Most of the chars I consider good/great characters are already in your list.
In my opinion what primarily constitute a good character isn't really how special it is, it's rather the amount of work you put into it to ensure there's as little as possible loopholes and dark areas in its bio. I think you can really reach this goal when you're capable of playing this character as if it was a real person with its reasoning, feelings and reactions completely unconnected to you. I still strive to be fully able to do that and it's always my goal when roleplaying. I don't know if it is for someone else as well.
It's the kind of goal I always looked to achieve with my serious chars such as Alice DeFrance. I've recently attempted it with Ish'tar but with moderate success, it's a far more complex beast.
One of the characters I've never managed to reach this goal with is Kate Miller, but it still made me realize how much my english improved since I joined discovery (I mean if you look at the first RP posts they were for the most part broken english and stupid stuff). Discovery allowed me to massively improve my english and it's something I'll ever be thankful for.
(07-06-2016, 02:07 PM)aerelm Wrote: the "Why?" instead of the "Who?"
For me, the character needs to be well-written, interesting, and have some sort of clearly defined role - if it's a 'serious' character, I expect it to be defined clearly into some sort of believable profession or lifestyle. Mary Sue "protagonist" characters turn me off immediately, particularly those that are just self-inserts to boot - they could have hundreds of hours of logged time and a legion of die-hard supporters and I still wouldn't give them the time of day. These kinds of characters work well for novels and other such things, but in an environment like this where your character is (to some extent or another) meant to mesh with other characters on a somewhat equal level, it really grates to see well-written characters who stick to reasonable, well-defined, and sensible boundaries of interaction and so forth overshadowed by these monuments to oversized egos. If I had a pound for every uncontrolled and overwritten character along those lines that made me irritated, I'd be rich enough to retire before I've even finished uni.
It takes more literary ability than people realise (I think, anyway) to write a character that is legitimately complex and multifaceted without it looking like a first dip into tweenage fanfiction. Stuff like characters who talk unrealistically ('big words' for the sake of big words, overcomplicated grammar) when, in fact, nobody talks like that in real life; any number of maimed/injured/dead relatives/friends/pet goldfish in the backstory; crippling psychological issues (and it's ALWAYS psychological - funnily enough, nobody seems to wind up missing a leg or an arm, probably because people only like pretty characters); or any number of other things that all seem to come in one big lump of vomit.
On the flipside, characters that are little more than stereotypes with a bit of flavour added can actually be more interesting, engaging, and downright enjoyable to see around than any of the above. Everybody wants to play the "unique" character - the defecting Gallic, the Navy officer who doesn't follow orders because he/she's a good person at heart, the antihero secretly working to save humanity from global warming/the Nomads/Houses infighting as Gallia invades, or the classic Nomad-that-doesn't-hate-humans-it-just-wants-to-learn-and-make-friends. For those reasons and more, it's the people who do play the standard roles - the loyal Gaul, the straight-laced Naval officer, the pirate who is legitimately just out for money, and the insidious, unfathomable, aggressive alien - that really earn my appreciation. It takes far more talent to make those sorts of characters interesting in their own way than it does to cop out on 'easy mode' with a character that is built from the ground up to "stand out" and be 'special'.
Or, if you want to put it simply, Spazzy already said it pretty well:
Quote:if I see a player online and my first instinct is "Hey I should pick a character and go talk to them" instead of "Hey I should pick a character and go shoot them"
Is it possible to add my main char to the list? Bio and current rp story links are below my signature(Fall and Rise/Brighter Future). I've put a lot of effort in developing its story from indie to official, later to nobility and currently in government - but it seems it was not noticed. He is one of the oldest bretonian fanatics still "alive" and would do deals with the devil (nomads) to secure Bretonia - building around that in current story episodes. More are to come but due to RL am unable to continue them.
I consider him "good" char but people opinions would be nice to read.
To put it short, I'd say a RP character is, to me, a character that has a memorable appearance within the roleplay environment of Discovery, a somehow present and interacting character, a character that has good reasonings that, at least if requested, can be shared for transparecy, be in ingame or via forumlancing. A good roleplay character can be shooty to sworn enemies or if a good reason is delivered, but doesn't forget to at least drop the right lines. A good RP character can be a stereotypical faction member, but also can be question the motives of the factions. A good RP character can even be annoying, as long as this behavior is not leaving the range of the roleplay environment.
No memes, no ooRP references, no letter-spamming, no symbol-spamming, no attentionwhoring because a character is so special and individual. A good RP character can have a dark, mysterious or dreamperson-ish background, but this shouldn't be the most memorable aspect of the character, as people get ooRP annoyed about just-another-Orillion-Ozu-VonClaussen-SonGoku-Highlander-JohnCena. A good RP character can be rich, poor, wealthy, but shouldn't command an entire fleet without logistical back-up. And a good roleplay character doesn't throw himself in kamikaze-battles without a very, very good reason.
Don't metagame, don't powergame. And everything should be fine.
For me, a good RP character is the one that makes the game more enjoyable for the community. Do people like playing with this character? If the answer is yes, the RPer did his/her job. It doesn't matter how shallow or deep the character, it's all about the fun of it in the end.
Good bye my friends. Good luck in space. Fly safe.