Experiences Your least liked and favourite part of a Character Sheet to do?

[LeapOfFool]

My favorite part is the personality. I love it so much that a roleplay not including a personality section in the CS is almost a deal breaker for me.

It is admittedly a pain to write and it can take some of the mystique out of a character but it's such a help when trying to coordinate the roleplay that I can look past the downsides of it.

My least favorite is likes and dislikes. I honestly don't get the point. Is it really that crucial for us to known that your character likes chocolate ice cream and dislikes being beaten to death that we have to be explicitly told about it?

Yeah, it only takes about five seconds to write but it's just so pointless that I feel that even that is too much spent on it.

In regards to Fandom RPs, I think a Personality space in a CS is pointless because folks should already be familiar with what the canon characters are like.

Personally I think a roleplay where you play canon character needs a personality section on the CS even more than one where you play original characters. After all, two people can have a very different perception of a character (especially if they have little screen time).

For example, back when I used to read MHA fan fiction it was more or less a toss-up wether or not Aizawa would be portrayed as a jerk with a heart of gold or a straight-up sociopath.

 

[WhiskeyMarten]

I like to write all the basic info because my brain sees writing down a name or an age as having the same weight as a multi-paragraph section, so it makes me feel more productive! On a more serious note, I love writing down powers/abilities.
I am not a fan of personality sections. I'll write them no problem, and I'd probably include them if I run an rp, but I usually procrastinate that part hard.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

I'm kinda surprised no one else has mentioned this, I really dislike having to put down a height and weight for characters, its just kind of fiddly and awkward and it makes me have weird, second guessy thoughts like "if I make my character the shortest in the rp am I trying too hard to make them cute" or stuff like that.

 

[WhiskeyMarten]

I'm kinda surprised no one else has mentioned this, I really dislike having to put down a height and weight for characters, its just kind of fiddly and awkward and it makes me have weird, second guessy thoughts like "if I make my character the shortest in the rp am I trying too hard to make them cute" or stuff like that.

Height is fine for me, but I agree with you on weight. One, I really don't know how to estimate weight and how to account for stuff like muscle mass. Two, does it make a difference? I'm fine mentioning how a character is built, and usually, the image I use will be clear anyway, but why do you need to know their weight down to the kilogram?

 

[StrixDesmodus]

I'm kinda surprised no one else has mentioned this, I really dislike having to put down a height and weight for characters, its just kind of fiddly and awkward and it makes me have weird, second guessy thoughts like "if I make my character the shortest in the rp am I trying too hard to make them cute" or stuff like that.

Height is fine for me, but I agree with you on weight. One, I really don't know how to estimate weight and how to account for stuff like muscle mass. Two, does it make a difference? I'm fine mentioning how a character is built, and usually, the image I use will be clear anyway, but why do you need to know their weight down to the kilogram?

Omg, I had to calculate a character's Body Mass Index once. Hated it!

 

[ExodusLite]

My favourite is selecting powers, if there any. If not, personality. Hated is names. Bring on the same name, Felix Winchester or Polaris. All different universes

 

[Arcanist]

Love names, hate appearance and personality. I always feel my characters are the same hehe

 

[Aquanette]

Personality I've told my partners I can't be trusted when it comes to personality because what I wrote and how they act may come out differently. It usually just comes to me as I RP.

 

[Orm]

My favorite part of character creation has to be their goals and motivation. What pushes them? What are they trying to achieve? These are things that I tend not to put on a public CS because just writing something like 'vengeance' in a blank spot makes it look so one-dimensional. I always say that things like genre are just flavoring. Replacing the white whale with a dragon doesn't make Moby Dick any less about vengeance and obsession. Those are the driving force of a good story and I believe the same to be true of characters.

I suppose the hardest part for me comes after everything is done and then having to try to live up to this 'grand' character I've built inside of my head. I'm not a car guy, but I imagine it's comparable to spending years saving up for your perfect car and then being too anxious to drive it for fear of messing it up.

 

[ManicMuse]

This is going to sound really depressing but the whole darn thing. I used to love putting so much detail into character builds. Nowadays I just want to slap something together and throw it at the RP. 99% of the time any character I invest in the RP dies off before we get to page two. Maybe I am getting too old and grumpy for RPs. lol

 

[TaperedNightjar]

Like: Bio.
Dislike: Likes and dislikes.

 

[Whisker]

All of it.

It's good for putting down notes and organizing, but it kills the mystique of many of the characters. I prefer to introduce them the old fashioned way.

 

[Redfork2000]

Fun topic!

FAVORITE PART: PERSONALITY

To me this is where the heart of the character is. It might be just my particular preference, but there's something so entertaining to me about developing my character's personality, who they are, what they are like, how they react in certain scenarios, and trying to paint a picture of that through the description. To me this is like the engine that makes the car move. It'd be fair for me to say that to me, what makes my character feel like my character is pretty much 90% this single aspect.

It's also what I enjoy reading the most in my roleplay partners' character sheets as well. I love to see what they're like as a person, and this always makes me feel so excited to see how the characters will get along when they interact in the roleplay, what their dynamic will be like, and so much more. To me every other part of the sheets, be it name, appearance, etc, while significant, serves as a means to deliver the personality I've created. To me the personality is the meat and potatoes of character creation, and often times it's the one part of my character sheets that I make the longest, as it really inspires me.


LEAST FAVORITE PART: APPEARANCE

This may be a hot take, but character appearance is one of the things I care the least about in a roleplay, and it's also the one part I have the hardest time with as well. To me the appearance of a character doesn't really affect the roleplay in a meaningful way unless it has some kind of plot relevance, such as if the character has a scar due to something that happened in their past, or things like that. Character appearances are usually more of an afterthought to me, and usually I just end up making a vague mental image of them that's good enough for imagining what's taking place in the roleplay.

Add to this that one of my big weaknesses in writing is describing visual things, and it's a recipe for disaster. See, I greatly dislike using faceclaims. No matter how much I search, I feel like no image I find really captures the essence of what I'm trying to go with for my character (or maybe I'm just too picky, who knows), so I prefer to describe my character's appearance instead of using faceclaims. But when I do that, I end up having a hard time expressing what they look like. I have great respect for those that can write lengthy descriptions of their characters' appearance, including every detail about what they look like, because I have a really hard time doing that. My descriptions are usually pretty basic, just describing the bare minimum: height, body shape, hair color, eye color, skin tone, and anything obvious that you'd see at first glance like if the character wears glasses or has a noticeable scar.

As a writer I feel like I incline strongly towards dialogue as a means of story-telling (I just love watching characters interact), with narration being second, and then description often times gets relegated to a bare minimum. Definitely a flaw I need to work on, but to me it just feels a lot more tedious compared to everything else. I've worked on it over time since I know that important, even if I don't particularly care much for it, and I think I've improved my ability to write appearance descriptions, but it is still my least favorite part of making a character sheet overall. I guess you could say that for me character appearances is like the bitter veggies that I don't like, but I need to eat along with the rest of my meal for a balanced diet.

 

[Perpetual Zen]

All of it. I really don't like doing character sheets at all.
I've been in role plays where there is a five page application process. After all that information was hashed out I could 99.9 percent guarantee none of those characters were portrayed accurately to their application. Because characters spring a life of their own when your imagination is activated.
I just hate all of it lol

 

[StuartAnderson]

least favourite is appearance I find it a bit boring and it's not as important to me or the roleplay generally.

I love doing personality; seeing what makes them tick.

 

[Megatron2024]

background stories over 700 words. most people overlook background anyways......

 

[Megatron2024]

All of it. I really don't like doing character sheets at all.
I've been in role plays where there is a five page application process. After all that information was hashed out I could 99.9 percent guarantee none of those characters were portrayed accurately to their application. Because characters spring a life of their own when your imagination is activated.
I just hate all of it lol

so you did walkin multiverse roleplaying? cool! good for you!

 

[Sagey]

Everything tbh. I despise them and typically only do them if the RP or my partner requires them. It's always a chore. I'm the type of writer that has to write the character in the story to get a feel for them. I may then make notes of their traits in order to keep everything consistent as I'm writing.

This. Completely this. For characters that I have already preestablished in some way and had a story for them enough to get a personality from at all, I can manage an application. But in order for me to properly answer anything on a character sheet, it's hard.

I get to know my characters through writing and I let them talk to me. Sometimes they're loud and I get information on them quickly, other times I haven't found the right role or scene for them to really blossom in.

My other, as another mentioned here, is face claims. Probably because I've been playing FFXIV for so long that I haven't needed a face claim, but nothing ever really fits what you see.

 

[elric.]

favorite: appearance.
least favorite: everything else, how dare you make me, a writer, write.

 

[BuggaBoo]

Favourite: personality
I think this is the most important category on a CS but despite that I just write like 10 positive traits and 10 negative traits to fill it in. I'm so over explaining why they do it. Imo it's not so important that just using descriptive words will ruin your rp. I will use what i wrote on persona the most when writing IC'ly. Like that's where I will expand on the descriptors and flesh out the charrie.

Yucky: bio
I mean 90% of rps I been in bio doesn't even come up. And even then you just regurgitating what you already wrote on your CS. I get it fleshes out a charrie but I'm over writing detailed bios now. And like I will do only bulletpoint from now on too.

I don't believe a charrie sheet should be a sample of your writing. Links to actual IC'ly writings should be. It shows how you interact with it all. And Tbh I think Trivia, fears and goals are better markers and more usable IC'ly then a full on bio

Side note: I'm tired of making CS's cuz RPs die so fast. A huge CS is a huge turnoff unless I know the gm is a gem.

 

[Idea]

No idea of this is a hot take, but given the amount of times it has come up (well, maybe I’m getting recency bias here, but still), backstory not getting used is not a a character sheet issue. It can be a GM issue (not involving player’s backstories into the narrative), a player issue (player not using their own backstory despite being given the opportunity), a character design issue (opportunity doesn’t come up because the backstory isn’t built in such a way as to enable it) or something else along those lines, but in my views those are all issues of execution and not of the category in the character sheet.

 

[Foxes]

The biography portion can be a little difficult sometimes when the writer's block hits hard, especially if it's a CS for a group RP where you're required to write a very long one.

My favorite part of doing a CS though, is choosing a face claim for my character.

 

[VoidSpace]

I’m not fond of CS but the most part that I find tedious would have to be the personality and background of my character. I also often refuse to make them.

 

[waterskine]

well, my least favourite part is the likes and dislikes section, and it's not even close.

the personality and history sections are tough, don't get me wrong. they're the first thing i draft, but the last thing i write final versions for, because they take me ages. however, as it was said, they're the essence of your character anyway: if i don't have at least a drafted idea of those, i don't really have a character to begin with (at least, with the way i personally approach character creation). that IS the main chunk of your cs in the first place.

but damn! it is almost stupid, the way i struggle with figuring out whether my character likes yellow m&ms, or dislikes rom-coms, or whatnot. it's like every single interest or hobby a person can have completely leaves my mind when i'm forced to consider it. sometimes, i really don't think it's necessary on a character sheet either; it can feel like meaningless filler. though, maybe i'm just going about writing likes and dislikes the wrong way.

my favourite: i have to agree with Steve Jobs and say that my favourite part of creating characters has nothing to do with the sheet and everything to do with brainstorming and actually playing with the concept. perhaps my favourite part of sheet-writing is making it look pretty?

 

[davy]

My RP group does freeform character sheets, and I like to write a character's resume or in-universe equivalent. Putting things into businessy language can add some humor - mucking stalls = "Maintained sanitation of therapy animals’ living spaces ". It helps me make sure I know how the character got their skills, about how old they are, and what life experience they would have had.

The most recent one I did actually starts with an email to his mom that implies she's been badgering him to change jobs, and he explains why he can't but sends an updated resume anyway.

I also like to have lists related to a character quirk. Nikki had the CDs in her truck, Sammy has the goofy patterns on his scrubs.

The people I RP with fill out some really basic stuff like height, weight and eye color, and I don't like having to figure out what my character weighs and stuff.