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UltimateGameMaster β Concept: Mobius - Fan Character Guide (WIP)
Published: 2014-05-19 02:19:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 4178; Favourites: 24; Downloads: 0
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It's usually tradition for a Sonic character to have a name that suits their personality, character type or is just plain punny. Rarely is an official character given a regular name that you or I would have. I, for one, named my character after myself due to the fact that he is partly used as a reflection of myself and what I've been through. You don't always want to do this, though, because it can look rather childish and/or lazy.
If you can, think up a name that is either largely unused or is suitable for a Sonic character, without being a ridiculous pun. If you must use a regular name, make it one with some significance. Perhaps after someone you know, or have heard of.
One of the biggest problems with fan characters is that they are usually modeled after the official Main Crew. Meaning, hedgehogs, foxes and echidnas out the wazoo. Not only is this lazy, but it shows a lack of creativity. There are a lot of other animals out there, many that haven't even been used yet by Sonic Team or other fans. So, get to researching! There has to be one species of the animal kingdom that will get your attention.
If your character just has to be a hedgehog, however, please avoid any similarities to Sonic, Amy, Shadow or the others. Same with foxes, and only ONE tail. Giving your character multiple tails takes away Mr. Prower's most notable trait and, in turn, makes you look bad. Under no circumstances should your character be an echidna. Knuckles is the last of his kind. And no, your character can't be a long lost member of the Knuckles Clan or a defector from the Nocturnus Clan. The former just sounds stupid and the latter isn't viable because Sonic Chronicles isn't canon, according to Sonic Team, plus, you're just ripping off Shade.
Also, try to avoid making your character a deity of some sort. First off, it's egotistical and attention whoring. Second, it makes your character overpowered and sets up godmodding, which is always frowned upon, especially during roleplaying.
Here's where you can really get crazy, if you're not careful. For the official cast, the female Mobians get threads befitting them, while the guys don't get anything except gloves and shoes. While there's nothing really wrong with that, you can challenge that tradition in this case.
If your character is male, you can go ahead and give him clothes, as long as it a logical set for him. You can't have him as a Speed type and dress him in a long, heavy and baggy pants, can you? It just doesn't make sense. If your character is female, PLEASE make sure her attire is age appropriate. I don't care how "blessed" she is, it just looks tacky to have a teen dressing like a harlot. Having their wardrobe match their occupation or personality type is one thing, but have some sense, too.
Lastly, if you don't have that much fashion sense, don't be afraid to get input from someone who does (and who won't look at you like you're crazy for asking about Sonic).
Another common problem is having a fan character be acquainted with the official cast in some capacity. Usually as best friends, family or lovers. Case in point, Shadow has so many "girlfriends" it's ridiculous.
It's recommended that you keep your characters' goings on separate from the official cast's plot. If they must intersect, your character must be in the background. Don't suddenly pit them against Eggman for the fate of the planet or anything like that. I understand wanting to stand alongside your favorite characters, but come on. You can create your own adventures for your own characters, can't you?
Yet another mistake is making your character too strong or too skilled, or giving him/her abilities that are too outrageous to be believable. For example, you cannot have your character as fast or faster than Sonic. That's just lame and make you look desperate to be just like him, which shouldn't be your aim with your character.
Here's how everyone ranks in their Ability Types, by order of best - worst:
- Speed: Sonic/Metal Sonic, Shadow, Blaze, Espio/Jet, Amy (Shadow is physically the strongest.)
- Flight: Tails, Silver, Charmy/Cream, Wave/Rouge (As the "Fastest Insect in the World", Charmy has an edge over Cream, since he's a Mobian insect)
- Power: Knuckles, Big, Storm/Vector, Omega, Dr. Robotnik (Knuckles is the fastest moving.)
Now, my character uses Chaos Drives in his attacks, but Chaos Control is only used sparingly, as in once in a blue moon. Moreover, his moveset is limited by the number of Drives he possesses at a given time, which isn't much. Thus, while he possess the ability to use it, to be frank, it's rather suckish in comparison to official uses.
That's the kind of thing you have to consider when giving your character attacks and abilities. They can't be 100% perfect or outshine the official cast in any way, shape or form, except in the most insignificant ways (i.e. your power character can be smart, can have versatile tactics, etc.)
This goes alongside relationships; don't have your character interfering with official past events or mingling with the cast. Your character can't be Sonic's brother, Shadow's clone, Rouge's boyfriend, or anything like that. It's just plain stupid.
(Subject to update and change.)
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Comments: 11
Sonic and Shadow actually seem to have the exact same level of strength.Β
Because of several reasons (one reason being that I associate my closest friends and family with certain Sonic characters and can't NOT see them as those characters), 7 out of 9 of my characters just HAVE to have several similarities to certain official Sonic characters (2 of the 7 are a Tenrec and a Mink, but one reason for that is because those were the rumored species that Shadow and Silver were meant to be). Although I do try to bring out their differences more (which, for some, is a little more difficult because the persons they're based off of just so happens to have a LOT of similarities to the actual Sonic character I see them as)
Other than that, the last 2 characters aren't really meant to have the same specific similarities as the others, so there's more uniqueness for them then the others.Β
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Er, no. Sonic isn't capable of lifting a bus. Shadow is, due to his genetics.
I'm afraid your characters would never make the cut due to their numerous similarities to the official cast, and you seem incapable of venturing beyond that limited scope.
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Like I said, 2 of my characters aren't Β made with a specific character in mind. Like, one of my characters that I haven't really done much with is called Reticle the Hawk. The reason he's a hawk has nothing to do with Jet, though. He's based off of one of my close friends, and as such everything about him relates to that friend. His main power is supposed to be Laser Eye Beams (specifically of the Gamma-Ray type as my friend suggested), and he wears glasses that help with the laser eyes. Both of those things relates to my friend because he does wear glasses, he has a strong fondness for lasers, and someone actually pointed a laser in his eye at one point, and he said that same eye became red (doesn't show up on camera though, and it's not as prominent right now. He's mentioned that he wants to do it again to make it red again). He's a hawk because of the fact his main hairstyle was a mohawk, and he said he wants Tomahawks as his main weapon. Also, his name Reticle, comes from the laser eyes, Tomahawk throwing, and the fact my friend has very good accuracy and aiming (actually the Hawk part may tie in to that, since hawks have great eyesight).
How good of a character does he sound like? I want your honest opinion.Β
Also, part of the reason I made my characters into fancharacters in the first place was to actually design them better and stuff as humans and a couple more reasons I can't describe at the moment. Here's a picture of a few of them that (as fancharacters) were meant to have some level of similarity to Sonic, Tails (me), Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, and Blaze.Β
On a scale of 1-10, can you tell me how similar to them they appear?Β scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hpβ¦
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Reticle has potential.
...8.9.
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Well that's good to hear, coming from you.Β
8.9? Huh...
Ok, then. Um... can you uh.... um...
Oh, can you tell me how much they appear to stand out as their own characters in terms of design? I mean, are the differences enough to not immediately make you think of a specific Sonic character unless you were looking for it?
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The designs scream "Sonic imitation" right of the bat, and don't stand out at all.
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They do? Even the one that I said was designed with Blaze in mind (although, the only real Blaze on her design-wise was just being a Cat as a Sonic character).
I mean, like 90% of their designs (mainly as humans in the picture I showed you), is based off my friends/family and myself, especially in clothing and stuff, and their shoes (not shown in the picture) don't have any obvious resemblance to the Sonic characters' main footwear (the character in blue with spiky hair wears cyan/light blue sneakers shaped like... like the lightspeed shoes in Sonic Adventure, the Custom Shoes [when using a gem] in '06, or the soap shoes with almost no visible similarity to Sonic's trademark red Power Sneakers as far as I can tell). Like, I always wear a hoodie and a cap all the time, so I gave my specific character a hoodie and a cap, and even the shirt I'm wearing right now (my favorite shirt), is the same kind of shirt I'm wearing in the picture (white with yellow sleeves, minus the lightning bolt). And my friend (who always dresses in blue, likes the color blue, loves to run, runs super fast, runs with his arms extended out backward, eats chili dogs, wears a Sonic hat [a type with actual ears], calls himself "Sonic", calls me "Tails", has excellent self-taught swordsmanship, loves to help people and do good, etc) wears cargo shorts and a blue vest all the time, so his character has those type of clothes as well. And the character in black (who's based off my friend who just so happens to have many similarities to Shadow by sheer coincidence alone) likes/wants to have 2 bangs to form what he calls "Scythes". Actually, that specific character now has a lot more similarities to Shadow then I originally intended, because of my friend's ideas for the character backstory-wise but I won't get into that.
Actually, you know what, how about this. Collectively, they may scream "Sonic imitation" to you, but how about just individually? Can you tell me how each of the characters resemble certain characters individually instead of collectively? I'm sure that individually there's a lot more that separates them from Sonic and co.Β
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There isn't. The hair, expressions and attire on each of them aren't original at all. The blue guy is clearly Sonic, you're a moodier Tails, the Shadow guy is obvious, and so on and so forth. You even said yourself that they were meant to be similar to the Sonic cast, so you shot yourself in the foot right off.
Bottom line, you and your friends need more originality. Think outside of the damn box. Because if you won't listen to me, there are plenty of others,
Sonic fan or not, who will not hesitate to tear you apart for your lack of innovation.
That's all I'm going to say on the matter.
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I, actually, would look like a "moodier Tails" (I'm not moody, I just don't like showing emotion) regardless because my favorite color is already yellow, that's how I would always draw my hair (Whenever I draw Tails as a human, his hair is always different then how I draw mine. Actually that's true for the rest as well). And how is the attire not original at all? Besides the color, the actual clothing isn't directly based off of the Sonic characters at all, minus stuff like... well, the pink girl's bandages on her arms being based off of Amy's Sonic Boom design, but that's it. The expressions are meant to resemble the expressions of the actual people they are based off of. Although for the blue guy, I just draw him with a Sonic expression whenever it's just a drawing of him without any specific meaning. Like, if the drawing is meant to express his character better, like for a comic or something, then his expression with be a lot more crazy, insane and loony while still retaining some Sonic in there because that's just how my friend acts and stuff. My other friend (guy in red), is extremely short-tempered and constantly angry, and his anger is like a big part of his personality. He also doesn't like people that much. So the expression you see in the picture is what he will most likely look like normally unless the drawing is meant to capture his prideful and arrogant side. "The Shadow guy" is meant to have powers over Darkness and "Void", and the friend he's based off of is also very Shadow-like anyway (he thinks Β very highly of himself. He's even referred to himself as the Ultimate Lifeform on a few occasions. Usually he calls himself the most awesome or somethings, and almost all of his ideas for his character is similar to Shadow even though he's not thinking about Shadow and he's not much of Β a Sonic fan anyway).Β
The girl in pink... well, the very concept of her character was basically the same from way before I was ever the Sonic fan I am now. She was always meant to be a super nice, positive, happy and lovable (the character is named Lovable) character with powers of Heart and Light, Amy really has nothing to do with that. When I turned her into a Sonic character, I chose to base her off of Amy design wise because I associated my sister with Amy because of similarities I noticed between Amy and "Lovable". So, actually, in her case, it's kinda of backwards. (Actually a similar thing is true for me AND the Shadow guy (and the other girl dressed in orange) as well because the concepts for them already existed before the Sonic influence as well, and I gave them similarities to Tails and Shadow (and Blaze, but to a much much MUCH lesser extent. The only real influence Blaze has on her is being a cat, not even the color. The only real reason I associate her with Blaze is because she has (Solar based) fire powers, which she had from the very beginning. And her dad/my step-dad treated her like a princess and stuff.) as part of my idea to change them into Sonic characters and then back to humans to better expand upon them and stuff design-wise or otherwise.)
But, whatever, Right now I just want to ask you what do YOU think I should do to better differentiate them from the Sonic characters, at least design wise?
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1. This is a work-in-progress guide, but the fundamentals here should be enough advice for you.
2. They're your characters and it's up to you to innovate them. You can start by drawing them as Mobians instead of humans. Hopefully that'll draw out their flaws for you. If not, that's your problem. When I said I was going to say no more on this, I meant it.
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Thank you for this. It'll help if I ever get back into Sonic.
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