Guidelines and tips for creating characters:
Quickest way to make a character: Come up with
someone that you think could have existed in our 1920s America,
give him/her a mutant power, and declare him/her created. It will
probably be easiest for you if your character has some kind of
easily demonstratable mutant/variant power of some sort. If you
don't want your character to have an easily demonstratable power,
or don't want him/her to have any power at all, we can work something
out, but it will be a little harder to fit him/her into the story,
and possibly less fun for you as well, but it can certainly be
done. If your character has a power, he/she should probably at
least have a vague idea that he/she has a power before the story's
beginning. I didn't intend this to be a "yarn" about
a bunch of people discovering their powers (though if that's what
everyone else wants to turn it into, I can do it).
Do not make your character too powerful. It's
no fun for any of the other players if your character can get
out of any situation easily and can do whatever he/she wants,
all the time. If you wish to create a powerful character, give
him/her some weaknesses. If you don't, I'll have to discuss with
you ways we can make your character weaker/more fun for other
characters.
Do not make your character completely helpless.
A character who is fully dependent upon another (such as a child)
is really not very much fun to play as. I tried it myself and
it's true (especially since each person only gets one character).
Make sure your character is fairly independent and does things
of his/her own volition, or you'll probably get sick of him/her.
Since hopefully fights won't be too important to "Freak Show,"
physical strength may not be too necessary, but if your character's
not strong, make sure he/she is smart. Since I will NEVER
have dice rolls to determine if a comment was witty or not (that's
one of my problems with some forms of tabletop role-playing),
if you want to play a smart character, make sure you know how
to do it.
Character powers can be important, but what
really makes someone fun to play (in a "yarn," anyway)
is usually a character's personality. Making a character that's
not too much like you, but who you'd enjoy playing as, is often
more fun than either a character who's ultra-powerful, or a character
who looks and acts just like you do. (I've never known anyone
who enjoyed playing a only slightly fictionalized version of themselves
for too long.)
Try not to make a character who's too heavily
based upon your own story/universe ideas. It's fine if you change
them sufficiently and don't mind if they have to act differently
in this universe. But if you bring in a character and insist they
go around, say, capturing Clow cards, while none of the other
players has any interest in Clow cards (or even wants Clow cards
to be present in their universe!) it can be a problem. This universe
is fairly similar to the Fox Tales one (although magic just might
exist; it probably won't matter one way or the other in "Freak
Show"). Try not to bring in totally new concepts (at least,
without my support ^_^;).
Just as an aside, people were a couple inches
shorter in the 1920s than they are today. But not that much shorter.
Just make one character for now. If you get
bored with him/her, you can replace him/her with another one,
or it may be possible to have more than one character each. But
stick with one for now. Hey, if I only have one (and I've
got probably 30 in the other "yarn" that's still going
on!) you can probably handle just having one for now too.
Once you have your character figured out, please copy and paste
the character profile into an e-mail
and fill it out. Send it to jbihn@juliestudio.com
first. If everything's all in shape, you may post it to the BBS,
in whole or in part. Name and physical description (and a drawing
if you have one) will be posted on the Freak Show page, as will
relevant parts of the profile as they become apparent.
For example, if the character Maxine always keeps her green hair
hidden under a hat, the profile will initially say:
Hair: Always hidden under a hat
But as soon as another character sees Maxine's green hair, the
profile will change to:
Hair: Long and green, though Maxine keeps it hidden
under a hat
If you'd like the whole profile posted on the Freak Show page,
just ask.