The World of Layonara
The Layonara Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Angelic on September 29, 2007, 12:13:04 AM
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// An OOC advertisement
Thinking of submitting a new character?
One of the things that strikes me as appealing about any new character is being the first one to walk a particular path. Being unique and different. Coming up with a concept that doesn't prompt another person you are interacting with to think to themselves, 'Oh, you're just like '.
After 5+ years of on-line Layo running, one must think to themselves, 'Is there any concept of which I could conceive that hasn't already been done, and then done again, and then again after that?'
Guess what?
Rejoice for there is! Grannoch is a faith that seems to have attracted very few followers over time yet I see that not as a detraction but as an enticement.
You could be,
* the first amazonian-esque warrior woman sworn to the Mother of Giants.
* the first bard to sing an ode in Her name.
* the first barbarian to daub him/herself in mud prior to battle to honor that aspect of Her greatness.
* the first mage/elementalist to call Grannoch your Goddess.
* the first ... well, you get the idea.
Or, of course, you could make another paladin of Toran that will always walk in Michaelis' shadow, another stoic dwarf that will ever come up short (pun intended) when compared to the likes of Kobal, Varka and Fenrir, another bard who's voice will never reach as many ears as has done Ozy's, another arcane archer who will never perform feats of skill to rival those of Jacchri or Talan, another ... well, you get the idea. Is this really your preference?
So, remember Grannoch when you next submit a new character, join a (hopefully) thriving sub-community ... in the words of those old-time war posters ... We Want You!
Thanks for reading,
Angelic
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Hey! Stay off the dwarves! If I'd ever recommend joining a sub-community, it would definitely be the dwarven community... we rock so much.
I do however agree on the concept statement, if you have something that makes your character special, it's all the more better.
PS! Honored to be mentioned amongst heroes like Varka and Kobal.
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I am also most honoured to be mentioned in this post but there is one thing everyone has to remember. Everyone was new at some point.
Secondly when I began I actually looked up to Rev (lvl 157 Cleric or something) and I said to myself. Wow this girl did something and I am gonna do the same. And I began to work on it.
I can agree with you about making a different PC. It will help a part of the way but the truth is that all comes down to what you do IC. Keep the IC standard high and dont cut corners.
Extreme examples.
Make a voraxian Cleric and Varka will ask for your spiritual guides and words of wisdom. Levels do not matter but your actions and intentions.
Make a drow mage, become lvl 40, save 3 dwarven clans from death and Varka will still hate you for your race no matter what.
I have met people coming from another dimension, haunted by a lich, being the right hand of a God, Dragon slayer blood lies in their veins. Etc etc. Varka is simply a brute with a few advantages and a lot disadvantages.
But go for it; make that group because I am sure it will bring a lot of good RP to the world!
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Yes fully agree to that.
One the one hand the PC-ideas sound very intresting to RP or RP with and are probably unique but nomater how often a dwarve follower of Vorax or a paladin of toran or an Arcane Archer or.... have been created, their "mind" still can be unique (and shouldb be and most often is).
You can make the mosr unique PC ever created and play him boring IG and all the uniqueness would be worthless.
You can create a "common" PC and play him creative, give him an intresting back storyand so on and he will be unique.
Ever created a fighter following Vorax or noone in particular? Sounds not very unique but add special characteristics, maybe A phobia... blood phobia?
To stay serious just make your PC life and not just be an ordinary"fighter" without background, feelings or wishes who just simply fights.
Play his role what ever it maybe, if fightter, rogue, wizzard or paladin, if believer in Vorax, Corath, Prunilla or Grand,if good or evil, if chatic or lawfull and hive him/her a personatlity. your uniqueness is not only defined by your class, god and allignment, but by the personality, their "soul"
EDIT: e.g. In RL not every american catholic banker is the same, nor is every european yewish busdriver identical to another, I think you see what I eant so say ;)
Regards,
>Xirion>
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I would hate to think that players will be compared to others because of their characters, if I ever heard someone say my character is a shorter version of another [pun also intended, I play a halfling], I seriously don't know how I'd take it, it would depend on what kind of day I'm having, but still not the greatest thing to hear. I'd like to see the people that put efort and time in their application but didn't make a special unique character get a little more credit, maybe they -want- a simple character...
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Odranoela, my apologies if my original post caused offense to you, this was noever my intention. My intention was to attract new participants to a faith-based sub-community that to date, has had a largely underwhelming involvement from the greater Layonaran community.
As to what I think about when I create a new character, ie, a concept that I haven't seen thirty plus other people explore previously, this is of course my view only and certainly no more worthy a view than what Xirion states above as his own. My thoughts were more along the lines of if -I- were to make a new cleric of Lucinda, on day 1 of their existence they become (OOC) the lowest level lucindite PC cleric in the world and probably (IC) the lowest ranked PC member of the clergy in the world. However, were I to make a new cleric of Grannoch, on day 1 of their existence they become (OOC) the second highest level PC cleric of Grannoch in the world and (IC) maybe one of the ones responsible for the creation of a new temple to the Mother of Giants.
These views are my own only. To me (and perhaps me only) there seemed very little completely new ground to explore in the world of Layonara after 5+ years of player shaping. There seemed few roads to walk that did not already bear the footsteps of another, few debates of dogma for a particular deity that had not raged thousands of times previously over the years.
This was the intent of my post. Perhaps others felt the same way and if they did, I was hoping that I might show them an 'area' of potential interest in which few had delved previously and which I believed held an opportunity for great and interesting Roleplay that was completely new in the world.
My apologies again if you thought my original post was a slur against the originality of your PC concept or a statement that they could never make their mark on the landscape of Layonara.
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Thanks for your posts Angelic. I appreciated the goal of your initial post and understood the point you were trying to make.
I have as well been fooling with some ideas that would take me to under developed areas within the lore of the world... but alas.. I've barely time to give my current characters justice. Perhaps in the next version of Layonara however... ;)
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just popping in to say that I was in no way offended by your post(allthough the examples you choose fit to both of my PC a paladin of Toran and the other one aiming for arcane Archer) and that I even appreciate such ideas.
It was just the post you made raed as if the uniqueness would depent only on the diety/class mix. Anyway, thanks for the clarification!
And last to say it was not my attention either to say my oppinion is better than yours, we are all individuals with individual point of views ;)
At least we should be, would be kind of boring otherwise, eh?
>Xirion>
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Actually, if I had the time, I had already drafted up a half-Giant Cleric of Grannoch. If anyone wants the backstory, etc., as a baseline for themselves to work with, just let me know.
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haha! I did that with my Dwarven Wizard Bama...Follower of Lucinda. At the time there was just Br'acar Fireface. I still don't think there are a lot of us around? It is fun to have a different character on layo, but the true difference comes out in RP. There may be many followers of Toran or paladins, etc, but when they are Rp'd well...they create their own epic legacies.
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It is fun to have a different character on layo, but the true difference comes out in RP. There may be many followers of Toran or paladins, etc, but when they are Rp'd well...they create their own epic legacies.
This comment is the essence.
You don't need to search for dieties that have little followers to make original and interesting characters. All one needs to do is make their character unique, even if it's following a popular order. It all comes down to RP as Trace quoted above.
Cheers,
Polak76
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haha! I did that with my Dwarven Wizard Bama...Follower of Lucinda. At the time there was just Br'acar Fireface. I still don't think there are a lot of us around?
It's still those two. But Lucinda is for pansies :)
And if you want another character idea: there has never been a PC cleric of Goran in all these years.
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And if you want another character idea: there has never been a PC cleric of Goran in all these years.
*goes and looks up Goran*
Little wonder, that has to be the geekiest deity I have ever laid eyes on!
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Oh, just you WAIT till the new dieties come out! *shakes a fist at Pseudo* JUST YOU WAIT!!
*feels a bit protective of Goran*
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hmmm the closet geek in the "lilac shirt" calling something else geekiest
i dont know about you man
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Oh, just you WAIT till the new dieties come out! *shakes a fist at Pseudo* JUST YOU WAIT!!
The team has my full support should they choose to impliment a CN deity of Chaos, Knowledge and War named Lonnarin, whose aspects include getting rip-roaring drunk and argumentatively debating absolutely every nuance of lore or rules out of sheer principle alone. He should be patron of pipeweed and those who enjoy frivolously and drunkenly debating everything under the sun just because they can. The bastard son of Aragen and Xeen.
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Aw... I love Goran. :( I'm going to buy his T-Shirt. What's wrong with the god of invention??
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What's wrong with the god of invention??
Probably the association with the ridiculous portrayal of Gnomes as fast-talking buffoons who can't seem to make anything that doesn't fail spectacularly. If Gnomes were taken more seriously, so too would be Goran.
Huzzah for Goran!
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Well, it is a ridiculous portrayal and I generally ignore it. :P
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Goran gets the last laugh though on a long enough timescale. Once science and invention become powerful enough to feed a nation and tend to all their worldly needs, nobody hardly needs gods or magic any more. When the militaries of Layonara learn that it's far quicker to stick a gun or grenade on your hand than it is to spend a year teaching you how to cast magic missile, magic will widely be forgotten. And then the world will fear Celgar and his army of nuclear golems and psionic space marines.
As for new character concepts, I really wish a big influx of monks would arrive, with factions of good and evil dojos who break into streetfights at the drop of a hat. Then all of my shaolin monk vs ninja martial arts fantasies would be fulfilled.... Cobra Kai, never Die!
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I think that any character who helps flesh out the game world is a good thing.
Sometimes this can be accomplished by making a human fighter, or some other tried and true concept as far as the mechanical categories, and simply making a memorable, 3-dimensional character.
Other times, filling a hole in the game world by making an interesting/unique combination of race/class/deity can help flesh out the world. It's a good thing to have PC representation of all the deities, and finding less played deities is a perfectly valid way to come up with a new character. This doesn't mean that wanting to play a brownie palemaster of Corath simply because it hasn't been done before is justifiable, but filling in unplayed but likely to exist niches is healthy and important for the game world.
That doesn't need to involve denigration of those who choose the first path, in fact, I personally think that creating memorable interesting characters from a common template is a more challenging roleplaying task. I think that sometimes more experienced players get addicted to playing more unique or outlandish concepts (which is often a lot of fun), and that some balance between the two needs to be maintained.
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Probably the association with the ridiculous portrayal of Gnomes as fast-talking buffoons who can't seem to make anything that doesn't fail spectacularly. If Gnomes were taken more seriously, so too would be Goran.
Huzzah for Goran!
*Just smiles*
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Had a Goranite wizard gnome once....
Kinda fun, springs popped out of everywhere when she talked, and she kept loosing her PRECIOUS DOODAD!
Had to have everything I wanted to try and invent approved by the team before hand....
Couldn't do anything too scientific in the context of the world unless I had various CDQs or an ECDQ...
Kinda defeated the purpose...deleted her.