How to correctly roleplay a character

A bland character that has no play in the grand scheme of things - in the whole story of the universe - is not fun to play with nor fun to play as. The document describes some ways to make your character more unique so as to have more impact on other characters and therefore, the whole story.

Basics
It may be obvious, but a few people don't realize that a person and a character are different things. Just because one character acts in a certain way that doesn't mean the player acts in the same way or that their other characters do the same. Each character is its own world.

No matter whether your role in a place is small or not, it has an immense effect. For example, if you're playing as a janitor you will know a character's actions and behaviour deteriorate the dirtier a place is, just as it happens in the real world, this is basic human psychology.

In order to roleplay a certain character, you need to know how to. An intelligent person can roleplay a stupid character, but a stupid person cannot roleplay an intelligent character. You will need the knowledge in the field you're roleplaying in, such as knowing a bit of the medical dictionary if you're roleplaying a doctor, knowing a bit of trivia from physics and chemistry if you're playing a sciencist. If you don't know about these fields even a little bit then perhaps you shouldn't roleplay them.

How to correctly roleplay a character
The most important thing when making a character is its backstory; what drives your character to breathe, to walk, to eat, to anything?


 * Developing your character's core traits
 * Think about how your character grew up until it entered the character creation menu. What was its lifestyle, ancestry, culture, age, gender identity, race, religion, ethnic background or level of education? The limits are where you put them.
 * The previous point will drive how your character acts, dresses, speaks and many more things. Now you have to define their worldview. Your character's actions and behaviour are a consequence of the society they grew up in, whether they went with or against it.
 * Elaborate any flaws you think will make your character's adventure more interesting. Are they anorexic, depressive, mentally ill, careless, too strict, a meathead?
 * Give them a wish, something to strive for, that'll give them a meaning in the whole story, a reason to do anything. If you want your character not to have a reason to do anything and roleplay as a broken person, then you'll have to put even more emphasis on the reasons for why they are broken.


 * Developing your character after creation
 * You have made your character, now you have to use it correctly. In every situation they are in you will have to put your mind in your character as if you were that character, a different person, to make sure you do what your character would do if they actually existed. For example, if I made a depressive character with mental illness, it'd be boring if I straight out made my character say in-game "I have (mental illness) and am depressive" and nothing else. However, if I made my character act in a certain way, say, I make them be overly active, make them be all over the place as if they always were happy then that communicates to others "this character is not acting normal" and would extrapolate my character is mentally ill and depressive, sooner or later.
 * Make your character interact with others, go to a bar, your workplace, any place you can interact with the world. This will make them connect with others and society (if there's any), making friends, enemies, rivals, romantic partners, bromances and everything else you can imagine.