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Original Characters Based on Canon Concepts


Uaithne
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Have you ever made a character based on a canon character but played on an original site?  How heavily based on the character was it?  Same name / occupation / history / etc, or just vaguely inspired by the canon?  Did you credit?  What was your experience like making this character part of an original setting and plot?

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I do it all of the time because it's hilarious and fun. My favorite is Montgomery Scott (Scotty) from New-verse Star Trek. It's a ton of fun to play him as like a hacker and whatnot in a world with vampires etc.

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1 hour ago, Uaithne said:

Have you ever made a character based on a canon character but played on an original site?  How heavily based on the character was it?  Same name / occupation / history / etc, or just vaguely inspired by the canon?  Did you credit?  What was your experience like making this character part of an original setting and plot?

 

Rarely, but yes.

 

At my Wild West site, our setting is original, but the premise is based on the old family westerns and movies of the late 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. Part of our rules state that people can pick their iconic western hero and rewrite their background to fit our setting. In my case, I used the name, some of the personality, and a bit of the canon history, but the bulk of his background was original. I did give credit. I made it clear on who the character was based on, etc.

 

As far as making him fit the plot, it was fairly easy. Again, we picked sort of a classic plot for the genre and adjusted everything to suit. Another guy writing there based his character only on the concept of his favorite character. Everything else he did was original to our plot and premise.

 

Great questions!

Someone somewhere went to sleep and dreamed us all alive.
Dreams get pushed around a lot, and I doubt if we'll survive.
We won't get to wake up, dreams were born to disappear.
And I'm pretty sure that none of us are here.
~ None of Us Here by Jim Stafford ~

 

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I think most people do this all the time, either consciously or subconsciously. A couple of ocs I write are based on ones in Norse mythology, but they are only named in a poem from the Poetic Edda. Their family have a much more prominent part in it.

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Guest BETA BLUE

I have character loosely based on Belle, Beauty and the Beast. I use fun tidbits, her shop is the name of the area in France,  she has her magic mirror, and that's really as far as it goes. For my sites, I ask for not a direct base but inspired. I rather see someone create an existing character if they are going to do a  hard copy. 

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Yup. I don't always do it on original sites, mostly other canon/fandom sites. For example, I made a Superman pastiche on an X-Men site years back; same powers, similar enough personality, but I made him a mutant. I also had a habit of playing Solid Snake and Big Boss of Metal Gear fame pretty much everywhere I could shove them into, lol.

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I do it too, but I mix the concepts, so the original character results being original, but when I say the playby inspires me (sometimes) it's not the actor, but a certain role in a movie.

 

Yes, my Tortuga innkeeper, having as playby Sarita Montiel, was inspired by "Carmen la de Ronda" (with the same Prospere Merimee story at the base which inspired the opera "Carmen" by Bizet). But she has also something from Esmeralda in Victor Hugo's "Hunchback of Notre Dame" and of Huguette from the Pardaillan series by Michel Zevaco.

 

My pirate captain, having as playby Eduardo Palomo, was inspired by Juan del Diablo in "Corazon Salvaje", but also by Robert Surcouf and another French corsaire.

 

And so on...

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I've done many "inspired by" mishmashes, but rarely have I taken the cannon source themself. I enjoy watching OTHER people take cannons and changeup their abilities/history to match the actual site, as it's always fun to see "What if Glinda the Good Witch was a faerie resident of Midnight Texas" type re-inventions: I just also like to see the players honest about it and make a footnote that says "yes, this is intentionally a Glinda inspiration". 

 

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I have certainly based characters off of canons (both consciously and subconsciously). Usually I pull my favorite features of the character and revamp the rest -- so like, after I saw Logan I made a character who had a perfect hierarchy of loyalty and an adopted father that he'd give anything for, but otherwise, the character was entirely different.

 

Usually I don't use the same FC as the movie/whatever that inspired me.

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My OC's tend to be a slew of canon characters jumbled up or more so inspired by them. Right now I have Lilith who is a combination of Ruby Knowby from Ash vs Evil Dead, Harry Dresden from Dresden Files, Ash Williams from Ash vs Evil Dead, and a slew of others I am sure. Also just good old demonic lore tossed in for good taste. She is more or less the ex queen of hell who is a supernatural private investigator, an alcoholic, and a sassy snarky little snot. 

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Not in a long time; I like having them separated because if a character is too similar to a canon character, I'd rather play the canon character themselves, untouched, so to speak.

 

I don't mind loose 'inspired by ' bases, whether or not it's the general concept (basically an archetype / trope) or  a few defining details (DC's Dr Langstrom's parallel to Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde). I just can't play comfortably when the OC is a carbon copy or rip off.

 

I think it's hard because personally, if I'm in a setting with original characters, I'd want to write with character designs that didn't come from DC or GoT, as I'd go to a DC or GoT game for those characters. I get bored because I want new story lines, twists and turns; not the same old Bruce Wayne's cat & mouse games with villains or Tyrion Lanister's sibling rivalries.

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To be perfectly honest I have done this in various ways, some involve crediting the original creators. I read a lot of books of various genres so ultimately I am inspired by the characters in them. My latest experience involved the Ryria chronicles and Ryria Revelations books by Michael J Sulivan which I have loved and continue to love the characters and their history. Adapting them has been a really smooth process and I could see myself doing it again.

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I do this most of the time with my own characters; whether knowingly or otherwise. XD

 

Expies/homages are fun, and many of them tend to contain references or give nods to my favourite characters from various media. (movies, video games, anime, etc.) For example, I have a character whose backstory and general premise gives a nod to Blade from Marvel Comics, and Alice from the Resident Evil films.

 

Her basic premise is this - she's a half-zombie, basically possessing the intelligence, reasoning and cognitive abilities of a human being, while also having the resilience and senses of a zombie. i.e. at the first glance she seems like a normal (albeit deathly pale) human girl who speaks in monotonous drawls - until it turns out she can sense when zombies are nearby, and never gets attacked by zombies. (since she registers as another zombie to their senses) And that's the part that pays a homage to Alice; aka. gets infected by zombie virus but ends up being a net gain.

 

And for that part that gives a nod to Blade? Well, her story began before she was even born, when her then-pregnant mother was bitten by a zombie on the finger; while she was saved from being turned thanks to her husband quickly amputating the infected digit, she was nonetheless 'infected' just enough for the virus to cause some mutations to her unborn daughter - so she only ends up 'partially' zombified, which gives her the best of both worlds.

 

In addition, she's also prone to adding verbal tic, "mrh?" to her sentences when she's confused - basically a reference to the zombie apocalypse MMO game, Urban Dead.

 

So there you have it, just one of my many characters that pays homage to assorted pop culture works. XD

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