Fireball Rush's Guide to Designing an OC

[~Chaotic Fireball~ 498]

NOTE WELL: This thread was not created to give Firebolt's thread competition. It was made so that people who are interested in creating an OC can get information that Firebolt missed out.

 

I'm sure most of you guys have seen Firebolt's Guide to making an Effective OC, but although it was a very corerct and informative guide, she missed out detail on a couple of the most important points: Personality and overall Design, especially personality. 

So I decided that I would go into detail on these two topics.

 

 

FIREBALL RUSH'S GUIDE TO DESIGNING AN OC

 

Introduction:

So you want to make an OC? Before you create one, you'll need to know all the abbreviations and vocabulary associated with this business.

 

VOCAB

OC - Original Character:  A character that you made up entirely. It is not a cannon character, neither a    character that somebody else created. It was entirely thought of by you.

 

OOC - Out of Character: In a Roleplay, you will be required to pretend that you are that character that you are playing as. When you want to tell other participants of the roleplay something that your character is not saying, you will put 'OOC:' whatever you are telling them.

 

RP - Roleplay: A special thread where people pretend to play as a certain character, as in a real life play.

 

IRL - In real life: Anything that happens offline.

 

TL;DR - Too long; Didn't read.

 

AFK - Away from Keyboard: Anything that happens away from keyboard. Means the same as IRL.

 

 

Okay, I think that's all. Now we will go onto the exciting making of an OC!

 

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DESIGN

Usually, the nicest thing about a character is its design. Today, I'll be coaching you on how to make a nice design for your pony. The first thing you should decide on is its theme.

 

THEME

The first thing you should decide on is your charcater's theme. The theme of your OC is VERY important; as it could determine your OC's personality, and looks.

 

Theme means what your OC is based on, or where you got the idea from.

E.g. My ponysona, Fireball Rush is based on fire (duh)

 

 It should also be relevant to the race pony you have (Some examples you don't HAVE to follow (and aren't ALWAYS correct depending on the OC) :     

• weather/athleticism/speed (excepting Fluttershy) - pegasus
• flowers/ trees/ anything that has to do with nature - earth pony
• science/heavenly bodies (space/that kind of stuff)/beauty etc. - unicorn

(N.B. Alicorns are strongly discouraged as they are usually not done well, if done at all.)

 

So take a good look around you, your house, your neighbourhood, etc. and find something that you really like! It could be a really pretty flower, a star you just saw shooting across the sky, a slice of chocolate cake you just ate. Anything at all.

 

Good, you're back. Assuming that you have thought of a theme, let's get back to design, and finish up all those details.

 

So now that you've chosen a theme, and most likely a race, we can now get onto the little tricky details such as design.

 

Your OC's design should be based on their theme (but doesn't have to), to give you an example I'm going to have to show you how it's done. So let's use Fireball Rush for an example.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her theme is fire. So.....

I gave her a fiery colored coat. Red will do nicely.

 

N.B: Make sure that the coat color isn't too vibrant or neon or just too bright. It will just look tacky. 

 

I gave her a nice red coat. Not too light, not too dark. It's a lightish red, not too light so it doesn't look pink, so it still looks red.

 

Next, we'll go onto the mane. Again, try to keep it within the theme. We'll make that red as well.

 

Make sure that there's a big difference in shade between the mane and the coat, you don't want your pony to have the same colour through and through. That would also look tacky.

Try to make your mane color visibly darker than your coat color, although sometimes every now and again someone can pull off a very nice-looking pony with a lighter mane. It really only depends on what your pony looks like.

 

Cutie Mark:

 

Again, this should be within the theme. Think about something original, and amazing! Just don't overpower your character!

 

Name:

Think of a nice name within the theme, maybe a pun on something, or just a name that has a nice ring  to it. It doesn't always have to have two parts! (Think Fluttershy and Rarity)

 

P.s: If you didn't choose a theme, you can always just make the pony based on yourself, with the mane and coat your favorite colors, etc. The cutie mark can be a representation of your special talent, or one of them. The above rules still apply to all. 

 

Now to move on to personality. One of the hardest parts when making an OC. But if pulled off correctly, it will benefit you greatly in the long run. 

 

 

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PERSONALITY

This is extremely important when it comes to an OC, especially in a roleplay. It could be the difference between having the most boring OC ever, to the most interesting one. I can't really tell you what you have to put and what you are not to put, but I can kind of tell you the traits and flaws that most people look for in an OC.

 

DO'S:

1. Make sure they have at least one virtue. But too overpowerful or anything. It could be bravery, loyalty, humility, honesty, etc. Just don't make it powerful Magic like Twilight. You can give them as many virtues as you like, just make sure that it is equal to the flaws.

 

2. Make sure that the OC has at least two personality flaws. It can even be just one, once that flaw is very powerfu; and easily visible. (e.g. 'a habit for cheating at games' would be considered a minor flaw, while 'extremely short temper would be cnsidered a major flaw. Of course, you can give them as many flaws as you like.

 

3. Be original! Make up something completely on your own, don't take others' ideas.

 

DON'T'S:

4. Please do not make your OC evil, or overly evil in some cases, as it is usually highly overused. Your OC is not Nightmare Moon, neither Queen Chrysalis. Of course, if it is a changeling or something like that, then most likely it will be at least partially evil. You'll know how evil to make it depending on the race, etc.

 

5. Shyness is also discouraged, unless it actually really fits your character well. This trait is also overused a lot. 

 

6. Don't make your OC overpowerful either. You are not Celestia, or Luna. Or Twilight or Cadence for that matter.

 

Just be happy with the guidelines, and you'll be fine! There's plenty to work with, without having to be an evil neon alicorn that can travel in time! (That counts as a 'DON'T', BTW.)

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BACKSTORY

Lastly, we have backstory. This is also crucial to an OC. Just write a nice story about the character's life before the roleplay, and stuff like that.

 

Don't make it overdramatic, with the OC being an orphan or abandoned by parents, please. This is waaaay too overused, and it rarely happens IRl anyways. However, you can write about your OC being bullied a lot when younger, just once you give a valid reason for it, and you don't overuse this option either.

Just write a nice story about your OC living a happy life growing up with their parents.

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I hope this guide was informative, and if I missed out anything, or gave some wrong info, please let me know! The sooner the better. 

Also, please brohoof and comment!

Edited April 10, 2013 by ~Chaotic Fireball~

[King 5,625]

I would add things like...

 

Don't make Orphan characters, this is generally discouraged due to people creating Orphans to gain attention and sympathy during RP's and such, and limits creativity, due to your OC not having a background with parents.

 

Atleast in my opinion it would be nice to add...

 

 

Other then that, it's very nice indeed

[Revolver Bobcat 45]

I like the guide but i don't think it has to be so mathematical about making an OC, sometimes its fun to make a villian, specialy if you make him/her a silly Dr. Evil caracter, or hell, make it full evil if the RP allows it. There's a lot of thing you can do with an OC, and you CAN make an alicorn, its hard to play, in fact i don't think you could make it fit in any RP really, but its posible.

 

I think most people (Like me) hate alicorns for 3 things:

 

1- They're out of place in the RP

 

2-They're bad developed

 

3-They're overpowered

 

But the more i think about it the more i think it could work out if done right.

 

Like, alicorns will always be important, so you can't make him an "average joe alicorn", but you can put him/her in a possision of power, it doesn't have to be a prince/prinsses, it could be a General for example, the power and responsibility are there. So our alicorn its a general, great, what now? now you mix it with society, when he walks around town everypony bows to it, and every thing it says its words from the heavens, kinda borring, uh? well yes and no. You see, its an alicorn, so everything he/she ask for its an order, he or she will bypass every closed door and will open them for others, if another caracter wants something, lets say a place in a private school for her doughter, its done before you noticed. This if perfect for NPCs in my opinion and can be aplied in a lot of RPs, although you can't really "Play" one of these. Also, they're OP, there's no way around it, but that only means they will be handling bigger threats, if the main caracters are facing a group of 5 changelings, the Alicorns its probably leading an army thowards a changeling army, those are the kind of threats alicorns face, if you give him/her 5 monsters to battle of course it will win, that's why the enemy will put traps for the alicorn, they want to take him/her down first. But again, its hard to do and pretty mucha a botter since you could do an Unicorn just fine.

 

Another good thing about them its that they're good cannon fodder.

 

As for caracter background its really hard to make, lets take the general from before: lets say that he was an earth pony that showed great bravery in the battlefield, he was tasked with missions of great importance but he got to a point where he doesnt know why is it fighting for, and in his final challange, where all hope its lost, he regains its trust in himself and charges on and wins the most dificult battle until now, he sees the bodies of his lost friends and the ones he manage to save, so he understand why he most never give up and blah blah blah, and lets just say magic happens and he becomes the ultimate bastion for honor or something, i don't know, i grew really tired of writing a few lines before.

 

But you get the point, the alicorn MUST be above all ponies, its a requirement for being one, its hard to come up with something like that, but that's the only way.

 

So its not that its bad to make an alicorn, its just really hard to make and also pretty much imposible to play.