|
Wrestlepig posted:I chose to play a female barbarian with red hair for a campaign and Boy there’s a lot of people who want to gently caress Red Sonja 
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 08:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 09:01 |
|
|
I once used redhead barbarian art for a pbp and I recognized what fetish model they’d traced for the face. Also Tumblr used to be real good for character art but is obviously over.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 08:49
|
|
|
Holy poo poo, I hadn't realized Elfwood went offline. drat. I had stuff up there from when I was like, 14.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 08:56
|
|
|
bahamut posted:Please don't ever be discouraged by something like this! I know I'm probably one of the worst offenders when it comes to prettying up applications, but at the end of the day it really is about your character's concept and build, and ultimately what the individual running their game wants to do, and what themes and ideas appeal to them the most, and they feel will work best for their game. Okay but this is actually pretty rad even if you didn't get into the game.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 09:52
|
|
|
SunAndSpring posted:gently caress it sucks to see like a new system I'm interested in trying in recruitment here and then try to spend a little bit thinking about making a character and when I check in on it again, there's like 10 more apps and they've all got fancy little titles they made in Photoshop and cool pictures and meanwhile I'm scrounging Pinterest to try and find something cool and Photoshop is a frightening and arcane system for me. This happens so often. On the opposite side of the spectrum, I got into a game with a poorly photoshopped and extremely artifacted picture of Hannibal Buress in a helmet. It's better to focus more effort on writing something fun and fresh. Finding character art can be a total struggle outside certain genres though, yeah.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 12:08
|
|
|
I don't even bother looking for character art until I get into a game, personally. It's always a hassle and if you're basing your character choices off art rather than concept I can't see that game turning out well except by accident.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 15:10
|
|
|
SunAndSpring posted:gently caress it sucks to see like a new system I'm interested in trying in recruitment here and then try to spend a little bit thinking about making a character and when I check in on it again, there's like 10 more apps and they've all got fancy little titles they made in Photoshop and cool pictures and meanwhile I'm scrounging Pinterest to try and find something cool and Photoshop is a frightening and arcane system for me. This happens so often. 100% agreeing with what everyone else said about content being more important than pretty, but I also want you to know : Photoshop is really not scary for basic use. I taught myself it over a weekend when I was like 12 and somehow that’s still a marketable skill that people think makes me a wizard. Download GIMP or whatever is free that looks good and just mess around with it, googling “[program name] [what you want to do]”. You’ll be fine.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 15:24
|
|
|
SunAndSpring posted:gently caress it sucks to see like a new system I'm interested in trying in recruitment here and then try to spend a little bit thinking about making a character and when I check in on it again, there's like 10 more apps and they've all got fancy little titles they made in Photoshop and cool pictures and meanwhile I'm scrounging Pinterest to try and find something cool and Photoshop is a frightening and arcane system for me. This happens so often.  But truth - this is why I keep an (organized, indexed) archive of character concept art. Next time you're cruising through image sites for ideas, anything you see that looks interesting? Just save it. Basic organization's plenty - like genre/race/class (Fantasy/Dwarf/Warrior, for example). Then next time you've got a need, you're 90% of the way there. Hard drive space is cheap these days, having a couple of hundred images at immediate hand is basically nothing.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 16:08
|
|
|
Counterpoint: as a GM, I often look for the middle ground apps. Too little effort and its a bad idea, but its also bad to have a 1+ page of backstory and crap because I don't want to read/listen to that much b.s. constantly.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 16:09
|
|
|
Kai Tave posted:Yeah, I've never let that stop me before but I do sympathize with struggling to find just the right bit of character art. That's kept me from applying for more games I probably would have had fun with than about anything.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 16:19
|
|
|
I tend to start with a simple back story concept and flesh it out as I go.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 16:41
|
|
|
A long interesting backstory isn't as good as a short interesting backstory. A few punchy sentences should be enough to paint a solid picture of a character concept.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 19:02
|
|
|
I don't think I have ever had more than two or three sentences worth of backstory before starting a game.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 19:10
|
|
|
if you make me read six paragraphs of mediocre prose I will end your life
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 19:13
|
|
|
It's been several years since I ran a game here, but when I did, I was not recruiting based on "interesting character concepts" as much as "is this player reliable." Which is really hard to gauge, but... I'd rather have a poster who isn't going to drop out after 4-6 months, than an amazing character concept that doesn't make it past the second act. Secondarily was "can this poster post good" and that really comes down to skimming their previous posts in other games and seeing if they are just endlessly "I do X" or if they enhance the game with interesting narrative, dialogue, action, etc. Which obviously favors long-time posters over newcomers, so I'd try to include newcomers too, but as a minority so the others can carry the game a bit if it turns out they're not as good. Character art is more or less meaningless to me, and it's rare to find someone who is unable to develop a feel for their character through actual play. In my experience, the background is only really important to the player themselves, the other players and the GM tend to maybe remember one or two things at most from it, and often ignore it completely in favor of what is going on in-game. The GM might mine your background for NPCs, but that can come from even an extremely thinly sketched out bio for the character. And honestly I've always preferred to see characters built and backgrounds put together as a group. I'd rather assemble three to five good posters and have them make characters together with me over a couple of weeks, than have three to five excellently-conceived characters who have nothing to do with one another thrown together at the start of an adventure that was designed without them in mind.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 19:26
|
|
|
I used to do so much more pbp gaming before systems existed... hmm Also yeah, good concepts trump cool art. Also matching the theme of the game.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 20:38
|
|
|
Heck, I used to ask people not to even make a character. I asked them questions like "why do you want to play this game" and "what do you hope happens" and the such. I didn't care about characters. I was guaging the player's interest, what they would play like, and how reliable they were. I stopped that because people found it invasive and uncomfortable. Got me some good playgroups, though. Made sure we had shared interests and let me know what to do to keep their ibterest.
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 21:21
|
|
|
Ghost Leviathan posted:I tend to start with a simple back story concept and flesh it out as I go. I tend to start with a complex mechanical gimmick that I'm excited about. I don't sign up for many goon games. 
|
|
#
?
Dec 17, 2018 21:53
|
|
|
SunAndSpring posted:gently caress it sucks to see like a new system I'm interested in trying in recruitment here and then try to spend a little bit thinking about making a character and when I check in on it again, there's like 10 more apps and they've all got fancy little titles they made in Photoshop and cool pictures and meanwhile I'm scrounging Pinterest to try and find something cool and Photoshop is a frightening and arcane system for me. This happens so often. Most of the logos I do are just use cooltext.com or flamingtext.com. Sometimes I've gussied up logos using gimp, but my ability to worry about mammoth, labyrinthine effort like that has been solved by the simple repetition of rejection. In general, PtbA games here have been shark-and-blood pools. Things have actually dialed back from where they were where games often had like double-digits of questions to answer. But it's somewhat surreal that PbtA - the game that's supposed be bam, fill out a form, have a character in 15 minutes - turned into this. Granted, at the same time, it's always funny to see people lash out at the notion of folks writing a lot for a system that actually asks a fair number of questions on the sheet... on a chat forum where writing words is how you express your character. That's not to say that folks don't go overboard, that's not to say I haven't gone overboard, but... at the same time, all those questions are on the playbook, and they're not exactly simple ones. Granted, I appreciated a recent recruit that was "give concept and art" and worried about a full character later, which feels like a better way to go for PbtA IMO.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2018 00:58
|
|
|
Can't get rejected from games you don't apply to. :smaug-thinking:
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2018 02:09
|
|
|
Leperflesh posted:And honestly I've always preferred to see characters built and backgrounds put together as a group. I'd rather assemble three to five good posters and have them make characters together with me over a couple of weeks, than have three to five excellently-conceived characters who have nothing to do with one another thrown together at the start of an adventure that was designed without them in mind. It depends on the system, but PbtA games tend to base what the game will be about depending on what playbooks the players pick - you don’t make adventures or what’s going on in the rest of the world before that. So it’s fairly easy to look at the PCs once you’ve picked them in a PbP game and start doing your prep then instead of before characters are created.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2018 02:13
|
|
|
Heliotrope posted:It depends on the system, but PbtA games tend to base what the game will be about depending on what playbooks the players pick - you don’t make adventures or what’s going on in the rest of the world before that. So it’s fairly easy to look at the PCs once you’ve picked them in a PbP game and start doing your prep then instead of before characters are created. That's certainly true. What helped me grok Masks was it was much more about the story the playbook told than the powers it had, and I've even both myself and others get tripped up by that.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2018 02:24
|
|
|
whydirt posted:Can't get rejected from games you don't apply to. drat straight :smugbutalsodepresseddog:
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2018 02:28
|
|
|
Tuxedo Catfish posted:I tend to start with a complex mechanical gimmick that I'm excited about. A friend of mine does that kind of thing. There's actually fun to be had in translating that into fluff. I think of the characters in an RPG as a 'cast' rather than a party or a group, which can sometimes be the right idea.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2018 03:45
|
|
|
Ghost Leviathan posted:A friend of mine does that kind of thing. There's actually fun to be had in translating that into fluff. Oh I know, I've had a fair amount of success with just that. It's just that if someone submits an entire biography of their character as part of the sign-up process, and I sign up too, odds are one of us isn't going to get the kind of game they're interested in.
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2018 06:25
|
|
|
Seconding the recommendation for Cooltext.com, that is how almost everyone makes their character logos in the Masks threads. No artistic talent required just a bit of playing with settings until you get something you like. Everyone else is just as busy hunting through deviantart and pinterest as you, we've just got a lot of stuff bookmarked. Also goons love helping other goons find art, in my experience. If you're struggling ask in the discord and people will help!
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2018 06:40
|
|
|
On that topic, are there GMT goons who might put up with someone unsure about a system playing or running?
|
|
#
?
Dec 18, 2018 21:51
|
|
|
*slowly pulls a thick stack of PBTA games from under the table*
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 00:06
|
|
|
Dawgstar posted:That's certainly true. What helped me grok Masks was it was much more about the story the playbook told than the powers it had, and I've even both myself and others get tripped up by that. Yeah, I get tripped up on Masks a lot because the playbook powersets are pretty strongly themed towards existing superheroes, and when I'm trying to come up with something novel as opposed to 'part of the Teen Titans cast with the number rubbed off' it can throw me out of my groove.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 12:04
|
|
|
How do they do not-Beast Boy again? Reminded of how in Star Trek DS9, Odo and the Changelings in general are basically the exact opposite of the stereotypical personality you'd expect from a character whose main gimmick is shapeshifting. Did help that Odo's abilities are fairly limited because it's an extremely difficult skill that takes decades to master.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 13:48
|
|
|
Ghost Leviathan posted:How do they do not-Beast Boy again? Depends. What part of Beast Boy do you find interesting? The guy from the storied Doom Patrol off on his own to prove he doesn't need them to be a hero? Legacy. Happy go lucky guy who is just so excited to be here? Beacon. In the show, he be a beacon that takes legacy moves later to "reveal" his past to the table.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 14:05
|
|
|
Now that it's brought up I don't know any playbook has 'turn into animal' powers.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 14:08
|
|
|
I always took the powersets in the playbooks to be more guidelines than rules anyway, though the Nova should always be potentially incredibly destructive.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 14:47
|
|
|
Splicer posted:*slowly pulls a thick stack of PBTA games from under the table* I know that was probably sarcasm but I’d be totally up for that if I could learn/practice.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 15:19
|
|
|
Splicer posted:*slowly pulls a thick stack of PBTA games from under the table* Run a game of Monsterhearts set in an ER with sexy doctor werewolves and maximal levels of story woo. Record everything for my amusement. Please give me this Christmas miracle, Splicer.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 15:25
|
|
|
Dawgstar posted:Now that it's brought up I don't know any playbook has 'turn into animal' powers. The Doomed and the Outsider both have a shapeshifting option explicitly, but lots of abilities, especially physical ones, can be fluffed as shape-shifting. The Legacy's set of flight, strength, toughness, super senses, and eye beams could easily be shapeshifting into birds, gorillas, tortoises, wolves, and mantis shrimp, for example. Likewise, the Bull's power set could be shapeshifting into strong, tough, deadly animals, though it doesn't have the breadth of utility of Beadt Boy's.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 15:29
|
|
|
GimpInBlack posted:The Doomed and the Outsider both have a shapeshifting option explicitly, but lots of abilities, especially physical ones, can be fluffed as shape-shifting. The Legacy's set of flight, strength, toughness, super senses, and eye beams could easily be shapeshifting into birds, gorillas, tortoises, wolves, and mantis shrimp, for example. Likewise, the Bull's power set could be shapeshifting into strong, tough, deadly animals, though it doesn't have the breadth of utility of Beadt Boy's. I think the Teen Titans version of him works better as the Outsider anyway. Plays more on his fears that he'll never really find a place to belong, given that he's a green dude whose talents are more in line with a circus freak than a hero's, in his own mind.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 15:32
|
|
|
Liquid Communism posted:I think the Teen Titans version of him works better as the Outsider anyway. Plays more on his fears that he'll never really find a place to belong, given that he's a green dude whose talents are more in line with a circus freak than a hero's, in his own mind. You'd have to have a very liberal interpretation of "your homeland" for any of the Outsider moves to make sense for Beast Boy, since they're alll about literally being from Atlantis or the moon or whatever, but if you fluffed it as "the weird jungle preserve where he lived alone with his mom and the animals," it could work.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 15:36
|
|
|
Liquid Communism posted:I think the Teen Titans version of him works better as the Outsider anyway. Plays more on his fears that he'll never really find a place to belong, given that he's a green dude whose talents are more in line with a circus freak than a hero's, in his own mind. Less Outsider and more the Transformed, I think, since he straight up can't pass for human and that's a big source of his angst.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 15:42
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 23, 2024 09:01 |
|
|
Liquid Communism posted:I think the Teen Titans version of him works better as the Outsider anyway. Plays more on his fears that he'll never really find a place to belong, given that he's a green dude whose talents are more in line with a circus freak than a hero's, in his own mind. In one bad future he literally works as a circus freak. (in a cage to protect him from his audience, not to keep him in) There's a lot of sad clown going on with him. Most of his major episodes and storylines are about trying to fit in and deal with teenage things amplified by superpowered weirdness, like struggling with his masculinity, trying to date a troubled girl, and reconciling with his estranged, dysfunctional family. GimpInBlack posted:You'd have to have a very liberal interpretation of "your homeland" for any of the Outsider moves to make sense for Beast Boy, since they're alll about literally being from Atlantis or the moon or whatever, but if you fluffed it as "the weird jungle preserve where he lived alone with his mom and the animals," it could work. He was actually raised by the Doom Patrol, one of the more out-there superhero teams of the DC universe, after being orphaned at a young age. He's got more of a military brat thing going for him, but the important part is that he's never really known any life other than a superhero. That said, like nearly all the Titans are outsiders in some way or another, Cyborg had the closest to an ordinary life and struggles with how he's never going to be normal again.
|
|
#
?
Dec 19, 2018 15:44
|
|