What did you develop first for your characters?

[starkwolf]

What I mean by this is did you come up with a name then fit a personality to it, or a personality fit to a name?What about physical features? What was the very first thing that made you think "I want to make a character like that"?

My characters so far (and one I am making):

Lex: I needed a character that wasn't very powerful to basically suffer under another character concept, Vlad

Vlad: I made an unpublished map with a unique game in it with lethal consequences for it, and I needed a host. Obviously a host for a game like that would have to be somewhat psychologically unstable.

Jerry: Didn't last very long. I wanted a character with an acidic cynicism that would get on every other character's nerves.

Spitfire: From a book that I hope to eventually write. I have the basic idea what I want to do with it. This was a personality-first development originally based on the song Spitfire by The Prodigy. Over time, the character deviated a lot from the song, so there is little resemblance now.

Roger: First character I ever played. Made the body then just made it all up as I went along.

Lucious: Second character I made. I wanted to play a fox that matched the lore/archetype.

Narrator/Tester: Not even a character, I just sometimes wanted to be me without constantly using (()) or []. Also, sometimes if I used my other characters to test for tech issues, people tried to RP with me. And I do hope to eventually GM a story without actually being in it, and actually have a system for combat.

Marquis: I started personality first. He is a psychic, but doesn't really gain any valuable information from it. Basically, he dreams a dream based on a mind other than his own. Even this he can't do if he is actively invited into their minds. Body and name are a loose fit that just seemed right.

Nightmare: I was listening to some Rob Zombie music, and I wanted a character that looked scary in that way. So physical features first.

Karl: Honestly, I don't even remember.

Karn: personality first (gentle giant, halfway in between the butler and monk archetypes)

Doran: My excuse to play a Vorlan like character, cause cryptic stuff is cool. So personality first.

Raiden: The name sounds really cool, and it is the name of 3 videogame characters that I know of and 1 series that I play. So I looked up the name (god of thunder) and now developing the personality.

[PrettyReckless]

Woah, this could take ages.. But I'll name the ones I use.

Deception: Was created when my old character that I used, died. I fiddled around with the character creator and decided I wanted a dark character.
I didn't know anything about massmarkings but I got them later that week.
While thinking about a name, I thought "Why not look at a band?". Which I did.
The one I chose to take from was "Self Deception", a Swedish rock band that I've been listening to.
Personality came after that.
I changed account, brought Deception with me and tweaked her.

Ressy: I've been called many things, Reckless, Pretty, Reck, Resslet, Recklet, Ressy.
I was to create a feline character for fun, made a lioness and I was clueless what to name it.
So I named it Ressy. x] - After a while I got bored of her and I wanted to make a "new" Ressy, a more unique one.
So I thought about what animals I like, what would suit "Ressy". A friend of mine runs around on a cheetah, while another on a jaguar...
So I decided I didn't want to look too much like them, even if they're adorable.
How did I know what colors to use? - Easy, google images and favourite color. :I
The personality then? - Well, Ressy is my Out of character. So she has no 'personality' besides my own.

[jay warfang]

I normally decide on a basic apperance. Build a body for them. Give them a basic name i may later change and then build a backstory and personality. I tend to base my chars on other things. like my wolf Theros is based of off Raistlin majere. And Kith is built on a banished blueblood.

I feel the need to later Edit this since my style of character creation has changed a lot. I normally now start with a concept of what I want the character to have for a personality and then find a inspiration source with physical details being one of the last things settled on

[Scarr]

I have 10 characters, most are for Roleplays, but I'll mention two that I use most often.

So to start of with, Todd. My wolf character, he was with me from the start when I joined Fh.
(I've managed to stick with him during his Rp, from birth to now.. that is around 3-4 Rp years.)
Full name, Toddavius Raoul Caecelius, meaning fox hunter, wolf counsel and blind.
Toddy is a Dire - Eastern Timber wolf. I've given him quite a lot of thought when I made him, but he was improved as I went along. I wanted Todd to be unique thus the wolf is blind. As for his appearance, Todd is large and dark black and grey in colour. His personality hmm.. Todd used to be one of the silent types. The one that was never noticed in the pack, I prefered to RP that way, however he did change, became tougher and by this his personality changed into a darker and more aggressive one.

Next is a lion character. Deran. I made him as my out of character. This one has a lazy appearance, usually seen sleeping somewhere comfy. The name is quite signifigant to me. Personality? Just my own.

Cheers.~