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Do you have an end in mind for your character? Does this dull your enjoyment of playing their story out?


NyxDarklore
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This is a question I've been asked a bit, and I thought it was an interesting discussion topic.

 

For me, the answer is sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. For most characters, I don't really have an end in mind, I let the story take me where it will, but there are some characters for whom I do have an ending but I'm interested to see how they get there and what their journey is like along the way. The three in question are Annalesia (a Mage who will eventually be destroyed by the fact that her magic is more powerful than she can handle - though what 'destroyed' means is a question I don't yet have an answer to), Acacia (whose father will use her until he achieves his ambitions and then she will likely be killed or otherwise removed), and Kalina (whose destined to die before she turns 45 as a result of a curse on her family; the curse will be broken, but not by her). Their stories are still interesting to me for the aforementioned reason of not knowing how they get to that end, but I can understand why some people have issues knowing these things; I, for one, hate endgame romances and other such things for many of the reasons that people hate knowing the end to a character's story.

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So I didn't previously but one of my characters just got married and due to various circumstances we have now decided to kill them both off in a blaze of glory. It is a tad depressing writing him knowing what is to come but we obviously he doesn't know what's about to happen to him.

 

What adds to this is the husband to my character was shortly about to die due to a curse so that is weighing on his mind already. But we will kill them off and their story will be done.  😭

 

But it's also okay. My writing partner and I talked about it and worked it all out to give as much drama in the end as possible since we both like lots of drama in our RP's.

"You tie the knot, I'll start the fire."

~ The Amity Affliction

 

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The World Withing - Modern Supernatural Roleplay (JCINK 18+)

 

 

 

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I only wrote for myself for over a decade before I started roleplaying. In those situations, it helped me to know endings for my characters because you can't really plot a novel otherwise. Without an end, a story will just go and go with no direction. With roleplaying, I do plot points instead of endings. So, I will have a plan for the next ending, but it is not the ending. If that makes sense....so say, my character is in love with another character. Once they get together that's the end of a plot point. And then, its time to find a new goal. Without something in my head to attain, I can't get excited about the character or the writing. Its important to my writing style that I have some sort of end goal in mind, whether its the death of the character or just another plot point. I would honestly be killing off a lot more characters if sites didn't take your FC and make you inactive when that happens. Kind of ruins my buzz, but I understand why that's the standard rule. 

Edited by Fox Spirit
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4 minutes ago, Fox Spirit said:

I would honestly be killing off a lot more characters if sites didn't take your FC and make you inactive when that happens. Kind of ruins my buzz, but I understand why that's the standard rule. 

 

I personally never understood this. Every site I've ever run has always operated under the principle of 'deceased characters are still part of the site lore unless the member leaves, therefore the playby is still reserved' but that's just because it's a peeve of mine lol.

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Just now, NyxDarklore said:

 

I personally never understood this. Every site I've ever run has always operated under the principle of 'deceased characters are still part of the site lore unless the member leaves, therefore the playby is still reserved' but that's just because it's a peeve of mine lol.

 

I wish my main site did that! I think it would be quite fun. I might have to implement in on my own sites. Character death is a natural thing that can and should happen sometimes. But I feel like Because its considered going inactive, people don't do it when they feel like they should? And that's sad bro.

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For most characters I do have an ending, but I'm interested to see how they get there and what their journey is like along the way. Having an ending does not dull the enjoyment, by contrary, they have a purpose, so I have inspiration for them. I do not have an ending for some secondary characters, though, because they are there to support the main characters. So, for them, come that may.

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It depends on where I'm writing them. If it's a set goal-oriented setting (example, D&D) then all my characters have a set plot with minor deviations and changes that can happen to change the overall end game...but it's still an end. For a lot of roleplay forums my characters tend to be fluid until they aren't. 

 

By that I mean, adaptability is necessary for RP forums, but once you have a niche "role" your character fills on the board, you develop where they can go from there in a narrative light. Part of the reason I stopped roleplaying was because I dislike the feeling of stagnancy, and if what I'm writing leads to nowhere, I become bored very quickly.

 

Fluff and mindless writing for the sake of fun is all well and good, but if that's all I'm ever doing with the character I wind up just not wanting to write the character anymore. Why would I write a character that in ten years hasn't grown as a person throughout their experiences, when I could write a character that in three months had their entire life crash down and get rebuilt before them? The secondary sounds much more worthy of my time (long term), to be honest.

 

I have been apart of one or two forums that didn't fit that fluffy norm, but usually they don't last long since heavy plot isn't something many rp'ers (that I've seen) seem to be interested in. Character development stops at some basic traits and maybe a break up or a mild fight. So I just go with the flow in those cases until I get bored and find a new setting. It's great practice for writing but terrible practice for character development and worldbuilding. In some ways, I feel like fluff roleplay - especially one liners, - dampen my writing ability overall. So I usually don't do fluff at all unless I feel like there's a benefit.

 

I had one character I straight killed off, simply because the entire 8 months of roleplaying (real time - I joined in early 2016 and killed her off mid to late 2017) I spent on the board I spent time ensuring she bonded with other characters and helped them with their issues; contributing to main story plots and drama...all the while hinting at her worsening drug addiction. Having her end it one day when no one saw it coming right before graduation? It wound up effecting the board so much that they had a special funeral event for her that lasted a whole week. It was kind of awesome. Do I wish I could've kept writing her? Yeah, absolutely, but her death was far more impactful I think.

 

Plot is like that.

It gives you a reason to remember what happened because it emotionally invests you in the long run.

 

I'm getting a bit rambly, but in short: Fluff is for friends who do stuff together. 😛

Otherwise, give me the pencil and I'll write you a web of plots in a day.

 

Edited by Hysteria
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I like to see how the story plays out. If it does indeed wander towards an ending or a death- then as much as I might not like it-I will make it the best. All things do end- and sometimes it can be one of your best tales with the drama and the emotion

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i don't have endings planned, but i tend to have arcs in mind when i make characters.

 

the fun thing about playing character without an endgame is how the roleplay can affect the ideas you had when first creating them. like, my character sabrina i did not expect to have any friends because she's rather reserved and cold to people. but she ended up making a close friend, so her being a part of team rocket has extra drama and implications attached. she's definitely not where i intended her to be at this point, but that's the fun of it.

 

ngl though, for some of my characters i'm like "oh i want you to end up happy after all this" and others i'm like "hmm you must suffer eternally :)))"

 

 

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I live in a reality that my characters are in their own multi-verse. @Dragon and I have written a lot of our characters in different ways, different stories and more. I've killed off characters plenty of times.

 

We've actually determined an afterlife for these characters and that when they go into another of their stories they sort of phase out of the afterlife and into their new story. NGL their afterlife is banging awesome #want.

 

But back to the topic at hand. It all depends on the universe and how it will overall effect the characters. Killing off my character Violet often has the biggest butterfly effect for all characters involved because she has the biggest impact on the lives of a lot of our characters. Depending on when she dies really changes the character's dynamics.

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I rarely have an end in mind. I used to try and have some kind of mini plan but it almost always gets trashed along the way.

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  • 1 month later...

Sometimes I have a specific end or arc in mind for my characters, but usually I don't. I like to go with the flow when it comes to roleplaying and I avoid planning things out in advance too much as I like to have things mostly develop organically. Sometimes I get attached to one of my characters so much to the point where I can't help but have certain ideas for what they should do in the future, but that hasn't happened to me too much lately.

Been roleplaying for about 8-9 years.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't but mostly even when I do, it ends up getting changed throughout the roleplay. I love being open to a new direction and not too set in what I expect to happen.

Bel

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  • 7 months later...

I rarely play with a firmly plotted end in mind. I prefer to go where the role-play takes me. I do have a character I'm playing right now at my game that I'm pretty certain I know how she'll die, but the details aren't plotted, so it's hard to tell for sure when/if her end will come of the actions she'll be taking.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a few ideas of how my character's arc might/will end (if it does), but they're not set in stone. I'm such a sucker for anticipation and playing with ideas and possibilities, even if they do not come to pass.

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