Main Charactering

[Kim]

So, the story I'm working on. The main character doesn't show up till part 4 of 7, so I have some time to work out the main character. But, being the main character and all, he is rather important, so I want to use that time to it's fullest potential. So here are my thoughts so far...

I think he should be about thirty-three, with a wife and son. He works on a farm that belonged to his father, his father having passed away not too long ago. However, the world has recently become industrialized, and he can't operate on as large of a scale as a lot of the farming companies. He doesn't have the technology, the money to buy said technology, nor enough people to help around the farm.

When he can't pay his taxes, the government seizes his property, sends his wife and son to a government established homeless shelter, that is really more like a prison, and forces him to work at a gem factory. Gem factories are where life and magic are taken from people and put into gems to power all the modern technology. This is what gets him started on his quest to stop the evil government man.

The main character can manipulate water, which isn't really that special, and since he refuses to use gems, knowing where they come from, he's at a real disadvantage.

So... Ideas? Make him stronger? Leave him as is? Make him more disadvantaged?

I'm thinking about having the government try and force him to put his wife and son into gems when he tries to tell people what's going on, but I don't want to kill those two needlessly, and I don't want him on just some revenge quest.

[Marelo]

Hm... To what extent can he manipulate water? Small amounts? Large amounts? How long? How far? With what force? Can he manipulate its temperature?

Depending on the answers to these questions, he could be vastly overpowered or a total pushover. :P

Less specific: Why did you choose water? Is it significant to the story?

How has the government kept the gems' source a secret for so long? I'd have him go around telling people, but have the government discredit him, rather than punish him. A punishment would make it obvious that he was telling the truth. Then, there might be some people who also know the truth, and who seek him out and, well, interact with him as characters, I guess. Or not. Your story, your call. Just some thoughts.

[Kim]

Well, it's using the magic system from that other thread I started a week or so ago I think, so yeah, he can move a lot of water... if he wants to shave years off his life. I chose water not for a story related reason, just had to give him a kind of magic since everyone has it. I mostly chose water rather than any other because water is thought of as a bringer of life, and he is a farmer.

It has been kept a secret for so long by the fact that the government controls the press, and the people being used are from foreign countries the kingdom has conquered.

Yeah, that makes sense to have them discredit him rather than punish him. I think I'll go with that.

[Marelo]

I looked back 45 days and found no such thread :P

[Kim]

I put it in the wrong sub-forum is why. I was used to that sub-forum being posted for shit you made, be it story or art, and this sub-forum for talking about other people's shit, or at least, that is how I understood it. Anywho... Here (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showthread.php?t=32379).

[Marelo]

I see.

Well, how much life, hypothetically, would it cost him to freeze a tiny droplet of moisture and propel it at high velocities for use as a weapon? What about using a tiny, paper-thin stream of water to cut people in half, or, heck, just rip them in half with the water in their own bodies?

I don't imagine it would take much energy to simply stop someone's blood from reaching his/her brain.

[Kim]

I was thinking of putting a requirement of physical contact or the magic starting from the user. Can't manipulate the water in the person without physically touching them sort of thing. Touching their armor or clothes does not count as touching them either. I dunno, I have been worrying that my magic system needs some balancing, but I don't really know how to go about such a thing without essentially making everyone and their dog overpowered.

[Marelo]

I was thinking perhaps that certain things require more concentration than others. Like, manipulating exceptionally small or large things requires a lot more concentration than a medium amount?

It would be a sort of flexible limitation, allowing you to adjust the magic to the story, rather than the other way around. Don't think he should win a certain fight? Drop a few distractions in, and he can't concentrate hard enough.

[Kim]

Good idea! In fact, it's so good, I'll say it was all mine!

Okay, not really. That'd be rude. Thanks for the help.

[Marelo]

No problem :D

[Kim]

Actually, another thing I was thinking. My story has two villains. Villain A served Villain B until B was killed, but not by A nor by a plot from A. I was thinking of having the main character die after killing B, having used up all his life/magic. A comes into power.

After that part, there being a race of sorts between the hero and B, set up by Death. The winner gets to live again. Thus the hero is able to come back, and it would also give me a chance to make the hero strong enough to defeat A.

[Marelo]

Mayhap it would be more dramatic/meaningful if a companion saw fit to sacrifice his life force to resurrect the hero?

[Kim]

Well, I really want it to be about him earning the strength he needs to defeat Villain A. Yeah, he defeated Villain B, but if someone just dies to bring the hero back, I'm not sure it'll be the same. Through the contest in the afterlife, he grows stronger, not just on a physical level, but on more of a character level as well, on top of earning the strength to stop A. I feel redundant.

[Marelo]

Eh, your story. You know what it should be more than I do.

[Mirai Gen]

Yeah a majority of this sounds like just the kind of thing you should mill over in your head before asking for advice.

If you have a character in your head it's tough for us to really help you shape him, considering we haven't even been given the literary function that's supposed to define his character for us.

[Pip Boy]

Yeah a majority of this sounds like just the kind of thing you should mill over in your head before asking for advice.

If you have a character in your head it's tough for us to really help you shape him, considering we haven't even been given the literary function that's supposed to define his character for us.

I personally disagree with this. Maybe its just me, but most of the ideas I get in writing work as if this forum is Wilson and I am House. While nothing you say directly may be used, it may throw me into the chain of thinking that leads me to a good original idea that I may have never found without some inspiration.

Noncon, what kind of person is your main character? If you had to say his character traits stuck him in any one D&D class, what would it be? Would he be a barbarian? Paladin? wizard? Monk? If you character is a studious individual, perhaps he could make some discovery in magic that puts him above others. Perhaps while at first he is at a large handicap, he gains great power as he makes discoveries that he finds only because of his unique experiences. Death, for example. What if he finds some great secret in the afterlife he can use to his advantage after returning to life?

[Kim]

I was thinking of him essentially being NPC strength when compared to your normal D&D heroes. The only reason he is able to kill Villain B is because he uses up his life using the magic. I was essentially thinking of basically him coming back from the dead making it so that his magic was no longer restricted on basis of life as well as maybe learning some combat or getting a weapon or something in the afterlife.

I worry that that would make him too powerful. If I did do this though, I would have a consequence at the end. Towards the end of the story, Villain A goes to kill the Gods. Hero defeats him, but I was thinking of having the Gods make the hero stay in the realm of the Gods, unable to return to the human world, because he's too powerful.

[Marelo]

Yes, but what class would he be? What's his method of approaching problems?

[Kim]

He avoids confrontation. So maybe a rogue? He's good at coming up with ways around shit, because Fifth recommended it, and that works really for the character. I don't necessarily see that as a class thing, so yeah... I would guess some clever rogue type. But if a rogue could actually hold their own in a fair fight, no magic I mean. He worked on a farm, it makes sense for him to be at least reasonably strong. So clever rogue with a dash of fighter.

[Fifthfiend]

The main character can manipulate water, which isn't really that special, and since he refuses to use gems, knowing where they come from, he's at a real disadvantage.

So... Ideas? Make him stronger? Leave him as is? Make him more disadvantaged?

"Disadvantaged but good at coming up with clever ways around that" is usually the way to go there. Not easy to write, though.

I was used to that sub-forum being posted for shit you made, be it story or art, and this sub-forum for talking about other people's shit, or at least, that is how I understood it.

It still is mostly, probably? I'll have to check on how we're doing that post-namechange.

I see.

Well, how much life, hypothetically, would it cost him to freeze a tiny droplet of moisture and propel it at high velocities for use as a weapon? What about using a tiny, paper-thin stream of water to cut people in half, or, heck, just rip them in half with the water in their own bodies?

I don't imagine it would take much energy to simply stop someone's blood from reaching his/her brain.

I was thinking of putting a requirement of physical contact or the magic starting from the user. Can't manipulate the water in the person without physically touching them sort of thing. Touching their armor or clothes does not count as touching them either. I dunno, I have been worrying that my magic system needs some balancing, but I don't really know how to go about such a thing without essentially making everyone and their dog overpowered.

Just say something about how he can't muck with water on people's insides easily cause their innate magic-ness stops him from doing that.

[Kim]

"Disadvantaged but good at coming up with clever ways around that" is usually the way to go there. Not easy to write, though.

Just say something about how he can't muck with water on people's insides easily cause their innate magic-ness stops him from doing that.

Both good ideas. Thanks! For the first part, I'd probably have him do shit to slow people down or distract them while he ran away. He isn't, by nature a fighter. He can hold his own physically, but fighting isn't in his nature, and he's never had to fight for his life before.

As for the second part, that saves me some troubles in deciding how powerful magic should be and whatnot.

[Mirai Gen]

Oh if you're in this subject check out Avatar, because all the different elemental-affectingness should give you some good ideas of what to do and what not to do.

I personally disagree with this. Maybe its just me, but most of the ideas I get in writing work as if this forum is Wilson and I am House. While nothing you say directly may be used, it may throw me into the chain of thinking that leads me to a good original idea that I may have never found without some inspiration.
Oh no idea boards are always nice to have, and I can understand that, but this seems a bit different than that in ways I can't describe.