Changing Character personality

[Tornath]

How does one go about it? I have an established character, he reacts in specific ways to specific events. He's been this way. How do I go about changing this without breaking what makes him, him? Yes I know its light on the details, but I want real ideas, not something tailored to fit an archtype, or this particular character. Thanks in advance!

[Flyingmoney]

You make him eat the person you want him to be like, and thus...he will take on their ways.

[Anjerith]

Character development takes a long time, in the original WoW, I played a Human Warrior. Over the course of the games life, I switched to Horde but wanted to retain the personal lore of my Human. When WotLK came out, I had the perfect character Hook - Ebon Hold.

Thus my Warrior became a Forsaken Death Knight, having died during the first Scourgewar (naxx60).

The change felt very natural, with my Noble human commander waking to find the world a very different place. Over the course of the starting experience and the initial tiers in Wrath his personality naturally shifted as his previous friends and allies turned from/against him.

This type of character development is a little extreme if you want to maintain the technical same character, but I have never blinked in my personal lore. It was the right way to go.

[Tornath]

Good replies so far!

I loled at making him eat someone.

[The Madgod]

Just like real people, roleplaying characters constantly learn from new experiences, changing their outlook on life ever so minutely with each one. Over time, if someone experiences things enough, they will have a change in personality. This could be anything as minute as having some sympathy for the poor when before your character never even glanced their way, or gaining a hatred for draenei because every one he meets seems to be haughty and rude, even if that's not true for the entirety of the race. Traumatic events are ways to quickly change your character's personality. Worgen slaughtering your character's family is a big way to make him hate worgen, for example.

Both are good, but traumatic events really should be used lightly. They are great to give your character drive, apathy, or a big personality change, but I prefer the gradual method for most change in personality.

[Tornath]

Thanks for the post Madgod. I think I've got a good idea on what I need to do then.

[Kerath]

Madgod hits the nail on the head - as with regular people, characters (in roleplay, stories, whatever) are shaped by their experience. More mundane experiences will gradually influence your character's perceptions and attitude, and bigger more traumatic events can alter their personality drastically in a short space of time.

[Kuniku]

i guess it depends if you want to good to bad, or bad to good (to put it bluntly)

good to bad you could have you family unfairly taken from you or killed

bad to good you could witness an immense act of kindness to you from someone you'd not expect it to change your views on them/their race/their faction or whatever

just sa some examples

[Gladwyn]

well, i dont know if it is of some help, but i would like to tell you as an example my Be paladin: Hes entire personality is defined by his experience, and it has changed some good times by now. he first was a noble high elf, aspirant to serve silvermoon as a guard, and everything was perfect, the world was fluffly and life was good. but then came the third war, and he saw his family being murdered by the scourge and he lost all his bright, feeling like nothing else mattered anymore then helping the rise of the fallen kingdom, he puraued dark paths (bc blood knight storyline) and really understood the meaning of harsh survival, but then, with the restoration of the sunwell and velen's speech made he see well again and made him follow the righetous path of the light, but he now faves a different world, and after the end of the lich king and the beginning of the cataclysm he is conflicted by the total service to garrosh and his personal hatred for the humas (garithos was a real nasty man) AND a life of peace, helping the others and doing simple things like cooking and fishing, mainly because of his recent contacts with the sunwalkers, and always look for the light for guidance.

well sorry for almost making this a complete bio, but i just wanted to give you a example of a character that have changed a lot but just following the events that happens around him, because he still the same, but more mature and have experienced things that made him have other views about stuffs. []'s !