Rexy-Rexy Gets Annoying

[Rex Apium]

Hey, so we've got this neat/weird little thing where most of the people on the forum talk to each other outside of the forum or are really only on it because we know each other in one way or another.

Which generally means that we don't need to use the forum for anything other than an RP dump. Which, if that's what you want, sure... that's fine. But on the outside it makes the forum look like it's dead.

So what I'm going to do is a little bonding sess. I ask a question; provide a prompt if you will, and you guys answer it. Easy-peasy. It'll pad the forum a bit (and your post count), make it look like we're interacting with each other, AND it'll make us all a little bit closer. Even if we don't want to be.

Let's begin.

Pick one of your favorite original characters (one you created, guys) and tell me about what inspired you to make the character. Give me something simple, or give me the entire creation process, just tell me what inspired you to create the character.

[wraithblade6]

"AND it'll make us all a little bit closer. Even if we don't want to be."

Mhmm... Anyway. I'm pretty sure none of you know any of my characters. I'd probably make something new for any rp on this board. Does anyone have any interests outside of shadowrun?

[Rex Apium]

Jan 15, 2017 23:59:06 GMT -5 wraithblade6 said:

"AND it'll make us all a little bit closer. Even if we don't want to be."

Mhmm... Anyway. I'm pretty sure none of you know any of my characters. I'd probably make something new for any rp on this board. Does anyone have any interests outside of shadowrun?

We all know your characters. Also that isn't an answer to the prompt. I can highlight and make that easier to read if you're having problems.

[wraithblade6]

Are you saying you have an honest interest in characters you don't know and may never see? Serious question. If yes, then I might list some names for you.

[Rex Apium]

What I'm saying is this:

Pick one of your favorite original characters (one you created, guys) and tell me about what inspired you to make the character. Give me something simple, or give me the entire creation process, just tell me what inspired you to create the character.

[wraithblade6]

... I'll pass. Not really into re-using characters.

[Former Fiend]

Alrighty.

So one of my current favorite characters is my half-orc fighter, Feng Kesh. First tabletop game I actually sat down and played was 3.5 and I was playing a rogue because the party was overly heavy with melee fighters but didn't have much in the way of sneaks or talkers. But for the next game I was looking to play someone who hit people with sharp, heavy objects.

Was looking through the 3.5 classes and found the Samurai, which, the 3.5 Samurai is a pile of hot garbage, mechanically speaking and even thematically speaking - a lot of it's attacks are just screaming and it's whole deal is built around dual wielding the katana & wakizashi, along with having a stricter code of conduct than the paladin class.

So the idea formed for a character that was visually and thematically a samurai - wore samurai styled armor, wielded a samurai style weapon, attempted to live a life in the romanticized ideal of the samurai, but wasn't actually a samurai, either by character class or social class. Mechanically he'd be a fighter, and the idea was story wise that he was a half-orc bastard from a disgraced and exiled samurai family.

By the time the opportunity to actually play the character came up my group had made the jump from 3.5 to Pathfinder which actually made the whole concept easier; half-orcs were a more mechanically viable race, fighter was a more balanced class, and eastern armor & weapons were properly statted rather than just being re-labels of standard gear. The nodachi was even a martial weapon so I didn't have to invest in an exotic weapon proficiency feat to make the character viable.

[Rex Apium]

Should figure I should explain one of mine as well. Was having a hard time deciding which character I wanted to talk about.

So I'm going to talk about my character Scion. She was made for an experimental, totally off the wall D&D 3.5 campaign. The DM was doing a story where all of the PCs were emanations of the Godhead and as they leveled were getting closer to divinity. Basically once we reached 20th level, we would ascend and be the Gods of this world. I still have all his notes because he sent them to me, if people are curious.

Scion started much the same way as all of my tabletop characters start. I pick either a race or a class and go from there. In the case of Scion I was dead set on playing a rogue, because I had an idea for a deity that would be heavily based around shadows and darkness, rogue was the best option for this as far as I was concerned. The next obvious choice was teifling mostly because they're my favorite race... partially because of the stat bonuses. I have a nasty habit of defaulting to teifling for a LOT of things... I have a lot of them as characters. Anyways.

My character creation process is the same regardless of what I'm genning. The character isn't fully complete until I draw a picture of them. Scion was slightly different in this regard. She actually didn't have a sketch until first session, but I had a solid idea of what I wanted her to look like... for the most part. She was actually designed to change physically in small ways over the coarse of the adventure until her body settled on a design when she ascended. I remember being down in the basement transferring laundry from the washer to the dryer when I decided that her eyes would look like the moon. I was having problems deciding if I wanted them purple or silver, so at that point they were suppose to slowly change from purple with pupils to silver without pupils. This, inevitably, is not what I landed on, as her ascended form has purple eyes and silver pupils. Processes.

Scion was unique in her world in the fact she was the only teifling in existence. That meant I wasn't bound by the laws of D&D when it came to her creation process. She ended up with striking eyes (black sclera on top of what I said above) and a tail as well as very obvious horns. Most of this was decided some time after first session, and I'll be honest... she was actually the least conceptualized character I've ever started a game with. She actually didn't even have a -name- when I started, which of course meant I had to write into her backstory that she was never given an official one. She gave herself the name Scion, and ended up transferring that to her followers. (The were known as Scions)

One of my favorite aspects of this game was the amount of freedom we had when it came to designing the characters. Our DM wanted us to come up with domain powers. Things that we could do that other people couldn't just because we were emanations from the godhead. We got a new domain every five levels. Scion started with Darkness at the beginning of the campaign and very quickly I had to come up with another one. That meant I needed to decide exactly what way to take this character. I wanted her to be a darkness goddess when she ascended, but as the game had gone on it became very apparent that she was incredible charismatic. So. What goes with darkness? Secrets. Her second domain was Secrets. Quickly she started to become the spy, the person who got the information she wanted when she wanted it.

We never did get past level 8, but I had already begun the process of her third domain: Manipulation. I didn't ever come up with a last domain for her, but by the end of it she was very clearly a character that wasn't just built for stealth and the dark, rather a character that was queen of what happened under cover of darkness. She would be the goddess of spies, thieves and assassins. It wasn't a short process, rather one drawn out through weeks and months, and probably one of the most involved characters I've come up with.

Basically I wanted something dark and sneaky, so I made something dark and sneaky... then decided she was manipulative because that's the way the character went and adjusted accordingly.

[Panzer]

One of my personal all time favorite characters was played in the same game where Scion made her debut. Our party was out a healer and that didn't sit right with me, so I came up with the idea of a hulking terrifying fighter who would later become the God of Healing, Thus Jottunheim the 10 foot half-orc titan blooded fighter was born and created. Inspiration came from several places the Greek Titans and gods, throw in a bit of Nordic influence and the mindset of a field medic and you get Jottunheim. The gentle giant wielded a massive over-sized greatsword he called his “Scalpel”, armor covered in all kinds of spikes and the power to dish out massive amounts of healing. Originally his domains were going to be strength, honor, redemption and protection...well plans changed. The first session he debuted in he walked in with the domains of healing, protection, and redemption (redemption was supposed to be his final but I never came up with a third.)|

I'd like to say the idea was wholly original but I did loosely rip a bit of the character from Alphonse Alric himself. Can't be helped after all how many other giant hulking monsters that turn out to be sweethearts are out there? If ever given the proper chance to play this character again I would be down for it in a heartbeat.

[Former Fiend]

Jan 16, 2017 2:13:25 GMT -5 Panzer said:

One of my personal all time favorite characters was played in the same game where Scion made her debut. Our party was out a healer and that didn't sit right with me, so I came up with the idea of a hulking terrifying fighter who would later become the God of Healing, Thus Jottunheim the 10 foot half-orc titan blooded fighter was born and created. Inspiration came from several places the Greek Titans and gods, throw in a bit of Nordic influence and the mindset of a field medic and you get Jottunheim. The gentle giant wielded a massive over-sized greatsword he called his “Scalpel”, armor covered in all kinds of spikes and the power to dish out massive amounts of healing. Originally his domains were going to be strength, honor, redemption and protection...well plans changed. The first session he debuted in he walked in with the domains of healing, protection, and redemption (redemption was supposed to be his final but I never came up with a third.)|

I'd like to say the idea was wholly original but I did loosely rip a bit of the character from Alphonse Alric himself. Can't be helped after all how many other giant hulking monsters that turn out to be sweethearts are out there? If ever given the proper chance to play this character again I would be down for it in a heartbeat.

I mean, that is one of the most common tropes in fiction.

[Rex Apium]

Go stand in the corner. It's my job to be the forum asshole.

[Former Fiend]

Yeah, but it's my hobby.

[Rex Apium]

I will fight you.

[wraithblade6]

NOW I'm interested in this thread. *takes forum-asshole trophy from both of you*

[Rex Apium]

You can try.