You're fresh to the city, you might be new to roleplay or you might be a roleplay veteran, but the first place to start is YOUR BACKSTORY!

Your story starts before you've even created your character, you aren't a fresh born baby the likelihood is your character has already been alive for 20+ years. So! What have you been doing? As your character is fictional you can create stories about your past, what was your upbringing like? What did you study? Were you a drop out who found a life of crime? Did an extreme event happen that shaped your emotions to be the way you are now? This is just a small example of things to consider when designing your characters backstory.

Once you've thought and brainstormed what defines your character, you can then create your character in the city with an appearance that suits the story you've created!

So you're in, your feet have hit that fresh Los Santos tarmac and your taking the beginning steps to.... well what's your GOALS? Just because you have the next batman back story, you ultimately need to have a goal for your character, something that character strives for.

So what goals can you create? Well that's pretty much a bottomless barrel of ideas! You want to become renowned for being the fastest driver in the city, or you want to become the most feared gang boss the city has seen for decades that the police just cannot catch. Or maybe your goal is to become the mayor of the city and a person of the people.

Once again it's a few examples of ways you can have motivations for your character, your initial end goal may change depending on many city variables so keep that in mind! The people you meet, the events that happen, the things you see can and should change your story and shape it as you go.

Now we have your backstory, you've decided what motivates your end goals, now we need to look at your CHARACTER TRAITS

Your character traits will define how you act in certain scenarios, are you likely to be the go to friend who people go to for comfort and hanging out? Are you a little bit shy and will avoid confrontation at all costs? Are you an attention seeker who needs all eyes on you? Maybe you're a story teller always got an experience to share. You ideally want to stick to a set of character traits that will shape how you interact with people, how you act in different situations.

As your story progresses, you meet new people and experience new things your traits are likely to change but it's good to think about the traits your character will have.

Within roleplay there is no set storyline, you aren't just playing with the goal of getting from A-B, you will have an Adaptive Story.

It's important to understand that your characters story will be influenced by a number of variables, from the people you meet all the way through to the actions you take. Each winning and losing moment you experience you adapt your story to it, whether it be getting the job promotion you've been aiming for, the time you get caught and arrested, betrayed by someone you thought was loyal, the business you wanted to open becoming a reality. It all adds up to character development and adapts the story your character has.

Don't take things personally that happen to your character, arguments, disagreements, flirting etc is all in character and should be kept that way, rightfully if things don't go as you expected you can be frustrated, but that frustration is your characters frustration not your personal frustration.