Author Topic: Help with characters?  (Read 24268 times)

Morningstar

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #45: August 16, 2011, 06:42:24 PM »
I was thinking of playing a schizophrenic spellcaster, I've got a backstory RP pretty much written down in my head and I'll flesh it out once we're in "present day" and not "prelude" (might do some prelude RP for this character's family if I get the time). The only problem I'm having is showing he's schizophrenic in a way that won't make people think "wait, what just happened?" when he goes from being shy & timid to confident & evil. Can anyone give me a bit of advice on that?

Schizophrenia usually deals more with hallucinations and cognitive issues than jumps in personas.  You're maybe looking at multiple personalities?

Nathan

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #46: August 16, 2011, 07:24:33 PM »
Schizophrenia usually deals more with hallucinations and cognitive issues than jumps in personas.  You're maybe looking at multiple personalities?

If Wikipedia can be trusted to give me the right symptoms for both, then Schizophrenia could be right as sufferers can hear voices. I wanted him to hear voices that sometimes scared him, making him shy and anti-social and very easily spooked. But sometimes listening to the voices would give him confidence in his magic to cause harm to others.

Indirik

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #47: August 16, 2011, 07:26:43 PM »
Yes, schizophrenics can have auditory hallucinations. But for game play purposes, I don't think it really matters what the clinical diagnosis is. He's just another lunatic. :P
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Morningstar

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #48: August 16, 2011, 07:48:29 PM »
If Wikipedia can be trusted to give me the right symptoms for both, then Schizophrenia could be right as sufferers can hear voices. I wanted him to hear voices that sometimes scared him, making him shy and anti-social and very easily spooked. But sometimes listening to the voices would give him confidence in his magic to cause harm to others.

Ok, yeah. That description fits a little better.  I was going with the "shy & timid to confident & evil".

JPierreD

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #49: August 16, 2011, 10:35:41 PM »
The character is actually schizophrenic and highly paranoid. His magic is located in a tumor in the brain, which causes his insanity, so it could be say he'd have to choose between magic and sanity. Because of his condition, a lot of very crazy things happen to him, like secret societies and governments attempting to recruit or kill him, in serious conspiracies, among other fantastic creatures and events. Which of all this is actually happening, and what is purely delusional? The players that meet him decide.

Something like that?  :P
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Nathan

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #50: August 17, 2011, 12:19:01 AM »
The character is actually schizophrenic and highly paranoid. His magic is located in a tumor in the brain, which causes his insanity, so it could be say he'd have to choose between magic and sanity. Because of his condition, a lot of very crazy things happen to him, like secret societies and governments attempting to recruit or kill him, in serious conspiracies, among other fantastic creatures and events. Which of all this is actually happening, and what is purely delusional? The players that meet him decide.
Something like that?  :P

Clearly totally different :P

Ok, maybe a little similar. But not entirely the same. I wouldn't describe my character as 'insane' as he knows what the world around him is, he's just scared of the voices.

Morningstar

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #51: August 17, 2011, 12:34:48 AM »
More than anything else, I'd say don't agonize over these decisions. Loren said everything would be wiped and all these chars long dead by the time SM3 proper fires up. Just jump in and get your feet wet.

loren

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #52: August 17, 2011, 04:24:02 AM »
Just jump in and get your feet wet.

^--- this.  The prelude is to just muck about and have some fun in a contained little setting.  I have some basic hidden plot points lying about, but that's it.  Of course some of these Bars might have gotten pretty famous in the future (They're all real bar names by the way, that exist in the real world.  I thought I'd throw in a bit of local flavor).  Some people seem to like some of the names.  The owners descendants could've setup shop elsewhere.  Or we might get to keep Soupat as a burgeoning city in the future.  We'll see if it burns to the ground before we're through.

Tom

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #53: August 19, 2011, 09:31:46 PM »
I don't mind time magic, it can give very interesting options. However, all time effects would be local, otherwise you would go into the above problem of unlimited area and/or duration.

So you can speed up yourself or slow down the enemy. I don't yet know how to do such things in the Certamen engine, will have to think about that. It may be an OOC reason why such things can only work as rituals, not as spells.
« Last Edit: August 19, 2011, 09:33:33 PM by Tom »

Morningstar

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #54: August 19, 2011, 10:20:52 PM »
The idea wasn't fleshed out entirely.  But the part that I knew would drive mechanics/GMs batty was the idea of being able to skip back in time to essentially "redo" an action.  Or slowing/speeding up time for a duration to allow for half/twice as many actions, respectively.  Or simply skipping ahead as a means of escaping the situation entirely.  Speeding up a body's aging process by surrounding them with a personal chronal vortex. Whatever.

The options are certainly there but many of them would need their own special mechanics, so I don't want to bog down the system.

Tom

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #55: August 21, 2011, 09:20:51 PM »
Random query, but do our character have to be magic users?

Yes. Every character created through the game engine will be capable of using magic. If you actually do that or not, however, is your decision.

Tom

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #56: August 21, 2011, 09:22:58 PM »
The idea wasn't fleshed out entirely.  But the part that I knew would drive mechanics/GMs batty was the idea of being able to skip back in time to essentially "redo" an action.  Or slowing/speeding up time for a duration to allow for half/twice as many actions, respectively.  Or simply skipping ahead as a means of escaping the situation entirely.  Speeding up a body's aging process by surrounding them with a personal chronal vortex. Whatever.

The options are certainly there but many of them would need their own special mechanics, so I don't want to bog down the system.

No time-travel into the past, sorry. Travelling into the future I don't see an OOC reason to disallow, it's basically stopping to play for a while and then coming back, unchanged.

No, time effects would be limited to speed changes. Time-travel definitely breaks the abilities of the GMs to keep everything together.


Morningstar

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #57: August 21, 2011, 09:47:43 PM »
No, time effects would be limited to speed changes. Time-travel definitely breaks the abilities of the GMs to keep everything together.

Yeah, that's kinda what I figured. Thanks.

Cline

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #58: September 01, 2011, 11:08:02 AM »
Are visual magical effects acceptable? I want my character to have a curse that his right arm is perpetually covered in magical flames. They can not catch anything else on fire, nor do they burn anything but the character himself. Something visual that will allow him to use his spells, how he contains his magic.

My idea for a character is a man from the far north, a barbarian, uncivilized and crude named Davardo. When he was younger he was captured by a rival tribe and cursed. The curse exploded his right arm in eternal flames, constantly burning his arm but showing no visual harm. This curse was controlled by the tribes Shaman Leader, he could extinguish the flames when he wished, effectively making Davardo a slave to his will. Davardo was captive for many weeks until his tribe attacked the rival tribe. Amidst the attack the Shaman controlling Davardo's arm was distracted with the assault and was ruthlessly murdered by Davardo. As the Shaman fell to the ground Davardo's arm erupted in flames, staying that way to this day.

Backstory I thought sounded awesome. I plan to play a character that is not so interested in using magic, but in destroying others that do because what has happened to him. He will eventually attain spells and use them, but after coming to realize he cannot fight spellcasters without them. He has no interest in making friendships, but will use others to attain his goals.

Thinking on it, my character sounds kinda like Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist. Oh well, still plan to do it if it's alright with the GMs.

Tom

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Re: Help with characters?
« Reply #59: September 01, 2011, 12:18:36 PM »
Are visual magical effects acceptable?

Not of the built-in variant you posted. This would require an effect with a permanent duration, possible as a ritual.
« Last Edit: September 01, 2011, 01:28:42 PM by Tom »