Naelwyn
Non sum qualis eram
In summation to my post series, I'll leave you with the Abridged Guide to Writing Intelligent Characters. It's for a novelist, but many points can apply to a roleplayed character as well.
http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing
My own, personal advice to creating a good character:
Know your own limits, your own competencies. Try not to overreach those limits too much. If a game permits it I can roleplay up to just a little smarter than myself, for example, but more than that, I cannot achieve. If you know absolutely nothing about fighting and want to make a trained knight, you're /going/ to run into trouble. Educate yourself, or start with a squire, apprentice to those who /do/ know - do things right and people will be glad to teach you.
http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing
My own, personal advice to creating a good character:
Know your own limits, your own competencies. Try not to overreach those limits too much. If a game permits it I can roleplay up to just a little smarter than myself, for example, but more than that, I cannot achieve. If you know absolutely nothing about fighting and want to make a trained knight, you're /going/ to run into trouble. Educate yourself, or start with a squire, apprentice to those who /do/ know - do things right and people will be glad to teach you.