Appearance?

So, what does our hero look like? I heard somewhere about him wearing a mask at all times, one side white and the other black. Perhaps instead we could just keep it a blank slate and then have the mask change as the player's allegiance becomes more clear.
Oh, and if you go to GSSF and don't recognise me, please shoot yourself.

The mask will start off half white and half black liek u said, but then it will change depending on wat choices you make. Other than that we haven't thought much about the appearance.
Btw, who are you?

How about me not make the character a special person with a huge past and a stylized appearance? How about he is just a normal young guy with an ordinary past who hasn’t made an identity for himself yet? He could have just come out of university of college and is unemployed and living with his friend (His sidekick) at the moment.

As for his cloths well anything casual really he could start of with different cloths depending on your class (E.g. rouge starts with a hoody which gives an extremely basic +1 sneak or somit). He could also have not really taken notice of the politics or situation of the land (Letting the people explain things without it seeming forced).

That isn’t to say he won’t have a personality or unique and cool look by the end of it though it’s just that this stuff is for the player to decide for themselves.

Random kid makes it seem too JRPG. I see what you're getting at, but it's incredibly cliched to have a normal kid saving the world so we need to think of something original.

And me and Jacob came up with the idea that there's 8 friends you have before the game, and you discover in the game that half of them are on the faction you have joined, and the other 4 are on the opposite faction. The ones on the bad side you will have to fight in game. I'm too tired to summarise it now; Jacob can do a better job of that later on.

The whole sidekick thing can fit into that later. Maybe a social thing goes on, and the person who likes you the most becomes your sidekick/best friend at the end of the game.

I don’t want it to be just some random kid either, but I do want him to be normal. But moreso I want the character to be defined by the things he does in the game with you rather than a lifeless back-story. I mean considering he is stuck in a timeloop isn’t it right to say that his fate had been sealed before he was even born? But never the less we could add some mystery to the character (Like a weird tatoo of some sort of insignia for example) or something extremely strange that happened in his past.

That works but that defeats the whole point of your "normal" idea.

We'll have to come to a compromise. I cant discuss anything now because i'm tired and when i'm tired I dont think well.

jacob wrote:The mask will start off half white and half black liek u said, but then it will change depending on wat choices you make. Other than that we haven't thought much about the appearance.
Btw, who are you?

I'm from another forum Caael visits.
I stand my idea of a blank mask. The grey (or whatever color it would be) represents the character not being on a side at the begining. Once you join either the Scourge on the Templars or whatever, the mask changes to fit the faction's personality. Scourge would be all black and scary looking, while Templars would have a "white-knight" kind of feel to it.
As for the backstory: I like the idea of having multiple "ghosts" from you past that you have to fight later on, but that would mean making the prelude or whatever longer so the player can form an atatchment to the freind that would make him/her unwilling to fight against them like the actual character would be.

The character can be special but why does he have to have something like a mask? He isn’t bloody phantom of the opera, why can’t he just have a normal face, normal cloths and normal hair, he can change his cloths (And even hair maybe) later on in the game. What’s the point of giving him a mask? It just means he looks like a weirdo and stuff and honestly having a mask only adds anything to a character who is supposed to be mysterious not the main character who you are supposed to become and be attached to.

The half white and half white mask represents the potential for good and evil. Its meant to be symbolic. It changes a character from being some kid who has suddenly got it into his head to run around shooting things with a shotgun, to being a hero. It doesnt actually alienate the character or make it impossible to become attached to them. Think about it; some gamers love master chief so much that they want to write novels about him, but he never takes off his helmet. V for vendetta, same thing, though admittedly he is a freak. I could name others if I weren't so tired. Also, theres the practical side of things: if we all agree on a mask we dont have to faff about for ages deciding whether the character should have freckles or not. Also, I quite like the idea of a fairly long intro section, because it gives you a time at the start of an rpg for you to tell the player whats actually going on before he does the inevitable and wanders around killing things to see wat reaction he gets.

Its about as symbolic as a cat representing an Animal, Master Cheif is a super human, V for vendetta guy is not the main character of an RPG.

And if he does have a mask then the character will just be stupid.

Weelll.. everyone else seems to like the idea. It would make a change from the usual rpg customization: 'slide this bar to make character have a larger forehead, click this to change his hairstyle and change this one to make him look like he has an extra Y chromosome.'

And what makes you say it will make him look stupid? If we gave him a moustache and glasses: that would look stupid. If we gave him a large pair of buck teeth he would look stupid. Or if we gave him acne and a lisp. A mask, no. I've even drawn a concept sketch of a mask that he could wear and it looks pretty awesome. The kins of thing someone would wear if theyre a bit eccentric maybe: but stupid, no.

Jacobs idea isnt perfect, but really nothing else fits. We dont want a mass effect/oblivion character creation because people always complain about the lack of variety (in mass effect it was just varying styles of short brown hair) so its better to force somebody into a role.

Instead of a mask though it could be some kind of helmet? I dont know.

Nah, moment we say: well, we have this awesome character who always wears a helmet a billion people across the globe will simultaneously think: copying master chief. I vote keep it a mask. For a start: a helmet needs to fit with the armour. The whole point of the mask is to clash to make it stand out. Also a mask is somehow easier to convey who the character is meant to be, because this is what they are Meant For.

Don’t let them decide the face I mean do most RPGs do and just give us a character he doesn’t have to look like Darth Vader, or some pimp, just have him look like a normal guy in the world I mean WHY wouldn’t he?

Edit: Also Masks are meant to hide someone’s identity or change ones identity.

oKAY: lets say we screw the mask, awesome character building tool though it is, and have a premade hero face instead. We decide that and we get three options: 1) made the character ludicrously macho, like most games 2) make him some kind of long haired feministic wiseguy, like every game that didnt opt with number 1, or 3) mad him some ordinary boring person that doesnt stand out at all, is unmemorable, and has little character.


The idea of a mask changing identity is EXACTLY WHAT WE WANT. You cant change your face to reflect who you are unless you decide to go all hellraiser style or something, in which case the character isnt normal at all anyway. You can change a mask easily. You cant get a halo or horns. You can have a mask with them on. You cant make your eyes turn red or grow fangs. You cant make your skin slough off until you are just a skull with eyeballs. A mask can look like a skull, with fangs.

Exactly doing something like that throws all credibility out the window! Instead of having a interesting a deep character whose personality is expressed through his actions and words you have a village people reject who someone has a life (Even though how can you looking like that?). And the character will just be patronizing to anyone older than 12 looking for a good story.

Maybe not a mask but facial scars that grow and shiz if you go bad, and dissappear if you go bad?

no no bad idea is baaad.

ignore this

Tom: you argument is essentially this: It will look silly, and we want the character to be some totally normal person. Wheres the fun in that? I thought we threw away normality when we started going on about a steam punk theme wth orchestral rock and time machines.

Normality? Just because it's steampunk doesnt mean it cant be normal. Its not like they eat metal for breakfast. It's a different setting, that doesnt mean the people are different. It's hard to explain. Jacob, you seem to have a hard time grasping the actual setting. Just because its not like real life doesnt mean certain elements and concepts cant be used from life.

I'm jsut trying to say taht the point of a game is that it isnt just a mimick of reality, fundamentally because reality is boring compared to what humans dream up.

The hero has to have something to make him stand out; and the only other idea I like is some kind of facial tattoo that changes, but thats been done. It could just be some awesome sunglasses. Whatever.

And can I just say: the character isnt going to have mask just because he is a freak. The reason is the opposite. He wears the mask because it somehow has deep significance for him. It doesnt make the character some shallow lunatic, if anything it could make him even more deep. If somebody has a hat that they always wear because its the only thing that survived the house fire that killed their family, would you criticise them for it, or call them a freak. No. So, Tom, stop being stubborn and think of a good reason for the character not to have a mask. Everyone else seems to like it, or did until you started moaning. The player still has the customization of the entire rest of his body to do, so they wont mind. The character wont suddenly become shallow. He wont look stupid; you can do awesome things with a mask. It wont somehow tear a hole in space time and suck the earth through it, thus killing us all.
Your trying to say that different is the same thing as weird, or freakish, or stupid, which is the same train of thought that leads to racism, sexism, anti-sematism or almost any other kind of ism.

Just because we can, doesn't mean we should.

And no, Im not saying that steam punk in itself isnt normal, but whole world which is themed on steam punk is unusual at least.

Legolastom wrote:
And if he does have a mask then the character will just be stupid.

Why? Its not an actual mask as in a halloween mask. Its just a flat full face theatre mask like roman actors used to wear. The point was that the actors facial appearance wouldnt change your first impression of the kind of character they are. The evil-ification or good-ification will amount to no more than images that will form on the mask, rather than it gradually changing into a demon mask or something. Thats not what Im trying to suggest. Yes, if it did that, it would look stupid. I would see where you're coming from. Have I been misunderstood from the start on this Tom?
If you did understand that, its just a flat theatre mask (it will probably have a cleft down the middle like one of Tim's helmet designs, for effect.) When you see what I mean you will change your mind. I'll draw some pictures and scan them in at the weekend.

Tim, go on chat box plz.

Well might as well make it a female and have her be completely naked, that is as you said yourself different and if you disagree then you’re a sexist / racist / fascist.

I mean it’s a cool idea, maybe she doesn’t wear cloths because all her family died because they wore cloths, you see it adds depth to the character.

FFS.

read the post just above your reply. It might clear things up.



And thats an awesome idea tom. Naked woman. Absolutely awesome. Shame this game isnt supposed to be an eighteen.