Need help with making a character fun

[Chaishi]

Try roleplay out of your comfort zone with her. Get out of your norms, tap into another subculture in server.

 

Might enjoy it, who knows?

[Beholder]

Youre going to have to step out of your comfort zone if you want to break cycles.

 

I understand this trap completely. Ultimately, I had to make some bad choices and do something my character would never do. Despite stepping outside of my comfort zone and feeling like I was breaking my characters trajectory, it really made the best experiences. 

 

Your mental health is only going to act up if you start using, your connections will only be established by talking to people you don't usually talk to. Bad decisions are great stories especially when you have to balance your bad decisions with your characters lifestyle. But in small amounts, you don't need to disrupt your character's life by quitting your job and buying 20 grams of meth to see the results, just making bad decisions will produce results. 

[Astralsomnia]

10 hours ago, Woona said:

it's not an insult when it's subjectively a fact, especially if you say you're a shitposter. if you're unable to be creative and just are annoying or "shitposter" you don't really have a place to roleplay. you're a liability to yourself and others who wish to roleplay with you since they'll be carrying you to roleplay, to have fun. if you cannot have fun with everything given to you then why play? 

 

I think you misunderstand my post. I have a lot of fun playing on my other characters, its just Sura I find boring.

 

And again, I'm only a shitposter on the forums, less than half the time. This community has a lot of petty bullshit that I like to make fun of by making posts designed to call out their contradictions. In-game I'm much more serious, even on my less serious characters like Notsu.

 

9 hours ago, Barbary said:

They're being harsh but they aren't wrong. Getting banned from every faction doesn't happen by accident, if anything that's a damn feat.

 

I haven't even joined any factions, I just got banned for my shenanigans on the forums alone lmao. Which is ridiculous, and tbh metagaming.

 

10 hours ago, imu_pertrauka said:

Maybe you should try to add religion in to this mess? 🙂

 

Aw fuck, you're right. Time to start GTAW's version of Pastafarianism.

 

10 hours ago, front toward enemy said:

 

This reads as you have 3 characters and you switch between them depending on how hard you want to 'troll' because you appear to be burnt out on your main.. Which I think is also a holdover character from other communities/servers? That's probably not doing you any favors if it is the case. All of the characters development and ties are essentially in another universe.

 

In regards to how your characters act and their life cycles and gameplay loops, try to aim for more than just..being annoying? Take into consideration how your gameplay affects others and what kind of environment youd like to foster. Perhaps take a step away from making pedantic characters thats main goals are to just... be a nuisance... And flesh out something more fulfilling?

 

Other than that, take a creative writing class? 

 

I mean, none of my characters are trolls, tbh. Notsu SORTA is, but she does have some actual development going on when she isn't acting like a Karen. Del on the other hand, people misunderstand greatly, they get pissy at her for acting pretty much how a kid her age would act. That's why I call her semi-serious, cuz when she isn't fooling around she's dealing with some intense emotions and trauma from the shit she's seen.

 

But, this post isn't about my other characters, its about Sura who is incredibly boring to play. The most fun Sura has had is doing a little jig when a song she likes comes on the radio. She has a real stick up her ass, and is too depressed to really do anything. The only real story I have from her is when she got drunk at a bar, and wound up plotting the murder of a guy who conned her into sleeping with him. That's about it. She's boring as fuck, but she's my main character.

 

And for the record, I have taken multiple creative writing classes, and playwrite too if you believe it. I've been writing, improving, acting, and RPing my whole life. I fucking love the arts. My characters aren't just holdovers from other communities. They do share a name and some personality traits, but these incarnations of them are very different from their other versions.

 

9 hours ago, tragic said:

Teenager character, join the city hall's as a child in need, there is a pretty big clique of kids rping there! 

 

Ha, I already do have one, and people hate me for it.

 

6 hours ago, CowboyYoda22 said:

>Make a new forum account

>Stop Shitposting on said account.
>Make a new character and stick with them. No one wants to RP with an alt hopper, especially in a time sink like GTAW. 

Let's be real, no one wants to get caught dead rping with you lol

 

I'm not going to make another account. I don't hide from who I am, plus I'm pretty sure alting like that is against the rules anyways. Its really hard to not shitpost here when this server is full of people who derail my threads with their own shitposts, so now instead I just started making my own to fuck with them. The only way to get my point across is to exaggerate them into some really weird shit so people gawk at them and continue to act like retards, further showcasing their shitty behavior.

 

And the only people that don't wanna RP with me are shitty RPers tbh, like those EOC guys who are just playing a ton of self-inserts and take everything into OOC, acting like school girls blacklisting anyone who RPs with their definition of problematic RPers. I aint sweating it, two of my characters have their friend groups that I enjoy hanging out with, everyone else is gunna end up banned eventually.

 

6 hours ago, Chaishi said:

Try roleplay out of your comfort zone with her. Get out of your norms, tap into another subculture in server.

 

Might enjoy it, who knows?

 

Yeah this is what I need to do, Sura needs a change. Notsu is already out of my comfort zone being racist, and tbh its a lot of fun (even though I still feel horrible every time she says a slur). Making her go full druggy could prove interesting, but I also don't wanna ruin this character. As fun as throwing cats at people in an alleyway sounds, she could end up life in prison.

 

5 hours ago, Beholder said:

Bad decisions are great stories especially when you have to balance your bad decisions with your characters lifestyle. But in small amounts, you don't need to disrupt your character's life by quitting your job and buying 20 grams of meth to see the results, just making bad decisions will produce results. 

 

Yeah, I need to start slow. As I stated in earlier posts, "Write what you know."

 

I've avoided drugs my whole life, somehow, but a lot of my IRL friends are tweakers. I think I could use some of their experiences in Sura, start with meth, the "working man's drug" and swear its only going to be used once, just to get her through a shift. But then she needs to meet another deadline... and another.

 

Challenge with this though, she has friends that will pull her out of it if they find out.

[DLimit]

 

[Beholder]

13 hours ago, Astralsomnia said:

Yeah, I need to start slow. As I stated in earlier posts, "Write what you know."

 

I've avoided drugs my whole life, somehow, but a lot of my IRL friends are tweakers. I think I could use some of their experiences in Sura, start with meth, the "working man's drug" and swear its only going to be used once, just to get her through a shift. But then she needs to meet another deadline... and another.

 

Challenge with this though, she has friends that will pull her out of it if they find out.

Yeah I had read your replies to others. "Write what you know" extends to your friends - you know their stories and their struggles too, right? Despite so may people having similar struggles, all our stories are unique so don't be afraid to pull some inspiration from your friends!

[Hot_Burrito]

Sometimes you just can't extract more fun out of a character. If it's not working out there's always the option of shelving the character until you're inspired enough to play them again or retiring them permanently to focus on something else.

[Mittenly]

15 hours ago, Astralsomnia said:

But, this post isn't about my other characters, its about Sura who is incredibly boring to play. The most fun Sura has had is doing a little jig when a song she likes comes on the radio. She has a real stick up her ass, and is too depressed to really do anything. The only real story I have from her is when she got drunk at a bar, and wound up plotting the murder of a guy who conned her into sleeping with him. That's about it. She's boring as fuck, but she's my main character.

 

 

As someone who's suffered my share of character stagnation, I feel you pain. Keenly. I find myself wondering though; how many times and on how many platforms have you played Sura? I have to agree with the person who said that sometimes cross-platform character transfer does not go well; but the archetype can usually survive if it's not a radical change. If your attachment is more to the name than the character that's one thing, but trying to make her the same, with the same habits or motivations can be a detriment to your enjoyment of her as a person and a character. Not to mention seriously stifling your writing, which is plainly not the goal.

 

As painful as it can be to retire a character you care about, sometimes it's for the best. Failing that, or if the obstacle is the IRL cost of a name change, for instance, simple reinvention or even off-screen advancement might be an option. People on this server time-skip their characters *all the time,* some far more than others - to the point where it often feels like they're playing them more as a sprint than a journey (I'll grant that there are often broader reasons for this that I'm unaware of, so take my salt with a grain of... well.)). It doesn't *have* to be years-long dramatic, though, in order to offer you an option to push her past something you may be struggling to write through comprehensively. 

 

Alternatively, try doing something unexpected. Let someone coerce her into doing something she wouldn't - or doesn't think she can. If you think she'd hate politics, for instance, give her something political to do anyway. There has to be something she cares about, and it's often surprising to learn just what. Give her a platform. Would the same friends who'd pull her out of a meth spiral, for instance, also support her in say, advancing depression awareness? The plight of stray cats?  Creating her own line of demotivational posters and making her first million? She doesn't have to be good at something to be passionate about it. She doesn't even have to succeed. If her job isn't the thing, maybe it's time for a new one.

 

Just a few 5 AM thoughts.

[Onumbra]

Most of the fun needs to happen inside your head. Imagination is the key element. For me pure realism is the most fun -  I can just walk down the street with my character and if no one is sprinting around, drifting, wearing a t-shirt in winter or randomly fighting then I feel warmth inside me.

[Miklo]

Honestly roleplaying to me is all about going with the flow. I've had some times I get burnt out, but usually i get back into it after I have a character for a while. You just gotta gather friends and just have laughs together. Join a faction if you want, they're really fun when the people have egos and the faction is all about having fun and everything is kept IC.

[Leather Clad Lad]

There will be times when there is nothing for you to do. It's just a part of the cycle. I'd say start over completely. Wipe the UCP, get rid of your characters because they clearly aren't fun and/or engaging to play with. Not shitting on you as a person because I don't know you, but if a 1000+ people decide you're no fun to play with then that warrants some self reflection on your part. Even more so since most factions have basically closed their doors to you.

 

Grow from this, don't let it keep you down and fester in it. You're already somewhat self aware so at least go from here. It will be a long process, no denying that, but the end result will be fulfilling.