Creating the profile for my character in a game I had a certain look in mind, but due to a frankly appaling lack of Edmund Blackadder in the Male Historical section of the pictures I found myself picking a shertain famoush Shcottish actor, and immediately I shtarted thinking in hish accshent even though the character ishn't from Shcotland. I know on shome other webshites having a character picture is the most important part of the application process for a game so it seems I'm in a minority who think a text description is sufficient.

Anyway I was curious; if like me you have Hinderance (Major) - Can't Draw Curtains and have to use someone else's picture or art rather than draw your own, does the image you use effect the way you play them?

I personally try to find the character portrait that most closely resembles my character. However for actual character art, I include it on my cast page. If the character is no where close to my character art, I make a 150 or 200 px image that I include in every post. A pain, but helpful for remembering the tone of my character and helpful for other players.

A picture is nice, but I tend to go with either/or, or both. As long as I have a vague idea of what the character looks like one way or another, it’s not something that will make me say no.

Sometimes.

I will admit that sometimes I find a character acquiring certain characteristics that I either associate with, or know are associated with, whatever person I'm using to represent them. I'd say that it tends to affect my willingness to watch things that have a character's "person" in them more than it affects the character, though, but that's because I don't tend to watch a lot of TV or movies normally.

I generally start out with a pretty generic description of appearance and focus more on personality and background, then I'll go through the portraits and try to find something that fits the image of the character (ie, the portrait has the look of someone that could have had the backstory I've written).  I don't think I have ever started out a character with a specific look in mind, and the portraits I pick generally have a look that fits with the way I intend to play that character.  Beyond that, no, the portrait I've chosen doesn't really impact how I play the character.

Honestly, same as Facemaker329, I start with the general character concept and flavour I'm going for and then browse the portraits until I find something that feels right. I wouldn't say it influences the character so much as the specific details of their appearance. I also prefer finding portraits in rpol's gallery that show somebody whose face I can find online in different variations and facial expressions.

What has 100% coloured my reaction and view of a character was the choice of other players for their respective characters. There were plenty of times I didn't find a character that interesting, but flat out developed a fondness and even devastating crush, because they picked a certain character portrait. Like Christian Bale from Reign of Fire. Mind you. The character still has to be interesting for that to happen, but interesting concept + good execution + THAT PICTURE = DEVASTATING.

I live in Scotland and never heard that accent before but hey ho!  LOL  just joking.  What I like to see is both description and a picture added found on the web and put in a site that gives you the code to enter the pic in.  There are those on here that can tell you how to do that.  I could swear I saw a Black Adder in Victorian garb in the gallery but I haven't looked in a long timel  Good Luck with your character!

 A picture's worth a thousand words,
But now I must be frank.
Without the eyes to see those words,
to me that page is blank.

Now don't mind me,
but I can't see.
I'm blind
as blind can be.
I've got two eyes
just decorating
because these eyes don't  work on me
I want RPOL to know
I cannot see.

okay enough with the nonsense.    My handle was altered because I wanted folks to be aware of the fact I'm literally sightless.  I want them to know that yes RPOL has   character pictures, but that if I was going to know what they were they were going to have to give me a character description, and I was going to ask questions from time to time, to gain clarification on things that might be obvious in regards to that character image.  Sometimes I forget and ask the questions in-character.   There is a certain halfling archer around here for an AD&D campaign that can recall the violent facepalming on my part because of this mistake.    I've played games where not everyone had a character picture, but everyone had a character description and that worked, but I'm not sure if that's the norm.

In most of the games I've played, SOME kind of written description is a requirement, even if it's just a basic stat block. A lot of people do put pictures in, and a few GMs I know offer to host images for those that can't/don't want to do their own.

Personally, though? If you can't or won't bother writing /anything/ to describe your character, that's a big indicator to me of the level of description (or complete lack thereof) that I can probably expect from your posts and that's usually a red flag for a lazy writer which generally translates to a lazy player. MORE description is always better than less. ALWAYS. Anyone that tells you otherwise is a lazy reader, and that also translates to 'lazy player'.

Lazy players don't make for good games.

I'm going to disagree on "more is better" in the description block.

Too many folks (in my opinion) use it for bios and dossiers and psychological diagnosis. Things that should be discovered through game play, not assumed as common knowledge to strangers that have just met you.

I think the description should be limited to a physical description: what can actually be seen.

Again, in my opinion, if you have to post a dossier with all your character quirks and interesting bits, it's a good indication to me that you won't be able to role play those bits for others to discover the normal way. And that, too, can be a warning sign.

In reply to tmagann (msg # 10):

I agree entirely, because what you're referencing isn't "more description", it's just more /information/.

But someone that describes their character's hair as "brown" isn't providing as complete of a description as someone who describes their character's hair as "Brown with honey-hued highlights from the sun, hanging in a layered cut that falls partway past their shoulders in the back but just beyond the edge of their chin in front, with a tendency to fall in their face and force them to brush it aside."

One of those paints a visual picture. The other just ticks a box at the most basic level.

(By the same token, someone who says "My character takes a seat at the table" isn't providing as much necessary information as someone who says "My character pulls out a chair at the corner, far away from anyone else" or someone who specifies "I take the seat next to <another character>". Descriptive details matter, because they provide more information about what's going on. That's why more is better than less, IMO.)
This message was last edited by the user at 18:57, Fri 17 Nov 2023.

Actually, in my experience, one of those gets read (the whole description probably does as well), and the other one kind of gets ignored for going on in needless detail, as, most likely, does everything that comes after it.

TMI is a cliche phrase for a reason.

I suppose.

On the other hand, to me description is much like food. I'd rather have more than I need, and choose to pass (or skim, in the case of posts), than be left starving. You don't have to eat read it if you don't want to.

Given the nature of PbP games, I stand by the opinion that it's better to provide more upfront description of what's going on (or of the object/person being described) rather than less, if just to prevent other players having to waste valuable posting time asking for clarification about something that /wasn't/ adequately described in the first place.

Personally, I pick something that looks kinda/sorta for the portrait then link the actual picture(s) that I want to use in the character description.

tl;dr - find what works for the game and group. Players are often too afraid to speak up and instead drop out because of things such as this.


I prefer a happy middle ground.

A post should include enough detail to explain what you are doing (if it matters) and have something for the others to interact with. Taking a seat is an action, and unless you're conveying that you're a lone wolf, or something to that effect, where you sit is not typically a pertinent piece to me or the scene (barring, of course, sitting next to someone or away because of some combat or intrigue going down). I also see nothing wrong with giving a basic hair color and length or style. A description should give me a fair picture of the character. How tall, general appearance, clothing, and any obvious weapons. (The only time it should reveal more is if that's the game's primary purpose of advertising a couple's story and you want to know what character would be a good fit). Otherwise, I agree, anything beyond appearances should be discovered through interactions.

The general accepted also differs between the styles of games. In a d20 game, I'm surprised if I get anything more than a general height, weight, eye, and hair color. Since the focus of those games is adventuring and completing missions/quests (Not typically romance or personal interactions). Whereas a guided freeform, where most of the focus is on stories surrounding a given couple or group, far more emphasis is on writing novel-like posts akin to Tolkien or your steamy romance novels.


Though to your point SunRuanEr, words hold importance and if one 'skims' there is a chance they miss something that could be important. More is not necessarily better. My ask in such situations is the important items are called out if that is the case. I've had players complain about attempting to keep up because several posts were small papers. I believe moderation and getting a feel for the group's preference is ideal. Since some players are afraid of giving offense by bringing it up, they'll just give up and leave quietly.

Your mileage may vary, but that's been my experience.

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but it uses up three thousand times the memory on the hard disk !  <grrins>

The elusive portrait of Mr Blackadder can be found under Male Historical 17th Century #17078 (mh17078).

And a thousand times yes !  No matter what I had in mind during character creation the picture I select definitely modifies the final product ... but by the same measure, the image I already have in my head before I turn to the portrait gallery means I'm looking for certain features anyway, and limits what makes my shortlist.  :>

I'm looking for a Portrait that I have seen before.  I remember thinking it had been placed in a wrong cztagory.  Now when I'm trying to find it, I can't seem to do so.  It is a cropped head shot taken from the following picture.  Click to see.
https://imgur.com/K6T6Cpw

mfr160

Thank's Shannara!