#oc creation tips

[homenum-revelio-hq]

NON-BIO CHARACTER RESTRICTION: HALF-BREEDS

The admins are putting a temporary cap on half-breed characters due to the number of half-breeds currently active in the game. While we love all of the ones we have (we really do!), we want to keep these sorts of characters to a rarity given that that’s how they’re depicted in the books and as such, are issuing a moratorium... at least for now!

We feel like one in ten is a pretty good game ratio for half-breeds to full-wix, given that the Order probably has a higher percentage of all varieties of “outcasts” and “oddballs” than the magical world does overall. Currently we have three half-breeds out of twenty-three active characters and thirty-two characters overall, so that’s just about perfect. When our ratio skews back we’ll be happy to lift the cap and let in some more!

Secondary characters, particularly those related to existing half-breed characters, are exempt from this temporary cap!

If you want to talk to us off-anon about a particular character idea you’re percolating for a half-breed, we're always open to discussion and possible exceptions! Given their apparent rarity in the world of magical Britain, however, we think we have enough for now... probably! If you are granted an exception, all we request is that you put in your application a why behind making this character a half-breed. 

[ohshc-trash-14]

OC Things

I’m working on making some character pages for a whole group or two of my OCs right now so I thought I’d share the formatting stuff I use for my OC document in case anyone is interested 

The first page of my document is a list of all the fandoms I have OCs for, along with two or three completely original stories that I have OCs for. Next to these is a list of page numbers, where characters for that story are located. (Ex: I have a Free! OC on page 31, so next to Free! it says 31) For organizational purposes, I personally like this system a lot, but if you don’t want to go to the trouble of updating a contents page, you can just use Command F (or Control F depending on your computer) as a page search function, and search by story or character name or whatever. And if you’re using google docs on a device, anything you bold will appear in a document outline that pops up if you’re scrolling through a long document, so bolding story names could work too if you do more work from your phone/don’t have a computer/whatever the situation may be

Also at the bottom of the list is all the page numbers organized by roughly how finished each page is, which some people may deem extreme overkill, but I like to have a good sense of what’s done.

This is the base that I use for each character page, and since I write for fandoms I put the name of the fandom at the top of the page. If you’re not a fandom writer, you could put the names of your stories at the top of the page instead.

Name: Gender: Birthday: Height: Hair: Eyes: Skin: Attraction: Personality: Family: Typical outfit: Other:

I’ve added stuff over time, and you can take out or add things to your heart’s content. You could add star signs if you’re into that, or add something like likes/dislikes to flesh out the personality section a bit more. If the character has magical abilities of some sort, add a section for that! Go wild. Also, just because it’s the format you use, don’t feel pressured to fill all of these out right when you get an idea. It takes time to develop characters, and you’ll think of things at different points. Some sections may never get filled, and that’s ok too, as long as you don’t feel it’s relevant to what you want to do with the character.

[gundamrp]

Creating OCs in Gundam Settings: Fitting into the World

Original Charactes, or OCs, are pretty neat things to have. In fanfic, they let you fill roles and move plots in ways that canon characters may not be able to. And in RP, you have a flexible character that you don’t need to keep within the bounds of the story set up by the creators.

Except that you do. Remember that Gundam has certain things that make it “Gundam” or it loses some of what drew us into the series in the first place. Here’s some considerations for creating original characters in a Gundam setting:

How would they fit into the canon? Are they a soldier for one faction? If so, how do they feel about the other factions? Or are they a civilian? What kind of skills or training do they have to help them get through life in a world full of war and giant robots?

Are they a mobile suit pilot? What kind of suit? Remember that Gundams are rare and powerful. Not everyone is going to have a Gundam (unless you’re in G Gundam. G Gundam has it’s own rules for this). Most people are going to have to suck it up and start off in a mass-produced suit.

How do they feel about peace and war? What about Newtypes/Coordinators/Innovators/X-Rounders? Are they one of these things, or able to become one? Remember that Coordinators are created before birth and are pretty evident from their abilities, but many people can become, evolve into, or discover they are a latent Newtype, Innovator, or X-Rounder. Not everyone can, though, so you’ll have to think about this, too. 

And then there are canons with ways to create artificial evolution. Cyber-Newtypes, and in Gundam 00, Ribbons was falsely creating Louise Halevy into a human Innovator by manipulating her medication. Coordinators are a forced evolution through prenatal gene manipulation. Does this sort of thing affect your character? How do they feel about it?

Special Consideration: Tragic Pasts

A tragic past. It seems like everyone has one. But you don’t want to lay it on too thick. A character can have some tragic elements in their past, but it shouldn’t overtake them completely. Tragedy can also happen at anytime. Gundam has characters that were relatively normal until war turned their lives upside-down. It has designer babies, child soldiers, artificial enhancements- and a few characters who experienced tragedy at a young age and worked through it to live with joy (Garrod Ran is a treasure~).

So. Does your character have something in their past that destroyed them? Mentally or physically? How are they dealing with it? 

If your answer is “They’re not,” then you need to think about how this is going to affect your character’s interactions with others before you move forward. Characters that are not dealing with their past tend to steal scenes and make everything about them and their pain, and most people don’t like RPing with that character for very long. If your character is having difficulty coping with something, you need to consider ways for them to tone it down long enough for you to interact with other RPers. Remember, there are two (or more) people involved in RP. You need to give the other person some time to shine, too.