Character Creation: How do you do it?

[Rippedshadow]

I'm curious, how does everyone else build characters? Do you use friends as bases? Just think of personalities based on what they should be in the story?

And what do you start with? Do you make a name? Write up a stat-sheet? Think of how they'll act in the story?

Just curious.

I personally am basing most of my "mane cast" on people I know, loosely, very loosely. I will awkwardly admit the main character is technically using myself as a base personality, and is different mostly due to sprinkling generous amounts of "bloodthirsty and crazy" into him.

[Kashin]

(long, reliable method)
I personally start with a ruff concept, based off what they need to do in the story and expand from there. I'll give a run down of my method with a theoretical character for a one shot that's been mulling around in my head (It is going to be REEEEEALLY depressing).
1. Story requirement: The basic needs of your story, if you are building the story around the character then skip this step. (A generally unremarkable, but likeable wastelander with a family in the general vicinity of Hoofington.)
2. Basic concept: A slightly more complicated character statement, should still be only one sentence long. (A mare travailing from the hoof with her two foals, mother and sister.)
3. Basic character: Fill this out with a rudimentary character. If they still sound interesting on a fresh read through move on to the next step, otherwise refine it until they do. It is okay if they seem a bit mono dimensional at this point, they flesh out in the next step. (Lemontart)
4. Complex character: Fill this out. Most of the information will be unused, but it forces the writer to give the character a degree of depth. This takes quite a while, but is quite worth it. (Lemontart's will take a while and I will update this when I'm done)
5. Them Song (Optional): Not something to do immediately, but if you can find a truly appropriate piece playing it is very helpful for getting in the character's head for dialog or emotional deres. (Lemontart's will take a while and I will update this when I'm done)

(Short, but difficult method)
Roll up a bunch of random traits and attempt to forge a personality and back story that makes them all make seance.

[otherunicorn]

In a way, I let my characters define themselves as the story progresses. I will start with a basic idea, but will let them grow.

[Quick Study]

One way you can do it is solidify the personality of your main character. Then develop your other characters with how they will react to the main. For example with my story I've modeled the interaction of Hotwire, my main, and Penicillin off of how James Wilson and Gregory House, from House M.D., interact with each other.

Another way is develop the character's backstory first, once you have some of the decisions they have made in life fleshing out the character becomes much easier.

[The Jack]

Usually, they simply form by their own accord in my head. I run different scenarios that I find cool/interesting, that I want in my story, and the characters usually manage to mold themselves to fit after a while. IMO, this is a bad way to make a character though; usually I end up with characters that have self-conflicting traits and similar.
For example, my main characters are almost always the egghead-ish type, doesn't want to fight and stuff, but are an absolute beast in combat.
In my (so far unwritten) Fo:E sidestory, I can chalk that one up to having grown up in the wasteland though, so I don't have to modify it like usually.

But I'll be using Kashins method (the long one) from now on. It's perfect for me, because I love having all kinds of unneccesary info lying around about the characters. Not to mention that I'm sadly lacking in the "depth" department when it comes to characters, so that'll help me immensely for making better characters.
I haven't actually gotten around to doing it yet, but I was planning on trying this weekend.

[frosthound]

me i think of what my friends skills would be in fallout
like myself i am a big guy some small guns big guns exposes and med
my best friend he is a smaller computer guy so small guns and sics speech and melee

[son0fgrim]

What if we're doing cross overs? Like half Zebra half Pegasus/Unicorn? How would our starting skill build look?

[The Jack]

What if we're doing cross overs? Like half Zebra half Pegasus/Unicorn? How would our starting skill build look?

*shrug* Exactly like anything else, I'm thinking.

[icekatze]

hi hi

I tend to ask myself a few informal questions that roughly go as follows:

• What are 3-4 ideas, philosophies, mannerisms or traits that the character thinks are important. Things they would go out of their way to do and would not want to compromise on.
• Why do they think those things are important? What events in their past made them important.
• Who or what physical things do they care about/treasure?
• What was their past like in general, and where do they want to be in the future.
• How do they handle adversity?

[Adder1]

To be truthful, I've been writing as a hobby for six years and have over forty characters spread across them. The answer for back then is that character creation just "comes to me," and I created said character just bearing what he/she/it has to contribute to the story. Wild stuff happened in my imagination, and I go from a squad agent in an umbrella organization to an acrobatic assassin who can make short leaps through time and space with atrophied lungs and-

Stopping there. You get the idea. Crazy stuff back then.

Nowadays, I think of more. What do I need this character for? What backstory and characteristics play into his/her/its role? Is his/her/its purpose in the story to be expendable? Does that change my plans for backstory and characteristics?

From there, I go nuts. What can this character do? What are his/her/its strengths and weaknesses? Any habits, addictions? How trustworthy is this character going to be? Can the reader relate to the character? That last one, admittedly, is a little hard for me. But I think you get an idea about what goes on in my head.

Lots of crazy stuff.