Hey there!
I'm having a hard time with concepts and trying all sorts, but for those who are CO veterans and have your toons since the beginning, my question is How do you do it? What were the stages you took to create legit superheroes? I don't know if it's game mechanics, endgame content, etc, but I am lacking something. Sorry for the rant, but I am curious.
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Sometimes I actually get the costume first - Piqsirpoq, for instance, just started off as a generic idea for a Canadian super, with his tights colored like the ol' maple leaf. Then I started thinking about why a Canuck might wind up with ice powers (I'd gone with that because I hadn't made a Glacier yet), and I looked up some stuff about Inuit folklore. (Piqsirpoq is a Labrador Inuit word for "blizzard".)
If you're stuck, my suggestion is that you pick a character type, then start creating a background for them. Sometimes that'll give you what you need for the rest.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
The ideas you'll enjoy the most are always the ones that kinda flow out of you naturally, seemingly out of nowhere. Rather than the ones to try to force out. At least that's how it is for me.
But, let me throw around some ideas that I think might have helped.
That one started off with getting the Invisible Guns from the Foxbat event, and trying to figure out what kind of person would use invisible guns. Gunrunner's build is basically Munitions with guns he imagines. Now he's kind of the Nega-Punisher, waging a one-man war on villainy while trying not to kill everything in sight.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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The first thing I suggest is to remember that you aren't role-playing a toon, or an archetype. You're role-playing a person. You have to connect to them on the level of empathy for how they feel, what they want, how they view their place in the world. The way to make a compelling character with a compelling story, is to find one with a story that's compelling to you. That will infuse all your role-playing interactions.
Then keep in mind that a person isn't a static sculpture, all its traits set in stone. People change based on their experiences, the challenges they face, their successes and failures, and the lessons they learn from them. Allow your character to evolve over time, and his interactions with others will always be fresh.
Everyone on this thread has given you great suggestions for where to find inspiration for your heroes. The only thing I have to add should be obvious based the sort of things I post around here: I usually try to find a way to connect a character to the existing setting in some way, to find an intersection with who he/she is, and the background provided for the world I'm playing in. My experience is that immediately adds depth to the character, and usually suggests routes I can advance him or her through.
Most of my characters don't really belong in CO's universe, but that doesn't mean that on their own they aren't great characters. For instance, I have a character themed around Simon Viklund's "Break The Rules". The song itself has motifs that are reminiscent of Bonnie Tyler's "I Need A Hero", but mixed in with "Push It To The Limit" from Scarface, nevermind that it was designed for another game. Something that might help is to think of a song being the intro for a show with that character as the protagonist.
Anyway, the character I created with that song in mind is a roguish thief. Think Robin Hood, but stealthy and charismatic. His specialty lies in coercing the enemy to do the fighting for him while he works in the background to further disrupt villainous intent, usually by taking the very objects they were after. He "breaks the rules" by doing the deed first, keeping the villains fighting among themselves until backup arrives to clean up anything left. Most heroes are direct and confrontational, whereas this character works behind the scenes.
That's just a concept. Afterward, you can take it steps further with a fitting story that gives that character a reason to do what they do, a background of sorts. It doesn't have to be the length of a novel, but it is much easier to develop a story when you have your own interest in it. Once you have a solid background to match the character's ideals, that's when you should feel ready to RP. You don't have to write down every little interest or exploit for that character, as that tends to be overdoing it. Just start with a good foundation and build up from there. Let some RP affect your character's ideals, but remember their core.
And I will always be @DZPlayer122.
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