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

It varies. I've never recycled a character, so with so many different personalities needed, it's a given that I will draw some inspiration from other sources. It's rarely more than the seed of an idea, though, because my main focus when creating a character is always the setting. Almost any character I make will be so informed by the world that they'll be inseparable from it - which is why I don't recycle them. I really can't, and the process doesn't really allow direct transplants from pop culture, either.

 

All of my characters are OC, but I do have "mirror" characters of certain ones. Which are sometimes malevolent in nature and destructive. Sometimes benevolent. It will depend on the character and his/her personality. I mainly do fantasy, modern, paranormal (vamps, etc.), and on the rare occasion sci-fi.

 

Actually I have quite a bit of influence by my other characters because I know the type of personalities I can play or that I like to play at least. Generally though it also comes down to whether I RP a female or male, what setting I'm in. So many kinds of characters can come out of the base personalities I have made.

 

For me, I always base my first character off myself- they're pretty much me. From there I drift away from myself :)

 

For the most part I don't like to base my characters on anyone because the role playing circles I ran in early on considered it taboo, and it's a habit I have yet to break in most cases. However, I do have a Starfleet doctor who is somewhat loosely based on Abby Sciuto from NCIS.

I'm more likely to base a new character on one of my own former characters or have them connected in some way. For example, I play a character named Jhu t'Dharvanek. Before I wrote Jhu, I wrote her mother, Shiarrael. Funnily enough, before I ever conceived Shiarrael, I wrote her other daughter, Jadzia Rhian. None of this was planned in advance; it just happened.

 

Ive only participated in fandom writing, so most of my characters had something to do with the pre-existing universe. So, guys like Han Solo or Atton Rand would come up. But, I would often draw from things outside of the universe or different series like Naruto, The Wire, True Detective or unique characters John Lemon or some cool actor played.

 

I suck at writing canon characters because I constantly worry that I'm writing them incorrectly. I also feel a little awkward writing a character someone else invented.

I've tried it in the past, just not my thing.

I have recycled some OCs in the past, though I always modify them to fit a particular universe.

 

I'm going to say not really. I pick from a list of adjectives on strengths, weaknesses and what not. I don't think about pre-existing characters unless I'm playing a canon and then its not the same. At least I never actively tried so if any of my characters act like pre-existing ones then it was unintentional.

 

I think that if I see something I like in a character from novels or television I tend to bookmark the trait in my head for future use. Though I am very careful to make the person unique so as not to copy them completely. When I started off though I played a character who was essentially just Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer except he was a teacher. Now I just feel myself influenced by various traits and character flaws.

 

I try to be original in this, but if I look back in my time in Mass Effect Universe, I would say that I mixed super hero's attitude. Like Harley Quinn/Alice in Horrorland and that create a pysco killer that had delusions. Even did a character based of Elza (frozen) mixed with Mass Effect story that create a honorable woman, fighting for a better cause.

 

Sometimes, but rarely. Often I grab elements from several places to create a character.

 

I'd say that I'm inspired less by specific characters from other sources and more by the general weight of everything I've seen and read. I think that what fascinates me in books, movies, anime and manga has all combined to help influence me.

 

Most of my characters just start off as an idea, although some came from my fond memories of role-playing in primary school.

 

I totally have a character inspired by Damon Salvatore's witty, snarky personality.

And I have another inspired by Neal Caffrey from White Collar.

I do much better creating based on canon lists or ideas rather than coming up with something random in my head, so this works for me!

 

Yes. My Benjamin King was inspired by Benjamin Cappadora from the book The Deep End of the Ocean. There was no danger for them to become too similiar because I had two other family members of him previously established and my visions for them made sure my Ben would have a significantly different story and through that of course a very different personality.

The things the two have in common:

* Obviously the real first name. But I chose it mainly because I just love that name.

* Abducted as a small child.

(Cappadora at age 3, my Ben at age 5.)

* Lost for years and raised by someone,

(Cappadora for nine years, my Ben for 33 years.)

* Forgot their real family except for remembering that they probably used to have a brother.

(Cappadora simply due to his very young age at the time of abduction while being raised by good and kind people, my Ben because he suffered for months at the hands of a wizard who tortured him, enough to mess with his head. I think Cappadora remembered his brother for sure, my Ben wasn't sure all the time.)

* Found their way back home by a sort of a miracle, that is were not found by the authorities.

(Cappadora happened to ring his original family's doorbell to ask if he could mowl their lawn for pocket money and his mother, as the family had happened to move into the same neighbourhood a few years earlier, came to the door. Seeing his smile and familiar face and eyes, she had a mother's instinct that this could be her long lost son. She secretly takes photos of him and shows them to the detective the family had befriended during the years and eventually it is confirmed that he is their boy.)

Whereas my Ben (known as Luke since abduction) was taking his godson trick-or-treating and the boy befriended another boy who happened to be Ben's nephew currently supervised by his father. Of course after 33 years they don't recognize each other, but as the kids want to spend more time together the men end up doing so too, which eventually through discussions and certain memory sharing leads them to suspect they might be related. Ben agrees to have his fingerprints taken at a police station and soon enough the truth is confirmed.)

 

I base characters off things I see in media all the time. Right now I have:
-A character based on Sans from Undertale (in that he lives in a state of idgaf, tells lame jokes constantly, and is secretly competent).
-A character very very loosely based on Deadpool (mostly where her inner monologue is concerned).
-And my others are hodgepodges of ideas I collected from different things, including stuff in my own brain.

 

My character inspirations come from so many different places, it's hard to keep track. I've named characters after favorite family lines in books (the Waterhouses in Cryptonomicon & The Baroque Cycle is the namesake of my primary family line in star trek sims), I've gender flipped characters (Hiro Protagonist from Snow Crash now haunts old World of Darkness games as a Malkavian named Kaida Smith), and I've had something as simple as a name create a whole character from nothing (Cecil of Welcome to Night Vale was the namesake of my yeoman who probably wouldn't even get what WtNV is about). Every character has grown into so much more than the seed that started them in my head. On the other hand, I've started from traits and abilities I needed and run from there. The CO of the Joshua Norton started out because my friend asked me to come be her chief of security, and I'd never played that position before... So I thought what would lead someone to that career in Starfleet? She wanted to be a superhero, so next best thing, right? Other characters came into being simply because I wanted to play an Andorian and a female Ferengi. That Ferengi is one of my favorite characters to write now.

 

I use to use a lot of Poison Ivy stuff for my character Angela. She is the Goddess of Earth and Fertility (she has like 100 kids)
I also use my own lore and for all her kids if I play them I tend to think about how she would raise them. I've been working on her for about 12-13 years now :3 She's been a goddess for 2 years I believe 3 this year. When we transitioned to Revaliir I was able to say she was about 200 years or so into her Godhood which is why she has so many children. ;)

 

Yep! One of them, he never really got a chance. He was a NPC for his older sister years and years ago, and finally I decided to give him a chance as his own character. I'm so glad I looked deeper into his character because I'm really enjoying his personality.

 

I ended up making an entire royal family out of nowhere, maining the prodigal son as a cynical, down to earth and in your face city boy. Later on, Vesperia came out as did numerous animes featuring personalities entirely similar to what I made. I felt ripped off, but used these venues to further develop my characters into the more well-rounded royal Hellion pains in the human asses that they are. Also, Troy Baker was a huge influence on my main prince character.