How do you come up with your character (name, look, background, etc.) ?

I've been going through about 70 random pages in the Virtue Name Watch thread and I see people asking for names, looking for globals of people that have a certain name, complaints that all the conceivable "good" names are taken, people willing to trade and/or give away names...

So I pose the question in this thread title: How do you come up with your character (name, look, background, etc.) ?

Rarely a name pops up in my head where I have to go rushing to see if it's taken. For me, I can't create a character based on a name. I have to have the feel of the character before I can think of the name. I have to have a sense of who the character is before I can think of a name. Most of the time, I will spend quite a bit of time in the character creator adjusting costume pieces and colors before the character starts to come to "life."

Then I have to figure out the persona. Is he/she troubled or tormented? Does the facial details reflect the character's strife? Do all the costume pieces fit the characters persona? If someone saw that character on the street, for the first time after saving a life/commiting a felony, what would they envision the hero/villain is all about? Only then can I get a feel about who the character is and BAM... time for a name to reflect everything I listed above.

Sure, some names are taken but I tend to find many that are available and that can wrap up who my character is in one or two words.

I do, however, have a ton of saved costumes that I just couldn't find the suitable name for. I'm not one to search and search and search for a name JUST so I can play the character. If I can't find a name in a reasonable time, I scrap the alt and move onto the next creation.

So, I pose the question again: How do you come up with your character? There is no right or wrong. Just want to see if I'm the only crazy person that does what I do. :P

I normally come up with the powers/abilities first then work on the back story and then the costume and then try and find the name that is already taken . I'm the same way about having a ton of "X Concept" saves in my list. I call them "X Concept #" so that they're at the bottom of my list apart from my established characters who just have multiple costumes or just ideas for that character.

Normally the name I'm looking for is just taken and perhaps in that since I'm not as creative as some. For example one character I've been trying to get back into is a Cat Woman homage character who (brief intro) is a rich young man in the Rogue Isles. He follows in his grandfather's footsteps of being a cat burglar that steals from other rich people and in Robin Hood fashion gives some of his 'earnings' to the poor of the islands and in return they help protect him. He wears a black cat looking costume and is a claw/nin stalker and is a rogue.

But I can't come up with a name I really like for him and the only ones I can think of that I like is a variation of Night Cat or Cat Burglar. Everything else I've found just doesn't fit in my head for some reason.

So that's my main problem, I'm just not that creative when it comes to names lol.

Generally either I have the concept in mind first, or I'm wanting to try a new power set/archetype combo. Normally the name comes last. About the only time I go name first is when I'm building additional characters within a group concept. So, even then really, the concept in general comes first. The only exception in my toybox, at least that I can remember, was Streetwise Hercules, who started as a phrase in a song, and only when I heard it did I begin to speculate on how to personify it if I turned the phrase into a name.

Regarding the costume, I usually have worked out a name before I complete the costume. Some 1st slot costumes I might toss together quickly and develop as the character levels, basically retconning what his original outfit was.

It's a torturous process often involving digging through Wikipedia, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and consulting devils.

I have a rule: no bio until 20+. I've deleted far too many toons under 20, and some over. So I don't give a whole lot of thought to the bio until I get a sense that this toon is going to stick around. And if they have stuck around that long, by then I've had some time to mull over concepts and such, so it's not too hard. Not quite like sitting down in front of a blank notepad.

I don't play on Virtue, but the thread title made me intrigued...

When it comes to creating a character, I usually start off with a brief idea of what I want the character to be like. That usually leads me into the powersets I want to use, which (along with concept) help me to create the costume... and last is usually the name.

However, recently, I have been starting with powersets, moving to concept and costume and finishing with the name.

But, there are some characters, Corridor, for instance, that started as nothing but a name and everything else formed from there. I was driving to class when I thought of the name and wondered if it was open on my server of choice... it was. So, that character formed backwards for me.

(Also, I ALWAYS have a bio written for my character before they hit Level 6... otherwise it doesn't feel like I am really playing... it feels like I am just gathering levels for a no one.)

I use uncommon words or ones that can be twisted into new meaning.

Shattered Velvet

Kerfuffle

Sam Moo Rai


Take a verb, adverb or adjective and mix them!

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adverbs.htm

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/verbs.htm#verb


Then you get:

Cool Clarion
Concord Squeeze
Wheezing Nostalgic

Just match a few words up and sometimes they click.

Also songs names or partial lyrics.

Heart of Glass
Night Moves
Lee Ho Fook
Hairy Handed Gent
Amuck in Kent
Monster Tailor

That is just from three songs!

So inspiration is everywhere and hence the reason I make alts everywhere and often delete at 50 and re-roll!

Hunk of burning love - Smoldering Valentine.

Depends on the situation. Usually I start with one seed; it might be an image of a little grinning girl with a big axe, it might be a theme concept (the sin of Envy), it might be a power combination, it might just be a terrible pun. Usually my characters fit into one of a few themes -- Virtue is my cow server, Liberty my sentai groups and P&P characters, Freedom my babes, etc. Sometimes there's a little research to flesh it out (e.g. Sin of Envy ended up getting colors and theme powers appropriate for Leviathan); usually though it comes down to tinkering in the character editor until everything clicks. Sometimes that ends in horrible fail, sometimes it works out better than expected. I'm still really happy with my SS/fire brute, Churrascaria; had no name until the very last minute, but he's a flaming wall of meat, and it works.

I sometimes visit bartleby.com for inspiration. Say I want a time related character, I might search quotations or verse for "time", or related words, and see if anything inspiring pops out. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but I've come up with a few characters that started out that way.

To be honest, I am incapable of NOT coming up with a full concept. I have been a pen-and-paper Game Master more or less continuously for the last 25 years, mostly Hero System and GURPS, a RPG gamer and sci-fi/fantasy fan for a good eight years before that, and into comic books and superheroes all the way back as my memory goes. (Solid evidence I wasa Six Million Dollar man fan at the age of three).

Concept usually comes first. With luck it is a story/background concept, like Pastafarian Oracle, making the world a better place in the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (Plant/Rad controller on Triumph). Often enough it's a powers concept (Friend says Kinetics sounds vampiric. Ok, cool, Grace Ephemeral is a Kinetics/Dark/Psi Defender vampire), or even an AT I havent tried (Hunter Hibana was recruited into the Arachnos military after Captain Mako decided her little East Ward youth gang was "cute".)

After that, coming up with a 1024 character background is easy. That's just enough to give me a feel for the character, without locking myself down from character development later as the whim strikes me (Or the character version living in my head goes "HEY! I wouldn't do THAT!"). 1024 is an ugly wall to hit when the mood to tell a short story n my Bio strikes me, mind you.

Then lastly comes the name. Do I want "Flare", "Reformed", "Vampyritouthus" (ok, I got that one- no one wants to be a scary spiky cuttlefish), or Storm Hawk? Of course i'd like a short iconic name, but the game has been running for over seven years, I can be realistic. So I go with names that will look decent in a newspaper headline: my homage light-based super is "Fraulein Flare", my Crab Soldier is "Rainbow Mantis", and my experimental Dark/Fire/No-Fitness-pool (pre I-19) scrapper is Burning Rubber.

And thats where the little ideas come from.

Every direction. My first main is a character I've played in numerous game systems and is now older than some players, her name is her name and that's all there is to it. My second character came from a random dream image after a long discussion about what natural origin heros did in a world full of fire flinging teleporting people that controlled gravity. One came from the CoV Beta and out of order new costume bits resulting in my changing a black and purple colorschemed test character's outfit on the lower body from 'tight' to 'skirts/shorts' giving her a pleated flared skirt over fishnets with baggy socks, suddenly, character, poof.

Name occasionally sparks an idea (Psiamese, my oldschool Catwoman derivative of a Crey secretary/sabotour and thief) but often I have a concept and background and think up a perfect name. A lot of time its taken and I have to ponder alternatives til I find one that fits, or just shelve the character.

Usually I'll just be struck with the burning desire to play a particular powerset and end up facerolling the keyboard for ages trying to find a suitable name. Usually this just results in mild abrasion and disappointment, but occasionally I'll luck out and find something useable or one of the gurus in the name thread will provide. There's really not much more to it. Costumes must (it's a weird niggle) always relate to the name/powerset visually, so that makes things a lot easier, and I tend not to bother with fancy bios or anything, unless there's loadsamoney involved and I need to whip something up to sneak past a CC judge. Not that I ever win any, mind you.

Example: I want to play a psychic character, commence faceroll! Hooray, snagged a name: Lobotomist. Ok, that's a rather creepy medicine-related name, so he's a villain and the costume will use the surgical gear and a labcoat. Stick on "exposed brain wired" to handwave the psychic powers and BAM! One freshly-baked character.

It's actually easy to come up with a character name. The hard part is giving it sense or originality.

For instance, I've lost count on how many Cat based toons I've came across. And roughly 90% are some sort of Claws toons. And not so long ago, most of them were Claws/SR. It makes sense, but lacks originality because it is so common. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, kitten lovers. Withdraw your claws!

I also don't necessarily agree that you need to come up with the powerset combo first in order to come up with a bio or name. Actually I find that the toons I enjoy the most were created based on a Bio/name not on a powerset. Heck, I used to hate Storm until I came up with a few names such as Four Winds (taken on Virtue server, unfortunately) and Cap'n Stormbringer. Now it's probably my favorite set and the toons I enjoy the most.

I couldn't point one specific source from where I get the names and bios. Books, movies, everyday expressions, music lyrics, band names, wikipedia, etc etc.

usually im fiddling in the costume creator and a look catches my eye , then its a hunt for a name to fit the look and finally powers .

usually i'll write a simple bio and fill in pieces as I meet and interact with other players .

everything is always a work in progress !

These guys just go to the Justice League Roster to come up with an idea for their toons.

http://www.freewebs.com/justicecorpsofparagon/

The Hall of Virtue, their members MUST be based on DC/Justice League characters, their site even tells their members how to go about not getting caught or nerfed for their flagrant copywrite infringements. I don't know, I've reported them to the devs twice over the last several months but to no avail, so I sent them an email letting them know that if they did not do something to address an entire SG ripping off the rules, then I was going to take it to my fellow players on the CoH forums and let them decide if they will stand for this.

for more, be sure to check their website at:
http://www.freewebs.com/justicecorpsofparagon/

more power to them as its not hurting my game experiance and from reading their rules it looks like they don't want you to have a name or look anywhere close to the original .

I mean its not my cup of tea but im not gonna wangst over it

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny_Raven These guys just go to the Justice League Roster to come up with an idea for their toons. http://www.freewebs.com/justicecorpsofparagon/ The Hall of Virtue, their members MUST be based on DC/Justice League characters, their site even tells their members how to go about not getting caught or nerfed for their flagrant copywrite infringements. I don't know, I've reported them to the devs twice over the last several months but to no avail, so I sent them an email letting them know that if they did not do something to address an entire SG ripping off the rules, then I was going to take it to my fellow players on the CoH forums and let them decide if they will stand for this. for more, be sure to check their website at: http://www.freewebs.com/justicecorpsofparagon/

I actually almost always "come up with" the name first. The "come up with" is in quotes because I will, on occasion (usually the occasion being "I want to make a new character"), spend a probably ridiculous amount of time plugging names into the Check Name (or /friend if I'm in-game) to see if there's anything available that I like. This process has always led to my favorite names, such as Mister Wizard, Doctor Blood, Starboy, Moxie Danger, and Crime Queen. Then the character's powers and "theme" flow from there, with the bio added in later.

Sometimes I want to play a certain set combo, and I go hunting for names that fit the concept. This is usually pretty frustrating, though I do luck out on occasion.

1. Pick Powers
2. Identify adjective that might describe one or more of those powers
3. Place the word "Flea" after the chosen adjective
4. ???
5. Pleasure

I don't think I've ever seen the name and thought to myself to build a character around it. More often than not I'm sitting at the char creator trying to come up with one. I'm a big fan of pun oriented names, so this usually takes some time.

For Square Woot, however, the name popped into my head when I was building her. I was kinda playing around, building a nerdy tech girl, and was all "Hey, that fits," and thankfully it wasn't taken! I've tried to get the name on other servers to find it was taken, so I guess I'm lucky.

When I was making my first villain, I decided she'd be a Stone brute that RPed it as chocolate control. Initially I was going to call her Chocolate Chip, but that name was taken, so I ended up going with Chip Chocolate, which I ended up liking much better! Too bad playing Stone Armor was like riding a bike without a chain uphill.

When I first started playing, nearly all of my toons were Solaranger<InsertColorHere> - The inspiration being that they were part of a Sentai team.

When I ran out of colors that made sense thematically, I turned to <InsertSpecial>ranger as the name.

Examples:

SolarangerWhite
SolarangerBlue
etc

And then:

Blastranger
Phantomranger
etc

For the first Zombie Apocalypse, I had made Zombie Fryer, a werewolf, with the intention of leveling him and dinging 50 during the event. (The idea was a werewolf battling zombies) ZF's half-baked back story has taken some tweaks over the years - I'm not much of a RPer so the back story doesn't matter much overall to how much fun he is to play.

Ever since then, most of my toons have followed the Zombie <InsertCookingMethod> here.

Hence:

Zombie Fryer
Zombie Deep Fryer
Zombie Smasher (you smash stuff to cook right?)

And most comically... Zombie EasyBakeOven

Anddddd that's my story

[ @Zombie Fryer ][ @Zombie Smasher ]
| Home Server: Virtue |

Twitter: @ZFLikesNachos Save City of Heroes (Titan Network) [Successful "The Really Hard Way" runs: 4] [Click ^]

Back when I started playing, I used to 1) come up with a concept, 2) create a character with powers to suit that concept, and 3) try to find a name to fit the character.

That was when I had maybe eight or 10 characters. Now with dozens of characters spread out over several servers on two accounts, my approach has changed. Sometimes I still follow the above three steps, but since I'm more familiar with what I like to play and what I don't, now I mainly think of a name and check to see if it's taken. If it's available, I come up with a powerset to fit the name, and then a character to fit the concept and powerset.

A couple of my rules though are:

1) There has to be a logic (in my mind) why a character has a certain combination of powers; i.e., and origin story. For example, a Bots/Dark MM, just doesn't make a lot of sense to me because of the dichotomy between technology and magic. Likewise an Archery/Fire blaster. (I know you can come up with creative reasons to combine such powersets and have them make sense, and I'm really not looking for any.)

2) The character has to have a bio. Unless the character is currently just a nameholder, or is there to invite alts to a SG/VG, s/he has to have a decent bio. I only have one character I can think of that I have played for any significant amount of time who doesn't have a bio, and it's only because I cannot think of one for him that doesn't seem clichèd.

My final question is, how many people actually read the responses in this type of thread? I know I rarely read past the first page, or even half page.