Character Creation Guide

Introduction

Character Creation is a very important aspect of Roleplay, and one that comes with some unspoken 'rules' that are easy to break. This page should serve to help you through the process, to to avoid falling into some common pitfalls. It will cover things you should not do, things you should think about for your character, and other general advice. It will also touch briefly on mechanical aspects of character creation in Starlight, such as the height and width sliders, custom species, name rules, and the Expanded Flavor Text System.

Balance

The big thing that everyone tends to do with their first character, in any roleplay, is make them unbalanced. But what this means goes a bit further than what people assume at the surface level. A character can be unbalanced because they are too physically strong, or too good at something, or know too much, or have wealth or connections that go beyond the scope of what is reasonable for the setting or their place within it. Generally what makes an interesting character is not what they can do, but what they can not do. Being able to do something lets you solve a problem, not being able to do something lets you struggle to find a solution to the problem. It is good to have characters be good at some things, but usually the more specialized they are at one thing, the worse they should be at others to compensate.

In relation to Starlight RP specifically, there are a few easy 'Do Not Do This' things that can be listed out to make things easier;

• Do not be a member of NanoTrasen or any other major corporation outside of Central Command, unless your job specifies otherwise.
• Do not be related to anyone of importance in the wider galaxy. This means no cousins on the Trasen family, or sons of the Trans-Solar Federation's President, etc.
• Do not be absurdly rich. You are a normal person working a job, ranging from minimum wage to slightly over minimum wage depending on your job in the round.
• Do not be a secret Syndicate member in your backstory. The game decides if you are or are not a Syndicate every round. Adhere to that system.

While Space Station 14 is a mechanical game, where you can basically do anything so long as you know how OOC, and have the right items on you IC, it is important to consider "What can my character do? And what can they not do?" Does your Chemist really have a reason to understand wiring enough to rewire a damaged room? Should your Engineer know what Chems are good for which damage types? Should your botanist know how to fly a shuttle? Does your Head of Personnel even know how to aim a gun?

There are no rules preventing you from doing these things anyway, but it may lead to more interesting roleplay if you intentionally act like your character does not know things when reasonable. Fumble with the wiring, OD themselves slightly on chems in a panic, miss their shots on purpose if they've never used a gun in their life. What a character can't do is more interesting than what they can do.

Characterization

When making a character, there is an impulse to make them interesting. Making them mysterious, have weird traits and quirks, etc. While there is nothing wrong with this, you should know that it is very overdone and overplayed in every Roleplay community on the planet to have the "Edgy mysterious silent character with a tragic backstory who constantly alludes to it vaguely but never tells anyone what happened." Anyone who has roleplayed for more than a year will just roll their eyes and not care and your backstory at all.

When making a character, just try to think about what you will have fun playing. If there is a concept you want to play, do so. You don't need to try to make people interested in your character by withholding, or infodumping, information.