Characters

Characters are the core of the Historic Racing League. Although roleplaying is optional, drivers are required to create a character that they race as. The interactions between characters, whether during a race, in the paddock, press interviews or in the wiki, form the roleplay element of the league. While we encourage everyone to take part and let their imaginations run wild to a certain extent, it’s important to maintain a level of realism that fits the alternate history setting. Avoid creating characters with superhuman abilities and unrealistic histories. Characters are not just limited to drivers; you can also roleplay as a team boss, a journalist, or another character that may fit into the roleplay.

Remember, the goal is to create a rich, immersive experience that enhances the excitement of racing. Your character is your avatar in this historic world – make them someone you’ll enjoy embodying throughout their career.

Note: HRL Staff will ask a driver to modify their signup if it is low quality, doesn’t fit the era, or is a joke signup. HRL1 characters are not allowed to be re-used in HRL2.

• The character’s name will be highly influenced by their nationality and/or birthplace. Some names will be more common in certain eras.
  A driver may also have a pseudonym or nickname, but these should only be used if they have some backstory or based on something that has happened in the #paddock channels.
• Use a random name generator: Many sites allow you to randomly generate a name and allow you to select where your character is from. You can then note down a couple of these and then mix first names and surnames as well.
  • Fantasy Name Generator
  • Behind the Name
  • Reedsy
• Maintain realism with the nationality: Ensure that your name is appropriate for the region they are from. A French driver might be called ‘Jean-Pierre’ or ‘Francois’, but generally would not be called ‘Sven’ without the proper background, such as his parents being Swedish but he was born in France.
• Research era-appropriate names: If your driver is racing in 1950 they will likely have a name that was popular in the 1920s or 1930s for example.
  • Popular baby names in the US per decade (Social Security USA)
  • Popular names per decade (Behind the Name)
• Find inspiration from one of your favourite drivers or celebrities: If you have been unable to find a character name using the previous methods, this method (while avoiding direct copies) can be used. However, it should only be used as a last resort.
  • For example: Stefan Van Damme (first name inspired by Stefan Bellof)
• Avoid using your own name or the name of a pre-existing driver or a famous driver; this helps maintain the immersive nature of HRL. Remember, your character can die.

Every character will have information on their early life, their most important life events and how they got into motorsport. How detailed you go is up to you. However here’s some pointers to get you started:

• Upbringing:
  • Birthplace and family: Where was the character born and where did they grow up? Mention what careers the character’s parents have and whether the character’s family were wealthy or impoverised and how this may have affected the character’s path into motorsport.
  • Religion: Is your character religious or spiritual at all and does this affect their view on life, events, and possibly their racing career?
  • It is important to take into account the context of the surrounding area and events when you are deciding when and where your character is born, as this may have major affects on the path your character takes. (See Life Events below)
• Education and Early Life: Include anything that might be relevant to the character’s education and their early career as well as any life events that may have affected the character’s life.
  • Education: Did your character go to a prestigious school or did they have a poor education due to their life circumstances? Your character may have also left education early to pursue their career.
  • Life events: Were there any significant events that affected your character positively or negatively? These events could include the death of a family member or friend, or the outbreak of war in the country/area where your character lives.
• Early racing career: How did the character become a racing driver? Your character may have had a conventional entry into racing by competing in local and regional championships before becoming well-known. If your character had a wealthy background (see Upbringing), did they fast-track themselves into motorsport by buying their way in?

A well-made character will also have a personality, as well as interests and hobbies outside of racing. Personality traits can also be positive or negative. This information can be included on your driver’s wiki page or paddock posts to help flesh out a character more.

• Personality: Does your character have any distinctive personality traits?
  • Anger issues and a bad temper might mean that your character gets involved in more incidents and arguments with other drivers.
  • Introverted characters may shy away from public attention and interviews as much as they can, or give limited answers to the press.
  • Arrogant characters might feel like they are better than other drivers on the grid. They may also feel like they are immune to being hurt or killed in accidents and this could make them over-drive their car.
• Interests: Is your character interested in any other sport or activity outside of motorsport? If so, do they support a team?

DISCLAIMER: At HRL, we generally do not approve of Generative AI which uses art as a base, due to the ethical and ecological problems regarding most of these services. However, there are some useful resources we’ve found over the years that may be helpful.

There are a few “avenues” by which you can create an image for your character. You may wish to skip this section if it does not interest you, and it is not required to have a face for your character.

• This Person Does Not Exist: This is the original method we used in 2019. It is Generative AI trained on a collection of photos specifically to generate new faces. Refresh the page until you find a face, and then screenshot it.
• Photoshop / other editing: If you have the ability, you can take your fictional face and photoshop it onto a photo of a real driver.
• Faceswapper: If you cannot or don’t wish to photoshop, you can use a website such as this to face swap your fictional face onto a real photo.
• FaceApp: We used to use FaceApp for face swaps; it remains useful for its other face-editing features.
• “Convenient” photos: As a last resort, you may use photos for your Wiki page that may not have the driver’s face visible; for example, a driver with goggles and a mask, or a picture that is too low quality to see the driver’s face.
• In-game: As a second last resort, you may use photos that include your driver/car from during a race or event.

There are plenty of examples of characters from HRL Series 1, and reading through them you can find plenty of ways for inspiration to create a memorable and realistic character.

Keep it realistic, and keep it simple to start off with. Whilst it may seem like realism can curb your creativity, the opposite is generally true. If you discover a limiting factor of what you want to aim for with your character, use your imagination to find a workaround/solution. This not only will make your character more grounded but will also create more interesting scenarios you can play off of.

Additionally, it is useful and fun to involve your character with others – either through racing pasts, press posts or other means. Having a link to another character, no matter how small, is a great instant way to insert your character into the world.

Examples

(Click their portraits for their full wiki pages)