Strangest media influence?

Obryn

Hero
OK, bear with me for a second.

In a weird but encouraging turn of events, one of my players started up her own 4e game after getting the books. (The DMG really does give you the DMing bug!) I am running her and the rest of the party through KotS, and she is running her group through KotS as well. They're quite a bit behind my group, and yeah, it's weird, but she does a good job of keeping character knowledge and player knowledge separate. Plus, I'm a competent enough DM and 4e is easy enough to manipulate that I've gone off-script several times already.

Anyway, she invited me to play in her group. I can't do it every week (it's normally on Fridays, and me gaming every Wednesday and every Friday quickly got vetoed by my wife) but I let them know I'd drop in here and there.

She said they needed a cleric, and needed ranged stuff more than melee stuff, so I went with the calling-down-wrath-of-god route. I also realized I wanted to play a character who would stay almost completely out of the decision-making process. After all, at this point I know KotS inside and out, and I doubt she is modifying it much at all.

So, I created Nyreth.

Nyreth is an elven Cleric of Corellon, the God of Art and Beauty. (Stats-wise, S11 / Co12 / D16 / I 8 / W 18 / Ch 14). He's multiclassed to Ranger, and uses a longbow when the range is too far for his clerical blammies.

Here's where the media influences come in.

I came up with the rest of the concept - his hook, I guess - while watching way too much Project Runway. He's not an adventurer by trade - he's a tailor and designer for elven nobility. He's doing research to create a new line of practical clothing for adventurers (they have deeper pockets than nobles!), and figures that the best way to do that is, of course, to go on adventures.

It's a fun little hook, and I had a great time playing him. I had a good time taking notes about things adventurers need - easily-cleaned clothes, perhaps a built-in pillow somewhere, hidden pockets for coins... Also, the whole god-of-beauty-and-art thing is tons of fun to play up when blasting goblins. But still, I never thought I'd get a character idea from a reality show of any kind.

So - either speaking for yourself or a player in your game - what's the strangest media-influenced character you've had? Preferably one that worked out, unless it was absolutely hilarious. "I made a twin-scimitar dark elf named 'Drazzt'" isn't really story-worthy. :)

-O
 

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That's certainly the last place I would have thought to get inspiration for a character, but it's kinda neat how you worked it in.

Three media-influenced characters I remember fondly;
1) My own oddball bit of media influence was a vampire character based off of 'Nicky' from Operation: Mindcrime (a Queensryche album), whom I interpreted as a strung-out Brujah hitman working unwillingly for a mind-manipulating Ventrue 'Doctor X.'

2) One of the other players in one of our Vampire games based his character off of a WWF wrestler, and was always doing body-slams and lifting people off the ground and throwing them. (Also a Brujah.) He picked his 'wrestler name' after watching some episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, and so our Coterie included 'Crunch Ironjock,' who ended up becoming Brujan Primogen for Seattle...

3) A Supers character I played, Mngwa, was a cryptid grey-furred great cat from Africa, who could turn into a tall and fierce looking woman, and the entire character inspiration came from the Sri Lankan model who was chasing the lead singer around in the Hungry Like the Wolf video, by Duran Duran. Something about her angular face and her long, lean frame, totally cliqued for me and I had to make her some sort of shapeshifter (which she was in the video as well).
 

I like music as an influence. I have one nation that is informed by the "feel" of Kashmir (Led Zepplin) and one inspired by Plush (STP). The former is the "big nasty" of my setting, with lots of psionics, cliffs that overlook what would be the analog of the Strait of Gibralter and keep trade to a minimum, and other monolithic, oppressive bits screaming for a hero to stand up to. The latter is a "protectorate" of the first, acquired in the last war. It's more brutal, with a clear foreign ruling class and elves hunted for sport ("when the dogs begin to smell her").

"Inside the Fire" currently makes me think of one of the PCs in my game (a wizard with a skin-riding Glabrezu sorcerer). The character certainly wasn't inspired by the song, but it sure puts me in the mood to mess with her.
 

The most off-beat I've seen or played:

1. A rude, officious cleric inspired by Basil Fawlty (Fawlty Towers) .

2. A bard modeled after Robert E. Howard---the man himself, not his creations. Lots of shouting and clubbing of heads.

3. A Champions character who was the reanimated electric-powered corpse of Nikola Tesla.
 

. . . He's doing research to create a new line of practical clothing for adventurers (they have deeper pockets than nobles!), and figures that the best way to do that is, of course, to go on adventures. . .

-O

I always thought adventurers preferred their patrons to have deeper pockets?!;)
 

I made a Firbolg fighter (AD&D 2E from The Complete Book of Humanoids) based on Fezzic from The Princess Bride, named (of course) Fezzic.;)

I also played a ninja once (AD&D 2E), that obviously didn't tell people he was a ninja but passed himself off as a gourmet cook (ala Steven Seagal from Under Siege). Despite the cliche character premise, he was pretty fun to run.
 

My D&D characters have been fairly normal. But I do have two odd characters elsewhere.

1. HERO System Supers game based off of the Marvel Runaways comic. I ran a daywalker that was based off the lead girl from the somewhat autobiographical movie Thirteen (Great movie but don't watch if you have a tween girl and want to stay sane). That was about as mentaly disturbed as I ever want to get with a character.

2. HERO System Supernatural game based off a combination of Helsing and Witch Hunter Robin. I based my character off of London Tipton from The Suite Life of Zach and Cody. Yay Me (Clap, Clap, Clap)
 

My current 4e character is quick to anger paladin who can't abide when anyone messes with woment, ala Russell Crowes character Wendel "Bud" White from LA Confidential. I named him Wendel Whitecrest and instead of working for the cops he is working for the church of Torm.

We were playing a TSR Marvel campaign and I had been listening to the musical "Chess" alot at the time. I created a character who was a college aged chess team person who had a set of powers all based on chess pieces. Frex, she had a "castle" power that let her switch places with another friendly person.

DS
 

3. A Champions character who was the reanimated electric-powered corpse of Nikola Tesla.

I KNEW I wasn't the only one with Tesla-powered characters!

I draw from a lot of different sources, sometimes with just really oddball basic concepts ("Hey, an evil psionic psychiatrist that FORCES others to become good and well balanced people") or the more standard fare. That said, real life is stranger then fiction, so reading through the less sensational news sources can give some hilarious and awesome ideas for characters.
 

I had a player do Howlin' Mad Murdock from the A-Team.

As a paladin.

A friend once had a Star Wars character who was brown and furry and communicated mainly in growls, used a bowcaster, and was named Chewbacca.

At this point in the story, everyone always says something like "So he was a Wookie, then?".

No. An Ewok. With a bad case of hero-worship.
 

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