I personally don't care if others play canon character or non-canon. It's their choice. I mean obviously they have to give their characters a personality which many do. Other than that though it doesn't bother me. I would never play a canon character in the school or ministry just because I have more fun making my own characters and giving them weird traits.

I believe that there should be a limited amount of Cannon Characters who anyone can play. For example we could make it that people can play say the ghosts of Hogwarts. Making it so that they can interact with anyone from any house. Like how we have the Grey Lady now and not that long ago we had Peeves as well.

I know what you mean my last Character Lily Edgewood was a very weird character and Lily would scream everytime anyone said her name, and she had an extreme fear of spiders. So if anyone said Spider she would scream and roll on the floor like a maniac.

okay, i have a few things to say on this matter and i'm not gonna bother to quote all the people who said what because it would just take way too long.

first, i still to this day hold out hope that people will just suddenly get BORED of having the last name Potter, Weasley, Lestrange, Black, Riddle or any of the other real big movers and shakers in the series. I mean, do you KNOW how many cousins you've got? I gotta tell you right now, it doesn't make your character automatically cool. And like Trel said, if you wanna be a Pureblood, yeah, you pretty much have to pull a name from canon, but why not go into the hp lexicon and yank some obscure name from there? Like Youdle or Wellbeloved?

And to she who was complaining about JKR not giving attention to foreign students enough. Did you ever stop and consider that they might be going to their own schools in their own countries? That was kinda of what the existence of Beaubatons and Durmstrang was supposed to imply. I've created 2 schools for just one of my charries because she kept getting kicked out of places. One in Canada, one in Italy. I don't think JKR was ignoring other cultures and races while she was writing the series. I think she just couldn't include every place and every race in the world without making the stories become Harry Potter and a Study in Cultural Anthropology.

When I made those comments dear I was trying to get people to realize that there is a great big world out there that JK didn't put into her book. And like I said numerous times I realized that she couldn't include every race, creed ethnicity into her book. But that doesn't mean that in our character developments we can't.

I mean all my charries are transfers from the Arcane Magical Academy witch is in Cairo, Egypt. And all my charries are African, well my last two have been mixed. African and Scottish.

But I think that alot of time that when people are thinking of new charrie they rely on the blueprint that JK gave us so much that they do the same thing that she did.

And having an international student would take care of the whole issue of having a pureblood character too.

Cultural and racial diversity is wonderful and it adds spice and a richness to the RP that is fun to work with and RP with.

I just don't want people to forget that when they are thinking of new characters.

Thats the point that I was trying to make. I mean if I didn't like what JK wrote I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have the whole series in hardback and paperback.

My two cents: Any canon related characters should be staff approved. I would also like to see them live up to their namesake.

If there's going to be a Potter, make it count!

It's a nice nod to the past while embracing the SS timeline.

The only problem I see with canon related characters and others I have seen on here is they make no since. Timeline, powers, marks they have..etc. I read what they put about their character and wonder if they put in any thought about them before the made them. If they are like me who is rather new at role play, you find it hard to come up with some one new. So you go with what you can relate to.
All I can say ask questions, give tips on how to improve our characters, help us improve our imagination to come of with some one new.

well..the problem is that like example...Chris potter is related to HP and sahrina potter are related also to HP...so they are related to each other but they didn't know each other..that's the problem with the canon characters..

If you really REALLY wanna make a descendant of a Harry Potter charrie, I'd go with the lesser known ones. My newest charrie, Jack, is related to Ernie Macmillan on his mother's side. That eliminates all the issues with billions of long lost cousins.

My last charrie was a cannon charrie (as mentioned above, lol) And it was because it was my first time RPing ever, and I felt that I had more to work with, and could make a better charrie. But I tried not to bring it up. Because, honestly, it sort of bugged me when Rian had to explain everything. And the whole long-lost cousin thing got confusing sometimes.

So on my new charrie, I thought that since I had more RP experience, I would be okay with a completely original charrie I don't think that cannon charries are bad, by any means, but if I were to start over, I don't think I'd have one

The real problem with canon characters, guys, is that a bunch of people have them and yet they don't communicate with each other about how they're related. Ron and Hermione can only have SO MANY grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Like Wenz said up there, peoples characters are related and they're unaware. While this happens sometimes in real life (I know two guys who turned out to be half-brothers, for example... I met one at work and one and school and it turned out that they shared a father and had never met each other.), realistically how many long-lost Potter cousins can there be?

It's much more fun and interesting to make up your own characters completely, or as Lissy said, having them related to lesser characters. Because, while we know that Harry only had the Dursleys for his family, we don't know a lot about the extended family of the minor characters. It's completely possible to be related to a MacMillan or a Boot or anything like that.

I'd personally love to see a new age Potter/Malfoy rivalry.

Would they feel compelled to hate eachother? What if one were female? Could they find romance?

This would be an undertaking to be done in tandem with the staff to give such an idea the pomp and presence it deserves. Possibly finding a small place in the school plot.

I just pity those poor souls who dare to take up those roles.

These are exactly the reasons why I did not create a character with a canon relation. I've come across a lot of characters who are Potter, Malfoy and Weasley relatives, and it actually got confusing for a while. (Eventually I stopped caring about it and just went along with the RP like it didn't exist.)
The only problem I have is when I see members using the exact same name as one of JKs characters. So far I think I've seen two Hermione Jean Grangers around, and one Ronald Weasley, but that was a while ago and thankfully the names were changed.
More out of whack characters, such as the daughter/son of Voldemort, kind of peeve me a little bit, but I don't let it bother me too much.

I don't think there should be rules stating that you can not create a canon character, that would be difficult just to track them down, and even harder to create a family tree if they wanted to. (Imagine, say, 50 Potter relatives, 30 Weasleys, and 60 Malfoys floating around in the same tree. )
As far as being Pureblooded and having to be a relative of a canon character, nah. There's probably tons of families that were not known of or directly addressed in the books, (despite Hagrid saying they were all interconnected) there could be those who severed ties; that's how I see things anyway. My first character, Freya, was a pureblood, and the last of her family, so once she dies/is killed off, her whole line ends. (Unless she survives long enough to have kids)

Overall, as a newcomer to RPing a few months ago, I would say that it is MUCH easier to be a little creative and create an entirely new character, rather than borrowing ideas from JK. It allows for a bit of extra room to create a personality and history, without all the hastle of ten long lost relatives.

Have fun with it.

Canon charries aren't BAD... honestly... I hardly even notice if their character is related to Harry Potter... or Ronald Weasley. But I agree with Ameh on that one. If you were to create a character that was related to a character created by J.K. Rowling... I'd suggest picking the lesser known ones. And really... how many half-brothers... or half-sisters... or long-lost cousins can you have?

I prefer creating and RPing with a new character just fresh from scratch. Everything about my character are all thought up from my own brain. And it's fun to think up the personalities and the histories of the characters. And I agree with you Freya. You can create your own thing without it having to relate or connect with those "long lost relatives".

Though, I perfectly understand why there's canon characters. And it may just be easier for the new RPers to deal with, rather than having to come up with this entire history... this whole different person and everything. Also... just because a character's last name is "Potter"... doesn't necessarily define that they're related to some other kid whose last name is "Potter" or Harry Potter. It's like the last name, "Smith". Billions of people have that last name.. but they're not all related to each other, are they? But I still personally think that creating your own character is better. It saves confusion.. and plus.. this character is all you. All of YOUR ideas put together to form this whole new being.

I just wanted to second something Freya said. Rhiannon was a pureblood, too. And, since her parents died when she was four, she's quite possibly the last of her line. (unless I decide to come up with more cousins or something, in the future) Since her mother's sister married a Muggle (Elizabeth's mother and father) and all, at least the pureblood Todd/Hamilton line has the possibility of dying out.

I get what you all are saying about how sometimes it's unrealistic to play canon characters and their relatives but I myself find nothing wrong with doing so, so long as you remember that they aren't the character you are basing their line off. For example my MoM charrie, Mei Lin and my school charrie from last term are Malfoy's on their mothers side, being the grandchildren of Scorpious Malfoy. I know the Malfoy's may seem a little cliche for a Slytherin but for me it wasn't something I threw in intentionally. It kinda just happened, and I made sure to make them original where it counts. For me Mei Lin and Sakura were individual people who knew what had happened in their family and tried to live up to that while still being their own personality. Both of them are Japanese on their fathers side so I didn't have the cliche of having Malfoy as a last name or anything. I guess that also made it easier to play a realistic OMG we're long lost relatives plot when it came up. After all they lived in Japan their whole lives so they wouldn't have met half their English relatives due to the difference it countries. However I only made the Malfoy connection due to the fact I was playing the cousin of another girl who was playing a Malfoy descendant.

If your going to play a canon related charrie however I do believe that it's important to remember that they aren't the person you are basing them off. To me it doesn't show a lack of originality, for some people it may just be showing how much they love the family they are pretending their charrie is from. It can also be funny to see just how different people can make the charrie from the family they are based off while still showing links to that family. For me it was just a little thing I threw in near the end of the original development stages of my charries that brought me a few new people to RP with due to a family link that was shared by others. Just as long as we keep it original we should be allowed to RP whoever we want within the limits of the SS timeline obviously.

When I decided to make my charrie a weasley i figured that since the Weasley family is HUGE it wouldn't be a problem. I made it so that Demetria wasn't directly related to Ron and instead made it so that she was Ron's cousins, grandchild.
When I first joined SS, RPing was brand new to me. I've always wanted to be a Weasley, so when I found out this was a Harry Potter RPG I immediatly thought "I finally get to be a Weasley!" After I learned more about RPing I figured it wouldn't be practical if I was Rosie's daughter or something.
Also, when I come across someone who is a Potter or a Weasley I introduce myself a weasley, following with "oh you must be one of my cousins."

if you will going to make a canon characters just make sure that you and the other characters communicate well like a big bunch of family.I think that's the major problem of Canon characters.

I've spent the last little while, reading though all this. And I'm kinda torn. I have nothing against Canon characters, but at the same time, I agree that they can get confusing and complicated. BUT I do see some alternatives. If you want to have your charrie related to HP in someway...make something up. Something that is unknown, and don't make it a large part of your characters plot, but a small part. Then you've got a charrie that is involved in something we know about HP, but not something we ever had an answer to, but don't make it something that you broadcast

Though, I also don't have any objection to canon charries, as long as they are reasonable..and you develop your own plot and only use the cannon part as a simple fact.

I've stated my character is a member of the canon family. Nothing is specified, her parents are going to identified by me (as people who still follow/believe in the darker side) but i'm not directly saying Saiphire is related to X and Y.

What would people think about people doing that?

Briefly, I would like to point out how much fun it is to make characters from scratch. I mean, I understand that this is a Harry Potter site, but the reason why we have the School RPG is because we want to have like an experience on the real Hogwarts from the books and movies. What's the point of having Canon characters or those related to them if you have to base their personalities on something? It's much more fun to use and stretch the imagination, I think. Of course, Canon characters can be fun, as long as there is more originality in it than there is a basis from the book/movie.

And I love my made-up characters.

I agree with this. I'd love to see a pair of experienced players take on the roles of a Potter and a Malfoy. Possibly switch up the gender on one or both to make things a little different.

Question is: Who would want to fill those shoes?

Harmony, here, makes an excellent point.
The Hogwarts RPG and Ministry RPG is like it's own thing, somewhat separate from the Harry Potter, but more based on this world. The plotlines are different, and so are the characters. Both RPGs serve as way for us to experience Hogwarts using our own unique characters. I'd be lying if I said canon characters aren't all bad. I'm not exactly big on canon characters, or using even distant relatives of canon characters, mainly because there may be some issues that we run into like loopholes, similar characteristics, etc.

Personally, I believe that we already have an RPG forum dedicated to unique story revolving around canon characters. That's what it's for, for people to make up their own plotlines, add in whatever they want, and do whatever they want. They portray the canon characters as well as their descendants.

I just don't think it's really "fun" to RP as a character who is somehow connected to canon characters. However, I do like the approach that Esme took where her charries are so distant from the Malfoy family that they bear almost no resemblance to the actual Malfoy family. That kind of relationship is one I find okay. But the closer your character is to a canon, the less unique your charrie is and the less fun it is to play him or her.

Another thing is that when you create your own, individual character based off of nothing else other than your own imagination, you really get in touch with your more creative side, and you become more experienced at creating new characters. If anything, the School/Ministry RPG brings out our creativity and expands it and that's what I love about it.

This is a difficult topic. You can't really forbid people from relating themselves to cannon characters (I'd be devestated if i could no longer be a Rosier) so perhaps the best thing to do is just organise it?

The celebrity/charrie thread works well because it gives everyone the opportunity to see which celebrity has been 'taken'. It doesn't stop you from choosing a celebrity that has already being used but it gives you the chance to be unique and creative and think up someone who hasn't already been used one hundred times.

Naturally making a thread where people could write down what cannon's they are related to would be a little more complex, however, i think it would be really helpfull. I for one would love to see if there are any other Rosier relations out there

Could we have a thread of the canon family trees? Leave some blanks for new characters, but have some structure and organization.

If people are dedicated enough, have some trees for non canons. I know the one for Helios may be interesting.

What do you guys think?

My little thought.
At first, I had a Canon Charrie of desendance, I admit it. But as time here has passed, and me going around some other sites and reading great stories and such, it gives me the idea to create new personalities, even a past behind them. I love that little tingle inside my mind that calls up for new minds, new lives.


I love the charrie I have now, Emiliano, because he's sort of original of himself and his cousin, my upcoming charrie, means that I have grown as a creator of charries.