Outside Inspiration: Fantasy Gaming & Character Creation
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Because Writing Inspiration Comes From the Strangest Places…
As an Author, one can’t be too picky where ideas and inspirations come from. I have to admit, this is going to prove the geeky-girl side of me… but I’m a big fan of fantasy MMORPGs. That’s right. A Gamer Grrl.
Some writers might wave video games off as a waste of time. Especially MMORPGs. However, one can’t spend all the time writing and researching. The well of inspiration will run dry pretty quickly if you don’t ever have something to fill it again. Some people read to refill it. Some people observe real life. Some people watch a good movie. So why can’t playing fantasy games be a source of inspiration and writing content for a fantasy author?
Here’s a quick suggestion, and possible writing exercise. Have you ever created a character who you had a name, background, personality… everything in place. But you just couldn’t really visualize what they looked like? This could be a protagonist. Antagonist. Side character. NPC. Oh, and this tip is especially handy for DMs who want a good mental visualization for random characters that your PCs might meet….
Let a video game design your character for you!
That’s right! A lot of different games out there have a Random button on the character customization screen. That doesn’t just go for MMORPGs either. Games like the Sims also allow you to click to get a random character. Asking for something totally random at character creation is a great way to add a little something different, something you may not have thought about, to character creation in your own stories. Even if you don’t have the possibility to use a random character design (some games don’t), you can still use elements from the character creation screen to really help you visualize physical aspects of unknown or new characters.
Of course, this may not fly for main character designs. And you may not want to keep every aspect of the game character. But there might just be something there that sparks a moment of inspiration. The “Oh! I didn’t think she that might have purple hair!” or “Hmmm, that’s a really intense look… I wonder if he’s always that serious?” or the “Wow… he sure does have a big nose!”
As an example, take a look at some of these randomly created characters, all taken from the creation screen of Everquest II. All gaming biases aside, what kind of stories could you imagine up for characters that look like this? Could aspects of these characters be something you could use to help visualize some of your own?
Gamer-Authors, don’t miss out on inspiration sitting right at your fingertips! Just standing around a populated town in an online game offers hundreds of story opportunities and visual inspiration for your own work!
So go out there and find some inspiration in the unlikely places!
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9 Comments on Outside Inspiration: Fantasy Gaming & Character Creation
I think all character should have different face. Look like same figure for me.
animecrunchy’s last blog post..One Piece Episode 348
Thanks for your feedback, Anime. Yes, the basic structure of the character faces are similar with this model type in EQ2 (it’s one of two model types you can use). But this was more of an example of what results of random generation can make — it’s always up to the writer to keep or drop what they don’t like.
And it’s also more of a last-ditch “I really don’t know HOW to make this character look!” sort of thing. Mixing and matching is encouraged — maybe you like the hair style in 1, but the color of 4 and the expression of 2? Piece them together and put a few of your own touches on it and you have a more solid visual idea of what your character might look like.
KJ sez:
Where did you get these faces from, Wren? Web, or from a game of your own?
These models are from Everquest 2. I would have used Guild Wars, but I don’t think they have as expansive range of randomness as EQ2 or WOW do. Though I have personal experience of using Guild Wars character creation and armor as a basis for some of my character designs in the past!
I like to do rough sketches of the characters I’m working with, and have considered using 3D gaming generators like this, but my kind of vector tribal drawing style really doesn’t convert well to it (or, more accurately, I write for a reason). The random traits generators are interesting, and for one of my books I have used some more archaic random information generators: Dice various kinds and styles of card decks, tiles, and coins, for example.
Very cool. My hubby is a game programmer that makes MMOs. He has a pretty well written blog here:
http://schlaghund.wordpress.com
Check him out!
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This is an interesting concept and truthfully one I had never eve thought of I’m not an RPG’er, but do play word games — I guess that’s where my inspiration comes from — a word or phrase will stick in my mind and there comes a post!
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It is great to see that other non novel based forms have the same issues and solution that novelists and screenwriters have.
Very interesting post. I do so love the writing process, hope you do to.
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interesting. not only it applies on character appearance, names too are important roleplaying mmog. it would be odd to even have names like xxO_oxx..lol what kinda name is that. seriosly im been seeing more and more of this weird names.
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