"I'm the greatest warrior ever!"
The first time anyone joins a game like this, almost everyone's first choice is to take a sword and go beat up some evil vermin. Well, that might be interesting for a while, but eventually it gets kinda boring. Isn't it a bit repetitive?
In Brian Jacques' Redwall books, most of the characters were not perfect, but instead had large flaws. This makes for much more interesting characters. A character with an unfounded distrust of birds is very interesting when a bird comes to bring a message. Not everyone knows how to fight perfectly. Maybe the new mouse in the Abbey wants to learn how to use a staff to defend the Abbey, but he freezes up whenever he's faced with an opponent. That's interesting. That character now has an opportunity for interesting character development. If every character on the MUCK was perfect, then Redwall Abbey's very few warriors would simply go march on any threat and automatically win, because they're perfect. BORING!
Imperfections don't need to be huge, just realistic. Stutters or slurred speech, perhaps being slightly blind or deaf, slowly becoming senile in old age, these are interesting physical imperfections that make for interesting RP. There are other issues. Think about issues today: racism, some form of a superiority/inferiority complex, shyness, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit disorder (ADD), alcoholism, etc. Come up with your own differences. They don't need to be huge, in fact it's better if they aren't. Make your character stand out to the point where, if another character says "that mouse with the odd speech thing", everyone immediately knows it's you - but no one rolls their eyes.
Character development is a way to make every character different. This makes for much more interesting characters and roleplay. Think about it. Not every character should be perfect, instead characters should be more mediocre, just like in real life.
If you're having trouble coming up with something interesting, talk to other players or the staffers. maybe they'll be able to think of something you can't.
