There’s an interesting thread at Dragon’s Mark (Where the Wind Takes You) discussing this question:
“How much do you control when it comes to your character and how much do you let yourself be guided by your character him/herself?”
Alysia Skye was an unformed character – literally a child – when I first started playing her in the Red Dragon Inn on AOL in April of 1996. The character had first been given to my twin to play; when Lil got tired of the concept, I asked if I could take it over. So, Alysia had a real-time “backstory” and as a result, her evolution has occurred almost entirely through roleplay with others.
That is character development by chance interaction, not by design. After more than ten years, I think I’m familiar enough with her personality and traits to be able to write for her in almost any situation. She’s still a changing creature, though; her experiences yesterday shape who she is today.
I try to let my characters guide most interactions. I’m not a big fan of planning out intricate storylines, because I really enjoy the real-time reactions and “chemistry” between characters. There’s a randomness in allowing the characters to do what they will that is very, very believable to me. However, I have consciously clamped down on some aspects of Alysia’s public personality. She isn’t nearly as violent or demonstrative as she used to be, mostly because I’ve learned to be extremely tentative about stepping on another player’s toes.
My twin will probably get a chuckle out of that, because normally I’m a huge advocate of the whole F*** what everyone else thinks, do what works for YOU concept of roleplay interactions.
I definitely do not believe in striving to be a Good Roleplayer at all costs, and I don’t think I’m that good of a roleplayer to start with. If I’m not having fun, if I know my gaming/writing partners aren’t having fun, I’d rather figure out how to make it enjoyable than remain inflexible and perfectly true to my character.
Besides, people do unpredictable, crazy things sometimes and try to rationalize it later. There’s no reason a roleplaying character can’t do the same.
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