[OOC] The Spirits Within

[Ex]

So guys.

I'm working on a character idea - not for TSW, not for anything, just an idea I sort of had - and I'm having a lot of trouble because I'm concerned my characters are too homogenous. Any advice?

[Mirandae]

@Rockette Looking forward to those graphics
@Ex Base your characters on existing characters in films/books? Check out that TV tropes website, it has a lot of stuff concerning characters.

[Tenish the Mighty]

I suppose I should think it depends upon what way you think they are homogeneous. Do you feel they are similar in personality or appearance? Both? Are they usually the same ethnicity or gender? Do they come from similar social backgrounds? Are all of their names just variations on the name Jeffrey?

If you know what element is feeling stale, I would think the easiest thing to do is just to flip it. If they all are all young white women, make a middle aged, Guatemalan man. Even those superficial things can lead to drastically different characters. The experiences of growing up and aging in Guatemala would certainly lead to differences in worldview.

Are all your characters existentialists? Then give them a decidedly contrary philosophical bent. Make them devoutly Hindu.

Or just make your character a severe burn victim with horrible scarring over 97% of their body. Or make them have had an ovariectomy.

I've often found it useful to try and create characters whose disposition or background is far removed or antithetical to my own as both an exercise in my ability to write from a vastly different perspective as well as creating a more diverse stable of character and story ideas.

I suppose I'm pontificating now. I concur with Prisk that TV tropes is a fun resource when thinking about ones own narrative intentions.

[Ex]

No, Ten, you're being very helpful.

My primary RP characters (as opposed to NPCs, supporting characters, etc.) tend to be young (or at least young-looking), white women. The young women thing doesn't really bother me (the white thing does, a little, but not too much). They definitely don't come from similar social backgrounds.

Their personalities are varied, but they tend to be idealistic, passionate individuals, and a lot of the variation comes in what they specifically care about, and how they've tempered or adapted to their own personalities. They usually have pretty complex internal issues and do a lot of introspection. Emily is definitely an example, albeit a darker one - her issues are relatively literal and obvious, compared to some of the others, but she's still part of the spectrum.

It'd be fine and good to write an old, black man instead of a young, white woman, and it would bring a new perspective - but I think I would still end up writing an passionate, idealistic person, even if the details were changed. I could make them ill or religious or whatever, but that doesn't really change the core; I feel like those traits, while interesting and useful to characterization, don't really change the central essence of the person.

What I'm interested in doing is not necessarily changing the surface stuff, because in my mind a lot of that flows from the core conception of "who the person is," but I want to expand my range from "idealistic passionate person who is deeply conflicted about X" to have more options. I'm just not really sure what else I'd find very interesting.

[Anima]

Prisk! I'm on the titan pad. Would you mind a collab?

Though it might be difficult, Ex, I try to force myself to write a character who is a stark contrast to my typical, happy self. For example, Sofia. I have to draw on a tremendous amount of external elements such as paintings, favorite villainous characters, and many other things for me to be able to write with her mindset. Of course, there are particular facets of her that come from myself, but with writing characters, that is inevitable lest you have multiple selves within yourself.

Not sure if that helped at all. Just throwing in my two cents into the pot.

[Ex]

Anima you should collab with me - we still need to do Sofia/Emily!

I am working on an idea for a villainous character. I want to do a sort of second-in-command type (what TVTropes would call "The Dragon") but I'm concerned about avoiding traditional villain motives/behaviors. I've done the noble demon "I have secret desires for good but have to do evil to survive" thing, and I've never been a fan of the "I'm just out for myself/I like to watch the world burn/it's everyone else's fault I'm evil" theories of evil. I'm trying to find a more unique set of motivators/goals/beliefs for a character, something that isn't necessarily easily definable by the traditional notions of evil/good.

I just haven't come up with something solid yet.

[Rockette]

I used to have the same issue with having similarities between characters that beheld similar personalities and details as to what you described. I broke away from the mold eventually, mostly just using inspiration and taking minor tidbits from various tropes that I read up on. Switching around helped a lot as well, to what Ten suggested.

Mags herself is the first of her kind, for me at least. But then I prefer darker characters in general.

The spectrum of "evil" is a little more difficult to discern, I'll admit. Some villains tend to blend in together for me, even my own.

[Ex]

I really appreciate all the effort you guys are making at helping me with my dilemma ;)

I think that the core of my frustration is wanting to do something different; I feel like my characters, though they have their similarities, are reasonably unique (not totally, and some very much more than others, but relatively). But I still feel like they're too similar to other things - tropes, characters, etc., and of course, they're self-similar.

We'll see what I come up with :P

[Mirandae]

These are English lit classes ramblings influenced by me, haha, so bear with me...

It isn't always the uniqueness or complexity of the character makes it interesting. I think that unique or complex characters should be avoided, at least in a roleplaying forum. Most films and literature cannot handle such characters properly. It's more about what you do with a character concept, in the character's arc, than anything else. My favorite villain of all time is Kruger, portrayed by Sharlto Copley, in the film "Elysium"; the character concept is so simple, yet it has such depth due to his performance and what they do with the character in the film.

Most characters tend to fall flat when it comes to their flaws. Authors and writers are too blunt about their character's flaws, especially when they are unique or complex, almost to the point of simply stating "this is the character flaw." However, if you properly present a flaw in a character's arc, over time, even the most mundane, boring character concept will have depth and be interesting. Always assume that people are stupid, so the core concept must be simple. The uniqueness and complexity should lie within the nuances of that simplicity, its presentation.

I don't think it would be fair for me to discuss Olivia, because I'm the GM and I can approach things in an entirely different way than you can. However, her flaw is not particularly interesting or unique (obsession), but it's in its simplicity that I can really create something and add depth over time, and use it in her character arc in a meaningful way that is coherent: the flaw is coherent to her character concept in the sense that she is caring for something, but to an unhealthy degree; there is a trigger that bluntly states when her obsession is shown (Samuel); and it is slowly changing her parallel to the story (character arc).

On a roleplaying forum, I think it's important to have simple character concepts and then play off of the nuances. People will instantly understand it, as they can easily comprehend the character concept. Never underestimate the stupidity of stupid people. Not that I think that you guys are stupid, you guys are smart and I love you!

[JJ Doe]

Prisk said Lost in another dimension
Fredrick

Holy crap! Another dimension!? Wow… not that I think Adorabadass will be back anytime soon (possibly never), but that seems like the hardest place to come back from!

@Ex: Hmm… I guess there isn’t much I can add to everyone else’s advice. The only thing I can add is probably to create a lot of detail about the character, details that you may not even be shown in the story (And I mean details, like habits or the character’s favourite toy as a child, details). It will help make an in depth character (you see what the character is/was beyond the limitations of the story) and you may be able to find what “similarities” you keep creating.

[Mirandae]

The Tree of Life post is ‘live.’ At this point, you can upgrade, alter, replace, or add new spirits to your character. I have increased the maximum amount of spirits that your character can possess to eight (8), but you don’t have to fill that quota. I have also updated the combat mechanics, which now has icons! The attributes have been adjusted, so I recommend that you look them over and redistribute points for your character if you want to. I also recommend that you rework your spirit descriptions and their functionality. Example:

Name of Spirit
Element: use the icon or name. Use “none” for spirits without an element.
Effect: combat system-friendly description, keep short.
Description: Everything and anything else! What it looks like, what happens, additional effects that doesn’t have anything to do with the system, etc.

The Tree of Life is in the ruins of a town/city. This is where you can find a new weapon, just as Olivia does. There’s going to be lots of fighting after they leave the ruins.

In order to keep a constant flow of posts, I recommend that you split up content to the best of your ability, especially in the event of collaborations; divide extensive flashbacks into parts over several posts. This way, you’ll always have something to post and I won’t bitch about you not posting; win-win!

You can also change your Limit Break if you want to. I'm currently thinking of a better way to use these in the game.

[Ex]

I really appreciate everyone's thoughts! Prisk, I totally get what you're saying as well - but I think that for my entertainment, I want something different. That said, I did come up with some decent ideas last night that I can recombine in some form to hopefully do something cool. We'll see.

I don't want to change Emily's limit break, but I'd like a chance to use it at some point.

[Anima]

Prisk, whenever you have the chance, please let me know how to proceed regarding the Tree of Life scene. Since Sofia is starting off separate from the rest of the group, if I read correctly!

[Mirandae]

Go ahead and have Sofia at the tree! It was the same thing with you as with Rockette, I only placed your character 'nearby' because I didn't know what your availability was like at the time.

[Sixsmith]

Sorry I haven't been alive in here lately. I just recently stumbled upon something on Netflix that I've binged watched or 4 days straight... uh...

That's entirely my fault and I apologize. I'll try and catch up in the mean time and hopefully post come Sunday (because that's my day off, so hurrah!) and hopefully get Roy back into the mix. I think givin' him some shiny new powers will help get my juices flowing. Nom nom.

[Ex]

Hey guys. I played a game today. It was a fun game.

It's called Betrayal at the House on the Hill, and it's essentially what Cabin in the Woods would have been if it were reincarnated as a board game. It's super fun and has lots of great roleplay elements.

I don't have another point to mentioning this. It was just pretty fun.

[Sixsmith]

Ex said
Hey guys. I played a game today. It was a fun game.It's called Betrayal at the House on the Hill, and it's essentially what Cabin in the Woods would have been if it were reincarnated as a board game. It's super fun and has lots of great roleplay elements. I don't have another point to mentioning this. It was just pretty fun.

I've played that like ten times.

It's extremely fun to play the betrayer in certain situations. I haven't gotten through much of the betrayals, but I one of my favorites was the voodoo one lol. Probably because it was the only one I'd won as one of the 'victims'. ;_;

I bought Arkham Horror a long time ago, but I haven't been able to find people who want to take the time to learn and play it. Sucks because it's a fun game, but it takes more time learning it than it does actually playing it. :(

[JJ Doe]

Prisk said The Tree of Life post is ‘live.’ At this point, you can upgrade, alter, replace, or add new spirits to your character. I have increased the maximum amount of spirits that your character can possess to eight (8), but you don’t have to fill that quota.

As in, the maximum amount of (type of) spirits that one character can possess at once is 8, or we can add/change a maximum of 8 spirits?

[Mirandae]

If you have less than 8 spirits, you can add new ones up to that number. You can change any number of spirits that you already have into something else. Your character can possess any number of spirits between 1 and 8, you don't have to maximize your number of spirits. Check Olivia's character sheet for example, I only have 2 spirits there at the moment, which are 'new' or different from what she had before. So, you can also remove existing spirits.

[Rockette]

Those little icons are cute - where did you find them?
I'm going to do a little post with Mags new stuff and spirits over the weekend, but the place I'm staying tonight has a rather slow and weak connection.
So it'll probably come Sunday-Monday at the latest.

For those in wanting collaborations, I'll be available all day Tuesday.

Graphic update:
I've been messing around with the different backgrounds and stuff - but I want to know what colours that you guys associate for your characters as a whole.
Like for Mags: hers would be something akin to Red and Black. Those are spirit related.
Another example is very pale blues and blondes, almost a grey colour because of her overall pale complexion and personality nature - at least what is portrayed outside.