Character Creation, and a Short Discussion on Alignment.

Character Creation

Before you begin Role Playing, you'll need to create a character. Your character is, basically, the role you play. This character can be based on yourself (BUT AVOID MARY SUES! Cough.) or can simply be made up. A character can be anything you want them to be.
While it varies from place to place, there are a few basic rules to character creation.

Numero Uno: Make sure your character fits into the RPG's setting! Your character cannot be a wizard in a realistic setting, or a swordsman in a gunfight. It simply doesn't work out. If your character's made this way, modify them to fit, or make a new one.
Overly perfect characters are unrealistic and a recipe for disaster. All characters have flaws.
Details, details, details. For simplistic stuff, one line is alright, but when it comes to describing your character's backstory and personality, there should usually be at least a paragraph in each section, if not more.
NOTE: When Role Playing with a brand new character, this isn't so important, but later on, any short portions of a character's profile should be modified.

Other than these rules (plus any the RPG’s creator makes), there are no limits to your character. They could be a good guy, a bad guy, a neutral person, an assassin, a monk, a sadist, a god, a psycho, a talking container of Capri Sun…

For a basic character, know:

Name. And once you have one… Try to stick with it.
Age; Height; General Physical Characteristics.
Backstory
Personality, Exterior and Interior

Name + Physical Characteristics: Self-explanatory. As are the physical characteristics.

Backstory: What happened in your character’s past that made them the character they are?

Personality, Exterior and Interior: A character’s exterior personality is the part of your character that is exposed to the world. The facade that everyone sees. Their interior is the deeper part of them that only those closest to them can see. The bloodthirsty monster within the ex-warrior, ever reaching for the surface. The sobbing child within the man hell-bent on revenge.

Alignment

"Good and evil is a point of view."
-Darth Sideous

  Alignment depends on the RPG and the character, and how they interact. The character’s alignment is almost never specific for every RPG.

  The environment we are in effects who we are greatly. The average man would become a saint in a paradise, but when faced with anarchy and destruction, would most likely give into his more bestial instincts.

  However, your character is not the average man. He has drives, passions, and morals. What those are were decided by you in the character’s creation, and based upon those, your character will align itself depending on its situation. Will your character become a monster in the face of a dystopic world, or does he have higher ethics that stop him? Will they bow in the face of a superior, or will some amount of pride not allow them? Will they prevent the death of millions of innocents, or will they only aide in the destruction?

  The decision, in the end, is in the hands of the character.