Okay, I'm not sure if my method will work for you, but here's what I did:

When I first posted on the board I was concerned about my-how should I put this?- my self-insert of the stories that happen in my head. I was worried that she was a total Sue, but I had been thinking up stuff that involved her for years.

Originally, I was going to have her be one of my agents. I think at the time I had this idea of integrating my head canon with the PPC canon. Looking back on it now, this would have backfired HORRIBLY, so thank whatever deity that this idea never made it out of my head.

After being comforted by some other boarders about my self insert, and after a few days, I started thinking up new adventures. These adventures were of missions that I might go on and two of my OCs from other stories I had in my head slipped in.

I certainly wasn't going to have those two OCs be my agents in their present state, so they sort of changed on their own. I based them not only off of those two OCs, but off me. Natasha was the more nervous, self-doubting side of me, which actually worked pretty well with what her character was originally; while Sylvia was me during the rare times where I felt like a bada**. This also seemed to fit her, as she was not only my OC, but also my Fallout 3 PC.

I started pretending to be these characters whenever I dreamed up what might happen on missions, and that seemed to work pretty well. I'm not sure if it would work with you, but it's worth giving it a shot.

So, in conclusion, try to let it come naturally. Go do something! Play a game, go out for a walk! When you see someone, like a non-consequential NPC or something, think of why they might be there, and what they might be like. Maybe you'll get an idea!

Or maybe I'm just making stuff up. I really don't know anymore.

I read over the handbooks and such, and I didn't see anything, so what are the rules about renaming agents recruited from other works?

Specifically, I was thinking about using one of the sample player characters from a tabletop RPG- his basic concept is in the source material, but his personality and background is intentionally left up to the player to figure out. This makes him one of many quasi-canonical versions of the same canon character. Is it okay to use his canon name, or should I make up an alternate one?

First suggestion: Read this.

Second suggestion: Write yourself as an agent. Write yourself as being a new agent. I'm a bit unsure as to why there was a move away from this, because overall it lends to more than a few things, such as the fact that you're immediately able to get into the swing with yourself rather than making an agent especially for the PPC and thus ~*~perfected~*~ for being an agent, and two, it lends credence to when you're writing your first missions and you have no idea what you are doing. Because, believe me, you don't.

I read all the missions and every bit of supplementary information out there when I was new and I still had no idea what I was doing when I started my first mission. Is this funny? Is that funny? Am I doing this right? Can I do this to her? Is it okay if I break all these things terribly? What the hell is even going on here? Oh God, help, I think I just lost where the Sue is?

But it was okay, because I worked that in with my agents, because they didn't know what they were doing either!

That doesn't work out so well when your agent has been around for over five years, is a tough and hardened veteran of the Sue Invasion of '08, carved a macrovirus off their partner's face, was around for Crashing Down and Reorganisation and so on...+ (It is easier to blame the goofs on your agent not knowing what they're doing- and it's funnier- than if it's an agent that should know what they're doing. Cluelessness is funny. Incompetence at a certain point is just sad. Especially when they're being touted and held up as being a pro.)

Beyond that, remember, you are working not with two individual characters, but with a pair (usually). Agents working in pairs allows for dynamism during a mission. Depending on which Flower paired them up it could be because they balance each other in such a way that they're able to perform their duties, it ensures that agents are learning from each other in ways that will improve their future performance, or because it's a mean and sadistic move making two people have to work together even though they drive each other up the wall.^ It allows for actual character interaction. After all, one agent by themself? What if their weak spots are involved? If one agent is able to keep calm and carry on, and the other can't at a particular spot of the fic, it gives us something to enjoy beyond just the sporking, and serves as reminding us that they are balanced.

Next item. We enjoy humor here. We also have an eye towards serious stuff at times as well. That said? Your agents should be characters in their own right. They shouldn't be made up perfect for just the PPC. They should be able to function elsewhere. In theory. Why? Because a good character is more complicated than shouting out random things just because, or being able to shoot a Sue with a clever wittism. They need to be interesting. At the same time, it's about knowing what you are able to write- and you need to have an eye for both.

Know what sort of humor you're going to go for. Know what sort of jokes you like that you are able to write well. What sort of humor is your character able to provide? If it's dead baby jokes ("Your baby was crawling all over the place!" "Oh dear, I'm so sorry, were you able to get her to sleep, at least?" "It's okay, I nailed her to her bed! She's not moving anywhere!") they probably won't work out too well.* If it's running around being random (Screaming "POTATO! POTATO!" constantly for no real reason beyond thinking that 'potato' is a funny word°) that also might not work out. Don't forget, timing is everything, too. A joke can quickly become awful and inappropriate if it's given at the wrong spot. If your character doesn't actually have comedic timing, that can turn bad really quickly. Knowing how to write something that is really, well and truly funny is important for the PPC.

Know what's creepy. And then? Avoid it. It's not funny. It's not anything beyond severely discomfiting to people. The guy who stares at all the female agents' boobs and molests unconscious female canons when they're knocked out or out of it because hey, he has a neuralyzer? That's creepy. That's not appropriate. That should make you feel icky just thinking about it.

Know how they're able to be serious. What do they get serious about? How do they act? Will they be serious all the time in a place like the PPC? If they are, it's not much of a problem- if they're paired with someone who will be cheerful about doing their job and enjoys it and has no problem being an annoyance to their stuck-in-the-mud partner. Otherwise, you might need to reconsider. Are they mostly level headed? What makes them go into a panic, then? What makes them angry and forget about trying to be reasonable? What makes them dissolve into laughter for several minutes? And if they're constantly being chipper and happy and constantly making jokes or having fun, what makes them stop laughing? What makes the smile drop from their face? What gets them to act serious?++

Do they have any tales of dark, terrible woe behind them? You might have to reconsider it.^^ The PPC is a hard place, in its ways. I mean, we're talking about a place where you're fighting things that are out to destroy worlds on a day to day basis! Missions fail! People die! It's a job that drives people insane! You get no pay, no recompense beyond knowing you're doing a job that helps the multiverse. You need to be able to grin and have a laugh- at something, anything. Missions aren't fun to read, point blank, if it's as dark as dark. Existential angst isn't a good idea. Suicide (no, not him) doesn't really have a place here, unless it's played for a laugh, and I'm not going to go into the details as to why that can be a bad idea. Abuse doesn't belong here. Sexual harassment. Rape. These things go along with the PPC itself- not the missions- about as well as jet fuel and your liver do. There are ways to involve these things, of course, because with competent writing anything is possible, but for the most part, you- this is a general you- aren't able to play it off. The moments where these things are appropriate to bring up are rare, and should be kept rare. (Please note: This paragraph is with regards to these subjects in the PPC itself, rather than as part of mission material. There is a difference between what the PPC has, and what the contents of the badfic we deal with has, and how it is dealt with.)

In short, keep it simple. Write who you know (which is usually you). Write to your knowledge level (you don't know what it is and how to deal with it in a good way until you've worked with it yourself, because you write different from everyone else!). Know how you are going to approach things- a character that makes rape jokes probably shouldn't be in the PPC. Nor should one that has a terrible awful past that she can't help but bring up all the time. They also need to have the capability to be serious (because sometimes, it is necessary.)


+This is a Stu. Or a Sue. Yes, as an agent. In the PPC. And not reformed.
^ Frequently thought of being the rationale of the Sunflower Official, the Queen Anne's Lace, and the Marquis de Sod, in that order.
*Please don't actually use dead baby jokes.
°If your counterpoint that random humor is funny is Monty Python or Invader Zim, please hold off. Monty Python is not 'random' humor, but a form of surrealism. Surrealism's base is from the unexpected happening or things showing a disconnect from actual reality. In Invader Zim, Gir spouting off all that stuff isn't showing him as being funny, but to show that he's stupid. The characters that are shown to be mostly intelligent do not find Gir funny.
++ The ability to be serious is as important as having a sense of humor. The ability to be serious shows the understanding that certain things need to be handled with more than a laugh.
^^ Characters with tales of dark, terrible woe are often Sues or Stus.

Start out by fleshing out their character: who are they? How did they get to the PPC? What's their motivation for staying with a bunch of crazy agents? What do they want in life? Do they have long-term goals they wish to achieve? How do they react faced with illogic/squick/anything the Ironic Overpower throws at them? Etc, etc.

Once you've fleshed each individual out, ask yourself: how are they going to react with one another? Will they clash constantly? Is one a senior agent teaching a rookie how to survive? Etc, etc.

Making agents aliens or natives of some other continua is perfectly acceptable, but make sure that if they have special powers or abilities that they are not "game-breaking". Just imagine how boring a mission would be if a Time Lord and Jedi pair simply waltz into a fic with a TARDIS and zap a Sue to death all while complaining about the writing. That would reek of Sueish agents too, for that matter.

Keep their powers in check: I have a prototype Floater agent who is a protoss high templar, a member of a race of incredibly powerful long-lived autotrophic psychics from the StarCraft verse. Since he is no longer in his home continuum, he suffers from being cut off from the protoss collective. His psionic powers are therefore greatly weakened and he cannot cast any powerful spells without killing himself due to uncontrolled energy surges.

For added points you could also crack jokes concerning alien biology: the same protoss agent lacks a mouth since he is an autotrophic telepath. Imagine what would happen if he is disguised as a human and he eats a cinnamon bun (*cough* Animorphs *cough*) or he tries to speak aloud.

Well, have you found any badfic with recruitable characters? I have two agents planned like this. Is there a race/job in one of your fandoms that you think you'd like to write (like my agents, Lana, Narav, and Tera.) You could also make the agent a normal person, a nerd who got hired by the PPC as if it was a normal job, or an OFU graduate who, say, can't handle going back to 'normality' after meeting and learning from her favorite characters.