FoD Character Musings....
Now that I'm not on FoD staff, I'll have the chance to play again at the start of next season. Since it tends to take me a while to come up with a character concept I like and will be willing to stick to (seriously, it took me almost six months to come up with the concept for Mattie) I've been tossing around a bunch of ideas. The problem this time is that I have a wealth of options and can't seem to make up my mind.
This isn't too surprising, being that I'm familiar with the game and know full and well what I'm going into. It's much harder, in my opinion, going into a game you're not familiar with and trying to come up with a concept to fit it. That's why I tend to struggle to find concepts that fit in games I'm new to or don't play that often. With FoD (and its sister game, Fracture) its much easier. It's narrowing those down into one concept that's the difficult part.
I originally had four concepts in mind for Fracture. One of those I wasn't really committed to, so it went away easily. Another was based upon another player's interest and he seemed more interested in a different concept so that was easily eliminated. The third is apparently being played by Guy (this is a common thing with Guy and I--we apparently share the same brain when it comes to character generation). That left the final concept, which happened to have my favorite costuming options and was from one of my favorite settings. Seemed like the natural choice.
With FoD it's a little harder. I can effectively play anything, since being on staff gives me the same results of having monstered a year. Meaning, I can play something unusual if I want. I can play an odd race, or something from a splinter world, or something off the wall. I can play an NPC.
I'm not super interested in playing something strange, however, simply because I've learned it's more the personality of the character that makes the character unique, rather than what it is or where it's from. The only option I've really considered taking is the NPC option and that's specifically because I have one NPC I happen to really like and I feel like her story isn't quite done.
This is Thora, otherwise known as Thora the Fair (and if I'd known I might play her as a PC, I'd have picked a better deed name, but the Empress of the Realm of Castles was already Anastasia the Just and Thora the Reasonable sounded pretty stupid). If I do play her, maybe I'll write another deed name into her history to make up for it. At any rate, given all the stuff that went down with the Rock recently, I think the character's got a lot of stuff unresolved, which is part of the reason I'm considering her. Also, the current Rock players could use someone with her skill set (diplomacy, mostly) and there's a good reason she'd come to Nexus with Hrafn becoming Jarl and being of her clan. With me not being on staff, I'm pretty sure they're not going to ask me to play her very often, if at all, so she just sort of vanishes, which leaves her story unfinished. Though I suppose they could say she went back to the Rock to prepare for the Jarl's return, although that leaves Skorvald unrequited yet again--poor Skorvald.
There are two main reasons I'm considering not playing her. The first one is that she's a pretty physical character and I'm already playing one of those at Fractured. Now, Thora and Cordelia aren't even remotely the same personality-wise, but I'm not entirely sure I want to play two fighters. But, then the other two concepts I'm considering are healers and my D2D character is a healer, so that's not a super strong argument. The stronger argument is that Thora's story is really... heavy. She's seen hundreds of people she's known and loved killed by supporting Nexus, then watched while those who remained nearly starved. Then she was trapped in Hell and suffered for nearly a year and was released, only to learn that by finally escaping she condemned thousands upon thousands of souls to oblivion. She didn't know this would happen, but she feels guilty about it, and a very small part of her wonders--since she's seen Hell firsthand--if maybe oblivion is better.
So her advantage is that she's a really developed character with a lot to work with, and she knows the world, so I don't have to pretend to be new to anything, but she's got a lot of angst and I'm not sure if I want to play that. I might want to go for something lighter.
The other two options I'm considering are definitely lighter: an Apsara physician and alchemist, and a silk merchant's daughter from the Realm of Castles. The Apsara would mostly be a healer and I'd probably go the esoteric healing route. For the silk merchant's daughter, I'd make her a loyalist, because most of the commoners back in the Realm are loyal to the Empress, and a merchant. She'd also have some healing, because she'd be skilled with needlework, as well as some diplomacy. Maybe some performance or craft artistry. I'm planning that one as more of a dabbler. Mostly she's an excuse to wear pretty dresses and bring my embroidery to game, without actually having to be a princess. :P
I've got the personalities of the two fairly well worked out, though neither have the history that Thora has, because neither has been onscreen. The Apsara (who is named Sujanavasi) is fairly analytical for an Apsara, but still traditional... think Zan from Farscape. Emmasande (the merchant's daughter) is more... complicated. I'm not really sure how to describe her personality, exactly, other than to say she's very smart, and always knows the right thing to say. Also, regardless which of these two I play, if I play one of them, they will both throw teas, because I like teas and Mattie never threw enough of them.
So, really, there's nothing more boring than someone talking about their characters, but if you actually bothered to read that and have an opinion, I wouldn't mind hearing it.
This isn't too surprising, being that I'm familiar with the game and know full and well what I'm going into. It's much harder, in my opinion, going into a game you're not familiar with and trying to come up with a concept to fit it. That's why I tend to struggle to find concepts that fit in games I'm new to or don't play that often. With FoD (and its sister game, Fracture) its much easier. It's narrowing those down into one concept that's the difficult part.
I originally had four concepts in mind for Fracture. One of those I wasn't really committed to, so it went away easily. Another was based upon another player's interest and he seemed more interested in a different concept so that was easily eliminated. The third is apparently being played by Guy (this is a common thing with Guy and I--we apparently share the same brain when it comes to character generation). That left the final concept, which happened to have my favorite costuming options and was from one of my favorite settings. Seemed like the natural choice.
With FoD it's a little harder. I can effectively play anything, since being on staff gives me the same results of having monstered a year. Meaning, I can play something unusual if I want. I can play an odd race, or something from a splinter world, or something off the wall. I can play an NPC.
I'm not super interested in playing something strange, however, simply because I've learned it's more the personality of the character that makes the character unique, rather than what it is or where it's from. The only option I've really considered taking is the NPC option and that's specifically because I have one NPC I happen to really like and I feel like her story isn't quite done.
This is Thora, otherwise known as Thora the Fair (and if I'd known I might play her as a PC, I'd have picked a better deed name, but the Empress of the Realm of Castles was already Anastasia the Just and Thora the Reasonable sounded pretty stupid). If I do play her, maybe I'll write another deed name into her history to make up for it. At any rate, given all the stuff that went down with the Rock recently, I think the character's got a lot of stuff unresolved, which is part of the reason I'm considering her. Also, the current Rock players could use someone with her skill set (diplomacy, mostly) and there's a good reason she'd come to Nexus with Hrafn becoming Jarl and being of her clan. With me not being on staff, I'm pretty sure they're not going to ask me to play her very often, if at all, so she just sort of vanishes, which leaves her story unfinished. Though I suppose they could say she went back to the Rock to prepare for the Jarl's return, although that leaves Skorvald unrequited yet again--poor Skorvald.
There are two main reasons I'm considering not playing her. The first one is that she's a pretty physical character and I'm already playing one of those at Fractured. Now, Thora and Cordelia aren't even remotely the same personality-wise, but I'm not entirely sure I want to play two fighters. But, then the other two concepts I'm considering are healers and my D2D character is a healer, so that's not a super strong argument. The stronger argument is that Thora's story is really... heavy. She's seen hundreds of people she's known and loved killed by supporting Nexus, then watched while those who remained nearly starved. Then she was trapped in Hell and suffered for nearly a year and was released, only to learn that by finally escaping she condemned thousands upon thousands of souls to oblivion. She didn't know this would happen, but she feels guilty about it, and a very small part of her wonders--since she's seen Hell firsthand--if maybe oblivion is better.
So her advantage is that she's a really developed character with a lot to work with, and she knows the world, so I don't have to pretend to be new to anything, but she's got a lot of angst and I'm not sure if I want to play that. I might want to go for something lighter.
The other two options I'm considering are definitely lighter: an Apsara physician and alchemist, and a silk merchant's daughter from the Realm of Castles. The Apsara would mostly be a healer and I'd probably go the esoteric healing route. For the silk merchant's daughter, I'd make her a loyalist, because most of the commoners back in the Realm are loyal to the Empress, and a merchant. She'd also have some healing, because she'd be skilled with needlework, as well as some diplomacy. Maybe some performance or craft artistry. I'm planning that one as more of a dabbler. Mostly she's an excuse to wear pretty dresses and bring my embroidery to game, without actually having to be a princess. :P
I've got the personalities of the two fairly well worked out, though neither have the history that Thora has, because neither has been onscreen. The Apsara (who is named Sujanavasi) is fairly analytical for an Apsara, but still traditional... think Zan from Farscape. Emmasande (the merchant's daughter) is more... complicated. I'm not really sure how to describe her personality, exactly, other than to say she's very smart, and always knows the right thing to say. Also, regardless which of these two I play, if I play one of them, they will both throw teas, because I like teas and Mattie never threw enough of them.
So, really, there's nothing more boring than someone talking about their characters, but if you actually bothered to read that and have an opinion, I wouldn't mind hearing it.