Concepting: A Journey
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I thought it would be interesting to see what steps people take when coming up with a concept and getting it IG, here are mine and all of them are 100% true:
The name and portrait are very important, maybe even the most important. I've quit concepts before when getting in game and seeing someone else with the same portrait.
The portrait needs to fit the IG model of the character (ie if I'm playing a spellcaster the portrait can't be wearing full plate, the hair colour and style needs to be the same also) If I can't get all this to tie together I won't play the concept, it also annoys me when I see people IG who haven't done the same.
The name needs to fit the concept, too. Hinx and I spent literally an hour this morning planning names for future concepts. If the name doesn't look and sound right the concept won't work (it needs to look good when you write it, as well as say it)
The character needs to look good in game, if they have terrible looking loot I will probably end up quitting the concept. This is the main reason I can't play elves - they look awful IG and have terrible portraits! If I choose a head model and end up dislike it it'll put me off the concept, too.
If I post something up on the Bulletin Board and I get no responses I will probably end up stopping the concept, too. The same goes with the Bat Quest - if I can't manage to get through the Bat Quest without having second thoughts about a character I will probably quit on the spot.
If I can't find people IG to have conflict with it'll bore me and I'll look at ending the concept. The same goes with interacting with a PC that annoys me OOC (for whatever reason, namely due to the above - a terrible name, the portrait thing) will mean I get annoyed with the concept and quit.
If all these points come together or don't effect me till later on in the concept's life I'll enjoy it, however this happens once in a blue moon.
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Only other thing I can add that we discussed would be if the character dies really early on. For instance I'm hitting Nada's an hour into the concept and die - Instantly bored.
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If I make a character specifically made for a faction and I’m ordered to do meaningless task for entrance then I quit.
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For me, I had character names that ran alphabetically starting from C, characters names had to begin accordingly. For instance;
Charles Straus - David Winters - Edward Stone - Francis Hollister etc.
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Click on create new character pick a race and class at random then play it.
Or if i making somthing to go along with others.
Discuss race,classes and name…make it.
Mind you the race class and name thing takes about 10-15 mins at most.If the character is fun to play i keep playing it when i start getting bored i generaly either find a good death or scrap them for somthing else.
Also i let my characters evolve in game and should they die what i consider a good death then they stay dead,constantly coming back is just so boring.Most likely thing to make me quit a character is having to respawn.
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Thats my Default method Amy
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totally depends on the other characters on the server at the time. If I have fun interactions with the characters already in game, I stick with it, till that starts lacking, then I want to quit. If I look at the player list, and realise that no one would come to a sending to help me, and most of those people wouldnt actually try and do anything were I standing there for them to speak to/attack etc, I want to quit.
Basically, if people just ignore me instead of conflict with me, I want to quit. If I dont have many allies that is.
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I usually just think of a random name, but it must also just -sound- like it would fit the character. For Slavarian I did look up some Thayan names and mix some of them together for his last name though. Eliphas was just my first real character so I got that from somewhere else (Dawn of war II I think?)
For Akdul was a random name, but sounded evil.
As for concepting, I don't put -that- much though in it. If I like my name, and I like my picture (Which I also try to make it look like the class), I just play the game to have fun, dieing or not, response to concept or not. Just because people may not reply in the beginning doesn't mean they won't later on. I find persistance gets you -somewhere- if you play one character and keep at it, unless it gets bored or RL is keeping you from playing well, which is currently my case since Im not doing as much with Akdul like I use too, but at least Im still having fun when I play ^_^
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Normally starts with a idea of sorts, a seed for the concept. Then I muse over for it a while. I mean my old ranger/wizard May Bella El-vin started off after I played Mass Effect 2 and thought what a Quarrian be like in a Arabel setting.
So I wanted a character who wouldn't show there face and was a bit of a vagrant. For that to work she needed a motive, and I decided the best one would be paranoia, based off her background (slum dweller), and a difficulty to trust. I decided there her street heritage class was a toss up between ranger and rogue (ranger won) and wizard levels were chose for two reason 1) It gave May a way to become to chase after self empowerment and 2) I really wanted to play a wizard!
A few character have been seeded by other people wanting me to join a concept, for example Dorn Highcastle was a fighter, because House Vermandois needed a tank, and he had high bluff because the concept also require someone who could be subtle. For background I decided to add "from a line of proud fighters" because it gave me something to play with and also fitted neatly into Dorn's motive to join a noble house in the first place.
Some weird thing sometimes come up as seeds, I mean my paladin of At'ar, Aisha Truthhunter, was basically seeded by my interest in theology and how religions change and mutate over time…
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I come up with a theme I want to explore. Then I come up with a personality and look to match the theme.
With my halfling, I wanted to explore the theme of "the little guy" doing big things despite his size. He's an exuberant, plucky, risk-taking daredevil, out looking for adventure and excitement.
With my cleric of Gond, I wanted to explore the theme of a working class hero. He's a greasy, grimy, foul-mouthed mechanic with a good heart under the dirt and vulgarity.
With my paladin of Milil, I wanted to explore the theme of inspiration. He's a charming, handsome, silver-tongued poet, on a quest to find a hero who will inspire his quill.
After that, I play the character for years and years and years because coming up with themes, developing personalities, and writing descriptions is a pain in the butt.
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My character screen looks a lot like a garage. A lot of things that were fun for a few seconds then you hide them somewhere thinking you might use them one day but never do.
Seeing as my only other true character was Matthew my approach isn't the most efficient but it works. It goes a little something as follows.
-Find a gender you know you can portray. For me that's male as female makes me feel like I'm trying to hard.
-Find a race that fits you idea. Again mostly human but that's more because of how diverse they can be without feeling like your just trying to be the opposite of the stereotypes.
-Pick a starting class to fit their early days. Matthew had only 1 lvl in barbarian and the rest in cleric since he found out early on he wanted to be a cleric and the rest of his adventure fit that class. Vorvinius was to be a pure barbarian and now all the sudden he's a singing bard who loves to fight. The class should be what he starts out as not what he is and often I don't stay pure classed.
-Find a build I can portray. You rarely see 16s on my characters since I like the ability to roll with the punches of his life and at the same time I often find that my feats become useless since now my dual weilding barbarian uses a shield.
-Find a portrait that matches all the aforementioned and write a description I will enjoy reading when I need inspiration for my character down the road.
-Press Play.
I find my characters need a longevity that can sustain them through the lulls so my creation takes many tries and I often stick with characters right before they are polished off mechanically because the characters themselves find a life that I enjoy more than their ability to do well in pve and pvp. Still waiting for the day one of my concepts is effective in pvp as well as he is with his ability to inflict joy and conflict but in the mean time it's just about finding the right character who bumps into the right people.
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I must say, for starters, that you have some serious issues caek if you quit over all those petty reasons listed above. How do you ever even manage to play a concept that way?
Personally, I have moments of inspiration where I come up with a personality in my head. Sometimes inspired by other fictional characters, other times not. Quickly the personality is added to a class/background and the core is formed there.
After that comes the playstyle, build, skills and fields of focus for the character. Last comes goals and plans where it all usually falls together and the idea ends up in my character folder without ever being created.
Sadly I am most creative while playing app characters, so I can't start anything new then. And by the time they are dead/retired I've moved on to new ideas.But for me:
If I can't find anyone IG to interact with other than the odd quest; I quit.
If I find I don't manage to play the class/build/character well; I quit.
If I feel that staying in character is strained; I quit.
If I run myself into a track (personality, traits, etc) that I find to be tiresome or annoying; I quit.
If I can't come up with anything long-term to do with the character; I quit.Character building is hard… :(
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All the pros use the Bat Quest Test. It is full-proof and logically sound to quit your concept should your character take longer than a minute or two on said Quest.
If the name or portrait or, most importantly, the description do not 'feel right', that is also reason enough to quit the character or at the least warrant a remake if you particularly favour the concept.
This logic has been used for years and to great effect. It is truely the only way to go about a character.
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I've always had more success with the characters created independently then trying to create a character for a specific purpose in the module (as is this case with the majority of app chars).
Velus really ground down into a chore to play, as did my prior EO character. Wanderer went a bit half/half, as the character was concepted independently, but the strenuousness of holding the Harper faction up solo for a long time started to make for extensive busy work.
Chance was a bit of middle ground, and might've been more fun if he hadn't immediately followed a character of similar motivations (He and Morn were both basically following a hero-worshipping path and ended up working for their respective role models).
On the opposite spectrum, Morn may have been written with DeSchurr somewhat in mind, but his overall personality and objectives had nothing specifically to do with the faction. Chaste and Aldric both pursue much more solid personal level goals, and generally have been more fun then attempting to achieve some mass world changing agenda.
Portraits do irk me some, I hate settling on a port then finding a better one later. Sometimes they provide a bit of inspiration to the character as well, in the form of quirks, and sort out the somewhat random choice of hair/eye color.
A name generally has meaning or significance (Wanderer was an obvious alias hinting at his backstory, Chaste was an obvious fake name, as was Morn and Aaron's last names. Raymon Velus was a bit of a botch and should've been read as "Raymon/Velus". Others I generally use name generators and similar sites to pick out something appropriate to their origin region.
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If the name or portrait or, most importantly, the description do not 'feel right', that is also reason enough to quit the character or at the least warrant a remake if you particularly favour the concept.
Real stickler for this myself. If the portrait or description doesn't feel right, I often cannot play until they have been changed.
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Portraits and proper voice sets are a must. Also, if I can't customize the armor/clothes I'm wearing or if they're set into a style that looks too ugly, I rapidly lose interest. Names are fashioned according to region of birth and their real-life corollaries. I usually develop most tweaks and character flaws/quirks/perks in game, such as Luciano being homosexual or Aurixvrak's wings being ticklish.
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The name must sound cool. This is just so true. I usually go with this format (for Cormyrian humans):
[Regal Sounding First Name] [Cool light/dark related word][another word that goes well with it, or a piece of clothing]
For example:
[Jhlessia] [Bright][mantle]
[Alexis] [Light][fell]Portraits and voicesets…not so important to me. Although a cool portrait is a huge plus.
EDIT - Agree with Neolithic on the clothes thing. Gotta look good.
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[Cool light/dark related word][another word that goes well with it, or a piece of clothing]
[Dragon/Hate] [Raven/Steel]
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[Cool light/dark related word][another word that goes well with it, or a piece of clothing]
[Dragon/Hate] [Raven/Steel]
SIR DRAGONRAGE BLACKSTEELTHUNDERPANTS
Don't laugh. It'll be a hit.
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I just made Diego Hateraven IG. Looking for a Sally Dragonsteel; PM for details.