Afrodyte
Explorer
One of the things I like to do, both as a player and a DM, is create film and TV characters as 1st-level D&D characters. It's a fun way for me to get familiar with a new game system. In addition to that, it's a great way to help people unfamiliar with roleplaying or D&D to realize a concept in mechanical terms. Simply put, not everybody knows their way around game mechanics, but plenty of people know what type of character they would love to tell stories about in play.
Story-wise, doing this gives myself and other players the seed of a character concept while allowing the character to grow into the awesome and amazing people they are in the original works they come from. All these characters had to start somewhere, and creating them as 1st-level D&D characters gives players an idea of what that somewhere could be.
Beyond story considerations, I like to do this to show the possibilities of a game system. Sometimes, an RPG's art and fiction can make the rules and setting seem more restrictive than they really are. Creating characters outside the expected pseudo-medieval swords and sorcery type stuff helps expand people’s imaginations a bit and show that you don’t have to completely rewrite the rules just because a concept doesn’t fit squarely inside that box. Most of the time, an approximation of the original character is all you need. From there, the player can take that character and make it their own.
For instance, I created several characters from the anime series Inuyasha: Inuyasha (chaotic neutral/good half-elf barbarian), Kagome (neutral good human cleric, light domain), Miroku (neutral good human cleric, knowledge domain), and Sango (lawful good human ranger). I may get my way around to Shippo (chaotic good high elf, halfling, or gnome bard), but Kirara would most likely be an NPC (unless she is a wildshaped druid who prefers to stay in kitty and nekomata form).
Does anyone else do something similar?
Story-wise, doing this gives myself and other players the seed of a character concept while allowing the character to grow into the awesome and amazing people they are in the original works they come from. All these characters had to start somewhere, and creating them as 1st-level D&D characters gives players an idea of what that somewhere could be.
Beyond story considerations, I like to do this to show the possibilities of a game system. Sometimes, an RPG's art and fiction can make the rules and setting seem more restrictive than they really are. Creating characters outside the expected pseudo-medieval swords and sorcery type stuff helps expand people’s imaginations a bit and show that you don’t have to completely rewrite the rules just because a concept doesn’t fit squarely inside that box. Most of the time, an approximation of the original character is all you need. From there, the player can take that character and make it their own.
For instance, I created several characters from the anime series Inuyasha: Inuyasha (chaotic neutral/good half-elf barbarian), Kagome (neutral good human cleric, light domain), Miroku (neutral good human cleric, knowledge domain), and Sango (lawful good human ranger). I may get my way around to Shippo (chaotic good high elf, halfling, or gnome bard), but Kirara would most likely be an NPC (unless she is a wildshaped druid who prefers to stay in kitty and nekomata form).
Does anyone else do something similar?
