I don't go much for linked characters, it seems somehow incestuous. The only two who reference each other are Jason Caine and Lilith Pendragon, who have been alternatively lovers and mortal enemies down through the millenia.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
Whilst I understand why you'd want to keep characters in their own indiviual "universes" as it were, do you never get ideas for other characters from the IC actions of existing ones, or maybe as an extension of their own bios?
I'm not an RPer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do often find when I lose myself in the origin and general "character" of a toon, these kinds of ideas often spring up.
@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat
... That's a whole lot of incest on my part then. ><
I personally like having characters being able to refer to each other. It can help with that feeling of sitting on the outskirts of RP as it gives you an avenue in. "Hey, you're friend of [mutual friend]!" And such.
Maybe it's due to switching higher brain functions off at work to have them think of stories and such.
Gawd nearly all my characters are tied together in some way, story wise that is :P
A good bio is a wonderful thing to read, and I see a good bio as one that entertains, be it through humour or through the captivating prose.
There are some brilliant ones out there too, it's always great to come across a new one.
I don't wanna save my soul now,
I just wanna lose control,
And even if it takes a lifetime, to learn:
I'll learn!
Um... *thinks about it*
Lilith is about it. CoV was out and I needed a villain to try out this Collector's Edition I'd just bought. I had an established villain character in the form of Jason's long-term nemesis, so I built Lilith.
One of my other villains was originally a hero. I loved the character, but wasn't playing her so she got deleted for something else, and then I decided she would do well as a villain at some point and rebuilt her as a Stalker. She fits perfectly well in either setting.
Everything else has been an 'original' idea (if any ideas are original) which just kind of popped into my head at some point or was suggested by an outside source. Operative Seven came as the result of watching shed loads of Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex. Glory was a concept creation named for a villain in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. War Crow himself started as Wolverine, but wanting to avoid a mutant with claws, and then he mutated anyway into something not that Wolverine-like, but hey ho.
It's not to say that some of them don't know the others and may have met 'offline'. At the height of the GG meets, it would be quite possible for at least two of them to end up getting invited to dinner at Zorielle Rollando's place. Crow got a reputation as a magical consultant, so another of them might turn to him on a magical matter.
I'm not the kind of roleplayer who actively avoids my characters knowing each other because "they can never have actually met." It's a dumb argument from my view. I write fiction, and the characters don't vanish when I'm offline. It's quite possible to have two or more of them meet. In fact, it's illogical to assume that some of them would not have met.
But I tend to try and work on one idea at a time, so I don't suddenly get an urge to create Hero B because of something I thought up for Hero A while I was working on that background.
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... That's a whole lot of incest on my part then. ><
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Well, yes, but you do it with style and flair, and you're Z. 
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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Do you think about the background before you design the character? Does the character background come after youve picked the AT or before?
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When I make a completely new/original character the archetype and powersets always come first, then I come up with a concept to explain/justify those powersets being together, which dictates the origin, often inspires a name too, then I think of a theme for the costume, then write the bio, then lastly I create the character and might do the tutorial with them before logging out. Then at some point, often months later, Ill play them or delete them. Just as I do with creative writing I think its important to leave your creation alone for a while and come back to it with a cold, clear head to see if its still a good idea later (and thus decide if a first draft is worth revising/re-editing, or worth playing in the case of a CoH/V character).
I tend to have at least half a dozen L1-2 characters created at a time, just ready to go in case I feel like playing something new or quickly need a character for a new duo with a friend once our existing duo(s) hit L50. It can take me hours/days/weeks to make a character, so it's not practical to expect my friend to wait for me to do so - heck, it can take me an hour or more just to make a costume Im happy with.
Though my character creation order does change if the character was inspired by something else: e.g. I've deleted dozens of characters because I didn't enjoy playing them or disliked the lack of synergy between their powersets, but if I liked their name and/or costume and/or bio/concept enough then Ill re-use them for another character if I possibly can. Not always the same character, either - a few times I've merged pieces of the bios of two "failed" characters together to create the bio for a third new character, or a costume from a failed character and the concept from another have given rise to a new character with a different name/bio.
Very little gets wasted - I keep every bio I've ever written and occasionally re-read them to get ideas/inspiration for new characters. I also keep a screenshot folder of every costume I've ever made and similarly sometimes use that to get costume ideas. Thus my deleted Invul/EM tanker from I5 eventually resurfaced as my EM/Elec brute (with just a few tweaks to his bio/costume but an identical name/costume/concept) and 2 weeks ago I made a DB/Invul scrapper with the same name/costume/concept as the first CoH character I ever made in I5, a BS/Regen scrapper, which bears the same name as my forum name here.
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then lastly I create the character and might do the tutorial with them before logging out. Then at some point, often months later, Ill play them or delete them
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I tend to level them up to about level 6 or 8 before stopping and forgetting I created them for a month or so. I hadn't really thought about it as anything other than a greater desire to play (one of) my main(s), but I guess it's the same sort of effect.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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I don't go much for linked characters, it seems somehow incestuous.
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I don't link characters on the same server much, but not for that reason - it just hasn't cropped up much yet. I do have a new Psy/MM blaster and a new Widow (to be a Fortunata) who are both Crey-made clones in concept and I've been toying with the idea that they were cloned from my L50 Mind/Psi Dominator Agent Godwin (who used to work for Crey), but I haven't finalised their bios yet - originally they were going to be clones of another character that I recently deleted (a Mercs/Traps MM who recruited and controlled his soldiers using psychic domination).
What I do have is some villains who share an identity with some of my heroes. While this is currently a minority of my characters, it has become a trend recently. All my villains are on Union and all of my heroes are on Defiant, so the "Union-verse" is almost the Praetorian equivalent universe for my "Defiant-verse" heroes (or vice-versa probably, as most of the villains existed first). Usually some small difference in their backstory sets my Union character onto a more villainous path than their Defiant equivalent:
Polar Storm (my L20 Ice/Ice Blaster on Defiant) and Arctic Prince (my L38 Ice/Storm Corruptor on Union) are the same human mutant, Viktor von Metz, driven out of his small Bavarian hometown by his family/friends for being a freak, and who eventually trekked across the arctic ice cap to reach the US - but each responded differently to his rejection:<ul type="square">[*]Defiant-Viktor took the rejection to heart and was determined to prove himself worthy. He came to Paragon City seeking acceptance, as he thought a city with so many mutant heroes would be more welcoming to him.
[*]Union-Viktor became bitter and took revenge on his tormenters. He fled to Paragon City to hide among the hero population, hoping to avoid prosecution, but he was arrested there and locked up in Zigursky Prison.[/list]Nightbow (my Archery/En Blaster on Defiant) and Ghost Spider (my EM/EA Stalker on Union) are both Ryan Kane, a Paragon-born orphan who lived on the streets and was beaten and tortured by a Hellion as a teenager, but whose body was then rebuilt with cybernetics - their differences stem from who discovered them after that tragedy:<ul type="square">[*]Defiant-Ryan only lost his eyes to the Hellion before being rescued by Manticore, who felt sorry for a fellow orphan and paid for cybernetic eye implants. He later recruited Ryan for Wyvern where he was trained in archery (his bionic eyes making him a keen marksman). Yet, haunted by his torture by the Hellion, Ryan wanted to focus on Paragons gang problems rather than the Rogue Isles so he left Wyvern and became a hero.
[*]Union-Ryan had no rescuer, so his assault reached more terrible extremes, until he turned savage in his agony and killed his Hellion torturer. Captain Mako, returning from an assassination mission, gleefully observed these events and saw promise in the teenagers vicious survival instinct, so he took the boy back to Grandville where Ryan was enhanced/rebuilt with cybernetics stolen from Black Scorpion and was then trained by Mako to be an Arachnos assassin.[/list]I probably spend far too much time thinking about this stuff
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I probably spend far too much time thinking about this stuff
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Nah. Impossible. 
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
So, kind of funny story. I was sitting there thinking about random rubbish and this thread came to mind and I sat there thinking "hmm, what would I have called Glory if Glory had been taken?" Cos I called her Glory on the beta server all those years ago, and I liked the name. She got built pretty early on, so not many names were taken, but it's a good sort of name and I was lucky it was still free.
Anyway, I now have an ice/storm 'troller on Defiant named Glorious Winter.
Disclaimer: The above may be humerous, or at least may be an attempt at humour. Try reading it that way.
Posts are OOC unless noted to be IC, or in an IC thread.
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Anyway, I now have an ice/storm 'troller on Defiant named Glorious Winter.
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Winter is a good word (so is Glory). My L50 Claw/WP scrapper is named Winter Tiger; he's a Soviet super-soldier experiment, somewhat inspired by putting Wolverine, Winter Soldier, KGBeast, Mynx and some Siberian Tiger DNA into a Crey blender and holding down the button until none of the original influences are too obvious
I've never had a situation where the name came first and inspired a whole character, though.
Recently I've been trying to brainstorm names and a starting costume for a planned Elec/Nin Stalker (I've already got concept, bio and target build finalised - I just need a name and costume that fits) and I was amazed how few potential names from my shortlist had already been taken - of a shortlist of about 20 names, only 5-6 were in use and 1 was "not available" (looking at Wikipedia I soon realised why - I checked for Ironfist and there's a Marvel superhero called Iron Fist). I'm still undecided on which name I'll use though - as the days go by fewer and fewer of the names on my shortlist seem that fitting.
You can see now why it takes me a while to create new characters and why I prepare them in advance, hehe. Tbh finding the right name is usually the most time-consuming part of the whole process - once I have a concept the writing of the bio doesn't take me that long at all - probably an hour or so (same as the costume, if I have an idea for that in advance). But I've actually deleted characters in the mid teens and remade them because everything was working fine except that I was starting to dislike the name - so nowadays I make very sure the name fits perfectly before I spend any time on a character.
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But I've actually deleted characters in the mid teens and remade them because everything was working fine except that I was starting to dislike the name - so nowadays I make very sure the name fits perfectly before I spend any time on a character.
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Phew! I'm glad I'm not the only one. I had a Sonic / Energy blaster that was originally called "Sigma Screech". Didn't like that, so paid for a rename token and renamed him to "Technosonic". Didn't like that either. Re-rolled as a Sonic / Elec and he's now called "Megafone". Much better 
@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat
I like the idea of "similar back story where one decision makes them into completely different characters".. Red Dwarf did that very same with Ace Rimmer!
Interestingly, two of my very first characters one a Claws / Reg Scrapper (Tiger Slash, my first ever lvl 50), the other Tiger Doom (who got to lvl 33 as a Claws / SR stalker, before I deleted him and remade him as a Widow have a very similar idea.
Both were born as twins to Julie Larcen a geneticist doing experiments on mutated Tigers to discover the secrets of their strength and agility, but such was her dedication to her work she continued long into her pregnancy. She survived being mauled by one of the animals, and the tigers DNA was absorbed into her unborn children.
The larger of the sons, Hans, was visibly affected at birth, and her Crey employers who also helped her delivery told her he'd died during birth, when in actual fact his mutations had attracted their interest for use in Project Revenant. Growing up in a cage being prodded and poked by researchers didn't give him the most balanced impression of human kind, and aged 8 he escaped killed his captors and began earning a living in back street fights before being hired by Arachnos, first as an assassin, then trained under their blood widow program.
Kieran on the other hand, seemed perfectly human and normal, with his Tiger-like appearance, markings and above all his claws not starting to manifest themselves until he reached age 5. By this time he and his mother had fled to Paragon City to seek a new life for themselves, and Kieran was enrolled in a special school for mutants to help him deal with and make use of his abilities. (Yes, yes, I know.. I can hear you cringing from here. Give me a break, he was my first one.. I had to start somewhere didn't I? )
@SteelRat; @SteelRat2
"Angelina my love, I'm a genius!"
"Of course you are darling, that's why I married you. Physically, you're rather unattractive"
http://faces.cohtitan.com/profile/SteelRat
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I like the idea of "similar back story where one decision makes them into completely different characters".. Red Dwarf did that very same with Ace Rimmer!
Interestingly, two of my very first characters one a Claws / Reg Scrapper (Tiger Slash, my first ever lvl 50), the other Tiger Doom (who got to lvl 33 as a Claws / SR stalker, before I deleted him and remade him as a Widow have a very similar idea.
Both were born as twins to Julie Larcen a geneticist doing experiments on mutated Tigers to discover the secrets of their strength and agility, but such was her dedication to her work she continued long into her pregnancy. She survived being mauled by one of the animals, and the tigers DNA was absorbed into her unborn children.
The larger of the sons, Hans, was visibly affected at birth, and her Crey employers who also helped her delivery told her he'd died during birth, when in actual fact his mutations had attracted their interest for use in Project Revenant. Growing up in a cage being prodded and poked by researchers didn't give him the most balanced impression of human kind, and aged 8 he escaped killed his captors and began earning a living in back street fights before being hired by Arachnos, first as an assassin, then trained under their blood widow program.
Kieran on the other hand, seemed perfectly human and normal, with his Tiger-like appearance, markings and above all his claws not starting to manifest themselves until he reached age 5. By this time he and his mother had fled to Paragon City to seek a new life for themselves, and Kieran was enrolled in a special school for mutants to help him deal with and make use of his abilities. (Yes, yes, I know.. I can hear you cringing from here. Give me a break, he was my first one.. I had to start somewhere didn't I? )
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Curiously enough, one of my villains is the Preatorian version of Bluedarky, their lives being the same up until they met the guy who finished their training.
Blue was trained by the Back Alley Brawler and gained the Brawler's sense of honor and heroism from it. He refuses to do anything to increase his strength unnaturally and works hard to stay at the top of his game, but has to use his brain to keep alive rather than punching everything.
Darkbluey was trained by the Marauder, and gained his might makes right attitude, he's a twisted amalagamation of magic, science and technology to push his body beyond it's limits. He's technicially got the same IQ as Blue but rarely uses it prefering the "punch it until it stops moving" method of fighting.
Mine is a bit complex, I'm trying to rewrite the bio so it makes more sense, but the overall jist of it is...
Tsumiju Zero encounters the Ouroboros Menders and is tasked secretly to adjust his own past. He does so and when he returns to the present, he is "out of time" as his past never happened, yet he is temporally tethered to the pillar of ice and flame that he used.
When he returns to the present, he meets his dark self ( Tsumiju ) which creates a temporal imbalance as the two versions aren't supposed to exist at the same time.
Because Tsumiju is now the current one in the timeline, the carbon law no longer applies and Tsumiju Zero can jump further forward, or back in time ( possibly using the same trick Mender Silos used to come back in time ) and retrieved Tsumiju Absolute-Zero from the future. Absolute Zero is the result of Tsumiju Zero from the future, who having spent his life with the menders ( without carbon law himself as he is Tsumiju Zero from the future ) he has harnessed temporal forces and can "balance" the temporal distortions that the other two Tsumiju's create.
nice and simple eh 
In-game and now on Twitter @Tsumiju Zero "The Nightmare of Dra'Gon"
"The flow of battle can only be influenced, not by realtime tactics, but by strategy."
Proud resident of the Union EU Server.
B.A.F. Trial Guide
The biography boxes are never big enough for me to properly describe the kind of psychotic, neurotic lunatics I keep creating. And that's just the heroes.
When you come up with a name like 'Carnal Sin' but want to roll a scrapper, ya need some crazy to explain why a hero is a rampaging sexual deviant.
Chairman of the Charity of Pain; accepting donations of blood and guts.
Prophet of the Creamy Truth; "If it's empty, fill it with cream."
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The biography boxes are never big enough for me to properly describe the kind of psychotic, neurotic lunatics I keep creating. And that's just the heroes.
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And here I was thinking you'd just type "Grrrr, Khorak SMASH!" and leave it at that
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When you come up with a name like 'Carnal Sin' but want to roll a scrapper, ya need some crazy to explain why a hero is a rampaging sexual deviant.
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When you come up with a name like 'Carnal Sin' but want to roll a scrapper, ya need some crazy to explain why a hero is a rampaging sexual deviant.
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Well you do! You can't just walk around claiming to be a hero with a name like Carnal Sin! People will ask why!
Chairman of the Charity of Pain; accepting donations of blood and guts.
Prophet of the Creamy Truth; "If it's empty, fill it with cream."
He suffers from satyrism? He has a priapic disorder? Has an oral fixation?
Rabbits & Hares:Blue (Mind/Emp Controller)Maroon (Rad/Thermal Corruptor)and one of each AT all at 50
MA Arcs: Apples of Contention - 3184; Zen & Relaxation - 35392; Tears of Leviathan - 121733 | All posts are rated "R" for "R-r-rrrrr, baby!"|Now, and this is very important... do you want a hug? COH Faces @Blue Rabbit
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He suffers from satyrism? He has a priapic disorder? Has an oral fixation?
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I love that your answer has the naive, almost childlike hope that I turned into a normal, well adjusted member of society or something.
Chairman of the Charity of Pain; accepting donations of blood and guts.
Prophet of the Creamy Truth; "If it's empty, fill it with cream."
Well, one can only try to do one's best... besides, I can't help it if I tend to read you as a happy-go-lucky barbarian with ne'er a care in the world.
Who tends to go "wahey!" or "oooo missus!" a lot.
Rabbits & Hares:Blue (Mind/Emp Controller)Maroon (Rad/Thermal Corruptor)and one of each AT all at 50
MA Arcs: Apples of Contention - 3184; Zen & Relaxation - 35392; Tears of Leviathan - 121733 | All posts are rated "R" for "R-r-rrrrr, baby!"|Now, and this is very important... do you want a hug? COH Faces @Blue Rabbit
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Well, one can only try to do one's best... besides, I can't help it if I tend to read you as a happy-go-lucky barbarian with ne'er a care in the world.
Who tends to go "wahey!" or "oooo missus!" a lot.
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See that would make an excellent Bio!
And I lol'd out load really hard at the carnal sin toon!
Member of GGRRR, a SG on Defiant - check out our website - GGRRR
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I don't go much for linked characters, it seems somehow incestuous. The only two who reference each other are Jason Caine and Lilith Pendragon, who have been alternatively lovers and mortal enemies down through the millenia.
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A yes and no moment here. I have at least one Old Family of Wierdness (The Fortune family, who have produced a couple of my dubious creations) but they are mostly a spoof on all those Old Wizarding Families in Hairy Potter, albeit converting into the setting with major changes. The others are not linked, at least not directly (occasionally via other characters, but not directly.)
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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I like referencing my other characters in bios as well. For example my brute Atomic Demon was created when Dr Hooked (my mastermind) cloned Black Karhu (my tank).
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Oh yes, I love doing this with my characters. CyberDeath (Bots / Dark MM) is Sigma Suits (En / Fire Blaster) Uncle, and Agent Sky-Angels (En / Dev Blaster) Father .He thought she'd died during a test flight of one of his gizmos. The feed back from the monitoring equipment gave him his dark, soul manipulation abilities and sent him a bit doolally in the process.
In the short period of time after the accident while he still had an ounce of his sanity, he left his latest project the "Sigma Suit" to his nephew to help combat what he knew he was going to become.
Illuzi-One (Ill / Rad Trolly) is Ben Travis (Sigmas) college sweet heart who volunteers to be a test subject in one of his experiments, just so she can show him she's interested in him (hitherto expressions of her amour had failed due to his concentration on his work).. a pair of energy gauntlets capable of projecting holographic illusions.
Unfortunately a malfunction in the small fusion reactors that power them, result in her body absorbing large quantities of radiation. Remarkably, instead of killing her, her body is able to utilize this radiation to help her combat evil.
All suitably ridiculous story lines befitting of comic characters, I'm sure you'll agree
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Oh totally! Just wish I could write more comic bios, as most the time new characters get sucked into the fan fiction I am writing in my head (it will eventually get written down!).
Although I did have a character called 'Kinetic Midget' who invented a protective suit based on Kinetic shields. He was a scientist gone mad because everyone made fun of his size. I deleted him though, I might bring him back
Another couple of characters that reference each other is Charlie Bright and Greg Wise who used to be mercenary partners until they went there seperate ways. Now Greg is back looking for his old friend Charlie, but I dont think they will find each other soon, they are on different servers! lol