Nice job on the guide Lotus! Very thorough.
This reminds me of the process I go through every time I create a character.
Great Job! 
I hope many people will follow this one or at least part of it.
I personally always match my character designs with their powers no matter if they are travel powers or not.
Thank you, for that excellent character concept help guide. I'm reworking my character for CoV at the moment and hit a snag. your post helped. 
Thanks again.
Villain: Jackal Kane
Heroes: Spider Shade, Ares Wolf
Virtue Server
Very well done
I'm glad it is so well recieved thanks guys.
Nice guide.
An additional comment about that "little circle" that links your colors. Usually before I unclick it, I pick two basic colors that I think I'll use for my character. I try to make them nice and contrasting so that I can at least see the effects of the various pattern options. It also means not burning my eyes out looking at the typically radioactive colors that the costume creator initially picks.
If I'm just not sure yet what my base colors are, I usually pick black and white. They are not too bright and all the different patterns are nicely displayed.
Nice guide, thanks for writing it. I do something almost similar, except I willy-nilly pick the powers and roll the toon and then mull over the personality for an hour or so while I play her. If I come up with a concept that feels good then great! I write a bio and move on. If not then she gets scrapped and I start over. I still ponder the same questions, but this way I am playing while I ponder.
Princess Grace - MA/Inv scrapper
Solana - Mind/Energy dominator
Lyonette - Kat/SR scrapper
I do much the same thing. I find the powers I think will help my actual game play, and then think of some in-character explanation for them.
Daisy May, my stone tanker, is a country girl got her mutant powers of oneness with the earth from wallowing in the mud with the pigs. She needs Teleport to get around when Rooted or in Granite. Eh? Methane exposure --- that's the ticket.
<《 New Colchis / Guides / Mission Architect 》>
"At what point do we say, 'You're mucking with our myths'?" - Harlan Ellison
Awesome article. Just one personal opinion to add, though: for anyone who intends to seriously RP a character, weaknesses or deffects can help a lot. Yeah, I know it's already in the list as the second half of #11 and partially #12, but IMHO it deserves a lot more attention.
See, everyone can come up with a story where they're a deity, can do everything better than anyone else, can outrun bullets, can out-fly planes, etc. That's so common, it's boring. That's what 99% of the MUD and MMO population comes up with. (Or would come with, if you forced them to RP.)
The weaknesses can IMHO actually be more important to RP than strengths. Everyone has strengths. What stands out of the crowd is admitting or RP-ing a weakness or deffect. That's something your average Joe Munchkin doesn't do.
Even in printed stories/comics, think about it. What makes Super-Man exciting or even possible/palatable at all? Yep, kriptonite. You couldn't have any suspense if the guy had no weakness whatsoever. Achiles's Heel. Samson's Hair. Every single good super-abilities story gets its suspense from also having a weakness to match.
It doesn't have to mean a weak character. The character can still be min-maxed to heck and back, but
1. even if by virtue of the archetype limitations, you can't possibly do everything. Those things you can't do, can be more worth roleplaying than those you do.
2. There are a plethora of possible personality deffects that are outside what's modelled by the archetype. E.g., a troll character could be of limited intellect or education. E.g., someone could have delusions of being something they aren't, such as the prophet of some non-existent deity, or the one knowing about some imaginary conspiracy. (That skull cap could be a tin-foil cap, quite literally.)
For that matter, anyone looking seriously into playing a COV villain could have a good excuse to play a psychopath. Typically criminals score pretty high on the antisocial personality disorder criteria: the average score in prisons is IIRC 22, while average people are around 5. So for a villain starting in the Zig, it's just begging to be used.
BTW, no, it doesn't mean axe-murderer. It's a pretty fascinating mental deffect. It can just as well produce a ruthless politician, or a CEO, or various other positions of power. Psychopathy is, in a nutshell, mainly about having zero empathy or remorse, and being able to rationalize any deed, no matter how bad or evil. (Psychopaths have been known to argue with a straight face even that mass-murder or child [censored] are victimless crimes, and there was no harm done. Or that it was for some greater good: look no further than the Third Reich for a few examples.) This complete lack of empathy or remorse makes a psychopath not only well suited to kill or torture someone for their own enjoyment, but also awesomely effective in power games, manipulation, intrigue, etc.
All, of course, just IMHO.
I whole heartedly agree. I remember thinking about it, and then forgetting to mention it in more detail. Weaknesses make not only more believable characters to roleplay, then make more accessable characters to roleplay With. whats the point of friends and allies if you can do everything? Some of my favorite storylines in comics were cross overs when the main title character needed help with something.
Do not neglect this important aspect of roleplayable characaters just because I neglected it in my guide!
Great post Lotus. Your ideas more fully flesh out the ideas I wrote about in my Character ID and Battlecry Creation guide.
Good work!
Awesome!
It's an excellent guide -- but one caveat; some people will find the process works for them as described, others will need to ... change the order around a bit or something. For me, the process of playing with costume ideas often gives me character background ideas, so I usually do that. But most of the time, I end up creating a character who looks cool and has fun sounding powers, a name I can get, and only then I start to think about, what kind of person are they? How did they get these powers? I often write the bio when I'm doing the first series of missions for a villain, or teaming up with the first group in Atlas or Galaxy with a hero. Who *is* this girl who goes around dressed in kitty ears, green and black stripes, and a jack o lantern face with radiation powers committing crimes? Why would any one do that in the first place? Why does she have a friend who does almost the exact same thing except in an orange costume? What's the kitten on her shoulder? Somehow these questions in my head bring up more creativity than looking at a blank list of powers from Hero Builder for me
My characters on Virtue get the most attention when it comes to making up back story, because they're the likeliest to ever get to actually Roleplay, but all of them eventually get a bio and a basic concept.
My villain's probably an interesting example of weaknesses: A Robotics/Traps Mastermind, she uses robots given to her by a friend and dimensional anomalies (the traps from other dimensions) to defeat enemies. However, she has an easy motivation to break: She kills people because it's fun. Give her something more fun and she'll go away fro a while. Of course, since nobody's done that, she needs other weaknesses. Think about it: If kryptonite was never discovered, Superman would be practically indestructible. So Bidon was used as an excuse to screw up her dimensional powers (No A-Bombs for you!), and other than her traps and some last-ditch weapons and powers learned from Ghost Widow, she's doomed if you get rid of her robots. Yes, I did just use a Mastermind's normal weakness. I fall else fails, use your character's in-game weakness.
Another point: Character event development. If something happens in-game that would make your character act a certain way, do it. Hell, it doesn't even have to have happened yet! During I7 test, Ein found out about the final Patron arc, and became hell-bent on stopping it happening, because she doesn't want that to happen. Dont' let something interesting pass you by.
Even if you only think something interesting might happen, if you can think of a good way to implement it and a way out if it doesn't happen. The 'Epic Archetype Unlocked' message when Ein hit 50 confused me, so Ein went mildly insane from a Nictus following her. I didn't unlock Kheldians, so the Nictus, who was going to possess Ein (or attempt to), got distracted by a Freakshow. I assure you, he will come back though.
Some additions...
There's an old actors' question, "what's my motivation?" Nothing helps drive a character more than knowing what he or she wants. And make it a burning, driving need. Think of this need as an engine pushing your character into action. An exciting ride needs a hot, powerful engine.
For example, avengers like the Count of Monte Cristo, the Batman or V have very potent engines driving them to do what they do.
Some characters are driven merely to be... yet simply being what they are demands their all. Captain America's a good example.
Some are driven by empathy and compassion. Superman does what he does because he cares.
Though two characters may be alike in intellect, interests and special gifts, the drive of a Mr. Fantastic to know or a Spider-Man driven by guilt to serve make them more radically different people than the nature of their powers.
Personally, I always have the concept mostly fleshed out before I ever touch the character creator. The bulk of my character creation happens nowhere near a computer. The first steps in creating a character for me usually happen as I lay in bed waiting to fall asleep, like my ice/cold corruptor Six-Fold Symmetry (mutant with an "ends justify the means" philosophy), or I see something and say to myself "Hey, that'd make a cool concept for a character," like with my stone/fire tanker, Stone Pyroclast (cast of Pompeii victim come to life). From the basic concept, I then decide on what sets best reflect that, and what he'd look like. Then I choose the origin, archetype, and powersets I had decided on while I was offline, and try to duplicate the image of him in my head as best as the character creator can. Because of this, I've had a few people comment on how they liked my characters' costumes, and one even sent an in-game e-mail saying how much they liked Stone Pyroclast's bio.
As far as travel powers go, they aren't too hard to fit into a concept. I find the leaping pool to be a good "default" when none of the others make sense. It's a lot easier imagining someone being able to jump that to be able to fly.
And a note on weaknesses. Take mine, for an example of one that follows from the character concept. His power comes from the posessed suit of armor he wears as his costume. As a result, he can't make quick Superman-style costume changes, and without the armor, or a sword to wield with the skills he learned from it, he is just another guy. A lot more logical a weakness that kryptonite, don't you think?
Currently published Mission Architect arcs:
Arc ID# 70466: From the Abyss.
Arc ID# 403174: The Serpent's Revenge.
Arc ID# 534236: The Clockwork Angel.
I 'Love' Your post, this was the most 'useful' guide to RP characters ever, when I make my characters now I will use your questionare.
How did you come up with this geneous idea? I have been an RPer for many, many, years and was actually enlightened by this. So Forgive my banterness but I need to try this out, to see if it helps by Typing out about my main character in CoV, I want to see if there is anything I can learn by doing this.
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1. What is your character's given name? What does he call himself now, as a hero or villain, and why?
Hanabi, Hanabi still calls herself Hanabi, but has added The Xiti on the end, making it 'Hanabi the Xiti. Hanabi thinks of herself as nither a Hero or a Villain, She more see's herself in simple terms like Brawler, Fighter, or the Chinese term 'Xiti (Fire of War, Corpse. {Meaning: Dead without the Fires of War})'
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2. How would you physically describe him? How old is he? Does he have recurring mannerisms, moods, or habits? How does he dress?
Hanabi is four feet eight inches tall and is currently fourteen years of age, she is light and muscularly built, toned from her training and scarred from battle, her hair is a deep dark brown that is sometimes mistaken for black and is a little longer then shoulder length and rests in her face.
Hanabi cares for herself on one level and abuses herself on another, she belives in the finest care for herself but she constantly gambles it all on impulse entering battle after battle to test her limits, to 'live' as she sees life to be lived and when she scars she makes no extra effort to cover it.
Hanabi dresses in a black Gi that is tattered and worn with wrappings for her hands and feet, the Gi itself isn't entirely uncommon save for the fact that the only color in it is her Red Belt and a Red Headband she values.
Hanabi comes across and is in a few ways, a Bully, she dislikes the weak, can't comprehend those unhealthy because they can't take care of themselves and she inside of herself detests it, she see's them as often times, wastes of good flesh and potentual.
Hanabi however has an Honor code and an Ironic sense of Justice born from her life, She dosn't hold interest in those weaker then herself or won't do anything to harm them, as it would dishonor herself by mulling in matters of the weak. And she refuses to kill.
Hanabi is not one to often feel negative emotions like Rage, Hate or Sadness because her life is molded by a subtle fear inside of herself, and because she always seeks chalange, pressure and answers she rarely is angered when things go out of control.
Where Rage normally holds place there is Clarity, the harder it is the more naturally the strives to be a part of it, resulting in her movements becoming clearer and her entire life culminating a focus that is frightening to behold.
Hanabi also is vary hard to place sadness into, her view on death and life makes her pretty sure that she herself is going to die and therefore when she dies it will be 'sad' in that she cannot explore the interesting and ever expanding world as a member of the living, but at the same time it's pretty much unavoidable.
Hanabi most of the time is violent and hungry for battle. Challanging those she thinks seem strong to fights.
She dosn't know hate because she dosn't understand hate, her views on existance place everything in blacks, whites and greys with life and death being factors of existance, though it could be said she detests the weak.
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3. How did he come by his particular origin and archetype? What other talents does he display? In what hobbies does he engage, and why?
Hanabi never had any super powers or magical abilities, she was simply raised to fight as part of a Ninja clan north of Japan, but her vary sense of tactic, instinct and learning from the training pounded into her made her see that hiding in the Shadow's while effective was unreliable, that one of the shadows would live paranoid about getting found, and for ease of her life she gave up all semblences of subtletly in favor of raw combat training.
She learned Tai Chi and how to focus the Natural Energies of her body to protect her and destabilize her enemies due to her desire for control in her life.
Her Dark Tai Chi focused on breaking the bonds of waking energy allowing her to take down opponents without leaving considerable harm on them or being forced to take there life if she went all out.
Her Strength of Will is also a factor of her life, without it she would have died in her training, if there was one thing her entire early childhood cultivated it was her will to come out on top, from the backbreaking training of her Teachers to the Peer presure from being 'normal' in a clan of Super Powered Ninja.
Hanabi's talents lie primarly in her ability to learn and observe, her fighting style, way of life, method of seeking control instead of absolute domination and focus on closing her weakness have made her one of the most observant people one could ever meet. She can learn a lot when applied to what she is interested in, but her years have neglected her a lot of a Normal Education.
Hanabi is also good at 'Tinkering' Having lived in the Rogue Isles and being trained as a Ninja she has a veriaty of Tinkering, be it messing with locks, adapting something to more suit her needs or creating some device to aid in her training, these are skills she is good in, after all, the world exists, make use of it.
Hanabi's hobby of choice is doubtlessly duelist fighting, martial art's tournements and other things of that nature.
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4. Where is he from? What does he think of his homeland? Why did he come to Paragon City or Rogue Isles?
Hanabi came from a secret Island off of norther Japan, a sort of small compound for a hidden clan on Super Powered Ninja where she was raised in the Shadow of those who where sposed to be her betters.
Hanabi 'was' loyal but when she came to Paragon on a job for the clan and she was betrayed by her own team who envied her leadership status, lesser age and lack of powers, she knew that she had been abandoned and her place was not with her old home, her mission and fighting off cops and heroes led to her arrest which lead to her being sprung by arachnos who she worked for as repayment for freeing her from confinement. Later when the debt was repaid she stayed in the isles because she could not fight for peace which went against her nature, a choice she still is wondering about, after all, the Heroes seem a lot stronger 'inside' then the villains, and that often causes her doubt.
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5. How would his parents describe him? Does he have a family?
Hanabi's parents where members of the Clan like her, the way it worked was they where selected and paired together, they had a child and Hanabi was raised by the Clan as a whole.
Her Parents would reguard her as a Trator to the clan that should be slain, but would respect her willpower and ability to become as powerful as she has with no powers of her own.
Hanabi's Older Sister, cares deeply for her and despite being assigned to be her hunter and killer could never do such to Hanabi and therefor is on an endless quest to try to get Hanabi back into the clan to try to avoid bloodshed and killing her friend. It was from her Older sister that Hanabi got the Red Headband she values, That band was the same band that had bound her older sisters head when she traded her eyes for her sound manipulation.
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6. Is he in love? Is he married or betrothed? Does he believe in love at first sight?
Hanabi dosn't know she is in love, but in truth has a crush on Sekario, A Prince from another world who somehow found his way into her favor, despite his not being as strong as her. She dosn't know it's love, but has not spurned the idea of being his Girlfriend, she knows the meaning of the relationship but she dosn't understand in her heart what it is.
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7. Is he a member of a guild or secret society? How did he meet them, and why did he join it? Where do his loyalties truly lie?
Hanabi was the Member of many orginizations over time, from her Clan, to the Facist 5th Remnant, To the Heroic Sentenals, and now Ghost Wolf. Hanabi felt betrayed or lie a Betrayer in many of these situations. Her true loyalties lie with people now, not orginizations... She would never be loyal to any orginization, but instead has always found or held loyalty to a person in each orginization. In the 5th it was Dr. Von Dread, In the Sentenals it was to Stellar Flair, When she pretended to be a Vegan she found loyalty to Queen Xena, and the Werewolf Inquisitors who she see's somewhat like brothers. and in Ghost Wolf she is there because they accepted her and she is still gaining bonds with it's members.
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8. How religious or superstitious is he?
Hanabi has her own Psudo-Religion, it consists of a Chaotic Universe and she is harder set in it then a bonified old preast.
Chaos: The first absolute, Order is created to manage Chaos, Order is Chaos to maintain greater Chaos. Human Nature is Chaotic because Chaos is Nature Itself.
Conflict: Conflict is Inevitable, time is it's champion, From a mother fighting a childs way out of the Womb to that childs lifetime of struggle to live, shape a life worth living to feigning off death they have not one moment of conflict. Without conflict however there is no life, Gravity discribes it; It drives you down, keeps you from flying, but without it all would simply drift away into a vast nothingness. And the Sun, a great heat that seeks to burn as hot as it can against an infinate and vast cold vaccum, too close and you get consumed by it's heat, to far you freeze, it's conflict and the balance in it's perfect wake allowing you to live.
Life: You live, you die, you exist. Rather the Christian or the Muslem or the Taoist be right about life you still live, then you die. Kill or be Killed it's all a way of killing time before time kills you.
Judgement: You know not the code in which all things are judged therefor you have no right to cast judgement, you should not kill because you do not know beyond the knowings of your brow rather a person should die.
Death: Death is Unknown, but it is something that should be staved off tell life can no longer give you it's content.
Attraction: You attract what you focus on, save conflict which is everything. If you cause a lot of death, death will come sooner to you. You can force your attractions into the lives of others but what you do will come back on you. If you fight and scar a million people, then you will fight and be scarred by a million people. If you kill and kill then one day you will be killed. If you protect then you will be protected. Simplicity, Reaction and Action are life, and to do nothing is to have nothing.
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9. What alignment best describes him? Does he hold to any moralities, ideologies, virtues or sins - chivalry or honor, self-preservation or pragmatism, or somewhere in between?
Confused, Conflicted, Chaotic. Are the best ways, not good, not evil. But Perplexed. By the compass of a Normal person she is mistaken often for a Hydonistic Barbarian, while to a Hydonistic Barbarian she seems like a selfless zealot to a cause she knows not.
She belives that existance is, and existance should be lived, the will to fight to be garnered and life as a test and it's takers as testers themselves.
She dosn't beleave in dependency on the coporial, the roof over your head can be destroyed, the blade in your hand can be seperated from you. All that you truely have is your will and what you can put your will into.
Because of this Monotary needs are done on a Goal to Goal bases like needs for training, not a desire for richness.
Hanabi also is not a Killer, If she kills then why should she be spared when someone else kills? Why should she avoid death and live on if she causes others to die? To cause death is to invite death, much like starting a Gang War on your own porch.
Hanabi eats meat, and when she dies she wants her remains to sustain those who live on after her, or her death to profit another...
Hanabi dislike Aithism or more correctly 'Those that preach a pointless existance' Not because of an incorrection in what they teach, it's not bad to be wrong. But because if everything is as they say and it all is a meaningless existance with no beyond, no reason to live, no reason to die exept the now, then there is no reason to take away the comfort of other people who have found a perpose that makes life worth living to them. She considers it the viewpoint worse then a thief or a rapist. Of someone who wants to take away the joy and comfort of others. Exept unlike the aforementioned people not even the person causing the pain is gaining anything. There just moving along causing waste, doubt and anguish in there path with no point reason, resolution or reward for anyone in the end, turning the world from good strong people who seek truth into a world of Eternal Victims where raising your head to live a life is as pointless as never having been born at all.
If life is as they say and is just a phantom, a pointlessness then everyone in it is just as much a phantom and just as pointless therefore making them real to the reality they are in, as such they should strive to enjoy while they are capable on enjoyment. fight while they can fight, grow while they can grow and exist while they can exist.
Hanabi however 'hates' the weak by choice, those who simply 'live' but refuse to 'LIVE!' like the fat slob who could get off his [censored] and do something with his life, but has problems with there health and life and sits and whines and complains but dosn't take action to do anything, the 'Eternal Victim', so to speak.
Live, die, kill, be killed, if someone puts there all on the line she can respect something about them, be it there tenacity, determination, will too not be controled, there ability to enter the hearts of others. She respects 'Statesman, Lord Recluse and even Adolf Hitler' for many of the same reasons. There will to live, there inability to give up, there understanding of how to get into people, there drive to become more then they are at the moment. While all three are vastly different, those common traits are admired by her, even if she dosn't understand or like there end goals or what they stand for.
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10. What is his primary motivation? His highest ambition? His greatest love?
Hanabi's greatest motivation is to live, to fight, to see the thing that really matters in life, other people, there strength, there tenacity, what makes other people the way they are. unstoppable curiosity about the other fighters in the conflict grounds of life, how and what shaped them to be who they are.
Hanabi's largest goal in life is Creating Order in herself, to find the lines that draw the picture and live on looking and the splender of existance as people move in and out of the ever moving painting. She wants to become the strongest, just so she knows what it is to be the strongest and to see if it feels truely different then the way she is now.
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11. What is his greatest strength? His greatest weakness?
Hanabi's greatest strength is her Willpower and Optimism, now matter how bad it gets it could be worse, no matter how horrible something happens it can always be salvaged. And even in the most horrible of spots in life there is always an up side.
Hanabi also dosn't understand the meaning of pointless, the lure to try beyond the point of broken is too much for her, if it breaks fix it, if someone says never it just means they havn't done it.
Her weakness however lies in that her generalism has weakened her sense of commitment, her ability to make promises and her ability to understand people. She lacks empathy, she can't understand poverty. And she often times alienates people without understanding what she is doing. and due to her fearlessness she had develuped a single fear greater then any other.
Hanabi's other weakness is that she is still a Child, she dosn't comprehend a lot of things like she should because of her age and bull headedness. The Vary Willpower that feeds her greatest strengths makes her vary unflexable.
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12. What is his single greatest fear? His most embarrassing moment? His deepest regret?
Hanabi's greatest fear is people, the vary thing she is facinated by, she cares, she loves people, what she really fears in them is getting fear, getting attached and loosing them, a Fear of gaining something that can be taken away that she would not be willing to lose, yet this creates a fear of missing out on the worth of existance itself. As far as tangible fears that can make her cower and weap, that is the fear, but it would require great amplification by the most clever of mentalist to get that result, and in the end it may resolve some other issue in her life.
Hanabi's Greatest regret is over the people she's become attached to who she could not mend relationships with. Like the Sentenals she betrayed to protect, and the likes of Run Riot and Dr. Von Dread.
Her Greatist failing, embarisment and regret is over the fallout between Dr. Von Dread and herself.
The fighting between her and Run esclated to her being cast out as a bully, something which she still cannot comprehend to this day, but it still draws sadness from her. And the fallout with Dr. Von Dread, as unlikely as it was he for a time was her closest friend, he defended her helped her, she helped him they talked about there past, did things together and he had healed her. But because of Politics and her helping another friend the Arachnos Commander when she thought she was totally ousted from the 5th, she had brought shame on her friend Dread which had horrified and saddened her. all over politics and people whom she couldn't give a damn about. and no matter how she's tried to fix things, it has never ever been fixed, it is one of the holes in her heart and the primary creator of her only and biggest fear.
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13. For whom does he have the greatest respect? What, or whom, does he most despise?
Hanabi's greatest respect isn't for any one person, it's for all those who embody the ability to affect others, to endeer them to themselves.
Off her head she would name, Dr. Von Dread, Run Riot, Jalna Pine, Tigra Strike, Price of Light, Lord Recluse, Statesman, Stellar Flair, Captain Mako and Queen Xena. in no specific order.
Hanabi despises vary few people, but because of fallouts she has held a Disposition against Galaxy Adjutant Webb who she see's as the primary instigator of her fallout with dread.
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14. Does he have any prejudices? Why?
Hanabi has an hatred of the willing weak, the 'Eternal Victim' and those who have a life of sadness and poverty, they are weak, they don't understand the meaning of life while that dosn't make them worth hating the fact that they whine and whine and do nothing to better there life makes them more repugnent the a pile of dung... Stepping in them would be too much accociation with there grotesque ilk, it would polute the bottom of the foot worse then a sewer.
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15. If he could know the exact date of his death, would he want to know?
Hanabi would want to know the exact date of her death, not that she'd beleave it, but she'd want to hear an estemate that everyone thought was true just so she could see rather or not fate was true. If she died when her date came then fate is real, if not then obviously it's not real or dosn't apply in this case.
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16. If you could, what advice would you give your character?
I would want Hanabi to lighten up, embrace friendship more and fight less. I would want her to head towards the people who stood against her worst fear of lonelyness and try to find some way to share herself more openly with others.
Wow...
I dunno why, but I'm always confused as to how people can take up this game and NOT know, at least on some level, any of this stuff.
There are MILLIONS of different ways to look.
Thousands of power combinations.
You have to select an ORIGIN... the game at the first creation screen ENCOURAGES at least SOME type of RP-ish behavior by having you think "where do my powers come from?"
And there's a box where you can WRITE STUFF about your character for other people to see!
The game, throughout the entire character creation process, encourages creativity and a sense of RP... pretending that your character is an actual CHARACTER and not just some dude or chick sitting at their computer. It demands some degree of immersion. And it's immersion that's already there. No one, in any game, when they die, screams "omg my character got killed!" They scream "I got killed!", even though "they" are not that 3d model on a screen.
Ah well.
All that said, I CAN'T create a character until i have some vague idea of a concept... but after that, it's easy to fill in the blanks. One needn't go too far with character creation, just either a) think of a back story, and what powers would result, or b) a bunch of powers you'd LIKE to play, and what set of circumstances might give someone powers like that. Simple =)
For instance, my main, my crown jewel, Patty-Sue Ivanova, started out as an amnesiac psychic, who, in my mind, was created by a villain group to be a "sleeper agent", that is, she didn't know she was under their control. I even had her origin be "Mutant" instead of "Science" because the Villain tampering of fresh DNA looked at first glance to be a mutation. Her telepathic powers were engineered to make stealthy kills, though I had no explanation for her Kin powers. Note that she's a telapath, and her name acronyms to "PSI" 
HOWEVER, I changed my mind on some of this slightly when I did the Countess Crey arc: I had somehow made a psychic clone character who looked a LOT like... Countess Crey. Who had psychic powers. I immediately got inspired to have Patty be a clone of Countess Crey... more like a body double, for the Countess to place her mind into if she were ever incapacitated... no, wait, that's too cliche.. I know, because she's vain and is afraid of getting old! Now that's funny and original! Except the "Clone body" somehow became self-aware and escaped captivity. It still fit with my basic concept, except that last bit of inspiration made Patty's origin shine.
I have others.. i wanted to create a Kin/* for the purpose of making a character w/out travel powers. See, as a normal person, she cant take any pool powers... luckily, Kin has two travel-power substitutes. But i had to figure out why a character would be like that to begin with. I settled on her being the victim of a Vhaz attack, and she was given robotic limbs to supplement her missing ones.. except they malfunctioned, sucking up power from nearby objects and discharging electricity. So there ya go. I have a spines/regen who's a nano-tech fueled half-zombie... He used to be a doctor, who was trying to find a way to cure cancer by using some of Dr. V's techniques (except he only used himself as a test subject... with horrible results). I have a Troll in Longbow, and a former Outcast who hangs with heroes as part of a plea deal.
You probably see a theme here by now: Most of my characters have some connection with a villain group or some part of CoH lore. This is somewhat on accident, but it seems that this quality makes for my more interesting characters... my other ones are just not worth mentioning. Take that for what you will.
-STEELE =)
Allied to all sides so that no matter what, I'll come out on top!
Oh, and Crimson demands you play this arc-> Twisted Knives (MA Arc #397769)
Character Conceptualizing for City of Heroes/Villains 101
Having witnessed first hand, many people struggle with bringing a good idea (or even a mediocre one) into a living, breathing, roleplayable character, I decided to share some of my tricks and strategies for creating characters. I like to think most of my characters are at least decent, and more importantly, believable. And even More importantly, playable.
It is a somewhat different process to create a roleplaying character for a game, than it is to create a character for fiction. In fiction, you have the luxury of bending the rules of reality to suit the whim of you, the writer. In most games, however, your character must play by the same rules as everyone elses character. That cuts out a lot of breathing space for original ideas. There are only so many ways to do an Elven_Assassin_01 (I should know, Ive done many of them.)
One of the beauties of City of Villains/City of Heroes, is the developers have lain down only a loose set of ground rules for character design and concept. This leaves you, the gamer/writer/arrpeer with quite a bit of space for creativity. You can do anything from space aliens from another dimension, to evil demons and tragically Goth teenage vampires, to mad scientists mutating their DNA or Homegrown farm boys who found a weird crystal rock that lets them fly through the air.
Theres a lot of air to breath. Yup. Lotta air
Holy Crap. Where do you start??
Well sit down, breath. Relax. Read the words on the cover. Dont Panic. In nice big friendly font. Wait... thats the wrong book, but theres still no need to panic! Creating a good character for CoH/V is easy once you break it down into a few simple steps.
Step One: The Build.
I know quite a few people that would argue this being the first step, but to me, the RPer/Powergamer, I can have the best concept in the world, but if the character is gimpy, or plays awkwardly, I still wont have fun.
Sit down with the character planner and mess around with it. Pick an Archetype that appeals to the play style you are going for, and then a power set that seems interesting. There are a ton of guides out there outlining the various archetypes. So I wont go into that here.
Now, you should choose the archetype that best represents the play style/theme of your character. Try not to think of your character as a Brute or Mastermind. These are simply categories to start narrowing down what your character is capable of. Think of it this way, if your character was telling someone what they did, they wouldnt say Im a Brute theyd say Im a fighter or Im a warrior. If they made gadgets and devices, they wouldnt say Im a Corruptor with Assault Rifle and Traps theyd say I shoot people with my gun and toss my inventions in your face. Got a problem with that?
See what I am getting at? The archetype is a method of categorizing your character skills and powers, not describing them as a person.
After selecting the archetype, look over not only the primary power sets, but the secondary ones. Hopefully you already have a bare bones idea for what you want your character to be able to do. Loot for a set combination that lets them do most of those things. Try not to worry about themes at this point. If you see your character as able to toss fire about, and using magical fires to suck the life out of people, or heal your allies, then dont take fire/thermal radiation, just because they are both fire sets. Thermal radiation has no life draining attacks, or heals. But kinetics does.
Sometimes however, themes can work for you if you dont have a good idea on all your heroes capabilities yet. Maybe you just have a couple in mind, which can be fit by a broad range of powers. Themeing your power sets together can help give your character cohesion and logical sense. The devs have already done the work of themeing broad powers together, and you can always choose not to take powers you dont like, or dont fit your concept. For example. Your fire character with the life draining attacks, you like Transfusion and siphon power from kinetics, but repel doesnt seem to fit at all. No problem. Dont take repel. You can choose all of the power set, or just a few.
Now you should start to look at picking the powers. Play around, have fun, you loose nothing by tossing around ideas in the planner. It has a wealth of information about the effects of enhancements, how much endurance per tick youll be using, what exactly your defenses will be, and a rough idea of just about anything about your powers you could want to know.
Go on. Play. Ill wait.
Happy yet? No? Ok. Well. A couple things to keep in mind as you play around. Pay attention to the levels you acquire things. If you only have 2 attacks for 26 levels, that will make those a Long 26 levels. If you are a defensive character and havent fully slotted your defenses by 20, you should reexamine where your slots are. Do you really need 4 jump enhancements in super leap? What do you mean you didnt take a travel power? Didnt fit your concept? Oh boy. Lets have a talk about that.
Travel powers and You.
I know, better than anyone, how tempting it is to skip a travel power until late in the game (I had a build that took fly at 41 once) or just skip it all together. Sometimes there are so many cool powers, you just want them all, and that doesnt leave any room for pool powers. Sometimes its hard to justify a travel power for your concept. There are lots of ways around that. Let me take each of those in turn.
Not enough power slots
If you havent taken a travel power by 20 look at how many attacks you have, this is the easiest area to free up a couple powers for your travel power and its prereq. With refresh timers and animations being what they are, you can probably only really not have a button to press with less than three attacks. With three attacks, by the time the first one refreshes, you can cycle through the second and third. Plus your endurance probably cant handle too many more. (not until you start slotting SO end reducers, pick up Stamina, or both) Even with blasters and scrappers, 3, or at most 4 attacks will do you fine until the mid 20s.
Doesnt fit my concept
Well, ok, if you insist. But hope someone in your team picked up recall friend, or get used to running and jumping a lot. And your team mates taking longer and longer coffee breaks waiting for you to arrive at the missions. And everybody getting annoyed when you want a 20 minute break to go sell and train. Especially if you wanna sell all your enhancements at the proper stores.
Fitting a travel power into a concept is relatively easy. Even natural characters use gadgets, and thats the easiest way to explain a travel power I have an anti-grav belt I hacked the hospital teleportation network for personal travel (Dont laugh, one of the storyline Heroes, Manticore, uses that one.) Any super strong character can justify super leap, any gravity / kinetic / play with laws of physics characters can justify teleport, or flight, (or supper speed and super leap for that matter).
The point is, pick a travel power and justify it however you want. Everyone will thank you for it, including yourself.
Now, got yourself an Archetype, got yourself a Build. You are halfway done!
Step Two: Which came first, the back story or the costume?
At this point, you may be eager to dive into the character generator whip up the first costume that looks decent, and start playing. However, I caution you to take at least a few moments and try to visualize your character and what makes them special. If you go tearing willy-nilly into the costume design, Ill guarantee you latch onto the first cool thing that catches your eye, and log into game, only to find that, shocker, you look like half a dozen other stalkers standing around the tutorial zone.
If you take a moment to think about a few details about who and what your character is, itll go a long way towards helping you visualize what your character looks like.
So who is this person anyway?
Hopefully, by now youve got a least a token idea about who your character is. A few quirks, what gave them their powers (dont have that yet? Thats ok) maybe even a goal or two.
If you dont, thats ok, Here is where that changes.
Grab the little bio questionnaire from the bottom of this article and answer a question. I dont care which question. Name is always a good place to start, but not the only place. Greatest Strength? Greatest fear? Religious? Parents? Lovers? Answer any of these questions and youve gotten over the biggest hurdle of a good character backstory. Starting.
Now that youve done the hard part, answer a few more. As you go, the vague blob of a person in your imagination will begin to take shape, maybe even show you a couple things that there arent questions for. Go ahead and write those down too. Keep going until youve answered all the questions you can answer without thinking more than 60 seconds. Still have unanswered questions? That ok. Those are next.
Go back and read the whole thing again. Look at the powers youve chosen. Have you explained those yet? Well, if you havent yet. Do so now. If you have, imagine how someones life who has those abilities would be affected. Was the acquisition a shock? Or gradual? Did they discover them or did someone else point them out?
Look for personality traits in your fledgling bio. Are they mean? Compassionate? Greatest Strength is the ability to determine cheese purely by smell alone? (If thats the case maybe they should rethink this hero/villain business) Why are they like that. Answer the questions that are unspoken. Mean because their greatest love was spurned? (Did you answer the Believe in love question? How did that event shape that answer)
Real People are not born in a vacuum. They are shaped by a variety of factors, genetic, environment, choices, life style, fate, luck, and random chance. Your trouble as a writer is you are Trying to create a Real Person from a vacuum. The more you can do to illuminate the events, people, environment, and random chance surrounding your character, the more you will indirectly shape who they are.
Can I create a costume yet?
Ok Ok FINE! Sheesh. Load up CoH and grab that empty character slot. Select your Archetype, Origin and starting powers that you selected from your rough build.
Gender next (You Have decided that right?)
And, the costume design.
The key to successful costume design, in my ever so humble opinion, is simplicity. Its terribly easy to become overwhelmed by the variety of options available to choose from. Add up something for every possible location. Complete with a blend of design and colors, and Wow.. did you hit the random button or..? ok.. ok.. Clear all. Lets start over.
First Id like to point out a couple things. First, the little circle at the bottom that Links all colors. Uncheck that. Your character is allowed to have more than two colors. Second, you can still adjust the sliders for physique, chest, waist etc from this screen, its the tab under the colors section. Never be afraid to go back and tweak any portion to make it look better.
Simplicity.
That doesnt mean you cant use some of the more complex designs (some of them are really cool) that just means that your characters look should have some simple design concept. Ethnic looks are a good place to start, traditional garb for warriors or priests if your character is cultural centric.
I like to pick one feature that I really like, and design outward from there (And get ready to toss that feature when the rest of the costume looks great and it doesnt fit in anymore)
Step Three: The Name
Ok. So youve got your look, your build, your backstory, even a couple goals. Hit the next button and type in your name!
You say that names not available? Not having that name destroys your whole concept and look? Hey.. Hey stop crying.. get out of the corner.. shhhh itll be ok
How many variations did you try? Get out your thesaurus, look up synonyms. Are they from a non-English speaking culture? Did you try your name in that language? How about one of the descriptor words? You dont have any descriptor words? Try some, use colors. (Black Angel, Red Angel, Jade Angel, Blue Angel, Periwinkle Angel) use any adjective you can think of. Combine uncommonly combined words. (Lotus Infinite, Material Guidance) Still no? Ok, use your characters first name with the surname of your cool name (Nova Mindburn, Alana Wren)
There are a hundred ways to get the name you want. Or something close to it, dont give up just because the first couple were gone. On the other hand, if you go through a dozen variations with no luck, maybe you should try for a less common theme/name?
Final Words
Well. Hopefully I have helped you create a memorable character. One you will enjoy playing, both game rules wise, and roleplay wise. One whos mere presence will delight other players due to not only useful powers, but delightful roleplay.
Well. Hopefully at least half of those anyway.
Happy building!
Appendix A: Bio questionnaire (stolen from my guilds website)
1. What is your character's given name? What does he call himself now, as a hero or villain, and why?
2. How would you physically describe him? How old is he? Does he have recurring mannerisms, moods, or habits? How does he dress?
3. How did he come by his particular origin and archetype? What other talents does he display? In what hobbies does he engage, and why?
4. Where is he from? What does he think of his homeland? Why did he come to Paragon City or Rogue Isles?
5. How would his parents describe him? Does he have a family?
6. Is he in love? Is he married or betrothed? Does he believe in love at first sight?
7. Is he a member of a guild or secret society? How did he meet them, and why did he join it? Where do his loyalties truly lie?
8. How religious or superstitious is he?
9. What alignment best describes him? Does he hold to any moralities, ideologies, virtues or sins - chivalry or honor, self-preservation or pragmatism, or somewhere in between?
10. What is his primary motivation? His highest ambition? His greatest love?
11. What is his greatest strength? His greatest weakness?
12. What is his single greatest fear? His most embarrassing moment? His deepest regret?
13. For whom does he have the greatest respect? What, or whom, does he most despise?
14. Does he have any prejudices? Why?
15. If he could know the exact date of his death, would he want to know?
16. If you could, what advice would you give your character?