How to keep Canon characters fresh while out of the can

CountVladDracula · Joined: 07 Oct 2010 Posts: 8124 Location: USA - NY

On another thread someone asked how I managed to stick with Dracula for so long without getting bored with him. Years ago I played Jareth in a Labyrinth RPG for three years. And later Bob from The Dresden Files for equally as long (and I still play him fairly often actually).

Now here are some of my personal tricks for keeping a canon character fresh so you don't get bored with him or her.

1. If it's a canon character that has had many incarnations embrace the other incarnations. If he is from a famous novel than watch the film versions or TV show versions or read the other book version. For me what really kept things going was when I discovered the Dracula series by Fred Saberhagen (who passed away in 2007). His version of Dracula was almost identical to how I was already portraying him in RP.
Fred Saberhagen's Dracula books are
The Dracula Tape - A re-telling of Dracula from Dracula's point of view.
The Dracula Holmes Files - Dracula and Sherlock Holmes are forced to team up.
Old Friend of the Family - Dracula is summoned by Mina's descendants who have become desperate after the youngest member o the family has been kidnapped (and the poor boy's pinky fingers have been torn off).
Thorn - Dracula has a run in with his own Dhampir sort-of exwife. Oh, yes, and there are explosions and vampire temper tantrums.
Dominion - One of the only ones I don't like. Dracula meets Merlin.
Matter of Taste - In this one Dracula ends up poisoned (temporarily) and Mina's descendants repay their debt to him by protecting him from his enemies.
Question of Time - The other one I don't like. This one deals with time travel.
Seance for a vampire - Another Sherlock Holmes story set back in the nineteenth century.
Sharpness on the neck - Dracula faces his brother, Radu.
Coldness in the blood - Dracula has to deal with the Philosopher's Stone and a self-proclaimed Egyptian God.
There are also the short stories From the Tree of Time (found in the Gaslight Arcanum) and Box Number 50 (found in the short story collection Dracula in London). Box Number 50 is a fun one, it's sort of a midquel to The Dracula Tape. It's actually fast become my favorite vampire book series and I think it's very under-rated. Dracula is both vicious and charming with his own twisted sense of honor. Oh, yes, and he lies a lot within the stories themselves, you have to read between the lines to catch what really happened when he does that.

2. Put your canon character into new and different situations that you have never seen done before with him or her.

3. Evolve your character past their original story. Let them grow as a person, let the new experiences within RP impact them and effect their personalities or points of view. It's not straying from the source material as much as it's natural evolution.

4. Listen to music that reminds you of the character or his or her personality. This might help inspire you. If there are already songs about the character that's even better.

5. Listen to other people when they talk about how they view the character or how they might have analyzed this or that incarnation of the character. It might help your own portrayal.

6. Take breaks. If a character gets dull than play another character for a while, for a few days or even months at a time, until you get the feel for the canon character again.

7. If the original character's creator is available talk to them about the character and see where they were heading with him. Ask about the details that no one else might know.

8. Think about your character in random and mundane situations. "How would Robin Hood do dishes?" It might give you practice insight into the character.

9. If your character has a particular interest or expertise, familiarize yourself with that subject as best you can. The education might influence you.

10. If you fall into a repetition rut find a way to break it, seek new things to do with the character, new adventures to explore. New storylines and new encounters.

11. Read fan fiction. If it's a popular enough character to have inspired fan fiction read some fan fiction. It might inspire you or give you an idea about how others see the character.

12. Disable the character in some way or restrain / imprison him. Something that might make things difficult or change how you play him. This does not have to be a permanent change.

13. Try playing the character at different points in his life. In example, if the character is a ghost or vampire play him from when he was still alive and mortal. If the character is immortal play him in different time periods. If the character is an alien play him in different worlds.
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Yes, I know I'm a little batty! Thank you for noticing.

Prophet · Joined: 05 Sep 2007 Posts: 98 Location: USA - FL

I think the hardest part is coming up with new situations for the canon character, knowing how their worlds can be...severely limiting. Though I think the most novel idea there is injury. I never practice that enough (mostly because of how people think you're trying to jones for IC pity.) Thanks a ton for answering my question. I'm bookmarking this.
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CountVladDracula · Joined: 07 Oct 2010 Posts: 8124 Location: USA - NY

WhyteMouse · Joined: 07 Oct 2011 Posts: 58 Location: USA - TN

I often play Resident Evil 5's Ricardo Irving and have since...April or May of 2009. The good(or bad, depending) thing with this character is that there's not too much information on him but enough to get an idea of his personality, his career, and other quirks. Fellow fans and their speculation of this character and how he'd behave and even (good) fan fictions.

About every Irving fan I talk to view this character as a horrible womanizer and it's hilarious to play even though you never see it in-game. I constantly have this character in different situations and ones that will never, ever be put in a game, like him being a father for one. Since my character died fairly early on in the video game he's in, I've had to be extraordinarily creative with figuring out how he survived his death, but hey, he's from a Resident Evil game and villains are always coming back to life. xD;

I had a point where I did RP him so frequently that I had to take a three or four month long break from him.

EtherialNeko · Joined: 15 Sep 2009 Posts: 1435 Location: United Kingdom

I think the hardest thing for book-canon characters would be using new phrases.

I see you, Dracula, use the "indian drum" metaphor a lot...Which I assum eis from the book, and it's very canon. and very descriptive.
(Nothing wrong with you doing that, by the way, you usually only do it with new characters, as in, once per new person so they can see it too))

If you don't use book metaphors..is it less canon?
But if you repeat it...is it boring?

I don't know, I repeat a lot because I don't know many metaphors. >.<

CountVladDracula · Joined: 07 Oct 2010 Posts: 8124 Location: USA - NY