Kay, this does not look good here, um...

For reference...

Ok, I've kinda hit a wall with this.

No matter what I write as a TWIP it just sounds like a goddam fan-fiction. This really isn't what I want to do.
Hmmm...



Now sure, some personal embellishment is required, afterall, I'm roleplaying. This is how I'm creating the character. This is why they're doing what they're doing. And yes, I base it on the mechanics of the game there is some credibility leant to the character I'm playing.
Afterall (and to quote Extra Credits) "Actions define character". This doesn't mean that I should have a big step-by-step exposition dump of EVERY action...

So I've been toying with some ideas as to how I can deliver my character to the world.
One idea is to do an almost wikipedia-esque write up of their character, with a history section. Rather than a big scary exposition dump, I'll take key moments to give as examples of character. So say in FO3, freeing the slaves, or activating the purifier. These key moments of character could give more information than "then I did this then I did this then I did this" ever could.
This also leant itself to me in another way. I could do character write up for characters outside of roleplaying games. There's a lot of silent protagonists, or other characters that have multiple paths for solution within their game. So what if I did a write up of my interpretation?

Lemme give you an example...

One of my all time favourite games is Second Sight by Free Radical (now Crytek UK). In it you play as Dr. John Vattic, who wakes up in a high security research building with amazing psychic powers.

Now, to escape you can use your psychic abilities to manipulate the environment. Wind a clock forward to make guards think its lunchtime. Set off an alarm to draw their attention away. Make yourself invisible to them to bypass their patrols. There's a great moment with a dead guerrillas, you in a closet, and a scientist running and hiding in the corner when you make the corpse shake.

Or you can run and gun your way out...

Now obviously, as Vattic's nothing more than a civilian, I personally figured the former relatively non-violent approach is more his style. No-one dies (except for the occassional guard when his psychic powers freak out during cutscenes) and it matches more with his personality. He knows these people are just doing their jobs.
The game also reminds you often that these are people. One guard that dies had a chatlog open to his girlfriend on a nearby terminal. Vattic will also complain early in game if you kill either of the first 2 guards you meet, saying he "didn't mean to".
With that in mind, do you really see him killing his way through the building? I sure don't.

Anyway, I'll work on some ideas/concepts and see what I can throw out. I think listing what I as the player want to achieve is a good idea, because that'll be the basic framework.

Eg. in Fallout 3 if I put down a personal goal of "Get all the unique weapons" and some of these unique weapons belong to NPC's, then I guess I'll have to steal them. So "loose sense of morality" could become an aspect of my character. Dig?

Looks like I have work to do.

Teh_steve