RPR Archive The Character Designers Guild

The Character Design Guild

[image=http://www.holypro.com/rpf/CharacterGuild.jpg]

Servitus per Partum - Servitude by Creation

-The Coat of Arms and motto of the Character Design Guild

Introduction

Welcome to the Guild of Character Design. The Guild is a group of people, dedicated to making the most unique, influential, and powerful characters possible. I will take position as Guild Master, to overview the creation and execution of the characters, and perhaps add a few helpful tips along the way. The Guild seeks to enlighten people with wonderfully crafted characters, brief plays of the character, so that we may help new and old players alike create playable and entertaining characters, and further both the Star Wars Role Playing Forum's and the Non-Star Wars Role Playing Forum's character style and unicity.

Membership

If you would like to join the Character Design Guild, by all means, you're welcome. Whether you're new to the Character Design scene, or you're an oldbie willing to offer advice, we're happy to have you! Much like the Game Design Guild, there will be no hierarchy, except for myself, the Guild Master. I will act as a guide in order to help manage the Guild and character study.

All members of the Guild must respect and appreciate the thought put into each person's view on the subject, and respect is all important for the success of the Guild. Unlike the Game Design Guild, idea theft is not necessarily applicable, due to the 'flip-flop' nature of characters, and the endless similarities character's can encounter.

As well, just like the GDG, please leave a mention of your membership within this Guild in your signature or user biography.

On Game Discussion
The Guild will cover most--if not all--of the Major aspects of Character Design.

Character Sheet's: Discussing the basics of the Character(s), and how to set up a character sheet for playability, and your the Guild's views as to how the character should be created as well as played, according to a sheet. Character sheet's will be developed be either member's of the Guild (On request of the Guild Master), or by the Guild Master himself, to be examined and picked apart by the other members of the CDG.

Playing the Character: Not only is the character building essential to the creation process, but executing the character is as well. We'll run through different examples of not only how to play the character, but determining how the character should be sculpted and played to the best of it's Character Sheet.

Comparison: Comparing a good character sheet to a bad character sheet can really show how varied Character Sheets can really be. We'll portray the good, the bad, and the plain stupid and let each of the Guild Members pick those apart as well, and perhaps only for a slight bit of entertainment.

Competitions
There will be two competitions, one right after the other, within the members of the Guild. The First competition will be to create the best character sheet, and the winner will recieve bragging rights and fame throughout the Guild.

The second competition will go to the player who can play they're character the best in one post, starting wherever they want, and ending at the player's death. This winner will recieve the same prize.


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This sounds great; I'll become a member, if I may. This will be a great opportunity for writers, both new and experienced, I think.

Just a question, though: what's the possibility of your character design being taken, if we decide to create a character for a RPG? I know it's easier to track if someone's plot for and RPG has been taken, but for a character...well, it might be difficult.

I'd love to join - probably as "advanced beginner" or something. I know how to avoid major pitfalls and am pretty good at noticing overpowered characters, non-logic like 6'6", 110-pound, "muscular" humans with no physical modifications, and the dreaded Mary-Sue and Gary-Stu, but sometimes fall into the trap of creating a character that is too underpowered and therefore hard to play, or spending too many points or too much space on fun attributes that don't actually help playability.

First of all, thank you, I hope it will be

Next, each member of the Guild should be aware that any character sheets you create are to be created for public viewing, and if someone wants to take and use a character designed by you, that's between yourself and whoever wants it.

However, the Guild and Myself will not be responsible for character's taken without the author's permission, but I don't think this will cause to much of a disturbance. Each member of the Guild should know (if not already) that this Guild is for the learning and sharing of skills, not for showing off character talents.

Besides, would you want to be the one to steal a character? It would show that you don't really want to be involved in a Guild, you just want to a quick and easy way to get involved in RPG's, and further demonstrate your lack of creativity and Role Playing ability for creating your own characters. Personally, I wouldn't want to be known as that guy

I'd like to join ...

Character design is always fun. I've got plenty of ideas I never get to use, and I'd love to see what sort of inspiration I can get from others.

Guild Members as of Now

-Detonating-Rabbit
-Eleventh_Guard
-Penguinator-176
-Darth_Integral
-LightWarden
-SephyCloneNo15

I'd like to have about 8 members before discussions open up, but here's the upcoming agenda:

The Generic Character Sheet - Begins Tomorrow or the Day After

Examinating the Finished Product - Begins Within Two Days of the previous topic


Please be sure to enter a little blurb in your Signature or Profile Biography, it's greatly appreciated />

I'll join, but I'm gonna be away for a while, so don't expect me to do anything fancy like contribute or slap this in my sig until after next Friday

I would love to participate in this. I love creating characters, I have always found the creation of characters to be almost as much fun as playing them.

I'm in too.

Sign me up! This looks like fun.

This is more the cut of my gib.

I'll giver 'er a go.

I'm all for the promotion of the guilds here in the Resource.

I'll join

I'll join too

I will join as well. I am a fan of character creation.

hmm... this is something i'd be interested in joining...

I suppose I always was more of a player than a game designer, so if I'm in the game designer one, I have no excuse not to be in this is.


I"m in!

Hmm. . . I'm in.

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the delay on this, along with Easter weekend and some other..events.. I couldn't find the time to finish this up. Once again, I apologize.

The Generic Character Sheet
The very basic character sheet generally is just the basics, Name, Species, Biography, and the like. This is fine, as long as the Role Playing Game you're designing allows for a simple plotline, and focuses more on the actual storyline, as opposed to following the character's through their own trials. Basically, this means that you can control the storyline yourself, and manage what your player's are doing. Here's a brief example:

Name:
Gender:
Age:
Race:
Personality:
Weapons:
Bio:

Now if your going for the opposite effect, and planning a big RPG (For example: War of the Galaxies; Integrated Balance of Power), or even something totally character-driven, you should design your own, in-depth character sheet, so that you can really get a feel for your players, and so that your players get the freedom to weave their own story, without throwing something in your face that you wouldn't see coming. For example, if suddenly they became Force Sensitive. If one of the players in your game fails to mention that in their character sheet, and you suddenly find out half way through your pre-designed story..well, it throws you for a loop. The following character sheet is an expanded version, and it's great for the type of game(s) listed above.

Name:
Gender:
Age:
Species:
Homeworld:
Affiliation:
Personality
---Traits:
---Likes:
---Dislikes:
---Habits:
Appearance
---Skin Color:
---Hair Color:
---Eye Color:
---Clothing:
---Other Attributes:
---Other Details:
Weapons:
Starship
---Name:
---Class:
---Hyperdrive Class:
---Weapon(s):
---Shields:
---Sublight Speed:
---Crew:
---Passenger(s):
---Max Cargo (kg):
---Interior Description:
---Other Details:
The Force
---Sensitivity:
---Religion:
---Lightsaber
-----Crystal(s):
-----Blade(s):
-----Color(s):
-----Handle Description(s):
---Force Abilities:
---Force Weakness:
---Other Force Object(s):
Biography
---Personal History:
---Military History:
---Traumatic Experiances:

Of course, depending on your game, you may want to cut out certain parts of the sheet. For example, if your running a Fleet-based RPG, you'd probably want to cut out the Force Sensitivity section, except in special circumstances, but again, that depends on your game.


Feel free to post any comments about the preceeding, and go ahead and add anything you want


Guild Members

• Detonating-Rabbit

• Eleventh-Guard

• Penguinator-176

• Darth_Integral

• LightWarden

• SephyCloneNo15

• Despised1

• Winged_Jedi

• Livi-Wan

• Sith-I-5

• Darth_Vaders_cousin

• DanielSan

• ARSLAN5

• darth_nemisis

• Trimaj

• MASTERPRENN

• my_favorite_rodian

BLemelisk: You didn't actually say you were in...nor is there a message in signature, so I'm waiting for confirmation before I add you to the list.

To everyone else: Some of you still haven't added the CDG to your Signature yet, so please do. If it's in your profile I haven't actually checked yet. If it is in your profile, don't bother cluttering up the Guild by actually telling me it is, I plan on checking them later. Thanks!
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i have to admit i've always prefered doing a detailed sheet more or less period. it allows you to get the character actually down, and know them in a way having just the brief one doesn't. i've used the big one on rpg's that only asked for the small one before. got considered the best sheet because of it as a result. that doesn't happen frequently to me.

I, too, like doing the detailed sheets more. I am not into the technology, so I can leave that part out. But appearance, traits, etc, that's what I like. I really like doing bio's for some reason. Mine are usually, not all the time, quite detailed.

I like the one that Vassago made (I believe it was him). It is the following:

~Character Sheet: Basic Information
Name:
Alias: (If applicable)
Rank Within the Order: (Master/Warrior/Apprentice)
Age:
Species:
Gender:
Home world:
Force Sensitive:

Appearance-
Height:
Weight:
Build:
Hair:
Eyes:
Skin:
Markings:

Clothing:

Weapon(s):

Personal Ship: (If applicable)

Lightsaber Description: (If applicable)
Hilt:
Blade Color:
Lightsaber Fighting Form:

Biography:

Yeah, I prefer one like Nem posted. In the middle.