Trial and error, indeed. I've had too many occurrences of having my character pictured in the wrong way, but hey it works out the same in real life. You dont know how a person is going to react to what you say and do, and you have to roll with what happens. You have to compromise, solve issues. That's part of the entire plot and it in all honesty builds character to your roleplay charrie. It's up to you what path to take your character down, whether to make him/her good or bad.

And it's always good to have two or more charries for this reason. That way, if one of your characters is gathering too much steam, you can back off and pull out the other, or use the other to help compromise the problem without god-moding.

*hugs everyone*