Character Arc Building Is Hard

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Introduction

I’ve been told recently that my characters tend to not have much room for growth, boxing them into eternal meeting or combat threads. I’m taking this into account and trying to make characters with character arcs in mind. With that being said, I like to think that I’ve succeeded at making one.

There’s just one problem. I can’t find a home for her.

Eleanor Breakdown

My character (let’s call her “Eleanor”) is a kind soul who wants to help people. Born into a happy, privileged family, Eleanor’s motivation for doing what she does is the desire to help people where she can. The specifics of her character can change, but that’s the core.

Before I begin, I’d like to make one thing clear – this character is explicitly political. This isn’t to say that she’s a pastiche of a specific politician or even a reflection of current events anywhere, it’s just that the themes she represents are political by their very nature. As such, she might not gel with certain RP sites; she wouldn’t fit into a Dragon Ball site, for instance, because Dragon Ball deals with different themes.

Eleanor’s character arc is about gaining social awareness. Like I said, Eleanor grew up privileged – she doesn’t have a frame of reference for most peoples’ struggles. And on a deeper level than that, her society is fundamentally unjust and unequal, something she doesn’t understand. She’s a victim of the just-world fallacy, in other words.

Naturally, this needs a site focus on social issues like those, or at least one that can support it tonally. I’d rather not use the real world, because I live in the real world already – besides, I want the site to be action-oriented.

Misc. Personal Rules

Firstly, I am not going to play on a site that has real-life faceclaims. This is because I am personally averse to the use of real-life faceclaims, and would not feel comfortable on a site that uses them.

Secondly, I’d like for the site to be action-oriented. Again, purely a matter of personal preference.

Thirdly, if powers are a thing on-site, I’d like for them to be well-defined. I remember going to a site that was almost perfect save for one thing – powers were too nebulous.

Fourthly, I’d rather not play in an isekai. I’m tired of the isekai genre in general.

Finally, the site needs to be tonally consistent with the kind of character arc I have in mind with her. Again, this is the reason a Dragon Ball or Soul Eater site would not work.

Conclusion

I know that this is sort of a long shot, but hey. No shame in trying. There were exactly two sites that fit the bill; one of them is closed, and another is active but sluggish. I really need to develop as a writer and RPer.
last edit on Aug 28, 2019 14:46:49 GMT by Deleted
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like spiral said, hoenn has a fantastic faction system with politics and we touch on real life issues such as crime, the environment, and of course, politics! i’ve personally found it a great place to work on my character’s political suave/skill !

hope to see you there :^)

P.S. this works for new players too! your character doesn’t have to be “established” to climb the political ‘ladder’ so to say.
last edit on Sept 5, 2019 23:33:12 GMT by sadsoda
pronounsshe / her
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Seconding Soda’s recommendation! There’re events out the wazoo, the Three houses-inspired one just finished and there’s a whole host of things for your character to sink their teeth into.

We have missions for days out the wazoo. There’s lots of mini-events too, and member-run events are actually being encouraged. Have ideas for missions? Bring ‘em forward!

There’s also gyms if you wanna go the more traditional route of getting them badges and all that fluff.

Coordinating is also coming up shortly, and the site recently introduced Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves into the site lore :eyes:

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Not as cool a site, but Revo is a crime RP with political and societal unrest pretty much at the dead center of the plot. I'd argue it can be as much slice of life as it can be action-oriented, depending on the sort of character you play there, but Eleanor seems like she would fit right in with the setting of the site, and her arc as you described seems to fit in with the themes we play with there. :O

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