- Joined
- Jan 17, 2011
Modified for Herocraft from the Orphans of Kukai guild, copied from the Lore forum.
Guide to Roleplay
--What is Roleplay?--
In order to be a roleplayer, you have to know what roleplaying is. Roleplaying is getting into the roles of the characters you create. When you roleplay a character you create, you think beyond game mechanics. You think alongside of "If my character were real, how would they react? What would they say? What would they use in this situation? What do they know and how do theyuse it?" Further beyond that, roleplaying is not just about theinteractions of your character with the monsters and environment given to them, it's the interaction of your character with other characters. This is where the heart of roleplaying is. To be a good roleplayer you must literally become your character. Now creating a good character to be is a whole other story, that will come later.
--The Rules of Roleplay--
I. IC and OOC
In roleplay, there are two kinds of interactions:
A. ICInteractions: or in-character interactions, where you are actively roleplaying as your character.
B. OOCInteractions: or out-of-character interactions, where you as a person come into play.
When you are in a roleplaying environment, anything you say OOC is denoted as such by being in between parenthesis.
Example of an OOC conversation:
Person A: ((How are you today?))
Person B: ((I'm fine, I got that new Age of Empires game!))
Person A: ((Really? I heard that was really good!))"
Such statements (references to pop culture) in roleplaying do not exist to the characters we portray; they are merely there so the players can talk without breaking immersion completely.
-OOC can also be coupled with IC for particular statements.
Example:
Person A: I have to leave soon… ((Cat blew up my tool shed,again!))
* Either way, to the characters ICly, OOC conversations do not exist! *
--Separation of IC and OOC--
One issue that often crops up with roleplayers, especially roleplayers who do not know the person behind the character they are playing with, is that people begin to place the feelings of their IC characters to the OOC players.
For example:
One day Criane decides to call my character, Katelyn, a jerk. If I didn't know better, I might think that Criane's PLAYER may also being calling me a jerk. It is for this reason that it is very important tto remember that the characters a person plays are NOT the person playing them. I am NOT Katelyn, just as much as Katelyn is NOT me, and what I feel is completely different from her.
--Proper Grammar, Emoting--
One important thing about roleplaying is immersion. Perfect immersion is when you forget that you are playing a game, and get in touch with your character and environment on a deeper level. Many people strive to reach this, and many things can easily break immersion.
In roleplaying, it is important to stray away from chat-speak (such as u, *laughs*, 2, and other abbreviations) as it breaks immersion, and your IC character saying "hi 2 u *laughs*", makes them sound like a dim wit who missed the crazy train.
For the same reason you should avoid emoticons ( T.T <.> >.<
(; ) as they can break immersion by reminding you that what you are looking at is indeed just another graphical chat room.
Emoting should instead be done in statements surrounded by * *s, + +s, or any such symbols that can fit this purpose.
Example:
Improper RPing emote: "Hey! I remember you!"
Proper RPing emote: *smiles brightly* “Hey, I remember you!”
Using proper emoting through your text can aid in developing your character. You can give your character *eye twitches* when they get nervous, or have them *scratch* themselves when edgy. Emotes are a great way to allow other players to get an idea of what your character is thinking, and makes them seem more real.
--Metagaming--
Metagaming is the aspect of roleplaying where a character ruses information they ICly should NOT know, because the player OOCly knows. An example would be if you (the player) were to read a personal journal of the character Mihai. Just because you (the player) read the journal, does not mean that you (the character) knows the journal even EXISTS.
In basic terms, just because you know it, does not mean your character does. When you are thinking about something your character can say or offer, always ask "Would my character know this?" beforehand. A character who has ICly was born in Zeal would most certainly not know a thing about Kindgom, despite the player having beaten read about it.
--Powergaming--
Powergaming is the aspect of roleplaying where one attempts to make their character powerful, more so then should be considered normal. While our characters are strong, they are not Gods. A geomancer cannot cause mountains to split, just as much as an Enchanter cannot cause a person's head to explode on sight.
Powergaming also includes controlling other characters actions. A good example would be if Criane were to punch Katelyn. Normally, Criane would go *takes a swing at Katelyn* or some such line, leaving the player of Katelyn to decide whether or not they actually got hit. Now if Criane’s player decided to powergame, s/he could instead *punches Katelyn square in the jaw, breaking it*. This statement has single-handedly taken control of Katelyn out of the player's hands.
Powergaming can also work in a reversed situation, Criane is being nice,*taking swings* instead of claiming to hit me. However, I decide to power game, continuing to dodge each and every blow with my amazing speed and grace.
Such conversations tend to result in exchanges such as this:
*punches you* *dodges it* *punches you again* *dodges it again* ... etc.
When you are in a situation like this where you truly are against your character being hurt, ask the player of the character throwing punches OOCly to stop. More often then not they will abide.
Alternate Solution:
If you're like me, you'll roll a dice and mod it based on your character and let the outcome of Criane's punch decide for itself.
--Character Creation--
I. Creating Realistic Characters
A. Lore
One of the important things about role playing in a world created for you, is staying in the realms of that world. In a constantly expanding and growing game such as Minecraft, creating characters that do not fit into the lore is often times risky, and is often done poorly.
An example would be creating an elven character. Elves have not at any point existed in Herocraft. Thusly many people who wanted to play elves, simply took the lore of some otherworld, such as Dungeons and Dragons, or even Warcraft, and tossed them into Herocraft where they did not belong or even exist. Many of these cross-game characters fail to fit into the Herocraft universe, and often serve no other purpose than to say, "I'm different then you are."
You do not need your character to be of dragon-kin, or an elf, to be special or different. Your character should be special or different by their personality, by their back-story, and by their interactions with other characters.
B. Character Hooks
What are character hooks? To be specific they are unfinished plot points of your characters, designed to be picked up on later, preferably during a storyline involving other players. An example would be a character whose parents went missing, but in their back-story or by the character themselves, it is mentioned that they never have known what exactly happened to their parents. In this way, later on if the player so desires, they may bring up the open plot point of 'the parent's and finish it. This creates a more dynamic, interactive character. Another example would be a character that had done something wrong in the past, or escaped some other dangerous situation, only to have it come back and haunt them.
Thusly it is recommended that when creating a character and their back-story, you leave specific points unfinished so as to build on them later. This provides great storyline fodder later on, and prevents a character from going 'stale'.
--Personality, Back-story, and the Human Side--
To be a realistic and deep character, a character requires three things: a believable personality, a worldview, and a back-story to support them both.
A back-story will be the backbone of your character. It will detail who he is, how he got where he is, and what events in his life made him how he is now. Remember, it is your character.
A good character will have a personality, tied in with their own view of the world. A character who simply floats around making friends and existing looks shallow, and fake. A real character will have dislikes, issues they simply don't agree with, and conflicts between themselves, and others at times. They'll react with anger, jealously, envy, and greed...as well as kindness, self-sacrifice, and forgiveness. Just like a human being.
Remember, your characters are human. They can, and should, get emotional at times.
The worldview of a character further deepens and details who they are. A character for example, might have a prejudice against necromancers due to something that happened in the past, or an extreme dislike towards death and blood in general. Another character may hunt and kill animals for sport, while yet another may be tree-hugging hippie who'd rather take an arrow to the chest, then let a wolf get shot. Characters may have particular dislikes of subjects, or extreme interest in other subjects.
Ultimately it is important to remember: these characters are human beings! They should be just as complex as you are.
--Evil Characters--
Evil characters are perhaps some of the most difficult characters to play. Unlike most characters who are good, or at least neutral aligned, evil characters are... well, evil. Thusly, evil characters, rather then focusing on helping others, would much rather be harming other characters, or at the very least placing themselves above others.
I. The Dangers of Evil
Evil character's biggest threat comes from either themselves, or good-willed characters. Evil characters cannot expect to get away with crimes in any environment, and the roleplaying environment is no different. If an evil character is openly evil, it's only a matter of time before the authorities capture and imprison them, or in the more dire of circumstances, the good-aligned players merge together and lynch him/her. For this, most openly evil characters tend to have very short life spans. They do not make good long-term characters, unless you are incredibly good at keeping them under wraps.
So if you're going to create an evil character, keep in mind that it comes with it's risks. Also keep in mind that depending on which town you are in, different rules apply for evil characters.
II. Different Kinds of Evil
There are multitudes of different evil types, just like there are multitudes of good types. Some examples...
Openly Evil (Super Villian)-This stereotypical villain is your normal comic book villain. He's evil, you know he's evil, everyone knows he's evil, and chances are, he's going to be killed off or locked away in a week for being so. This is the type of evil that will throw kittens off of lighthouses for sheer cruelty of doing so. These types of characters are usually throwaways in roleplaying storylines when one cannot be bothered to make a good villian, and just want something for people to band together to kill.
Psychotic Evil-This evil is the type who's lost touch with the world. Either by some past traumatic experience, magical accident, whichever, they've lost their mind. Now this does not mean that the character walks the street laughing maniacally, they could very well be quite normal people who have lost their morality. This is the type of evil that may have had a horrible experience in the past with a certain group of people, and dedicates their lives to making said groups lives absolutely torture. An anti-paladin could also fit this role. This type of evil is usually used in roleplaying storylines to create a villian whose actions, while maybe be deeply morally wrong, can be somewhat understood.
Egocentric Evil- This evil is the type who focuses on him, and him only. Everyone else isjust a stepping stone to get to the next milestone for him. People tend to be either tools or meat shields, depending on the circumstances. This is the type of evil who would start revolutions, or assassinate political leaders for the sake of bringing themselves to power. In roleplaying storylines, this evil is often planted into the party secretly for the sake of backstabbing them later when the situation suits them.
For The Light! Evil-Ever see that raging paladin who enjoys stringing up peasants because they don't worship the right God, or follow the rules to the letter? This is that kind of evil. While they may not break laws (in fact, they tend to uphold them), their actions in carrying out these laws are deemed as evil. The "shoot first, ask questions later," approach tends to be favored by these characters. These characters may also be highly prejudiced individuals, and may be abusive to one or more classes or races.
Shady Evil- This evil you may never know is evil. These characters are the most dangerous and manipulative characters, and take a lot of skill to roleplay. They may do good deeds or actions, and may even act nice and courteous to others, however while doing so, they spread the seeds of hate among those who they are around. With careful manipulation these characters can turn even the best of friends against each other without as much as being suspected. This is the evil who can tear apart nations, such as the cruel advisor who wishes to bring down his King's nation so he can take it over with ease. In roleplaying stories, these characters are often planted into the party to distract, mislead, and find means to cause the party to fail by their own merit.
III. Why am I evil?
The hardest part of making an evil character is, aside from making one who isn't going to get killed or jailed in the first week (unless you want that, you masochist, you!) is making them believable. For all villains, backstory is incredibly important. It must detail not only how they got where they are, but go into detail about why they are as they are. What made them evil, what is their motivation, and what keeps them down the trail of darkness. All things must be considered long before the character is introduced. Keep in mind, like other roleplaying characters, evil characters are (usually) human, and thus are prime to human emotions as well.
IV. Dealing with the IC issues. How to be evil and not get banned
Ina roleplaying community, being evil will often get you harassed, ignored, kicked out, or worse. For this reason it is expected that while playing your evil character, that players be forewarned about it, especially if you will effecting their character(s) physically. All rules of powergaming and metagaming apply to evil characters, evil characters may not harm or torture good characters without some form of OOC permission, and they may not be incredibly powerful, god-like creatures either.
Abusing other player characters without their permission, being overpowered, and committing openly evil acts will, most times, get you ignored or hated by other players, ICly and OOCly. That is why most evil characters should not be played as a main, or often. They should be saved for role playing storylines and events where they are called for.
Remember, the vast majority of roleplaying guilds are good or neutral-aligned, evil characters havelittle place within these guilds.
--Cliché--
At the same time, it is important to try your best to avoid clichés. The dark, foreboding necromancer who likes hurting everyone he meets is as much as a bad character as he is a bad stereotype. While it is important to remember that characters with certain personality traits will undoubtedly flock to certain professions in Herocraft, it is just as important to remember that these aren't the only personalities that will flock to them.
Some notable clichéd character types that should be avoided:
The Necromancer who hates all things breathing because they're alive.
The Geomancer who can't think of anything else but blowing things up.
The overly pious Cleric who would never dare harm a living thing.
The lone Ranger who wants only to be alone and have nothing to do with friends.
The haughty-stuck up Wizard who's better than everyone else (and a germaphobe!)
The hotheaded Warrior whose idea of diplomacy is a fist to the face.
The quiet, shy, Ninja with a dark past.
The Enchanter who must talk in riddles and automatically be blind.
The militaristic Samurai that wouldn’t know humor if its lapped him.
The holier than thou because Paladin.
These are common stereotypes associated with classes, and while you do not have to avoid ALL aspects of the stereotype when making a character, DO AVOID making a character that is a stereotype.
Also, avoid making the direct opposite of a stereotype, as ironically, this is a stereotype in and of itself. The overly cuddly necromancer, or the loud-mouthed, competitive Ninja (Naruto anyone?) are examples. Furthermore avoid plagiarizing characters or personalities from popular shows, books, or comics. It looks just as bad to have a necromancer who's a copy of Vash the Stampede, as it is to have one who's a perfect stereotype.
Guide to Roleplay
--What is Roleplay?--
In order to be a roleplayer, you have to know what roleplaying is. Roleplaying is getting into the roles of the characters you create. When you roleplay a character you create, you think beyond game mechanics. You think alongside of "If my character were real, how would they react? What would they say? What would they use in this situation? What do they know and how do theyuse it?" Further beyond that, roleplaying is not just about theinteractions of your character with the monsters and environment given to them, it's the interaction of your character with other characters. This is where the heart of roleplaying is. To be a good roleplayer you must literally become your character. Now creating a good character to be is a whole other story, that will come later.
--The Rules of Roleplay--
I. IC and OOC
In roleplay, there are two kinds of interactions:
A. ICInteractions: or in-character interactions, where you are actively roleplaying as your character.
B. OOCInteractions: or out-of-character interactions, where you as a person come into play.
When you are in a roleplaying environment, anything you say OOC is denoted as such by being in between parenthesis.
Example of an OOC conversation:
Person A: ((How are you today?))
Person B: ((I'm fine, I got that new Age of Empires game!))
Person A: ((Really? I heard that was really good!))"
Such statements (references to pop culture) in roleplaying do not exist to the characters we portray; they are merely there so the players can talk without breaking immersion completely.
-OOC can also be coupled with IC for particular statements.
Example:
Person A: I have to leave soon… ((Cat blew up my tool shed,again!))
* Either way, to the characters ICly, OOC conversations do not exist! *
--Separation of IC and OOC--
One issue that often crops up with roleplayers, especially roleplayers who do not know the person behind the character they are playing with, is that people begin to place the feelings of their IC characters to the OOC players.
For example:
One day Criane decides to call my character, Katelyn, a jerk. If I didn't know better, I might think that Criane's PLAYER may also being calling me a jerk. It is for this reason that it is very important tto remember that the characters a person plays are NOT the person playing them. I am NOT Katelyn, just as much as Katelyn is NOT me, and what I feel is completely different from her.
--Proper Grammar, Emoting--
One important thing about roleplaying is immersion. Perfect immersion is when you forget that you are playing a game, and get in touch with your character and environment on a deeper level. Many people strive to reach this, and many things can easily break immersion.
In roleplaying, it is important to stray away from chat-speak (such as u, *laughs*, 2, and other abbreviations) as it breaks immersion, and your IC character saying "hi 2 u *laughs*", makes them sound like a dim wit who missed the crazy train.
For the same reason you should avoid emoticons ( T.T <.> >.<
(; ) as they can break immersion by reminding you that what you are looking at is indeed just another graphical chat room.Emoting should instead be done in statements surrounded by * *s, + +s, or any such symbols that can fit this purpose.
Example:
Improper RPing emote: "Hey! I remember you!
"Proper RPing emote: *smiles brightly* “Hey, I remember you!”
Using proper emoting through your text can aid in developing your character. You can give your character *eye twitches* when they get nervous, or have them *scratch* themselves when edgy. Emotes are a great way to allow other players to get an idea of what your character is thinking, and makes them seem more real.
--Metagaming--
Metagaming is the aspect of roleplaying where a character ruses information they ICly should NOT know, because the player OOCly knows. An example would be if you (the player) were to read a personal journal of the character Mihai. Just because you (the player) read the journal, does not mean that you (the character) knows the journal even EXISTS.
In basic terms, just because you know it, does not mean your character does. When you are thinking about something your character can say or offer, always ask "Would my character know this?" beforehand. A character who has ICly was born in Zeal would most certainly not know a thing about Kindgom, despite the player having beaten read about it.
--Powergaming--
Powergaming is the aspect of roleplaying where one attempts to make their character powerful, more so then should be considered normal. While our characters are strong, they are not Gods. A geomancer cannot cause mountains to split, just as much as an Enchanter cannot cause a person's head to explode on sight.
Powergaming also includes controlling other characters actions. A good example would be if Criane were to punch Katelyn. Normally, Criane would go *takes a swing at Katelyn* or some such line, leaving the player of Katelyn to decide whether or not they actually got hit. Now if Criane’s player decided to powergame, s/he could instead *punches Katelyn square in the jaw, breaking it*. This statement has single-handedly taken control of Katelyn out of the player's hands.
Powergaming can also work in a reversed situation, Criane is being nice,*taking swings* instead of claiming to hit me. However, I decide to power game, continuing to dodge each and every blow with my amazing speed and grace.
Such conversations tend to result in exchanges such as this:
*punches you* *dodges it* *punches you again* *dodges it again* ... etc.
When you are in a situation like this where you truly are against your character being hurt, ask the player of the character throwing punches OOCly to stop. More often then not they will abide.
Alternate Solution:
If you're like me, you'll roll a dice and mod it based on your character and let the outcome of Criane's punch decide for itself.
--Character Creation--
I. Creating Realistic Characters
A. Lore
One of the important things about role playing in a world created for you, is staying in the realms of that world. In a constantly expanding and growing game such as Minecraft, creating characters that do not fit into the lore is often times risky, and is often done poorly.
An example would be creating an elven character. Elves have not at any point existed in Herocraft. Thusly many people who wanted to play elves, simply took the lore of some otherworld, such as Dungeons and Dragons, or even Warcraft, and tossed them into Herocraft where they did not belong or even exist. Many of these cross-game characters fail to fit into the Herocraft universe, and often serve no other purpose than to say, "I'm different then you are."
You do not need your character to be of dragon-kin, or an elf, to be special or different. Your character should be special or different by their personality, by their back-story, and by their interactions with other characters.
B. Character Hooks
What are character hooks? To be specific they are unfinished plot points of your characters, designed to be picked up on later, preferably during a storyline involving other players. An example would be a character whose parents went missing, but in their back-story or by the character themselves, it is mentioned that they never have known what exactly happened to their parents. In this way, later on if the player so desires, they may bring up the open plot point of 'the parent's and finish it. This creates a more dynamic, interactive character. Another example would be a character that had done something wrong in the past, or escaped some other dangerous situation, only to have it come back and haunt them.
Thusly it is recommended that when creating a character and their back-story, you leave specific points unfinished so as to build on them later. This provides great storyline fodder later on, and prevents a character from going 'stale'.
--Personality, Back-story, and the Human Side--
To be a realistic and deep character, a character requires three things: a believable personality, a worldview, and a back-story to support them both.
A back-story will be the backbone of your character. It will detail who he is, how he got where he is, and what events in his life made him how he is now. Remember, it is your character.
A good character will have a personality, tied in with their own view of the world. A character who simply floats around making friends and existing looks shallow, and fake. A real character will have dislikes, issues they simply don't agree with, and conflicts between themselves, and others at times. They'll react with anger, jealously, envy, and greed...as well as kindness, self-sacrifice, and forgiveness. Just like a human being.
Remember, your characters are human. They can, and should, get emotional at times.
The worldview of a character further deepens and details who they are. A character for example, might have a prejudice against necromancers due to something that happened in the past, or an extreme dislike towards death and blood in general. Another character may hunt and kill animals for sport, while yet another may be tree-hugging hippie who'd rather take an arrow to the chest, then let a wolf get shot. Characters may have particular dislikes of subjects, or extreme interest in other subjects.
Ultimately it is important to remember: these characters are human beings! They should be just as complex as you are.
--Evil Characters--
Evil characters are perhaps some of the most difficult characters to play. Unlike most characters who are good, or at least neutral aligned, evil characters are... well, evil. Thusly, evil characters, rather then focusing on helping others, would much rather be harming other characters, or at the very least placing themselves above others.
I. The Dangers of Evil
Evil character's biggest threat comes from either themselves, or good-willed characters. Evil characters cannot expect to get away with crimes in any environment, and the roleplaying environment is no different. If an evil character is openly evil, it's only a matter of time before the authorities capture and imprison them, or in the more dire of circumstances, the good-aligned players merge together and lynch him/her. For this, most openly evil characters tend to have very short life spans. They do not make good long-term characters, unless you are incredibly good at keeping them under wraps.
So if you're going to create an evil character, keep in mind that it comes with it's risks. Also keep in mind that depending on which town you are in, different rules apply for evil characters.
II. Different Kinds of Evil
There are multitudes of different evil types, just like there are multitudes of good types. Some examples...
Openly Evil (Super Villian)-This stereotypical villain is your normal comic book villain. He's evil, you know he's evil, everyone knows he's evil, and chances are, he's going to be killed off or locked away in a week for being so. This is the type of evil that will throw kittens off of lighthouses for sheer cruelty of doing so. These types of characters are usually throwaways in roleplaying storylines when one cannot be bothered to make a good villian, and just want something for people to band together to kill.
Psychotic Evil-This evil is the type who's lost touch with the world. Either by some past traumatic experience, magical accident, whichever, they've lost their mind. Now this does not mean that the character walks the street laughing maniacally, they could very well be quite normal people who have lost their morality. This is the type of evil that may have had a horrible experience in the past with a certain group of people, and dedicates their lives to making said groups lives absolutely torture. An anti-paladin could also fit this role. This type of evil is usually used in roleplaying storylines to create a villian whose actions, while maybe be deeply morally wrong, can be somewhat understood.
Egocentric Evil- This evil is the type who focuses on him, and him only. Everyone else isjust a stepping stone to get to the next milestone for him. People tend to be either tools or meat shields, depending on the circumstances. This is the type of evil who would start revolutions, or assassinate political leaders for the sake of bringing themselves to power. In roleplaying storylines, this evil is often planted into the party secretly for the sake of backstabbing them later when the situation suits them.
For The Light! Evil-Ever see that raging paladin who enjoys stringing up peasants because they don't worship the right God, or follow the rules to the letter? This is that kind of evil. While they may not break laws (in fact, they tend to uphold them), their actions in carrying out these laws are deemed as evil. The "shoot first, ask questions later," approach tends to be favored by these characters. These characters may also be highly prejudiced individuals, and may be abusive to one or more classes or races.
Shady Evil- This evil you may never know is evil. These characters are the most dangerous and manipulative characters, and take a lot of skill to roleplay. They may do good deeds or actions, and may even act nice and courteous to others, however while doing so, they spread the seeds of hate among those who they are around. With careful manipulation these characters can turn even the best of friends against each other without as much as being suspected. This is the evil who can tear apart nations, such as the cruel advisor who wishes to bring down his King's nation so he can take it over with ease. In roleplaying stories, these characters are often planted into the party to distract, mislead, and find means to cause the party to fail by their own merit.
III. Why am I evil?
The hardest part of making an evil character is, aside from making one who isn't going to get killed or jailed in the first week (unless you want that, you masochist, you!) is making them believable. For all villains, backstory is incredibly important. It must detail not only how they got where they are, but go into detail about why they are as they are. What made them evil, what is their motivation, and what keeps them down the trail of darkness. All things must be considered long before the character is introduced. Keep in mind, like other roleplaying characters, evil characters are (usually) human, and thus are prime to human emotions as well.
IV. Dealing with the IC issues. How to be evil and not get banned
Ina roleplaying community, being evil will often get you harassed, ignored, kicked out, or worse. For this reason it is expected that while playing your evil character, that players be forewarned about it, especially if you will effecting their character(s) physically. All rules of powergaming and metagaming apply to evil characters, evil characters may not harm or torture good characters without some form of OOC permission, and they may not be incredibly powerful, god-like creatures either.
Abusing other player characters without their permission, being overpowered, and committing openly evil acts will, most times, get you ignored or hated by other players, ICly and OOCly. That is why most evil characters should not be played as a main, or often. They should be saved for role playing storylines and events where they are called for.
Remember, the vast majority of roleplaying guilds are good or neutral-aligned, evil characters havelittle place within these guilds.
--Cliché--
At the same time, it is important to try your best to avoid clichés. The dark, foreboding necromancer who likes hurting everyone he meets is as much as a bad character as he is a bad stereotype. While it is important to remember that characters with certain personality traits will undoubtedly flock to certain professions in Herocraft, it is just as important to remember that these aren't the only personalities that will flock to them.
Some notable clichéd character types that should be avoided:
The Necromancer who hates all things breathing because they're alive.
The Geomancer who can't think of anything else but blowing things up.
The overly pious Cleric who would never dare harm a living thing.
The lone Ranger who wants only to be alone and have nothing to do with friends.
The haughty-stuck up Wizard who's better than everyone else (and a germaphobe!)
The hotheaded Warrior whose idea of diplomacy is a fist to the face.
The quiet, shy, Ninja with a dark past.
The Enchanter who must talk in riddles and automatically be blind.
The militaristic Samurai that wouldn’t know humor if its lapped him.
The holier than thou because Paladin.
These are common stereotypes associated with classes, and while you do not have to avoid ALL aspects of the stereotype when making a character, DO AVOID making a character that is a stereotype.
Also, avoid making the direct opposite of a stereotype, as ironically, this is a stereotype in and of itself. The overly cuddly necromancer, or the loud-mouthed, competitive Ninja (Naruto anyone?) are examples. Furthermore avoid plagiarizing characters or personalities from popular shows, books, or comics. It looks just as bad to have a necromancer who's a copy of Vash the Stampede, as it is to have one who's a perfect stereotype.
