Are any of your characters inspired by pre-existing ones?

I created my character from necessity out of thin air.
My nickname "Magic" was given to me at a social gathering when I was younger.
The other half to my online alias/character name ("tallguy") is due to the fact that I'm 6'7
I'm simply stuck 'em together to get Magictallguy :)

 

I think about half of my characters are based on a pre-existing one. I admit, I don't actually go out of my way to make an original one, most of mine usually have their personality based on a character I have taking a liking to on a game, or something. While I usually don't do much to try and make them more unique besides giving them a history that suits the board, they usually end up more and more different as I use them.

 

I usually base the powers or aspects of the appearance (but never their whole appearance) on pre-existing characters but I make the history/personality different.

My main character Serah Ria (SR-7338) is based off Samus Aran. And many of Serah's powers/abilities are ones Samus used in various games (except adapted to this new setting). Though the appearance, backstory and attitude are all different.

Rubi is loosely based off Bayonetta. Rubi has 2 abilities that Bayonetta has (the ability to walk on walls and the ability to summon gigantic fists/boots for longer range and more powerful attacks) but then she has two unique ones. She also wears black... But other than that the history, personality and appearance are different.

Stark... Although I haven't used him in a while, was pretty much Iron Man adapted to the game (same basic powers, same basic personality, a composite appearance based on my favourite of Iron Man's armours throughout the years). Though I had originally created him as an NPC for everyone to use in their posts (more of a support character than my own player character).
But when I started in the sequel to my game (set 100 years later), I made Stark MK2. His history was different though, but there were still enough similarities that it was pretty clear where they were based off.

But other than that, my characters are original or I've played canons.

 

My characters are original, but they have been inspired by a mix of movies, songs, books, people I know, plus their original traits. The story they are needed for is my inspiration. Besides it, I take inspiration from everywhere, bits and pieces: a movie, a song, something in a book, something I see on the street, a person I know. Or different associations of ideas starting from this. I choose a history and a personality that has to make sense for the story they are a part of. And personality and history are interdependent, one influences the other. So I ask myself when, where, why, how, what... as many times as needed in order to get a well rounded character.

Examples: my innkeeper, Maribel Vargas, is inspired from the movie "Carmen, la de Ronda" and this is why she came with the playby of Sarita Montiel in that movie. But she is not entirely the character from the movie, she got some associations of ideas. (Among others, a bit of Flor from the "Hunchback" by Paul Feval, of Huguette the innkeeper from the Pardaillan series by Michel Zevaco and of Esmeralda from the "Hunchback of Notre Dame"). And to the question "How has she arrived to Tortuga? How has she got enough money to open an inn?" I had to find the most likely answers myself... (A pirate's widow).

The pirate captain, Sol Picador, came with the playby of Eduardo Palomo because he had been inspired a little from Juan del Diablo in "Corazon Salvaje". But he has also been inspired by a few other pirates, including Sandokan and Robert Surcouf the privateer.

 

I do not apologise for basing a character on The Green Arrow and Hawkeye. :P Neither will I apologise for having Stephen Amell as the pb. :P

maybe once or twice this has happened >_> :P

 

I've based a character off Daenerys from GoT, and also Lyra (His Dark Materials). I have quite a few loosely sculpted from other characters too.

 

I saw this after my post in my hello topic btws. :P

 

Funnily enough, I think I have more of a problem with character inspiration being too obvious in non-RP OCs than RP characters, or at least, I did when my non-RP OCs were younger. By now it's been so long since I've made a new OC that all the existing ones are a great mishmash of influences and you can't tell too easily anymore.

For my RP characters, even when they have obvious namesakes or influences, tend to be shaped significantly by their environments, especially since 'Souls is really heavy with family trees and history. Like my character Cassandra was named after Cassandra Cain of Batman lore, but while I entertained the idea of basing various aspects of my character off her namesake, her family and family story ended up mattering way more.

 

Yes. My character in multiple RPGs are based off of action characters in movies such as Rambo and Die Hard.

 

Since my first OCs ever were based on Dragonball, I think I've had a little bit of inspiration from various fandoms in my OCs ever since. If I see a character whose personality I like in a work of fiction (often anime, but also games, TV shows, etc) I might 'steal' little traits from this and that and then work with them to create someone new, but I try not to rip anyone off wholesale...it bugs me when I come up with a character that I do think is pretty original only to read/watch something and say 'man, they remind me a lot of [X], so I try not to do it consciously. But I think that anyone who has a lot of fandoms they're passionate about, and other characters in fiction they love, will - consciously or unconsciously - borrow aspects of them to make their own characters...no writing can be completely original, and I think we're all inspired by the things we like in some way :)

 

I tend to take mine from characters who had personalities I fell in love with. Normally I take a few traits here and there, though some are more taken than others. One I just recently changed the playby of because the playby/faceclaim was who I based him after (Kanji Tatsumi). I have a history too of making characters that are reincarnations of one another, and a set of characters that are "me" more than others.

 

I reuse characters I love, but I also love to create new ones, mostly those inspired in Television, Movies or books. Or actors that I love for play-bys. There are certain character types I stick to due to my own personality. If I like a character on say, the show Hemlock Grove, I will use it, changing the name, species, but I'll unabashedly keep the same personality. :D

 

My characters are often a mashup of characters I like in other mediums. However, I do try to give them some unique qualities. Some characters are very much like me. I tend to stick with them.

 

A lot of my characters are based off my original characters I made for the first forum RPG site I went to. Though that could just be my own personality sneaking into them :)

 

Almost always. I feel like I don't have characters as much as character types and those types wear different masks.

 

All of my characters are OC and are not inspired by any pre-existing characters with the exception of one. Mirabel Blake is the younger sister of another of my characters, Nymira Blake-Burkes. Mirabel and her parents were brutally murdered one night and Nym went on a rampage. Being a witch, she used a sort of black magic that brought Mirabel back from the dead (without knowing it for a long time), and Mirabel (who was a child at the time of her death) found a sorceress who aged her appearance several years. Mental illness runs through the Blake bloodline, particularly the witches. Mirabel's character (after her death) was loosely based off of Helena from Orphan Black. Childlike, psychopathic, yet at the same time she practically worships her sister.

What makes it funny is that Mirabel's face claim is Tatiana Maslany. Course I did it on purpose, but still.

 

Once upon a time I played a Nolanverse Bane in a private RP, buuut the other person ended up having RL problems and we quit. Problem was, I really loved the character and I wasn't ready to be done playing him. . . and I had nowhere to play him. So basically, I figured out different ways I could convert his character into other settings. The most successful version of him was a knight in a high-fantasy RPG, and now I'm bringing that character over to my Dragon Age site that will soon be opening. :)

 

I always used to play the silent killer in my games. Anything from the silenced sniper to the assassin with a dagger in his belt. I received the name HolyFall due to other users in the game believing I was a fallen angel coming to reap souls. I was always alone, which is how i exactly how i prefer it. No people to slow me down, until it is necessary.

 

Oh, I definitely like to pick traits from different characters for my own character. For example, my main Character I RP as started off as a Naruto/Ulquiorra influence. Since then, he's taken influence from several different animes and people. Currently, I have him sitting in several different alternate universes, ranging from high fantasy, modern times, futuristic, and even a version with him with parts of an ironman like suit.