Round two starts on friday and one of the suggestions people had for round 1 was to have a concept round to decided what to write about. So I thought I'd get some more community involvement in round two by having people make suggestions on the theme of the character profile that is objective of round 2. Some idea that I've had so far are: 1) Write a profile of a character to be played by a certain celebrity 2) Write a profile of a character of a certain archtype 3) Write a profile of a character of with a certain quality or flaw So based on these the object of round to might look something like this: 1) Write a character profile of a character to be played by sarah machelle geller for entry 3 2) Write a character profile of an antihero for entry 4. 3) Write a character profile of a character who refuses to kill not matter what the circumstances for round 5. Take this as an oppertunity to brainstorm and suggest general and specific themes.

Perhaps instead of a profile of a single character, have multiple profiles, so we can get some interpersonal dynamics going.

I don't particularly like the idea of type 1: profiling a character for a certain celebrity doesn't really seem "game-like" to me, plus it will rely too much on the writer's knowledge of the range of the actor in question.

I like both type 2 and 3; archetypes and qualities/flaws are fairly universal literary themes that everyone can understand (or easily be taught). I'd go with one of those.

I'll have to think a bit about specific themes, however. My creative mind isn't working that well at the moment.

Can someone post a brief example of what the format for a character profile looks like?

I entered a submition for round 1, and if I decide to continue in the competition, I have no idea what exactly you're looking for.

I also disagree with type 1 for Trapper Zoid's reason.

A character profile sounds like a contest on design than writing. If we want more of a writing contest, we can profile a character through a situation within the theme of the story.

So it becomes a contest on finding the right opportunity in a story to present a character. In this case, it will be a passage, the content of the passage will be thematically related to the winning entry of round 1. In that passage, the archetype or flaws of the character is fully expressed by the writer.

Does this make more sense for a writing contest? It gives a much more relevant margin for comparing style and creativity.

So, in a nutshell, it can be a passage that profiles a character in the context of the given theme.


Example:
Suppose our winning entry was about a clock tower that got struck down by the coming storm, and the selected round 2 requirement is write a character with a flaw. Then, a contestant might choose the flaw to be lazyness, and it is up to the contestant to create a situation about the struck down tower that shows the character's lazyness as a flaw.

I suggest this style because finding/creating the right moment to show a character is an important writing skill. It is also relevant to game as the medium because characterization is likely to be shown through situations. Does it sound reasonable or too hard?

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Original post by GOR-GOR Can someone post a brief example of what the format for a character profile looks like?

I'd like to see a sample character profile too, as I'm not entirely sure what is involved. Is it just a description of a character's personality, or does it involve showing how that character would react in a given situation (such as what Estok suggested).

Also, I was wondering whether the general opinion was to write about a given character archetype (such as the mentor) or quality/flaw (such as overconfidence), or whether the choice of archetype/quality/flaw will be up to the contestant.

In my suggestion, it is not limited to a character's reaction to a situation. For example, if the theme is appropriate, you can show characterization through the character's letter written to another character. The point is that normally, characterization is not plainly told to the player, but communicated through some kind of situation, such as a conversation in a bar, an argument over who should get the rare drop, or how a character refuses to heal another character (in RPG parody themes).

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Original post by Estok In my suggestion, it is not limited to a character's reaction to a situation. For example, if the theme is appropriate, you can show characterization through the character's letter written to another character. The point is that normally, characterization is not plainly told to the player, but communicated through some kind of situation, such as a conversation in a bar, an argument over who should get the rare drop, or how a character refuses to heal another character (in RPG parody themes).

That's true, but if I were writing an RPG story, I'd write a couple of pages on each major character describing in detail their details, their personality, hopes, fears, basically everything that makes them tick. That way, when I start writing the script proper, the characters would stay in "character" and I'd have a better idea of what everyone would be doing.

So when I read about a "character profile" I'm assuming a writer means an equivalent of those couple of pages of character description details. Right?

My personal approach to character profiles is very much influenced by my love of roleplaying. So the way I see it, a little blurb highlighting either the personality of the character, or what makes her what she is, is as good as anything. Stats and other technical details add the necessary depth of details, but to be honest, I still think a good "flavour text" as they are called, is enough. Card games are particularly good at that, a simple paragraph highlighting enough to give the card... well, character :)

Roleplaying games character sheets are in my opinion very appropriate because they are essentially designed to be played, so I think this translates rather nicely to a game. I was trying to find some old "character profiles" from the White Wolf website, but alas they must have been buried with the old version. Still, if you don't mind the download, I suggest you look at one of the Demo games as they usually have playable characters for the players, as well as NPC profiles.
On this one for Vampire the Requiem, check out from page 19 to 25, there are profiles for the player characters.

Hope this helps :)

The reason I suggested the first one was because game writing is a form commercial writing as such it the game writer should be prepared to write to fit commercial or licensing requirements. For example paramount doesn’t allow any character development or changes to any of their startrek characters in a startrek game. So if you where doing the writing on a startrek game you would have to work within those constraints. Like wise a company might want to take advantage of celebrity’s popularity to help sell a game and it’s the job of the writer to ensure that that celebrity is happy with their characters portrayal.


A character profile is a 1 to 2 page document that profiles the character in a piece of work. It should include a physical description of the character, a description of their personality, some relevant background information on the character, and their significance to the game story. I’ll write up a sample profile for people to look at before round 2 starts.