I’m surprised a have not seen a topic discussing this yet, so I thought I would make one:
Role-play. For me, where you create a player character and become so enthralled in the story that you develop them into deep, realistic character. Backstory, personality, traits, goals etc. I’m curious to know who your favourite Player characters are that you turned into a detailed character.
I do a lot of role play and made a few memorable characters so here is my latest favourite.
Nicole Delenoire. ‘The Phoenix.’ - From Ashes We Rise. WiP
This was my most emotionally powerful character I have written, also my first evil character. Belonging to an upper class family who neglected her since birth, Nicole grew to be a bitter child who knew nothing but hate and sorrow. Adopted by the vigilante hero, Crow, Nicole started to feel like she was wanted for the first time until her death. Four years later, Nicole was brought back to life by unknown means and developed aggressive fire powers which allowed her a variety of abilities such as becoming an intangible firebird form to igniting a raging inferno with the flick of her wrist. Nicole returned to her adoptive father only to discover she has been with another, taking her mantle as Blackbird. Betrayed and angry, Nicole became Phoenix, the beautiful but deadly anti-hero that shows no mercy to her enemies and leaves a trail of destruction in her wake. Longing for revenge against her former mentor and his new sidekick.
So here’s what I would like to ask: if you role-play in a choice game, who was your favourite Player Character?
I was just thinking about blank-slate MCs (my own WiP has one of those, or nearly, and my goodness it’s so much work) vs. fixed-background MCs, and wondering how people feel about them, and if there are any blank-slate MCs that are especially popular.
My own favourite blank-slate MC is @AllenGies’ protagonist from Tin Star. Being able to play a laconic, pacifist, medically-minded sheriff, and thus being able to completely imagine the kind of background that created such a character, was so much fun. I picture my MC reading an awful lot as a child - maybe someone’s ward?
My favourite of the fixed-backgrounds is probably Eerie Estate Agent (I think now called For Rent: Haunted House?) because even though I have little to no interest in real estate or haunted houses, I really felt like an agent trying to let a house out of Spooksville. And it was hilarious.
Thinking about it, I always seem to prefer fixed-background over completely blank-slate - to me it goes some way to making them a character I can identify with rather than just a cipher… I guess my favourite blank-slate from a CoG would be the MC from Choice of the Vampire? But seeing as you get a lot of leeway with what happens to them after being vamped, what came before doesn’t seem so important.
Favourite fixed background would be the MC from Heroes Rise - my impression of them was a stubborn hothead who goes slack-jawed whenever anyone pretty shows up, and I loved it
Well, I haven’t exactly taken my CoG MCs and expanded them… but seeing as I am in the habit of creating characters (and drawing them) all the time anyway, in just the few months since I started playing these games, I have already used a couple of MCs as inspiration.
My Detective from Community College Hero inspired a sixth member to an already-existing team of superheroes I had in my head. Urban Ghost became Specter, an experienced hero with actual superpowers, but the same personality and grey trenchcoat/domino mask/high heels as my CCH character.
One playthrough of Choice of Robots inspired one of several villains to oppose that team, but I haven’t drawn him yet. Sundance White, a scientist with a voice in his head telling him to build killer robots… unhinged, but with a weakness to women (the CoR character was put in prison because he tried to warn Elly - who didn’t even like him, then shot by Juliet when he tried to get her to join his conquest of Alaska).
When I felt like creating a RWBY fan-team, I based the team leader on elements of my Choice of the Vampire MC… Myrtle Tort, a charming and confident southern belle. Another member of the team was based on her ill-fated romance with Clotho, the voodoo priestess.
As I was starting a new D&D campaign in real life, I was also playing through The Daring Mermaid Expedition, and cross-inspiration happened between the two to yield my cowardly scholar-bard, Edward Spoon. I had an incredibly successful ending in the CoG game, but I’m not so confident about the D&D Tomb of Horrors!
Just as often, I play through CoG games “as” some of my many existing characters, but I imagine many people do that.
