Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Character Concepting Part 1 - Brainstorming



Continuing from the post-apocalyptic theme from our environmental assignment I want to come up with a number of character concepts that I can develop over the next assignment, I'm thinking about 5 maybe a few more.  I'm thinking of going with a para-military like squad, characters that have a specific speciality that makes them an important member for the groups survival.  I also want to consider archetypes for them, and perhaps tie them to mythological figures.   For example the main one I have been thinking of is a hunter archetype, sniper type character that I am basing around Skadi a Norse goddess.

So these are the 5 archetypes I'm thinking of so far:


  1. Hunter/Sniper/Skadi
  2. Healer/Scientist/Doctor/Eir/Mercury/Thoth(?)
  3. Trickster/Assault Pioneer/Loki
  4. Warrior/Soldier/Odin(?)
  5. Scholar/Technician/Saga(?)
The first three are a lot more fleshed out in my mind than the last two, but we'll see how they develop.

1. Hunter

Name: Sveta
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Weight: 65kg
Height: 173cm
Heritage: Sveta's Heritage is Russian although she didn't grow up there, her grandfather immigrated to England, and she was born there, but the have remained strong to their roots.
Primary Skills: Sniper Rifle, Stealth, Hunting/Survival
Secondary Skills: Pistols, Knives, basic hand to hand and boxing, crossbow.
Disposition: Cold, prefers solitude and the company of animals, very slow to form friendships, but even on those rare occasions she remains stiff and formal.
Weapons:  Sniper Rifle, Competition Pistol, Colt 1911 pistol, 1 combat knife, 3 throwing knives.   She also has a crossbow that she uses exclusively for hunting.

Description:  Sveta's family had a long military tradition in Russia, a tradition that her father continued once being relocated to England and naturalised as a British citizen, due to this they moved around a lot and Sveta found it increasingly difficult to make friends.  She shared a strong bond with her mother, and when she died in an accident when Sveta was only 10, Sveta has never really recovered from her grief and could only find peace when out in the wilderness.  Her father who was almost always distant himself, wasn't exactly sure what how to handle a little girl, but now being solely responsible for her, treated her in the only way he really knew and that was as a soldier.

By the time she was 13 she was winning awards for marksmanship and by the time she was 17 at her father's encouragement she enlisted and trained to be a sniper.  Since the Apocalypse she has had to adjust her skills to the underground.

She has exceptionally good long range eyesight, but not so good short vision and requires glasses to be able to read.

2. Healer


Name: Emma
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Weight: 76kg
Height: 181cm
Heritage: English and French
Primary Skills: Medical aid, botany/horticulture, Herbology
Secondary Skills: Hand to Hand: touch mastery, basic knowledge of most sciences, blowgun
Weapons: Blowgun
Description:

Emma was something of a prodigy where it came to medicine and graduated with honors from Cambridge, having a thirst for knowledge she broadened her studies to other sciences and found a fascination for plants and herbs.  Having an unconventional mind she also expanded her knowledge into alternative methods of treatment, which involved the more spiritual and mystical ideals, particularly in the realms of traditional tribal systems of healing through the use of shamanism and herbs.  Although she didn't exactly subscribe to their beliefs themselves she learnt much in the way of effective herbal remedies.  Something that would become increasingly important after the apocalypse where pharmaceuticals have become more and more rare.

The combination of her knowledge of Anatomy and skills she picked up along various tribes have given Emma a devastating close range hand to hand technique which utilises pressure points to quickly disable any opponent within that range.

Emma is a serious woman, who cares greatly for those under her care, whether they are her patients or her plants.  She is always optimistic, trying to look for the bright side of light, in spite of the situation they find themselves in.  She likes to hum or sing while she works, particularly around the plants as she believes that it promotes their growth. 

3. Trickster


Name: Karl
Age:  27
Gender: Male 
Weight: 65kg
Height: 167cm
Heritage: Australian/English
Primary Skills: Traps, explosives, shotgun, defensive structures
Secondary Skills: Pistols, Karate, basic electronics
Weapons: Grenades, Shotgun, 2 semi-automatic pistols
Description:

Karl has a dualistic nature, he externally expresses himself as a carefree joker willing to take risks and living in the moment, while internally he is a calm, careful planner, the truth of his being is somewhere in between.  What gets him truly excited is finding creative solutions to challenging thinking, thinking outside the box.  He is very resourceful, and given suitable time and warning is able to prepare booby traps out of the whatever is on hand.  He is able to combine both his intuition and logic to see through to the heart of any problem.

4. Warrior



Name: Emir
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Weight: 90kg
Height: 189cm
Heritage: English/German
Primary Skills: Leadership/tactics, proficient in a number of weapons, swordsmanship
Secondary Skills: Basic Hand to Hand, survival skills, navigation, stealth
Weapons: Assault Rifle, Sub-Machine Gun, Pistols, Sword, combat knife
Description:

Emir was a career soldier, who slowly climbed his way up the NCO ranks of the British army, with his youth behind him, his tasks became more and more administrative and less in field.  Since the apocalypse, his years of experience and leadership abilities have been a great boon to those around him in surviving underground.  He is mostly stiff and formal, but warms to those that have earned his trust. 

He likes to plan ahead, and gather intelligence before making a decision, but is adaptable for unexpected situations and is able to maintain his cool under fire.


5. Scholar



Name: Valarie
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Weight: 70kg
Height: 178cm
Heritage: English
Primary Skills: Mechanical and electrical engineering
Secondary Skills: computing, programming, robotics and ballistics, some skill at pistols and basic hand to hand.
Weapons: Pistol, Taser, early warning devices.
Description:

While not a genius, Valarie has an extraordinary ability to pick up and apply scraps of knowledge, so that although she doesn't know many subjects in depth she is able to piece things together almost as if she did.  Valarie's great love is technology, something she is not shy about in the least, and her abilities come to shine when having to build machines from the scraps of others found.

She is almost always joyful, even when things seem bleak, she has a natural confidence in herself that she will overcome whatever obstacle comes her way.  She has good faith in her intuition to show her the way forward, and this combined with her board range of skills and knowledge often gives her a keen perception of events and how they are probably going to unfold.  She has a distaste for lethal combat and in combat situations prefers the use of her taser to subdue the opponent.

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