Pre made Characters

[Alladinsane]

As the character in question is still alive in the 'limbo' of Cantr, I will withhold any public revelation.

[Marian]

Bored now so I'm bumping this.

I've pretty much given up on having preset goals because they always, always wind up being nearly impossible or at least unrealistic to carry out. My type-A super organized trader that will hopefully one day work up to a thriving multi-location business spawns in the middle of nowhere with a handful of mostly sleeping twenty-somethings and a couple of locked buildings nobody can access. Or the wannabe paladin winds up much weaker than average and awkward at fighting, while my dependable worker bee spawns in a town where there are absolutely no available jobs and active newspawns seem actually resented. (the first time this last one happened I felt like I'd wandered into some kind of Cantr bizarro-land, talk about a complete 180 from when I first started playing. )

Mostly I spawn a char with just a couple of basic personality traits, like friendly and generous, or outspoken and short tempered, or selfish and manipulative, or whatever, but even those can change a lot based on where they spawn. I don't go for the total 'blank slate' approach, but my newspawns are definitely kind of sponge-like and will absorb a lot from their surroundings and generally form strong opinions about other people and things around them in their first three of four days.

Of course with that approach a whole lot depends on where you spawn, and so occasionally I've gotten a character that just didn't ever seem to 'speak' to me beyond 'I hate this [censored] place and everyone in it, I'm ready to kill myself I am so [censored] bored.'

But even that can lead to fun times because you can start taking crazier and crazier risks with them in the hopes that they will either get interesting or die. I had a wageslave char ignored and pining away in a mountain town once, then a couple of the business owners there decided to break into an old building, it took them three of four tries but the finally the project happened to successfully complete while she was awake, so she just strolled on in there and gathered up all the steel and iron she could carry and then strolled off down the road. The people that ran the place had vehicles and swords and I expected she'd get chopped down before I even had a chance to check her again, but for some reason they never came after her and she wound up eventually founding a little trading outpost with a few employees several locations away. She was actually one of my favorites and I had some good ideas for expanding her business, wish I hadn't unsubbed.

[Snickie]

this is my story…which I'm only posting because I am bored.

A has an accent and no distinct personality upon spawning. This, from my perspective anyway, holds true to this day.

C spawned as a benevolent blonde. Now C is slightly bipolar and mature.

E holds true to the personality given when spawned, including enthusiasm, unintelligence, a strong sense of guilt and fun, et cetera. Location and spawning circumstances helped this along.

H was supposed to be a religious reformer, curt but courteous, et cetera. But H spawned in a really quiet place with only a few other people, so obviously that didn't happen. Instead, it seems H is more of a natural-born leader with nothing to lead.

I is pretty much a fail character. I do not want to even begin discussing I.

N is my main comic relief character, and I actually planned out what N would be like given certain circumstances while retaining a few core elements. Of course, N spawned where the core elements can hardly be expressed with the right effect.

S was supposed to be a fighter (fiesty), maybe become leader of a town, but instead spawned as a terrible fighter in an already well-controlled town. Some of the original elements of S's personality still remain, but there have been a few things added by the environment, as well as things I've noticed I've been doing with S in roleplay. For example, mild schizophrenic tendencies.

Z is based off of somebody I know in real life, with the addition of wanting to sail. And guess where Z spawned. No, not some place rich with hematite and coal and limestone and wood on the coast bordering a sea. Completely inland with none of those immediately available. At least it wasn't in the middle of Fu, though.

[Alladinsane]

Nearly all of my characters are comic relief characters, there are too many heroes imo. They may hope to be heroes some day, but they will be darn funny ones if i can help it. There are some funny characters elsewhere, but the thing I don't see alot of where I am at is the spontaneity factor. I try to pull something up quickly, sometimes before anyone else can even type any dialogue, it seems to help with effect.

Ultimately, I think we all play the game for fun, and I hope that by being less threatening to the wannabe leaders. Having a humorous and sunny disposition will hopefully improve my gaming experience along with those around me. Of course I haven't had any characters killed yet, maybe I will have a manic depressive crash on that day. Hopefully I won't be finding out too soon.

[Eleiris]

I never know what my characters are going to be like, I just click the cute smiley.
It's not like I play along with the environment, I refuse to do that, it just takes some time for me to build them up... I don't know...

[Snickie]

I have the death planned out for one of my characters already.

You have to pretty much persuade me with everything you have to get me to click the cute smiley face to create a new character. If it weren't for all the Cantrian downtime during which I've had time to plan, my eighth character wouldn't exist today.

[Eleiris]

Planned death... Could be interesting.
I have to admit I have more than 8 And in more than two languages.
But half of my characters are quite passive, just observing others, saying something like once a day.
Or they spawn in very quiet places and never leave.

[Snickie]

I keep meaning to create a Spanish character, but I don't know the language well enough yet. I might be able to navigate the interface after plugging a few things (resources and items mostly) into Google Translate, but I'd only know maybe half of what you all say.
In any case, my most recent character is one I need absolute fluency in the language spawned in to have the correct effect.

Maybe when the game comes back up, though. Maybe.

[Eleiris]

When you learn a new language there's a gap beetween your comprehension of it and your capability to reproduce it.
For instance, I'd say I understand about 90% of what the English characters say, however, I think I'm only able to express myself at a relative 45%.
This is due to many things; not practising the language on every day bases causes you to draw blanks with basic sentences sometimes. And an untraditional method for learning the language can also produce gaps in certain areas of grammar and such. I noticed that when Cantr came back up, I was a bit rusty in my english and portuguese!!!
Anyway, this is off topic.

I wish there was a way to create a "foreing" character, I know that you can move to areas with different languages having spawned in your own language group and still communicate, rp learning the language and stuff.
But since some people do create background stories, why couldn't there be one in which you grew up in a foreing land?

[Snickie]

When you learn a new language there's a gap beetween your comprehension of it and your capability to reproduce it.
For instance, I'd say I understand about 90% of what the English characters say, however, I think I'm only able to express myself at a relative 45%.
This is due to many things; not practising the language on every day bases causes you to draw blanks with basic sentences sometimes. And an untraditional method for learning the language can also produce gaps in certain areas of grammar and such. I noticed that when Cantr came back up, I was a bit rusty in my english and portuguese!!!
Anyway, this is off topic.

I can pick out more Spanish in writing than speech, but if you asked me to say the English equivalent in Spanish, I'd draw a blank. I want to get to the point where I know for sure what the word or sentence means before using Google Translate, and not guessing the meaning before Google Translate, before I spawn a Spanish character (or a character of any other language, for that matter).

I still want to learn lojban, too.

I wish there was a way to create a "foreing" character, I know that you can move to areas with different languages having spawned in your own language group and still communicate, rp learning the language and stuff.
But since some people do create background stories, why couldn't there be one in which you grew up in a foreing land?

Do you mean "foreign"? It seems to fit with what you were saying.
Anyways, if I were to spawn a Spanish character right now, I'd probably spawn them with a background story that they grew up in a "foreign" English-speaking place, but moved to a Spanish-speaking place in their adolescence or something like that. Hence why I'm not spawning one right now.

[Marian]

I wish there was a way to create a "foreing" character, I know that you can move to areas with different languages having spawned in your own language group and still communicate, rp learning the language and stuff.
But since some people do create background stories, why couldn't there be one in which you grew up in a foreing land?

You could always just make up your own gibberish language and RP from there just the same. And at least that way you'd be able to communicate more easily through emotes.

I'm not sure what the 'official' policy on making up a background for your character is, I think it's generally kind of frowned upon on in game though...there are enough problems with people bringing in OOC influences as it is, really, and plus it would require all the other players being willing to cooperate too...

Char1: "I've lived in this town for 20 years, my parents were brutally murdered by pirates when I was 6 and so I want to join the guard and blah blah blah"
Char2: Uh...dude I'm pretty sure I would've seen you around somewhere, also I've been here 20 years too and there's never been a pirate attack. Also, I just saw you spawn.'

or

Char1: "Greetings, everyone! I've just arrived from the neighboring village!"
Char2: "Uh, no. I just saw you spawn. Seriously, come on, I'm standing right here."

Not a huge deal, but I think most of my chars would just write them off as a liar or yet another delusional or insane person and try to avoid the subject...though I've had one or two that would probably keep asking them increasingly detailed questions about their past just to mess with them.

[Snickie]

But since some people do create background stories, why couldn't there be one in which you grew up in a foreing land?

I'm not sure what the 'official' policy on making up a background for your character is, I think it's generally kind of frowned upon on in game though...there are enough problems with people bringing in OOC influences as it is, really, and plus it would require all the other players being willing to cooperate too...

Char1: "I've lived in this town for 20 years, my parents were brutally murdered by pirates when I was 6 and so I want to join the guard and blah blah blah"
Char2: Uh...dude I'm pretty sure I would've seen you around somewhere, also I've been here 20 years too and there's never been a pirate attack. Also, I just saw you spawn.'

or

Char1: "Greetings, everyone! I've just arrived from the neighboring village!"
Char2: "Uh, no. I just saw you spawn. Seriously, come on, I'm standing right here."

Not a huge deal, but I think most of my chars would just write them off as a liar or yet another delusional or insane person and try to avoid the subject...though I've had one or two that would probably keep asking them increasingly detailed questions about their past just to mess with them.

I've a character like that, with the background story nobody believes.

My char: *has this whole note about what happened to my char before and during spawning, and none of it involves the actual town they're in*
Other char: "*reads note* You're insane. There was NOTHING before you spawned. NOTHING. And you can't convince me otherwise."
Me: >______< GO WITH IT.
My char: *never addresses the subject ever again, but harbours the thoughts for years after the encounter*

[Eleiris]

Char1: "Greetings, everyone! I've just arrived from the neighboring village!"
Char2: "Uh, no. I just saw you spawn. Seriously, come on, I'm standing right here."
Char1: "Greetings, everyone! I've just arrived from the neighboring village!"
Char2: "Uh, no. I just saw you spawn. Seriously, come on, I'm standing right here."

Exactly, Marian. That's what happens. I works better when you move to another location after you've spawned, otherwise you get an ooc message saying you can't know another language (apart from the one you've spawned with) and blah. Still, moving away is no guarantee that others will cooperate.
Since players cope with ignorant characters who learn everything for the first time, along with the most common character that has all basic knowledge incorporated (talking, reading, social relations, etc) Why won't they do as much with backgrounded characters?
I'd understand in the case of a character spawning in a land of one language, and communicating completely in another. But being billingual is a very common, natural thing! Besides when someone isn't all that well versed in your language IC you can tell. Almost immediatly. And there are some in Spanish. I think it would be interesting if you could correct them and they could rp learning and viceversa.
I've tried moving from my spanish "fatherland" to an Anglo-Saxon for this reasons, that works pretty well (although having to rp learning the basics of a language can be annoying). But you don't always get the chance to travel...

Do you mean "foreign"? It seems to fit with what you were saying.

Yeah. Momentary lapse of keyboard dyslexia there. Happens. I hope you are not one of those (OOC:oops misspelled x word) people...

[Snickie]

Do you mean "foreign"? It seems to fit with what you were saying.

Yeah. Momentary lapse of keyboard dyslexia there. Happens. I hope you are not one of those (OOC:oops misspelled x word) people...

If it's particularly noticeable and/or potentially confusing, then I'll correct it using the (*[correct spelling of misspelled word here]) form. But I try not to misspell things at all unless the character has an accent, in which things are spelled wrong for phonetic purposes.
[/almostcompletelyofftopicfromtheoriginaltopic]

[Eleiris]

Continuing off topic, I think the best way to come out of a situation like that is to rp that your character mispronounced the word, it happens in real life...