For the past two days, I have been discussing a character on the General subforum. The character started out as my attempt to make a child character, who could mature and grow throughout a campaign. However, after reading all of the wonderful comments to my original thread, I have decided that the best thing to do, is to make the character be older than I had initially intended.
This character art is AI generated - although it is not a perfect match, it should give you an idea of what the character looks like: If I manage to find a group to play this character with, I will see about getting some custom made, commissioned art that better depicts my character.
Backstory:
Taken in as an orphaned child, Lyra Fairbourne grew up in an orphanage run by the Order of the Radiant Song, a religious order dedicated to the worship of Lathander, the Morninglord.
Raised within the order's cloistered walls, she was taught the importance of embracing the beauty of each new day and the transformative power of divine light. However, Lyra's draconic heritage became apparent as she grew older, marked by patches of blue dragon scales that adorned her body. This unique aspect of her identity became a source of bullying and discrimination from the other children in the orphanage, causing her to feel singled out, and isolated.
Furthermore, the order's strict beliefs against non-divine magic stifled her natural arcane abilities, leaving her yearning for freedom and a chance to embrace her true self.
Determined to overcome these challenges and explore her full magical potential, Lyra made a daring decision to escape the order's influence and embark on a journey of self-discovery - following in the footsteps of the adventuring heroes who had rescued her as a babe and had been her guiding lights, inspiration and parental figures, throughout her life.
Character Details:
These are the character details that you can't see from the shared character sheet.
Personality Traits: Lyra is a resilient and independent individual who refuses to be defined by the adversity she has faced, displaying unwavering determination to forge her own path and embrace her unique magical abilities.
Ideals: Lyra relentlessly pursues her personal freedom and self-discovery, as she strives to break free from the constraints of the religious order who raised her, and unlock her full magical potential, embracing her unique heritage and forging her own path in life.
Bonds: Lyra is bound by a deep sense of gratitude and loyalty to the adventuring heroes who rescued her as a baby and served as her guiding lights, inspiration, and parental figures, throughout her life.
Flaws: Lyra has a deep-rooted fear of rejection and abandonment that often leads her to struggle with trust and forming meaningful connections with others. This fear and self-doubt can sometimes hinder her from fully embracing her potential and accepting the support and companionship that could aid her on her journey.
Appearance: Lyra is a 22-year-old female with a captivating presence. Her silvery-blue hair cascades around her face, accentuating her electric blue eyes that shimmer with a touch of magic. Patches of vibrant blue dragon scales adorn her fair skin, running down her back, arms, and legs, hinting at her powerful Draconic lineage.
So, considering that the character is older than I originally intended (and that seems to be the best approach based upon the comments to the original thread), do you have any thoughts about how I can roeplay this character as being immature and inexperienced, and childlike in her approach to the wider world, without making her annoying?
Thanks
Forge
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I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
[...] do you have any thoughts about how I can roleplay this character as being immature and inexperienced, and childlike in her approach to the wider world, without making her annoying?
I'd put a big emphasis on the fact that she's wary of organizations that force a particular way of thinking on their members. If someone's reason for following a certain law is "because God, the Church, or the King says so", she should immediately distrust whatever that person is believing in. Due to her inexperience however, she may not realize that even if the person in question is an idiot who is incapable of reasoning by themselves, it doesn't necessarily mean that the law itself is stupid. A critical thinker may be following the same law because it makes life easier for everyone. Basically, I suggest making use of the association fallacy.
Another thing you can do is to not forget her flaw. If there's conflict within the party and she fears the other members might abandon her, she should go along with whatever they decide instead of sticking up with her convictions. This might lead to a breaking point later on.
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Age: 33 | Sex: Male | Languages: French and English | Roles: DM and Player
[...] do you have any thoughts about how I can roleplay this character as being immature and inexperienced, and childlike in her approach to the wider world, without making her annoying?
I'd put a big emphasis on the fact that she's wary of organizations that force a particular way of thinking on their members. If someone's reason for following a certain law is "because God, the Church, or the King says so", she should immediately distrust whatever that person is believing in. Due to her inexperience however, she may not realize that even if the person in question is an idiot who is incapable of reasoning by themselves, it doesn't necessarily mean that the law itself is stupid. A critical thinker may be following the same law because it makes life easier for everyone. Basically, I suggest making use of the association fallacy.
Another thing you can do is to not forget her flaw. If there's conflict within the party and she fears the other members might abandon her, she should go along with whatever they decide instead of sticking up with her convictions. This might lead to a breaking point later on.
That is very good advice.
Thank you.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
So, considering that the character is older than I originally intended (and that seems to be the best approach based upon the comments to the original thread), do you have any thoughts about how I can roeplay this character as being immature and inexperienced, and childlike in her approach to the wider world, without making her annoying?
I played a character a little while ago now called Peregrine, an Aarakocra Cleric/Monk who while fully adult by Aarakocra standards (12 years old) was quite naive in his outlook as he spent most of his life at the template monastery where he was trained. He was lawful good compared to the party's more chaotic neutral mix which often led to differences of opinion in what to do (and almost coming to blows when one character was going too far pushing for information from a prisoner).
More generally though what I liked to do was have him do slightly odd things that made sense to him; he would almost always give himself a full introduction as a "champion of Angharradh" (his deity) not realising that would close more doors than it opened and seeing no reason to deceive, he didn't fully grasp ownership (an aspect of Aarakocra I decided to lean into) so would just give away money to the needy because he didn't personally value it, and he never haggled for things even when I as a player thought he was being overcharged. He often took things at face value, or even literally, so when he asked someone's name and they rudely told him to go away, he just started addressing them as if that was their name etc.
That might be more comedic than what you're looking for but I had a lot of fun with it; the balance for me was keeping it light and amusing most of the time, and I would usually let another character take the lead instead if it ever risked creating real difficulties, because when your group is struggling to get something done because one player is roleplaying too hard that's usually more frustrating than fun. I also liked to try and use it create roleplay opportunities, because when one character doesn't understand something it gives other characters a chance to step in and try to explain in their own way.
On one occasion the marshal of Bryn Shander was complaining about being unable to find a key, without hesitating I (as Peregrine) responded "I have no trouble finding things because I have everything to hand" before proceeding to demonstrate how he had literally all of his belongings in his two pouches. I also remember a particularly fun exchange with an awakened tree called the "Nether Oak", but since it was never spelled out I had Peregrine bewildered by the idea that a tree that had very clearly always been an oak could be the "Never Oak" – this also unwittingly helped to soothe a potentially hostile creature that initially thought we were a threat, but instead found the exchange amusing. When confronting the Frostmaiden (an actual deity) I rolled well against the DM's custom frightful presence effect so Peregrine was the only one unaffected, and immediately just started asking questions trying to understand what she thought she was doing in the hopes of finding a way to convince her not to. I had fun. 😂
It also partly depends what exactly you mean by "childlike in her approach"; in my experience at least children can be both extremely open to new ideas and information, almost immediately integrating them when they're appealing, but also incredibly stubborn about beliefs they already hold even if they're proven to be wrong (but then so do adults). That could be fun to play with to a point, e.g- if someone was rude to you and then tried to excuse themselves by saying it's a customary greeting, later you can be rude to someone else believing that to be true. You can also play with simplistic ideas of right and wrong, which I find fun in characters that then start to realise they can't explain their position, e.g- classic trolley problem of do you sacrifice a few lives to save many more, but a "childlike" character would insist they can save them all.
Given the background you might also go for classic association; e.g- because one religious order was repressive and in her experience discriminatory, she might assume this to be true of all religious orders until she encounters one that's more permissive. Because she idolises the adventurers who rescued her as a child, she might be too trusting towards adventurers until she discovers that not all adventurers are the good-citizens she believes and so-on.
Sorry if that's a lot, I tend to get carried away and just ramble about stuff. My own character's not the closest fit for yours, but I thought the similarities might be useful. 😂
Hi everyone,
For the past two days, I have been discussing a character on the General subforum. The character started out as my attempt to make a child character, who could mature and grow throughout a campaign. However, after reading all of the wonderful comments to my original thread, I have decided that the best thing to do, is to make the character be older than I had initially intended.
Lyra Fairbourne:
https://ddb.ac/characters/102007486/epPgXm
This character art is AI generated - although it is not a perfect match, it should give you an idea of what the character looks like: If I manage to find a group to play this character with, I will see about getting some custom made, commissioned art that better depicts my character.
Character Details:
These are the character details that you can't see from the shared character sheet.
So, considering that the character is older than I originally intended (and that seems to be the best approach based upon the comments to the original thread), do you have any thoughts about how I can roeplay this character as being immature and inexperienced, and childlike in her approach to the wider world, without making her annoying?
Thanks
Forge
I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
I'd put a big emphasis on the fact that she's wary of organizations that force a particular way of thinking on their members. If someone's reason for following a certain law is "because God, the Church, or the King says so", she should immediately distrust whatever that person is believing in. Due to her inexperience however, she may not realize that even if the person in question is an idiot who is incapable of reasoning by themselves, it doesn't necessarily mean that the law itself is stupid. A critical thinker may be following the same law because it makes life easier for everyone. Basically, I suggest making use of the association fallacy.
Another thing you can do is to not forget her flaw. If there's conflict within the party and she fears the other members might abandon her, she should go along with whatever they decide instead of sticking up with her convictions. This might lead to a breaking point later on.
Age: 33 | Sex: Male | Languages: French and English | Roles: DM and Player
That is very good advice.
Thank you.
I am an online author and sci-fi lover who plays table too roleplaying games in his free time. See all my character concepts at: Character Bios – Jays Blog (jaytelford.me)
I played a character a little while ago now called Peregrine, an Aarakocra Cleric/Monk who while fully adult by Aarakocra standards (12 years old) was quite naive in his outlook as he spent most of his life at the template monastery where he was trained. He was lawful good compared to the party's more chaotic neutral mix which often led to differences of opinion in what to do (and almost coming to blows when one character was going too far pushing for information from a prisoner).
More generally though what I liked to do was have him do slightly odd things that made sense to him; he would almost always give himself a full introduction as a "champion of Angharradh" (his deity) not realising that would close more doors than it opened and seeing no reason to deceive, he didn't fully grasp ownership (an aspect of Aarakocra I decided to lean into) so would just give away money to the needy because he didn't personally value it, and he never haggled for things even when I as a player thought he was being overcharged. He often took things at face value, or even literally, so when he asked someone's name and they rudely told him to go away, he just started addressing them as if that was their name etc.
That might be more comedic than what you're looking for but I had a lot of fun with it; the balance for me was keeping it light and amusing most of the time, and I would usually let another character take the lead instead if it ever risked creating real difficulties, because when your group is struggling to get something done because one player is roleplaying too hard that's usually more frustrating than fun. I also liked to try and use it create roleplay opportunities, because when one character doesn't understand something it gives other characters a chance to step in and try to explain in their own way.
On one occasion the marshal of Bryn Shander was complaining about being unable to find a key, without hesitating I (as Peregrine) responded "I have no trouble finding things because I have everything to hand" before proceeding to demonstrate how he had literally all of his belongings in his two pouches. I also remember a particularly fun exchange with an awakened tree called the "Nether Oak", but since it was never spelled out I had Peregrine bewildered by the idea that a tree that had very clearly always been an oak could be the "Never Oak" – this also unwittingly helped to soothe a potentially hostile creature that initially thought we were a threat, but instead found the exchange amusing. When confronting the Frostmaiden (an actual deity) I rolled well against the DM's custom frightful presence effect so Peregrine was the only one unaffected, and immediately just started asking questions trying to understand what she thought she was doing in the hopes of finding a way to convince her not to. I had fun. 😂
It also partly depends what exactly you mean by "childlike in her approach"; in my experience at least children can be both extremely open to new ideas and information, almost immediately integrating them when they're appealing, but also incredibly stubborn about beliefs they already hold even if they're proven to be wrong (but then so do adults). That could be fun to play with to a point, e.g- if someone was rude to you and then tried to excuse themselves by saying it's a customary greeting, later you can be rude to someone else believing that to be true. You can also play with simplistic ideas of right and wrong, which I find fun in characters that then start to realise they can't explain their position, e.g- classic trolley problem of do you sacrifice a few lives to save many more, but a "childlike" character would insist they can save them all.
Given the background you might also go for classic association; e.g- because one religious order was repressive and in her experience discriminatory, she might assume this to be true of all religious orders until she encounters one that's more permissive. Because she idolises the adventurers who rescued her as a child, she might be too trusting towards adventurers until she discovers that not all adventurers are the good-citizens she believes and so-on.
Sorry if that's a lot, I tend to get carried away and just ramble about stuff. My own character's not the closest fit for yours, but I thought the similarities might be useful. 😂
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