Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
This is a forum dedicated to RPGs, D&D in general. We claim no ownership or rights over any intellectual property except that directly attributed to each poster.
Add Reply
Characters for a show
Topic Started: Mar 10 2016, 11:28 PM (95 Views)
Konrad13
Administrator
[ * ]
Posting perhaps the most fleshed out characters presented in the 4chan thread, mostly their info since the site won't let me attach their stat block pdf.

Quote:
 
ERYNN AMBLECROWN
Our main character. Fresh-faced and looking for adventure, but new to it; she left her home in Sembia looking to experience more of the world and/or to escape a bethrothal she hated. Very Disney Princess-y, though I think she should just be a noble, not outright royalty. She devoured stories about heroes and villains as a kid and has gotten it into her head that Anthias is a noble hero; she wants to record Anthias' adventures and try to turn him into a hero. The central premise of the show, however, is Erynn becoming a hero herself.

Since this is a kid's show, we'd have the occasional song - in addition to kids liking songs you actually get paid more when you include them. By having Erynn be a bard we can have her sing without it necessarily being forced.


Quote:
 
ANTHIAS GREYCASTLE
He's basically Han Solo or Flynn Rider. A genuinely skilled fighter, he plays up people's expectations of him being a folk hero in order to swindle more cash out of them, and largely views clearing out dungeons as his job. He's not particularly heroic, or says he isn't, but when push comes to shove he can usually be counted on to do the right thing. The deuteragonist to Erynn's protagonist.


Quote:
 
ILIIRA II'ILMERAIS
A drow thief who was born on the surface and knows nothing about drow culture beyond horror stories. We're including a drow in the party because drow sell well by WotC and Paizo's own admission. Very much a secondary character, Iliira exists largley as the plucky comedy relief, as the thief usually is in most fantasy stories. Her drow nature also means she can be the focus of occasional stereotyping-is-bad stories that kids' TV shows inevitably have, however. Those should be kept to a minimum, though.


Quote:
 
OSTOLF IRONSTAR
The Party's team dad and the moral center who can usually convince them to do the right thing even when doing otherwise would be easier. Old friends with Anthias and Iliira, he mostly sticks around them because he's pretty sure that if he didn't, Iliira would steal everything that isn't nailed down, and Anthias would help her carry it away. As an old dwarf he has lots of stories about the past and is a good source of local lore. He could also have an actual family in his Dwarfhold home, for stories involving kids if we felt the absolute need to do that. Ostolf is also useful for "don't push yourself too hard"-type stories since he sometimes doesn't know when to stop and rest.


Quote:
 
CALAHIR AMASTACIA
Calahir is basically the wizard who's not very good at being a wizard stereotype, except that he's a druid instead of a wizard because the party needs a cleric, but clerics might frighten soccer moms. Folk who get powers from "nature" tend to go over better than folk who get powers from pagan gods. Anyway, Calahir is intended to invert most stereotypes about druids. He's cowardly and usually the first to suggest running away instead of fighting - "flight" instead of "fight". But his attachment to the natural world can occasionally drive him to be brave. He's also surprisingly easily motivated by promises of gold. Calahir can be used for the "protect nature" type stories but offers a different perspective than usual due to his characterization.


Quote:
 
SCRYLIA THE PSEUDODRAGON
The team's mascot, intended to be toyetic. Erynn is her familiar (yes, Scrylia phrases it like that). Knows more about magic than anyone else in the group, is a stuck-up know-it-all, and is utterly convinced of her own superiority; yet she can be distracted by a ball of twine. In truth Scrylia is a red dragon who's been trapped as a pseudodragon, and is hoping to use the party to cure her condition. This is to give her a bit more depth than just being the "team mascot."
Edited by Konrad13, Mar 10 2016, 11:29 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Konrad13
Administrator
[ * ]
Right, this is a discussion thread. Character ideas and such should go here.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Konrad13
Administrator
[ * ]
For background:

Quote:
 
1/?

It's set in Faerûn, specifically in the Dalelands and most specifically, Mistledale. This basically because of the reasons suggested by the 3.0 Campaign Setting book: the Dalelands have a lot of adventure sites near them, but civilization is also nearby so adventurers are rarely unable to get to towns. Additionally, Shadowdale is only one dale over so Eliminster can make a cameo appearance or two without it being too contrived; and the interaction of the various Dales, as well as the Dales interaction with Zhentil Keep, Cormyr, and Sembia, can be an easy source of plots.

The main characters (unnamed):
- A female human bard, our protagonist. Fresh-faced and looking for adventure. Her being a bard gives us a convenient excuse for the occasional musical number. Bards are full casters as of D&D 5E, so she fills our wizard role nicely.
- A male human mercenary fighter, our deuteragonist. Ostensibly he's adventuring just to get paid, but he has a heart of gold.
- A female drow elf thief who was raised among humans. There are two reasons for this. The first is that since I'm designing the D&D cartoon there's no way I'm not working in my favorite PC as a main character. But secondly (and the bit I'd sell to Hasbro) is that drow sell well, so we should have a drow, but drow culture is gross, so she should be human-raised. Our dark elf is actually a source of comic relief much of the time.
- A male half-elf druid. Druid is used instead of Cleric to avoid angry moms, who will have less issue with someone gaining power from "nature" than they will with gaining power from gods.
- A male dwarf paladin. The Big Guy of the group and the moral center. Much fun can be had with him and the drow thief interacting.
- A pseudodragon who decides to make the Bard her familiar. Yes, the pseudodragon phrases it like that. Haughty and prideful with an intense love of gold, basically acts like a more full-sized dragon but in pint-sized form.


Quote:
 
2/?

THE VILLAINS
Zhentil Keep and Sembia, obviously. The Sembians represent a mercantile menace encroaching into the Dalelands without them necessarily being *evil*. The Zhents, meanwhile, are just plain Evil. The main villain (for season 1, anyway) is basically a Scyllua Darkhope stand-in, a Oathbreaker paladin who is looking to conquer the Dalelands. Early episodes hint at bandits or orcs or whatnot being scouts and spies for the Oathbreaker. The last few episodes of the season are the Oathbreaker launching an invasion of the Dalelands.

For added drama the Oathbreaker was once part of the Paladin's order, is an old love interest of the Fighter.

NOTES
- Eliminster makes an appearance at the end of the pilot episode, mostly to say that the party looks like they know what they're doing.
- At one point when going through a treasure horde the drow picks up two scimitars while standing next to a statue of a black panther and asks if she looks cool. Everyone else immediately says "no".
- One episode opens up with the protagonists arguing over how to pronounce Acererak
- Bard obviously plays her musical instrument a lot. Outright musical numbers only happen three or four times a season at most.
- Never say Nine Hells, just call it Baator. Similarly say "tanar'ri" and "baatezu" rather than "demon" and "devil".
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Konrad13
Administrator
[ * ]
Quote:
 
Just covering bases, and I was thinking more for the lexicon of the show rather than actual appearances:

>BARD: "I'd rather kiss a tanar'ri."
>FIGHTER: "Doesn't mean much. Some tanar'ri are good kissers."

That kind of thing.

Hmm, I'm actually really bemused by this concept now...

- The Bard is the newbie adventurer of the group. She has a map to the location of a dungeon in Cormanthor. The Pseudodragon is following her everywhere since the Bard is her familiar (again, this is how the pseudodragon always words it).
- The Fighter, Thief, and Paladin are already friends at the start and, coincidentally, also delving the same dungeon. All three have been on numerous adventures together already and occasionally swap stories that the Bard doesn't believe.
- The druid is introduced trapped in the dungeon, which he entered to clear of evil...and because of a powerful (for their low level) artifact ensconced within, it turns out.

Basically the Bard's motive is HIGH ADVENTURE and a chance to write her name into history books. The Fighter, Thief, and (it turns out) Druid mostly want shiny stuff, the Fighter and Thief specifically money and the Druid specifically artifacts of power. The Paladin is mostly there because he's pretty sure that if he isn't then the Thief will steal anything that isn't nailed down and the Fighter will help her carry it away.


Quote:
 
The show would probably be best served by intermixing short arcs along with standalone episodes. Hmmm...

>1. Pilot, part 1
>2. Pilot, part 2
A single adventure involving the party getting together while delving the dungeon, which is fairly generic and of course includes a dragon at the end. As mentioned above, the Bard is already with the Pseudodragon, the Fighter, Third, and Paladin are already on their way there, and the Druid is already inside.

>3. Downtime Activities
Resting and recovering from their first adventure together back in town. The Thief, Paladin, and Pseudodragon get into hijinks in the market. The Druid gets involved in dealing with some monstrous rats in the local inn's basement, by himself (no one believes him later). The Bard is trying to immortalize their adventure in song form and the Fighter makes fun of her idealism by pointing out he just wanted money, not adventure, though it's revealed that secretly he admires the Bard for still looking at the world through so idyllic a lens.

>4. Random Encounters
The party, having been kicked out of town for the Thief and Pseudodragon's actions in the last episode, are making their way to the next town over. The Thief catches a lot of flak from the rest of the party for her actions and is actually kicked out. Then the party is ambushed and taken captive by orcs. However the Thief shows back up and smooth-talks/bluffs the party free of the orcs (possibly by using her drow heritage to make them think that she's an emissary from the Underdark).


Quote:
 
>5. Circle of the Land
The party, still on their way to the next town over, comes across a band of druids, who are friendly enough until they see the half-elf druid, at which point they get inexplicably angry, forcing the party to flee. We learn that the half-elf is sort of on the outs with the druids due to him negligently allowing a sacred pool's magical waters to be drained by agents of Zhentil Keep. He's been hiding from other druids ever since. In the end he manages to save the day by demonstrating that he still has nature powers so the Land hasn't taken his magic away. The druids decide to not hunt him any more, but he's still on the outs with the druids due to his negligence.

>6. Back to Town
The Party reaches the new town and literally only just open the door to the tavern when they are dragged into an Adventure (something about an old haunted keep nearby being overtaken by bandits). Most of the party, even the Bard, want to just rest after their long trip, but the dwarf Paladin sets out to Do Good despite being exhausted himself. The rest of the Party goes along with him but they're none of them at their best and several times nearly die. In the end they evict the bandits but the Paladin admits that his pursuit of JUSTICE was maybe a little too fervent and they should have taken at least a few hours to rest (it's not like the bandits were going anywhere). We also learn something about his backstory involving a friend in his Order that apparently died when he failed to act, which is what drove him on.

The friend is, of course, the Oathbreaker Paladin I mentioned above.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
GhostJackal
Goblin
[ * ]
In regards to Iliira:

Quote:
 
My suggestion would be to make the character more than comic relief, make her the 'heart' of the cast by making her the quiet, compassionate one. Her background (which I like, it's a good personal discovery set up, reminds me of Worf from Star Trek) sets her up to have internalized the idea that she's an "other" who can never belong. Instead of being jaded, she is deeply empathetic to her party (family essentially) and those who are less fortunate. While typically quiet, standoffish, sometimes dour, she's also the first to ask "are you alright?" and the one to step forward to hug the adventurer who just barely survived an encounter.

Erynn might be the one who sing a song of emboldenment in bright notes, Iliira is the one to offer a quiet shoulder to cry upon.

Despite being drow, she fills in a blind spot that I see in the team as it is, she can offer a little humanity to the show.

And while perhaps a bit of a clepto, she should the opportunity to show rogues as skill monkeys and stealth operatives. Sneaking around the shadows to listen to conversations, grabbing macguffins from guarded estates, applying field bandages with care, she can be the team's Swiss Army knife.

I don't want to step on your toes as the character creator, but I think these traits would be really beneficial to the character in the greater context of where she fits in the narrative.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rogue Shadows
Goblin
[ * ]
Yo! Guy who wrote up the characters here (I can provide proof in the form of membership on other boards with this screenname, if you like, sending PMs via those screennames).

Since Iliira's being changed in personality from the original, I'd actually like to rename her in order to keep her distinct from the version I'm playing verses the version appearing above with being the "heart".

I suggested Zhaera S'harien
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Konrad13
Administrator
[ * ]
@Rogue Shadow: a name change can work, especially since I think a name that can be said more easily should work.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rogue Shadows
Goblin
[ * ]
Konrad13
Mar 11 2016, 02:08 AM
@Rogue Shadow: a name change can work, especially since I think a name that can be said more easily should work.
Yeah, striking a balance between "neat fantasy name" and "pronounceable fantasy name" is difficult, particularly for the kids this would be aimed at. On the other hand I think we sometimes give kids too little credit in that regard. When I was 8 I had no problem speaking Greek.

I mean, the Greek were words like Tyrannosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Troodon, Gallimimus, and Procompsognathus, but dinosaur names are still technically Greek.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Rogue Shadows
Goblin
[ * ]
From the still-extant 4chan thread:

Quote:
 
Gnolls, done actual hyenas, so a female dominated matriarchy. But SJWs wouldn't like it, be they don't like it when people portray them as they really are.

Jokes aside, I'd love to see the backstory of Anthias built upon. I'm envisioning that he was a part of a mercenary troop which got the short end of the stick and got used as Orc fodder. Bitter and shattered, they went their separate ways as the powers that be shrugged of the losses.

Have his old troop show up again and be the ones who are backing the Dragon Cult and providing the muscle. They aren't true believers in the cause, but are using it to show the world what it feels like to be expendable.

It's a season of drama and internal conflict for the deuterotagonist as he battles, defeats, and wins over former friends.

It all culminates with Anthias defeating his old commander, whose dying words are "I'm the man who sold the world."

Unfortunately the party wasn't fully successful, and even though world ending dragons are not pouring into their plane of existence, there is an unstable rift that could burst open. This becomes the central focus of the next season as various powers try to control/harness the dragon rift.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Konrad13
Administrator
[ * ]
I really enjoy that. It's a good season, though I suspect it shouldn't be the first season. It should be the second season, let the characters be trying to enjoy the labors of their successes from season one only for that shit to happen.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · D&D TV · Next Topic »
Add Reply