Ever had a piece of art inspire a character?

[Dragonhelm]

Looks like a bleached out Green Star Adept to me...

Seriously, though. I had the Crystar action figures! Well, Moltar* anyway.

My thought was to play a Crystal Proselyte from Hyperconscious, and make my own psionic version of Crystar.

 

[Rolzup]

With me, it's miniatures. This particular guy, from Heresy, is the halfling paladin that I've always wanted to play....

(Paladin in the Solomon Kane mode, you understand.)

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Sure. 1E illustrations in particular, like Emirikol the Chaotic, but nothing from the 3E era springs to mind. Mostly my inspiration has been from books, movies, and above all other influences - miniatures. But when I saw this one by Andrew Hou in Dragon, it was an immediate inspiriation. I knew instantly that this was going to be a major NPC in my next campaign. My thinking was that he would have an old apprentice who would be asleep every time the PC's "meet" him. They wouldn't have reason to approach close enough to realize that it was the small white mouse talking from the desk, NOT the comatose "wizard" in the chair next to it. He'd say things like, "I've had my assistant prepare the information you asked for. It's on the top of the pile of books next to the door."

Hopefully, only after having "met" him several times would the PC's be able to get close enough, or be given enough clues to realize it's THE MOUSE. They're no good at all at spotting anagrams so his name will be Sumeo.

 

[Nyaricus]

I actually had a thread about this a week or so ago: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=183782

Oh yeah, I actually meant to respond to that thread, but my computer shut down on me. What I was going to say is that I have an interesting gaming connection to Steven Erikson. It seems he was raised in the same city I live in, and his books are, of course, literary adaptations of his campaigns he ran back in the 80's under the GURPS system. The thing is, is that I work with this guy Max, who is actually the son of Steve Eriksons' best friend and fellow gamer, and Max is now playing a cleric in my game.

So yeah, there's my little story for EN World

I once had it happen in reverse. I played a half-orc monk and then saw a picture of him!

The one from Klaus' site? I *love* that half-orc monk.

My buddy also really liked the Gnome monk featured there, but he was using a quaterstaff and not a kama, so I touched up the photo, printed it off, adn voila! His evil Gnome Monk/Tattoed Monk/Gnomish Giant Slayer with Vow of Evil Poverty

Man in the Funny Hat, neat pic and neat hook - thanks!

cheers,
--N

 

[Torm]

I once created a character based on a drawing of Batwoman that I found on the 'net. Not exactly High Art, but art nonetheless.

I am more prone to be inspired by song than visual art. One of my current characters is a 23rd level CN Cleric of Thoth named Felina. "Blacker than night were the eyes of Felina, wicked and evil while casting her spell." - El Paso by Marty Robbins. And as a DM, not too long ago I ran an encounter based on the song "Ballroom Blitz".

 

[Prince of Happiness]

I had a concept for a paladin that I was thinking about running in a Savage Tide game that was inspired by Shaft and the Four Tops' Are You Man Enough? theme for Shaft in Africa.

Essentially a Touv human from Hepmonaland who works as a private eye in the Touv community of Sasserine reuniting formerly enslaved family members from the surrounding plantations and the city. He was the last in a line of "holy" or "spirit" warriors hence his paladin status.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

Well, recently, a LOT of my PCs, pregen PCs, and NPCs have been inspired by the stuff shown on Klaus's site. My current Eberron PC is loosely based after Klaus's depiction of He-Man (or rather, Adamok).

Other PCs/NPCs were inspired by the works present at the time. I've made a fair number of NPC female human clerics based on the B&W illo of a cleric by Elmore in the Red Box basic D&D set (the one with the Elmore illustration on the cover). I've even made up Aleena, Bargle, & Baldwick for my current campaign (as well as in past campaigns).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I also come from an artsy background, and while I find inspiration everywhere, music, fiction, and art are my primary sources.

I've got shelves of books about particular artists- Warhol, Klimt, Giger, Whelan, Brom, Frank Lloyd Wright, the Hildebrands, Rowena and more- all have inspired characters.

I also have art-history books, as well as books detailing the collections of every museum I've ever visited, and a few I haven't. I've probably been inspired by most of them as well- if not for PCs, then for adventures.

This inspired my first Paladin PC ever:

http://www.igougo.com/travelcontent...=Top&Caption=Munich Schatzkammer der Residenz

 

[Particle_Man]

The one from Klaus' site? I *love* that half-orc monk.

Actually, an ad for Minuratures Handbook in the back of Complete Warrior contains the monk I was thinking of. What is Klaus's site?

 

[Nyaricus]

Actually, an ad for Minuratures Handbook in the back of Complete Warrior contains the monk I was thinking of. What is Klaus's site?

Oh, that's another goodie (love WAR)

Klaus has a hosted site here on EN World, and is a fantastic artist, if I may say so.

Here's the half-orc monk I was talking about:

cheers,
--N