Author Topic: The Character Designers Guild
Sith-I-5 
Registered: Aug '02
13776_Mace Windu<br>South Park
Date Posted: 10/8/07 11:54am Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
Hey, Kev', quite a nice character picture you got there!Like the un-common lightsabre holding stance.

 

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Crowning Moment of Awesome – THE MASTER. Summoning six billion robotic
beach balls Of Doom to decimate the Earth, blowing a good-bye kiss to the
Doctor, all the while dancing to "Voodoo Child". EPIC. EVIL. WIN.
007 Family - DVC's twin bro'.
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Kev-Mas_Colcha 
Registered: Dec '02
40719_Ringwraith Sith
Date Posted: 10/8/07 12:54pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
Sith-I-5 posted:
Hey, Kev', quite a nice character picture you got there!Like the un-common lightsabre holding stance.


Thanks. I actually didn't even intend for the lightsaber stance to be un-common. tongue

 

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...oh, where the North Wind sleeps -that is when
we'll meet again... oh, where the shadows creep
into Twilight, I'll descend
Good and Evil, it never ends
You're just a means to an end
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Sith-I-5 
Registered: Aug '02
13776_Mace Windu<br>South Park
Date Posted: 10/8/07 12:58pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild - Date Edited: 10/8/07 3:11pm (2 edits total) Edited By: NaboosPrincess
Lightwarden
Can someone please explain to me the appeal of using some random image off of the net for your character?


Some of us do not possess artistic skills to realise their character, and there are times in an RPF career where it the time taken to get a picture, print it, trace what you actually want over the image, scan that, and finally host it on your own website so as not to bandwidth leech an innocent party, is several days too long than the time you need it.


Lightwarden Why can't people just use their imaginations and words to describe the characters

I think I have quite a good vocabulary, but not when it comes to describing people.


Livi-Wan Using a picture you found off google to describe a character you have made up yourself is not only extremely lazy, it is also indicative of bad roleplaying.

No it isn’t.


Livi-WanWrite down a description or draw it yourself because otherwise I won't take you or your character seriously.

Noted.



This is an image I put my heart into, to the best of my ability. I managed to get the life force crossing from the victim to my character, but does he look anything like a Twi'lek? I don't drokking think so!
A Google'd image, or a picture that you come across that you think best represents your character, can win over your own abilities, so why not use them?
Film makers using properties that used to be books or television series get an actor or actress in to represent the character they want portrayed; the RPer is doing the same.

 

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Crowning Moment of Awesome – THE MASTER. Summoning six billion robotic
beach balls Of Doom to decimate the Earth, blowing a good-bye kiss to the
Doctor, all the while dancing to "Voodoo Child". EPIC. EVIL. WIN.
007 Family - DVC's twin bro'.
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Apadamek 
Registered: Jul '07
7933_Admiral Motti
Date Posted: 10/8/07 3:00pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
applause

 

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R_Zion 
Registered: Nov '04
24073_Nute Gunray
Date Posted: 10/8/07 3:06pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
I might as well bring this up, for those who do not possess the artistic abilities to draw their characters, there are always resources such as the Star Wars Artists' Guild: http://www.swagonline.net

They have a request forum where their roster of artists will take a request of their choice and illustrate the character (for free). As well, there are plenty of pre-existing general character illustrations that were created for the specific reason of being available for people to use to illustrate their characters or NPCs within their games.

 

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Playing as HK-47 in 'As Father and Son',
An ESB AU RPG here on the forum, now looking for players:
http://boards.theforce.net/role_playing_forum/b10328/28357048/p1
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NaboosPrincess 
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered: May '01
6907_Anakin and Padme
Date Posted: 10/8/07 3:23pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild - Date Edited: 10/8/07 3:23pm (1 edits total) Edited By: NaboosPrincess
I can't believe I actually have to post this, since we usually have such a good community, but can everyone please remember to play nice? Some of the posters here are doing a really nice job of constructively criticizing the characters, and I thank you. Others...are not. I don't want the CS criticism to become an avenue for mocking, name-calling, or antagonizing other users. Telling someone they "look like a fool" is neither helpful nor acceptable. Picking apart every single paragraph of the CS is not extremely helpful, either, unless perhaps you are correcting a large amount of spelling/gramatical errors.

Also, if you are going to post a CS, please be prepared for the criticism, and don't berate the people giving you feedback. Their criticism is likely to hurt a little, because the character is probably quite close to your heart, but remember, this will help you improve. If you truly feel the comments have crossed the line, please let me know, rather than duking it out in the thread.

I have not been keeping up with the thread as well as I ought to, and I will try to check in more frequently in the future in case we have further issues.

 

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Shark movies bring out a rough crowd.
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TheManinBlack 
Registered: Aug '07
23528_Jango Fett
Date Posted: 10/8/07 4:02pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
...hey you don't here me whining...well I did alittle but Lightwarden certaintley didn't get to name calling nor did I.

 

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Rayson 
Registered: Apr '02
17768_Thrawn
Date Posted: 10/8/07 5:41pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild - Date Edited: 10/8/07 5:42pm (1 edits total) Edited By: Rayson
Well, reading the last couple of pages, it was interesting to view the comments made and the number of times I saw Edited By: NaboosPrincess.

*Sigh*

On a lighter note, HI!. I've returned! happy

Being that I am the oldest member of the Guild, I feel I have the authority to start off on a new Character Sheet, as I'm interested in what the members of the guild have to say. As NP stated, Hammer and I designed these guilds to be both helpful and constructive to all players among the forums. If any of you have visited darth_Boba's new RPG in the SW Forums, I designed the following Character Sheet for it.



Name: Andre Voussef - "Skywalker's Bane"
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 38
Physical Description: Standing roughly six feet, Andre is gruff looking man. Broad across the chest, with close-cropped dark hair and a thick mustache. Often dressed in a replica of the ancient Madalorian battle suit (save for the helmet and arm-coverings), Andre is nearly as renowned as the Skywalker Dynasty itself.
Faction: Non Force-Sensitives
Occupation: Jedi Bounty Hunter (Skywalker, specifically).
Rank/position: Not Applicable.
Weapons/tools: A long range hunter, Voussef specializes in what he refers to as 'The Art of Sniping'. And of course he always carries several Thermal Detonators (Mark XI) with him and his personalized Vibro-blade. Aside from his weaponry, he always carries typical Breaking-and-Entering equipment.
Bio: Over a millenia, Corellia continued to slip out of the sight of the New Republic, and then the Skywalkers. A cesspool of disease, filth and crime, the planet was once again the smuggling capital of known space. Even Hutts considered Corellia below their bulbous figures. And this is the planet where Andre's parents thought it suitable to raise a young boy.

Somewhere between Andre's mother's drug abuse and his father's physically abusive nature, he found peacefulness in killing. And despite it being morbid nature for a twelve year old child to find a certain calmness in death, it helped him ignore the world he lived on and the situation he had found himself in.

Those who knew the young Voussef boy knew it was only inevitable that his parents would die. Though whether it was by suicide and murder, no one knew. Save for Andre. Late one cool night, when the underlaying lights of Corellia glowed a soft blue-yellow light, Andre cut down his parents. Though in the process recieved a long scar down the left side of his neck. His father always kept a bottle on hand, and seemingly knew how to put it to good use in a fight.

After that, he found himself on the run. Captured more than once by the Skywalker 'Peace Keepers', and thrown away in a prison on the outer rim. Here he developed his own personal hate for the Skywalker clan. He despised their own self-given superiority, their smugness and their 'pride' which they weren't supposed to believe in.

He hated them with the very core of his being, and proved it in every escape he had made from them; ensuring he killed at least one before he made his leave. Eventually, it became very easy to find employers who hated the Skywalkers as much he did.

And so his anti-Skywalker regime began, fueled and created with pure hatred. Though some may view Andre Voussef has a cold-hearted psychopath, many look upon him simply as his name describes him: Skywalker's Bane.




I designed the character to be harder for me to play. Generally I create characters that are noble in some way, even if they are what would be considered 'a bad guy'.

This character could be fun, a psychotic and sporadic killer. Though definitely challenging to write. Between talking to himself, thinking to himself and killing someone at the same time. Or two persons. Or three, and so on.

A good challenge is what I love to create for myself whilst Role Playing, and I trust you will take these goals for myself into consideration while creating constructive criticism for my most recent piece.

P.S.: I may be a tad rusty, this is my first return to Role Playing in quite some time.. wink

 

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I love Star Wars.
I play World of Warcraft.
I read ...books.
Dear God,
What have I become?
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Kev-Mas_Colcha 
Registered: Dec '02
40719_Ringwraith Sith
Date Posted: 10/9/07 9:51am Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
Rayson, I love the character. I think you've still got it, personally. Of course, this is coming from an amateur who just now perfected his first character.

 

-----signature-----
...oh, where the North Wind sleeps -that is when
we'll meet again... oh, where the shadows creep
into Twilight, I'll descend
Good and Evil, it never ends
You're just a means to an end
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DarkLordoftheFins 
Registered: Apr '07
Date Posted: 10/9/07 11:38am Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
I actually agree with NP. Very much so. A reason why I have stayed silent lately, because I don´t see the point of the sort of criticism that is performed here.

It won´t help any players. Actually I think that some self-proclaimed experts are quite rude and surely no experts.

All in all I have played RPs online and offline for a century now. I have seen concepts spawning incredible characters I wouldn´t have dreamt they would last a week. Therefore my opinion on the CDG is:

We must embrace the diversity of character-creation, respect the mistakes people do and show them why they don´t work. And meanwhile not forget that we are only a bit longer in this field and not better then they are.



As a note: When I read the boards, I see some great characters. And a lot of very similar and boring. NONE of their players of the great ones is here in the CDG. And seriously, I think there is a reason for it. Think about it. I will.

 

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Proud Apprentice of Sey
Member of the "Triumvirate" - GM of Collapsing Galaxy
Eydan Skorne in "128 ABY", Yorrel in "Fools Gamble", Venda Ra (deceased) in "128ABY", Hespar Kessler in "128ABY"
Member of the GDG, CDG, Senator of the IKFC
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DarkLordoftheFins 
Registered: Apr '07
Date Posted: 10/9/07 1:44pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
Ok, just to clearify my post . . . "for a century" is a german saying meaning "for a very long time".

I actually have played for over a decade. And I have learned that there are many different ways from my own to do this . . . many, many ways.

 

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Proud Apprentice of Sey
Member of the "Triumvirate" - GM of Collapsing Galaxy
Eydan Skorne in "128 ABY", Yorrel in "Fools Gamble", Venda Ra (deceased) in "128ABY", Hespar Kessler in "128ABY"
Member of the GDG, CDG, Senator of the IKFC
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LightWarden 
Registered: Oct '01
19249_20-Sided Die
Date Posted: 10/12/07 12:37pm Subject: Look ma, no snark! Except for maybe that line. And the one before this line, and possibly this one - Date Edited: 10/12/07 12:42pm (1 edits total) Edited By: LightWarden
Well, I'm back from my mod-imposed vacation.

Ok guys, I will admit to the fact that I am downright unpleasant in my critiques. I find being snarky a fun way to let off steam when I'm annoyed at something, but apparently you guys aren't as easily amused, so I'll have to cut it out.

As to NP's remark about picking apart character sheets, I'd have to disagree and say that it's very helpful in pointing out exactly what works and doesn't work. General comments like "I really like your character" or "I don't like your character" accomplish relatively little in helping players figure out what they did correctly or incorrectly.

DLotF, I have never been a self-proclaimed expert. Rude, but never a self-proclaimed expert. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I do not believe I am particularly skilled at making characters. What I do know is that I've seen some great characters and I can only attempt to create characters to reach that standard, as I am not content with what I have or what I see.

And snark aside, my critiques have been pointing out the mistakes I believe people are making, and offering them alternatives when I know of something that might fit in the established universe better while still preserving the feeling I think they are trying to go for. Additionally, my critiques are just opinions, they have no real weight unless you're applying for a game I'm running.

With that said, Rayson, your character:

Over a millenia, Corellia continued to slip out of the sight of the New Republic, and then the Skywalkers. A cesspool of disease, filth and crime, the planet was once again the smuggling capital of known space. Even Hutts considered Corellia below their bulbous figures.

Historically speaking, Corellia has been a center of the ship-building and piloting industry, having been one of the earliest planets of the Republic to venture among the stars, and has been a central figure in the shaping of the galaxy, even if they're not always entirely in line with the current political climates. It's also the junction of several important hyperspace lanes such as the Corellian Trade Spine, making it a vital zone for shipping (people have fought over rockballs for the sole reason that they were sitting near major hyperspace routes). What happened to cause the home of one of the largest shipbuilding companies in the galaxy (Corellian Engineering Corporation) to become less important than Tatooine? Perhaps it might be better to just pick an Outer Rim rockball?

Somewhere between Andre's mother's drug abuse and his father's physically abusive nature, he found peacefulness in killing. And despite it being morbid nature for a twelve year old child to find a certain calmness in death, it helped him ignore the world he lived on and the situation he had found himself in.

I can't really think of a very nice way to say this, but parents being abusive drug addicts and messing with the kid isn't exactly an underused idea. Too often, it's used as a source of cheap drama with very little consideration as to the effects. Right now, I can't tell if you thought this one through. What does his past say about his ideals, his thoughts regarding substance abuse, and violence in relationships? Does he accept, reject, embrace or succumb to any of these things? Does he automatically resort to violence even among friends? What does he think of substance users, abusers and dealers? These things have long-lasting and deeply ingrained ramifications, and should be used with great care.

Also, at twelve years old, what was he killing? Small animals? I don't think an untrained boy in the throes of puberty would have much luck bagging larger prey, unless you're burning down buildings or something. And if that's the case, then how did he kill his parents? Cut down sort of implies that he went head to head? Were his parents weak, did he have a massive growth spurt and hit the gym, did he ambush them, or did he just get lucky? If his dad was armed and he wasn't, he'd be lucky to get away with just a scar on his neck (incidentally, a wound deep enough to cause scarring is probably really really risky given the amount of vital veins and arteries that pass through your neck).

Regarding his confrontations with the Skywalkers... if the clan is as corrupt as he believes they are, and Andre kills a member each time he escapes, why wouldn't the clan just put a bolt through his brain after they grabbed him the second time or third time? Additionally, fighting Jedi can be pretty tricky, even if you are sniping. In Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, a Jedi Knight of sufficient speed/precognition/force point reserve could shotdodge a beam from a disruptor sniper rifle matrix style, bending backwards and twisting to cause the beam to shoot by harmlessly. If you tried sniping enemy Jedi like Desaan or someone, it would prevent you from doing damage. While I wouldn't say that you'll be facing Agents at every step of the way, the fact is that highly trained Knights and Masters who favor the physical abilities will lead to a much lower success rate, since they can dodge your shot and speed out of the way before you can get off a second one. Makes being Skywalker bane difficult, if the Jedi are possessing superhuman abilities.

Furthermore, you state that "Andre is nearly as renown as the Skywalker dynasty itself". That seems like it would be really difficult to do. I mean, consider how hard it is to achieve fame in other countries (Without using wikipedia, can you name any celebrities from Peru)? How about other planets? Now how about keeping that level of reputation for a sustained period of time? If you want to be public enemy number one, you pretty much have to engage in highly publicized acts of terrorism on a grandiose scale, stacking the bodies as shockingly as possible. And then you have to do it repeatedly, all the while avoiding retaliation. I mean, Luke Skywalker killed something like three million people with two torpedoes, and while that made him popular among Rebel sympathizers, most of the rest of the galaxy had never heard of the Skywalker kid and wouldn't be able to spot him in a crowded cantina.

Also, why does he have Mandalorian armor?

 

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Strange how one small thing can determine the fate of so many... especially if it's a twenty-sided die
The Internet is SERIOUS BIZNESS!
It's all fun and games until someone loses a leg.
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Sith-I-5 
Registered: Aug '02
13776_Mace Windu<br>South Park
Date Posted: 10/12/07 1:53pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
Without using wikipedia, can you name any celebrities from Peru

Winnie the Pooh?

 

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Crowning Moment of Awesome – THE MASTER. Summoning six billion robotic
beach balls Of Doom to decimate the Earth, blowing a good-bye kiss to the
Doctor, all the while dancing to "Voodoo Child". EPIC. EVIL. WIN.
007 Family - DVC's twin bro'.
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Winged_Jedi 
Registered: Feb '03
42019_Indiana Jones
Date Posted: 10/12/07 3:57pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
I'm fairly certain you mean Paddington Bear. tongue

 

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"The Wire"- the smartest show ever made.
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blubeast1237 
Registered: Apr '07
14712_Luke Skywalker
Date Posted: 10/14/07 4:33pm Subject: RE: The Character Designers Guild
I hate to say it, but for the most part, I agree with Lightwarden's character analysis. Like he said, he's not an expert and even if he was, its up to us to listen to him or not. Agree with it or don't, but don't bitch about it when you ask for criticism and get it.

Also, I don't know if anyone else does this, but sometimes when I'm viewing wookieepedia, some of the images that come up or that I'm looking at give me ideas of character and I end up creating them based off of how they look and I have alot of fun doing so. Is this bad or just another way of creating characters? I happen to think it helps with my creativity by creating more characters, but each of them, or most, are of different species.

Name: Aquaris Asan
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Species: Humanoid
Appearance: Golden horns, dark brown skin, green eyes, and milky brown hair, still maintaining his Jedi Order padawan braid. Brown pocketed body suit with a forest green vest. Brown boots. Young fit body, around 5'7-5'8, legs are long, but not anything that would seem abnormal.
General Personality: Arc is an intellectual who saves words and avoids foolishness. Mature for his age and has the tendency to over think things. Friendly, but values his alone time. Meditating and sleeping are his favorite hobbies along with training and working out, and flirting with older women. Possessive of things that mean alot to him and will do anything to protect them since he values them over other's lives. Tolerates other Jedi, but really doesn't like to be around them for too long and enjoys non Force sensitives more because they tend to have more personality and generally have more talents.
Rank/Position: Flight Officer/Jedi Knight
Weapons/Tools: Curved hilted, black, lightsaber.(Emerald blade)
Biography: Born to the waves of a planet called Aquaris, a boy was born to a man and a woman. They gave him the name Aquaris, after his Twi’lek sister, Jade, noticed that all he ever wanted to do in the hospital was stare at the waves. In truth, his mind was just like a wave. Would pick up all the knowledge it could and wash it over him, for him to remember for all time, just like an ocean wave. Though, unlike his mind, the waves of Aquaris only collided with others, fueling each other and forever running over and over the water covered planet. His parents, eventually saved up enough money to move off the planet, because no matter how much they loved living in near isolation on its wet base, it wasn’t fit for raising children in.

After roaming over a couple of suitable conditions, they settled down in the Hapes Consortium on the main planet Hapes. His father was given a lower job, but wasn’t used for breeding after his marriage was verified by Hapan standards while his mother became head at a large greenhouse. As the years passed, his sister eventually went to college and was well on her way of becoming very noble on Hapes. Aqua fell into the background of the family, only attending school as necessary. He was very intelligent, but was an outcast, therefore found that bonds didn’t really mean much since he had his family and was doing well with himself. He found his drive in studying all forms of meditation and peace tactics, even to go as far as protesting for certain critical causes.

A young rebel, his dad called him when he turned 14 and their family found out he had been involved in rebellious activity that contained Force using characters who had attempted to take Aqua under their wing. His father was proud, his son wouldn’t have to deal with what he had to on a regular basis being a male in the Hapan society. His mother on the other hand, advised him to avoid “those kind” for if he dwelled too deep, he could find himself in deep trouble, knowing the resentment that Hapan showed towards Jedi and Force users of any sides. Jade knew that her brother would be destined to a unique life either path he went, but also knew that he had a good heart and would do good no matter where he went. Convincing her parents to let her watch over him, she gave up her potential future of royalty to help her brother. Aqua didn’t find this out until years later, aboard a ship that they had found after he had passed a secret test to gain his Knighthood. The ship was called the Ill Repute and Jade and Aqua made it their new home. Knowing how much his sister sacrificed for him, Aqua is determined to protect her and make sure she gets what’s owed to her and wont hesitate to even put his life on the line for her at any given moment.


-BeastoftheWonderland-

 

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Jedi Knight of the NJT
The 1237, A Communist
I seek the reaper, wanting the world.
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