Let's talk about weaknesses.
(Or we could just not talk and you can skip down to where
I actually list some. I'll meet you under the asterisks.)
A fair amount of games that allow fan-created characters have started to ask the applicants to explain their characters' weaknesses, and with good reason: most of us don't really want to think about how our characters could be exploited and/or killed. After all, it doesn't seem to make a very heroic hero if she can't battle the enemy very well.
However, I've found that weaknesses make the character lots of fun. I'd like to point out that the point of a role playing game ISN'T to beat the enemy to a pulp and then banish them from the universe where they can do no more harm. The point of a role playing game is, oddly enough, to play the role of a character. That doesn't really bar you from kicking butt and chewing bubble gum, it just means that everything should be secondary to making the character as three-dimensional as possible.
People, as I've said before, have trouble with weaknesses. I've seen many applications where the characters are "strong willed and forceful" rather than diffident. Many apps also list that the character looks fragile and delicate, but add that "looks can be decieving." I understand that some people don't want to play an un-feminine-looking person, but it could be just as much fun to play a character who not only LOOKS delicate, she IS delicate.
Where people are required to list flaws or weaknesses, often the character's one major weakness will be either vanity or stubbornness.
I must say right now in response to that, "BAH!"
I admit that vanity could conceivably be exploited to make an interesting weakness (imagine a warrior who suddenly stops in battle to make sure her hair isn't messed up and consequently allows one of the other characters to get attacked), but it often isn't. Most of the "vain" warriors suddenly forget that their appearance needs constant attention when a battle comes up.
Stubbornness is the sort of "weakness" listed by people who can't really think of anything better. I'd like to go on the record right here as saying that stubbornness on its own does NOT count as a weakness. This is usually the "weakness" that causes the character to not give up in battle, thus finding the strength to defeat the enemy once and for all, bla bla bla. I've seen stubbornness used as a proper weakness maybe once or twice in all the games I've been in, and both times it was NOT listed as a weakness in the character's profile.
If you really want a stubborn or vain character, and you plan to use those as weaknesses, don't put that the character is stubborn or vain. Instead, explain the character's weaknesses work. For stubbornness, maybe the character will only go into battle if she's fully assured that the opponent is evil, or even only if she's sure she'll survive the fight. For vanity, maybe the character has to stop every few minutes to fix his hair, or maybe he's so sure that he's a perfect fighter that he goes charging into battle blindly.
Another weakness people like to claim is "gets angry when his/her loved ones are threatened." Bull cookies. The only conceivable way that could ever make a character weak is if she got so angry she started doing entirely stupid things... say, cursing out a monarch or going out alone against armies of badguy minions and getting the stuffing beaten out of her. Sadly, this is rarely the case; most of the time, it's the same case as the "stubborn" example above-- the anger gives the character strength to defeat the enemy and save her boyfriend/child/third cousin, yada yada yada.
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All right, the talking's over (mostly). Either you slogged through all that, in which case I congratulate you, or you skipped down here from the top, in which case... you're really lazy and probably have the attention span of a tse tse fly, but so do I, so I can't talk. ^_^;
Possible Weaknesses
Tends to attack anything indiscriminately in battle (including allies)
Automatically follows orders, no matter who they're from
Refuses to fight/hurt people
Expects to fail no matter what and unconsciously sabotages him/herself
So afraid of getting hurt, s/he tries to avoid battle at all costs
Only attacks if s/he is personally threatened
[For those characters whose parents died in a car wreck or similar disaster while the character was riding] Gets flashbacks of parents' deaths during battle or stressful situations
As usual, you're welcome to send me any suggestions you have.
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