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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Codex said:
Actually, this brings me to a question that I want to ask @Boney

How do you approach character creation/development, from a planning perspective? As I see it, there are three scenarios:

1. Completely Original Character: This is Mathilde, Abelhelm, Roswita, Wilhelmina, Heidi, Cython, Qretch etc. Characters that don't appear in canon and you have to make from scratch, although you could probably take inspiration from existing characters.
2. Developed Canon Characters in DL: These are characters with established personalities and stories with existing material being adapted into DL. The end product usually ends up very distinct from canon. This is where Thorgrim Grudgebearer, Belegar Ironhammer and Horstmann fall under (although I think you haven't read the Horstmann novel so it doesn't matter. Good, neither have I).
3. Canon Character, but there's next to no material: This isn't exactly OC territory because there is some level of detail, which varies, given in canon for them, but you still have to expand them in a way that makes sense. Characters like Algard, Kragg, Jovi Sunscryer and Hexensohn. Hell, Snorri and Gotrek fall under this heading because while they're developed canon characters, that is after the tragedy they went through.

I'm curious if you're more of an organic planner where you just write and see where it takes you, or if you plan it out first with personal profiles to understand the character better. My guess is that you have more of an organic vibe, as you seem to focus on a person's desires and wants and how they could achieve it most of all. Personally I'm more of a visual writer where I have to visualise what the character looks like and what their mannerisms would be like first, but I think you said before that you didn't really focus on visualisation much.
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I'm very rarely starting from scratch even when I'm creating entirely original characters. If I need to create, say, the Marshal of Talabecland, then I already know they're from some sort of military background and that they have a combination of skills and connections that led to them being made the Marshal of Talabecland, a large state reliant on the free flow of trade. So the likely candidates would be a well-connected noble, a highly-skilled Riverwarden or Outrider, or a highly-educated logistician. The current Grand Duke of Talabecland is the father of a canon character who is rash and heavy-handed, and between that and the previous events of the quest the Marshal is more likely to be a man of action to match the Grand Duke's probable personality, so Noble or Outrider fit best. The Marshal would have to be either similar enough in temperament to get along with the Grand Duke, spineless enough to be cowed by him, or canny enough to be able to say the right things to mollify him, and from there I'll either choose which would be most interesting or pick one at random. And at that point we've pretty much got enough of a character to get started with, just by extrapolating from the known facts.

I also sometimes very loosely base characters off characters from other media for their appearance or mannerisms, but it's only ever skin deep and it rarely takes long for a character to evolve beyond that origin.
 
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Boney said:
I'm very rarely starting from scratch even when I'm creating entirely original characters. If I need to create, say, the Marshal of Talabecland, then I already know they're from some sort of military background and that they have a combination of skills and connections that led to them being made the Marshal of Talabecland. So the likely candidates would be a well-connected noble, a highly-skilled Riverwarden or Outrider, or a highly-educated logistician. The current Grand Duke of Talabecland is the father of a canon character who is rash and heavy-handed, and between that and the previous events of the quest the Marshal is more likely to be a man of action to match the Grand Duke's probable personality, so Noble or Outrider fit best. They're either similar enough in temperament to get along with the Grand Duke, spineless enough to be cowed by him, or canny enough to be able to say the right things to mollify him, and from there I'll either choose which would be most interesting or pick one at random. And at that point we've pretty much got enough of a character to get started with, just by extrapolating from the known facts.
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So if I have it right, the character creation process for you is kind of like a logic tree? You look at existing evidence/information that you start with (like, this person is the Marshal of Talabecland), and then you hash out several possibilities for how that plays out from existing information and logical conclusions. Then you choose either a random choice or what sounds interesting to you, and you keep doing that until you come up with a workable concept?
 
Codex said:
So if I have it right, the character creation process for you is kind of like a logic tree? You look at existing evidence/information that you start with (like, this person is the Marshal of Talabecland), and then you hash out several possibilities for how that plays out from existing information and logical conclusions. Then you choose either a random choice or what sounds interesting to you, and you keep doing that until you come up with a workable concept?
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Pretty much. Limitations breed creativity, it's a lot easier to create an interesting character within a set of constraints than it is to create one completely from scratch. By the end of exploring what can be derived from existing information I've usually got at least one idea for something interesting.
 
Aule said:
Que Wild Mass Guessing about who was based on whom.
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It's not really other media, but one of Qretch's scene was inspired by Sleek Sharpwit's death in the Queek Headtaker novel:
Boney said:
- Qrech's portion was meant to be a fair bit longer as he and Mathilde hashed out a suitable future for him, but while double-checking Skaven lifespans I came across the death scene of Sleek Sharpwit and Qrech's ambition fell right into place.
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In there, there's a scene that Boney described once:
Boney said:
There's a scene in the novel Headtaker where Sleek Sharpwit, former Warlord of Clan Mors, laments that the Horned Rat prevents the Skaven from developing history and culture. I don't see how anyone could read that and still think that Sleek could never have been anything but evil.
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And Sleek is one of his favorite characters:
Boney said:
Magnus the Pious, for being the one that turned what would have been the Empire's epilogue into a rebirth through sheer force of will. Boris Bokha, for doing the same for Kislev and getting much less credit for it. Count Noctilus, for having the creativity to identify some extremely esoteric free real estate and the sheer chutzpah to teleport his fucking castle right on top of it instead of just buying a boat or something. Sleek Sharpwit. Sigvald, because Sigvald. Kremlo.
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So I think it's likely Sleek played a part in Qretch's inspiration.
Boney said:
Pretty much. Limitations breed creativity, it's a lot easier to create an interesting character within a set of constraints than it is to create one completely from scratch. By the end of exploring what can be derived from existing information I've usually got at least one idea for something interesting.
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Oh yeah, I completely agree with this. I know it's not exactly the same, but only having snippets and tidbits on certain characters and having to make a full statblock for them really let me flex my creativity, like with Paranoth and Algard. It's probably nothing like what you'd think up, but I was impressed by what I could think up when I have little to go on.
 
[X] Plan Steal His Credit, Take His Wizards

There's a solid consensus behind not sabotaging him it seems huh, didn't see that coming. Not unreasonable.
 
[X] Plan Knowledge for Knowledge
-[X] Choirmaster Stephen (2 Favours)
-[X] Lady Magister Elrisse (2 Favours)
-[X] Investigate Alric (2 Favours)
-[X] Introduction to the Order of Guardians (1 Favour)
-[X] Permanent access to KAU (1 Favour)

Plan Measured Support seems like the clear winner right now, but be the change you want to see and all that. I'll probably throw in an approval vote for measured support if a sabotage plan starts gaining.
 
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[X] Plan Measured Support
-[X] Lord Magister Egrimm van Horstmann (1 Favour)
-[X] Lady Magister Elrisse (2 Favours)
-[X] Investigate Alric (2 Favours)
-[X] Introduction to the Order of Guardians (1 Favour)
 
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