So I was brainstorming some RL things and this visualization was birthed of it, and I felt like it was ridiculously applicable for this context so I am sharing it here. This is an illustration of the way I think about character creation, and roleplaying in general.
So imagine a giant mountain. At the top of the mountain, instead of a peak, is a huge lake, so deep that you can't measure its depths and, for all you know, it may have no bottom. At one edge of the shore, there is a hole, a gash in the rock, and out of it a mighty river charges down the mountain. As it flows, it separates into smaller and smaller streams until, in the valley at the bottom of the mountain, it collects into many, much smaller pools of water. The location and shape and size of each pool is determined by the geography of that part of the valley, resulting in some pools being lakes in their own right, and some little more than puny marshes. Your character is the water- the bottomless lake, the streams, the pools.
The streams represent different and changing motivations. These are like short term goals. Maybe you want to travel to Lhavit from Riverfall but first you have to travel to Syliras. This is the stream- the road to your goal, and the thing that creates the distance. Over time, the streams shift in their paths down the mountain, but there is always a stream.
The pools represent everything the character does. You might have one for work- it could be massive for business owners and organization leaders, or small and ordinary for the rest of us doing our 2 job threads a season. You could have one for romance- perhaps many for the players among us, or perhaps one large one for those who've settled down. Or you might not have one at all.
Sometimes rainfall causes these ponds to break their boundaries and overflow into one another- the times in life when perhaps romance and business are one and the same, or maybe your characters alcoholism intersects with their reimancy. Any number of things can happen.
Now lets consider the function of your waters in this valley. Some of these have proven attractive to the local fauna. Some of them might have quite a few creatures living in and about them. They provide life and purpose to these creatures that wouldn't have it otherwise. These are the parts of your life that churn out plot and attract other characters- maybe you use your job as a knight to place yourself in the paths of dozens of players. Perhaps your position as owner of a local shop sets you up for tons of interesting and unique threads that people clamor to be part of. You provide something they need.
Sometimes the waters change the very shape of the valley itself. Maybe a particularly strong surge of waters causes one of these to gradually erode its way through a small hill, changing the very definition of the area, and expanding considerably. Animals who may not have even been aware of the waters now must take notice because you have changed the way things work in the valley forever. This is what happens when your PC is a trailblazer. This is when you decide you'll go where people haven't gone before. Do something that hasn't been done yet. You change the game, in your own small way. You make it better, more interesting, and you serve as a guide to the rest of us.
So we understand how things work in the valley, but what's the point? Well, think of where the water is coming from. It comes from the mountain, from the headwaters. From the headwaters everything the character is or does must flow. Your character does everything- everything- in light of this one thing. All the things they do either harken back or look forward to it. They press on toward it or they remember it. It is their greatest goal, their defining moral, their biggest achievement. It impacts not just some or most of their lives but it defines literally everything that they ever do. For some, life means getting revenge on the slavers who took your family. For some, it means finding the one and living happily ever after. For some, it means becoming the ultimate master of a discipline. For some, it means riches. For some, it means becoming the champion of your god. For some, it means giving reverence to their gods in all they do. For some, it means trying their hardest to correct old ways. I could go on and on.
To illustrate further, lets go back to our valley. Only this time, imagine each pool has a dam at the stream that can be opened or closed at will(it's a magical dam that keeps water from building up behind it). Let's say you are at one of your pools. Close the dam. What happens? The water starts to stagnate. Eventually it loses its natural beauty, because it is no longer supplied with clean, pristine water. The animals stop coming to it for drink and the fish die. After a while, it just dries up and becomes a dirty hole in the ground.
As a character, this is basically what happens when you isolate yourself from your goal or purpose. I'll use Roscoe as an example here. Let's say I close the dam on the pool representing work. So previously, Roscoe was trying to make as much money as possible so he could pay his debts and leave Kenash, in turn so he continue on his ultimate goal of just being an all around bastard(he wants to kill most everyone for some reason). Okay, so his source, his purpose, is killing the weak and(in his eyes) purifying Mizahar. His stream(short term goal) is getting out of Kenash by paying his debts. We have just cut him off from that so now he just has work for works sake. Why is he doing threads to make money? I don't know. To make money I guess. Just, because he wants money. What's he gonna do with it? I don't know. Just, you know, spend it. Maybe he'll buy a sword or something. No, he doesn't have sword points. Why don't people thread with me anymore?
You see what I mean? Our characters are doomed to death by boring if we separate them from the source- or worse yet, don't give them one. Our characters all need a source, be that some far off goal, or some event that defines them. I know of one PC who had a bunch of people quit on him after becoming family members, and IC he had them all killed. This defines his character, it's a source for him. I know of another who ran away from home after a fallout with her family and drinks constantly to forget the past. That event defines her, both in the sense of haunting her now, and pushing her to either fix it or become even worse. For the life of me I cannot think of one interesting character that breaks this rule.
I know this is one of those things we all think in the back of our minds after a while, but I have been assisting newbies the last few days and I've been trying to concoct good ways to explain these concepts to people who don't have experience writing. I am sure this is somewhat disjointed and ramble-y, but it came to me suddenly and I felt it was important to get it written before I forgot. Thanks for reading.  |