Imitation is Flattery, up until when?

Skeletor, despite his huge muscular appearance, isn't actually very "Brutey." His powers are ill-defined, but powers he's been seen using tend to fall more along the lines of various Corruptor, Controller, and/or Dominator powersets than a Brute (other than a few early appearances, where he used a sword), so I wouldn't worry on that front.

But "Skull with a hood" doesn't automatically mean Skeletor, either. He's got a bunch of identifiable bits - the blue skin the bone design on his chestpiece, his almost Roman-style "skirt", and his clawed feet - that aren't just covered by "Skull with a hood", so I wouldn't worry on that front, either.

In short - make the rest of him different enough, and he'll probably be okay.

It's all fun and games until some busybody reports a character & gets it generic'ed by a minimum wage GM since that's easier than thinking through whether it's genuinely actionable or not.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've only ever petitioned someone who was pretty blatant about their rip-off...er, I mean 'tribute'. You don't seem the type to confuse the concepts of tribute and rip-off. My measuring stick is 'how obvious is it?' It has to be, quite seriously, a direct copy costume-wise. That, or in the event that a costume is only evocative, it has to have a name/bio that is too similar as well. In short, if it looks obviously intentional, I treat it as such. If I'm questioning it's obviousness, I give the benefit of the doubt.

However, I've seen some ridiculous examples of generic-ification. A friend was named after a super obscure comic character with...unique powers. The name wasn't on purpose, none of us had heard of the character. The character in question was a woman with acidic blood which was also viral, or something. Real 'Dork Age of Comics' stuff. This trait came into play about once every 28 days. 'Nuff said on that topic. It wasn't even a name that'd most consider copyright-able. I mean it was basically "<Color> <Word for sickness>" and my friend's toon was a male with not-even-tangentally similar powers. He wasn't popular in some circles, so I'll leave you to guess how it happened. I think he actually quit over that, since it was his main.

Anyway, you're mostly likely fine, but nothing is 100% if someone decides to practice being a jerk. Just keep the references small, subtle, and tongue-in-cheek while trying not to be too Snarky.

Centurion, I think since Skeletor is such a generic looking grim reaper design (in his own way. His absolutely unique pieces you can play around with until you find something noticeably different you like just as much. You'll be surprised what you end up with!), you should be fine as long as you don't adhere exactly to him. Make sure to give him a top, no purple skin, stuff like that. Maybe since he's a homage to the Skulls with his name, you could add some details from that enemy faction? Like their coats?

If you *had*to put together some sort of "magic formula" for things that will get you generic'd, it might look something like this:

Copycat costume + copycat name (copycat bio)= generic'd

Copycat costume + unique name + unique bio = not generic'd

...seems simple enough to me.

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Originally Posted by EarthWyrm But I do understand that there is an internet rule that any bad idea must be presented by someone at least twice a year to remind everyone who hasn't already read every previous thread on the topic precisely why the idea is bad.

In my personal opinion, "imitation is flattery" up until you're making money off of someone else's work.

In my experience, many artists regularly draw/craft images of existing characters as well as their own. Indeed, for centuries "creativity" has involved the creation of imagery drawing on existing materials as much, if not moreso, than creating them from scratch.

I have always enjoyed drawing existing characters as much as my own. I've always enjoyed the thought exercise of creating them in various RPG systems. I once enjoyed crafting various vehicles/robots as closely as I could with LEGO blocks. And in any video game with good character creation I will inevitably attempt to create various existing people/characters (aside from this game, I think one of the best games for superheroes was in the WWE: Day of Reckoning series on the Gamecube).

But none of that means beans to what you can get away with in this game. While I have several costumes saved that are recreations of existing characters, I tend to behave myself on Live. Though I did have to argue with the GMs over one character, I made a slight colour change and haven't had a problem since. On Beta I'm far more likely to go with blatant copies.

Basically, I'd say that if I need to be familiar with the source material in order to "get" your character, you're already stealing. I say this because you're using as a necessary basis material that you don't own. If you can make the character work as its own, standalone creation without requiring me to know anything about the original - which is to say if you can make a character which resembles the original without lifting anything directly - then you're pretty much safe. The character works without having to know the about the original, and the reference to it is just a benefit (or irritation) to those who do get it.

I, myself, have taken and reused many concepts, but I take heed to jam many pieces of many concepts together into the same character such that he or she at the same time does not resemble the original and doesn't require any out-of-character knowledge to "get." It's still plagiarism for which I'm sorry, but if it's done well enough to where you can't really see the connection, it's not a problem.

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Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Thank you all for the wonderful thread. Based on the sound feedback and creativity I saw here I was inspired to create something truly unique. In it's own way as gawdawful and cheesy as Skeletor, but in no way related. Er, besides having a skull face.

I was actually able to use my idea for meshing the "Hat" category, and settled on one of the 3 possibles I had in mind. Thankfully the metal pieces described as "hats" work well on the "Death Goggles". THe theme easily went robotic, borrowing clockwork and Mecha pieces and a few odds and ends to tie it together.

The storyline is about a proud Paladin who saw himself as a slayer of evil (all undead) and enforcer of the church's rules about no technology or science (gotta love the religious fanatics) The Paladin crossed paths with an extremely powerful necromancer (and champion of undead rights!) who decided to show the Paladin how one sided the poor sots views really were. After smiting him he turned the Paladin's remains (not much) over to a friend who was working at the extreme edge of where magic and technology meet. THis individual gave the Paladin a robotic body (with the remains of his skull and spine implanted in it) the Necromancer then tied the thing to the negative material Plane to power it up, and keep the nanobots (the real heroes here) going. The Paladin worked many years to right the wrongs he did in life. Then he was free from service to the Necromancer. But he is permanently to be trapped in this undead state. He travels the worlds now as "Skulz" (The nickname given him by the builder of the robot body) seeking to learn what he can and help wherever it is possible.

Again, thanks.