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Jade_Tarem
2007-01-28, 02:02 AM
Suppose you come up with a character concept. It's really good. Then a well-known game comes out and uses the same character concept you created before you can use yours. You are certain that your players are intimately familiar with the character in question. Should you still use it?

Darkshade
2007-01-28, 02:08 AM
often times its okay to use it even if you didnt come up with it first, if you did come up with it first then it is always okay to use it, could you clarify it btw so we can know what concept your talkin about?

oriong
2007-01-28, 02:13 AM
I'm a little confused. do you mean say, you want your players to run into a redeemed succubi paladin at some point then you look at some book and find stats for said paladin already there?

It depends on your goal. If the goal is to throw a challenge at the PCs they don't see coming (say an evil party who runs into this confusing succubi paladin) then there's no reason you can't keep the concept in general, but change it enough to make it just as jarring to the character's expectations (say make the succubi a LG cleric instead, they'll have a very different time of things). All that's really required is something to suprise your players. If they think they know what you're doing then it's even easier to suprise them.

Now, if you're simply looking for an interesting NPC for the PCs to encounter then there's no reason at all not to keep the original concept. After all, it's in the book because it's a neat idea. No reason to let a neat idea die just because it's written down somewhere, and the difference between reading an NPC's stats and actually interacting with said NPC is going to be very different.

Shazzbaa
2007-01-28, 02:16 AM
So, we're talking like you've got this awesome character concept, and then a month before the campaign actually starts, Final Fantasy LXII comes out and all your friends buy it, beat it, and... it just so happens to have used your exact character concept for one of the main characters. Am I understanding correctly?

Considering the character was honestly your idea (whether you had the idea first or not), it's not going to be a "cheap ripoff." Honestly, I don't hold incredible issue with playing a dual-scimitar-wielding, CG drow, either -- provided there's something to the character besides "I want to be kind of like Drizz't." (sp?) If the player just happened, by accident, to create a character very similar to the infamous drow... then they obviously put thought and work into it, and he may well be fun to play with whether the concept's been done before or not.

But my thoughts on the matter are, obviously, pretty open. ^^;

I think realistically you'd probably be better off altering something about your character to make him different in the given scenario, just so that the other players aren't seeing the main character of FFLXII every time your character does anything. But that'd be for your own good more than anything -- if you really don't want to change him, then my initial thoughts say that there's no problem with you playing him.

Were-Sandwich
2007-01-28, 05:56 AM
sure. Hell, I'm currently making a character based off a Flash sidescroller game.

Jade_Tarem
2007-01-28, 01:53 PM
So, we're talking like you've got this awesome character concept, and then a month before the campaign actually starts, Final Fantasy LXII comes out and all your friends buy it, beat it, and... it just so happens to have used your exact character concept for one of the main characters. Am I understanding correctly?


Yes, Yes! That's it precisely, only it's not Final Fantasy 62, obviously. I would say more about it except that the players all read this forum, and I'm praying they don't notice.

Narmoth
2007-01-28, 04:12 PM
It depends. If the character has some secret parts that are spoiled by knowledge of the game/book/whatever, then no: Nrogarathe mystic ranger that has a weird affinity for short humanoids and is also the lost king of The Land sucks, Nrogara the mystic ranger who has a weird affinity for short humanoids is ok.
Also it depends how much alike the consepts are, and how much effort has been put into making the character