Pass the Eyeliner
It’s been a trip watching Laurel do sketch commissions at cons. I’ll be standing there with my porkpie hat and cane trying to push the merch, but she’ll be hunched over the table, busily busting out real-time art like she was a pizza place: Thirty minutes or less or it’s on the house! But as impressive as it’s been watching the art flow from her pen, it’s the initial patron interviews that really stick with me.
Laurel: “So what does your character look like? Hair? Eyes? Skin color? Distinguishing marks (scars, tattoos, glasses)? Style of hair? Hair color? General style? Are they fancy? Rugged? Primitive? Do they have some kind of motif? Ravens or roses on their armor? Anything like that?”
Meanwhile I’ll be sitting there like, “My dude has scale mail and an axe.”
We’ve already gone over some of territory in “Portraiture,” so I won’t rehash any further. What I will say is that evil characters have an advantage in these conversations. That’s for the simple reason that Evil is a theme you can work with. Sure there’s a tradition of skulls and black leather, but that’s just the outward manifestation of a greater truth. Evil is famous for its sense of style because it has style with a purpose.
What I’m saying is that, when you’re a bad dude, you’re crafting your look with intention. Maybe you’re intimidating. Maybe you want your dude to be creepy, unsettling, or straight-up gross. But whichever brand of socially unacceptable you’ve settled on, everything about the character design contributes to that impression. In the Evil Party, for example, Succubus is rocking that infernal red skin with the skimpy outfit of a temptress. She’s also got the resting bitch face of a mean girl. Necromancer’s outfit has a Disney-princess-gone-wrong vibe, with the inked-on tears to suggest her tragic romance with Paladin. Witch’s oversize eyes are a nod towards her particular brand of crazy, and the hair is a throwback to the fairy tale terror of Japanese harionago. These are the things you’ve got to think about when you’re making a visual design.
When you’re working with a PC rather than a comic character, however, the temptation is to treat the character’s appearance as a living record of your adventures. You’re a complex, three-dimensional protagonist after all, and you want to convey the rich palette that is your dude. Therefore, rather than working towards a unifying motif, it’s all too easy to transform your character into chronicle: She got this dagger from the first goblin she killed, and there’s a bead from her dwarven foster father tied into her hair, and she has a scar on her throat from that time she got crit by a hag, and she bought these boots of speed last session. Now let me be clear: there’s nothing inherently wrong with this kind of specificity. It can serve to make a character more fully of-the-world, and therefore help to increase your immersion into that world. But by the same token, when it comes time to describe your character in-game, this level of detail can overwhelm. For my money, what’s more important by far is the overall impression. When you dude walks into a room, what’s the first thing you notice? What kind of person are they?
So for today’s discussion, what do you say we try an exercise I learned back in undergrad? Describe your character using only three details. That’s about how many items a reader can fit into their head after a first impression, and the same holds true in the oral landscape of the tabletop. If you choose wisely, we should get a coherent picture of your PC and their personality. I’ll give you the usual race/class/gender stuff for free, so feel free to get specific with the other items. All clear on the ‘three details’ thing? OK then. Go!
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Character one – Likes to whittle. First into battle. Has a pet “dragon.”
Character two – Highly creative. Not afraid of a hard day’s work. Will dropkick you into next week if you’re annoying.
I wish I had had a character I could have gotten Laura to draw at AWA. Maybe I’ll have one next year. (Hey, will you be at MomoCon?)
We’re shooting for MomoCon, yeah. Fingers crossed they accept our application!
😀
Character one – His clumsiness killed his master, likes necromancy, loves the stars
Character two – Stole his armor off a dead knight, hates the occult, is pragmatic and sarcastic
My mental image of character one: https://theitcrowd.fandom.com/wiki/Richmond_Avenal
Nice my dude =v=
I do not know the meaning of that emoticon, so ima assume I nailed it.
Current character- Constantly planning a slave revolution. Gunslinger. When hit by friendly fire from a failed roll, shoots back anyway.
Character in side campaign- Hunts people from his clan who betrayed it. Oblivious to evil party members. Can tinker with everyone’s gear to give it stat boosts, but no one cares.
Wait… Who shot who here?
It took me a moment to get that Necromancer is using produce flame to blow-dry her hair.
But I mean… Isn’t that the primary use for produce flame?
Well if its dnd 5e
You can also throw ‘fireballs’ and pretend your mario XD
Such violence!
Character One: free stuff(Male Black Kobold, Slayer); Gun toting Bounty Hunter; Reckless despite a good Wisdom score; “SKRAA IS LEGEND!”
Character Two: free stuff(Male Human, Martial Hedgewitch); Remembers EVERYTHING!, though some memories can take a bit; feels heavily burdened with getting a guild up and running; values his friends above all else.
Character Three: free stuff(Male Human, Empathic Duelist Eliciter); Only Knowledge check is Local; only knows languages of “Hot” races (is learning more of them too); doesn’t like casting around women because Mind Control isn’t good for pillow talk…
I’m getting some strong Chickenhawk vibes off of Character 1: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/97/26/55/9726557c0e40ac041a0f715b912710aa.jpg
Well I mean, he did grapple an invisible assassin to the ground and pin them without and real grappling experience…
They did have chalk on them at the time and the rest of the party was ready to dig-pile if it went south too…
You know who else was naturally talented at wrestling?
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/80/cd/8d/80cd8d2952b3572f5478822a9a8afbe7.jpg
Ha!
dragging off a couple of possible bounties
“One of these -I SAY ONE OF THESE- has got to be a villain.”
Mendax Vuhlpes (Pathfinder, Spheres of Power rules)
Free Details: Human (Secretly Kitsune), Male, Fey Adept
Description: Looks vaguely like a dockworker, profoundly uncomfortable being directly looked at, his shadow often has a fox following it.
However, I did have one of my characters sketched before:
Atoyo (Exalted 2E)
Free Details: Human, Male, Eclipse Caste
Description: Appears far too physically emaciated to wear the Oricalculm Full Plate he carries, wields one half of a pair of Short Diaklaives forged by a Volcano God, never rests or does anything that would bring himself comfort
You ever see “the blindside?” I’m getting a similar personality to that kid for Mendax: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA56LqFszYI
Atoyo sounds like a lovecraft protagonist, all gaunt and obsessed.
I have not but after watching the trailer I see why you’d say that. Mendax hates being looked at because its unnatural to him and he knows he’s being hunted; he’s effectively always invisible so people looking at him directly scares him. It means they might know of his location soon.
As for Atoyo… not too far off honestly. He was emaciated because he never ate anything. In Exalted 2E there is a Great Curse that all Solar must carry and his triggered anytime he indulged. I took it as an RP challenge to never indulge, so he only ate when on the edge of starvation because “non-exalted starve in the street; I do not need this so let them have it.” At one point the party made the mistake of letting him buy the supplies for our undersea adventure and found out later I gave all the money away to the poor and only got the necessary equipment to collect seaweed and fish from the ocean; we could eat those along our trip and therefore our money could be better spent on the poor.
Add in the fact he slept in the most uncomfortable locations possible, his refusal to ever stop (at one point they locked me in a room because 1HP is a bad thing to wander around a deathtrap with) and his obsessive need to try and talk to any threats before he had to kill everything, he made a lasting impression.
The other thing about those two is naming. Atoyo means nothing (Its Toyota spelled backwards minus the T), but Mendax is Latin. His name literally means “Lying Fox.”
(I’m in the GM seat right now, so let’s see how much of a mental picture I have of my players’ characters.)
Character 1: (Female human Cleric of Lamashtu).
– Dark princess sort of aesthetic.
– One demonic eye, and yet it isn’t the manic scary one.
– Falchion looks huge in her hands (especially due to having been magically de-aged to her mid-teens during the campaign).
Character 2: (Male human Sorcerer)
– Ageing noble wizard sort of aesthetic.
– Immaculate at all times.
– Sometimes red and scaley, or on fire.
Character 3: (Male human Fighter)
– Classic knight in shining armour aesthetic.
– Kind of a stick in the mud.
– Is the best fencer around, and is not afraid to remind you of that fact.
Character 4: (Female human Barbarian)
…I’ll be honest, I know this one by personality alone and can’t remember any of the physical descriptions that her player used for her.
– Trying her best to be a proper knight, but isn’t great at it.
– Totally in over her head most of the time, regarding most things.
– Earnestly heroic, but kind of oblivious about all the moral complexities of it all.
So, probably a longer response than you were expecting. But I started doing this for my old 3.5 characters, and I noticed something about how much I remembered about each character.
My first characters? Super, super easy. My first character was a half-dragon fighter/rogue, the unsavory muscle of her pirate crew, big but quick enough to strike like a cobra, with a lust for gold that trumped her interest in other people or her own well-being. After that was a regular old human fighter, the son of a baron who was part of a brains-and-beauty duo with his older sister (with him as the beauty half, of course) and who loved riding horses and his war rhinoceros and whatever monsters he could tame in the middle of battle…
But there’s a point where my memories suddenly drop off. Like, I had a female ranger who I did quite a bit with, but who was she? A huntress with a bow? I’m sure I had a story for her, but the thing I remember most was how she was killed by the party’s neglect, starting a fight in a 5-foot hallway while she was unarmored and unarmed. Same goes for her follow-up, the elven cleric of the nature god who… liked trees? And who died in a party fight after another character accidentally (but unrepentantly) killed the avatar of her god. And it’s not because I started getting lazy with my characters, because I’ve chattered here extensively about my last character of the 3.5 era, the Halfling Paladin with a disproportionately huge samurai sword…
The difference really comes down to who I was playing with, and how much they engaged with my character. My first campaigns were with my sisters and some of our close drama-loving friends, so we were all eager to play our characters off each other. That ranger marked a turning point when the DM asked me to join a more mechanics-focused group whose idea of a good story is the one about their most egregious rules exploits. And I still remember those exploits, but very little about the characters who performed them. Not even the race or class, in some cases, and in at least one campaign I don’t even remember how many were in the party.
So, I think an interesting follow-up exercise would be to describe every other member of your character’s party in three points. See how well you’re engaging with fellow players and building those lasting impressions, you know?
current characters
(male, human, fighter)
his gear is all patterened with magical runes he inlayed himself
he speaks with a noticeable dwarven accent
while not a divine caster, he still shows plenty of deference to his homeland’s storm goddess
(male, drow, paladin)
definitely the Dudley Do-Right kind of guy
even for an elf he’s very tall and lanky, but carries himself with a confident ease
Pretty clueless to advances made by the opposite (or same) sex
fave older character:
(half orc, male, inquisitor)
he’s the kind of guy who just looks intimidating by being in your general vicinity
never likes sitting still or staying in one place for very long
always on alert. like, always, you’d swear he sleeps with his eyes open
Sharp eyes, moving with too much grace for walking, quick hands and quicker daggers.
How i did it? Okay? Otherwise i may need to bring Fashionframe into the table o_o
On a side note, why is Anti-paladin just there off-panel? That is the women bathroom, a temple of secret rituals where the girls bind ancient wisdom with alchemical make-up to create sanity-eroding beauty. It also a good place to gossip about Paladin and Anti-paladin size of weaponry, Rogue and Wizard relationship, and to ship ClericxOracle 🙂
I usually write the scroll-over text after I see the image, and this was one of those times. Once I did see it I brought the Antipaladin thing up to Laurel, pointing out the conspicuous negative space between Succubus and Necromancer. He could have fit in there easy!
She replied that the figures were originally much larger to fill the panel, but that they appeared too large for the sinks in the foreground. She wound up having to shrink ’em down to fit the space, making the gap more conspicuous.
As for the in-fiction stuff: I think I’ve got the HoEF stuff in my head. The Evil Party is a polyamorous sort of group over there, so in my head it makes sense for Antipaladin to be in the picture. Of course, I don’t think we’ve done much with the poly thing here on the main comic, so it’s probably moot.
Now that i think about it have the two of you considered to make wide art? That way the whole group could be together 🙂
Something I picked up from my days as a poet: constraints produce creativity. 🙂
And sometimes also awkward compositions. 🙁
For an artist constraints produce creativity, for a true artist everything produce creativity. Creativity is born from seeing the unseen, from making the connections no other can, by capturing the spirits of its time and giving it form is that an artist can make masterworks. Art is the gift creativity give us, creativity is a gift from chaos to us, gifted for us to see colors where only lights would be, to make us think and to make us feel, to destroy the dullness of an uncaring universe and allow us to create our own. That is for what art and creativity is for 🙂
(Male, Ratfolk, Exploiter Wizard)
– Missing an eyeball, which he seemingly tries to rectify by shoving exotic creature eyeballs in there (fresh or glazed in glass). He ignores common sense and/or applies his own undecipherable logic behind these acts.
– An avid worshiper of Nethys, the dualistic, insane and neutral god of magic, destruction and creation, as apparent by having a black/white mask, an extreme devotion to magic and a general dualistic nature himself.
– Extremely cleanly, but unafraid to get his hands dirty (so long as he can clean them afterwards) – unless bug-like vermin is involved, as he’s very entomophobic.
“Describe your character using only three details.”
A challenge!
Character One – Hobo, genius, smooth. Elven, Sage, Male.
Character Two – Huge, strong, tough. Ogre, Barbarian/Wrestler, Female.
Character Three – Axe-a-philiac, greedy, anti-evil. Dwarf, Holy Warrior, Male.
Character Four – Poisonous, gorgeous, athletic. Shadow Elf, Unholy Swashbuckler, Androgynous.
Of the four, only one cares about their appearance, which is just as much a weapon as the spears and poisons the Unholy Swishybuckler carries.
My hobo wizard character is a human with ragged, unkempt clothing, an unadorned tree branch that serves as a staff, and a tendency to mumble or be almost excessively terse.
Facet: Masks character. Playbook: Scion. Race: Human. Gender: Female.
Wears a large magical artifact gem as a helmet, proto-powered armor jumpsuit, still visits supervillain mom on weekends for dinner/to do laundry.
Trembling Leaf on the Wind: D&D 5e character. Male Tabaxi Sorcerer (Aberrant Mind).
Just wants to go home and back to being a cute concubine, Has an AT Field, Is extremely afraid of water…. in an under the seas campaign.
Ohhh, stuff like this is my absolute jam.
“This human male looks across the room with the same disinterested curiosity of a well-fed tiger. Even when he’s at ease, his body contorts into a pose fit for a runway. His garish clothing would befit your average noble were it not modified to show off much more of his body.”
Also, I didn’t realize Necromancer’s tears were made when she turned evil. I love little details like that.
Heh. I getting “Zoolander, but scary and competent” off of that description. Well done!
Also, funny story about Necromancer’s design. The script for Mean Girls 3/3 had this detail: “Necromancer’s streaked mascara makes her look furious, and decidedly vengeful.” The decision to keep that detail, however, was 100% on the illustrator end.
So credit where it’s due: I don’t write the sight gags. Almost all of the funny little visuals in this comic are courtesy of Laurel. 😀
Just re-read that description, and I think it deserves some additional comment. These three details paint a picture of a character, not just their outward appearance. We get more than a composite police sketch. We get that all-important impression of the character. In that sense, I think it’s the best illustration I’ve seen so far of the point I was angling at in the OP. You’ve done more than describe the character. You’ve managed to tell us what kind of person they are.
It’s not just about selecting three representative details. It’s about presenting those details in a way that makes them legible to your fellow players (or readers in this case).
I’m guessing you also write fiction?
I chalk it up to my history in playing around. Years of DnD and Pathfinder, but just as many in text-based roleplay where you have to really sell your character in the description and their actions. So that’s kind of like collaborative fiction.
I’ve also done a bit of freelance RPG writing, so that helps.
The character in the description is one of my favorites. Stelle Harris, dhampir fractured mind spiritualist. He’s pretty much my attempt to transplant Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure directly into Pathfinder.
So all things considered the Zoolander comparison is pretty on point.
Kitsune, female, monk
– Wears apricot-themed jewelry along with traditional Tian finery such as sandals and a kimono.
– Openly worships Cayden Cailean the best way she know how to, via heavy drinking from one of a dozen jugs on her belt or back.
– A jolly idiot prone to extreme mood swings and brutal, uncouth honesty.
Holy Impoverished Bestial badger-hengeyokai man.
This is the barebones description for the guy of whom I have shared several stories on here. I think that actually describes appearance pretty well. Or at least you could probably get a good idea.
My present character would be much harder. Let’s see if I can do this, though class is pretty complicated due to MC/PrC. It may also be because his profession doesn’t really inform his appearance. Here goes…
Male elf ranger-cleric scarred, vigilant, solitary.
Basically a Ranger solely for Favored Enemy Undead, cleric/ordained-champion so he can smite anything any time any type. His appearance is dull: practical clothing, light armor, pretty basic, tbh.
This be her in art!
https://www.reddit.com/r/characterdrawing/comments/9mihdh/rf_kitsune_drunken_master_monk/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
Sadly didn’t go very far with her, as the game hiatus’d before we even got past book 1 of the Kingmaker AP. I might end up playing her after my current group finishes Return of the Runelords though, and the Kingmaker anniversary edition comes out before then!
Damn, I hate making comments on mobile, the slightest accidental touch and it scrolls up and presses reply on some other person’s comment instead of continuing the previous original thread comment. Anyway, here’s the stuff in a separate thread.
Holy Impoverished Bestial badger-hengeyokai man.
This is the barebones description for the guy of whom I have shared several stories on here. I think that actually describes appearance pretty well. Or at least you could probably get a good idea.
He’s the character that died a fate worse than death, wanting to die in glorious battle but accidentally discovering that barring a fate by fire (his greatest fear before discovering it as his only weakness) he is immortal, stranded in an infinitely empty plane to fall until he dies of old age.
My present character would be much harder. Let’s see if I can do this, though class is pretty complicated due to MC/PrC. It may also be because his profession doesn’t really inform his appearance. Here goes…
Male elf ranger-cleric scarred, vigilant, solitary.
Basically a Ranger solely for Favored Enemy Undead, cleric/ordained-champion so he can smite anything any time any type. His appearance is dull: practical clothing, light armor, pretty basic, tbh.
Free Details:
– Male
– Human
– Paladin
Three Points:
– Farmer’s Tan
– False Eye made of wood w/ religious script etched into ti
– Long Sword without a blade (Just finished Curse of Strahd fyi)
How do you know it was a long sword if it doesn’t have its blade? Just a handle could fit lots of different blades o_O
Male Tengu Oracle
*Wide eyed and laughing insanely most of the day with parrot-like squawking
*Brilliant plumage that bothersome faeries hide beneath and use as paprika storage
*Far too heavy to fly, considering the full plate he rarely takes off. There are faeries under the armor, too…
Smyler — Covered in scars that are far too patterned to have occurred naturally. Wears ornate sharkskin armor. Almost always smiling, reflecting his optimism and general good cheer.
Locus — tall, a little skinny, almost gaunt. His armor consists of shadows made real, that shift around and react of their own accord to protect him from harm. There’s something subtly wrong with his facial expressions, as if he doesn’t quite feel the same emotions as a normal person.
Jaun “Aegis” — A classic knight in shining (if well-used) armor, complete with sword and shield. His skin has a silverish hue, and his eyes and hair are closer to gold than yellow. His voice is, for lack of a better word, “centered”; confident without being arrogant.
Futility (while inactive) — A cross between a wolverine and a humanoid, Futility looks positively feral. Vines and flowers have taken root in her undead flesh, indicating extreme age. Her mannerisms depend on the setting: on her home turf, she is cold and cruel; forced out of her element she is prone to bewilderment and naivete; in both she possesses a certain childlike whimsy.
Futility (active) — Claws, hide, and more formed of blue energy extend from various parts of her body. As she advances, her body dissolves, revealing that the vines and flowers are more than mere decoration: they animate in a flying swarm, each still clutching a piece of her original flesh tangled in its roots. Should she take damage, her body (plant swarm and ghoul flesh both) transform into elemental fire and ice, but their shape.
Azoth — A halfling with an arrogant swagger and a cruel smirk. He’s loaded for bear, with dozens of sais stylized with raven motifs.
Wow, that’s almost all villains. Let’s have two heroes to round it off:
Octopus Man, Grappling Halfling For Justice!!! — Face is a mask of tentacles. Wades into combat without weapons or armor. Speaks bombastically, and always refers to himself as “Octopus Man, Grappling Halfling For Justice!!!” (yes, you can hear the exclamation marks and capitals).
Pride — Enormous, vibrant purple, feathered wings are his most distinctive feature; they sprout from his back and look neither angelic nor demonic in nature. Almost invariably humble and self-depreciating. Has an enormous scar on his stomach, and a matching one on his back; he’s survived being run through with some large, bladed weapon.
Character one: Human, Cavalier, Male
-Loves the color gold, his armor is gold plated
-Deep booming voice, prone to impromtu speeches and listing his numerous titles
-Religiously devoted to his god, Abadar, loves micromanaging his realm
Character Two: Half Elf, Sorcerer, Male
-Always singed, wears a red cloak from a well known bandit organization he looted off one of their bodies
-His solution to most things involve explosions, and he insists this means goblins are his spirit animal
-The only reason he’s not in trouble with the law despite being chaotic evil, is that he adventures with a Paladin who puts his talents to use
Character one: human, cleric of Sarenrae, female
– Wears blues, golds, and whites constantly soiled by blood and dirt
– Grating, angry voice
– Refers to Sarenrae as ‘the management’. Hates graveyards. Wants to burn all corpses.
She was…unique to play. She carried a preserving jar with her that she stuffs pieces of unique creatures the party kills into.
Character two: human*, oracle, female
– Wears browns and soft yellows and long sleeves and dresses to cover up whip scars and slave brands
– Hesitant, polite, and almost creepily reverential
– Is an unwilling time traveler and former dhampir
Heavenly Deer
– Is strange and slightly inhuman as befitting of a sorceress-excorcist.
– is very elegant in her movements, dress and manner of speech.
– is preceded by the seemingly coincidental appearance of swallows.
After giving it some more thought I feel like “Is strange and slightly inhuman as befitting of a sorceress-excorcist.” does too much work, and is too unspecific, so I’d like to change that detail to “regularly drinks a small cup of ink to her obvious displeasure.”
It’s not a class system but sorcerer-exorcist can be put in that box of freebies nonetheless.
Y’know, the Fate system handles this well, with Aspects. I explain them to players as “the reason your character is in ths story to begin with.”
So, for the mad Doktor Krauss, I’ll just pick three of his five Aspects to quote:
Disgraced black sheep of the Empire.
“Nothing is beyond the reach of Science.”
“My life and soul for Leah!”
Or, three of five for his beloved Leah, once her brain (all that was left of her) reestablished communication:
Bookworm with a cause.
Best of intentions.
“I have an old injury or two.”
Sighs when she’s happy.
Has fought so much that she hates fighting and everything to do with war.
Doesn’t like sweet things, but makes a certain rich almond dessert once every month to remember someone she’s terrified of forgetting.
Also, the alt-text is usually on ‘fleek,’ as the youths say (do they say that), but today it’s even more so.
Man, I hope they say that.
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/devils-night
Let’s try this with a few of my characters:
1: Banrae Ledaal, Male Human Fire-Aspect Dragon-Blooded.
* Almost metallic copper hair, bright golden eyes, ruddy skin
* Tends to wear armor when he can get away with it, and even on social occasions favors military uniforms.
* When he’s bored, he’ll call up and play with little tongues of fire.
2: Arthur Grace, Male Human Paladin
* Dark blue hair, bright blue eyes
* Has a tattoo of Iomedae’s sword on the inside of his left forearm.
* Touches two fingers to that tattoo (as if he’s taking his pulse) when uncomfortable.
3: Scefsa, Gnome Divine Sorceror
* Bright golden-yellow skin (she looks like she might glow in the dark)
* Has a rabbit familiar, which she will often carry in her arms and pet.
* What look like glowing golden wings will sometimes envelop her when she’s casting spells.