A Role to Remember

I suppose role playing is one of the oldest forms of nerd creativity. It conjures images of seventies geeks sitting around their Mom's kitchen table with a 12-sided die, waiting for the Dungeon Master to lay down the plot of adventure and danger.

I've tried my hand at fan fiction, a lesser and more solitary form of role playing, which has recently become a legitimate art form. I still can't believe a Twilight smut fic is a New York Times Bestseller. It seems the world really does want to read the ramblings of teenage girls and middle-aged women and listen to their romantic desires involving dominant bad boys, werewolves, time travelers anyone else who might one day soar into their bedrooms and sweep them away to a better life.

One of my friends has been in the role playing game for at least a decade. She's a master, and her character dedication (and Photoshop skills) are daunting. It makes me feel like I should spend more time developing my own characters and letting them play around with each other a bit before I squish them into the plot of my novels and stories.

I recently decided to join the ranks of her RP inner circle. I don't normally build my characters from the ground up, listing traits and their family history before I begin writing them. For me, it's all about the story I'm telling, and the type of person who would best fit the needs of the narrative. Example: I'm writing a novel about a young teenager who discovers he has a very strange power. Obviously, he needs to feel like an outsider who doesn't fit into the societal system, though he does have one or two close friends who understand him. Therefore, I need an intelligent, somewhat brooding, teenager who is smart enough to see that there's more beyond the safe paths of life walked by most citizens, but insecure enough to create conflicted thoughts and feelings about the road his new-found power will lead him down.



Perhaps it would have been better to sit down and write his entire life history, decide how he found his friends, provide a foundation for his relationship with his parents, especially his dad, before I set off telling his story.

That's one thing I hope to learn from my RP experience. How do you build a character out of nothing and give them enough flaws and human feelings, so it seems that you completely know them after one or two paragraphs? Will I able to tell their stories as easily as I do when I brainstorm the actions of the plot first?

My RP characters are nearly complete. I do feel a bit apprehensive about these people I've brought to life, who have nothing better to do than exist right now. I am anxious to see how they interact with one another, as well as the other RP characters created by other people.

Once the fiction begins, I'll report and examine my thoughts and feelings on this avenue of plot and character creation that so greatly differs from my own.