What are your characters' (socio)political standings?

[tfmachad]

To better portray a character, it's always interesting to know as much about it as you can. It's commonplace practice, when you're creating a character, to think of their name, age, gender, some marking background events and even a motivation for them to move on; but how about their political views?

This can be more or less important, depending on the RP niche your character is inserted in. For example, knowing what are the political views of your character is very important if you're playing a politician, an ambassador, a sociopolitical revolutionaire. It's may be a tad less important, but important still, if you're playing a military type character (after all, your character is subjected to the whims of the government, so it probably matters to him); traders probably fit into a wider spectrum inside the social scale, but they are likely to more or less gather up around a specific point in the economic scale.

I've been presented to an interesting application called 'The Political Compass' which purpose is to tell you, in a bi-dimensional graph of economical and social scales, what is your political standing. After taking the test for myself, I got curious about how really different from my own were my characters' political standings according to the test, so I decided to pick the one I found to be the more developed one in that sense and take the test for him too.

I've picked Hans Krieger, Admiral of the Rheinland Military, a character that I have been playing intensively for almost as long as I have been here. Krieger is a nationalist raised by nationalists. He loves his people, even above the state, despite being inserted into the government system he's in (even though he is narrowminded about the aflictions of both Hessians and Unioners, deeming them mere criminals with a hipocritical speech). He is concerned about the farmers in Stuttgart and it actually pains him to see working people, his people, hurting like that. He blames the liberalism towards foreigners from the past governments that allowed Synth Foods to plant its roots into Stuttgart like it did. He believes Reinhardt will correct that amputating Liberty's arm of influence over Rheinland and he understands his most important role in the military is to help and see that through.

What I would like to propose to you, as an exercise (specially to those playing political oriented characters), is to do the same I did. Do a test for you, then change your mindset to one of your character's and do it again. After you've done both, analyse your results. Here are mine:

Gronath:
Economic Left/Right: -4.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.05


Krieger:
Economic Left/Right: -5.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.87

My conclusions: First off, seeing the different results, I was satisfied to notice that (apparently) I wasn't merely playing myself as Krieger. Also, the numeric results somewhat confirm my intention for Krieger's role in terms of his political views. I liked the fact that he isn't overly authoritarian, but that he is indeed, as this is the way I wanted him to be from start. At a first glance, noticing the congruity in the economical dimension, I asked myself if my take on him wasn't unidimensional, perhaps it is, but the slight deviaton also demonstrates that we are not completely alike in that sense.

So, I'd like to see you guys' results.

EDIT: Sorry, I had forgot the link.

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Meet the Kriegers - The story of a family and of two men that shared more than just a name
Fantasmas de la Nube Siniestra
I Mon'Star: The Strange Case of Elizabeth Wallace

[D56]

My RoS fighter is a Power Ranger...:mellow:Seriously.

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<span style="font-family:Comic Sans Ms">Left 4 good. 8-|

</span>

[Cellulanus]

Just as I suspected.

Both Johann Brunhild and myself turn out Right wing Authoritarian.

[SimonBlack]

Graham Knight - CEO of Synth Foods in Bretonia. Graham is a liberal person who believes that corporations benefit citizens in the end. While being liberal corporate man he also has a strong proud of his nationality. However, he also thinks of himself at least a little more noble than a dock worker. Graham rejects astrology and green front as left-winged nonsense. In Graham's belief Gaians are an obstacle to advance. He is self conscious snob, but one good at making credits too.

Graham Knight
Right wing
Liberal

Hiroto Oshiro - Trade Supervisor for GMG. Hiroto is a pro-tradtion Kusarian and proud of that. He somewhat disrespects women, thinking that it is their job to be housewives. Hiroto is also an authoritarian, corrupt business who rules as an iron fist, crushing any opposition if needed. He thinks that you need to be cruel and vicious to reach your goals. It was interesting to see where Hiroto will end up on the scale. He is authoritarian in government and personal life, but liberal as businessman, because it is the best way to make credits in his opinion.

Hiroto Oshiro
Right Wing
Authoritarian

Here are links to short biographies to better understand the characters.

Graham - http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?sh...l=Graham+Knight
Hiroto - http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?sh...2&hl=Oshiro

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Character background summaries:
Red Hessians Major Matthias Schwarz
Golden Chrysanthemums Chusa Fumiko Shimazu

[tfmachad]

My RoS fighter is a Power Ranger...:mellow:Seriously.

It is to be expected to exist, amongst our characters population, all levels of such depth in regards to this and many other aspects. For example, I have absolutely no idea what Ranovla Arans favorite food is. However, maybe if I knew (or had thought of it for that matter) it could become a good enough hook for a short story (e.g. He really loves sushi, but the Mandalorians are considered criminals in Kusari and the best restaurant is in New Tokyo). Ranovla, craving to taste the best sushi Kusari has to offer disguises himself and goes to Tokyo, jumpstarting a mini-event based on a silly idea.

On the other hand, there are certain characters of mine that so far are, at best, glorified NPCs. Its never too late to add to a characters persona, but as soon as you do it, you open up a myriad of possibilities to explore with them.

Another interesting (if not important) aspect of coming up with a more in depth role for your character is to think of their flaws. When thinking of a character, especially when youre starting up at the whole RP business, you tend not to want having a flawed character at all, but thats a mistake. Mostly the flaws are what more vividly depict the characters humanity and make them believable, more interesting.

Having said that, I have no idea what you meant, D56, by your character being a Power Ranger. Still, I would presume that even the wildest ideas if explored thoughtfully enough, could turn out to be come interesting. My point remains.

EDIT:
And, Simon, thanks for sharing. It was entertaining.

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Meet the Kriegers - The story of a family and of two men that shared more than just a name
Fantasmas de la Nube Siniestra
I Mon'Star: The Strange Case of Elizabeth Wallace

[Rudo]

Hannibal Bishop (Junker Congress Faction Leader):

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: 6.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.05

Bishop is a posthuman construct. A human brain, head and organs interlaced with many bioelectronic systems, a powerful neural computer and nervous system with I/O ports for system override; all placed inside an armored alloy/ceramite exoskeleton. Entrusted with executive power over the Congress by founder Tinkerbell, he is a Machiavellian being of pure logic; bent on integrating Congress influence into every government and council worth the effort. By extension, he also wishes to spread his own personal influence across the galaxy. Ambitious and calculating, he is the propagandized face of Junker progress and will stop at nothing to see his aims realized. Money and commodities are only tools with which Bishop builds his own dream; a new age for the Junkers, and nations and planets in turn gently steered toward the anarcho-capitalist system they have mastered.


There, quick blurb about the Congress boss as a bonus. :P

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[farmerman]

This is an interesting way to help sort out a character's thoughts. I did it for myself and two of my characters.

Me:
Economic Left/Right: -1.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.74
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Eva Morgenrot, ex-military LWB pilot and generally patriotic Rheinlander who primarily wants to fix Rheinland, starting with the Planet Stuttgart chaos.

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.82
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Ichiro Takahashi, a nearly lifelong Samura captain who recently retired to support the Farmers Alliance. Also, having to deal with all the younger crewmembers with their newfangled modern thoughts who don't fully respect the way things have always been.

Economic Left/Right: 4.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 4.10

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All in all, it's interesting to compare such things!

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Faction info links: Samura Heavy Industries : LWB : Watchers