TheDux Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Ok, this is two topics in one. The first topic: What inspires you? Where do you come up with your character concepts? Random epiphany? Inspiration derived from a need? Inspiration from unlikely places? I think with HERO being an RPG, Inspiration derived from a need will be fairly common. You GM sets up a world/story and you have to figure out a way to address it. I don't see players bringing characters to GM and then the GM making a game around that character. I am more of a "inspiration from unlikely places" kinda guy. I see a step stool, realize that the leg is cracked, think about fixing it or buying a new one, wonder if I should take your car or bike, realize that I wish you had a motorcycle because of the gas prices, think about alternate fuels, solar power comes to mind, think it would be cool to have superpowers based around solar power, and boom I came up with Solar Wind, the flying cosmic avenger. I am also a "doodler". Orginally it started with just doodling figures and adding a line that looked cool, that then turned into a spear/gun/energy blast/familar/followe/log/etc and then from there a whole character errupted. I guess this is similar to the other one above, but more active. In recent months I have been playing around with HeroMachine programs. HM 2.5 and Modern Hero are excellent for coming up with character designs. The new Lordi and Zombi machines are also great for coming up with more monstrous heroes (see Vrtra attachment). Which brings me to my next topic: While HeroMachine and the various other programs offered on ugo.com, I have found them to become pretty limiting. While I use them for just fairly vague designs (and later customize them with Adobe Photoshop (or just MS Paint)), I would like to find more programs that are similar. Is there anything that anyone uses? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eosin Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? I have a billion inspired characters locked inside of my skull. Things that at one time I thought would be cool to explore (art, concepts, arctypes). From there I pick the one that I like best (at the moment) and see if it meshes with the genre and setting of the campaign, if not I pick #2 favorite. My current character is a mesh of several of these. The core concept was duality... warring aspects of his life. Bhuddism and Western Magic, an Orphan with a huge family, Sexual but Innocent, even my mechanics are dual... DCV with Half Move but magic that requires a half phase, no fast draw so that it takes a full round to use a weapon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steamteck Posted June 14, 2009 Report Share Posted June 14, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? I have three linked universes as my campaigns which have been in play almost continuously for over 20 years. the ideas just flow from the events in the game. Inspiration can also come from books and movies or even a cool drawing or image. inages posted with names and nothing else often get my juices flowing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GamePhil Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? I think with HERO being an RPG, Inspiration derived from a need will be fairly common. You GM sets up a world/story and you have to figure out a way to address it. I don't see players bringing characters to GM and then the GM making a game around that character. That would be me. Whatever creative ability I have is mostly about synthesis, taking a group of ideas before me, or some detail in a game's history that strikes my fancy, and putting them together into something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secretID Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? While HeroMachine and the various other programs offered on ugo.com' date=' I have found them to become pretty limiting. While I use them for just fairly vague designs (and later customize them with Adobe Photoshop (or just MS Paint)), I would like to find more programs that are similar. Is there anything that anyone uses?[/quote'] http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72794 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? This portion of my website has had a huge affect on my creative process. Basically, by scouring the web (and image hosting sites like 4chan) for pictures, I then look at them and see if they "speak" to me in terms of character concepts. Some don't, many do. The problem is then building the character to my satisfaction. http://surbrook.devermore.net/superpics/possiblesuper.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utech Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? Science trivia. Whenever I hear something that I find interesting, I wonder how far I could go with it. Whole characters can appear after I learn that... ...most animals sleep with one half of their brain at a time. The other half remains awake. ...there are people who experience time much, much faster than normal people do. ...sound is touch at a distance. ...there are little mites that lay eggs on ants. The eggs hatch, the young burrow inside the ant's head and proceed to eat the ant's brain. The ant continues to wander around without a brain for a couple of days. The young mites undergo a final transformation and burst out of the ant's head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? Science trivia. Whenever I hear something that I find interesting, I wonder how far I could go with it. Whole characters can appear after I learn that... ...there are little mites that lay eggs on ants. The eggs hatch, the young burrow inside the ant's head and proceed to eat the ant's brain. The ant continues to wander around without a brain for a couple of days. The young mites undergo a final transformation and burst out of the ant's head. The relationship between lobbyists and politicians made simple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burrito Boy Posted June 15, 2009 Report Share Posted June 15, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? Sometimes I start with one of my favorite genres and tailor a character to fit but most of my characters start out as jokes that I eventually get more ideas for and write up. Captain Crustacean was a joke answer to someone asking for a superhero name. Red Rover was a joke name for a masked pulp hero. Casey Gwynn - the barbed wire baseball bat toting alcoholic ex-baseball player - was a joke for a zombie apocalypse. Whether a character I build was based on my sense of humor or not, the ideas that I get come to me out of the blue. Although after creating some of them, I realize they bare resemblances to other popular characters. I must be subconciously channeling them into my own creations, meaning my imagination isn't as original as I thought. But as Solomon said, "There's nothing new under the sun." So while I don't set out to imitate other characters, I don't feel so bad when I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pól Ruadh Posted June 19, 2009 Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? I usually start with a strong archetype and start tweaking like a madman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Main Man Posted June 19, 2009 Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? It depends for me but once I have a basic idea, I like to "think about the action figures." What are its features? Are their different accessories? Are there other versions for different facets of the character? What kind of winning personality does the character have in the show/comic/etc that would make a kid want to buy them regardless of its features? What are other figures in the set? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbywolfe Posted June 20, 2009 Report Share Posted June 20, 2009 Re: Character Concepts and Appearance, what gets your juices flowing? It depends for me but once I have a basic idea, I like to "think about the action figures." What are its features? Are their different accessories? Are there other versions for different facets of the character? What kind of winning personality does the character have in the show/comic/etc that would make a kid want to buy them regardless of its features? What are other figures in the set? That's a really cool approach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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