... Cohen is a Dwarf barbarian from the Discworld series and Syrio is from a song of fire and Ice, the books Game of Thrones was based off of
I will have to look again, but I'm pretty sure Cohen isn't a dwarf. I'm pretty sure he is just an old barbarian man.
Not that it really makes any difference to you examples. =)
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Tommy Lee Jones in the fugitive
Marisa Tomei in anything she's ever done. The queen of classy in my book.
Ryan Reynolds in blade III
Qui Gon Jin
Master Oogway
Kevin Flynn (obviously)
Lebowski 'The Dude'
Rockhound
Wade Garrett
Dr Ian Malcolm
David Tennant as the Doctor
The dude from volkswagen GTI's 'german engineering yah/unpimp your auto' commercials (who also plays the russian cosmonaut in armageddon... American components, russian components... ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!) and also the dude in Jurassic park trilogy that gets eaten by the compys. Pretty broad spectrum that guy...
There's nothing wrong with TWF. Theres nothing wrong with playing a drow. Theres nothing wrong with playing a cold calculating assassin. All that's great. Individually.
I know everyone loves drizzt. But start with drizzt and then CHANGE something... ANY thing.
One handed Drizzt. Drizzt the normal elf instead of drow. Drizzt the half ogre. Drizzt the jovial irishman. Drizzt the perky, plucky and slightly ADHD... Drizzt the bard and his amazing technicolor dreamcoat... Drizzt the female halfling with inexplicable unmanageable excessive chest hair... The Drizzt who loved too much... Drizzt the chinese girl who uses a naginata. Drizzt the 7 foot viking who talks like boomhauser... Thinks like drizzt but looks and fights like zangief. Change anything, but definitely change something. Take the things you love the most about drizzt, then find some thing that you could change where you could show up at your gaming table and play him in a way that if they had to guess, they wouldnt guess that you were playing drizzt for the 20th consecutive time. I don't wanna get your hopes up, but you might just end up with a character thats even cooler than drizzt.
It turns out that a horse with two fighter levels is badass.A PC like that must undergo quite the training.
One could say he would need to have nerves of steed.
During one critical encounter, the team captain authorized "use of deadly horse."
I like to play death obsessed gothic characters based on...
...Raskolnikov. Thankfully, most players don't get it, and think I'm creative.
I don't think I've ever played a carbon copy character before. I've played a few that were CC's of CC's until you only have a vague impression of the original there.
The thing I've noticed in life is that you run into the same people the longer you live. They have different faces and names, but they're still the same person inside. So it is with characters, when you see one brutish barbarian you've seen them all. I don't begrudge a player running a copy character, unless he wants to play Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet and all that power at 1st level.
This.
Point of fact, there really arent' THAT many 'original' characters. Most of the archtypes were obviously written with a literary character in mind... and many of the bonuses and penalties of core classes are terribly clichéd.
It seems like almost every character I hear can in 'some way' however tangentially be connected to some major well-known character. Sometimes the players WANT to go that route? Sometimes they don't even realize it till you bring their attention.
Sometimes players FIGHT the stereotype so often... the 'non-stereotype' actually starts to seem repetitive.
It all depends on how long you play the game... and how much 'other media' you immerse yourself in.
As a massive comic fan for two-three decades... Playing a 'marvel RPG' could be hilarious listening to what people thought were 'original ideas' ;)
Phantom and Tri, I don't know that I agree with this idea that almost all characters conform in some way to some stereotypical literary or cultural figure, except in the most vague and arbitrary ways.
When I think of my own characters that I've played since my very early days, I can only think of one that fit any stereotype, and that was my divorced, alcoholic, ex-soldier fighter.
I've already talked about my half-dryad archer druid who uses UMD for wands and scrolls and the like. I can't think of any known "archetype" or literary figure she resembles.
My human male highly charismatic witch with addiction issues who enjoys masquerading as a cleric or wizard doesn't remind me of anyone either.
My latest character is a halfling bard who specializes in "music" made without instruments (primarily whistling, but also singing, humming, using his hands, feet, elbows, knees or objects to provide rhythm). He also enjoys a good melee combat, even though he sort of sucks at it.
I've always just started with an interesting concept and let the character develop naturally based on their history, experiences, personality and opportunities. The end result, at least in my opinion, are characters that are truly unique and interesting and have only the most casual resemblance to any iconic characters from any cultural source.
It's hard to see the mirror from the inside.
LOL, perhaps TOZ, but perhaps you can show me the mirror from the outside?
Phantom and Tri, I don't know that I agree with this idea that almost all characters conform in some way to some stereotypical literary or cultural figure, except in the most vague and arbitrary ways.
When I think of my own characters that I've played since my very early days, I can only think of one that fit any stereotype, and that was my divorced, alcoholic, ex-soldier fighter.
I've already talked about my half-dryad archer druid who uses UMD for wands and scrolls and the like. I can't think of any known "archetype" or literary figure she resembles.
My human male highly charismatic witch with addiction issues who enjoys masquerading as a cleric or wizard doesn't remind me of anyone either.
My latest character is a halfling bard who specializes in "music" made without instruments (primarily whistling, but also singing, humming, using his hands, feet, elbows, knees or objects to provide rhythm). He also enjoys a good melee combat, even though he sort of sucks at it.
Well... lets not discount vague and arbitrary. ;)
just taking a shot here...
1) Not really sure what a half Dryad really would be... but druids and fey using bows aren't uncommon... But honestly, once you break into the 'humanoids' books characters get... weird. Almost TOO unique.
2) just that description... the first things that pop in my mind is a Sherlock holmes/Scarlet Pimpernel. Someone who is always in disguise and trying to do good without people knowing who he 'really' is...
And also Batman :P
3) Halfling Whistler was a bard kit in 2E. Also them hobbits were always singing or telling stories and trying to be better in combat then their stats allowed. ;)
I've always just started with an interesting concept and let the character develop naturally based on their history, experiences, personality and opportunities. The end result, at least in my opinion, are characters that are truly unique and interesting and have only the most casual resemblance to any iconic characters from any cultural source.
Which is an awesome way to do it. I think the best characters come out that way, and I've rarely found a character that 'fits the mold' perfectly after a few gaming sessions. But I've also found that when describing the character to other people... they can usually be summed up in familiar terms.
He's kinda like 'Blade' but with a friendly personality. He's weak like Raistlen and kind of bitter, but didn't have a brother to rely on so he summons things. I picture him being played by Harrison ford somewhere around his Raiders days... or Clint Eastwood, at Any time.
Having common connnections to existing literay or media characters isn't a bad thing. In fact it's almost essential to get everyone thinking of the same image that the player is.
My current character is a summoner, and his eidolon is an attractive female humanoid.
Their interaction dynamic most resembles flynn and quorra from the latest tron movie.
This is funny, because I've had a Summoner idea much like that one. Except my idea was based off the movie Weird Science, with the Eidolon being like a Wonder Woman/Xena level asskicker.
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To be honest, there doesn't seem to be much wrong with starting with a well known character or trope. These tend to make for compelling characters in their own right, and the player has an opportunity to build off of that in a potentially fun way. On the other hand, there is the danger that these characters will not evolve in a unique way, and merely become walking tropes or carbon copies of famous figures. I guess my point is that this sort of thing has the potential to work well in addition to the potential to fail miserably.
The dude from volkswagen GTI's 'german engineering yah/unpimp your auto' commercials (who also plays the russian cosmonaut in armageddon... American components, russian components... ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!) and also the dude in Jurassic park trilogy that gets eaten by the compys. Pretty broad spectrum that guy...
Peter Stormare.
Used to be one of Ingemar Bergman's favourite actors.
I don't think I've ever played a carbon copy character before. I've played a few that were CC's of CC's until you only have a vague impression of the original there.
The thing I've noticed in life is that you run into the same people the longer you live. They have different faces and names, but they're still the same person inside. So it is with characters, when you see one brutish barbarian you've seen them all. I don't begrudge a player running a copy character, unless he wants to play Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet and all that power at 1st level.
This.
Point of fact, there really arent' THAT many 'original' characters. Most of the archtypes were obviously written with a literary character in mind... and many of the bonuses and penalties of core classes are terribly clichéd.
It seems like almost every character I hear can in 'some way' however tangentially be connected to some major well-known character. Sometimes the players WANT to go that route? Sometimes they don't even realize it till you bring their attention.
Sometimes players FIGHT the stereotype so often... the 'non-stereotype' actually starts to seem repetitive.
It all depends on how long you play the game... and how much 'other media' you immerse yourself in.
As a massive comic fan for two-three decades... Playing a 'marvel RPG' could be hilarious listening to what people thought were 'original ideas' ;)
If you take a wide enough lens to anything it starts looking the same.
We all have points of commonality, which can make us similar, but not the same.
My group will occasionally make a character based off of another existing character, but usually it's from a different genre, medium, etc. We do so jokingly, more as a thought-exercise, and build the character from there.
When 3.0 came out, just for fun, we statted up the X-Men. Never actually used any of them, but it was a fun experiment. I'll sometimes base part of a character from a pre-existing one, so that my group has a resource to draw from to quickly get an idea of what my character is and what they're about; "this guy has the amnesiac angst of Spawn, but without the hellborn powers or fiendish origins" is one example.
On a personal note, one of my favorite fantasy weapons is the wristblade/bladed gauntlet, ala Wolverine, The Predator, etc. I don't know why, I just like it. I've used the weapon with several characters, all of whom were completely different in all ways(race, class, background, etc) except the weapon they used, and all of them are constantly compared to Wolverine. I accept why the comparisons exist, but after a while, explaining all the differences gets old.
Yes, which is why I said theres a difference between taking a theme and running with it and full out plagarizing all the important info :pI don't think I've ever played a carbon copy character before. I've played a few that were CC's of CC's until you only have a vague impression of the original there.
The thing I've noticed in life is that you run into the same people the longer you live. They have different faces and names, but they're still the same person inside. So it is with characters, when you see one brutish barbarian you've seen them all. I don't begrudge a player running a copy character, unless he wants to play Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet and all that power at 1st level.
This.
Point of fact, there really arent' THAT many 'original' characters. Most of the archtypes were obviously written with a literary character in mind... and many of the bonuses and penalties of core classes are terribly clichéd.
It seems like almost every character I hear can in 'some way' however tangentially be connected to some major well-known character. Sometimes the players WANT to go that route? Sometimes they don't even realize it till you bring their attention.
Sometimes players FIGHT the stereotype so often... the 'non-stereotype' actually starts to seem repetitive.
It all depends on how long you play the game... and how much 'other media' you immerse yourself in.
As a massive comic fan for two-three decades... Playing a 'marvel RPG' could be hilarious listening to what people thought were 'original ideas' ;)
If you take a wide enough lens to anything it starts looking the same.
We all have points of commonality, which can make us similar, but not the same.
Er...I am not sure how my post relates to yours as it is a response to someone else's statement, but I wouldn't disagree with what you just wrote.
My current group knows I am a great (read bad) punster. So when I said I was going to create a Ninja, one suggested I create Deadpool. ...Well, it's not going to be a ninja.
Anyway, I created a character for a non-D&D game. He was based on all the Barbarian movies that I had seen (Conan, The Barbarians, etc) I made him dumb and he talked in third person. His name is Vast Deathmaster. The group gave him a sword called Drizzle Summoner (Storm Bringer?). Vast was a blast to play in that particular game. He was distinctly over powered, but the way I played him he was level with ever one else.
We've never had someone 'cut-n-paste' a character. Probably because our group has been playing a long time.
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You know who I want to make now? A Gunslinger/Barbarian combo named 'Duke' who wears goggles with a red muscle shirt, and who speaks purely in awful puns and cheap innuendo. Is never not smoking a cigar.
And when I make this person, I'm going to have Duke physically threaten the magic users until they make a jetpack for him.
LET'S ROCK!
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This is funny, because I've had a Summoner idea much like that one. Except my idea was based off the movie Weird Science, with the Eidolon being like a Wonder Woman/Xena level asskicker.My current character is a summoner, and his eidolon is an attractive female humanoid.
Their interaction dynamic most resembles flynn and quorra from the latest tron movie.
me too. mine is more the anime trope of otherworldly super powered girl clinging to some schmuck guy
I have been guilty of borrowing ideas from fictional characters from time to time. I think it is common for gamers to do so, especially when starting out. Most people I have encountered have done it and/or are cool with it.
My most blatent ripoff was Spider-Man for a Champions game. I wanted to play a Spider-Man like character, but I didn't like Spider-Man's story or personality. So I built the character with similar powers (entangle, swinging, wall-crawling, etc.) but made hime of African origin and called him Anansi. He was far more brutal than Spider-Man towards villains, but still was wise-cracking. So he was an original character inspired by a literary figure.
This tendency in some players really brings my piss to a boil. One of my fellow players in my regular gaming group is particularly bad about this, we once tried to play a superhero game, and he proceeded to make some villain from some anime into his character. Now, this wouldn't have really bugged me, but he kept assuming we were all familiar with the character's mannerisms and whatnot since the concept was from media. I can't really explain verbally what was so bothering about it, but the occurrence really irked me. Beyond that he's run multiple Drizzt clones, and his most recent character was a Barbarian named "Lurr, rightful tribal chieftain of Omicron Persei 8" and if you're at all familiar with Futurama you'll see why it's a blatant joke...
Now, I really like jokes, especially the blatant variety, and I really love futurama, but...is an original character too much to ask?
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No bad or derivative name bothers me as much as "surprised its his turn and totally unprepared" guy. I would much rather play with a prepared and on the ball "George the Fighter" that an originally named "now let me flip through my spells or abilities for five minutes to decide what to do"!
me too. mine is more the anime trope of otherworldly super powered girl clinging to some schmuck guyThis is funny, because I've had a Summoner idea much like that one. Except my idea was based off the movie Weird Science, with the Eidolon being like a Wonder Woman/Xena level asskicker.My current character is a summoner, and his eidolon is an attractive female humanoid.
Their interaction dynamic most resembles flynn and quorra from the latest tron movie.
I prefer Kintaro Oe from Goldenboy as a base for such a thing.
I prefer Kintaro Oe from Goldenboy as a base for such a thing.me too. mine is more the anime trope of otherworldly super powered girl clinging to some schmuck guyThis is funny, because I've had a Summoner idea much like that one. Except my idea was based off the movie Weird Science, with the Eidolon being like a Wonder Woman/Xena level asskicker.My current character is a summoner, and his eidolon is an attractive female humanoid.
Their interaction dynamic most resembles flynn and quorra from the latest tron movie.
I assume that's some Dutch variety show that you're talking about?
Me, I have trouble coming up with names, so generally I just grab the name of a couple similar characters from various media and mix them together. It's a roleplaying aid, helps me to keep focused on what kind of character I want it to be, reminds me of what archetype I'm trying to portray.
But I do avoid taking their personalities and backgrounds. The personality can be close, but it from the other way around I picked the name from someone who had a similar personality to the character. And I love creating backgrounds and stories.
It helps that I have the widest interest base among my circles, ranging from videogames to 70s fantasy/scifi books that you can barely find online, less mainstream manga/anime, old american/english series that never got translated into portuguese and cartoons some say I'm much to old to still be watching. Most of you would be surprised how almost any Chtulhu mythos reference just flies over peoples heads in non english speaking countries, even amongst a group of nerds. Except Chtulhu himself of course.
I'm told that Steven Brust gets all his fantasy names by translating Grateful Dead lyrics into Hungarian.
I assume that's some Dutch variety show that you're talking about?I prefer Kintaro Oe from Goldenboy as a base for such a thing.me too. mine is more the anime trope of otherworldly super powered girl clinging to some schmuck guyThis is funny, because I've had a Summoner idea much like that one. Except my idea was based off the movie Weird Science, with the Eidolon being like a Wonder Woman/Xena level asskicker.My current character is a summoner, and his eidolon is an attractive female humanoid.
Their interaction dynamic most resembles flynn and quorra from the latest tron movie.
Its an anime about a guy who wanders around from place to place doing random jobs, and every place he stays all the women think he's a completely useless and amazingly perverse guy. By the end of the show they realize he's an amazingly kind and useful (but also still amazingly perverse) guy. They start feeling bad for judging him as a worthless pervert and when they finally discover how much he's helped them and have a change of heart, he's gone, riding off into the sunset.
Its not that they overcome their derision of his perverseness because they suddenly find out how kind and useful he is, but that the fact that he's a pervert is essentially immaterial because in most anime it's a given that every single male is a horrible incorrigible pervert. But they do overcome their view that he's just some worthless piece of crud a moment too late, and he's off to amaze the next set of strangers he meets who judge him too quickly.
Well sometimes the perverts aren't presented as so horrible, more inevitable, or inspiring, like the teacher from Azumanga Daioh.
When is he going to publish another book?
Supposedly Hawk is due out sometime in 2014. Unfortunately, the title (and character appearance in Tiassa) makes me think it might involve Daymar heavily. And I don't like Daymar. But I'll read it greedily nevertheless.
It also looks like there's a book he collaborated on, The Incrementalists, due out soon. I'll probably skip this one, since I'm usually not a big fan of collaborative fiction (something about the clashing voices).
EDIT: Wow, I sound really negative there. I should be jumping up and down with glee. TWO NEW BRUST NOVELS!!!
Well sometimes the perverts aren't presented as so horrible, more inevitable, or inspiring, like the teacher from Azumanga Daioh.
I'm not so sure he'd be my pick for "inspiring pervert".
I'd probably suggest Great Pervert Onizuka, myself.
No bad or derivative name bothers me as much as "surprised its his turn and totally unprepared" guy. I would much rather play with a prepared and on the ball "George the Fighter" that an originally named "now let me flip through my spells or abilities for five minutes to decide what to do"!
This is always worse.
I honestly don't care at all if people play characters obviously based on a figure that they like. This is not Random House Books. I am not turning every adventure I run into a novel that will be published word-for-word.
Creativity has to start somewhere. When I was a kid I made dozens of stories and character that were some variation/combination of the Lord of the Rings and Zelda. Now that I'm older and more experience in creative arts I like to believe I'm more authentic, but I can't hold everyone else to MY standard of ability.
EDIT: Honestly it's starting to come off as a form of elitism to say everyone's character has to be X as well developed as my own or they shouldn't play.
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Personally I encourage people to role play... If borrowing a concept from another source helps them then, by all means, I support that. I would much rather have them build as close a copy of anyone as they can via the character creation rules than not role play at all. I have faith they will try out original concepts after a while.
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My second DnD character ever was Mercutio Mondollia, who was a rapier-wieldign Dex fighter obsessed with finding his father's killer.
It was a decent laugh for a bunch of high school kids.
Reminds me of the time when we had a 1001 Drizzt clones..."No, you can't have a magical figurine with a tiger/lion/leapord/Dire Housecat in it and no this monster did not have two scimitars/shortswords/wolverine style claw gauntlets in his back up gear".....
A few years back I was talking to a new player. I was trying to encourage him to make something original, and the story of the drizzt clones came up (a what not to do if you will).
He rolled his eyes and insisted his character concept shouldn't have to be original. He didn't get it, he wasn't there man!
Well sometimes the perverts aren't presented as so horrible, more inevitable, or inspiring, like the teacher from Azumanga Daioh.I'm not so sure he'd be my pick for "inspiring pervert".
I'd probably suggest Great Pervert Onizuka, myself.
There is a scene where he is acknowledged as an inspiration for the boys of the class.
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my Vice
Loli Characters of Extraplanar, Fey, or Undead Heritage. especially of the Cute and Moe type. if they dump Cha, it's because they are socially awkward, creepy, annoying, or whatever and i roleplay them accordingly.
There is a scene where he is acknowledged as an inspiration for the boys of the class.Well sometimes the perverts aren't presented as so horrible, more inevitable, or inspiring, like the teacher from Azumanga Daioh.I'm not so sure he'd be my pick for "inspiring pervert".
I'd probably suggest Great Pervert Onizuka, myself.
Ah, I see the disconnect. I was assuming what was meant was "inspirational out-of-universe" whereas he's considered "inspirational in-universe".
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In my experience, the player who makes a character based on a media character tends to be terribly disappointed when the character doesn't really work like the one they envisioned. (And that the game isn't built around a single solo character, but a *team* of characters, who *all* get a moment to shine.)
Superhero games I've been in have frequently had Wolverine clones, for instance, and they have *always* led to terrible frustration, since, from a gaming standpoint, he's stone-cold terrible. No ranged offense. No utility at all. No transportation powers. No real defense. (His 'defense' is that he gets better, after getting beat like a red-headed stepchild and looking like a chump, over, and over, and over.)
After failed attempts to make Wolverine or Drizzt or Conan or Harry Dresden or whomever, most players get it through their heads to create a character that is designed to play well with the system (if not necessarily the setting...).
I've fallen for that a few times as well. I tried to play Gambit once in a GURPS supers game, and wow, did he suck hard. When the rest of the team is flying / teleporting / whatever to an incident across town and your means of transportation is 'I own a motorcycle...', yeah. And that really awesome agility is really freaking helpful when someone throws a grenade. Might as well have played a 1st level Commoner.
It's usually a self-correcting problem, after a session or two of 'Conan' not being able to be 'Conan.' (Who was like, a mid-level Ranger / Barbarian / Rogue / Fighter with 40 point buy, as a starting character, and who had Plot Armor and GM Fiat as racial attributes.)