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Suggest a character for the collaborative game

Started by sunandshadow Nov 11, 2004 at 12:53 PM 3 replies 1.3k views

Original Post

Nov 11, 2004 at 12:53 PM

Hi all! Most of you probably haven't looked at the collaborative game design project since our initial survey, but it has been making progress and we are at the point where we could use some suggestions for characters. Please note: if you contribute a character idea but don't become a staff member of the project you are essentially giving your idea to us; we will change and add to it, possibly in ways you don't like. We will probably change the name and maybe the gender, and you can't ask for your idea back. So do not suggest a character you care about unless you're prepared to join the project to shepherd your character's development. Also, there is no guarantee that we will use your character - we only need about 8 and project staff members (me, estok, avatar god, 5minutegaming and onyxflame) have already suggested 5, and naturally staff members' own creations get priority. Okay, here are the instructions: 1) The character you are suggesting will be an RNPC, which stands for 'romanceable NPC'. Since the character exists for the player to romance, the character must be attractive in some way. 2) The character must demonstrate a particular type of love. What is a type of love? It is the style in which a character loves others (namely the PC). Some examples of types of love: # Selfless love # Possessive love # Romantic love # Protective love # Nurturing love # Cherishing/Indulgent love # Tough love # Submissive love # Dominant love # Passionate love # Friendly love Feel free to suggest additional type of love. Note that these usually occur in pairs of opposites, e.g. selfless vs. possessive, submissive vs. dominant. We want to explore these oppositions by giving the opposing traits to two characters and contrasting them in the story. 3) This must be a dynamic character - they must start with some contradicting ideas or wavering philosophy so the player can push them to change one way of the other. 4) My example character: Skew. Don't worry about assigning your character a race or profession, we'll handle that later, just describe your character's personality and how the PC can affect it. Allowable genders are male, female, hermaphrodite, and neuter. Have fun, and we thank you for contributing your creativity and ideas to our project! ^_^ (If you think you might want to become a staff member, or are curious and want to see the other characters who have already been suggested, the design doc, and other documentation we have generated, look here. Characters are described in the Summary Document except for the character Frequency who is currently being developed and has not been summarized yet.) Edit: If you happen to want to donate a dollar or two to support our project, I can accept paypal donations at username: wickeddelight@cox.net You will be given credit for your donation. :) [Edited by - sunandshadow on November 12, 2004 8:59:24 PM]

EricTrickster

Nov 11, 2004 at 3:00 PM

I followed it up until the pages numbered into the mid/upper teens, then I lost track.

But to add, since I tend more towards the dark and dreary:
- unrequited love
- illicit love/secretive love

I'll also make the suggestion that instead of looking necessarily at polar opposites, what about combinations? A person can love passionately, but also be possessive and have that love be unrequited. Change that "possessive" to "selfless" and you change the character from a stalker to a person who loves someone strongly enough be close to them, even if that person loves someone else.

sunandshadow

Nov 11, 2004 at 4:34 PM

Quote:
Original post by EricTrickster
I followed it up until the pages numbered into the mid/upper teens, then I lost track.

But to add, since I tend more towards the dark and dreary:
- unrequited love
- illicit love/secretive love

I'll also make the suggestion that instead of looking necessarily at polar opposites, what about combinations? A person can love passionately, but also be possessive and have that love be unrequited. Change that "possessive" to "selfless" and you change the character from a stalker to a person who loves someone strongly enough be close to them, even if that person loves someone else.

Unrequited and illicit aren't styles of loving implicit to the character, but rather external conditions having to do with the the love object character's opion and the society's opinion, respectively. We do want to explore these things, but we were looking at putting them in the plot branch structure - for example, you can cause Skew to fall in love with you, then choose whether to requite him or not. Illicit love would have to do with race/culture, which we haven't completely decided how the cultures will work yet, and what we have described so far is too complicated to try to explain to someone who doesn't want to jon the project. But certainly we will have both unrequited and illicit love in the game somewhere, what romance story would be complete without them? ;)

sunandshadow

Nov 15, 2004 at 1:37 PM

Nobody wants to see their dream lover implemented as a character in our game? o_O I find it hard to believe that of all the writers in this forum no one wants to create an attractive character for us. Did I make the directions too confusing or something? o.O

Here's a simpler example:

Leslie
We want to have one character who wants to gather scattered survivors of his/her race (humans, of which the PC is one) and build a town for them to live together in. So he/she is a natural leader and takes a parenting role toward the race. I havetentatively named this person Leslie because that name would work for a character of either gender. Leslie asks the PC to venture out into the world and obtain stuff that will help in builing the town, and when the PC brings these objests back they make Leslie like the PC more, kind of like courting presents.

Now, how would you develop Leslie to make him/her more interesting and dynamic? What event in Leslie's past motivates him/her to collect and parent the other human survivors? What is Leslie's philosophy and internal conflict? What does Leslie look like? What kind of attitude does Leslie take when asking the PC to do tasks, and why does he/she take this attitude? How does Leslie's attitude change as he/she comes to like the PC more?

Nahoopii

Nov 23, 2004 at 11:06 AM

I too followed up with the posts in the "Collaborative Game" until it really became too convoluted to continue. Also, the story started taking turns in a direction which I really couldnt have made any substantial contribution. But, for lack of anything better to do today at work, I will make an attempt at building a character.

Character: Georgia - Female - Unknown race, as I dont know the options! :-)

Georgia is a genuine lady. It seems obvious to me from what Ive read thus far in the other topic, that there is a real attempt at making some of your characters extremes on either side of the spectrum (really attractive, really bizare). This will most likely create a lot of options for players who like to play out these etremeties.

My suggestion for Georgia is more of a mainstream dream girl. Id suggest making her type of love: Unconditional, genuine love. Heres a girl whom I see being very conservative. Shes been brought up in a home which was structured around morals and religious beliefs. A true believer in the saying, "good things come to those who wait", Georgia in the past has been very picky about her lovers. Not completely unexpierienced in "love", Georgia has in the past been known to give anyone a chance, but pays no attention after shes made her decision about someone.

Id suggest the PC meet Georgia in a place which she is comfortable in. With familiar environments around her, Georgia's true personality really shows through, her wit and sense of humor making her very attractive. Shes the kind of lady will silently listen, then offer honest feedback, regardless of the content. However, take Georgia out of her normal comfort zone, and she becomes very dependent on those who are close to her. This dependency could build on the PC, and her reactions and such could build on that relationship between them. I guess the deciding factors/triggers of their relationship would be how the PC reacts to her needs when she travels with him, or something along those line. Georgia probably finds herself interested intitially with the PC, which was the deciding factor in why shes traveling with him.. Depending on the layout of your plot, she made needs his assitance meerly escorting her to a nearby town, which is where they start to get to know eachother, etc.

(Reading it back, shes almost a boring character in my words, but who the final product comes over will depend on how you structure it! Good Luck!)

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