| [SIZE=+2]Steps Towards Creating Our Character/Role [/SIZE]
Because [SIZE=+1]Role-playing[/SIZE] is so diverse, so varied, it's all too easy to become overwhelmed with the choices and options available to you. My best advice is to put all previous conceptions and thoughts you may have about [SIZE=+1]Role-playing[/SIZE] and start with a clean sheet.
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Choosing A Persona TYPE.[/SIZE]
Before deciding on our persona's name, gender, race, history, characteristic's, profession etc we need to be certain what type of persona we are going to use. There are basically two types we can use. The first is one where we can jump-into and become that persona, the second, is one where we project ourselves into it and it becomes like a character in a book. Both work equally well and depends entirely on what suits you best. Most people choose to adopt a persona that they can just jump-into, rather than referring to it as a 'third person'. The biggest difference then between both types of persona's is the way you will refer to your persona both in-game and on the forums. I as opposed to he/she etc.
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Defining Your Persona.[/SIZE]
This requires some preparation on your part since this persona *must* feel exactly right for you. So it's important for you to spend some time at this stage, writing down on a sheet of paper a basic outline of the persona you feel suits you best. Don't feel you have to go into great detail here just yet, that will come later as you grow alongside your persona. What you need however, is to determine the following:-
Gender: Male or Female
Persona Name:
Age: Important as this influences your persona's actions/capabilities and past history/career.
General character build: Slim, heavy, rugged, you can include eye/hair colour, facial features like beard if male etc
Current Profession/Occupation if any: Soldier, Pirate, Smuggler, Servant, Drunk, Drifter etc
Past Profession/Occupation if any: Slave, Mother/Father, Farmer, Trader, Merchant,Teacher, Musician etc
Where born (optional): See Below
Personality: Happy, Sad, Moody, Greedy, Kind, Peaceful etc (determines how he/she behaves in a given situation)
Traits: Lazy/Idle, Drunk, Vindictive, Resourceful, Inventive etc
Primary Motivators: Think of Primary Motivators as the underlying goal in your character's life, forms the basic theme of his/her worldview, and is what drives them to action. For example, if your persona has a lazy trait or is currently a drunk, then it's highly unlikely they would be motivated towards ambitious goals that requires strong motivation.
In creating your Elite Dangerous persona, it's worth mentioning a few important things to consider carefully.
Where born. Since you are most probably new to [SIZE=+1]Role-playing[/SIZE] and or to the Elite game itself, then unless you have bought plenty of books about the History/Lore's of the Elite Universe, then your not going to have any solid ground on which to establish the place of birth of your persona. You will also be naturally wary in claiming you came from the planet xxxxxx in the star system xxxxxxx just in case it goes against any established Lore that you've yet to hear about. Now there are probably much simpler ways to explain Elite Lore, but I'm going to give you mine as I see it.
Lore
noun
noun: lore
a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth.
"the jinns of Arabian lore"
synonyms: mythology, myths, legends, stories, traditions, folklore, culture, beliefs, sayings, superstitions, fantasy, oral tradition;
The Elite Dangerous universe is not a new one, it is a recreation of one that existed when Elite was first released by David Braben and Ian Bell in September 1984. Therefore, all the official lore's, history, events etc were carried over from the 'old' Universe to our present Elite Dangerous Universe. Both Universe are one and the same. There are two kinds of Elite Lore, the first is.
| [video=youtube;O6z5OK8J5pg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6z5OK8J5pg#t=642[/video] |
Official Lore. These lore's originate from the game's creator(s) and developers and also from any and all endorsed] books/magazines/articles etc. Therefore, all these lore's are to considered true and final, although we are free to speculate about them as much as we want. One example of Official Lore's being announced can be found in this short video from Frontier Development, Elite Dangerous game developers.
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Unofficial Fan Fiction/Lore. Home to the [SIZE=+1]Role-playing[/SIZE] community. Think of [SIZE=+1]Role-playing[/SIZE] as content provided by the players themselves that encompasses the dry mechanics of the game to provide a vibrant and colourful life behind the scenes. Here we are free to invent, construct, adapt persona's/characters, events, history in whatever shape or form we choose. You are limited only by your creative imagination. Going back to finding your home system/planet. As long as your chosen planet exists and it's not classified as something like a Gas Giant or a planet that cant possibly sustain life, your basically free to chose any that takes your fancy and create a whole new history alongside it. From your perspective, you are now making your own Elite Lore based around your persona. | |
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Style and Panache.[/SIZE]
Panache
noun
noun: panache
1. flamboyant confidence of style or manner.
"he entertained London society with great panache"
synonyms: flamboyant confidence, flamboyance, confidence, self-assurance, style, stylishness, flair, elan, dash, flourish, verve, zest, spirit, brio, éclat, vivacity, vigour, gusto, animation, liveliness, vitality, enthusiasm, energy
I cannot stress too much just how important these words are. Style and Panache from your posts are the clothes you give to your persona/character, it's that first impression readers will have when they are first introduced to your persona/character. A wall of white text on opening a post is a real killer of immersion and offers very little entertainment to the reader who is looking to read what you have written. So often on this forum, I have found post after post of walls of white text with little or no style, balance or anything to make them stand out from the countless other posts I have read thus far.
More than on any other Frontier Development forum, this is the place to express your creativity, style and flair. While content is important, that is just part of your repertoire.
While it is NOT mandatory to spruce up your posts, however, doing so allows you to create an identity in your posts that is unique to you. You can adopt a style of presentation for your self, much like I have with this guide and another one I have written in the General Discussion Forum, that you can instantly tell, I wrote, it's a kind of 'trademark' if-you-will.
BB Code, or, Bulletin Board Code is truly your friend. This forum has a built-in set of BB Codes, of which you can read about Here.
For those daring to use the black-arts of BB Codes, this is how to access the BB Codes in these forums.[SIZE=+2]
1.[/SIZE] From the main forum, click on the Post New Thread button or, after opening up someone's post, click on the Reply To Thread Button.
[SIZE=+2] 2.[/SIZE] In front of you is the main text editor for your posts, it is set to WYSIWYG mode by default.
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In the top left corner of the toolbar, click once on the 'Switch Editor to Source Mode' button as shown in the picture. You are now in Editor Mode. | |
[SIZE=+2]3.[/SIZE] To create this guide, I used a combination of two snippets of BB Code that I cut and pasted into this post. This BB Code snippet creates my Main Heading using Trebuchet Ms font, font size 4 and orange font colour.
Main Heading BB CODE
-----------------------------
[FONT=trebuchet ms]
[CENTER][ SIZE=+4][b][COLOR=Orange ]
INSERT YOUR HEADING HERE
[/COLOR ][b][/SIZE][/CENTER]
[/FONT]
There is also an documented BB Code called Table that allows you to format your text alongside any graphic you wish to use, examples are shown in this guide. Here is the BB Code I use.
Left Image Aligned Table CODE
---------------------------------------
[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]OPTIONAL - INSERT SMALL SIZE GRAPHIC HERE[/TD]
[TD]INSERT MAIN BODY OF TEXT HERE
[/TD][TD][/TD][/TR]
[/TABLE]
Continuing on with our presentation, when using your own colour scheme, just remember, you want to entertain your readers, not scare them away, so moderation in how many colours you choose to use and try and find a colour scheme that is easy on the eye. When using graphics, keep their sizes on the small side if you can, not everyone has a fast internet download speed. These forums has a limit of 30 graphics per post, even a smiley, small as it is counts as a graphic. My personal preference is to have my graphics on the left hand side as this has a sense of balance, allowing the text then to follow on from them. But that is just my preference, yours may well be different.
I personally enjoy reading Commander logs as each one presents their own perspective and depth to playing this game. I have on occasions, when exploring, copied an entire thread of commander logs, pasted them into my text-to-speech program and had one of my computer voices read-out the logs as I'm playing my game. The experience of listening to these stories is what prompted me to look into the possibility of producing a radio channel that caters for reading of these stories!. For some reason however, these log posts receive very little attention on this forum. One obvious solution is to insert full-sized screen shots into some/all of your logs, but seeing too many of these and the eyes start skipping over the text as they catch sight of the next interesting screen shot. Another solution I have seen on this forum is to have a Text-to-speech program read out the logs into a mp3 file, then host them on a podcast site so that people can listen to them while playing the game. You can find commander Arktac logs here. Sadly, his podcasts are hard to find.
So what other options are available?
Quite a few and when combined with Step 3 and 4 you can turn a thread of white text paragraphs into a story that people will want to read. First off, learn how to use the BB Codes that this forum uses, in particular, learn how to use the [ TABLE ] BB Code, this single function has so many features useful to you that it would take a separate tutorial just show them off. However, here are just a couple of examples I put together in just a few minutes!, yes it's that easy to use.
If your interested in having a simple, text-based commander's log that add's something different to what your currently using, then you could use something like this.
EXAMPLE ONE - TEXT ONLY
| Date | Sector | Log / Notes |
|---|
27/04/3301
Time 17:54 | Sol System | You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can also use colours here too...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here
Commander Malandark Signing out.. | 29 April 3301
Time 09:15 | Sol System | You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...
Commander Malandark Signing out |
Perhaps your looking for something with a little more Style and Panache, then using the BB Code [TABLE] again, we can easily change the above to include graphics too.
EXAMPLE TWO - TEXT & GRAPHICS
| Sector | Log / Notes |
|---|
| Sol System | You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here
Commander Malandark Signing out.. | | Sol System | You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...You can put your daily log here...
Commander Malandark Signing out |
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Your Thread/Post Content.[/SIZE]
What is there to say about your Post/Thread content that you don't already know? Well, quite a lot actually. Unlike reading about a character in book, our aim is to give our character its very own personality. Your chosen layout and style of your post sets the scene for the reader, now enter your character. He/She reads their daily report of their latest adventures and signs off.
As a reader I might feel a little let down, the character I've just read about has so much more to say about themselves and yet, chose to limit themselves to a daily/weekly report. So lets back up a little to where your character is about to enter. Now put on a pair of imaginary headphones..
Your character steps in and welcomes the readers in the way that is in keeping with the personality of your persona. They then start off telling the readers their latest adventures/mishaps (Commander's Log) etc and then a short way in they pause. They remember an Anecdote or a funny story from a time when, as a [Trader/Pirate/Slave/Merchant/Soldier/Farmer/Servant/Young Boy/Girl] they [did something/heard something/found/lost something/] and so on and so on. Now they continue retelling their adventures.
OK, you can remove your imaginary headphones now.
The point to the above is simply this. Unless the reader is able to find your Introductory post, found at the top of this forum or, the first post you made introducing your persona (now buried somewhere in this forum), then they wont know much about who your persona is. Therefore in your posts you can remind them by including these 'bridging stories' that not only helps to breaks up any routine type posts you may make, but more importantly, helps to stamp your presence in the minds of the readers. The benefits this opportunity now gives you is potentially, amazing.
For instance. Since most people wont have come from your persona's star system/planet/settlement etc, you can take this opportunity to educate them bit by bit in your posts, by introducing them to some of the customs and culture from where you came from. Perhaps, from where you grew up, they use certain words and phrases that have different meanings to everyone else, so take the opportunity to explain what they are.. In one of my posts for example, I used the word Whisp and stated (old slang usage, denotes item(s) of interest from unconfirmed sources).
As you can see, there is a fair amount of work and time involved in [SIZE=+1]Role-playing[/SIZE], I've only scratched the surface in this guide, but that is where the fun really is. The more you put into [SIZE=+1]Role-playing[/SIZE], the more you will get out of it and this most certainly is true. This guide is NOT a manual for roleplaying, nor should it ever be taken as such, it's just a collection of ideas that you can chose to expand further on, or, ignore, it's entirely up to you.
Once you are ready to take your place within the roleplaying community, please take the time to introduce yourself in the ROLEPLAYING - Introduce your Commander thread found at the top of this forum.
Commander Malandark signing out.
[SIZE=+2]Elite - Books & Articles[/SIZE]
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