Nature Vs. Nurture

[Blackdeath]

I'm sure it's been talked about before, but its late, I can't sleep, and I also couldn't find any thread about said topic- so here goes!

When you first spawn a new character, do you have a pretty good idea of his/her personality traits, life goals, fears, etc., or do you let the Town and chars around them dictate who they become?

I'm getting back in the swing of things (took a few years break), and maybe I'm just rusty, but for the most part I'm playing my chars pretty subdued at the moment. I remember back in the day, newspawns would pop up, and almost immediately start spouting off their "new" idea for a wacky religion, or wanting to take over a town for no reason, or have some crazy mental psychosis.

This time around I'm letting the towns mold my chars, it's taking longer, but so far its pretty rewarding.


What do you think, Cantrians?

[wichita]

Nature and Nature. I spawn characters with a rough personality, proclivity, or world view in mind (various combinations of curious, extroverted, introverted, shy, psychopathic, foul tempered, etc) and then use that to determine how the character reacts to the physical and social environment where fate has landed them.

[Addicted]

Same as Wichita

[freiana]

Mainly the same for me, although sometimes I slightly alter the personality based on the strength of the character (an aggressive char always willing to fight that's weaker than usual is just not that realistic to me...)

[SekoETC]

Yeah, usually if my character is weak and/or a bad fighter, I make sure to give them a personality that keeps them out of trouble. Maybe I should spawn an asshole character for a change, there are far too many nice people in the world.

[Money]

I'll usually spawn them and make a quick decision based on whats going on in the town, though I do usually have a rough idea about what kind of character I want to play. At most you have 5 days before my character becomes fully formed. That all being said I'm not against the character learning or changing because of life events, it just has to be a fairly important event to have a lasting impact.

[Maximo]

I always determine some traits, personality, sometimes a goal for characters before creating them. Usually I also have their image in my mind, so the appearance is set as well. Once, I couldn't imagine an appearance for one of my characters. He asked someone (in-game) to remind him of the colour of his hair, eyes etc. and I included everything they said in his description.

One time I wanted to play a manly character and really wanted him to be strong. But as we know, strength is determined randomly. What did I do? I prepared a second set of traits for a fragile and shy character, in case that he turns out to be weak. You could say I was ready for every scenario

Despite being predefined, I think that my characters absorb environmental influence, at least in a certain degree.

[Snickie]

Same as Wichi.

I set up a basic appearance, name, and general disposition and then fine tune stuff as they discover strength/fight skill and interact with their environment.
I've had three chars undergo major personality changes though. Usually it bends towards my own personality. That's kind of bad.

[Faith]

Are the characteristics of our personality innates or the environment sculpts us? The murderers are born or formed.
This is a great discussion in the RL too.

I ussually give some general characteristics to the personality of my chars and then I leave that the experiences formed them. For me, It's like their personality was a picture, my chars have a "tabula rasa" and they will paint according their lifes; but, with the colours I decided they are going to have in their pockets when they spawn.
For example, maybe one char spawn with the possibility of being a religious fanatic, but his/her environment maybe never develops this aspect.

[*Wiro]

I decide the traits, five rough points that will always stay with my character. After that it's all up to the events that affect my character to shape the personality.

[Vega]

I decided, from the beggining, to click the smiling face with an idea of a char. How is it, how it'll behave... and those I used to click without idea, went mostly annoying soon.

BUT, I take some of their skills (strengh, what is it expert with...) to describe it later and they all (ALL) progress depending of the environement. Someone in a way I wouldn't like at all!

[Marian]

I do what a lot of you seem to, just figure out a physical description and a rough personality, something like 'Laid back and friendly, likes the outdoors, slightly scatterbrained' or 'Serious, thoughtful, and extremely reserved, given to sudden bursts of anger when provoked'. Every single time I've tried to get more specific than that it hasn't worked out, either the location or the people around them or their skills just don't support the idea I had.

As far as goals and outlook on life and such, my characters are extremely malleable in the first few days after spawning, though I try to make any developments there as natural as possible. If they're basically just ignored and left to their own devices, for instance, they'll start becoming more withdrawn and might eventually start developing bitterness or an independent streak...and the other characters will usually help them along quite a bit, it can be amazing how quickly being the tiniest bit abrupt or otherwise putting aside the usual saccharine sweetness and politeness can convince everyone in town you're a terrible person and a trouble maker, which of course only leads to the character feeling more and more alienated...while the same character in another situation might have become a happy worker who only wanted to help the community.

[Misato]

Mainly the same for me, although sometimes I slightly alter the personality based on the strength of the character (an aggressive char always willing to fight that's weaker than usual is just not that realistic to me...)

Yeah, usually if my character is weak and/or a bad fighter, I make sure to give them a personality that keeps them out of trouble. Maybe I should spawn an asshole character for a change, there are far too many nice people in the world.

I did that once. Much weaker than average, and a bitch. It was fun. People loved her, oddly enough. :/ Well, obviously not all people... >.> *sigh* I still miss her. I was stupid to let her go...

I had her personality mostly figured out before I spawned her, and I always hated that she was much weaker than average, but it definitely kept things interesting for me, always worried she'd get herself killed somehow.

[Marian]

What really sucks is having a weaker than average character that winds up with a bunch of keys. You just know how that one's going to end, but what can you do?

...while meanwhile your much stronger than average, expert fighter with a much more suitable personality is still just scraping by with next to nothing.

[SekoETC]

In the other hand, most of my stronger than average expert fighters tend to be nice people. One has a questionable past but he still tries to be nice most of the time.