Character Creation never ends: Timmy's PoV

I'm finding that the more I play Dakuwan, the more I fall in love with him. That is because the more I use him, the more personality he has.

When I first created Dakuwan (way back before any of our L5R gaming was even started,) I merely had an anachronistic concept that I wanted to use, a militant Phoenix shugenja bent on saving the world from ripping itself to pieces through his own power. Actually, that isn't nearly as anachronistic a concept as I had thought it would be...

It was really fun creating his stats, which appealed to the Johnny in me. (It could have appealed to the Spike, if I had enough Spike to appeal to.) Timmy went unfulfilled in that process, though.

I was asked to GM, and I really didn't mind it - GMing gets in your blood, and I could no more refuse than I could lick my own elbow, but Dakuwan had to go on the back burner as a result. At this point, and even after I got to switch to PCing, Dakuwan remained an anachronistic collection of statistics.

Oh, but once we began playing! Timmy was wiggling with happiness as Dakuwan discovered that he had no concern for the Earth kamis, and that he cared more for his sensei than the whole world. The Timmy-joy became even deeper when I defined his sensei as an Earth-adept, so focused on the Earth kamis that no other kamis could clamor as loudly to him. Now we had a fascinating conflict between Dakuwan and Sherizu to work with!

Dakuwan didn't make any more breakthroughs for a while, although he was already starting down the path toward his next fleshing-out. Dakuwan never left Timmy's mind through the whole campaign with Patrick at the helm, and by the end, Timmy was ready to dish out the next revelation about Dakuwan's uncaring, power-hungry personality. And it came in the form of a soaking via a fluff piece. It turns out that Dakuwan doesn't care about Water because Water is very difficult for him to control.

Again, a pause for Timmy to catch his breath while Johnny went about the business of hacking and slashing his way through the beginning of Corey's campaign (don't get me wrong, there was probably more in this part to appeal to Timmy than Johnny, just not much that he needed to interact with,) then another enlightening! It turns out that, while Dakuwan does not care much for Water, Water cares very much for him. While he is trying to control the Water kamis, they are doing their best to do, nay, overdo, the effect he wants.

Now Dakuwan has an elemental imbalance. When I first created him, he already had it but I didn't discover it until halfway through Dakuwan's second campaign.

Timmy is pleased.

__________________________

I think that Timmy really gets his excercise in the fluff pieces. If you want to strengthen the Timmy side, write stories about what happened. You don't have to present them publicly, although doing so allows others to help you see the timmy-esque moments in your recollections; in fact, they don't even have to be well-written. Fluff pieces have two real purposes: One, they entertain the other players and allow them into your mind's workshop for a few moments. This one is not very important, really - they can get what they need from the game itself. The second point is much more important. It allows you full access to the intricacies of your character's thinking, unhindered by outside forces like the GM or other PCs. This will definitely enrich your experience, and allow for a much deeper and more accurate representation of who your character is. From a Timmy's point of view, that is the Holy Grail.