It can take time to find the right angle for yourself. One trick I try is to put at least little of my own personality into the character I'm playing. I had a few false starts at first before I found one I was happy with, and in fact I almost never alt when roleplaying as I find I can't do any other characters anywhere near as well as my main, Miss Ellie.
I have been thinking lately though... Considering I'm a happily married man, should I be concerned that the character I'm most comfortable with is a female alien/human/cat mixture who also happens to be engaged to another woman? 
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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I have been thinking lately though... Considering I'm a happily married man, should I be concerned that the character I'm most comfortable with is a female alien/human/cat mixture who also happens to be engaged to another woman?
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The character I enjoy playing/have the strongest connection with the most is a psychopathic, homicidal, insane walking, talking doll...boyy, must I have issues!
I agree, siphoning off part of your personality/one of your characteristics into a character can make them a lot easier to play. Try not to make them too much like yourself though, or you'll be guilty of self-insertion which many people equate with Mary Sueism.
Basing a character on one event/idea/characteristic can also throw up some problems, sooner or later (unless you manage to flesh them out) you'll find they become one-dimensional and therefore, boring.
Having a happy-go-lucky, I see the fun in everything, type character is fine but if that's their only personality trait...well, there'll be an awful lot of situations you can't put them in.
My suggestion would be to pick a fictional character you know a fair amount about, try to pinpoint their characteristics/goals and what makes them tick - then you'll have a starting base for your own characters.
If you get bored with one, take a break, perhaps play another alt or leave off the roleplaying for a bit, come back when you're ready. It can takes years to really understand a character of your own creation (rather like understanding yourself), so getting bored with one is incredibly normal.
Well, Shadowe is based on a character I designed for a PnP RP superhero campaign that never took off - about 8 years ago. So he's been hovering in my mind as a character for that long, and all I did was bring him in to CoH.
I've never been very good at making up personalities on the spot, and as FFM says, it's a great idea to include at least a little of yourself in the character.
One thought that springs to mind is to think "How would I react if I found out I'd suddenly got super-powers?" Try and imagine what you would do, and how you would react, if you suddenly had access to your characters powers and abilities. Factor in the fact that it's not particularly unusual to have super-powers in the world of CoH, and then run with it. See what happens. Your personality will change over time, but everyone's does anyway.
The wisdom of Shadowe: Ghostraptor: The Shadowe is wise ...; FFM: Shadowe is no longer wise.
; Techbot_Alpha: Also, what Shadowe said. It seems he is still somewhat wise 
; Bull Throttle: Shadowe was unwise in this instance...; Rock_Powerfist: in this instance Shadowe is wise.; Techbot_Alpha: Shadowe is very wise *nods*; Zortel: *Quotable line about Shadowe being wise goes here.*
I try not to psychoanalyse any of my characters to much as they reveal some disturbing facts about me. I mean, why do I feel I can RP better with female characters? Who knows.
My main, Dante, is almost where I'd like to see myself when I get to 40 (except for the flying, immortality, magic etc...) so that can work as an extension of myself. Other characters are inspired by people I know, storylines in the game or other heroes (although, of course, without infringing copyright or just playing a lame rip-off). Sometimes I've just wanted to try something I've never done before. For example, most of my characters are quite "dark" in their outlook and origin so when I rolled Amber I wanted to play someone innocent, positive and somewhat naive just to see what it was like. Good luck in finding your inspiration, I'm sure it will come in time. 
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
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I agree, siphoning off part of your personality/one of your characteristics into a character can make them a lot easier to play. Try not to make them too much like yourself though, or you'll be guilty of self-insertion which many people equate with Mary Sueism.
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What is Mary Sueism?
That said, my main is heavily based on myself... or atleast was.
Similar backgrounds, similar situations... up to a point. That's where things start to get different. My main went to a school abroad, something I'd never have the guts to do (then again, neither did she if it wasn't for a bit of nudgeing)
When I took her to the RP world at large, in my case GG, she was a clean sheet with some pencil markings for guidelines.
I let her develop from there, filled in the blanks of her past, tweaked some events a little bit as time passed on (minor retconning)
To sum up: my character was me, with the personality sliders shifted a bit.
Now, she's her own person due to development in RP (nearly a years worth) that has some views I personally don't think I'd addabt in RL.
As for my secondary character... my main has a brother.
Again based on me, personality sliders a bit tweaked for extra 'buch' and imprinted a few traits from my own brother.
@ShadowGhost & @Ghostie
The Grav Mistress, Mistress of Gravity
If you have nothing useful to say, you have two choices: Say something useless or stay quiet.
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What is Mary Sueism?
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Linkage 
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ty for the tips, but i am not really sure what parts of myself to include... i am not exactly normal compared to most people my age... I quite like the idea of using a fictional character and i know a lot i have liked over the years, i just don't want to get flamed in case (for example) someone had heard of a character i was using and decided to take it badly...
I don't think she meant COPY a fictional character. That's against the EULA. I think she probably meant use a fictional character as inspiration for yours, but don't copy.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
so what parts would i take? personality, costume, name?
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so what parts would i take? personality, costume, name?
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i would say personality is the only one you can use, costume and name would both voliate the EULA, also, try to work up a tribute back ground for the char, rather than a carbon copy.
it's inspration you are looking for rather than the hacks way of jsut creating a "w0lv3r1n3" type char.
please don't think i was going to do something like that, i just want to find a character that suits me
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please don't think i was going to do something like that, i just want to find a character that suits me
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To be honest, I'd roll with your current character. Perhaps modify him a little bit, but there's always going to be some people who'll be jerks, I've had it with my main character, and a few others and I just ignore them.
Hell, I've even had someone have a go at me for my nickname, accusing me of being "fattist". I replied with, "Nope, you got that wrong.. I'm not 'fattist' I'm 'FATTEST'"
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
maybe, i just don't like knowing people feel insulted by me or the character, i probably need to tone him down a bit, change story etc. although to be totally honest i would probably looks forward to making a new char since as well as being confused via rp i also dislike the rad/rad skill set
Ask yourself the following question - If I could be any superhero character, which one would I be?
When you daydream, which character do you put yourself in the role of?
Now ask yourself - why?
There will be some aspect of this character that you strongly relate to, more than anything else. That's the bit you need to find and base your character on, that's the bit that needs to be there to make you "comfortable" playing the character.
It might be a personality quirk - Batmans elusiveness, the teenage drama inherent in magical girls, Superman's constant love triangle with his alter-egos, but that's the only bit you need to keep.
Then build the rest of the character to go round it, since from the sound of it building characters wasn't the bit you have problems with, it was finding the spark you needed to make them live.
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maybe, i just don't like knowing people feel insulted by me or the character, i probably need to tone him down a bit, change story etc. although to be totally honest i would probably looks forward to making a new char since as well as being confused via rp i also dislike the rad/rad skill set
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Fair enough, and most considerate of you I must say. However, you'll find that, in MMO's, there's always some plonker somewhere that gets upset over the tiniest little thing.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
yeah but i just don't like it... i know some plonkers on other games (i.e. SWG i have 6 fully lvled chars so i am used to plonkers) and most of the time i ignore them, i just think oh well and move on but this is affecting me because
a) i don't like people saying that i am a disgrace to a country i probably love far more than my own home turf!
b) some of these people will always be there, they are not someone who is there, then is gone
also, what is the best way to choose between hero and villain?
i tried flipping a coin but it landed on its side 
Don't take the wrong way, but... Just chill!
You seem to be getting yourself wound up about something pretty unimportant...
Now, advice:
Everyone has different ways of coming up with their characters. Some people work out in depth what their character is going to be like, others (like me) wing it for a few sessions before slotting personality etc. in to place. Some look to existing characters for inspiration, some just pluck concepts from the air. Plus there is the whole spectrum of options in between those...
You have to figure out what works best for you.
lol, i'm not getting worked up
but i think i have a come up with something i quite like, he is based on a character i found in a book once and something from myself (as suggested before) which happens to be my strange erge to be shocked or experimenting with plugs etc. (an interesting topic involving me short circuiting a entire block at my school 4 times, twice by accident and twice on purpose) something that i thought might fit a villain fairly well
In most cases definatly NOT the name (that's a blatant copy and very easy to see what your "inspiration was"). (Unless you make Rumpelstiltskin a 8' tall black men with a fondness of crushing people's skull.)
Something which you could do:
Take your favourite book, there are probably situations in it in which *you* would have made other choices than the character. Now copy the character as you know it and give it some ideas on your own.
As an example:
Take Alice (yeah, from Wonderland) and imagine her discovering her necromantic powers in Wonderland, what would happen? (Now, you'll play that out, sure it might be based on Alice, but with a twist and another name it'll develop in a character much nlike Alice when you're higher level.)
Books and movies are great influences for roleplaying. Another way to start your first character, make a parody/satirical version of a person/character. Granted, the character will be silly in the beginning, but after some time it'll develop it's own background and character.
These are just some tips for beginners, experienced roleplayers sometimes inspire themselves by popular culture as well. Some roleplaying games are based on "sometimes it's better to steal something good than to make up something bad".
After a while you'll notice that ideas for characters will pop up themselves. Sometimes as slight variations on existing characters, sometimes something very original. The toon on your screen is someone else, not you. If you keep it that in mind you'll learn to love that creature.
Good luck with it and have fun!
I didn't mean copy a character, no . I basically meant exactly what Hikari said (though she said it so much better). Finding out how other characters tick, might help understanding your own.
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also, what is the best way to choose between hero and villain?
i tried flipping a coin but it landed on its side
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Why choose. Just have both
ok, i guess i could always work around a nemisis idea, but that means 4 chars...
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As an example:
Take Alice (yeah, from Wonderland)
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Interesting fact: Alice in Wonderland is a non-copyrighted text (copyright only exists for limited period of time y'see)... Having a character exactly like Alice would not actually be breaking the EULA as no-one can claim that you are subverting their copyright.
hello, i was wondering, i see so many people around who all have these characters that obviously suit them (RC being an example) now i have tried a few characters but none seem to keep me interested (aside for Lep but i might be having probs with him...) how did you guys come up with characters that are obviously unique to you? i am probably just being picky but i would like to have a character that suits me...
any ideas?? or help??