Developing a personna

[FearNot]

Do most of you base your personna on a family member or someone else who actually existed or do you tend to research the time and area of interest and mould your personna to fit into that? I've come up with a personna that fits the time and place of interest, but you'll never find the name on any actual militia roll. Mostly just curious as to what others do regarding this.

 

[RangerThacher]

All of the above. I've based my persona on period diaries and memoirs, as well as family history. And I'm constantly studying the period, and incorporated new details to flesh out the story of who I am. For my persona's experiences of the past, I've used the diaries and memoirs of actual provincial soldiers and rangers during the french and indian war, and for my name and details about where I'm from I've used family history. It's also very important to study the general history, art, architecture, religion, etc. of the time and place I'm portraying.

 

There are no rules and one does not need a famous ancestor to enter the reenactor ranks.

One can enter this make believe world from either direction. I know reenactors that go into detailed development based on relations or specific people.

I know others, just as historically presentable, that do a generic farmer, fort hunter, scout, militiaman, craftsman or other presentaion.

Often it is actually better to start as a generic and get more detailed as you study and learn.

Keep it simple and believable.

One checks out the shallow end of the pool first and makes sure a lifeguard is present.

:front: