Flaws, Fears, and Failures: Dal’s Guide to Imperfect Characters

Perfect characters are boring; this is something a beginning Roleplayer soon learns. The time between becoming aware of this fact and being able to create well made and fun to play imperfect characters can be hard, I understand. I’m here to help.
So, whether you are just starting out RPing or want to add some spice into your character, this guide is for you!


Flaws

A flaw in a character is simply a basic personality trait taken to extremes. Everyone is a little bit prideful, if they were not then they would take no pleasure from the tasks they complete and they would have no reason to do things well. However, when pride is a flaw it is blown up to huge proportions. A character whose flaw is pride might refuse to accept help from others or always think that his or her plan is the best. Remember that not all flaws have to make a character unpleasant to be around; perhaps a character is too self-effacing or can’t stay serious.

To build up a flaw in a character that currently has none without creating an entire new personality trait is a relatively simple procedure. Look through your character’s personality, what are they like. Lets take a look Bob the Fighter for a moment as our case study.

“Bob has focused on melee combat with blacksmithing as his life skill. He is a down to earth and down to business sort of person who does what he needs to do to get the job done.”

Bob does what he needs to do to get the job done. This means that he is stubborn and driven. Enlarge these personality traits and Bob, once he makes a plan, does not change it to adapt to new developments. Once he sees his goal and figures out how he is going to get there [with or without help] his vision becomes tunneled and he cannot change course [or at least has a hard time doing so].


Fears

No character is fearless. Even the most brave of characters are simply hiding their fears from others. A character’s fear gives us a chance to look into their past as well, as no fear comes out of nowhere. A fear is formed when the character has a bad experience [or many] with a specific thing. Perhaps a character with a fear of spiders was bitten by one as a kid and almost died. Or maybe they watched someone else get bitten and die. You don’t need to explain why they have a fear, but you should know it.

Although a character might not be open about his fears they should still affect the way they act. If Bob is afraid of spiders he is going to avoid going to Alby at all costs and, if he has no choice, he is going to be on edge the entire time he is inside the dungeon. Or perhaps he wants others to believe that he has no fears and therefore goes out of his way to go into Alby, even without telling others that he is afraid of spiders. Remember, people react to fear in different ways, but they always react.

Fears do not go away when they become inconvenient, this is a blunder many starting roleplayers make. A logical conversation will not convince someone to no longer be afraid. It may convince them that their fear is irrational, but it will not make it go away. This is not to say that fears cannot be vanquished, of course, but it takes time and effort. Feel free to use this to develop your character as much as you would the fear itself.


Failures

Every character has a past and, since we have established that no character is perfect, every character has made mistakes in his or her past. A failure can be something as simple as never being able to learn to use a bow, even when he tried or something as devastating as watching someone they cared about die in front of them because of what they did [or failed to do].

Past failures are very important to the way a character acts now. Someone who was given a duty to guard someone only to have her be killed in front of him might become overprotective of everyone, feeling devastatingly guilty when they receive even the slightest scratch. Or perhaps they only feel protective towards women or those who remind him of the person he had failed to guard.

How a character reacts to present failures also gives us a glimpse into their personality. Does the character slump into an unresponsive depression when he fails on a duty that was given to him by himself or others? On the other end of the spectrum he could, after failing something, pretend that he had never intended to do it in the first place. Bob, being very determined [and stubborn, we talked about this] will jump right up after failing and try it all over again, usually not stopping to revise his plan along the way.





~Dalvar’s Activity Book!~
Name one personality trait your character has that is taken to extremes [and therefore a flaw]:
Name one fear your character has and how he or she responds to it:
Name one failure in your character’s past:
How did he or she respond to it?
How does he or she respond to failures now?

Knarex: I am perfect and I am not boring...

Xen: Dude you are insane.. and still boring.

Knarex: I am not Insane T_T I just think differently than others..

~Dalvar’s Activity Book!~ For Xeek =D
Name one personality trait your character has that is taken to extremes [and therefore a flaw]:
His failure to use Common sense.
Name one fear your character has and how he or she responds to it:
Falling, heart break, black ship rats(slowly over coming it)
Name one failure in your character’s past:
Almost anything that involves concentration. For the next question I will use Castle dungeon.
How did he or she respond to it?
He went "emo" for a certain period of time and trained.
How does he or she respond to failures now?
Train until he can do it. He is one of those "Man this annoying brat doesn't give up" people.

Rebecca:
Flaw: Rebecca is completely uncomprimising, which leads people to see her as forceful and abrasive
Fear: I think it has been established that Rebecca is heavily protective of Shade. Though she might trust him to go off on his own for a while, she'll never be far away if she can help it
Failure: So far, Rebecca has been able to protect Shade from everything, except himself

Shade:(when sane)
Flaw: Shade, when he encounters someone who he thinks has false pride, develops an extremely sadistic streak.
Fear: Shade has always feared that his sister would be killed by her efforts to protect him
Failure: Rebecca's always been the one to tackle challenges, so Shade himself has yet to fail

Eugeal:
Flaw: Eugeal's care for life in general is not quite as high as it should be.
Failure: At one point, she was a high-ranking figure in an evil orginisation
Fear: Eugeal is absolutely terrified of being corrupted again. As a result, she has forced herself to act more caring than she normally would.

I have three other characters, but I need to introduce them first

Kenelm
Main flaws: Determination, thoroughness.
Main fear: Getting back-stabbed by someone he trusts.
Response: Slow to trust others.
Past failure: Caught off guard
Response: He tries harder to keep aware of his surroundings.
Response to new failures: Accept the fact there was a shortcoming, and works (or trains) to prevent such from happening again.

Dalyn
Main flaws: Almost always entertained; causes "WTF" moments; questionable sanity
Main fear: The "party" ending.
Response to said fear: Usually out of sight, out of mind. Else, he'll be disappointed until he's pointed in a new direction.
Past failure: He's lost most of his sanity, and the memory of how he lost it.
Response: If he could remember, he'd be in a state of constant worry.
Response to new failures: He'll mostly "take it in stride," aside from some worry.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, Ken responded to something I wrote without a correction.
*Happy dance*

Uh, I mean...
*Cough*
>_>
<_<

Cap
Main flaws: Memory like a bowl of cottage cheese with fruit cake crumbled in and someone keeps stirring the mess around. Determined to the point of self destruction. Understands Fear as a concept.
Main fear: Closest thing to fear is a deep concern that he may forget something REALLY impotant.
Response: Confusion.
Past failure: Forgot that he was married. Forgot that [censored]
Response: Mental shock resulting in memories being swirled around a bit again.
Response to new failures: Accepts that he failed but will either blindly keep pounding at whatever the obstacle is till its either worn down or he has grown in capability to overcome it like a normal person.

Chuck
Main flaws: Drunkard and party animal and fatal curiosity
Main fear: Having to pay the bill
Response to said fear: He will "disapear" at the first opprotunity.
Past failure: Broke his neck break dancing at a frat party.
Response: If he could do it over again he would .... oh dang but that was a great party.
Response to new failures: (insert bad word) .... Okay who is buying the drinks?

[ other to follow as my brain percolates ]

Xeek wrote:Knarex: I am perfect and I am not boring...

Xen: Dude you are insane.. and still boring.

Knarex: I am not Insane T_T I just think differently than others..

Gatemo: You're also dead. Get your soul-arse back in the dagger. >=O

Gatemo:
Name one personality trait your character has that is taken to extremes: Emotional detachment. Gatemo can put on a smile, but it's often an empty one. Beneath the mask he's a bit hollow.
Name one fear your character has and how he or she responds to it: Being unable to accomplish what he sets out to do due to indecisiveness.
Name one failure in your character’s past: Gatemo would say falling in love. I'd say trying to give up on it. XD
For a major failure though, I'd say the war against humans which led to the Fomors' banishment. He was on the losing side, after all.
How did he respond to it? The love one, he tends to shut himself off from others if he feels he's getting too close. Or find ways to manipulate them emotionally. Incubus nature n' all. (DANCE, PUPPETS!) The fall from glory one, he's...working on it. >>;
How does he respond to failures now? The same way. He'll put on his mask and/or find ways to adapt and turn things back in his favor.

Silvreno:
Name one personality trait your character has that is taken to extremes: Reno feels obligated to make everything right somehow and goes to painful extremes sometimes to see to it.
Name one fear your character has and how he: Losing his wife. It's a fear he's always had even long before they were married and it's the reason he tries so hard now to make things better.
Name one failure in your character’s past: Controlling himself when he broke the seal placed on him. Reno thought he could handle it, but ended up snapping, attacking his foster sister, and getting imprisoned for it.
How did he respond to it? He honestly had little clue of what happened or how. Still doesn't, but just knows he did something wrong and tries to make up for it however he can.
How does he respond to failures now? He tries harder not to fail.

~Dalvar’s Activity Book!~

Name one personality trait your character has that is taken to extremes [and therefore a flaw]:

Cheerful obliviousness... ness.. Or something. Jaeden has the remarkable ability to try to bounce back from almost anything she sees, and thus she is never truly upset or depressed about most things for longer than a few minutes. While some would consider this a good trait, it's affected her ability to make good decisions. Or take anything as seriously as it needs to be.

Name one fear your character has and how he or she responds to it:

She has a fear of spiders, and of deep thick forests (Specifically Karu). She solves this problem by killing any spiders that she sees, and she almost never goes into Karu forest alone. When she does, she's usually on a mount with someone and keeping her eyes shut until they enter the Karu Dungeon.

Name one failure in your character’s past:

Good Lord, Jae fails every day. Jaeden is a very weak character, physically. Because of this there really isn't much she can do to save her friends when they're in trouble, unless they're particularly susceptible to arrows and keep their distance from her. Eg. Her inability to keep Angron from ripping her friends up.

How did he or she respond to it?

Currently she's trying -very- hard to forget about it, and push herself into being a stronger character. Other than that, her cheerful obliviousness is working double-time on the clock to keep her from feeling too upset about it.

Name one personality trait your character has that is taken to extremes [and therefore a flaw]: Wait . . . one? Umm yeah . . . Pride, being miserly, lecherousness, over protectiveness, eagerness to take on any challenge 'I want to hunt a dragon!' 'Why don't they let you solo Panecea?' aggressiveness.

Name one fear your character has and how he or she responds to it: People he cares about being injured or taken from him. Note: So far these people are all also women so . . . fear of friendship with men? Response: Violence.

Name one failure in your character’s past: A near constant streak of getting himself horribly injured by embarrassingly easy monsters like skeletons.

How did he or she respond to it? Violence. And childish name calling.

How does he or she respond to failures now? Much more calmly now that it doesn't happen as much. And also violence.

Yeah, there's not a theme or anything there.

Zachary Dellinger::
-Name one personality trait your character has that is taken to extremes [and therefore a flaw]:
Zach's a bit overprotective of his friends, and quick to take offense from ignorance. He also has several triggers linked to his past that will set him off in a moment's notice.
-Name one fear your character has and how he or she responds to it:
He's afraid of everyone around him dying. It's something that's quite realistic, based on his past, so of course he's afraid of it. How he deals with it includes attempting to prevent his friends from dying. Quite lame in some cases but it works in others.
-Name one failure in your character’s past:
He allowed himself to get careless while fighting what is known as a 'Shoggath' in Corem, and almost got all of his friends killed for it.
-How did he or she respond to it?
The party didn't. They shot the bad guy attempting to control the Shoggath in the head, so the Shoggath went after that specific body. They quickly ran as the beast was distracted.
-How does he or she respond to failures now?
It really depends. Either he's fine or he's not. At the moment, however, he can't really respond at all.

To throw out a counter opinion: you can have an "imperfect" character, and not have explicate "flaws" per ce. Another, very good way, to build a character is to come up with a few keywords that define the character. These can be both flaws and character defining traits. Another thing to consider for developing characters is quirks. I think Quirks are by far superior to flaws in defining them, as Quirks can include both traits and flaws in one package. Then again, I tend to define characters, initially at least, by their quirks, not by their flaws (I don't like defining things by their negatives).

Kagaea- Well, yes, I expect any good character to have a plethora of positive aspects as well.
But that is not the subject of this piece.
I wrote this more for the people who have no negative parts to their characters at all.

Name one personality trait your character has that is taken to extremes [and therefore a flaw]:

Jinnhin (Mabi): Basically Bipolar due to all the things happened to her and her friends. As evident to Caliandra and a few people, she does have her moments of desperation and became willing to get herself in harm's way to ensure the safety of those she cared about.

JAARouge (Mabi): Passively annoyed, so most of her intimidating appearances are mainly from things not going as she planned.

JackieAlice (PWI): She is too kind for her own good when dealing with another common-folk.

Jacquelyn (GW): Cold which may slimmed her chances of warming up with people, even her friends.

YinMajor (Megaten): Impulsive at worst, she can might as well wandered off while no one's looking.

Yin Naginata (GW): She is just dense and most often not pay attention to what she is doing or what happened around her.

Name one fear your character has and how he or she responds to it:

Jinnhin (Mabi): Despite her necrotic background, she does have a fear of Mummy. She'll most likely freeze or just gets out of the room as quickly as she got in.

JAARouge (Mabi): Rouge is highly fearful of blood, mainly because she was unable to move when she was wounded or does nothing for the wounded. Also, in the past, she was called the bloodless bandit because she rather not kill anyone during her heists.

JackieAlice (PWI): She feared monsters that are considered big to her (about x5 of her size). She would definitely freak out and overdoes her job.

Jacquelyn (GW): She hates snakes. Simple as that. Either she keeps her distance or uses a high powered skill against it.

YinMajor (Megaten): Anything that comes at her at high speed will shake her up by much. She'll obviously resort to the Dodge skill and have 50-50 chance that she'll get hit by Rush or dodged a projectile.

Yin Naginata (GW): She is deathly afraid of Kurzicks because she thought of them as those who will kill her on sight. She'll obviously run away to seek safety of other Luxons or Non-Kurzick Canthans.

Name one failure in your character’s past:

Jinnhin (Mabi): She failed to raise her actual children correctly, so one would run away from her while one would just wander off.

JAARouge (Mabi): There was hardly any failures known, unless you can count her failing to avenge her father by trying to reclaim her throne and was defeated by her step father.

JackieAlice (PWI): She failed to keep her love a secret.

Jacquelyn (GW): She failed to press on her family's tradition of defending the great northern wall.

YinMajor (Megaten): She accidentally shot a war-buddy and failed to revive him in time.

Yin Naginata (GW): Failed her ritualist courses five times in a row.

How did he or she respond to it?

Jinnhin (Mabi): She regrets it deeply because they may end up causing trouble for her friends and they may scowl her and Capt for it.

JAARouge (Mabi): She agonized because her defeat costs her right eye.

JackieAlice: She was hurt when her father ordered an arrest on her lover.

Jacquelyn (GW): She was ashamed.

YinMajor (Megaten): She was emotionally numbed due to the process of losing her war-buddy and becoming a soldier.

Yin Naginata (GW): She is...somewhere else at the moment.

How does he or she respond to failures now?

Jinnhin (Mabi): She still regrets it.

JAARouge (Mabi): She puts her right hand on her right eye and show some deep animosity by the topic.

JackieAlice (PWI): She is still worried about losing her lover for good.

Jacquelyn (GW): She apologized coldly and calmly demanded that topic to be never mentioned again.

YinMajor (Megaten): She lowered her head and raised it up after a moment, then just wanders off again.

Yin Naginata (GW): She is too busy with communicating to a spirit.

Name one personality trait your character has that is taken to extremes [and therefore a flaw]: Holds grudges. She becomes cold and haughty when people get her mad, and often gets mad abotu very trivial things. When people don't seem repentant, she can completly cut them off.

Name one fear your character has and how he or she responds to it: She fears being helpless, especially when other people are around. As a result, she became a bit of a loner, and trains by herself with great frequency so she isn't weak.

Name one failure in your character’s past: She blames herself for her mother's suicide.
How did he or she respond to it? She was very depressed and as a result, she is very slow to get into relationships. This feeds into her biggest fear. It also made her very protective of her friends.

How does he or she respond to failures now? She becomes very stubborn and never quits once she gets something in her head. She will work towards her goal until she succeeds.