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View Full Version : Help me combine two concepts, please?



Kiyona
2013-10-27, 09:14 AM
Hello all,

I am having a little trouble with my character and am hoping on you all lovely people to give me some inspiration and new angles of approach. :smallsmile:

You see, it started as two characters, but DM suggested I would combine the concepts into one, and that is were I am having some issues. It just doesn't feel quite right yet.

First thing I wanted to play was a reluctant body guard to one of the other PCs. The details aren't all planned out, but I was thinking she has been the caretaker of her two younger siblings, wich are now in a, literal or not, hostage situation, forcing her to lend her services as body guard to the other PC. (The other player finds this hilarious, but the PC is not overly fond of having a "babysitter." The order comes from higher up in the organisation. So both body guard and body guarded are reluctant at best of the situation.)

The other concept is a little red riding hood/wolf in the same person kind of thing. A young woman who has been having a voice in her head her whole life. The voice is friendly and familiar with her, but fiercly protective and tends to take control when there is danger. She sees the voice as family, and of dreads the day when an exorcist will find her and what that would do to her friend. (The voice is not only in her head, there is something magical going on, but she does not now the origin, the voice only claims he is there to protect her). (I have actually wanted to play something like this for ages. At first the voice was a very, very old and mean wolf spirit, that had been forgotten by its people. But now I don't really now what it is. DM says hw has it all planned out, so I trust him. ^^)

My problem is combining the two. How would that work? I am having a hard time making figuring out background and personality for a character like that. So, any suggestions? I am stuck and really like discussing conceptstuff with people, so hit me. If something sucks, please tell me, or give me a suggestion for improvement.

(Also, please excuse my english, not a native speaker. If I am hard to understand, please ask and shall try to clarify. ^^)

Sith_Happens
2013-10-27, 10:02 AM
On one hand, there's nothing about those two concepts that is in any way mutually exclusive, so combining them is literally just a matter of "make character, put both backstory segments in the appropriate box as-is."

On the other hand, there's also nothing about the concepts that really goes together. So if you put them together it stands a good chance of feeling like you... well, took two entirely disconnected character concepts and mashed then together.

I'll let the creative-backstory-ier people take it from here.

Kiyona
2013-10-27, 10:18 AM
Well, yes... that is exactly my problem. =)

That is why I am feeling kind of stuck and in need of different view points. Just combining them as is just feels... odd and not very organic. (OMG, it's hard to find the right words in english. ^^)

Jay R
2013-10-27, 10:38 AM
Paradoxically, the easiest way to combine these is to separate them. One of them is characterization. The other is the result of a recent adventure/

She has grown up with the wolf in her head. That's who she is. Write that backstory alone.

Being forced to be a bodyguard issue is merely something that has recently happened to her. It's the result of what she's done recently. Write a description about how the girl/wolf stumbled into this.

endoperez
2013-10-27, 11:53 AM
Hostage situation means some sort of a threat. Perhaps there is some sort of the threat directed towards the wolf/spirit.

Is there any reason the organization would think that guarding a specific person would somehow "protect you from the spirit" or whatever it was that got them suspicious?


Maybe the spirit has an agenda or feels threatened by something, and urged the character to take drastic action, and she/he acted without thinking things through... Volunteering for a mission so that she may get away from the city where a magical ritual is going to take place, for example.

Calen
2013-10-27, 12:15 PM
Perhaps the Girl/Wolf felt threatened and over-reacted to something. So she is forced into X years of military service. The leads to her becoming the bodyguard of these siblings.

Prime32
2013-10-30, 09:54 AM
Is there any reason the organization would think that guarding a specific person would somehow "protect you from the spirit" or whatever it was that got them suspicious?Wolves are social animals who stay close to family; maybe it has something to do with that.

Jenrock
2013-10-30, 11:39 AM
Echoing Prime32, I think the trick is to tweak the wolf a little bit. If it has always been in her head, maybe it got attached to her family as well, and is now directing her to be this bodyguard so that they can resolve the hostage situation.