William Discussion

Started by WhiteRose, March 03, 2011, 06:43:40 pm

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WhiteRose

March 03, 2011, 06:43:40 pm Last Edit: March 03, 2011, 07:59:56 pm by WhiteRose
This thread is for discussion of the main character. I'll keep this first post updated with the most current outline.

MAIN CHARACTER
Name: William
Age: Late teens
Gender: Male
Appearance: To be determined
Occupation: Not yet a full-fledged member of the Church, but very close to taking his vows.
Class Role: Healing and support magic at first, but is able to supplement with various other things such as melee combat, as he is not yet a Church member and thus not restricted from doing so. The player is given control over his growth, so eventually he can be anything from a full healer to a melee fighter to a spell caster.



PERSONALITY:
He is well-learned from growing up in the Church, the most prominent place of learning in this setting. Though he has natural leadership ability, he is still young and tends to slip up and make mistakes. He is also somewhat young, and this can occasionally be seen in his choice of actions. As the game progresses, he becomes not only a better leader, but more mature.



BACKSTORY:
Not much yet; I don't think we should give the main character too much backstory, as leaving it a little vague would allow the player to better relate to him, as they could envision their own sort of history for him.




RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER CHARACTERS:

(This section will be filled out a little later as we get the characters more worked out.)




I think right now the most important thing to come up with is a name. Any suggestions?

AliveDrive

That's ok :P

Appearance, formal? like apprentice robes maybe?
Quote from: Blizzard on September 09, 2011, 02:26:33 am
The permanent solution for your problem would be to stop hanging out with stupid people.

winkio

This thread is the one we are using, I'll delete the other one.  Also, it's good to let the lead have the first post so they can edit anything important into it.  Just for future reference.

So from the story thread, this is the only guy that actually knows what is going on with the cult, and he has to explain it to everyone else in the party, right?  So he should be good at figuring things out.  What I'm saying is he should be the smart one, imo.

WhiteRose

@AliveDrive: I think towards the beginning he'd definitely be wearing the garb of the Church (which at the moment I envision to look something like Catholic clergy robes historically.) However, he may or may not change into something a bit more suited into adventuring early into the game. What do you think? Would he stay in his typical robes or change out of them?

I think each has it's own implications - staying in his typical priestly garb would show a closer connection to the church, while changing would better reflect his later change of heart. Maybe we should have him stay in his robes up until the Church refuses to help him, and then have him change once he agrees to accept help from the wizards?

@winkio: I agree; that's a good idea. I think he should also have readily apparent natural leader qualities that lead the others to look up to him to direct them.

AliveDrive

March 03, 2011, 06:54:01 pm #4 Last Edit: March 03, 2011, 06:56:21 pm by AliveDrive
Does he have a formal education? (The vaguer the better)

@WhiteRose Yes, the Church refusing to help him could make for a very dramatic cutscene. I suggest a fellow church-mate that he is friend's with, but also refuses to help, this would all be very dramatic.
Quote from: Blizzard on September 09, 2011, 02:26:33 am
The permanent solution for your problem would be to stop hanging out with stupid people.

winkio

We could make it that the Church is the center of learning, and that's where people get their formal education, and only the smartest can become ranking officials, or something like that.  And then the other wizard guy could have once been involved with the church, but since gone his own way and studied his own interests, etc.

WhiteRose

Quote from: winkio on March 03, 2011, 06:57:08 pm
We could make it that the Church is the center of learning, and that's where people get their formal education, and only the smartest can become ranking officials, or something like that.  And then the other wizard guy could have once been involved with the church, but since gone his own way and studied his own interests, etc.


Fantastic idea; I like the sound of that. We could even take it a step further and say that the whole group of wizards who rediscovered magic was actually an apostate branch of the church.

AliveDrive

Ok so having a little trouble following here...this branch are they: Good guys (who are shunned by the church?), bad guys (same thing)?

Sorry  :>.<:
Quote from: Blizzard on September 09, 2011, 02:26:33 am
The permanent solution for your problem would be to stop hanging out with stupid people.

WhiteRose

Quote from: AliveDrive on March 03, 2011, 07:04:19 pm
Ok so having a little trouble following here...this branch are they: Good guys (who are shunned by the church?), bad guys (same thing)?

Sorry  :>.<:


No worries. The Church isn't bad, just slightly mislead - they know that magic has been forbidden and are opposed to even the mention of it, but don't completely know why. The group of people who rediscovered magic and left the Church aren't necessarily good, though; they do, however, see that the release of the Creators would be catastrophic, so they're willing to help put a stop to the cult. The Cult of Creation are the real bad guys; they want to bring back the Creators and destroy the planet. The majority of the factions aren't so clearly black and white, though. Did that clear things up a little for you?

AliveDrive

Yes. I think the Branch of Apostates should be skilled in Earth type magic, be somewhat close to nature (living in the woods, due to being broken from the Church/society), or be sort or like "the guardians of nature", as this would go well with the stopping the earth from being destroyed theme. Or some modification of that.
Quote from: Blizzard on September 09, 2011, 02:26:33 am
The permanent solution for your problem would be to stop hanging out with stupid people.

WhiteRose

Well, apart from maybe a few people who have through some accident discovered bits and pieces of magic on their own, they're the only ones who can cast magic, so they're skilled in all aspects of it. (As a whole; I'm sure some individuals are better at particular things than others.) Due to the large political power of the Church, their organization is largely underground (not necessarily literally.)

Hatsamu

Cool. I've read the story after replying here so I could figure out what would fit better the protagonist.

I suggest you not to give him a "classical" personality. Being "the natural leader" or "the silent cool guy" its kinds over-used.

(I find kind of hard to explain my self because though I consider myself a writer, the 95% of my work is in spanish):

According the story I've depicted as potentially smart but inexperienced. He can act as a leader, as he knows whats going on and he clearly wants everyone to know it, but he has not to be neccesarily good at this, at least at the beggining of the story.
As the main character, I find a quickly-storywise developed personality from an "acting as a leader out of emergency" to a "mature leader" one will work better, improving the game experience as you could see your main character grow not only in power and skills but also in knowdlege and smartness.

Something like... Have him make mistakes at the beggining. Have the "noble avenger" get mad at his mistakes. Have him grow. Have him gain the respect of the party members.


Hope it works for you (if I managed to say it clearly xP)

^^

WhiteRose

Quote from: Hatsamu on March 03, 2011, 07:23:56 pm
Cool. I've read the story after replying here so I could figure out what would fit better the protagonist.

I suggest you not to give him a "classical" personality. Being "the natural leader" or "the silent cool guy" its kinds over-used.

(I find kind of hard to explain my self because though I consider myself a writer, the 95% of my work is in spanish):

According the story I've depicted as potentially smart but inexperienced. He can act as a leader, as he knows whats going on and he clearly wants everyone to know it, but he has not to be neccesarily good at this, at least at the beggining of the story.
As the main character, I find a quickly-storywise developed personality from an "acting as a leader out of emergency" to a "mature leader" one will work better, improving the game experience as you could see your main character grow not only in power and skills but also in knowdlege and smartness.

Something like... Have him make mistakes at the beggining. Have the "noble avenger" get mad at his mistakes. Have him grow. Have him gain the respect of the party members.


Hope it works for you (if I managed to say it clearly xP)

^^


I definitely agree with you; those are great suggestions. Thanks for your input!

winkio

I would just like to emphasize the growth of the main character over the game, as this should be pretty important.

@Hatsamu: by 'classical', do you mean the sort of person who is well mannered, polite, neat, respectful, and ambitious?  Because that is what I'm getting from your post.

Hatsamu

Glad you liked it, WR ^^


Quote from: winkio on March 03, 2011, 07:27:38 pm@Hatsamu: by 'classical', do you mean the sort of person who is well mannered, polite, neat, respectful, and ambitious?  Because that is what I'm getting from your post.


Nope, sorry, "classical" is also used as "already seen/known" in spanish... xP

winkio

ohh, that's what you meant.  There's an advanced word in English 'archetypic' which has the same meaning, but a better description would be 'familiar' or 'overused'.  And I agree :)

AliveDrive

I have to disagree, cliches are cliches for a reason. They work. That's not to say #1 won't have moments where he is totally out of character. Say someone gets him a gift on his birthday and he gets excited like a little kid, instead of acting so "classical". Use the cliche, break the cliche.

Isn't there a thread on better storywriting here? They say to use and break cliches I'm sure of it.
Quote from: Blizzard on September 09, 2011, 02:26:33 am
The permanent solution for your problem would be to stop hanging out with stupid people.

WhiteRose

I've updated the personality section in the first post. Keep the suggestions coming; this is great! We're definitely making progress.

AliveDrive

Is it too early to start with names?

It says, to be determined. Which made me think, his name should mean: to be determined. xD

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/William
Quote from: Blizzard on September 09, 2011, 02:26:33 am
The permanent solution for your problem would be to stop hanging out with stupid people.

WhiteRose

Quote from: AliveDrive on March 03, 2011, 07:42:46 pm
Is it too early to start with names?

It says, to be determined. Which made me think, his name should mean: to be determined. xD

http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/William


I do like the name William; I think it seems to fit him pretty well. It has been used a few times recently, however (the Pirates of the Caribbean movies comes to mind.) This doesn't mean we can't use it, however; anyone else have any thoughts on the idea?