’s probably had more than enough time to learn much of combat, magic, calligraphy, or what-have-you, but this tends to pale in comparison to her primary ability, and hence only that is listed. This requires a bit of common sense to get right, so ask if you are unsure.

Regarding demographics - fairies are probably the most numerous, followed by humans, and then spirits, and finally Youkai. Try to keep this in mind when creating an OC. Of course everyone wants to be a Youkai, but try to see your OC as a chance to contribute meaningfully to the greater setting, as well.

The above also gives some clue as to the powers an OC might possess. Fairies are products of nature, and as such tend to embody and somewhat control a single power or phenomenon (Cirno is a ice fairy, for example. She controls ice). Humans tend to have little or no abilities for the most part - very few of them learn magic, but the rest are stuck with weapons or physical skills (Tip: Running fast is probably a good idea). Spirits tend to retain whatever powers they had in life, although in rare cases they may manifest abilities based on their nature (Yuyuko can still invoke death. Namonaki was an emperor, and so gained the ability to command weaker spirits). Youkai have the widest range of possible powers, ranging from the fantastic and beyond-godlike, to the mundane and almost useless.

Pitfalls
There are a lot of things that can go wrong with a character - both canon and OC. Listing every possible fault could take volumes, so we'll leave that for character reviews and just go over some of the common issues here.


 * Acting OOC: At first it may seem that this is mainly a problem for canons, but even OCs can act in ways that don't make sense for the people they are. There's a number of reasons people might act out of character, including - wanting to interact with certain other characters that they may like / find interesting, wanting to get an RP started, or to hurry along a plot that is dragging out somewhat, amongst other reasons. While being OOC is bad, there are times when "bending" character a little might be acceptible - for example, to actually get an RP underway, a character might have to step outside their comfort zone and try something new.


 * Power Gaming: It's all too easy to fall prey to that idea that, since you know of all the ways to exploit your character's powers and abilities, you can take on just about anyone in a fight and come away unscathed. Do bear in mind, though, that this can easily become annoying, fast. Remember that the point of RP is for everyone to have fun - it's not a videogame where the goal is to kill everyone else. A powerful character or one with a special-enough ability COULD get away unharmed, but if you have such a character, remember to maintain the dramatic tension and pacing - let people think they have a chance, put up a bit of a fight, draw it out a bit, and THEN crush them.


 * Spotlighting: The spotlight. No, it’s not yours. It’s probably not even going to fall on you for more than a moment. Remember what I said about saving Gensoukyou? It’s that thing again. Besides, if Gensoukyou really needs saving, it’s going to involve the Violets and Purples on that little chart, and maybe some of the stronger Blues. All these people can likely squash you with the flick of a finger. Step aside or get dead. In fact, you might die. It might be very dramatic. It might be Tuesday. Maybe you’ll sacrifice yourself to save your friends. Maybe Yukari will simply will you out of existence because she doesn’t like the look of your face. Get on with your life. You’re probably a spirit now, anyway. Besides, if your OC was interesting enough, they might even get a resurrection - but don’t expect it to be easy.


 * Presupposing Relationships: "My character fell into Gensoukyou and met Reimu and they've been best friends ever since!"... nope. I (author, cxl), am EoP!Reimu and I've never met Herbert McGunhaver before in my life. This applies even to characters that were born in Gensoukyou - don't just assume that your character has some relationship with another - be it friend, enemy, romantic interest, or long-lost second-cousin of much mystery. If you want your character linked with another, then track down the other character's writer and talk it over with them.

Pro-tip: A lot of issues can be avoided by asking a lot of questions in IRC beforehand - so don't be afraid to pipe up. It'll make your life much easier, and ours much less stressful.

The Mary Sue
This particular bugbear needs a section all to itself, because it's probably the biggest single criticism thrown around the internet when it comes to characterisation. It's also complete bullshit, and here's why.

The term itself originates from a Star Trek fanfic written in the '70s, parodying the typical over-idealised author-avatar characters that tended to crop up in fanfic fairly often. There are many opinions on what exactly constitutes such a character, but common themes are - being incredibly talented/skilled, better than any canon character at whatever their speciality, having a vast number of seemingly unrelated talents, unusually unique appearances/names/mannerisms, and regardless of upstaging everyone along their way, are universally adored or respected by everyone they cross paths with, while anyone who dislikes them is clearly an irredeemable villain as a result.

Now, the term gets thrown around a lot - to the point where its popular meaning seems to have become "character I don't like". It's a label critics stamp onto characters like some sort of magical ward, in the hope of evoking all the loathing usually directed at badly written self-insert fic. However, unfortunately for these critics, it's not that. It is, in fact, a very weak critcism that people rely on because they can't be bothered to actually examine a character properly and find any legitimate flaws. It should also be easy enough to see, from the description above, that it can't quite exist in an RP context.

The first and most obvious one is that, in an RP, you only have domain over your own character - you can't make people like you, and you can't stop them from hating you. If you do manage to constantly upstage every character you run across, you're probably only going to succeed in making a lot of enemies.

Secondly - RP tends to revolve around a fairly unique bunch of individuals, anyway. And this RP especially, is based on Touhou, where being unique in some way is so normal as to barely warrant mention.

For the other points - one merely has to look back to all the talk of "framework" earlier in this guide to see how they are problems and how they can be addressed.

In short, "Mary Sue" is a nonsense critism and I'd like to think we're not so intellectually lazy as to resort to such folk-superstition-esque critiques of characters. If a character is bad, it's bad, and say why, and remember that just about any "rule" is flexible enough under the right conditions. Some characters here can be thousands if not millions of years old - so they might quite easily have practiced or even mastered numerous disparate skills, others may be prodigies that have amassed a great deal of power in only a few decades.

Example: I quite like playing characters that tend to fall afoul of this (weak attempt at) critique at times, because it generally means that I'm pushing the bounds of the setting, which is where things can break, expand, and generally become interesting. I think the best way to avoid making a bad character at times like this is to consider every little detail - I might play a billions-of-years-old, near-omnipotent, incredibly knowledgeable and wise, trickster-archetype, conceptual Youkai of a character, but it's also the sort of person who'd spend an hour sitting in a cornfield chewing on a tablet PC because it simply doesn't understand what the big deal with these things are. With such vast power at its disposal, everyday things tend to elude its notice from time to time. Despite my having written this character one step away from being a "mary sue" checklist - comparatively few people seem to complain. And I've beaten most of those who did to death, anyway. ;-)

The lesson to take away from all this is that it's really not that much the character, but how they're developed and used, that determines how good or bad they are. So don't be bothered by the screeching of subpar internet critics, keep writing, keep developing, and keep getting better.

Merry RPing~