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Roleplay Tutorials [Various Subjectmatter] 7/1/2014

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FaintSilhouette:
Evil Character Roleplay Tutorial (PART 1)
Evil Characters Aren't that Simple
For this tutorial I will be using several of my characters as examples. This isn’t to say that mine are by any means perfect, they’re not. However, there are only a small handful of /other/ people I have encountered who can successfully pull off certain character types of which I’m going to explain below and since I have not had the opportunity to ask their permission to use them as examples, I will simply use my own. So without further ado, the first thing you need to know…

What is the difference between aggressive, dark, and evil? For those of you thinking “THERE IS NONE.” Hate to say it pal, you’re a long way off.

Aggression:
  Alright so let’s start with the first category of aggression. First, let’s differentiate it from the other two. While it is true those classed in the “Dark” or “Evil” category can have aggressive behaviors, and in most clichéd circumstances, often do, it is NOT a requirement.  To try to say that aggression is the same as evil is to agree that being timid is the same as sainthood and we KNOW that isn’t true. Aggressive people can and often do function quite easily in every day society. They are dominant, tend to take more forceful and perhaps even slightly exaggerated action (although not always) to solve a problem. This does NOT mean they haul off and punch someone in face for a single rude snarky comment but it may mean they are harder to intimidate, easier (ONLY by a little bit) to anger than the average Joe, and perhaps a LITTLE less empathetic. Sometimes this aggression is exercised as healthy ambition and competitive nature. In the real world, aggression is all around us and the truth of the matter is, most of the time there is nothing morally wrong with it.  (UNLESS in certain circumstances we combine it with the other two, but I’m just now getting to that.)

I have a character by the name of Mismatch who fits this category nicely without bleeding into the other two categories listed below. She’s been compared by others to “that one crazy aunt” or “somebody’s grandma” given that she’s very old fashioned, very blunt, she does not sugar coat or censor her words (except around small children and even that is hit or miss), prone to demand respect from others when she herself hasn’t earned it yet, unaware of how rash she can be, etc. Notice NOWHERE did I say that she is malicious, frequently deceitful, or has darker ambitions. As a matter of fact, despite her flaws (and every character needs flaws, NOT just physical weaknesses but actual character flaws), she is at least /trying/ to have other’s best interests at heart. That is why she’s a herbalist/medic. She likes to help other people despite her outward aggressive tendencies.

Darkness:
Now, contrary to popular belief, darkness for a character does not necessarily have to be about that character’s personality, however most times it does so I’ll burn that bridge first. What is dark? Most of the time dark characters /consider/ although do NOT always /choose/ a morally wrong or damaging solution for their problems. More often than not, these are the types of the solutions that benevolent characters mostly reject and won’t even think about yet a dark character will consider them as an option, sometimes if only a last option.

Mysterious and darkness do NOT necessarily go hand in hand. As I mentioned in another tutorial, the “mysteriousness” of your character will be judged by other people. Don’t try to exaggerate it by naming your character “mystery” or suggesting their actions are mysterious. Let everyone else decide what is considered “mysterious” because for all you know, someone who reads between the lines a little better than you expect may be anticipating every move your character makes, therefore, they’re not mysterious at all. They’re just flat out predictable. Sometimes darkness in character is an expression of their most innermost thoughts or even their surroundings. 

My character, Traveler who after circumstances I won’t go through the effort of explaining right now, had her soul stolen and soon after she realized that her chances of salvation (in her mind at least) went out the window. This gave her some rather unhealthy thoughts and behaviors such as traveling to a forest filled with hallucinogenic ashes so that it might make her hallucinate and see her deceased loved ones, such as her previous mate. That’s….rather dark, no? And it lacks the long black hair and sobbing drama that is so often clichéd with a dark character. Similarly, Calyx sought out the little missing daughter of her former master. Only when she grows very old does she find that the girl died early on in her search and that her ghost was trying to lead Calyx away from the very thing that had killed her in the first place. So in other words, she’s tracking what she thinks is a live person who in the end turns out to have been dead/fooling her all along. That’s a little dark too.

 Notice in either case though it’s very subtle. The characters themselves are both VERY benevolent in nature and yet they themselves (or in Caylx’s case, her backstory/situation) are DARK.  If you’re going to do a dark character keep it subtle. If people actually care, they will notice. If they don’t notice, they don’t care. Don’t make it anything but subtle or you’ll be nothing short of a cliché boring drama llama.

Evil:  And here we have the broad one. What sets an evil character out from the other two categories? Well to be truthful, MOST of the times to have an evil character you usually have at least one or both of the other categories involved (but not always! And sometimes that’s a great thing!). However, what is an evil character by itself?  Or what is evil, really? When you get down to it, from a neutral perspective, most good/evil in literature is up for debate. Let me rephrase it a little better with an example.

Say we have two wolf packs, both struggling to get through the winter. Pack A and Pack B. Each lives on the opposite side of the river.

Pack A has more than enough shelter but lacks enough prey on their side of the river to make it through the winter. Members of Pack A are starving to death one by one.

Pack B has enough prey on their side of the river to make it through the winter but lacks enough shelter to keep all of its members warm. Pack B is freezing to death one by one.

SO. My question to you is, in the case that these two are TOO large for a compromise or sharing of territory to keep all of them alive, or for whatever reason that they CANNOT work together and go at war with one another………….Which side is the evil side? Pack A? Or Pack B?

Can’t answer that one can you? The answer is neither. But I think you can agree that if you were a member of Pack B, you’d be more than upset at Pack A for stealing what food you do have. And they would, consequently look “evil” to you.  They’re stealing your stuff. On the other hand, if you were a member of Pack A, you could say the same for the members of Pack B who try to sneak over and sleep in your shelters. Pack B would look “evil” to you then.

The point is, EVERYONE, “good” or “evil” is a protagonist in their own right.  Even though an “evil” character of mine may seem horrible for wanting to eradicate all human beings from an entire city so that his own kind might take over, he may be viewed as benevolent in another light because he’s paving the way for his own nation as well as possibly avenging his own kind for something mankind did to them first. This is my character Mikey’s motive. Is this beginning to make sense? It’s all about perspective. The same goes with a good character appearing evil. You might be the good guy to put him in prison but on the flipside of things, you’re eliminating his kind’s chances of saving themselves. Doesn’t sound so “good” when you put it like that, does it?

FaintSilhouette:
Evil Character Roleplay Tutorial (CONTINUED PART 2)
Evil Characters Aren't That Simple
And with that we look at the next big thing. Evil characters (and good and neutral and any other character type) should have a motive. In fact, part of what I think makes evil characters so hard for people to RP is because that motive needs to be strong, desirable, and worth the potential consequences in order to achieve it. (Your character is not an all powerful badass, or at least he shouldn’t be. If he is, you’re barking up the wrong tree already!) Motives are considerably difficult to come up and I highly recommend AGAINST using the following cliché motives below. They are terrible and overdone.

World domination: Why not world domination? Its never going to happen and any villain with a realistic mindset will start small. Perhaps an attempt to manipulate one’s way up the group he’s in will suite better as a start. Afterall, if he can’t control just a few people, what makes him think he can take over the world? Exactly.  Most villains are happy with a small, slightly unfair crop of power anyway.
My parents/family/significant other was killed!: Why not the death of parents/family/significant other? People don’t  just take their rage out on everyone else and suddenly “enjoy it” just because something bad happened to them. If that was the case, our real world would have twice as many criminals in it as it does now. It just does not realistically happen and you can't dominate the RP world. Sorry.

Because I’m evil:  Why not this? Because evil in itself and by itself is NOT a motive.  It’s a broad explanation for a character type. Not a motive. You don’t just do harm to another individual “just because you can.” Why not? Because as I mentioned before, a motive must be strong, desirable, and worth the potential consequences. Doing harm to someone else often has major league consequences (be it somebody else hunting the perpetrator down in vengeance or even simply getting their ass kicked when they attempt to harm said someone else). Its not a motive. End of story.

And now we look at the biggest offenders…the “insane.” All I can really say about this one is DO YOUR RESEARCH. Don’t try to portray an actual disorder, condition, or thought process without researching it first even IF you think you know something about it already. Even if you know [or think you know] someone who has it, RESEARCH IT ANYWAY. For one thing not only will you prevent offending someone with said disorder but you also will prevent yourself from looking like a total fool for getting wrong. Trying to do a schizophrenic character and instead portraying them to be a hypochondriac is like claiming to have cancer yet  you only have a scraped knee. Completely irrelevant and incorrect. ALSO realize that some people who might be classed as “insane” do NOT look the Hollywood movie part. In fact, they may just appear to be everyday contributors to society.

Which brings me to the next topic, appearances.

If you’re planning on making your evil character red and black, or all red, or all black, STOP RIGHT THERE. You’re already heading into a massive cliché  fest. Don’t do black with red scars, or black with red markings (or vice versa) or solid red or solid black. DON’T. DO. IT. Why? It’s been done TOO many times to the point I can’t regard 99% of characters who look like this as frightening. In fact, when I see this type of look on a supposedly “evil” character, my expectations plummet drastically. This ESPECIALLY goes for demonic characters. I HIGHLY recommend staying away from these colorations or in the very least only use one or the other to accent (LIGHTLY) completely different colors. For example, Mikey who I mentioned further up in the tutorial is in the roleplays considered evil yet hes solid silver in coloration. His eyes are red, but that’s about it. December, another evil character of mine is a dingey brown/green that’s rather unpleasant to look at but has an intimidating look to it and her eyes are, surprisingly, just brown. Yep. Brown. But it fits with everything else and the intimidating atmosphere around her in combination with her behavior/motive is maintained.

Lastly we have supplementary traits. These can be added after a character’s initial categories have been “picked” and you may have to actually RP the character to figure it out/see which ones work for you and which ones don’t and let someone /else/ be the judge of how good you are at it. If you’re straining and struggling, it will be more than obvious to everyone else and it will take away from the effect. These traits do NOT standalone and are intended to accentuate the other categories.

Withdrawn/Hermit: Aggressive and/or Dark. The very  reason for a character’s aggression or darkness may be other people and consequently, desirable to avoid. The reason I did not list it for “evil” characters is because most (although not always) of the time, in order to be considered evil, you have to purposefully and maliciously commit harm toward another being and that’s pretty hard to do if they never come into contact with another being. It doesn’t mean an evil character can’t be anti-social but these are just general traits/suggestions
Sadistic: (All three) Believe it or not, even a benevolent character can be sadistic. If that good-hearted knight takes a little too much joy in seeing his enemy gag and suffer in his death on the end of his sword…well, we might consider him sadistic. That said, while being sadistic is /primarily/ associated with the evil characters it can blend with the aggressive or dark categories

Outgoing:  (Primarily evil or aggressive) WHOA. How did this get here? Allow me to explain. Your aggressive character, as I said may not fall into the evil category, giving them a chance for some more “natural” personality traits and behaviors. On the other hand an evil character may like to appear to be outgoing for the sake of gaining trust and power (only to break said trust and abuse said power later)

Hypocrite: (All three categories although it often conflicts with the evil category. I don’t recommend using this for an evil char unless you REALLY know what you’re doing.): Says one thing that goes against one’s own actions, being, words, etc.

These are just a FEW examples of things you can accent your character’s personality with and I highly recommend finding other traits and using many of them instead of just basing your character on the solid categories themselves. (Which as I said can be combined or stand alone)

In conclusion, I’ll just give a description of some of my characters who may fit some categories, and not others.

Mismatch. (Aggressive only. From previously in the tutorial.): She’s been compared by others to “that one crazy aunt” or “somebody’s grandma” given that she’s very old fashioned, very blunt , she does not sugar coat or censor her words (except around small children and even that is hit or miss), prone to demand respect from others when she herself hasn’t earned it yet, unaware of how rash she can be, etc. Notice NOWHERE did I say that she is malicious, frequently deceitful, or has darker ambitions. As a matter of fact, despite her flaws (and every character needs flaws, NOT just physical weaknesses but actual character flaws), she is at least /trying/ to have other’s best interests at heart. That is why she’s a herbalist/medic. She likes to help other people despite her outward aggressive tendencies.

Candela (Aggressive, Dark, but not evil): Like Mismatch, Candela has some rather moody tendencies, often calling out and insulting others simply from the lack of desire to censor herself and cover words up in unnecessary sugar. She’s blunt, like Mismatch but she’s also rather sadistic in nature. Though she doesn’t wish to do the world in, she does enjoy watching her enemies suffer and just /barely/ stays out of the evil category. Being prone to make more unorthodox decisions and solutions puts her in the dark category.

Reign (Evil, aggressive, but not dark.):  Reign has done some rather malicious things in terms of both his history and role-play. He’s also prone to aggressive outbursts. However, despite being a demon, he cannot be classed as dark? Why not? Well, to be truthful, there’s nothing really “dark” about him. He doesn’t just /consider/ the most harmful option, in fact, if it’s not part of his plan or his orders, he goes for what is simplest regardless of whether or not it harms someone or not.  On top of that, he’s rather strange for an evil character as he is beneath average in strength (although not in size) and he’s a big wuss. Yet because his actions are aggressive and malicious, he remains in the evil and aggressive category regardless. The fact he is easily frightened does NOT warrant his removal.

Caylx and Traveler (Both are dark only. From previously in the tutorial): My character, Traveler who after circumstances I won’t go through the effort of explaining right now, had her soul stolen and soon after she realized that her chances of salvation (in her mind at least) went out the window. This gave her some rather unhealthy thoughts and behaviors such as traveling to a forest filled with hallucinogenic ashes so that it might make her hallucinate and see her deceased loved ones, such as her previous mate. That’s….rather dark, no? And it lacks the long black hair and sobbing drama that is so often clichéd with a dark character. Similarly, Calyx sought out the little missing daughter of her former master. Only when she grows very old does she find that the girl died early on in her search and that her ghost was trying to lead Calyx away from the very thing that had killed her in the first place. So in other words, she’s tracking what she thinks is a live person who in the end turns out to have been dead/fooling her all along. That’s a little dark too.

At the end of the day the best thing to do is to figure it out for yourself. It’s alright to look at villain characters other people have made but try to figure which ones are suitable for roleplaying and which ones should remain “just in the movies” before you imitate them. More importantly, don’t follow the cliches. Put your own spin on it!

SECTION 2: Reputations don’t come lightly.

When you first create a character with an evil alignment do NOT expect ANYONE to take you or them seriously. What do I mean by this? If you JUST made a new character, don’t heavily hint at your character’s “big bad history” through dialogue. Why? No one cares. While it may not make sense on the surface, your attempts to heavily hint your character’s “bloody history” are actually counterproductive.

This is where things become very complicated. Even though your character is entirely fictional and the difference between you just making up the character’s history or actually waiting and adding history to their bio as it is role-played out is so incredibly small, there IS a value to having some of it roleplayed out. Allow me to explain.

As I have mentioned before (either here or in previous conversations), any character’s reputation be it good or bad is not up to you at all. It is up to the people around you and this includes how intimidating a character comes across to someone else. That said, the more you try to push an impression of fear on someone, the less likely it is to have an effect.  Effective evil-type characters don’t publically boast to total strangers that they killed, cannibalized, tortured, whatever somebody. They don’t. Realistically this is…well not realistic at all. Why would anyone boast something that could potentially earn them unwanted attention? An evil character does not openly brag to random people because that would foil their plans and they do NOT want other characters to foil their plans. Still following?
 
What I’m saying is, USUALLY the only time this sort of “bragging” is used by an evil character is to piss someone  else off and it has to be of some reasonable significance. Yes, my character May is benevolent. But if you tell her out of the blue, as a new character and total stranger that you murdered someone a few hours ago that she knows NOTHING about, I’m sorry but she’s not going to suddenly jump into the fray and fight you. In fact, from my own personal view I find it almost laughable. Now, an example of this being used EFFECTIVELY [as that last example was of it being used poorly], would be a villain who tells or otherwise provides some frightening evidence (like a severed tail or head or something) the other character that they’ve killed someone close to them.

And even with that said, villain characters do NOT just kill people for the sake of killing people. They don’t kill people for the sake of JUST scaring other characters either. There HAS to be an underlying motive. I cannot stress this enough.

Your evil character does NOT have to physically assault, argue with, or otherwise “misbehave” in the first roleplay with someone. Second, realize one incident won’t earn a reputation with every other character in the game. If your character attacks Johnny and then turns around and runs into Janey the next day but Janey doesn’t know nor care about stranger Johnny, guess what? You’re back at square one. Your villain character will return to square one a LOT. Get used to it.

Now with all of THAT said, how does a villain character build a reputation? This is much harder. Now first, I will say that…. You have to be good at playing a villain character. If you’re not good at it, people will NOT want to RP with you playing that villain character after the first time and that basically seals the end of it right there. You want your character  to build [albeit poor] relationships with other characters. [And perhaps a few good ones if they share the same motives and can actually work with another villain. If you can pull this off, it is often very interesting.] You WANT them to run into the same characters again and again but not SO frequently that it becomes a common thing. Maybe once every few weeks if your friends and you RP actively. Maybe do it once every few months if you don’t actively RP.  Just don’t bring your villain character out to the same set of your friend’s characters every other day. Bad idea.

Ok. Example time so, I will use what is easily my most developed villain character. Now while I admit his initial history to start with the world of RP is already littered with some bloodiness, it is OK as long as it is not flaunted. He was part of a massive take over and slaughter of a lot of people. Does he flaunt it? No. He’s proud of it sure, for reasons relevant to his motive. But even so, when he started out, he had ZERO in terms of a reputation. Now he has one. So what happened?

The RP in which I first put him, I allowed him to come into contact with  a frequent same-set of characters. No, not everyone was present at the same time and people would switch around all the time BUT the point being, he came into contact with SOME of them on multiple occasions. Word spreads between characters and their players, and if you’ve RP’d fairly and actually managed to make your character come across as intimidating, boom, reputation.

So this entire section in a nutshell is, DON’T let your villain characters boast what’s in a written history, and preferably, don’t even boast what happened in a roleplayed out history unless its highly significant [and more often than not, it won’t be and you won’t be able to use it.] If you want a villain character with a reputation in a roleplay, you’re going to have to work a little. I know that sounds weird considering RP is just fun and all but lets face it, going “RAWR. I R EVIL. ANGRY. INTIMIDATING. FEAR ME. I KILLED PEOPLE” even in the best written form…………is just going to get you laughed at. Lastly, some characters will not take your villain character seriously based on their own reputation or personality, deal with it and get used to it.

FaintSilhouette:
Cub Characters Tutorial
The good, the bad, and the face-palm worthy.

Cubs. Puppies. Babies. A good number of people love baby animals and children but not on virtual games like these. Why? Because usually, most of the people playing them, in my opinion, are doing it wrong. Now before I get to this tutorial, let me go off on a mini-rant. Good-behaved cubs (which is the term I will be using from here onward. Just realize I am referring to cubs, pups, and other child-age characters) are NOT boring or unbelievable contrary to popular belief. Not to mention "good" is a very broad definition in itself. Bad cubs aren't bad to play, they're quite entertaining but this is a character type that is done more often and done incorrectly. So lets start off with the pro's and cons of bad cubs plus the errors people frequently make with this character type and then I will move onto the good cubs and cover the same material.

Badly Behaved Cubs.
These are the little rebels, the bullies, the sassy ones, and the smart alecks. They don't listen to their parents very closely unless their life depends on it and tend to throw tantrums. What they do NOT do is throw themselves into rivers, down waterfalls, walk the edges of volcanos, deliberately walk on thin ice, or jump in front of an oncoming train. You know who DOES do those things? Attention seekers with cub characters at their disposal. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY likes an attention seeker. I cannot COUNT the number of times I have watched someone "drown" a cub character in a body of water and had them wail for help for twenty minutes straight only to either be ignored and disconnect (a valuable lesson I think these attention seekers need. Seriously, don't feed them attention, it only makes them want more) OR they end up having someone pay attention to them and they REPEAT the behavior five minutes later to be rescued again. Do you see what is wrong here?

 Children much like adults enjoy long, pain-free lives so it doesn't exactly behoove them to do these stupid things and you can feel safe in assuming that if your character's parents (should they have any) have already told them this.

PROS

1. You have a motivation/reason for your cub character to be breaching their limits. That is to say, they want to overstep their bounds be it their parents rules or the territory. And to be quite frank, this is both entertaining and good plot fodder. But make sure you're only doing it for that reason. Don't do it to make the parent-players miserable. That isn't what you're here for.

2. Because of the extra exposure thanks to number 1, its realistic to believe that these cubs may catch onto things faster than their better behaved siblings. They may uproot secrets faster by being where they should not or doing what they should not.

3. If you should tire of their boisterousness, a simple 'scarey' event during one of their excursions should keep them at home/behaved for a while, as well as an injury. Quite frankly I find it easier to "turn a bad cub into a good one" than the other way around but that's just me.

4. Though a quiet "behaved" cub can become the same, these guys are the ones who are usually easier to morph into malevolent characters if that happens to be what you're shooting for. I'm not saying a misbehaved cub becomes a villainous adult but in terms of building of a backstory, I've personally found this to be the easier type to start with.

CONS
1. Despite the freedom mentioned in number 1, this constantly breached freedom may lead to your character being restrained to a small area via their parents actions or strict supervision. Having a character stuck in one map isn't fun.

2. You need to time your character's outbursts properly. If your character is CONSTANTLY a pain where the son doesn't shine, people will not want to RP with you. Don't let your cub character act like a total demon, even if they are one. They are just kids afterall.

3. Venturing outside of a set safe territory can be particularly dangerous for a cub character to do. Afterall, being without parents when a massive monster comes barreling through the forest looking for easy prey isn't really conducive to you keeping your mostly defenseless cub character alive. (No, sorry, at 6 months old, you are not a badass. Move along.)

4. These cubs are usually harder to maintain a stable personality for, especially if they go the malevolent route but in either case, you need to be able to have them adapt as they 'grow up' And yes, you will eventually need them to GROW UP. No one wants to take care of your pain-in-the-butt cub forever.

Good Behaved Cubs

1. They tend to be given "real" freedom first. They do as their parents tell them so they tend to be the ones who receive privileges and rewards first while their misbehaved counterparts are held back.

2. Their relationship with their parent-characters, in my experience, tends to last longer.  This is fairly self explanatory.

3. Since good-behaved cubs are less common than badly behaved ones in the Last Moon universe, they can be used to create all kinds of friction between siblings. They can be mocked for their good behavior and retaliate accordingly, thus creating friction, which is interesting.

4. Well behaved cubs may be trustworthy enough to look after younger siblings in the parents absence. Again, this presents more opportunities for you to come up with different scenarios/ideas.

CONS
1.  They're hard to keep from becoming mary sues. Even good characters need personality flaws. Just because a child is "friendly" and "kind" doesn't mean they can't be selfish. And honestly, many children are selfish especially if they haven't been taught by their parents about what it means to be giving and how to share.

2. They tend to be the ones who end up "stuck" after the litter becomes grown. Unless you can find some "cause" for them to be, after they dont have their siblings to bicker with or chase around, it often becomes hard to give them a reason to be anywhere other than with their parents or aimlessly wandering around. Again, not that fun.

3. They tend to be targets of villain characters. If your character's parents have ANY enemies, its pretty easy to believe that the "bad" cubs will be kidnapped and/or used, and the good/well behaved cub characters will end up being killed for simply not being 'evil enough.'

4. This kind of goes with the pro of #4 simply because it can also be a con. If all of the younger siblings are misbehaved, this means you end up playing big bro/sis/substitute parent and that can be a hassle.

Cubs, Size Meets Strength Meets Powers
Lets cover size really quickly. Your cub character, on average is usually not even HALF the size of a NORMAL adult character. An adult character cannot even kill an elk by itself so what on earth makes you believe a cub can kill something over twice, perhaps even thrice or quadruple in size by comparison? Size alone won't accomplish this and even the "strongest cub" won't be able to overpower an adult. Sorry, not happening.

So you jump to powers. But why? Your child character doesn't need to impress anyone and honestly, no one will BE impressed with your godmoddish cub. If your cub character has powers, let them be developed SLOWLY. And if you're the kind to let said powers be "out of control" don't let said out of control powers be monsterously obnoxious because if your cub character is a danger to everything that moves, its not going to go over well with your fellow roleplayers. Be smart, please.

Orphaned, Abandoned, or Otherwise Parent less Cubs
If the cub's parents left it "just because" or the parents were killed/taken by hunters or a fire, just back away from the cub. These back-stories are HORRIDLY cliche and predictable and they are NOT your only option for having a cub that has otherwise found itself alone. I'm not saying a "tragedy" of sorts couldn't have befallen them but at least double check with a number of those around you to see if it has been thought up before. "Orphaned" characters are among the MOST difficult to create unique backstories for. I get it. But if you're going with the flood/fire/hunter concept, don't be surprised if other people roll their eyes and ignore you. You can do SO much better than that. And sometimes, knowing what happened to the parents isn't that important so if you want to remove that bit of information do it. Pull the amnesia card, do SOMETHING. Other players and characters won't care about two lovers who are strangers who produced your cub if they are no longer alive to interact with them. End of story.

Example:

I can give a little example of one my characters who was not orphaned but not raised by her parents. Vintage was born to Joule and Voltage. Voltage was a villain character and Joule was set in charge to pursue and arrest him. Voltage seduced Joule and Joule let him go. The incident WOULD have been left in secret if not for Vintage's birth to follow, the spitting image of her father. With Volt on the loose and having no knowledge of his child and Joule being put under arrest for treason, that left Vintage without a caretaker. She was taken to her aunt who has poor relations with Volt on top of poor parental skills who tied her up in a sack and dumped her in a basket in a vendor's cart in the market place where another character later found and released her. Did Vintage feel rejected? Yes. Did she go a little bonkers moving from one caretaker to the next after that? Yes. Did she whine/cry/carry on about it every hour of the day? No. Is she a cliche my parents died in a fire/hunters/left me bullcrap? No.

Its possible to come up with something different and unpredictable. It really is.

Possible updates to come but I am finished with this section for now.

FaintSilhouette:
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