I know there are probably a few blanket tutorials on here about how to RP which contain getting into character, but how do YOU do it? I have been here for 10 years now and I've been struggling since day 1. Once I'm there I'm there, but to get there in the first place is difficult for me.
Please share, I would love to know. It would be a big help to me and I'm sure to others as well.
I don't know. I just...do. Usually I'm inspired by something. I see a cool picture, an interesting TV show or Movie. I hear a cool song on Spotify or YouTube and construct a character around that. I've got like 8.4 trillion characters at this point and a graveyard of dead factions behind me because of this...though mostly because I have ADHD and can't commit to one character.
Some of how I get into character is just reacting to things going on. Some characters I wait to be acknowledged (such as Crowley or any of my LSF characters) and then I respond. With SLRC or Starfliers, I just get into the mindset of Trek and come up with random science tech gibberish to spout off to confuse people. On the forums I usually just do comm. or log posts. Rarely will I do a story post anymore mostly due to time constraints because of work.
If I could give any one piece of advice, I guess I'd just say go with what you find cool. Listen to a cool song that you like and try to think of a character in a cutscene, movie, or TV show that you could envision them in with the song playing. Watch a TV Show or Movie. Read a book. Get inspired. Don't copy characters verbatim but use them as inspiration. That's the best advice I could give.
(07-24-2025, 12:24 AM)Lolipop12 Wrote: Honestly, I make a description of my character. Then, I read what I wrote and I try to become the said character in real life.
Basically what I do already yeah, with some music and reading my old comms and stuff. I mean I made the damn character up in my head I should be able to act like him haha
(07-24-2025, 12:31 AM)Leo Wrote: If I could give any one piece of advice, I guess I'd just say go with what you find cool. Listen to a cool song that you like and try to think of a character in a cutscene, movie, or TV show that you could envision them in with the song playing. Watch a TV Show or Movie. Read a book. Get inspired. Don't copy characters verbatim but use them as inspiration. That's the best advice I could give.
Pretty much what I already do. I read old posts, listen to a type of music that either sets the mood or that I think the char would like, but still having a rough time. I see a photo of one(such as the photo of LSDXOXO I use for my current active character) and think damn this guy looks exactly like a character I had in mind and begin crafting some insane story and I'm set but after that when I take a break and come back and have to write a comm or do something ingame I don't know how to get back into their head ;-;
One thing I do is put little speech patterns or phrases or mannerisms into my characters so that, as I'm mentally thinking and writing out what they are saying or doing it helps bring me into the character. A stutter here. An accent there. Sometimes I get the piss taken out of it but I find it helpful for stepping into that character.
Well, from someone who are not residing here for that long, yet has "some" experiance in RP...
First thing I do - I look for inspirations. As it was said earlier, movies, TV-shows, games, books, even pictures on Pinterest, all that can feed my imagination and pull some strings. Though, to be honest, it is hard to pull off some good characters and RP as them without any inspiration, it is doable. But why setting it on hard-mode for youself? Use any source for that spark that you can find and in the end - you won't regret looking. What also comes to that part - I got used to choose a music theme for my characters, which really fits their overall mood and concept.
The other thing is - try to write up your characters background. Even if you are able to hold it inside your head and improvise, write it down. It really helps both in stabilizing your thoughts on where your character comes from, what they lived through, and in getting immersed into your char. At times, you will want to add details, live tthe story you are writing. That what helps me the most. Not mentioning being more confident in what you are actually playing.
The other thing that helps me - is like Jazzi said, finding some details and, well, quirks that you can emplement into your gameplay. Even adding some words from character's "native" language works, especially if you do know why aren't they speaking clear English. Works perfectly when playing someone from Gallia, for example, considering them being isolated from Sirius for quite some time.
I improvise. I make a generic character with a simple background and then fill the gaps as questions keep showing up, it makes it more organic and easy on my end than infodumping a whole biography cooked for a couple days, I'm not a writer, I'm here to play Freelancer, the roleplay is nice flavor to stick around, though.
What I find helps me personally with some of the awkwardness is treating it like writing, not acting. Rather than impersonate someone I am writing about someone. I never really make myself the character, just act based on the best "what would they do" kinda guess. It's a bit vague, I suppose, but I find that little bit of distance helps a ton in easing into a character, particularly one less aligned with my iRL self (different race/gender/ideology/etc) or in an unfamiliar setting/situation.
Oh yeah, as Sauron said, self-inserting into stuff is a big mistake plenty of people does. If you wanna try improving on how to get in-character I'd say a good way to do that is to try and create a character that you don't like, or that is radically different to you. One of the best writers in Discovery in my humble opinion is @Reeves so you could probably ask him about this if you want some advice from someone with experience.
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