Hey everyone,
Just to brainstorm a bit and to express some thoughts:
I have made a ton of builds and I still love making characters ... I just don't want to type up the long, somewhat drawn out essays to go along with them. The CB group is absolutely amazing at what they do and their standards are where the hosts want them to be. It might be a little bit more approachable to sharing a character through a shorter, more succinct process.
Would any of you agree that some sort of "character snapshot" could work as a way to get more players to share their characters? We could do this through CB, but it wouldn't really be considered building nor would it be considered RP. This could just be a short pic, skill list, race, and SHORT description of how you play the character.
I really enjoyed Mason or whoever came up with the little dot/stat cards so to speak. That may be artistically a huge stretch for some people. It could be as simple as this:
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The Necromancer
Class: Imperial Necromancer/Conjurer
Skills: Illusion, Conjuration, Alchemy, and Sneak
Gameplay:
Dren is always in search of more power. Slaying foes from the shadows, Dren confuses and dismays his enemies to slay each other only to raise them to fight and cause more bloodshed.
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Not sure if this is something we could promote? I have done builds, started the idea of RP profiles, but both are a lot of work for one character. This could be for people who want to share their characters without having it be a shit ton of work?
Let me know what you guys and gals think. I am hoping to keep brainstorming ideas for more content that EVERYONE can contribute. These would be SUPER easy to feature on the main page because no one would have to click anything to see the entire presentation. It would be able to fit at the top and everyone would literally see the whole character snapshot all at once.
This could work for ALL games so to speak and be a universal approach to sharing characters in any RPG or game we decide to add or not add.
I admit I've always wanted to see a thread like this pop up, yet I've always been hesitant to start one on my own. I'm a bit hesitant to share my "McProfiles" though. My name choices are less than lore friendly and I'm pretty sure if I rabble on for more than a paragraph Im bound to contradict the lore somewhere.
I think that's what is so good about this idea - there is literally no reason to be afraid of lore contradictions. These could potentially act as little pieces of inspiration, the building blocks of something bigger. People could take what they like (with the author's permission I guess) and maybe mash a few together. At the very worst and someone does come along and say, "well actually..." then it is a discussion point that will promote Henson's idea even further.
The real gold is that they are small pieces of inspiration, like leaves on the wind for people to grab. Lore accuracy is overrated, lore interpretation - the emotional connection the setting inspires in people - is what should be important.
In a build I think you sort of expect to see research and the presented character's place in the setting. A build represents the tree of TES with branches or RP, Lore, Art and T&T. Whereas this is the seeds or the saplings. Man, I think I'm turning into a freakin Bosmer.
Alright but I am biased because I played it and loved it. The Skaal Crusader! Is that ok? Or would you prefer one that isn't a collab?
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The Skaal Crusader
Class: Skaal Shaman/Warrior, Legendary Hero of the Skaal
Skills: Two-Handed Swordsmanship, Smithing, Heavy Armor & Block Training, Alteration, Destruction, Alchemy
Snapshot:
When the people of the Skaal cry out to their maker for salvation, their prayers are answered - The Skaal Crusader is that answer. It is unknown who inhabits the armor of the people and wields the great Skaal swords of legend, but none can deny that the legend is real and walks among the people.
Gameplay:
The Skaal Crusader's fighting style is the embodiment of what it means to be one with the land and all that the All-Maker has created. The Skaal Crusader bears both the Blood Skaal Blade and the Stormfang - Powerful gifts bestowed upon him by the All-Maker. With the Blood-Skaal Blade in tow, enemies bear witness to the full force and fury of a Skaal warrior, and through the Stormfang they are reduced to smoldering ash by the full wrath and power of the All-Maker.
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I love this idea. I find myself having ideas for builds/characters but not enough time to invest in a full play test or write up something full. And I'm not experienced enough with RP profiles to put something like that together. I love the idea of combining the two into a sort of abstract or, as you say, snapshot. Enough to give people the basic concept of a character, maybe even to let them try playing it (if it's a build). But keep it short, keep it simple. I could absolutely get behind this! I've already got a few screenshots I've been wanting to use for something along these lines if I ever got the opportunity....
The King of Worms. Everyone is inspired by Mannimarco and a nice homage to The Necromancer in Henson's OP...?
I haven't yet commented here properly, but I do fully support this idea. I'm all for easing entry and giving people a simple way to share characters. Honestly, I think it can stay here since it splits CB and RP pretty evenly. I'll gladly advertise this on the front page of RP to direct traffic, and that's probably the best we can do for it.
True! Hell, I see this being a huge boon to people of all levels of experience.
I do have a question, though. If we decide that this stays here, are you going to include all the new snapshots in the OP? Or are they going to be left in the comments? I only ask because I do see this blowing up to the point where moving it to a group with proper categorization will be necessary, and it's not really fair of us to expect you to update constantly, or expect people to fish through comments.
Once this gets up to the double digits, the middle pages more or less get lost to time. I think it would be worth discussing how we would categorize these and which group would house them.