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randomling...and, okay, 'cause I'm bored.
I am starting from pretty much nothing here. I have a very very vague character concept, a bunch of books, and my imagination. I'm picking 4E for character creation, 'cause the folder with the books in happened to be open in a Finder window. I am going to roll for character level, I think. But first there will be much rambling and development under a cut, 'cause I don't roll up character without having a good idea who they are first.
Last note: the very bare-bones character concept I am starting with was my first idea forbatrachian's Eberron, for which I ended up creating Father Gideon Tanner.
So my characters lately are almost always gay men (this is for weird gender identity reasons that I'm still exploring) and this guy is no exception. He is a sorcerer, and he is very flamboyant. I see him with long, dark, curly hair, wearing brightly-coloured robes and talking with his hands a lot. He talks fast. He's very engaging, very charming, very pleasant company - but he is definitely not particularly nice. There is steel and rapacious self-interest underneath all that smooth talk. He will help you, sure, and he can play a long game where necessary, but his question is always, "What's in it for me?"
So he has a lot of superficial relationships and is probably not very good at maintaining close friendships. Probably a string of love affairs, but nothing that he's been emotionally committed to. Which means that he probably has several layers of bullshit to convince himself that he doesn't need anyone and that he is totally self-sufficient. A good storyline for him might show him that he's wrong, and expose the loneliness at his core. But that's deeply buried.
I think his name is Frederick (never Fred, but maybe Freddie to the very few people he allows close enough to use a shortened version of his name). If his loneliness is buried deeply enough that he's only vaguely aware of it, what's his primary motivator? I imagine that as a sorcerer, he has ways of making money, whether that's adventuring or selling his magical services. So likely not money. Is he a thrillseeker? Is he looking for adventure above all else?
That would make sense - if he's lonely and unfulfilled, maybe what he's looking for is the ultimate distraction from that. Adventuring is absorbing because it's dangerous because it makes him use his (keen) intellect and all his wits to stay alive. He's liable to complain about boredom unless his heart is racing, and this need for thrill-as-distraction can make him unbelievably reckless - likely to rush into danger because "it'll be fun", likely to risk his life over something that isn't worth it because "why not?"
Hm. So far, so clichéd. So where is the nuance here? What makes Frederick interesting? What makes him more than a cold-hearted thrillseeker who has little regard for his own safety or anyone else's safety? I'm not sure.
Gonna leave him here for now, and come back to this later.
I am starting from pretty much nothing here. I have a very very vague character concept, a bunch of books, and my imagination. I'm picking 4E for character creation, 'cause the folder with the books in happened to be open in a Finder window. I am going to roll for character level, I think. But first there will be much rambling and development under a cut, 'cause I don't roll up character without having a good idea who they are first.
Last note: the very bare-bones character concept I am starting with was my first idea for
batrachian's Eberron, for which I ended up creating Father Gideon Tanner.So my characters lately are almost always gay men (this is for weird gender identity reasons that I'm still exploring) and this guy is no exception. He is a sorcerer, and he is very flamboyant. I see him with long, dark, curly hair, wearing brightly-coloured robes and talking with his hands a lot. He talks fast. He's very engaging, very charming, very pleasant company - but he is definitely not particularly nice. There is steel and rapacious self-interest underneath all that smooth talk. He will help you, sure, and he can play a long game where necessary, but his question is always, "What's in it for me?"
So he has a lot of superficial relationships and is probably not very good at maintaining close friendships. Probably a string of love affairs, but nothing that he's been emotionally committed to. Which means that he probably has several layers of bullshit to convince himself that he doesn't need anyone and that he is totally self-sufficient. A good storyline for him might show him that he's wrong, and expose the loneliness at his core. But that's deeply buried.
I think his name is Frederick (never Fred, but maybe Freddie to the very few people he allows close enough to use a shortened version of his name). If his loneliness is buried deeply enough that he's only vaguely aware of it, what's his primary motivator? I imagine that as a sorcerer, he has ways of making money, whether that's adventuring or selling his magical services. So likely not money. Is he a thrillseeker? Is he looking for adventure above all else?
That would make sense - if he's lonely and unfulfilled, maybe what he's looking for is the ultimate distraction from that. Adventuring is absorbing because it's dangerous because it makes him use his (keen) intellect and all his wits to stay alive. He's liable to complain about boredom unless his heart is racing, and this need for thrill-as-distraction can make him unbelievably reckless - likely to rush into danger because "it'll be fun", likely to risk his life over something that isn't worth it because "why not?"
Hm. So far, so clichéd. So where is the nuance here? What makes Frederick interesting? What makes him more than a cold-hearted thrillseeker who has little regard for his own safety or anyone else's safety? I'm not sure.
Gonna leave him here for now, and come back to this later.
