OOC Reference ~ Welcome to the Break Room ~ Character Survey Fun!

Being a visual person, I always tend to concentrate on what characters see and add hearing and scent to support the feeling I invoke visually. In RPing the scenery is most often the GMs playground, as he defines what the place looks, sounds, feels and smells like. Which I feel is an underestimated GM Tool in general. Setting. It can add so much to the game your players exeperience.

I remember the Covid game set in a Jedi Academy amidst grass plains and forest. It felt very intense. Very much like part of the story. Others come to mind. But as a player you can really pick those up and run with them.

i remember the description in an ancient game from 2009 that the space station had this sharp metallic smell and even the water tasted like it, as if it had been infected. That description gave you immediately a feeling of … the station intruding your senses. You entered a domain of steel and iron and were not meant to be there.

Such things can be powerful writing. A subtle way to set a scene for a GM.

 

I tend not to reread things too often. Beyond the Bible and a few other books I constantly am trying to work through the never ending of 'to be read' piles that I keep. As such it tends to be on librarian, family, or google recommendations if I am searching for a style. Will see someone I have tried before, be triggered, and maybe see who is compared to that person and read some of their works to try them out. Not being a speed reader there are far too many things in the world to read for me to work my way through.

Thanks for the refresher concerning images as well. Wish I could say I was better at the linking. I oft find what I am trying to use will work with a URL on one device, but not another. Part of why I like searching for images from the device I know has the most restrictions, as I tend to mess it up less with that approach.

 

Saw a few people mention about authors that inspire their work; thought I might join in given that today's a slow day at work.
In terms of influence, Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs feed into my love for pulp fiction; barbaric warriors that cleaved unsavory horrors followed by soldiers fighting Martian hordes definitely feed my creativity. Howard in particular was a personal favorite growing up, his characterization was terse and blunt with description that was not too flowery; it served as a model for me to learn from. Also, Nathan Long and William Kings work on the Warhammer Fantasy series has fed into my love for the series by building on the pulp barbarian fantasy that interested me before. Resting aside my collection of SW Books and Pulp novels, is a steady amount of Warhammer Black Library material like Gotrek and Felix, tales of heroes saving innocents in black comedic fashion and villains being unsympathetic monsters.

 

Can I use this in DRL?

 

Yeah, that would be Kayn. How many years has the Black Sheep game been running? A long time now.

1. Would you say your character is selfless, or selfish? Why?
On the surface, he's self-centered and cocky, but he does care about the few squadron mates who are close to him. Very much the Han Solo.

2. Does your character have a vice? If so, please tell us more.
He likes hurting Imperials, hence his call sign. He drinks and smokes cigars, and hogs the karaoke machine.

3. Have you written about your character's childhood?
I haven't written much about it, but I have put some thought into his formative years and figured out some defining moments. If it ever comes up in game, I might write about those.

4. Would you say that your character is a good dancer?
Decent dancer, OK singer, pretty good on the omnibox.

5. Does your character have a nickname?
Mean Streak

6. What are your character's fears?
Losing the handful of people he cares about.

7. Describe your character’s fashion sense. Do they wear the same thing in every scene? Or would you describe them as shabby chic, fashion diva, or strictly utilitarian?
Fighter pilot cool stuff. Flight jackets, and flight suits with all the cool zipper pockets.

8. What lauguages are they fluent in?
Standard, Devaronian, and a few phrases in Twi'lek and Huttese

9. Is your character well behaved, are they immature?
He'd like to go off and do his own thing, but his leadership role has forced him to grow up some. That's a work in progress.

10. Describe the most severe injury your character has endured?
As a teen he took a vibroknife in his left eye, which was the start of his cybernetic upgrades. In game, he was wounded in battle, broke one of his horns off, and fried most of his neural implants, which needed brain surgery to fix.

 

1. Would you say your character is selfless, or selfish? Why?

Tia- Selfish, Tia her 'parents' were killed and left abandoned, she has Zero knowledge of her past, and her mentor was using her so he could sell her off, Tia has abandonment issues, and uses that fear in ways that are detrimental to both herself and those around her

Tyrian- can be either, Tyrian is driven by the need to 'understand' mortal behaviour. Her actions are multifaceted, and her motives are understood only by herself

2. Does your character have a vice? If so, please tell us more.

Tia- yes, she likes to sip some of that fancy wine when she thinks nobody is looking,

Tyrian- yes, Tyrain's are mainly Pride and Vanity,

3. Have you written about your character's childhood?

Tia- well she is a child, so everything I write is basically her childhood

Tyrian- Tyrian is an entity, spirit, other, so never had a childhood. She does have a 'mentor' of sorts, think of him as kind of a Falcor dragon creature from The Never Ending Story, he is a spirit, entity too. Tyrian first visited Earth before the Dinosaurs, then later returned when they were roaming, she then came back during the first ice age, and then again when the first humans became "exciting" enough for her.

4. Would you say that your character is a good dancer?

Tia- no, I don't think she'd have the patience to learn, unless you told her 'this isn't a dance form, but an effective martial art that could devastate your opponent' then..maybe...

Tyrian- yes.


5. Does your character have a nickname?

Tia- I'm sure she has plenty (unflattering ones) in the TSE lol

Tyrian- yes she has plenty, many cultures throughout history have given her many names, the Greeks called her Aphrodite, the Vikings called her Freyja, The Romans called her Venus and Lada by the slavs
She also goes by the names, Cyan, Liberty and Estaria

6. What are your character's fears?
Tia abandonment, feeling worthless, and being wrong

Tyrian- that a person she has latched on to (or deeply respects) dies knowing she can no longer interact with them, this has happened a lot. This is how she 'understands' death, being immortal she does not know or understand physical or even mental pain or anguish, Separation brings her sorrow.


7. Describe your character’s fashion sense. Do they wear the same thing in every scene? Or would you describe them as shabby chic, fashion diva, or strictly utilitarian?

Tia- likes to push the boundaries on what she can wear, to see what she can get away with, otherwise she dresses usually in black, or other Sith attire

Tyrian- dresses differently in every interaction, as her attire isn't 'physical (as in made in this mortal universe) material' one moment she can be dressed as an ancient Greek lady, others as someone who would dress thousands of years i the future.



8. What lauguages are they fluent in?

Tia- can speak basic, she believes all other languages inferior and everyone else should speak it too

Tyrian: can speak every language, past and present, having spent thousands of years being around people and cultures

9. Is your character well behaved, are they immature?

Tia- yes, Tia is immature and in a word: a brat.

Tyrian: is mischievous (known as The Volan of trickery or 'The Jester Volan' )and likes to pull pranks on people. (things like throwing stones at people while invisible) she can also be incredibly cryptic, and likes word sparring with people she interacts with.

10. Describe the most severe injury your character has endured?

Tia- hmmm, none that I can think of so far, a massive stomach ache after Bellorum gave her too much candy, does that count?

Tyrian- none.

Hope you don't mind me mentioning two characters,
though Tia has been on the page more (on the boards) Tyrian is a more fleshed out character I created back in 2009. And with be a major player in Hexton RPG.

 

Oh I always love those. So despite having been inactive for a while I’ll do one.

Guess my most fleshed out character I ever played was Sebastian “Lego” Stein, a street artist turned into tortured souls possessing the unwanted power to stop time. The game was The Crossing.

1. Would you say your character is selfless, or selfish? Why?

Both. While he certainly strives to make the world a better place he has quite a heavy dose of hubris made only worse by the power he possesses. And when he got angry he can do very selfish things out of anger.

2. Does your character have a vice? If so, please tell us more.

Being an artist it is mostly his recognition by the public.

3. Have you written about your character's childhood?

Only that is was mostly unremarkable. His youth got a lot more attention.

4. Would you say that your character is a good dancer?

He spend his share in Berlins nightclub scene. So he is probably okay.

5. Does your character have a nickname?

The world knows him as LEGO, which is his artist name. There exists an alternate version of him known through most of the plot as The Source.

6. What are your character's fears?

He is terrified of the responsibility that comes with his powers. The fear that he might cause the apocalypse he tries to avert was his main drive as a character.,

7. Describe your character’s fashion sense. Do they wear the same thing in every scene? Or would you describe them as shabby chic, fashion diva, or strictly utilitarian?

He has worn a t-shirt and a dark blue hoodie with jeans in every scene and in every version of his character. So very casual.

8. What lauguages are they fluent in?

German and English. German is his native tongue and English he spoke throughout the game.

9. Is your character well behaved, are they immature?

He is essentially a brooding super serious person that is polite and kind to others, as long as they don’t try to kill or manipulate him. If you end up on the wrong side of him, he can become very arrogant and borderline emotional sadistic.

10. Describe the most severe injury your character has endured?

I think he was shot twice, but his true injury are a number of traumas that scared him psychological. As his power grew it also made him struggle to keep his shattered mind a functioning part of him. A task in which he arguably failed. In the original game I played him I considered him mostly traumatized and played him by the end as suffering from PTSD. In the two sequels The Reckoning and The Seeking in which he naturally appeared in different iterations of his persona I got to show every flavor of insanity. From absence of trauma to completely insane. I also played him twice as a man without powers, which was the most sane and reasonable version of him.

 

Pick the character you’ve fleshed out the most and take the survey.

Ooh, there are options, but I better stick to the one @Adalia-Durron wrote about many years ago.

1. Would you say your character is selfless, or selfish? Why?

With Adam it kind of depends on when during his life that we're writing about. I would say that as he gets older, he is more selfish about spending time with friends and family. Other than that he is relatively selfless, though when he retires, he's done.

2. Does your character have a vice? If so, please tell us more.

Adam tends to beat himself up mentally. For example there were and still are times when he thinks that if he was more assertive, perhaps the Shadow Sabers wouldn't have been disbanded. He also has a bad case Survivors Guilt around the anniversary of Chashima.

3. Have you written about your character's childhood?

Nope, the youngest head Canon I have for Adam is that he left Corellia for a New Republic Academy between the Galactic Civil War and the Vong War, joining the Wraiths shortly before the latter.

4. Would you say that your character is a good dancer?

Briana would say that Adam’s dancing is like doing a bad, hairless Wampa impression.

5. Does your character have a nickname?
Stealth, Bait (during the Vong War)

6. What are your character's fears?

Surviving a war, but everyone he cares about is gone. Later on, it's not being able to stay retired, aka Wedge.

7. Describe your character’s fashion sense. Do they wear the same thing in every scene? Or would you describe them as shabby chic, fashion diva, or strictly utilitarian?

Utilitarian, he's never been one for parties. Never liked to dress up. Even his marriage was a courthouse affair.

8. What lauguages are they fluent in?
Basic, though when he's tired, it's gibberish.

9. Is your character well behaved, are they immature?

Generally well behaved, but when around friends, he's not afraid to be a sneaky troublemaker.

10. Describe the most severe injury your character has endured?

Yet to be determined physically, but psychologically, probably a combination of PTSD and Survivors Guilt that he still deals with.

 

Hmm.. I suppose at this point Iudex is my most fleshed out character. At least, I have the most fun writing in his pov.

1. Would you say your character is selfless, or selfish? Why?
That's changed over time actually, especially throughout the course of the various Dark Reach games. Ironically, he was far more selfish before his induction into the Sith Order. Before, Iudex used those around him as a means to an end, always ready to betray a close friend at the drop of a pin if it meant getting a few more credits. Now though? He's practically suicidally selfless. On more than one occasion now he's tried to sacrifice himself to save another member of the Order, yet for some reason or another, fate keeps him alive. Practically a running joke at this point

2. Does your character have a vice? If so, please tell us more.
It's cliché at this point for a Sith, but his worst vice is his rage. Like a bad habit, he keeps using it like a crutch to get though the day. But the effect it's having on his body, let alone is mind, is becoming harder and harder to bear. Which of course he finds infuriating in of itself. He's spiraling, and doesn't even know it.

3. Have you written about your character's childhood?
I've put thought into it, but I haven't written anything concrete. Falleen have a long lifespan which has made it a little difficult to place certain life events. For a species that lives on average to be 250 years, is a 25 year old still a teenage personality wise? Hard for me to wrap my head around it

4. Would you say that your character is a good dancer?
Before the Sith, before the black rage took control? Absolutely. Being the son of nobility, Iudex would dance away many a night within the expansive ballrooms of his home planet. He's grown bitter as he's aged, and now finds the notion of dancing frivolous.

5. Does your character have a nickname?
I suppose all Darths go by a nickname, right? Very few Sith keep their birth name as they ascend through the ranks.

6. What are your character's fears?
The rage has proven an invaluable tool against the Jedi and various Sith he's fought in the past. But he knows that he's beginning to lose control. His biggest fear is losing himself within the anger and killing someone he loves. If that were to happen, it might finally break him for good.

7. Describe your character’s fashion sense. Do they wear the same thing in every scene? Or would you describe them as shabby chic, fashion diva, or strictly utilitarian?
Iudex is.. Both? When he has to, he can slip into the role of a pompous fop, with the clothes to match. The blood of nobility does flow through his veins you know. But, as he's aged, the pomp and the ceremony has grown rather tiresome. He's much more comfortable in a loose fitting robe. The robe has to be a silky royal purple though. He's not a peasant

8. What languages are they fluent in?
It'd be easier to ask which languages he isn't fluent in. If a crime syndicate speaks it, there's a good chance Iudex does as well. Basic, Huttese, Falleen, and Devaronian are his preferred.

9. Is your character well behaved, are they immature?
Define... Immature. If you're going by the culture of the Sith, Iudex is downright saintlike. The Jedi who've come face to face with him probably have a different idea on the subject. As he's aged, Iudex has begun to turn away from the grandiose displays of violence of his youth.. It's just too time consuming. He's more likely to pay you to leave him alone more than anything else these days.

10. Describe the most severe injury your character has endured?
Ask me again after the end of Dark Reach II.. Getting a sneaking suspicion @Sinrebirth is about to get.. creative . Other than that... There was this time that a Yuuzhan Vong's Yammosk did so much damage to his mind that it somehow forced a portion of it into a different reality as a means of escaping further hurt. But now that portion of Iudex's mind has to deal with.. the Sequel trilogy.. *shudder* So who knows?