4 Reasons Severely Disordered Ageplay Characters aren't "Special" but Annoying

Although Birchwood Isle Ageplay and Spanking RPG is appless (meaning that we don't require many character details before you can get started), we do expect our members to work on developing their character and on fine-tuning their personalities. BWI is obviously a discipline-related role play, and we encourage (and use) physical punishment with the children and teens on the Island. However, our primary focus is not on the spanking, but on the relationships that build out of it.

Here's what I want to talk to you about today: Everybody wants to be special. 

Every player is trying to make their character stand out in the crowd of other characters on the site, especially considering that the administrators have a long list of characters originally created to flesh out the group and to give it the feel of a thriving community. More on this in another post.

The problem with this is that all-too often, people choose to build their character around what amounts to a list of disorders and symptoms in lieu of giving them a real personality. Before I get into the specific reasons that this doesn't work out well in the long run, I want to give you some examples of what we're talking about. These aren't specific examples pointing fingers at specific people, and any one of these issues alone wouldn't be a problem. 

• A severely autistic child who is also intellectually disabled and who is entirely mute. He writes backward using his left hand and only knows the Greek alphabet.
• A teenager who has a special eating disorder causing her to only want to eat rocks. She won't eat real food and any attempt to make her do so results in massive tantrums.
• A child who still wets their pants at age 11 and cannot be potty trained. This child is entirely antisocial with children his age and relies entirely on interactions in which adults change his pants.
• A girl who is absolutely terrified of men and who therefore becomes non-compliant in their presence, forcing them to punish her for her fear, or to simply stop interacting with her entirely.
• A child whose religion forbids him from being housed with other children in of the opposite sex, meaning that he must instantaneously placed in a private foster placement.
• A teenager whose chronic insensitivity to pain means that she cannot be physically punished in a system that espouses physical punishment, but who then acts out frequently due to her ADHD.

I could go on for quite some time about this, but my point is that your character needs to be more than any symptoms of diseases that they have. 

Please don't misunderstand. We absolutely permit you to play characters who have disorders or symptoms. All we ask is that you take the time necessary to research your disorder and understand the disease instead of making it up as you go along. For example, we have a thriving community of Deaf characters on Birchwood Isle. The people playing these characters have a firm understanding of Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and the Deaf community. 

If you choose to play a character with a disorder, be prepared to understand that disorder. Eating disorders and drug addiction are the most common and likely types of disorder we'd see in foster children on Birchwood Isle. These are relatively easy to research!

I've composed some reasons why making your character nothing but a list of their symptoms is unwise.

1. Characters who don't have personalities are boring. Bear in mind that a list of symptoms does not a personality make. Strengths, weaknesses, skills, and hobbies are the foundation of personality, as are motivations and behavior. Symptoms aren't any of these things, and therefore they are secondary to your character's personality. Characters with too many symptoms are generally void of personality, making them dry for their role play partners.
2. Disordered characters are difficult for adults. Our experience tells us that there are plenty of age players who seem to enjoy the strain that they place on the adult players, but we frown on this because over time, these types wear down the adult players, who will eventually leave the group or who won't want to continue to role play with the disordered child or teen. Don't make a difficult kid for the sake of being special. Do it because it's inside of you and be patient with your partners.
3. Disordered characters are often bratty or needy. Many people make a list of symptoms in the hopes not of making their character unique, but of making somebody "love" their character and want to bond with them because they are so needy and special. The fact is that most players with adult characters don't have the time or energy to devote to these disorders, and it's probably not going to happen for you. 
4. Severely disordered characters are generally considered "unadoptable" on Birchwood Isle. Because these children are especially difficult and place a lot of strain on the adult playing with them, the character is going to need to form a strong bond with an adult (and their player) in order to convince them to look past what makes the child or teen character difficult in order to love them.

I'm writing from experience. My character Toby is one of my earliest characters. I still play her because I love her, but she is especially difficult, with a nicotine addiction, anorexia, and a learning disability. It's taken me years of cultivating her personality and showing her vulnerabilities (which are few) in order to make her endearing to other people. Many people find her strange and unlikable because she's just too much.

If you need to, or want to, go ahead and make a disordered character, but bear in mind that they need to have a personality and that three or four disordered stacked on top of one another may result in your character being undesirable for adoption.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments!