What is the lineage for YOUR character?

[Rumze]

Reverse the polarisation of the tachyon pulse and set for multiphasic rotation Ensign.

Then fire it through the deflector dish.

[Corsair]

Ye gods...a dish, a subspace field, and Mr. Crusher. A recipe for certain success in any circumstance. (Only at the last moment of course.) I truly disliked Wesley Crusher after a time.



Not many here were around so long ago, but my favorite characters since the days of the FV-EQ server were actually the two I made for Vanguard. As an aside, I do not usually set out to base a character off of any specific personality, but sometimes as I go along influences appear when I stop to look for them.

Fenris - Part Western US native American tibal vibe. (He was  a ranger type, very into tracking and hunting and natural balance such.) Part Belgarath and Polgara, (specifically when in wolf form only), from the Belgariad.

Grishnak - I wanted to play an Orc. He'd be unable to entirely ignore his Orc-ish aggressive nature. What if he was paranoid and struggled with his historical racial issues? (Both paranoid of other races who have killed bushels of orcs in past wars, and somewhat dismissive of said races for their inherent weakness?) What if he was somewhat of a conspiracy theorist? Balanced by his effort to develop an Orc-like zen with a hint of aggression thing? And what would his main occupation be? A diplomat of course. (Actual character influences? Non I can think of, save maybe a dash of Mulder?)

I can only count Oozag the Ogre monk partially. He was originally my main EQ character in like 1998 when I played a couple years before FV came along. He was a blast...and I tried to end his story with his death. I brought him back later in EQ-2 my second time playing there, as a Monk. (He was a warrior at first.) He had no idea exactly how it came to pass that he was alive, and after a lot of time had passed...no idea what happened between. (He had died in a lava lake, which was his last memory before waking on a small deserted island.) His EQ2 mentality was much changed by his fresh perspective on things. His personality was "Zen and the art of Ogre kung-fu", with a bit of "The Dude", and a sense of being concerned his bigness and strongness might accidentally hurt a lot of his smaller Saga family members.


None of my characters since have resonated as strongly. Buck was cool...but not quite as cool. And I just have not clicked with my TSW character. Partly those are due to issues with the game designs and grouping opportunities. I find that my characters often round out as I play. I go in with a semi finished concept, and polish it up a bit based on interactions. I often enjoy letting my character be shaped in part by the interactions I have with other players. (Jasyn had this character in Vanguard that helped me shape Grishnak in a big way for example. And Buck was impacted by he and Bou in particular.) I always struggled with Buck with the issue of being scoundrel-ish, but not just a Han Solo wannabe. I think it went okay, but walking that line...it's hard to say.

[Mixxi]

I truly disliked Wesley Crusher after a time.

I hated him from the start. Strange how I hated Wesley but like Wil Wheaton so much.

[Rumze]

That character was terrible and no blame falls on Wheaton for that.

[Talon]

As loathe as I am to possibly provide more ammunition to anyone; Wesley irritated me. He was just so ... Good. I know that's the Saga way but I like a little bit of depth to my characters and Wes didn't have that.

[Jasyn]

Oh.  I never did answer the question.

None of my characters since have resonated as strongly. Buck was cool...but not quite as cool [...] And Buck was impacted by he and Bou in particular.) I always struggled with Buck with the issue of being scoundrel-ish, but not just a Han Solo wannabe. I think it went okay, but walking that line...it's hard to say.

Dude.  When Buck perspires, COOL oozes from his pores.  That whole *ahem* "episode" between him and Jezerai... /heroworship   

Most of my characters end up evolving from reflections of personal acquaintances, elemental facets of self-portraiture (which may or may not themselves become more caricaturish),  the blossoming of the kernel of a small idea, a personality that orbits about a central quirk, or a flipped invention intentionally created in opposition to pre-existing creations of mine.

Of those that had the most external sources of inspiration:

My first ever MMO character--a magely sort originally created without a roleplay soul but later reborn with a purpose many, many years after my first foray into MMO roleplay (this was the character I abandoned to try out EQ's FV server because the moment I heard about it, I knew that was how I wanted to play)--was largely shaped by the story I created when I resurrected him anew to flesh him out further.  It was only much later that I realized his story shared some tenuous parallels with a well-established (but, at the time, largely off my radar) character within the sci-fi genre, so I later purposely seasoned his personality here and there with an extra similarity or two in deference to the protagonist of that property.

Doctor Wiffle Whippolonius Tungsten Tinkerthunk Fedwyk III, GhD was one of my favorite gnomes--only the third gnome I'd ever created.  He took on a life of his own but was two parts Vizzini (INCONCEIVABLE!) and one part the guys from the old Guinness Beer "BRILLIANT!" commercials from 9 or so years back.

My Raki Disciple from Vanguard (one of my most pleasureable memories out of so very few from that little jaunt I took) was 0.5% The Impressive Clergyman.

P.S.  Poor Wesley.  /pets /hugs /squeezes /names_him_george  /cracks  Oops!  He's only sleeping.  He'll wake up soon.  I know he will!

[Catri]

Catri Sage
Catri is a character I took directly from a Star Wars tabletop game that I play. She's originally from Legacy Era; so I changed some things in her backstory to fit the era. However, she is much the same person. THe original concept for the tabletop campaign was a "Firefly with Lightsabers" sort of game. So:

Mal + Kaylee + six months of a tabletop game = Catri at SWTOR launch

Glynna Vegeirdottir
Glynna the Norn ranger is based on a dwarf hunter I rolled in WOW. I wasn't on a roleplay server, but I made up a backstory for her anyway. She has since made brief appearances in a couple of table top one-shots (yes, Pink Rose, she was the dwarf warrior in your game) where her personality has grown even more. Although she didn't come from other characters originally I can trace a line of characters she shares traits with.

Gimli (Lord of the Rings)+ Thor (Marvel movies) + Kira Nerys (DS9) = Glynna

Iris Alessi
After hearing Cyrian talk about GW2 thieves near the end of the Beta weekend I decided I wanted to roll a human thief at launch, but I didn't know anything about her personality. Going through this chart for her actually helped me piece her together in my mind as a person.

Selina Kyle (Dark Knight Rising) + Irene Adler (Sherlock Holmes) + Vala Mal Doran (Stargate SG1)= Iris

[Corsair]

Many thanks Jasyn! I really did like Buck. I think had he as long a run, he would make the list. And my hat is off to Jezerai for really making the run way more interesting. I think I just was always slightly aware of the need to try not to get totally cliche. I think it went alright! (And some cliche is quite alright.)

I love Vizzini+Guiness...nice combo. And I loved Wiffle. (Remember...Wiffie's fried pies on me...come visit Portland!)

I wish I had more exposure to Catri's character too, among others. Great stuff. Years ago a good friend of mine who is now gone ran a Star Wars tabletop game. My smuggler-ish pilot there was based on a wild Texan cowboy trick rider mental image I had, with a dash of 1920's barnstormer pilot. Basically sub in the ship for the horse trained for trick riding. Spent tons of creds making a custom high end speeder bike because of the need for thrills when in atmo.

[Catri]

I'm finding mapping character inspirations really useful for determining starting points of personalities for characters who either didn't have a personality yet or needed modification. I've come up with a few more for prospective alts.

GW2 Catri
I'm going to make Catri an Asura engineer in this game and she will likely be very similar to my Star Wars character, but I am going to try to make her a little bit more spontaneous and energetic. So, I mapped out another character set to get a handle on the differences.

Mal (Firefly) + Kaylee (Firefly) + The Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who)= Catri the Asura

Sylvari Mesmer

River Tam (Firefly) + Starfire (Teen Titans cartoon) + Yomiko Readman (Read or Die) = Brinda Duskblossom

Human Elementalist

Inara Serra (Firefly) + Princess Leia (Star Wars) + Romana I (Doctor Who) = Dhara Sanyal

[PinkRose]

Kanina + Codex + Talon = Freyja Ninadottir

[Mixxi]

Kanina + Codex + Talon = Freyja Ninadottir

So a red-haired, grumpy, self-doubting, eternally happy Norn? I think my head just 'sploded.   

[PinkRose]

I would substitute fierce or fiercely-loyal instead of grumpy, but aside from that, I think you've got her spot on.

[Rumze]

I'm going to model my female born necro on nanny ogg and I think I'll model bigby after River Song this time.

We shall see how it goes organically.

[Talon]

I'm going to model my female born necro ...

Well all that tells me is it's not Sylvari.

on nanny ogg and I think I'll model bigby after River Song this time.

Double thumbs up from me.

[Rumze]

I hate auto correct

I get the iPad for now since I've made it known computer is off limits this weekend.

[Talon]

More than a fair price.

I pity anyone else if you share, though. Set traps once Saturday starts.

[PinkRose]

No worries at my house.
We have one Desktop and 3 laptops. And only 2 people.
My game time is secured.

[Mixxi]

I'm going to model my female born necro on nanny ogg

I suspect I will adore this character.