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Developmental psychology

Metwally

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Hello ladies and gents and welcome to my guide on what I perceive to be my guidelines for character development.
P.S.: This is heavily personal-opinion based on certain character design tropes and trends, so anything I say here that could be perceived as an opinion, should be perceived as an opinion.
Double P.S.: This guide focuses on long-term characters mostly, if you have a habit of creating characters that are prone to being CKed, or subcharacters for your own faction that serve a specific purpose, this might not be for you.

As a novelist/writer, I personally spent a long period of time watching/reading into character development and studying aspects of where a character starts and where it ends, and I'd like to share my experience.

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Table of contents:
1. Introduction.
2. Character introduction and it's importance.
3. Cast/mold identification, and outlining.
4. Buildup and neutrality.
5. The struggles, relations, and ultimatums.
6. The establishment.
7. Conclusion.


Introduction
This guide aims to encompass a few different character development concepts, study them, and explain how each of them affects your character, how you should apply this concept, where it's useful and where it's not, and/or when you should drop it completely after using it for a while.
So, let's start.

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Character introduction and it's importance;
Generally, introducing your character to the setting they're about to be inside (The county, basically) and giving them a logical reason for being there, is the core of the first stage and the beginning of any development cycle, whether your character was born in the County, to begin with, moved there because they enjoy the calm atmosphere, or for other completely different reasons, you need to personally know the reason your character is in the county, to begin with even if you won't announce it to others, for you to have a general understanding of how your character, at their start, interacts with the environment. Passive RP, while overly overlooked, is a very important aspect of character development and at the very least understanding how your character feels about things is the stepping stone of how your character interacts in different scenarios. One of my major issues with most newly-created characters is that if they were created for a faction, they barely have any kind of story to them that befits the faction in any way, and I'm personally guilty of that practice by the way, which in turn creates a mini dilemma between the player and the character itself when they're interacting with other characters as to why the fuck they're even there, to begin with. In short, the more you understand the reasoning behind your own character's existence, the better you would be able to portray them in different situations. ((P.S.: This isn't just applicable to young characters, this could be applied to any character whatsoever))

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Cast/mold identification, and outlining.
More or less, you should be aware of your character's identity instead of creating an empty husk and then filling them unless you're roleplaying a teenager who has a minimalistic backstory to them, and an ordinary life, developing into a proper human being. The more identifiable your character's base personality is, the easier it is for you to handle situations. On the contrary, however, if you are aware of what your character is supposed to be but you never disclosed it and instead allowed it to be explored through your character's interactions with other, letting them form their idea then it's all for the better, it heavily depends on what character you're developing and your style of dealing with situations. Furthermore, the better you understand what the general frame of your character, the greater your immersion, ability to convince, and grasp of your character's aspects will be, all in all, your job is to apply your own twist to your character, and having done that, you should be able to portray your character as well as possible, and develop them further.



Buildup and neutrality.
At this point in your development, you should already have an understanding of what should be a month or two old character, your character has grown accustomed to their setting and are learning to enjoy aspects of it that apply to them. Is your character a power-hungry corporate figure? Then they probably enjoy the County's nightlife, casinos, and they particularly hate mobs. Is your character a low-profile petty street criminal? Then they might like cheap booze, driving around with their friends in a car causing minor trouble and breaking a few laws maybe, and constantly going to expensive-ass clubs while being on complete budget. The list goes on and on, pick your gander of whatever the County has to offer in terms of things that could be enjoyed, and allow yourself to immerse in them, there are things that every character would enjoy more than others, and that's basically how they carve a little home out of the County. On the other hand, there are things that are bound to piss any character off in their living environment that they accept as a general rule of life, but they never appreciate or like. Such as consistent taxation/racketeering from mobs, the extended gangster life, the sheer number of cops roaming around, the lack of proper health care, I can keep going for a few more lines, but it's easy to find something that your character wouldn't generally appreciate but has to accept because there's nada they can do about it. In this position, you're building the foundation of your main development, your character is allowed to expand fully into factions or groups in general, they're able to find their position with the precarved community. They've become neutral due to their acceptance of their environment and indulging into it, while simultaneously taking part of activities that encompass like-minded people who are bound to have common things in between them, and there's your buildup.



The struggle, the relations, and the ultimatums.
In this stage of development, your character should already have connected with some people (unless you're RPing a full-out loner, that is.) and have established a general relation with people in circles that are similar to theirs. At the moment, an introduction of an issue is bound to happen sooner or later, you shouldn't force it or create it yourself but rather accept it when it arrives and RP according to how your character is. If you're RPing an aggressive but mindless character such as street gangbangers, facing an issue in a relationship is bound to be cataclysmic for them. If you're RPing an LEO, then a certain investigation or individual could cause them a great deal of stress. Regardless of what the issue's nature is, all struggles share a simple connection; All of them are designed to test and develop people. So RP according to how your character is designed to RP, don't be afraid to lose RP on purpose in favor of character development, if anything, it's one of the simpler ways of creating a much more believable character is to lose RP on purpose because your character would act that way. Eventually once your character reaches a climax within the issue, they're offered an ultimatum; Either overpower the problem and resurface, or allow it to destroy you. The strength of the struggle your character is met with is a defining factor for whether or not they should be able to pass through, or fall into a spiral of issues. Given the dilemma that will define how your character acts in the future, you should take as much out of the situation as possible in favor of your character's development. Because there is NO endgame for characters until they die or are forced to leave the county, there's very little ceiling to what your character can develop into and there's no such thing as a fully-developed character. However, overdevelopment is a thing, so be aware of doing too much in too little time, because that could create an extremely unrealistic character(Again, I'm also guilty of this) which doesn't do what characters in their position would actually do, instead they act in a manner that could very well be considered out of character. This practice is widely known as RPing to win, and while people do act out of character and strangely every now and then, it's very rare for them to do so.

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The establishment.
Your character at this point should be completely established, understood, and known for and by you. From this point forward your actions are defined, your character should have known habits, preferences, tastes, activities, circle of contacts, et cetera. While you're under an established character, you should make the most out of it, creating your own roleplay is practically a must at this stage because things can get very boring, as the development you can do, while still existent, is much less than what it used to be. So building your own path/RP is the way to immerse in the game, after all, people at this stage of their lives would have some kind of understanding or vision for their careers and life forward (Or not, you can RP a fuckup that's totally fine) and would be actively working on reaching that specific point they're aiming for.



Conclusion.
Your character is your own design, the idea that certain character designs are generally uncommon or even extremely rare, while true, should never be a limitation for your imagination. As long as you're under realistic standards, and always roleplaying what YOUR character would do, you should be fine. Major disclaimer though, never create a superman of a character. Every character has their strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons. Just understand where you want to apply this idea, or let it develop on it's own. Your job isn't to win every RP confrontation, it's to employ your character intelligence, strengths, and abilities to win the situation for themselves, or ultimately lose it despite their best (or worst) efforts.
 
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fredinand

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Dec 4, 2019
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tl;dr posts aside, this is a very good read.

Kudos, and hopefully people who wish to create an interesting story of their character and its surroundings, give this a thought.
 

Mufnite

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Oct 21, 2018
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actually just read it, real good bro. props to u for writing something like this
 

xOrbit

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Dec 17, 2017
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Pakistan
Read it all, some amazing tips for character development in there. Gonna recommend this to anyone who wants to develop their character. Amazing work, keep it up.
 
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