Need a little advice...

[Kitty O'Brien]

On Sonic Aftermath, like practically all other roleplay forums, you can't start playing with a character until you've written their character profile. This is an immutable core dynamic that I will refrain from challenging.

To me, however, it poses a problem. I consider myself a writer by trade. Like many writers, I don't really get to know a character well enough to write a good profile about them until I've used them for a while, which of course is backwards to the roleplay forum norm. With each requirement a prerequisite of the other, the whole thing is a deadlock I have to cheat if I'm to produce anything of any quality.

My usual pattern is as follows:

1. Come up with a general idea of a character
2. Write a profile based on what I think the character will be
3. Start roleplaying
4. Notice discrepancies between the profile and how the character really is
5. Attempt to play the character more closely to their profile, with generally poor results
6. Ultimately give up the character in frustration
7. (optional) Wait a while in order to cool down
8. Start over from step one

Take Jijeka-Te, currently the only character I play here. In her profile she's an intelligent leader who's quite mature for her age. In the roleplay, however, she's turning out to be a visibly reckless person with a slight case of what-does-this-button-do syndrome, and Anu is the only thing keeping her from wrecking utter havoc. I'm obviously at step four and I don't want to hit steps five and six again if I can help it.

Any advice for breaking out of the cycle would be appreciated. I wholly believe the problem is with me, not the forum. Maybe you guys have thought of something I haven't.

Addendum: I somehow suspect that I'm either doing something wrong at step five or missing something between steps one and two.

[Vanessa Blue]

I don't think the profiles are too strict. Mainly it's the powers that need to be approved for balance sake.
I am pretty sure you could just edit the profile to match how she turned out.
Especially if you're not changing any power or talent. I saw no problem with they way you RP'ed and I have heard nothing from any one either.


Also, If you want, I am free on MSN to RP. If you feel like getting some testing done. Or we could do a thread on forum.

[Tech Rathgen]

I don't think you should worry about the RPG itself, a lot of my characters always change their personas. At first, Tech Rathgen came from a story called "Transformation" where Wraith had a gender reassignment then I started calling him Tech Rathgen. Then I did plan a fiction (that was later trashed) where Tech was a voice inside someone's head. When Tech originally came to this RPG board, she was a damsel in distress. However, way before this RPG I had written a short story where she played a police officer called "Made The Slip." After some experimentation, I saw that Tech was bred to be a mystery buff.

The point is, your profile may define the character, but its the character that defines itself to you. It may take some time to see what Ji truly is, but she'll let you know who she is. Don't try to change her, just let her live through your words. She'll love you for it.