Latest Poll Results - Character Creation Character Types

Not if you're doing it right. You can't help but duplicate somebody else's idea every once in a while, even if by accident.

 

Only 9%? so low... I would have expected higher.

I usually name my characters after some others because I have a hard time coming up with names.

But for stats or alignment and such, I choose whatever I want.

 

Wow, only 9%! I ALWAYS base my characters on someone else. My longest lasting characters have been:
Arya Stark - Fighter / Rogue (from a Song of Ice and Fire)
Homer Simpson - Barbarian / Bard (from the Simpsons)
Buffy - Cleric (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Darth Vader - Cleric / Monk (from Star Wars)
Sauron - Fighter / Cleric (from Lord of the Rings)

I don't think I've ever made a character from scratch.

 

I'd say i copy one character out of 4 i create. It makes the character idea so much more clear. Also, it's easier not to base your character on the game rules, but instead on character concept. That is, a Raistlin will be using necromancy spells, even if they're not the best around.

I would've expected more people copying/basing characters on known and likable characters from books/movies...

 

Barbarian for Homer i can understand, but Bard OMG
He would definitivelly suck at this profession.
I usually though have only one character that i play through every game (ranger) who has some resemblance to Drizzt (who is an idol of sorts) but still not Drizzt, i try to make him more like me than anything else.
After all RPG is, for me, more than anything else to be your real self.

 

Homer was part of a barber-shop quartet called "The B-Flats", which included Homer, Skinner, Apu, and Barney IIRC. Their trademark song was "Baby on Board". They were actually pretty good in that episode.

EDIT: The B-Sharps. How could I forget that?

[ September 01, 2005, 22:14: Message edited by: Felinoid ]

 

Felinoid has it right. Homer's one level of Bard was due to his time with the very successful (but now completely forgotten) barber shop super-band, The B-Sharps. They went one step better than the Beatles and named their second album "Bigger than Jesus". Their careers ended when Barney took up with a Japanese conceptual artist and their final live performance was on the roof of Moe's.

 

And Wiggum was the original fourth member who got kicked out when the group heard Barney singing in the bathroom at Moe's.

Back on topic:
I think most of the voters were just ashamed to admit they had so little imagination. But it's not about imagination anymore; a good concept is a good concept, whether someone else thought of it first or not. Everyone roleplays differently, so even basing a character on someone else's concept wouldn't mean a duplicate character.

I put always because I figure there isn't anything I can think up that hasn't been used a hundred times before.

 

I wasn't ashamed to admit it (as I just did), but it was more that I missed the whole poll.

 

I'm sorry I missed the poll I try not to base any characters on any pre-existing conditions other than my mood. Their names come from looking at my bookshelves and the letter(s) that jump out at me.

My current charcters are Andrat 'Ratty' Runewriter a dwarven mage (12th) prone to drunkenness and getting himself into bother and his brother Borun a fighter/thief (6/8) who's getting fed up of picking the pieces up.
Shaemar Beech my avatar described elsewhere.
And then there's Raindancer (original name lost in the annals of time as regards gaming time) he's a cursed human immortal (long story) all stats 25, 30th sorcerer, dual-classed to thief 31st, dual-classed to fighter 32nd, dual-classed to cleric 33rd and present 15th druid working his way up. He mainly joins campaigns as a teacher/sensei or called-upon semi-demi-god and we've suspended the usual dual-classing rules for him now allowing him to use all his abilities.