A Filly's Guide to Making Original Characters

[Espionage 113]

Hello people! Considering I'm just getting settled into the RP community, I'd like to first say a few things. I do RP quite a bit outside of these forums and even tried to roleplay a pony for a little while...but I had to do schoolwork so didn't really work as well as I hoped.

 

Either way, as there is already a guide to doing RP posts, I'd also like to write a guide to making OC Characters.

 

In most RP cases, you're going to be using an OC or Original Character. If not, if you're using actual characters, I'll leave that to your own accord. To those who don't know what that is, an Original Character is a character made by you or another person that doesn't show up anywhere in the setting of the story or RP. So somebody like Nyx from Past Sins is an OC but Lyra isn't.

 

Before I start the meat of this guide, remember that both in stories and RPs, this guide holds true but this is for Roleplaying purposes. Stories are much more open ended as in most cases, you control the story and its progression.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four Rules to Follow

 

Like everything, making a character has some rules. Not all of these rules are constant and can even be broken if you're skilled enough to do it.

 

1. Stray Away from Overpowered. Don't make your character overpowered. Only case you can do this is if your character is a tragic character and there is a huge flaw in the character's personality.

2. Personality over Skill. A pony with little skill in the RP but a great personality will make the character shine.

3. Use Logic. A pony who's been constantly abused throughout his/her life wouldn't be the greatest example of happiness. Make your personality contingent with your backstory.

4. NO ALICORNS. This means nopony will have wings AND a horn**. There's only been ONE case where I think it worked in and that was Past Sins.

 

**I appreciate the critique and I will say that in the case for ponies who have metallic wings or wings that weren't there when he/she was born, it's okay. But still, ponies that has full control of both their wings and horns are Alicorns and really shouldn't be used except under very few circumstances.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Character Sheet Template and How to Fill them Out

 

So you're going to need to communicate your character to others. How do you go about doing that? With a character sheet of course! A traditional character sheet should look like this for a PONY RP. They can change and vary depending on the preference of the RP host and the RP itself.

 

Name: Just a simple rule for this one. No names that don't sound like names that would fit in the RP world. If it's a pony world, don't say "John Smith", say "Mystic Veil" or something that sounds like a pony name. Oh and a cool name doesn't make a character any more than a piece of gold makes somebody more athletic.

 

Age: Alright...big thing here. Write your age based on your character. A grizzled veteran should have the age around 40s or so while a graduate of Canterlot would be about 20s, if not earlier. If you're not sure and want to be young, just say "Mane 6 Age".

 

Species: Unicorn, Pegasus, or Earth Pony. I'll go into detail about each species later on.

 

Appearance: Be detailed and also concise. Or if you're lazy like me and don't like describing things, use this pony creator: http://generalzoi.de...rsion-254295904

 

Cutie Mark: Make it represent your character's talent.

 

Personality: Alright, personality. As much as it may sound fun to make a brooding character like Cloud form Final Fantasy...it's not. A roleplay is heavily dependent on SOCIAL INTERACTION BETWEEN CHARACTERS! I cannot stress that enough. And besides, how fun is it if the only few lines of dialogue are "Nope" and "I'll get it done".

 

Oh and for the love of Celestia, PLEASE MAKE YOUR PERSONALITY...REAL!! Nopony is going to be little Miss Perfect all the time! Neither is said pony going to be terribly boring. Fluttershy is a good example of a quiet character that WORKS. Quiet characters don't always mean bad. Look at Fluttershy.

 

Backstory: Don't overuse...heck, only use the tragic backstory of "parents missing, tough orphan" once in a blue moon. Ponies with nice happy backstories are still interesting. That doesn't mean their backstory has to be perfect. In fact, that would be bad too. Take Twilight Sparkle. Her backstory isn't that tragic. She lived in a comfy castle learning from the Princess. However, her backstory isn't perfect either. She didn't have any friends.

 

Twilight Sparkle is an example of somepony who's backstory is balanced and realistic. Of course, a brooding backstory isn't always bad if used scarcely. In fact, if you're later to enter an RP, analyze the characters and if there's only one or no other people who used that backstory, have at it. If you want to that is.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pegasus, Earth Ponies, Unicorns

 

Alright, this is going to be the final selection and an important part. Note that the Earth Pony section will be the shortest and the Unicorn section the longest. So let's get started. Firstly, all the species have different backgrounds and different powers. You need to learn how to incorporate those and some boundaries for each species.

 

Earth Pony: Earth Ponies are basically regular ponies with a stronger body. Earth Ponies are suited for farm work and more physical work. However, that doesn't stop Earth Ponies from being extremely good at other stuff like writing or other work. Being an Earth Pony means you may have the least powers but it's the easiest to roleplay and the most steady ground. Not to mention that Earth Ponies are much stronger than the other two. Imagine the Earth Pony to be the "Warrior" of a party.

 

Most fit talents are: Any type of physical work or more mechanically involved work. Engineering and farming basically.

 

Pegasus Pony: Pegasus Ponies are ponies with wings and can walk on clouds. Pegasus ponies have a dependency for flying, speed, the sky, and weather. Again however, Pegasus ponies can do groundwork like Fluttershy. Just remember that not every Pegasus pony can do a Sonic Rainboom. In fact, only Rainbow Dash is know to be able to do a Sonic Rainboom.

 

Also don't say that you're the fastest ever. The fastest ever would probably be Rainbow Dash as far as we know from canon. Pegasus ponies can also be incredibly unique and open up many opportunities. For example, my Pegasus pony is an astronomer and wants to go to space but doesn't have the speed to do so. Or in a fan fic I follow called "Winter's Howl", the main Original Character's special thing is the ability to generate snowstorms at a whim.

 

Imagine the Pegasus pony to be the "Rogue" of the group. Combining mental and physical traits while sticking closer towards the physical aspect of it.

 

Most fit talents are: Weather Control, Racing, Anything that requires physical and mental strength.

 

Unicorns: Now then...Unicorns...ah the big one. Unicorns can use magic and that really is a turn-on for some people and they automatically go for Unicorn so they can become a demi-god in the RP or story. Well that's what we want to avoid.

 

Unicorns are more adept to bookwork, scholarly work, and research. This does not mean however that they are limited to that. Twilight Sparkle is definitely a magic oriented user however Rarity isn't and uses her magic to search for gems. Magical powers are few and far between. While everybody wants to become a Twilight Sparkle when creating a Unicorn, that's incredibly overpowered.

 

I don't mean not to incorporate magic into your character design. In fact, you really should incorporate magic. However, look at Rarity. Rarity's only main skills are searching for diamonds and precision in dress making. She still is a well developed character that many people call their favorite pony!

 

This means using magic to establish a talent is fine but make that magic very focused into one or two skills. Example: My OC, Midnight Thought, is a mind infiltrator who uses magic to mess with the mind. Basically meaning that he can screw with your mind but obviously can't search for gems like Rarity or even do basic magic in other fields. That's what you want. To be a specialist OR a jack of all trades, master of none.

 

By Jack of All Trades, I mean you know the basics of every field but you can't learn any further than that. So you can do basic illusions like card tricks but you can't read minds or anything. Or you can create sparks but can't do full-on fireballs.

 

Unicorns are basically the Mage of the group, using mostly mental skills.

 

Most fit talents are: Scholar, Researcher, Politician, Fancy Pony

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So that concludes my OC guide. I hope that helped you make your OC characters!

Edited December 17, 2011 by Espionage

[Finesthour 7,289]

 

In all RP cases, you're going to be using an OC or Original Character.

 

I am ok with everything but this.

 

Have you not seen role plays where they use the actual character's?

[Evilshy 5,093]

Nice. I think we should take Finest's RP guide and combine it with this to make a version 2 RP guide or something.

 

Hmm... Seems i got ninj'd by finest. Dammit finest, is there anywhere you AREN'T?

 

 

Also, RD is the fastest known Pegasus. She's the only one to achieve a sonic rainboom, making her faster than everypony else

Edited December 17, 2011 by Evilshy

[Linguz 140]

4. NO ALICORNS. This means nopony will have wings AND a horn. There's only been ONE case where I think it worked in and that was Past Sins.

 

I am sorry, but having a horn and wings does not equate to being an Alicorn. My OC, seen in my signature, is a unicorn that has metal wings which he made; he is an engineer. Unlike what one would expect, he can not control them other than by using his magic, which he can only use to control 3 items at a time or his quality drops like a truck. This means that while flying, he can lift one item. In addition to that, he also has problems lifting heavy items.

 

As long as you give valid reasons as to why the pony has both then it's fine, if they also have a weak point.

 

Gizmo, for example, can't control many items, control large items, knows nothing about other aspects of magic other than control (like materializing a door or teleportation), is athletically weak, and has to check his wings to make sure they're still in good enough condition to gain enough lift to fly.

[Ezynell 2,037]

Have you not seen role plays where they use the actual character's?

 

I would be using my actual character and my OC... there both the same :3

[TomokoKuroki 1,707]

I agree with everything in this. It is logical, and makes sence.

 

Besides, who would want to be a "Demi-god" In a role play? Having that chance of "I could die" or some sort of a threat adds to the fun, as you grow in the story.

 

However, as Pinkie says, I have seen some MLP Mane 6 RPs go on.

[Espionage 113]

Thanks everypony for the feedback! I really appreciate it and I did edit some things via your feedback. Thanks

[Evilshy 5,093]

some RPs need a godlike character for whatever reason, but ive noticed that in many cases, they are controlled by the one running the RP so they dont screw things up.

[Arylett Charnoa 4,919]

We've introduced a new roleplay system to MLP Forums. To maintain a consistent format, we have locked and archived all of the original roleplay threads in Cloudsdale Colosseum. If you would like to continue your roleplay, please re-create it according to the new system.