Glad you asked, allow me to share with you my experiances as a player.

Tip 1: Add some behavioral quirks to your character. You'll notice, if you look back on characters who are truly memorable, most of them had some sort of quirk. Maybe they smoked a pipe after a fight (or during!), or had an interesting way of speaking. It doesn't have to be something major, just a consistent quirk that makes the character more believable as a person, rather than a pixel.

Tip 2: Not everyone is tolerent. Disliking something that is ever-present on the server can lead to alot of fun RP, though it should be something that few other people dislike. Say, hating elves or all non-humans, as opposed to hating halfling thieves which are not nearly as well accepted in the setting. Some examples include: Sexism, Racism, descrimination of class, (the rich, poor, whatever). City folk, tree huggers, etc, etc.

Tip 3: While it isn't always necessary, it's good (and fun!) to write up a neat background. This gives you something to talk about with other pc's as well as enriching your play experiance even more when a DM picks up on it and decides to play along! It doesnt really take that long, just think about normals stuff like where s/he was raised, what his/her father did, how did s/he get here. Questions like these help flesh out the character too, and can lead to a more satisfying (and believable) character to play

That's all i've got for now, but feel free to add your own tips here. This isn't me telling you to improve your characters, but simply a long term player sharing his experiances, and how I was able to make enjoyable and memorable characters that i'll (And a good many others!) will look back favorably upon.

With thanks to Oroborous for allowing use of this site :

http://www.geocities.com/oak_thorn/characterization.html

The tip I'm adding comes from a conversation had with dear Musachi almost six months ago. I still remember it fondly.

At one point, while discussing the path his Julien Contrael had taken, I asked him what had made that particular character so much fun for him - and others - I got rewarded with an amazing insight into how to reach RP zen. Something along the lines of eliminate apathy as a possible reaction for those who meet your character. When they see him, or her, have that be the place where they have to take a stand. A character must be either loved or hated. There's no place to sit on the fence.

Perhaps not the best idea for the shadow-dwellers or those who embrace more of a 'follower' than a 'leader' archetype. An interesting, however, consideration for any who have it in mind to play impactful, clashing personas.

- Kiaring

Here's a good referance page from www.tellaria.org

C r e a t i n g a b a c k g r o u n d © Jos Weijmer Creating a background can be testy for many people. There are some easy tips 'n tricks though that can help a lot, and it doesn't veen take that much time or inspiration! The thing is, go through your character's life in a chronological and logical order, and let your mind wander. Something like this:

Step 1: Birth and family Since you play a mere mortal, your character has to be born. This simple fact already raises several questions: - Who is the mother, and did she survive birth? - Who is dad, and is he still around? - Is he an orphan?

Step 2: Family and friends Now we have that settled... how does his family look like? - Does he have brothers and sisters? - Are there any favorite uncles or spouses, beloved adoptive parents or priests or teachers at the orphanage? - How is his relationship with those around him while growing up? Any bullying or protective bigger brothers or little sisters? - Did he have any (best) friends?

Step 3: Apprentice stage In our world, most people will be taking apprentice jobs starting from age 8-12 untill about 18 years or older. - Look at your characters starting class and decide where he picked up the base skills he has now. - How was his relationship with his master/teacher, any special relationship with that mans/womans children/daughter/son? - If your starting class is not a logical continuation of this period, why did he stop his training and start live as an adventurer or merchant or wanderer or... ?

Step 4: Wrapping up Well, almost done here. Some final touches, all of which should be explained by his background untill now... - What are three of the most noticeable events in your characters life untill now? - What was the one thing that had the most impact on your characters life? - What is his main, and what are his secondary goals? - What drives your character? What motivates him?

By now you should have a pretty decent background for your character. Of course, this does not necessary describe how he acts in what way. For that, we go to the chapter 'bringing a character to life'...

B r i n g i n g a c h a r a c t e r t o l i f e © Jos Weijmer I use to say that it's a good thing that people have flaws and vices. After all, if we all hadn't our particular twitches, we'd all be the same, and that'd be a boring bit of business. So, this will be about your character's strong points, but at least as much about his flaws, failures and other quirks that made him and make him to who he is now...

Step 1: Success Is your character succesful or a downthrodden loser? Did he get favored or beaten by life, and how did this affect him? - What are the three greatest successes he achieved until now? - What was the best deed he ever performed? - How does he deal with success? - How did these things affect him?

Step 2: Failure Now, time for the other side of the coin of fate... - What are the three greatest failures he suffered until now? - What was the foulest deed he ever performed? - How does he cope (if at all) with failure? - How did these things affect him?

Step 3: Positive Your character must have some good qualities. Time to decide what they are... Mind you, it'll always be in dispute if things like 'pigheaded' are positive or not. Point is, if that's positive for your character, denote it here. If not, at the next point... - Describe five of your character's best qualities (for example: honest, loyal, trustworthy, generous). - Of what things is your character most proud? - What will really motivate your character? - What will fire your character up and put him into action? - What brings out the best in your character?

Step 4: Negative Your character must have some bad qualities. Time to decide what they are... - Describe five of your character's worst qualities (for example: cowardly, egocentric, vain, gluttonous). - Of what things is your character most ashamed? - What will really demotivate your character? - What will really anger your character? - What brings out the worst in your character?

Step 5: Physical Time to denote specific or unusual physical features... - Does your character have twitches or ticks or mannerisms? (Strokes hair/beard when nervous or thinking, twitches eye when lying, - Is he deformed in any way? Did his hand get burned in an accident, does he have scars, does he limp, and if so, how did that happen?

Step 6: Mental Time to denote specific mental quirks and way of speech... - Does your character have a distinct accent or certain mannerisms when speaking, like saying 'Hm, hm, hmmm...' often, repeating himself in a sentence like 'I say, boy, I say...'? - How does your character deal with things like stress and despair?

Step 7: Wrapping up Well, almost done here. Some final touches, which will impact and complement your characters depth... - Describe how far he'd go to protect those whom he calls friends. - Describe what his moral boundaries are. What lines would he not wish to cross, and what would happen to him if he did? - How does he dress? What food and drinks does he favor? - What is the one thing, the one possession he is most fond of, and why is that so? - Who is the person he is most fond of, and why is that so?

By now you should have a pretty decent feel for your character, having fleshed him out. Time to submit your background, if you so wish, and go in there and play...

Don't be afraid to dislike or hate people, even if it means losing out on some xp. I think I've been turned down, turned away, looked over, more times than I've actually grouped with Malik. And I love it. Being hated, feared, despised, disliked....means I'm doing my job. But....I guess this piece of advice isn't applicable to a lot of concepts so, yeah.

Being hated isn't always what a villian "needs" its just what happens when people final discover "hey that gnome is raising undead and trying to stop paladins killing an urdlen cult! He's evil I hate him we need to kill him!" I prefer to play three different types of villians. The minion, the commander and the manipulative.

Minions usualy work for the commander, though manipulative villians often become minions in order to overthrow the commander.

Commanders are usualy those whom are the most reliable to keep a group together and alive. A commander is usualy strict and nasty for fear of any minion willing to overthrow him. If he does'nt trust a minion he may be more inclined to let him die or even steal from him if given the oppertunity in order to keep him from ever overthrowing him.

Manipulative villians tend towards politics. They will manipulate people to get information and/or try to assassinate the commander. Manipulative villians prefer to stay out of the spotlight and are one of the nastier villians as they tend to be harder to catch or even identify till the last minute. Manipulative villians rarely do anything themselves unless they have to in order to get a job done or earn someones trust. Manipulative villians require alot of work to constantly pull everyones strings to get the desired effect.

This is my personal outlook on being a villian. I'm not a dm and people like to do things there own way. I just thought I'd post it I dunno if anybody will find it useful.

Minion with high aspirations and low Cha/Wis=someone who doesn't try to hide or even dislike being hated.

Imho no evil will go out of the way to be hated. They won't care if they are hated but they would prefer not to be as that position is to their advantage. Again only my opinion.

While I encourage dialogue on the subject, I would shy away from statements that start with "Imho no evil will...", as they are almost invariably wrong.

There are a number of evil archetypes whose goal is, in fact, to inspire hate. Much as good characters, such as Ilmaterans, attempt to inspire positive feelings of love and mercy about them, evil characters (think Palpatine 'Give into your hate!') may attempt to make characters hate them just to inspire the negative emotion.

-Cross

I posted that at 1 am and now that you mention it and I'm actually awake, your right. Whats worse I've actually done this with previous characters too! XD

*points to Crosswinds forum title*

Now that you mention it...Malik is a sith Lor-....padawan!