So, how your character looks is important, right? What kind of visual representations do you use? Do you have a 'cast list' for your party members and cast celebrities in their roles? Do you seek out and paint a mini that looks like you imagined your character? Are you an artist who draws all of their fellow adventurers? Or does your group briefly describe their characters once and go about business?
Personally, I've been on the lookout for some kind of program that would allow me to make a fantasy character. Kind of like the character creation in games like Dragon Age. I found a website that does make avatars, but they are very much chibi anime inspired and while I have had a lot of fun messing around it really isn't what I'm looking for.
If anyone knows any program I'd like to hear about it.
Oh, by the way, here is the avatar program that's been sucking up too much time:
Adorable Avatar Maker
I've been using Heromachine for years (http://www.heromachine.com). There's a free version on that website to use, and for a few dollars you can download the full version, which has a ton more options. It's made more for superhero-type pictures, but trust me, especially with the full version, there's more than enough fantasy stuff to base a hundred characters off of.
Personally, while I don't play the game, I love the Soul Calibur III & IV ccustom character generators.
I'd love to find an online version so I could print my creations out.
Meanwhile, I'll take a look at Heromachine.
http://www.avatarart.com/CustomCharacterPortraits/
um... just browsing through their gallery.. I don't think I would pay for that level of "quality" I realize they are commissions and that you are getting someone to draw your character as you describe but....
I would recommend deviantart, reapermini has concept sketches for a lot of their minis (which are much higher quality then the art on the site above, not to belabor the point) and the site coolminiornot.com.
If you ever played the Icewind Dale series or Baldur's Gate series from Black Isle and WotC, I love to use the character portraits that they provide. If you don't own the games, though, you can google the images :)
Also, my gaming group uses various actors that we like the feel of. I recently took a liking to Peter Cushing for my recently made elf character.
Just about everyone in my gaming group are artists and we draw our characters, we have been drawing our characters since we first started gaming together in 2001.
http://www.avatarart.com/CustomCharacterPortraits/
I'd rather pay 25$ to one of my artist friends. All of them are quite good. A few that I can't imagine why they aren't professional yet.
Yar!
I use whatever method is available and produces the most accurate depiction of the character that I have in mind. I've drawn them, I've scoured various games and programs for pictures, I've scanned pictures from books, I've used artwork from any source that I can access (deviant art, google searches, etc), I've used pictures of actors from movies, heck, I've even used photos of actual models (there are even some "adult content" sites that do fantasy themed shoots, which are sometimes great for female characters, and painfully cheesy if you find the few male models...*shudder*). And if I find something that is close but not perfect, I will photoshop it to make it perfect.
Two of the guys in my group are also artists, and they will often draw their characters. One of them will often draw up NPCs that don't have pics, and even draw up group pictures of our guys. The other specializes in monsters, and has done sketches of various pets, mounts, summons, etc.
I also try and find a mini to use that is a close as possible as well... but those have a bit more leway for accuracy (because I don't actually make custom minis, I have to use someone elses design).
~P
A friend of mine who is a portrait artist (check Minstrel of Eden on Facebook), agreed to do a portrait of my favorite character in exchange for the new dress that I'm making for her. At her suggestion, I attempted to find models, actresses, etc. who had features appropriate for her look. It actually took several days, and I never could find any one model who had all the correct features (nose, eyes, jawline, etc.).
At her suggestion, I put together an assortment of about 50 images noting what features about various models were appropriate or that had the correct attitude and intelligence about them. i.e. Audrey Hepburn's eyes, Katherine Jenkin's poise, and (since I'm a tailor and particular about such things), examples of models of the same height, weight, and measurements.
Yet the character themselves is only part of it.
You should also know what sort of attitude they have, how they attire themselves both on and off the battlefield, etc. It helps for the artist to be able to 'know' the subject as a person since they may not have a real model to sit for them let alone one wearing all the same gear. To that end, I keep a running [url=http://paizo.com/people/Laithoron/wishlists/v5748l939kkma]list[/list] of all the various costumes that I dream up for my characters. That is partly in case someone comes to me for a costume idea at some point, and partly to make the character a bit more real.
At this point, the dress is nearing completion and the portrait of Princess Alis is the next one on my friend's queue. I guess we'll see how she turns out. :)
i try to give elaborate verbal descriptions, but my saturday group shuts me out.
they seem to defualt to 'not another underage girl' even when i come up with a PC who by human standards, is older than the legal age. and it need not be female either.
if only they would give me the time to finish my descriptions.
I like to find minis that have something to do with the characters. Gunslinger minis are hard to come by unless they look like space dudes or cowboys!
I draw some too ( I used to alot, but hardly have the patience for it any more), but I do prefer a mini that is mostly like the character. (trying to find good monk minis is a pin in the arse too!)
I tend to be opportunistic. I'll keep an eye open for a miniature or a picture that is close to what I am thinking of. Sometimes I'll draw my character, but I'm not that good.
i try to give elaborate verbal descriptions, but my saturday group shuts me out.
they seem to defualt to 'not another underage girl' even when i come up with a PC who by human standards, is older than the legal age. and it need not be female either.
if only they would give me the time to finish my descriptions.
You have a pretty poor reputation here and no wonder. We hardly hear anything from you without 'loli' in there somewhere. If you want to change the opinion of your group, actually play something different. Don't play a hundred year old half-something that looks twelve. Play a character that's actually an adult and not just technically an adult.
If you want to change views, you have to earn it.
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You have a pretty poor reputation here and no wonder. We hardly hear anything from you without 'loli' in there somewhere. If you want to change the opinion of your group, actually play something different. Don't play a hundred year old half-something that looks twelve. Play a character that's actually an adult and not just technically an adult.
If you want to change views, you have to earn it.
Not trying to be mean, but +1
Stop with the loli stuff and people might start taking you seriously.
The persecution/martyr complex really doesn't help either.
i played a male human rogue with tuesday tony's 3.5 group. he was heavily inspired by Makoto Shishio but wasn't a complete clone of the guy.
this character survived being burned alive by the prince of the desert nation of Saamdi, after failing to asassinate him in vengeance of the death of his 39 comrades. he has no sweat glands due to being burned, he had to change into a different set of moist bandages every day, and his body combusted from over excitement when he finally got his revenge. i even took on fire vulnerability and had the worst rolled stat array of everyone besides the druid.
i was going to bring in a 'Mad Scientist' (i mean alchemist) inspired by Mayuri Kurotsuchi, and Tuesday Tony said 'no', and it wasn't even built for bombing. i was even willing to backwards adapt the skill list. and tuesday tony normally allows oddball concepts i cannot get from weekly william's group, but that group flakes more tuesdays than they actually play. the character's emphasis was on poisons, mutagens, and drugs.
so he gave me less than 10 minutes to create a character, so i whipped together a gothloli 'drow' bard to save time. (tuesday tony's drow are all albino)
i admit that my greatest characters have been men, it's just that these men require lots of planning that cannot be accomplished in a few hours, and my few 'loli archetypes' tend to be created from lack of planning. pbps don't give enough time to plan characters. nor Do IRL groups.
i can try to create a memorable male character, but it takes too much planning/effort when my stock characters are all loli.
those loli come from my freeform past and being that they are so ingrained in my mind, it's easier to recreate them.
and various odd anime with loli protagonists imprinted themselves on my mind.
I have one I think you would play well Shuriken -- go for a DNA^2 style master chymist. I bet you can knock that one out of the park.
A friend of mine came up with an epic idea on that.
We use Inkscape, a free graphic program and paint the characters out of our imagination in the famous Rich Burley Order of the Stick style.
There is a guide how to do that on the inkscape site and its easy.
Lately i took a very seductive model from a famous japanese comic that was realfilmed by Takashi Miike though, but also with Inkscape.
Dress and equipment are all based on the characters style and equpiment and sightable on the figures then. Since we play a campain in Cheliax now, you can also see that influence.
The persecution/martyr complex really doesn't help either.
+1
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You have a pretty poor reputation here and no wonder. We hardly hear anything from you without 'loli' in there somewhere. If you want to change the opinion of your group, actually play something different. Don't play a hundred year old half-something that looks twelve. Play a character that's actually an adult and not just technically an adult.
If you want to change views, you have to earn it.
Not trying to be mean, but +1
Stop with the loli stuff and people might start taking you seriously.
Oh look! A dead horse!
/beat
I actually gave up visualizing my characters long ago. I have the perfect picture in my head, and no matter how I try to describe it, I could never do the image justice...
Or I just find premade artwork. The Goblin Knight from the Paizo April Fools' Joke, "Goblins of Purity," was the model for my current goblin paladin.
The Goblin Knight from the Paizo April Fools' Joke, "Goblins of Purity," was the model for my current goblin paladin.
You win for playing a goblin paladin. If one of my players ever decide to play one, he gains one free level.
I have to resort to physical descriptions since I suck at drawing. I rarely find artwork for my characters, but my players sometimes do.
when i get time to shelve my 'japanese schoolgirl' at the end of weekly william's current module. i might sneak in a male alchemist.
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I used to design the theme/look of a character around multiple hooks and 'tricks'.
Then, after a few years I passed through and came to realise that cool + cool + cool /= cooler.
I don't like basing any character on existing character 'in general' - iconic character types are to be expected but basing characters on a copy of a copy of a copy of the latest gaming/animated/movie rehash doe not float my boat.
Now I prefer organic, free range characters, raised in a collective environment on healthy, gluten-free fluff.
Go little dudes go!
::
My friend and I are artists and usually draw our characters, but I also play wargames and love to convert miniatures. If I come up with a character I like well enough, I buy and convert a suitable mini for him/her/it.
Here is one of my more elaborate conversions... Sadly the picture quality leaves something to be desired.
-Kurocyn
when i get time to shelve my 'japanese schoolgirl' at the end of weekly william's current module. i might sneak in a male alchemist.
Awesome -- like I said I think you should try the other end of the sprectrum. it's not far from your regular character type -- the idealistic guy that has an iron will/morality but is still 'innocent' but gives you the fun side to play too with the Perfect Playboy alter ego.
i hope to sneak in the vivisectionist archtype. (weekly william has a previously mentioned rulling that damaged bombs explode in the alchemist's possession)
a 30something year old man who dissects cadavers and creates monsters.
a psychotic megalomanic with a god complex who neither confirms nor denies other peoples rumors that he allegedlt worships Lamashtu (really, he shows loyalty to no god)
the kind of guy who keeps a copy of lamashtu's holy text 'for research' and keeps various abberrations stored in jars within his laboratory.
the kind of guy who used his own family as his first test subjects and then used himself as one.
a bit of Shao Tucker (FMA), Mayuri Kurotsuchi (Bleach), Dr. Frankenstein and Light Yagami (Death Note) mixed into one.
he doesn't want to be one with Lamashtu, he just wants to dissect her and learn what makes her tick. dead bodies just happen to be more cooperative.
his alter ego (via master chymist) is a depraved murderer who relieves his frustrations upon his victims via mutilation. nothing too sexual.
I tend to spend a great deal of time on the /tg/ booru, shuffling through thousands of images looking for character portraits, and occasionally I will find something that at least does the mental image I have of the characters I make and interact with justice, but it is something of a trial.
But then my characters are rarely wooden, or even static. I run a CG Quadiri cleric of sarenrae and a CG Varisian bard priestess of Calistria, and a CN tiefling rogue/wizard/AT and each one would find it hard to get along with the next. I spent the better part of four months searching for an image of my bard and finally FINALLY found one I could identify as appearing something like my character. Plenty of disguise images, but not one I felt was appropriate for a teen-aged girl (see not some grotesquely disproportionate anime loli with inappropriately developed endowments).
Tried the superhero generator, but found it a bit... glychy for my tastes.
I try to always draw my character myself, and then I try to make a custom miniature for them. On occasion I find a very nearly perfect miniature at the game store and only have to paint it. In fact I am working on my new witch for an upcoming game right now. I am no artist, but sheer perseverence and a lot of eraser or undo can allow even a hack like me to eventually produce something less than embarrassing.
I also alwyas give my characters somet unique physical attribute, be it a birthmark, a particular style of an item of clothing or a hairstyle or color. My male witch's distinguishing characteristic is going to be an explosion of electric blue hair sticking out every which way.
I take the visualization of my characters very seriously, so I spend a lot of time on it.
I have a "basic" description of my characters that is reminiscent of a police BOLO notice. (IE: height, weight,and build; eye, hair, and skin color; etc...)
And then elsewhere attached to my character sheet is a detailed Full Page (or 2) description with in depth descriptions of key features of the character. Sometimes it is a real pain to be a English & Literature major with minors in creative writing and teaching. (I really need to get back and finish my degree some time... *sigh*)
@Shuriken
I would not worry about no one else paying attention to your descriptions all that much. It is rare to find players that want to know that much about other peoples characters.
weekly william dissaproved the alchemist idea. i should have predicted this would happen. he doesn't like me giving him links to previews and playtests for books not out yet. no matter how soon they are to come.
Elaborate descriptions are all well and good for characters, but they should be done inverted pyramid style, starting with the brief thumbnail description or most prominent physical trait someone would see if they gave the character a single glance, followed by intriguing secondary details, like notable personal props, including familiars, weapons, and signature jewelry, and finishing up with business about the quality of the character's petticoats and what shop crinolines of that quality must have come from.
Also remember that if you're introducing a character with a number of other players present, the thumbnail description is all you get: "You see a girl with brown braids, a blue gingham prairie dress, a basket holding a Scottie dog, and sparkly red shoes." "You see a blond girl in a blue dress with a white apron and she's holding a two-handed greatsword taller than she is."
There. Dorothy Gail of Kansas and Alice Pleasance Liddell in a sentence each.
Heck, even Ozma of Oz can be done in a short sentence: "You see a brown-haired princess wearing an art nouveau headdress with two giant red poppies on either side of her head." If someone bothers to look closer, you add this: "There's an intertwined monogram of O and Z at the center of the gold circlet on her forehead and at the filigreed top of scepter in her hand."
Whether an eight to twelve year old child of either sex is an appropriate character is another matter. If you're going to be playing in Oz, then sure. Your average sword and sorcery tale? Not so much, unless you're getting really gritty, in which case a ten year old is old enough to carry a sword and old enough to die by it too.
@Shuriken
I would not worry about no one else paying attention to your descriptions all that much. It is rare to find players that want to know that much about other peoples characters.
Au contraire. Shuriken is the exception to the rule; people tend to pay bit more attention to his character descriptions. It's hard to not notice the various manga innocent lolis headed toward a spiritual descent archetypes that remains a constant theme during his character creation that he shares with us to read. It may be the reason why Weekly William and Tuesday Tony may disapprove the concepts. Maybe for once they'd like to see him role play a Euro-centric crusader modeled after the Knights Templar. ;)
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A friend of mine came up with an epic idea on that.
We use Inkscape, a free graphic program and paint the characters out of our imagination in the famous Rich Burley Order of the Stick style.
There is a guide how to do that on the inkscape site and its easy.
Lately i took a very seductive model from a famous japanese comic that was realfilmed by Takashi Miike though, but also with Inkscape.
Dress and equipment are all based on the characters style and equpiment and sightable on the figures then. Since we play a campain in Cheliax now, you can also see that influence.
Ditto. I find that this works really well for getting a general idea of the party's look. I tend to use this to get a mock-up of our characters before I hand it off to an artist friend.
You can find the guide here: OotS Inkscape Guide if anyone wants to give it a shot ;] It's pretty easy and once you get the hang of it you can get a whole party together in a couple of hours.
This is one of my nearly-finished products: http://img863.imageshack.us/i/motv.png/
my Tian inquisitor of Zon-Kuthon had effectively walked a dark path her whole life. she was an exception in that she wasn't innocent. and started, almost prefallen. her evolution was that she got worse, ended up running the prince's main prison, and becoming progressively less human as she gets further and further detached from sanity.
i Tried blending the following characters
Barry 'the Butcher'
Vladimir Tepes
the Cenobites from Hellraiser
Jack 'The Ripper'
Scar from Full Metal Achemist
package these into one pint sized 'Tian' Fauxlita (who is Tian only by pigmentation) and completely detached from her former tian heritage, a source of shame to her family, such a character can no longer be considered a 'japanese schoolgirl', but rather, a psychotic transylvanian serial murderer who torutures her victims before she finishes them. usually for pleasure.
this young girl is very depraved and a complete lunatic that they would normally keep locked away in an asylum if it weren't for the following factors
she can effortlessly slaughter the guards,
the prince uses her as a trump card of sorts,
everybody is so afraid of her, they cannot do a thing to her without fearing for thier lives
the dark path she walked before the DM sprung remake was of a different style anyway. a darker variation of a shadow hand focused swordsage of Irori twisted for bloodshed. but the path of shadow hand also draws one into evil at a fast pace.
she is the closest thing weekly william has allowed to an evil character and she hasn't disrupted the game.
complete weapon change from Wakazashi/Foot combo to Spiked Chain/Foot semi switch hitter.
Since some folks have linked to artwork of their characters, here's a cartoon-style drawing I did of Alis for the 'Christmas card' I sent to my friends/family on Facebook. (Yes, I miss the fact that we didn't get a Christmas Seoni for 2010.) Obviously, drawing isn't exactly my forté, but I was still pretty pleased. Can't wait to see what my friend, Victoria, comes up with though...
Alis Kirmoon: Christmas Hug
my Tian inquisitor of Zon-Kuthon had effectively walked a dark path her whole life. she was an exception in that she wasn't innocent. and started, almost prefallen. her evolution was that she got worse, ended up running the prince's main prison, and becoming progressively less human as she gets further and further detached from sanity.
i Tried blending the following characters
Barry 'the Butcher'
Vladimir Tepes
the Cenobites from Hellraiser
Jack 'The Ripper'
Scar from Full Metal Achemistpackage these into one pint sized 'Tian' Fauxlita (who is Tian only by pigmentation) and completely detached from her former tian heritage, a source of shame to her family, such a character can no longer be considered a 'japanese schoolgirl', but rather, a psychotic transylvanian serial murderer who torutures her victims before she finishes them. usually for pleasure.
this young girl is very depraved and a complete lunatic that they would normally keep locked away in an asylum if it weren't for the following factors
she can effortlessly slaughter the guards,
the prince uses her as a trump card of sorts,
everybody is so afraid of her, they cannot do a thing to her without fearing for thier lives
the dark path she walked before the DM sprung remake was of a different style anyway. a darker variation of a shadow hand focused swordsage of Irori twisted for bloodshed. but the path of shadow hand also draws one into evil at a fast pace.
she is the closest thing weekly william has allowed to an evil character and she hasn't disrupted the game.
complete weapon change from Wakazashi/Foot combo to Spiked Chain/Foot semi switch hitter.
so basically you have described Gogo from Kill Bill part 1 (moded to fit the setting...)
My friend Kurocyn and I draw our characters, I actually enjoy drawing characters that are members of the party, esecially if the character has captivated me.
Minis are also a valid way of doing things, especially if you are willing to or able to modify the mini to better suit the design you have in mind. i finished converting a mini from warmachine into the tiefling monk I was working on. biggest modification is to make the character showing his chest and making pants/hooded monk robe (worn more like a jacket) out of two part epoxy (green stuff)
however I greatly enjoy drawing the characters, the downside is I love making and drawing ones that haven't even been played yet (including my goblin barbarian Chair-Bringer)
if it pleases anyone out of boredom :
http://setsumaruhanabishi.deviantart.com
Since some folks have linked to artwork of their characters, here's a cartoon-style drawing I did of Alis for the 'Christmas card' I sent to my friends/family on Facebook. (Yes, I miss the fact that we didn't get a Christmas Seoni for 2010.) Obviously, drawing isn't exactly my forté, but I was still pretty pleased. Can't wait to see what my friend, Victoria, comes up with though...
Alis Kirmoon: Christmas Hug
If I didn't know any better, it's like you were inspired by a mash-up between an elf maiden and a certain fitness model who may or may not have received a custom costume from you. ;-)
If I didn't know any better, it's like you were inspired by a mash-up between an elf maiden and a certain fitness model who may or may not have received a custom costume from you. ;-)
Haha! No, not quite. I've known Alis for about... 17+ years now. That's looong before JP/VF was discovered. :)
I use Poser. I have versions 7 and 8 and switch between them depending on what I am trying to do.
For those not wanting to spend that kind of money, DAZStudio does much of the same things, and is free.
The learning curve can seem a bit steep at first, but you can find lots of really good tutorials on the internet, and tons of free content to help create images of your characters.
If I didn't know any better, it's like you were inspired by a mash-up between an elf maiden and a certain fitness model who may or may not have received a custom costume from you. ;-)Haha! No, not quite. I've known Alis for about... 17+ years now. That's looong before JP/VF was discovered. :)
Ack! I missed that initial hyperlink. Failed my Perception check! :)
so basically you have described Gogo from Kill Bill part 1 (modified to fit the setting...)
you got it. i took Gogo and altered her just enough to fit the setting.
i wasn't even subtle about it.