You know what I see?

[Farlon Orbit]

You know what I see a lot on Character Bio Weaknesses? They are almost all "Because of his\hers training they are crazy/bad socializers/loners." Not "Bad Health/Injury/ Or even some sort of family loss or bad history."


I am not saying that no body has anything like that but that most of the weaknesses that I have seen are more characteristics than they are "weaknesses". You know just saying.






Edit: Actually I take back what I said about bad history it is not a weakness.

 

[Hailyn]

I see a lot of people clamouring for "better" weaknesses, but on examination of their characters they are subject to what I refer to as an "inorganic" weakness; i.e; some ridiculous disease, disability, etc, that normal people usually do not have - for the sake of having a weakness, crippling or not.

It is of my opinion that the disease trope for weaknesses are over-used, and people need to understand things such as bipolar mania and schizophrenia, when written correctly, can be a much better weakness in terms of writing material.

And I think it's a bit ridiculous to say all weaknesses need to be physical or emotional, and permanent.

 

[Lief]

[member="Farlon Orbit"]

I always try to balance up my characters, usually strengths and weaknesses go hand in hand. Physical, mental and emotional traits all balanced up. Even their strengths often (when you read them) state weaknesses too instead of repeating myself too much. Especially with Jyn.

 

[Artemis Vahl'Nyx]

and people need to understand things such as bipolar mania and schizophrenia, when written correctly, can be a much better weakness in terms of writing material.

*throws down the gauntlet*
THIS. IS. TRUE.
Or, at least, in my experience, physical weaknesses aren't any more valid than non-physical weaknesses. As long as something makes being a badass harder, it's a weakness. If it makes just being normal harder, it's a weakness. You got a bad knee? WEAKNESS. You're bipolar? Oh chite man, that's not fun. WEAKNESS. Which is worse?... That's not a question you can answer with ease. It depends on thousands of variables. How bad is the knee? Can the person still walk? Yes? Than how is it any worse than the potentially severe disorder you have that shifts your mood and constantly affects your social life? Your ability to think straight? Your ability to communicate with any of the dozens of people you are going to have to work with at some point because look at the galaxy we're in? Weaknesses are weaknesses. There's no problem with different types of them as long as they're done properly.

General advice for everyone? Mix up your weaknesses. Don't make them all physical but don't make them all past, personality, or mental state related. None of us our riddled with a dozen diseases but none of us are exactly complete basket cases either.
For the most part.

Spoiler

To add a layer to this, a real life note: I've known people who are physically ill and have disorders/conditions/personality issues. I can tell you that in many cases, it's the non-physical stuff that really made things hard for them. Broken bones can heal, old injuries can be treated, but it takes a long time for a mind to heal, if it ever really does. And old habits die hard...

 

[Connor Harrison]

I try and balance mine 2:1 - two weakness being a more emotional / mental weakness that drives their state of mind and personality and one weakness being physical like a long standing injury, disease, condition etc that affects them physically (obviously) and psychologically.

 

[Thurion Heavenshield]

To add a layer to this, a real life note: I've known people who are physically ill and have disorders/conditions/personality issues. I can tell you that in many cases, it's the non-physical stuff that really made things hard for them. Broken bones can heal, old injuries can be treated, but it takes a long time for a mind to heal, if it ever really does. And old habits die hard...

I was wounded while serving in the military during a training exercise. My best buddy's live grenade fell short and after shoving him aside it hit me in the arm. After some patching up I was good as new, physically speaking. Mentally I'm still recovering, three years later.

#WarStory

 

[Lief]

[member="Thurion Heavenshield"]

 

[Sabena Shai]

I hardly, if ever, put down non physical weaknesses unless it's something that happens in RPs anyway.

Usually, the weakness for my character will also be the incentive for that character to hone his\her strengths.

 

[Roger Kranos]

In the end, I think it's important to remember that every biography is a work in progress. Judge a character not by what is described in some bio, but instead on how they role play said character.

In essence, don't judge a book by its cover. Really good, really prominent character weaknesses, take time and writing to flesh out. And that's not always gonna happen at the initial development of the character.

 

[Lief]

In the end, I think it's important to remember that every biography is a work in progress. Judge a character not by what is described in some bio, but instead on how they role play said character.

In essence, don't judge a book by its cover. Really good, really prominent character weaknesses, take time and writing to flesh out. And that's not always gonna happen at the initial development of the character.

This.

All this.

A biography is just the beginning of the story. How many good characters in books/etc do you find that begin with a gajillion weaknesses? And I mean real weaknesses, because most people are weak IRL, etc. It's the flaws that present themselves along the way, and the way in which individuals deal with them, that brings about depth. Anyone can throw fifty weaknesses on a character, yet they could still come out as flat and lifeless.

 

[Yvette Dusong]

Oh hey, one of this threads! I've been waiting for a while to get this stuff off my chest and lay out my pet peeves!

• "Hopelessly Romantic" is not a weakness if all you do is shag a random NPC every other night and call it a day, especially if you don't play off the angle set forth by something like that and simply leave it as a means to get pretend-laid.
• "Shy" is not a weakness unless you have some bloody social anxiety or the character has issues interacting in public. Shyness / Introverted =/= Crippling fear of people / Inability to work with other people / Social Anxiety.
• "Inexperience" is not a weakness if the character acts like they have done something for thousands of times and have no issue doing said thing they are inexperienced in. On that note, "Grasps Knowledge Slower" is not a weakness if it takes the character two posts instead of one to understand something / learn a skill.
• "Bad Pilot" is not a damn weakness unless said character is part of the Air Force and / or relies heavily on Airships for transportation or other usages. It's the equivalent of saying a character has limited / zero knowledge and experience regarding Large-Scale Military Operations while he is nothing more than a damn prepubescent teenager with an attitude. On that note, "Bad Marksman / Bad Driver / Bad Leadership Abilities / Bad Whatever The Hell You Want" are not weaknesses if they do not actually come into play in the characters story both past or present, or will never be brought up again ever again in an actual play, it's just a poor excuse to get those two minimum required weaknesses in.
• "Schizophrenia / Bi-Polar / Multiple Personality Disorder / PTSD" is not a weakness if you are literally only playing it up to make your character more quirky or interesting while making a mockery of the diseases themselves. Stop romanticizing mental illnesses and make it seem "fun and hilarious", preferably stop using them unless you actually bother researching them and are a good enough writer to create a compelling and gripping story about said characters and how it affects them from one thread to the other. They aren't a damn on-off switch.
• "Force Sensitivity" IS a strength! Despite the demographic of Chaos regarding NFU and FU, being able to tap into the Force is in of itself something special. You are, quite literally, one in a million if not billion that has the ability to rely on the force for guidance, even if the power itself is in its infant stage.

Now that I got that stuff off my shoulders, I agree with [member="Silara Kuhn"] and [member="Jyn Sol"]. A weakness is not necessarily something permanent and it doesn't have to be. With time, training, or assistance, weaknesses can be erased and transformed into strengths if enough effort is placed towards this particular goal. But with the passage of time, new weaknesses will also appear because the characters will get the possibility to expand their horizons and perform actions they previously have never had to perform. Eighty percent of the time, they will suck at it. At the end of the day, the phrase "You are still human" holds weight despite whatever race your character actually is. They will never be perfect, they will always have their ups and downs, and that will make them a better character and you a better writer by being able to play off both the bad and the good.

Nobody wants to read about the adventures of Mary Sue #232323 in a galaxy far, far away that somehow bends to her every whim despite not really doing anything for it. When trying to discover new weaknesses for a character, or when making a character from scratch, don't look at most other profiles on Chaos to draw inspiration from. The characters that are played are most of the time above average. They are old and have lived through many wars and many hardships, they have the command of armadas at their finger tip and the ability to draw from the Force for prolonged usage without breaking a sweat. They are the outlier. Look towards the rest of the galaxy, the nameless NPC soldiers, civilians, and scoundrels that give the world it's life. Those are the people you should draw inspiration for weaknesses from because, like it or not, we all start out as one of them until we progress through the ranks.

/end rant

 

[Ludolf Vaas]

I always thought the point of character weaknesses was that they were something that could be directly exploitable in a combat situation.

 

[Tefka]

I always thought the point of character weaknesses was that they were something that could be directly exploitable in a combat situation.

Kinda, at first.

Most sites have like, stat numbers, and I wanted to play off that concept but veer away from numbers. Hence, strengths and weaknesses.

Numbers don't really apply to role-playing unless you're introducing some kinda randomizer like dice. We don't have/want that, so... strengths/weaknesses were born.

But then there's a balance between combat role-play and story role-play that we have to find, so to be honest, the players are really deciding what the point of Strengths and Weaknesses are - there is no strict definition of them.

 

[Chiasa Kritivaas]

[member="Gorgeous John"] has the best weaknesses.

 

[Djonas Vile]

Well, from what I've seen with certain characters, they start their actual roleplaying when their character is young and inexperienced in some aspects. Therefore, for them to have fun with their character and actually be able to do the things they want to do with it, people shy away from physical weaknesses. Sometimes even biological, save for such things as allergies or something.

At least..that's my explanation for staying away from physical weaknesses. My characters just got out into the real world of adulthood, not really much in their respective pasts that would have/could have caused a serious weakness.

 

[Raien Keth]

[member="Farlon Orbit"]
Characteristics can be weaknesses, its all situational.

If you poke Raien about his family, and you wanted his attention you'll get it, that can easily be exploited by anyone. On the other hand, if you poke his family and you really didn't want his attention, you'll still get it.

See what I mean?

 

[huggin_munnin]

Yvette is entirely correct.

I have seen some hilariously unbalanced characters who use 'bad pilot/can't shoot a blaster' etc. My personal favorite is headaches; chronic or not, take some fething space advil and you're ok. It's a highly advanced galaxy so I am willing to bet there's meds for that.

Seriously, not being able to pilot a ship is not really a weakness. It's easy to work around with npcs or allies who can fly. Can't shoot a gun? If you're a Force user, it doesn't matter. The Force is worth a million blasters. You also have some kind of lightsaber weapon probably. If you're a politico, you can have npc bodyguards.

Mental illnesses, yeah. People who write about their characters having them often have no reference point to how it actually works.

 

[Kei Amadis]

[member="Ceska Starshield"]

A writer could write out any weakness no matter what it is. Take off a characters leg and they can put a new leg design on. Make them afraid of sabers, and someone else could be swinging it for them.

Its just whether they want to or not, or want to have the flaw to balance the character in rp, making them more rounded/believable as it were. Even then having something to counter/balance/accept the flaw on occasion can be a fun moment in character development.

 

[Tellos]

[member="Tefka"] [member="Ludolf Vaas"] [member="Yvette Dusong"] anhd everybody else

Ok as a vet who has been diagnosed with PTSD i can tell you is can be a problem. I agree making it too glamor ridden is bad hell I got other mental wiring issues before I had PTSD from my stint in the service. I also have had 3 vertebrae dislocated from it. But also not all weaknesses are how you think. I used the aforementioned bad pilot on one character and it fits despite her technical skills and habit to be on ships or stations or in cases of combat on drop ships if things go bad she can't fly them well! So the Jedi light saber girl can't fly her way outta wet paper bag with a manual! And this isint cause of lack of knowledge shes been trained in basics she just plain sucks she locks up some gets unfocused on what she needs to focus on. Far as others well lets see not all are even labeled Shuduc Macar for instance despite her growth even now she has a temper atop of being a anti social power hungry basket case. And yes power hungry is a weakness it can drive people sure but it can blind people to situations. I say weaknesses have to be looked at in a lot of dimensions before we jump to conclusions. My rule is to just try to make a fun character yeah means they aint perfect I promise you none of mine are. My Sith navy officer is an ass and is rather bigoted to people from affluent homes. This has cost her people who could help her on her ship if they fall into her narrow minded view on a bad noble. i guess I just get tired of seeing people claim nobody is doing weaknesses the "right way"

 

[Natasi Fortan]

Oh hey, one of this threads! I've been waiting for a while to get this stuff off my chest and lay out my pet peeves!

• "Hopelessly Romantic" is not a weakness if all you do is shag a random NPC every other night and call it a day, especially if you don't play off the angle set forth by something like that and simply leave it as a means to get pretend-laid.
• "Shy" is not a weakness unless you have some bloody social anxiety or the character has issues interacting in public. Shyness / Introverted =/= Crippling fear of people / Inability to work with other people / Social Anxiety.
• "Inexperience" is not a weakness if the character acts like they have done something for thousands of times and have no issue doing said thing they are inexperienced in. On that note, "Grasps Knowledge Slower" is not a weakness if it takes the character two posts instead of one to understand something / learn a skill.
• "Bad Pilot" is not a damn weakness unless said character is part of the Air Force and / or relies heavily on Airships for transportation or other usages. It's the equivalent of saying a character has limited / zero knowledge and experience regarding Large-Scale Military Operations while he is nothing more than a damn prepubescent teenager with an attitude. On that note, "Bad Marksman / Bad Driver / Bad Leadership Abilities / Bad Whatever The Hell You Want" are not weaknesses if they do not actually come into play in the characters story both past or present, or will never be brought up again ever again in an actual play, it's just a poor excuse to get those two minimum required weaknesses in.
• "Schizophrenia / Bi-Polar / Multiple Personality Disorder / PTSD" is not a weakness if you are literally only playing it up to make your character more quirky or interesting while making a mockery of the diseases themselves. Stop romanticizing mental illnesses and make it seem "fun and hilarious", preferably stop using them unless you actually bother researching them and are a good enough writer to create a compelling and gripping story about said characters and how it affects them from one thread to the other. They aren't a damn on-off switch.
• "Force Sensitivity" IS a strength! Despite the demographic of Chaos regarding NFU and FU, being able to tap into the Force is in of itself something special. You are, quite literally, one in a million if not billion that has the ability to rely on the force for guidance, even if the power itself is in its infant stage.

Now that I got that stuff off my shoulders, I agree with [member="Silara Kuhn"] and [member="Jyn Sol"]. A weakness is not necessarily something permanent and it doesn't have to be. With time, training, or assistance, weaknesses can be erased and transformed into strengths if enough effort is placed towards this particular goal. But with the passage of time, new weaknesses will also appear because the characters will get the possibility to expand their horizons and perform actions they previously have never had to perform. Eighty percent of the time, they will suck at it. At the end of the day, the phrase "You are still human" holds weight despite whatever race your character actually is. They will never be perfect, they will always have their ups and downs, and that will make them a better character and you a better writer by being able to play off both the bad and the good.

Nobody wants to read about the adventures of Mary Sue #232323 in a galaxy far, far away that somehow bends to her every whim despite not really doing anything for it. When trying to discover new weaknesses for a character, or when making a character from scratch, don't look at most other profiles on Chaos to draw inspiration from. The characters that are played are most of the time above average. They are old and have lived through many wars and many hardships, they have the command of armadas at their finger tip and the ability to draw from the Force for prolonged usage without breaking a sweat. They are the outlier. Look towards the rest of the galaxy, the nameless NPC soldiers, civilians, and scoundrels that give the world it's life. Those are the people you should draw inspiration for weaknesses from because, like it or not, we all start out as one of them until we progress through the ranks.

/end rant

Despite the fact that I'm generally against self-righteously telling others how to do things (unless, you know, I'm the one self-righteously telling others how to do things) I tend to agree with the subtext, which is that weaknesses should have a bearing on writing and a lot of weaknesses (and strengths, and everything else) are half-assed. I don't put much thought into my character strengths and weaknesses because who gives a damn? Nobody reads your bio, nobody cares. A character approval process would be the only way to ensure quality (and I know that will never happen, I'm just stating the obvious).

As for the examples provided - complete nonsense. Being a bad pilot CAN be a weakness, even if you aren't in the space Navy.