Giving your character depth!

Hi there!
Today I want to give some pointers on how to make your character more than talking pixels, how to make it a proper person! Enjoy and do not be afraid to give feedback!


Initial ideas:

Figure out the main things that defines your character. Do not care about being special, mainstream or whatever else - just choose what you think you would enjoy playing. It does not have to be very detailed at this stage, many people just go "Tanned mage with claustrophobia", "Half-witted soldier in search of glory" or "Bad-ass rug-eating lesbian assassin".
I enjoy taking inspiration from films or books when I make my characters. Not necessarily ripping them off, rather going "Ohh... I like that guy, now I want to play a very promiscuous swordsman with no attention span too!" and then I do it. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't but that is life.


Defining the character:

Some people prefer writing a backstory first and define their character's personality after, others do it the other way around and yet others, like me, make up a rough backstory to keep in the back of my head and rather focus on the personality draft. I use something like this to define my characters and give myself a challenge in thinking and I find it a very good tool.

Name: Billiam Eickel
Age: 38
Nickname: None
Looks: Fat, muscular, bald, missing quite a few teeth, bad teeth
Cloth style: Rugged, stained, worn
Typical behaviour: Drooling, staring around him with wide open eyes, grinning, clapping excitedly, begging
Can not: Read, write, speak properly, think properly, swim
Can: Lift heavy things, surprisingly good at gardening
Likes: Animals, flowers, chicken, ale, pretty girls, nice people
Dislikes: Violence, deep water
Dream: A warm bed and as much chicken as he can eat
Fears: Too stupid to fear other things than getting hit in the head or drowning

There is no need to fill it all in and it is not meant to be shown to others - it is just a rough raft for yourself to fill in to make you think of who your character is.
Of course you can add or withdraw categories and be as short or as elaborated as you want. The challenge is to make the different parts fit with each other and make sense together.
Also remember that some personality quirks have nothing to do with your backstory - some people like flowers because they think they smell nice, not because their mother always sprinkled flowers among their laundry when they were little and now she's dead and oh, it makes my character miss her so much and she gets really sentimental when she smells flowers etcetera, etcetera.


Fine-tuning:

Why is she afraid of water? Did she almost drown as a child? Think about that background story again and consider: How did she react to this event? Did it change her? What was she like before? WHY did it change her? HOW is she dealing with it now? Does she even have a reason? Some people are just afraid of spiders because they are - not because they have an actual reason. Adding a fear is both fun and challenging!
Is she afraid of all kinds of water or just the wide, open sea that seems to swallow the entire world, being so endless? Is it uncomfortable for her to even wash her face? Is she ashamed of this fear, is she trying to overcome it, is she making up excuses to avoid water? Maybe she challenges herself by going on a boat trip and acts awkward throughout the journey? Maybe she panics? Or is she trying to act strong but gets really easily annoyed? Is her mind so busy with all this water around of her that she can't focus on anything, can't hear what people say and answers in confused ways?


Being just a little bit mysterious:

Have you ever met someone who goes "Hi! I'm and this is my life story!"? Was that a very interesting character? I bet you the answer is no - there was nothing left to find out! Be careful with what you tell people about yourself, consider what makes sense for your character to be open about and what he or she would hide or even lie about.
Maybe his backstory is really embarrassing and he tells a completely fictional one to people who asks? Maybe no one will ever find out IC or OOC that he is lying? That makes a pretty interesting character! Even if no one ever realizes that he is a liar but HE knows, and trying to remember all the lies becomes a strain and gets him into weird situations? Maybe all this lying makes him hate himself and wish that he could find someone to completely trust and tell the truth? Maybe he can not find someone and this makes him feel lonely? Entwined in a net of lies and false friendships he is slowly driven into depression?
There is no end to the possibilities!


Playing it out without actually playing it out:

So... your character's big love and soul-mate died and now he misses her. He in fact misses her so much that he imagines her in his mind, discussing things with her and imagining what she would reply. Okay, that is quite interesting! But how do you make others notice this little quirk?
My advice is: You don't. Keep it to yourself, keep it in your character's thoughts and let him act accordingly. Let him walk off to be by himself for a while while he discusses with her, give him a special ritual to do while he needs this time off. Maybe he does it while he is fishing, while he trains or at night when he lies in his bed, staring up at the ceiling? Don't emote out what he thinks, let your character be secretive about it, let him have flashbacks of her and things they did together and turn his mood around. But do not tell people - let them wonder why he suddenly turned from cheering and laughing to silent and moody and walked off by himself.
Don't do it all the time, make her something he thinks about from time to time, sometimes with a sentimental smile and sometimes nearly crying. Maybe he comes to think of her one day and realizes that he hasn't in weeks? How does that make him feel, how will he act? Will he suddenly become cold and defensive to that new woman in his life whom he never told that he used to be married? Some quite interesting RP will come out of this!



Keep your character's innermost thoughts and feelings hidden and RP according to them - not revealing them - and you will notice how others become more intrigued with your character!
And remember: people meta-game even if they don't want to so keep some things even off the OOC conversations!