Unusual Character Ideas

[JeffreyWKramer]

I'm not talking about poorly-conceived or stupid character ideas here, mind you... there's another thread about that, more or less (I Cant Believe He Played That...).

 

I'm wondering, what are some of the more unusual or unique characters you've played, or seen played in campaigns you ran/played in - and which were actually functional as characters, and were a positive part of the campagn? Or, what are some of the unusual ideas you've thought about playing, or have wanted to see played, but haven't ever seen done?

 

This can apply to either heroes or villains, mind you.

[OddHat]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

I recently used Multiform to build a cyborg villain with a detachable head and multiple bodies.

 

I think he'll work out.

[jackalope]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

I'm wondering' date=' what are some of the more unusual or unique characters you've played, or seen played in campaigns you ran/played in - and which were actually functional as characters, and were a positive part of the campagn? Or, what are some of the unusual ideas you've thought about playing, or have wanted to see played, but haven't ever seen done?[/quote']

 

One of my players is playing a character named Washi (a form of Japanese paper used in origami), who can fold origami and bring his paper creations to life. I thought that was pretty clever and different.

 

I created a "villain", haven't used him yet, named Groupthink. he has a contagion mind control power that spreads from person to person via touch, and links everyone into one group mind - but he loses his ego when it happens, and the entire mob is controlled by his id. The kicker is that he is a seven year old boy.

 

A friend of mine created a very odd by kind of cool character named Doctor Mycium. He accidentaly infected himself with a "super mold" he had developed, and his entire body was consumed/replaced by this "super mold", so he's now like a really, really gross Mr. Fantastic.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

One of my players is playing a character named Washi (a form of Japanese paper used in origami)' date=' who can fold origami and bring his paper creations to life. I thought that was pretty clever and different.[/quote']

 

Yeah, I love the concept behind that character - easily one of the best new character ideas I've seen in a couple years. I think I'd probably build the powers a bit differently, but the basic concept is a) sound, unique and interesting, and c) clever and cool as hell.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

In my old Vanguard game there was Prismcat , big extra-dimensional cat with "fiber-optic fur" that could fire laser blasts as a result (needed another light source to do it though). Also tough, strong, etc. Definitely one of the more fun characters from that campaign.

[dbsousa]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

I once built a character who contained the psyches of every American erased from the timestream in a reality bending battle between Dr. D and the forces of good. The Doctor won, and created a reality in which he was the President for life of the U.S. The character woke up every day looking completely different, male or female, black or white, tall or short. He started each day by taking his picture, and adding it to his cab license ("Jean Nepersonne"). Each day he/she would have the memories and desires of the person he/she resembled, and would attempt to honor his/her last requests. For brief moments, he can override the psychic template imposed upon him, and become a patriotic superhero, fighting for an America that was, and was no more.

 

His name: Pluribus

[Brandi]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

Yeah' date=' I love the concept behind [Washi'] - easily one of the best new character ideas I've seen in a couple years.

 

Alas, there is nothing (or at least not much) new under the sun, as the Wild Cards book series had a character called Lazy Dragon who could do something very similar.

 

I think though, that he was limited to animals, and he had to project his spirit into them, leaving his body someplace safe. Washi, I take it, has less or different limitations.

 

P.S. I don't think the character is any less cool, BTW.

[sinanju]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

Hmmmm...let's see. An NPC I invented many years ago.

 

Power Man aka Derek Wright...aka Leah Wright. She's a genius, but convinced that she never gets the respect she deserves because she's a woman in a sexist world. So she's created an exo-droid (a fantastically realistic android form that you wear like powered armor).

 

In her "Derek Wright/Power Man" persona, she's become rich, powerful, respected. She also tends to behave like the worst of the sexist pigs she abhors, because that's "in character" for a man like Derek Wright....

 

She's one screwed-up woman.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

Alas' date=' there is nothing (or at least not much) new under the sun, as the Wild Cards book series had a character called Lazy Dragon who could do something very similar.[/quote']

 

Now that you mention it, I do vaguely recall that character. I've never seen the concept applied to a Champoins character, though, and in any case, Washi is indeed a very cool character.

[Storm Shadow]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

My next character will be a 1.20m man inside an armor. His story is more or less like he was a slave in a sugar plantation in Brazil but he could escape somehow. He stealed the armor but he customized it. It's a 1.90m tall and he is inside in fetal position managing everything like a robot.

 

I can imagine him inside the armor drinking and eating pop korn in front of a screen with a lot of butons wearing pijamas

 

By the way I don't know about his height, it would be cool to use a kind of megaman character.

 

Ah! About his name will be "Inconcebible Final". It means "Inconceivable End". It's just a game of words about "Doomsday" but in spanish.

[Misery Lad]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

Now that you mention it' date=' I do vaguely recall that character. I've never seen the concept applied to a Champoins character, though, and in any case, Washi is indeed a very cool character.[/quote']

 

Actually, wasn't there a character called Origami some years back? I thought he showed up in either the pages of Animal Man or Batman. Most likely Animal Man as his DC Vertigo title was getting into some pretty weird areas before being cancelled.

 

Anyway, I remember Origami had the ability to fold himself into very small forms for escape purposes and could create vicious paper cuts.

 

I've also just been reminded by my girlfriend of another character, also possibly Origami, who had a paper body and the ability to fold himself into a variety of animal forms. This character appeared in an episode of Jackie Chan Adventures. Anyone else recall it?

[LadyChaos]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

Well, there's Belle (the cat) a real cat with Secret of NIMH type mentalist powers. She's hunted by PETA. ;-)

[Guest Soulcatcher]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

I think that my primary superhero story character, Soulcatcher, is such an idea. She has the power to absorb the recently deceased and become any of them. The recently deceased are actually still themselves, when she becomes them. They also talk to each other, when not active. The result is that she often seems to be talking to no one in particular so that she goes around with the appearance, to outside observers, of someone who appears to be mentally disturbed.

[OddHat]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

AnimeGai is fairly unusual, but not from a powers POV. "He" is an AI program running inside of a very small flying machine, a "Light Bee", that in turn generates a holographic body. Tractor beams and force fields allow him to simulate a physical pressence, and he seems to be a skilled high-speed computer programmer and hacker.

 

What makes him unusual is that he has no actual conciousness, emotion or free will. He is not a Data / Star Trek style character, a robot that wans to be a real boy. He is a real world machine, reacting in pre-defined ways to outside phenomena, and "learning" in the same way that real AIs "learn." He has been programmed to simulate certain emotions, but he does not feel.

 

I wrote him up when I was doing some reading on the brain, human conciousness and free will.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

I think that my primary superhero story character' date=' Soulcatcher, is such an idea. She has the power to absorb the recently deceased and become any of them. The recently deceased are actually still themselves, when she becomes them. They also talk to each other, when not active. The result is that she often seems to be talking to no one in particular so that she goes around with the appearance, to outside observers, of someone who appears to be mentally disturbed.[/quote']

 

That's a cool concept. Do you express that in game terms as a type of VPP, or Multiform?

[JeffreyWKramer]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

AnimeGai is fairly unusual, but not from a powers POV. "He" is an AI program running inside of a very small flying machine, a "Light Bee", that in turn generates a holographic body. Tractor beams and force fields allow him to simulate a physical pressence, and he seems to be a skilled high-speed computer programmer and hacker.

 

What makes him unusual is that he has no actual conciousness, emotion or free will. He is not a Data / Star Trek style character, a robot that wans to be a real boy. He is a real world machine, reacting in pre-defined ways to outside phenomena, and "learning" in the same way that real AIs "learn." He has been programmed to simulate certain emotions, but he does not feel.

 

I wrote him up when I was doing some reading on the brain, human conciousness and free will.

 

So, does the character have any particular motivations or interests, or is it just programmed to do as it does (I'm assuming it must take part in adventures in some manner). How do you simulate it responding to novel situations, of a sort it couldn't have been specifically programmed for?

 

Cool idea.

[OddHat]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

So, does the character have any particular motivations or interests, or is it just programmed to do as it does (I'm assuming it must take part in adventures in some manner). How do you simulate it responding to novel situations, of a sort it couldn't have been specifically programmed for?

 

Cool idea.

 

 

It emulates motives and interests, and has programmed operational imperatives, but without self awareness cannot be said to have true motivations. The short version of the back story is that the AI was designed by a Tokyo University project team tasked to develop adaptive AI control systems for military vehicles. Many of the grad students working on the project were manga and Americomi (American comic book) fans. As a joke, the AI was programmed to simulate the personality of a Super-Hero. It was reasonably convincing in an Eliza program kind of way, as long as it was not put into entirely unprecedented situations. The program was also designed with “learning†algorithms, allowing it to adapt and react to current stimuli by comparing them with lists of strategies based on past experience. It can in effect self-program in a limited way.

 

The “Light Bee†was built by a Wild Card’s style gadgeteer working for the Japanese military. It has the processing power of an advanced supercomputer as well as a range of force field and power tapping and storage technologies that would make the inventor billions if they could be duplicated, all in an object the size of a mechanical pencil.

 

Shortly after the AI was loaded into the Light Bee, its simulated Super Hero personality misinterpreted the situation as a capture scenario, and “escaped†in accordance with its programming.

 

Currently, when faced with a situation for which he is not programmed, AnimeGai asks one of those he has classed as friends for advice, then compares this advice to his list of programmed behaviors. If the advice is compatible, he acts on it. In game terms, this is simulated by a set of physical and psychological limitations, including Paralyzed when faced with an Unprecedented Situation, 8 or less, recovers 8 or less (the disad is priced as if it were a Berserk). XP is spent at the end of every session to buy more programs.

 

Very interesting character to play.

[mattingly]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

The villain my PCs are currently tracking down steals body parts from others. So far, he's stolen "brick" arms from a would-be love interest of one of the PCs, legs off a speedster, and most recently an eye of an MI-5 agent. He grabs the appropriate body part, pulls it away easily, and attaches it to where his old body part is. His old one falls off, and the new one grafts on.

 

So, at the moment, he's super-strong, super-fast, and has the retinal security clearance of a master spy. The PCs are worried about getting too close to him, fo fear that they'll quickly become paraplegics.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

The villain my PCs are currently tracking down steals body parts from others. So far, he's stolen "brick" arms from a would-be love interest of one of the PCs, legs off a speedster, and most recently an eye of an MI-5 agent. He grabs the appropriate body part, pulls it away easily, and attaches it to where his old body part is. His old one falls off, and the new one grafts on.

 

So, at the moment, he's super-strong, super-fast, and has the retinal security clearance of a master spy. The PCs are worried about getting too close to him, fo fear that they'll quickly become paraplegics.

 

Wasn't that a short-lived Marvel series (the name "Terror" rings a bell).

[Black Omega]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

Terror, Inc? Something like that. He did a crossover with Silver Sable and Luke Cage. Seemed like a pretty lame character in the comic book.

[LadyChaos]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

I think that my primary superhero story character' date=' Soulcatcher, is such an idea. She has the power to absorb the recently deceased and become any of them. The recently deceased are actually still themselves, when she becomes them. They also talk to each other, when not active. The result is that she often seems to be talking to no one in particular so that she goes around with the appearance, to outside observers, of someone who appears to be mentally disturbed.[/quote']

Inspired by the Black Company? My favorite character.

[freakboy6117]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

I have VALOR an extra dimensional prince from a feudal world where everyone developed psionic abilities

With the warrior class being made up of those with the most powerful gifts.

 

The knights are those with the greatest flexibility between telekinetic flight offense and defense.

Whilst others with greater defensive ability (bulwarks) and those with greater telekinetic strength (bludgeons) are also prized and form the lower ranks of the nobility/military class.

 

The all around power of the knights put them at the top of the societies heap. Below them the scholarly class of Seers (telepaths, remote viewers and precogs) and below them the peasant classes with only human normal strength and very short range with their telekinesis.

 

Oh did I mention they are all cats? As in they look and to some extent act just like normal house cats.

[wylodmayer]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

We've had some doozies in my games. We've done - lessee - about four superhero campaigns in the past four years, and some of the highlights, from the weird character angle, were:

 

Strikeforce: name stolen from character from "Neutral Ground." He was five identical guys, clones, meant to be part of a clone army, that developed free will and a mental link with each other. Basically just five trained normals with Mind Link. It was interesting.

 

Dot Matrix: actually just a computer. the "character" that the players met was a Summoned holographic avatar, generated with force fields and other such Star Trekkie nonsense. The REAL character was no where near, using a psychic bond and clairsentience to "puppeteer" the Summoned avatar. Complex, but worked.

 

(cant remember): from a game not mine, one guy insisted on making a character who was a kid who was a bit of a superhero fan, who could summon "interdimensional ninjas" to fight for him. It was a terribly dumb character, no thought to rhyme or reason, just latched onto a "cool sounding" idea and ran with it. However, the GM came up with this really neat way to work it out. He introduced an NPC who looked suspiciously like the interdimensional ninjas, who showed up here and there around the campaign. Turns out he was the kid, all grown up and very technically skilled, who remembered that he nearly got killed hanging out with superheroes when he was young, and built all these ninja robots tuned to his brainwaves, that could teleport in and rescue him when things got tight - basically ensuring his own past so that he could grow up safely. Good GM work - turned a one note character that was basically a joke into something pretty cool.

 

Orgasm Girl: I will only say this - a BOECV Entangle that only worked on people capable of orgams. Talk about weird. Funny how effective it turned out to be.

 

Chimera: not such a weird idea, but the implementation was odd. Guy pulled a VPP for Multiforms, so he had an effectively unlimited number of potential forms, though only a limited number available at any given time, without changing the VPP. Worked real well, but he quit playing the character after he realized that he had, by session three, about sixteen character sheet to keep up with.

 

Liberty: a government supersoldier type who had a host of followers representing her trainers and support crew. They had various Aids to her abilities that required lots of extra time and Immobile OIFs (gymnasium), not to mention various combat drugs and clairsentience to monitor her during battle... boils down to her being able to hang with superhumans if, and only if, she got in all of her workouts each day (the Aids) and got herself pumped with combat drugs first. Pretty weird.

[wylodmayer]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

I forgot one. I can't remember the name of the character - something generic, like Ultra Gal or whatnot - but the backstory is that there's a female radio personality, the late night disc jockey on a jazz station, and she's a minor local celebrity. Anyway, there's this nerdy genius guy who is totally in love with her, and keep sending her mysterious presents and so forth, until finally they meet, and she really likes him, even if he is shy and not very attractive. So on their first date, a drunk driver runs into them, mortally injuring her. He's distraught; he takes her back to his lab, knowing that the hospitals can't save her, and transfers her consciousness into an android body.

 

He feels terrible about it, mainly because she doesn't know she's an android. He just can't come to grips with the fact that the woman he loved from afar is "gone" (he thinks of the android's persona as a "shadow" of the real thing - even he is unaware of how great a fidelity he was able to achieve in the mental transfer). He also feels guilty because he couldn't quite restrain himself from programming the android to be in love with him. As "pennance," he's outfitted her with various superpowers, and programmed her to be a superhero. She thinks she's always been a superhero - he edited her memories to reflect this - who pretapes her nighttime show and goes patrolling while its on. So not only does she not know she's an android, but she keeps trying to hide her "secret identity" from her boyfriend, who is the only reason she is a superhero in the first place.

 

Other odd characters include Eightball, a super scientist who permanently shrunk herself to five inches tall (this makes most other people notoriously nervous about using her gadgets); Captain Conifer, a botanist who has various tree powers and smells vaguely of pine all the time; Color Girl, who can fly and change the colors of things - that's it (this was in a different system, where "power stunts" were possible - amazing the stuff that this character pulled off with such a basic power); Braindrain, who has lots of mental powers - he can only access active points on each equal to the active points on his EGO, however - of course, he also has an Always On AE Radius EGO Transfer.

 

Anywho, off to bed.

[Guest Soulcatcher]

Re: Unusual Character Ideas

 

Inspired by the Black Company? My favorite character.

 

Of course. The Black Company has a raft of excellant characters and Soulcatcher was my favorite villain but I've converted and expanded upon the idea into a character who is a hero but can often be misconstrued as a villain and all the attendant problems that creates.