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Guinea Anubis
2008-10-27, 06:37 AM
So I am working on a Living Castle for my campaign. This castle was bought to life to be the assistant of the mage who owned the castle. The castle is still going to be caring on the long dead mages research and experimentations with plants and animals. I want this castle to be smart with a warped sense of humor, but not be evil.

My main sticking point is that I can not make up my mind on what kind of personality to give the castle. Should it's personality be child like, like HAL9000, or even like a less malicious Jigsaw. So what kind of personality would you give the castle to make it a memorable NPC?

Suleman
2008-10-27, 06:42 AM
Maybe it could be like a caring parent to the experiments.
"Oh, that's little Shambler, he's just a big baby."
"Wyvies, you let go of the nice men right now!"

Oracle_Hunter
2008-10-27, 06:50 AM
Read Girl Genius (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/). The current Arc just so happens to involve a sadistic sentient castle with a twisted sense of humor (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070725). It also is a Literal Genie (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LiteralGenie) (see here (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080625)) armed with a wide variety of death traps. This is a most amusing castle, mainly because it has a motivation and duties.

Now, if Castle Heterodyne doesn't suit you, I have to ask: what, specifically, is the castle motivated by? What were the mages like who gave it sentience? Does the Castle have any long-term goals?

Like any good character, motivation is key.

Guinea Anubis
2008-10-27, 07:31 AM
Read Girl Genius (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/). The current Arc just so happens to involve a sadistic sentient castle with a twisted sense of humor (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070725). It also is a Literal Genie (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LiteralGenie) (see here (http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20080625)) armed with a wide variety of death traps. This is a most amusing castle, mainly because it has a motivation and duties.

Now, if Castle Heterodyne doesn't suit you, I have to ask: what, specifically, is the castle motivated by? What were the mages like who gave it sentience? Does the Castle have any long-term goals?

Like any good character, motivation is key.


Yep Castle Heterodyne is where I go the idea from. As much as I love Castle Heterodyne I don't want to make my castle that malicious.

As for motivation, it only goal is to continue on with its masters research. The mage that gave it life was know as "The Mad Mage Melbicon" and was a couple Mcnuggets short of a happy meal.

The Castle knows Melbicon is dead and is trying to continue his work the best it can. I was thinking that it would be lonely so it would not want to kill the PCs outright because it wants to "play" with them and test out its experiments on them.

Oracle_Hunter
2008-10-27, 09:03 AM
Yep Castle Heterodyne is where I go the idea from. As much as I love Castle Heterodyne I don't want to make my castle that malicious.

As for motivation, it only goal is to continue on with its masters research. The mage that gave it life was know as "The Mad Mage Melbicon" and was a couple Mcnuggets short of a happy meal.

The Castle knows Melbicon is dead and is trying to continue his work the best it can. I was thinking that it would be lonely so it would not want to kill the PCs outright because it wants to "play" with them and test out its experiments on them.

OK - what was his work?

If it was just breeding weird stuff, then it might be interested in having the PCs "breed" with whatever he's got going in there.

If it was more of an Evilutionary Biologist (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilutionaryBiologist) then pit-fights are perfectly acceptable. Survival of the Fittest, no?

And if the PCs survive, then the Castle is going to want to "breed" them too.

OK, so the Castle is going to want to breed the PCs at some point then. Now the question is - with what? :smallbiggrin:

lord_khaine
2008-10-27, 09:34 AM
OK, so the Castle is going to want to breed the PCs at some point then. Now the question is - with what?

each other of course, it should be clear that they are some of the strongest things the Castle has at hands.

the goal should then be to make something with the mage's firepower and the fighters toughness.

Greenfaun
2008-10-27, 09:38 AM
Giant empty hidden building in which the omnipresent artificial personality wants nothing more than to endlessly perform experiments on whatever humans it can get its hands (well, metaphorically) on?

Sweet zombie jesus, that's GLaDOS.

Bonus points if they have to solve increasingly-complicated mazes using nothing but an infinite wand of Dimension Door. :)

Sebastian
2008-10-27, 09:55 AM
Yep Castle Heterodyne is where I go the idea from. As much as I love Castle Heterodyne I don't want to make my castle that malicious.

As for motivation, it only goal is to continue on with its masters research. The mage that gave it life was know as "The Mad Mage Melbicon" and was a couple Mcnuggets short of a happy meal.

The Castle knows Melbicon is dead and is trying to continue his work the best it can. I was thinking that it would be lonely so it would not want to kill the PCs outright because it wants to "play" with them and test out its experiments on them.

What about Glados, the AI from Portal to use as a base.

Guinea Anubis
2008-10-27, 10:30 AM
the stuff the The Mad Mage Melbicon was trying to breed would have a set purpose. Like a Mini Gelatinous Cube to clean out pipes, or bioluminescent darkmantles to used as a light and home defence.

Learnedguy
2008-10-27, 10:47 AM
Well, if the mage was a dedicated scientist, why not give it the absentminded professor archetype. You could have it ask the PC's to menial tasks when they enter new rooms or maybe have them witness one of its experiments go horribly horribly wrong by mistake.

"Excuse me trespassers, I seem to have misplaced Fluffy's chewing ball somewhere, have you seen it? I swear, I'll lose my head next."

Fluffy is in this case something big and mean and his chewing ball is some kind of precious loot. When the PCs find the precious loot make the castle gleefully thank them for finding Fluffy's chewing ball. Then make them encounter Fluffy.

Alternatively, have the Castle play the role of Helpful lab assistant. Have it mistake the PC's for the wizard and then make it constantly remind them of things that needs to be done. At any possible chance give it the opportunity to throw in as much unwanted information as possible.

"The key is inside the awakened bee hive, remember? Be careful for the stings when you go get it, the bees' poison might cause serious injury and blindness!"

And so on. There is no such thing as too much information. Injured? Better inform them that without emergency surgery death might occur!

FoE
2008-10-27, 02:09 PM
Perhaps the castle could have the mindset of a young girl madly in love with the mage who owned it. She continues his experiments as a testament of her love.

When the PCs walk by artwork depicting the mage, have the castle speak admiringly of him in glowing, lovesick terms. If the PCs try to take any personal item belonging to the mage, have the castle go into a frenzy. If the mage has a tomb or a favourite part of the castle where he frequented, the strongest defenses could be around there.

It might add a bit of Squick to your campaign if she's been keeping the mage's body preserved or has re-animated it.

(Grotesque flesh golem shambles into room)
"Oh, doesn't he look lovely?"

Enlong
2008-10-27, 02:35 PM
No, no, no. Guys, come on. The castle should have the personality of the demon that moves it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl%27s_moving_castle); stubborn, but easily flattered, prone to overreactions, and with a nasty sense of humor. Nothing else works for a moving castle.

Neo
2008-10-27, 02:42 PM
could do it like the house in Eureka, a kind of moody estranged wife.

Oracle_Hunter
2008-10-27, 10:09 PM
the stuff the The Mad Mage Melbicon was trying to breed would have a set purpose. Like a Mini Gelatinous Cube to clean out pipes, or bioluminescent darkmantles to used as a light and home defence.

Oh. So he was just breeding useful stuff. Why? What was his motivation? Why did he get into breeding stuff in the first place? These will tell you what kind of Castle he'd create, and how it'd act without him.

Callyn
2008-10-27, 10:19 PM
Eddy the Shipboard Computer from The Hitchhiker's Guide. Cheery, helpful to the best of its ability and completely useless. Have it bring the party tea that is actually accidentally laced with acid and just have it constantly talking to them, distracting them.

Mewtarthio
2008-10-27, 10:31 PM
It could also be the gruff general archetype, treating the PCs like new recruits in basic training. It constantly boasts of its master's might as it demonstrates its various bio-weapons on the PCs. If they are losing a fight, it chews them out for being little girls. When they win a fight, it chews them out for destroying expensive military hardware. Don't forget a "Drop and give me twenty!" trap: The castle orders the PCs to perform pushups. Six seconds later, a blade/energy beam/flamethrower blasts everything in the room above waist height. "Let that be a lesson in respecting your superiors, maggots!"

Dragonmuncher
2008-10-28, 12:04 AM
Giant empty hidden building in which the omnipresent artificial personality wants nothing more than to endlessly perform experiments on whatever humans it can get its hands (well, metaphorically) on?

Sweet zombie jesus, that's GLaDOS.

Bonus points if they have to solve increasingly-complicated mazes using nothing but an infinite wand of Dimension Door. :)

That's exactly what I thought as soon as I opened the thread.

Guinea Anubis
2008-10-28, 08:27 AM
Oh. So he was just breeding useful stuff. Why? What was his motivation? Why did he get into breeding stuff in the first place? These will tell you what kind of Castle he'd create, and how it'd act without him.

Melbicon honestly wanted to help society. As for breeding "useful" stuff, useful is in the eye of the beholder. The two examples I gave are the two things he "let out" in to the world to make it a better place. The Mini Gelatinous Cubes worked ok untill they found there way in to the drinking water and killed a bunch of commoners from the inside out. As for the bioluminescent darkmantles he never thought to try to train them so 9 times out of 10 would end up killing the home owner.

Melbicon brought the castle to life as his assistant because all of his other assistants died to his experiments. Melbicon was also a little odd he bought black smithing hammer said to have been blessed by Pelor thinking his walnuts would taste better if he cracked them open with it.

Hzurr
2008-10-28, 10:32 AM
Melbicon honestly wanted to help society. As for breeding "useful" stuff, useful is in the eye of the beholder. The two examples I gave are the two things he "let out" in to the world to make it a better place. The Mini Gelatinous Cubes worked ok untill they found there way in to the drinking water and killed a bunch of commoners from the inside out. As for the bioluminescent darkmantles he never thought to try to train them so 9 times out of 10 would end up killing the home owner.

Melbicon brought the castle to life as his assistant because all of his other assistants died to his experiments. Melbicon was also a little odd he bought black smithing hammer said to have been blessed by Pelor thinking his walnuts would taste better if he cracked them open with it.


Hmm... in that case, I would recommend having the castle play the role of "helpful tour guide." The players get attacked by an animated golem that tries to slice them up and throw them into a fire, and the castle starts talking about "This is another of my masters amazing inventions made to help the lives of the common people. Just think, instead of having to cook and prepare an entire meal, all you have to do is bring the live animal into the kitchen, and the cook-o-matic 2000 will take care of all the rest! Isn't that clever?"

I like what you mentioned about the blessed hammer. That would be an interesting way to have treasure in the castle, by putting it to uses that it wasn't intended to. (The +2 holy warhammer that was used for smashing walnuts, the keen rapier used as a letter opener, a ring of jumping used for getting books from the top shelf in the library, etc.)

vicente408
2008-10-28, 10:47 AM
Melbicon was also a little odd he bought black smithing hammer said to have been blessed by Pelor thinking his walnuts would taste better if he cracked them open with it.

But instead, every fourth or fifth nut he cracked turned into a pigeon?

BooNL
2008-10-28, 03:16 PM
I never thought I'd say this online.

As cheesy as it sounds, if the Castle is talking, it should offer the possibility of cake.