Week 5 (August 28th, 2009)
Characters
We talked a few weeks back about villains. But what about other characters: PCs or non-villain NPCs in the case of RPGs, since we have a lot of gamers here, or even characters in fiction.
What was the most interesting NPC you ever ran? What about the most interesting one in another person's game/setting? What about the most interesting PC you've played or seen played?
What are the most memorable characters you've experienced in fiction, film, or television?
With all that in mind, what makes a character special or interesting?
When making a campaign (not a setting), how much do you try to cater to the specific characters in the party? Do you ask the players to write backgrounds to be incorporated? Create specific missions to appeal to certain characters? Create challenges tailored for certain skills?
Well, since I'm new to RP'ing I don't really have a lot of experience to draw upon. I will like to bring up an example.
The first is Toden Hodd, a NPC member of our archeological group (re: adventuring) group. Friendly enough guy, the thing that makes him memorable (this is in the third session mind) is that when we were confronting an enemy (who was quite a bit to handle) he jumped into combat and held off the enemy, a werewolf, while we could enchant our weapons (making them magic, so we could bypass the weres immunities). The memorable bit though is what happened to him, he got crit and essentially took more damage then he had HP, so he got his arm ripped off less then a minute into the fight.
This really made him memorable, not because he fought the were that was expected, his life was in danger too; but in what happened to him. It was pretty ruthless, and it makes him memorable
Quote from: PhoenixWhat are the most memorable characters you've experienced in fiction, film, or television?
When making a campaign (not a setting), how much do you try to cater to the specific characters in the party? Do you ask the players to write backgrounds to be incorporated? Create specific missions to appeal to certain characters? Create challenges tailored for certain skills?[/quote]
Yes to all of these, definitely! To me, one of the things that can really kill good RP is that the players don't feel like their characters are actually immersed in that world. When they have a background, that ties in, and the missions feel like they're suited to that background, it feels like the character is actually living in that world and doing things in it, which in turn makes the RP more deep and fun.
Quote from: PhoenixWhat was the most interesting NPC you ever ran? What about the most interesting one in another person's game/setting? What about the most interesting PC you've played or seen played?
Man, where to begin?
(name unremembered) (PC): My first PC ever, Eberron D&D. This guy was a gnome who'd gone diviner wizard because he wasn't as perceptive as the other gnomes. And boy did I ever play him that way: I had him take the most naive (though not necessarily stupid) course of action each time he did something. This resulted in him: picking up the ticking clockwork doll, grabbing the runaway flying broom, boldly ask a room full of possibly hostile warforged some questions, take off his belt thus dropping his pants so they could have something to muzzle a gnoll with, and in his most famous exploit (which happens chronologically before these others) innocently collect a G-string as evidence.
Ari and Reade (PCs): Pseudo-priests of an anti-religion (but really just random citizens) in a fort town on the edge of the Mournland (Eberron). Once called the "Jay and Silent Bob" of the game, though really they were more based on Bartelby and Loki. (And they had great backstories I never got to. :cry: )
Dr. Strange Love/Doc Hazard (semi-PC plot-device NPC): Essentially Washu from Techi Muyo (right down to the pictures I use), but with the wisdom turned down and the crazy turned
way up. While derivative I think that mostly comes down to the fact that I just play a lot of Washu-like NPCs.
DÃyú (NPC organization): Started out as the character È Mó, a cross-dressing gay horse-demon who enforced mythical laws and codes. When I finally came up with the reason why she did the entire idea grew into this old Chinese hell working for all other mythologies to enforce various mythic tropes.
Grey Fox (NPC): A trickster who never got hired spending his time dispensing advice on hero tropes to the PC superheroes. Same deal (and game) as Diyu: making fun of tropes by calling them out loud. He's also married to a Lina Inverse rip-off (who actually has a secret backstory that makes her a full character.........).
Landome Guy (PC): The very best secret agent the Galactic Republic has and the most embarrassing one in existence. A shapeshifter who spends all his time in the form of a black female cat with a crescent moon on her forehead (not only does he
look like Sailor Moon's Luna he
is Sailor Moon's Luna, only an abridged series version; it's a long story) despite being a guy.
As you can see all my best characters have been complete freakazoids. :morons:
Quote from: PhoenixWhat are the most memorable characters you've experienced in fiction, film, or television?
Too many to list.
Quote from: PhoenixWith all that in mind, what makes a character special or interesting?
Either being more clever than the world around them or being unexcusedly stupid. However the cleverness must come with some realization that the things people put a lot of value in do not necessarily have any intrinsic value.
Quote from: PhoenixWhen making a campaign (not a setting), how much do you try to cater to the specific characters in the party? Do you ask the players to write backgrounds to be incorporated? Create specific missions to appeal to certain characters? Create challenges tailored for certain skills?
Still working on it. But since I normally make the setting ahead of time it's not built for any characters, I just may modify it while play is going on. That said I like settings open enough for the players to make up their own corner if need be.
Paul Atreides certainly qualifies as a favorite for me, Sparkle.
Wit means everything to me when it comes to characters. Tyrion Lannister from aSoIaF, Reynolds from Firefly, Glokta from the First Law; all of these characters survive on wit and guile alone. In line with this, i also prefer characters who do not have the advantage yet manage to get out on top or trick their superior opponents somehow.
While not a particularly prominent character, I have a character called Dominic in my current game who refused to give any details as to his identity and occupation when asked by one of my players and the player became totally obsessed with the guy, going as far as to copy his style of clothing, and I began playing Dominic as a mysterious stalker who delighted at tricking the PC. He is meant to be a sort of sinister informant.
My favorite PCs were probably my shadow elf shadowmage Kaia who suffered a great deal of cultural shock after being confronted by colors and the sun and the sea (apparently they don't have that on the shadow plane) and suffered some discrimination for looking like a drow, as well as my warforged artificer Forge who managed to get through some very devious deeds, like tricking an entire courthouse while being the subject of detect lies or some such and stealing all the magic items of a small unfriendly mountain village by way of deception and a winged mechanical chest with an invisibility spell on it. Not very deep characters I admit, but it was a while ago and it was fun :p
So this has been a slower week for FFP. Allow me to pose an additional topic:
Do you enjoy anti-heroes (or sympathetic villains)? Or do you like more traditional heroes better?
Quote from: PhoenixDo you enjoy anti-heroes (or sympathetic villains)? Or do you like more traditional heroes better?
I'm not sure I like either. I just basically don't want to sympathize with characters, at least in the vein of caring or hating. I prefer characters to be independent, that they're not asking for help (in a metacontextual sense) but are attempting to go about their life on their own. It's only then that I'll feel for them.
In line with what i previously said, I don't mind the charismatic anti-heroes who are only out for themselves. My only problem is that at some point it becomes difficult to empathise with them if they are *too* bad.
Quote from: PhoenixDo you enjoy anti-heroes (or sympathetic villains)? Or do you like more traditional heroes better?
Thieves, brigands and ruffians yes. Angst no. Morality isn't a huge deal in my campaigns, but I like it that way.
I have to say I'm always baffled at the NPCs who get the most attention from my group. The only trick I've learned is how to make a villain truly contemptible... usually with betrayal and trickery. There is no NPC so loathed by my parties as a doppelganger or even a changeling.
I have one for television.
On the television series Heroes, the character Syler (Gabriel) possesses a hunger for other people's supernatural abilities. Although he is not a murderous person, to take powers from other people he must kill them. He cannot control the hunger, and the longer he goes without taking powers the more "hungry" he gets. I have always seen this as a more obvious example of human's lust for power. But the emotion and apparent confusion of the character is what makes it interesting. He is the perfect villian. You love to hate him, but you want to love him. He has a sad backstory full of emotion, and you want to beleive he can be good again. He sets traps, makes everybody beleive that they are monsters just like him. He is one of my favirote characters of all time.
Yeah, Sylar was pretty cool in season 1.
Another interesting tv anti-hero, although not from fantasy/sci-fi, would be T-Bag from Prison Break. He is intensely despicable (I really wanted them to kill him in the first season), yet he is clever enough to manipulate his way out of most every situation by making all the other characters need him in some way. He also has a complex personality, is remarkably intelligent, and is a one-armed thief from season 2 and on.