CHARACTER BRAINSTORMING.

In this thread, we discuss characters, traits, roles and general details on a daily basis.

It's simple, you post what you think represents a character and what you would like to see done with him. Try to keep it as short and sweet as possible.

This will help when we eventually get to choosing who becomes playable and who becomes an NPC.

TODAY'S TOPIC

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LIFELONG WARRIOR BRO:

This is an easy one. One of the original 4, this Kamina look-alike has been your bro for the longest you can remember. What do you think makes him a character?

for example:

lifelong Bro:
brave
friendly
Alpha
will cheer you up no matter how bad is the situation
won't easily get mad
easy-going, to the point of being a bit careless
protective
likes hot grills, but tries to control himself if he's in love with some other character. (he may still go for it)
Does he swear? Sometimes.
What kind of wording he uses? Keep it casual
What does he value the most? Bros before hoes

To me, he is a friendlier Kamina.

Relaxed.
Blunt.
Friendly.
Passionate.
Casual.
Strong.
A Leader who takes the side-lines for friendship.
The Heart of the Team
The perfect character to kill to send ripples through the story.
Or maybe the perfect character to corrupt?

Gameplay-wise, I always imagined him as a Glass Cannon/Support character. He deals a ton of damage, especially with his drill-sword, and can rise this damage even more by using Brotential in a way more intrinsic with his playing style, allowing him to pull off Broskills more often and allowing him to quickly kill all but the toughest enemies. On the flipside, without brotential, he is a tank without the durability.

Clown wrote:

What do you think makes him a character?

LWB is the main hero's yes man. He's the guy who takes any dumb suggestion of yours and props it up, like "yeah man that sounds totally fucking rad, come on dude let's do it". His main character flaw is that he doesn't have much of an opinion of his own at all, so asking him for suggestions of his own might respond in an "Uhhh maybe you should ask XY instead" type response. He's incapable of leadership, but a sidekick by heart and soul, and he'll never turn his back on his pals. Doesn't have a problem with conversating, but almost never starts a conversation. Hard to get mad, since excitement is more of a "cool" thing to him. Often asks for permission from his "higher ups" to do even trivial things, such as going to a shop on his own. If left alone for prolonged periods of time, he withers and dies like a dry flower.

He feels a little like Persona 3's Junpei Iori to me.

Friendly
Casual, maybe doesn't take things as seriously as he should
Awkward around grills, as much as he likes to look at them
A little crass
puts on a strong and determined front because he wants people to look up to him, but really isn't that much of a leader
(possible point of conflict: he gets jealous because everyone names the Brotag as the leader)
Listens to Tyler the Creator and Kanye West because it's loud and vulgar, but doesn't read much into the lyrics

I like the idea of making him a fragile support character. Like a paladin/cleric

Well, I don't have much to say on the Lifelong Warrior bro, as he's been written in the prologue and he's one of the core four original characters.

He's your bro. Your lifelong friend; he starts out with his brotential maxed and he'll always stand by your side.

"This isn't my story, bro. It's yours. I'm just here to help."

I feel like this guy is the ladder on which the brotagonist rises. In the beginning, he's much better in the ways that matter in an RPG, and by the end you don't even realize you've outstripped him entirely. Gameplay-Wise, that would mean that he gets a lot of use in the beginning of the game, but has some real diminishing returns by mid-game, and by the time you're at end-game, you can do anything he can better. the fact that he's at maximum brotential, and how it can't be reduced from that state no matter what you do morally, makes up for those diminishing returns.

He's real affable, very carefree, lets things happen as they will. That's not to say he won't charge headlong into a situation, but it's a very subtle kind of passivity, one where you don't realize he's being prodded. he's one of the few characters that never disapproves of your choices. He might gripe a little about things, but he'll never hold it against you. He thinks he's real hot shit with the ladies, and, to a certain extent, he's right; all the average girls are all over his dick, but any woman with more aspirations than shopkeeper tend to simply laugh at his antics. It's okay with him, though; any girl that takes more than a week's worth of wooing is too much effort.

In short, he's easy, breezy, and effortlessly good. And it's that 'effortless' that is his main character flaw. The ladder is as tall as it's going to be; it's the man climbing it that rises to new heights.

So the most agreed-on traits are his friendlyness, care-freeness and the fact that he would gladly give life and foot for you. As it was said, this was an easy decision. Really, the bro is the most established character in the game and the one that will support you the most.

So let's put an end to this. Now, we focus on another of the original four, and the very first waifu at that.

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EXPERIENCED (Tsundere) WARRIOR GIRL

This is a girl who takes shit from no-one, is better than you (at first) and doesn't hesitate to tell you about it...or at least it seems that way.

What makes her a character?

Blunt.
Objective
Straightforward
Hot-headed when dealing with certain topics (say something, good or bad about her and you're dead)
Can't take criticism and will get pissed
Strong.
Stubborn, but smart enough to avoid most embarassing situations
Will play the hard girl role, but she also likes being a damsel in distress. She won't admit it, though
Does she swear? Sometimes.
What kind of wording she uses? Standard. Less casual than lifelong bro
What does she value the most? true love being an independent woman who needs no man.

Gameplay-wise, A strong damage dealer with decent health. Eventually it becomes a bit weaker than the bro hero regarding stats, but still a useful bro. Without brotential she is a weaker version of the brotagonist (stronger until mid-late game) With brotential she will unleash all her bad temper to protect her love bro

I'm just going to post this:



Pretty much exactly how I see her.

Gameplay-wise, a standard, all-around good jack of all trades like the Brotag, maybe a little bit better considering she is "Experienced" and all that.

Eventually, she learns how to use magic and becomes a Spellsword. Above average both physically and magically for someone who can fulfill lots of roles.

Did you guys miss the word Tsundere

Gameplaywise she is a competent fighter but hardly the best, her main shtick is "recon" skills (predicting enemy behavior, finding weaknesses, showing foe HP...) and exploiting weaknesses.

Flavorwise I've always imagined her to be a blunt, no-nonsense type as Triptune says, and with a severe inferiority complex kinda thing going on (because of being an early female in a stereotypically male job - cue videogame equality jokes). Very moody, easy to anger, but never loses focus. Strongly attracted to steength, muscles, physical power- prone to mocking and condemning "weak" (less buff) males. Compensates for her lack of muscle mass with finesse and extensive practical combat knowledge; maybe a good tactician too. Also has a bit of a hipsterish "meh, I was slaying dragons before it was cool" attitude in her.

Now, the ultimate question for the ages: Are we using her as a classic Tsundere (IE, She slowly switches from Tsun to Dere) or a Modern Tsundere (Where she violently oscillates between the two extremes)? Because which choice we go with creates a very different waifu, and I think it's something we need to hash out before character can be created.

(Classic best Waifu, Modern a shit)

Gameplay-wise, She should be a fairly well-rounded damage-dealer, with some speed to make up for her lack of durability. I like the idea above about how she can become a Spellsword, that should add some late-game playability to her. Depending on whether or not you're romancing her, she should have different bromancy attacks. What that would be, I don't know.

Classic works best, with some modern sprinkled every now and then if you choose the dialogue options explicitly created to piss her off.

Well tsundere is basically borderline personality disorder, so she'd act mostly "normally", with the occasional emotional explosion, and with strong black & white perception of others.

So, general agreement is that she should be tsundere, should warm up to you but not be constantly PMSing at you for no reason.

Competent, useful, strong. Another easy one.

Now let's get to another one of the original 4.

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We discuss the Cleric Kid. Is it a boy? A girl? Both?

Argue away.

Is it a boy? A girl? Both? Nobody knows. Being prepubescent and raised up with purity and chastity in mind, he's not quite sure either. I'd expect the kid to "officially" be a boy, but you might potentially convince him that he's a girl.

Gameplaywise, he's a cleric. Duh. Healing, support, warding against demons and undead, utilizing non-damaging debilitating status effects such as Mute. Etc etc

Personalitywise he acts like a slightly deprived (due to living most of his life in a cloister) child. He's clueless about a lot of things, curious, but a bit timid, yet very playful when around people with whom he feels safe. Believes in fairytale-esque ideals of good prevailing over evil no matter what and such (to a naive degree), never questions his faith and finds other people questioning it puzzling at the very least, and utter heretics at worst. Might know a big secret of some sort that he never gets around to telling others unless extensively questioned, although he personally finds it to be of little importance.

TL;DR black & white morality, clueless, friendly, shy, naive, a bit stubborn, childish (also in humor - doesn't get sex and other "mature" jokes, but toilet humor and slapstick crack him up like nothing else)

I would think that his gender should be dependent on your choice, like this:
LWF: hey, man, what even is that little squirt? I can't tell.
BROTAG: Man, it's totally (a boy/a girl), can't you tell?
LWF: I don't believe you.

but this is only relevant in the end-game, where he finally hits puberty in the 'where-are-they-now' slide. otherwise, a lot of jokes can be made about the androgyny.

>Villainous Vixen tries to get some /ss/ action going
>VV is Confused for the next battle

anyways, what is there to say? he's the healer, support, naive, religiously pure child. next.

The Animaniac Dude wrote:

I would think that his gender should be dependent on your choice, like this:
LWF: hey, man, what even is that little squirt? I can't tell.
BROTAG: Man, it's totally (a boy/a girl), can't you tell?
LWF: I don't believe you.

but this is only relevant in the end-game, where he finally hits puberty in the 'where-are-they-now' slide. otherwise, a lot of jokes can be made about the androgyny.

This is a good idea, but it'd be even better if he ended up the opposite of what he's declared as, so it'd be a shock to the party no matter what you do.