I have no shame I ripped my latest character concept off from this bad (Renegade) 90's TV show, for our Supernatural based D20 Modern game.
I have changed the name and a lot of the personal details but the premise remains the same.
I am having a lot of fun with my character, does anybody else do the same?
Where do you look for inspiration for the characters you play?
Hmm. Let's see:
Current character: Morag's name and the central kernel of her character are drawn from the Tir Alain trilogy, though the background is all my own.
Darley: From the artwork and NPC from the Temple of Elemental Evil, expounded upon by several orders of magnitude. This one is my best-known and most-beloved character, since she's existed for 15+ years by now, though Morag's moving up on her. Amazing what one piece of Caldwell's artwork could do for me then-and now.
Triel: From the artwork within the 2E Drow of the Underdark book, namely the image of the woman looking at her replacement limb.
Terisa: Inspired by Aragorn, but a whole lot different. Race is the common point, along with class.
Some of my characters form in my own mind of whole cloth, but some are taken in part from literature and others from artwork (e.g. Triel, or a mage I wrote up based on Elmore's "Appeasing Karita" cover to Dragon 223). I never try to build the original character but instead make the concept my own. It's easier to be emotionally invested in the character when I have a picture or a story to associate with them, making creation easier as well.
In the STAP I introduced an NPC based on Paris Hilton, but with a twist. She is very popular with the players.
Another NPC was based on Derrick (the protagonist of the German crime series).
Director of Narrative
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I have a PC who's a completely unoriginal combination of Frank Black and Gregor Eisenhorn.
Until I clicked on the first link, I thought you might have made a character based on the dude from the Pixies! I'm gonna pretend I wasn't let down.
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My Gnome is a current PbP.
Normally though I just steal unique names for characters like my first Paladin.actually first character ever.
Does anyone steal story lines for homebrews. I don't mean just using premade modules or settings but just a wholesale copy like doing a game based on say Avatar the last airbender?
My thri-kreen talks like HK-47 from the Star Wars: KOTOR games if he were a primitive bug-man with a vocabulator problem.
I'm playing in Age of Worms a gnoll (was reincarnated from gnome) rogue/swordsage named Lenny Lenneb Steelglitter Sparkbarker. His personality: Rowan Atkinson's Black Adder. Max ranks intimidate is great.
"Cross me and you will find that under this playful, boyish exterior, beats the heart of a rutheless, sadistic maniac."
"To you, the rennaisance was just something that happened to other people, wasn't it?"
"Oh, he's decent enough, for a dwarf. Although I use the term in its broadest possible sense, as Moradin created dwarves in his own image, and it would be a sad outlook for his faithful if he looked anything like that fellow."
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My thri-kreen talks like HK-47 from the Star Wars: KOTOR games if he were a primitive bug-man with a vocabulator problem.
Once again I will 'borrow' an idea from the lords of the board.
In a Star Wars d6 game I was part of a few weeks ago there was a scout who had a blaster riffle that had a droid’s memory chip in the riffle and it was psychotic when it begged to be shot, I asked if it was named HK-47 but the gm and player did not catch the reference.
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Some of my characters have been inspired by songs.
I once played (and will soon play in a new game) a pragmatic haunted paladin looking for redemption/ forgiveness that was inspired to me by the song "Crazy" (by Seal).
One of my recent characters is a flame-wielding barbarian inspired by 2 verses from a French song ("Je viens du Sud" = "I come from the South") which mentions "barbarian blood and italian wine, a barbarian song and an italian sky".
I once played a Star Wars character who was a far-future incarnation of a mad boat engineer called "Bang" from Lucky Luke's "Down the Mississipi" (a French comic book).
I played a desert fighter in D&D who was quite clearly a Fremen (though I replaced the wyrm-riding skill and tools with a pliable delta wing). I especially enjoyed the burial ceremony of a NPC who had been travelling with us. I took one of his weapons and left one of mine with his body.
I also once played a character in Hell on Earth who was in fact the Pilgrim (from the Garth Ennis' comic book) complete with the devastating sniper's rifle.
Right now I am running a campaign that features a lot of random stuff thrown in from real life stuff. There is the "Southwest Voodoo" prophecy which will bring forth the "Great Malenko's" undead army. The prophecy is protected by some Bard-arians named Shaggy and Violent Jay. My players really like this. We are playing once a week cuz they can't wait till the next part.
The character whose name I took for my handle was based on a one-off villian from a Australian comic strip called Torkan, right down to the name being a spelling mistake I once made. I think I was writing a school report about the comic or something: it WAS 20-odd years ago. I basically took a bad guy and made him a good guy. In those intervining years I've changed his personality and portrayal quite a bit, but the basics of the character - a magic-using lizardman in robes - remains the same.
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Director of Sales
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I have a PC who's a completely unoriginal combination of Frank Black and Gregor Eisenhorn.Until I clicked on the first link, I thought you might have made a character based on the dude from the Pixies! I'm gonna pretend I wasn't let down.
Ditto, Daigle.
One of my favorite characters was inspired by Dennis Quaid's character Det. Remy McSwain from the movie The Big Easy. However, I hadn't seen the movie for years when I made the character and started playing the game, so I was really surprised at how wrong I was when I went back and actually re-watched the movie. My character was much cooler. :)
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Sir Fenemir Greymont In high school most of our D&D group had read David Edding's Diamond Throne and our DM wanted to base a Greyhawk Campaign around a group of Paladin Knights. Needless to say the knight characters each had a little bit of Sparhawk and Kalten. I also snuck in a Tolkien inspired name.
Gavin Brand I based a woodsy paladin in a Planescape campaign on Benton Frasier the Mountie character on the show Due South. Sigil turned out to be an excellent match for the concept and the whole party had a blast. We all had just the right amount of friction with each other. It was one of the best group of characters I've played in.
Toman Sharde My concept was based on the feel of the George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and Mario Puzo's Mafia Trilogy (the books not the films). His surname Sharde is name the given to illigitimate noble children our DM's world equivalent of the "Snow" name from Martin's work.
Toman is one of the few evil characters I've played. As a lawful evil character I built him to be a dark complex man willing to commit unspeakable acts for his perception of the greater good or for the good of his friends.
My character Lowen Blackwell was equal parts Mandor (from Zelazny's later AMBER books), Morrolan e'Drien (from Brust's TALTOS novels), and "Baby" (from the Burt Reynolds movie Heat). He retired as a powerful NPC, and one of my newer characters (equal parts Kirth Gersen from Vance's "Demon Princes" and Ian Dunross from Clavell's Noble House, with a bit of James Bond thrown in) ended up assassinating him, maybe 10 years later (real time).
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Let's see.
I've stolen from everywhere, but, interestingly enough, rarely from fantasy literature.
I've played a paladin as Sam Spade, a rogue as Thomas Crowne (McQueen version, not Brosnan), a cleric as Father O'Malley, fighters as all kinds, including Jake LaMotta, Robin Hood, d'Artagnan, Lenny from Laverne and Shirley...
I was going for Rambo with my last fighter/rogue, but I lost focus after suffering through poor spell caster play from another party member...
Thomas Crowne (McQueen version, not Brosnan)
If you need to clarify that, we're dealing with the wrong audience here...
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Director of Brand Strategy
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I borrowed heavily from Ziggy-era David Bowie with a "divine conduit" of Nethys. S/he was extremely androgynous, to the extent that no one but me knows to this day whether he was a she or if she was a he (?). I thought the duality of Nethys would fit well for someone with severe androgyny, and as a person from Rahadoum, s/he was simply granted spells (as a non-practicing cleric) and from within (sorcerer) to eventually go theurge.
One of my most fun characters I've ever used was based heavily on Madmartigan from 'Willow'. He was a blast to play.
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A few other influences I forgot :
- my high-level character (female Patrician 5, ValMehan Emissary 3) in Living Arcanis was inspired by a superb pic of Atia (from HBO's Rome). After fumbling a little with the way I was comfortable roleplaying her, I realized that she was in fact a Reverend Mother of the Bene Gesserit.
- my character for RotRL is the bully in the band of young misfits led by his charismatic never-do-good friend (NPCs all). I planned to base him on one of the thugs from Malfoy's group (in Harry Potter) : bullying, lecherous, heavy-partying and with absolutely zero manners. After I played my first session with him, I realized that I was in fact playing Biff Tannen (of Back to the future fame). Strangely, I feel that Sandpoint's sheriff now sounds a lot like Mr Strickland.
- my Shoanti character for CotCT is the answer to the question : "What if Conan did worship Crom ?". He is a religious fanatic exiled from his tribe (no worship allowed at all) who I plan to multiclass in Cleric. All fear Crom, son of Gorum !!!
My thri-kreen talks like HK-47 from the Star Wars: KOTOR games if he were a primitive bug-man with a vocabulator problem.
HK-47--my favorite character from KOTOR. Now I totally want to make a warforged based off of him.
I have made a couple of characters based off of the Red Mage from Final Fantasy.
One of my players came up with the idea of playing a a down on his luck, hapless elven noble with no money to his name; just a creepy old mansion filled with the acoutriments of a dark and decadent family line of whose selfish excesses he wanted no part.
I gave him a grim orcish butler & a dim half-ogre maid.
See if you can guess.
The player loved it.
I'm surprised you didn't ask me to expand on Lenny...
Well, I remembered China playing Laverne as an ex-prostitute, kill-everything-that-moves Rogue of Doom...
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I shamelessly steal/borrow character concepts (and sometimes their names) from anime. I've played a copy of Justy Tylor AND Empress Azalyn from The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Madoka from Kimagure Orange Road, Suwabara from Yakitate Japan, Kirika Yuumura from Noir, and even some characters from J-Drama series' such as Nanako Mizuki from GTO and Misuzu Jinkama from Densha Otoko.
I also played a monk character based (and named after) River Tam from Serenity/Firefly. Most of the time, though (especially if playing a serious role-playing campaign) I try to come up with a unique character concept, although I often end up borrowing from various sources to fill in character traits.
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The truth is if you get down to it we've all probably borrowed at least bits and peices of darn near every PC we've ever played from somwhere... not to say they wern't original characters but I know I'm so bombarded with crap from movies/tv/music that it influences my sub-consceince....wow that was my deep thought for the day.
I fully plan on basing my next character concept off of Edwin from Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn. I love that guy. He's such an ass.
"Someone get this MONKEY a banana!"
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If we go into non-D&D territory, I based several of my Vampire characters on fiction :
- A Tzimisce student with a major in Psychology who pretended to be Elric of Melniboné. Complete with the howling blood-drinking sword which was in fact his girlfriend moliated into a 2-H sword and bloodbound.
- A flesh-eating Lasombra Sabbat inquisitor based on Joe Pesci's psycho character in Casino.
I played a blind Akashic Brother in Mage who was a younger version of Stick (Daredevil's mentor).
In GURPS Conan, I played an aquilonian shaman of Jhebal Sag who was heavily inspired by Tarzan.
I designed an Agone Satyr character based on John Constantine.
I played an investigative friar in Ars Magica who was in fact William of Baskerville. Too bad that True reason is not as effective as True faith against faerie wolves ...
I played an early 20-th century police inspector in a french Chtulhu-like game who was based on the characters of a french series called Les brigades du Tigre (The Tiger's brigades).
I also played characters based on myself at least twice (it was the premice of the scenario in one case though, so no merit there) :P
I have a PC who's a completely unoriginal combination of Frank Black and Gregor Eisenhorn.Until I clicked on the first link, I thought you might have made a character based on the dude from the Pixies! I'm gonna pretend I wasn't let down.
Likewise, especially considering that I have used couple of musicians as a character base so it wouldn't even have been that far off, and seen others do it too (a rogue based on Flavor Flav was...entertaining).
I did use more character concepts from scifi and fantasy in the beginning but later prefer to get my influences elsewhere. And it is preferential if the others are not aware of the influence or if it is one they are not familiar with, it is more a rote for me to get an idea who my character is.
And I have also played myself. And my high-school teacher (she was eaten by zombies, and there was much rejoicing).
And every now and then when I watch a movie or something I come across "god, I'd love to play her/him!" characters.
Lets see... I try never to steal anything whole cloth, but i have taken insperation from a lot of sources.
I have played characters loosely based on Door from Neverwhere in both mage: the ascension and Mage: the Awakening. I also end up using the name Mayhew fairly often thanks to 'richard richard mayhew dick'
King Mob from the invisibles has put a little of him self into several of my characters while the very idea of the invisibles has cross polinated with the Hollow ones in a warhammer Fantasy roleplay game i am planning to create a group of urban witches called 'the strange flowers'.
The Endless, especially death and dream make periodic Camios in my games. And if i ever get to run scion properly, Mr Wednesday and Shadow will likely make an appearance.
My first 4e Character was based on a picture of a witch hunter robyn cosplayer.
I have a vampire the requiem Antagonist in the works who is loosely based on Harley Quinn as reimagained in the dark knight universe.
Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan is crying out to be used in some way.
Erich Zann from 'The Music of Erich Zann' has inspired my faverate Mage the awakening villain, a woman called 'Harper' who had once been a member of the PC's cabal but was corrupted by the abyss when their former home fell.
I have lifted the vampires from '30 days of night' whole cloth because they are simply the most awesome vampires out there.
My current PC in vampire the Requiem is inspired by the main character from 'Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.'
The list really does go on and on.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Hmm,
I've a tiefling who is a similar concept to a Tzimisce who was based on Magik.
I've an arcane legionary (pathfinder style) who owes a lot to Elak of Atlantis. He's only existing in fiction right now, waiting for a game to play in.
I had a swordsage based on Captain Jack Harkness. (really disturbed the calm of some players at the table)
Much younger I had a rogue who started as a Gambit clone.
I had an Elan Erudite who had a bit in common with the Rani, now that I reflect on her.
My character Shadrach was me, with all the safeties off.
I totally ripped off Vin Diesel's Riddick from Pitch Black & Chronicles of Riddick. It was cool.