Portraiture
So much of an RPG takes place in your head. You’ve got a backstory, a few personality traits, and maybe a silly voice, but most of the time that’s all you’ve got. The only physical artifact of this mad, beautiful otherworld is a few scribbled notes on a laser printed character sheet. That’s what it was always like for me, anyway. Or at least it was until I met my artist.
I’m a words guy, and before I started gaming with Laurel I never put much thought into what my characters looked like. I might throw out a few general descriptors. He’s tall. He wears a wizard’s hat. He’s…I dunno. Tall I guess. But then one night, sitting around the gaming table, she sketched the party. Suddenly I was full of opinions. My guy looked too young. He was too thin. His wizard’s staff didn’t have that token we got from the Crypt of the Everflame, and OMG how could you forget to put that in? Suddenly this character concept was an actual person with a real face, and that was something I’d never experience before. It made this purely hypothetical figure concrete in a way I didn’t know was possible. It made the imaginary real, and that may be the closest thing to magic I’ve ever encountered.
If you’ve never commissioned an artist to draw your character, I suggest you give it a try. It’s more interesting gamer bling than yet another dice bag, and it’s more affordable than you might think. If you like the look of Laurel’s stuff (shameless plug alert) we can definitely talk shop, but I’d encourage you all to hit the Artist’s Alley at your local game con or shop around on Deviant Art. Looking your character in the face is a pretty cool experience, and you owe it to yourself to try at least once.
EARN BONUS LOOT! Check out the The Handbook of Heroes Patreon. We’ve got a sketch feed full of Laurel’s original concept art. We’ve got early access to comics. There’s physical schwag, personalized art, and a monthly vote to see which class gets featured in the comic next. And perhaps my personal favorite, we’ve been hard at work bringing a bimonthly NSFW Handbook of Erotic Fantasy comic to the world! So come one come all. Hurry while supplies of hot elf chicks lasts!
I once commissioned an artist to draw my Summoner and his Eidolon, as pictured here: http://imgur.com/IJbcqUe
I have to say, it’s pretty awesome. Especially at PFS tables. In those situations, you won’t always be playing with the same people, making it harder to retain a coherent mental image. Plus, with the need to keep a brisk pace for the time slot, there isn’t always time to go into vivid detail. And there’s also the fact that not everyone puts much effort into imagining or describing what their character looks like.
Art solves all of this. A quick flash can show you the character’s look, their personality, and even give you a general idea of what abilities they’ll be bringing to the table. It’s something I’d like to look into further (Fighting Games do an amazing job of this, but that’s another post’s worth of discussion) but it’s fun trying to summarize a character within a single still image. It really makes you think about them in broad strokes.
I guess it’s another of those “people play games differently” situations. Artists tend to think about the visuals first, where I tend to begin with a game mechanic or play style in mind.
So, there’s your wizard, and unless there is some crazy homebrewing going on and that’s a PC, not an eidolon, then one of the other characters is a summoner. I have to ask, who the rest of the party are?
This may throw a little additional light on the situation:
http://fishcapades.deviantart.com/art/He-s-not-a-Pet-He-s-an-Animal-Companion-273296468
By name we’ve got Torin Ironanvil (dwarven paladin of Torag), Zib Onadie (my evocation wizard), Vedra Rhiordan (two-handed fighter; stronger than she looks), Anselm (the emo orphan aasimar cleric of Irori), Felicity Nightshade (halfling rogue), and Clementine the clamor box.
We found the behir Kazaat on an adventure. He was supposed to be a combat encounter, but the poor guy was being starved. We rescued him from captivity courtesy of a Nat 20 Diplomacy check, which is how he became something of a cohort for my wizard.
I’ve had a few of my characters drawn from time to time and it’s always pretty cool. That said I do tend to go into at least a decent bit of detail for characters. Though it’s still nothing like what you’re going to get from a drawing.
I don’t know Hollywood well enough to pull it off myself, but I always liked those dudes that tell you who’s playing the NPCs.
“And the tavern owner, who is played by Catherine Zeta Jones, says–”
“Wait a minute. High Fidelity Catherine Zeta Jones or Entrapment Catherine Zeta Jones?”
“Let’s go with High Fidelity.”
“Nice!”
I always thought it was a nice effort even if it doesn’t really work for me.
It’s usually lost on me as I don’t remember celebrity names as much as the average person seems to. So half the time I’ll have to actually look up who they were talking about which sort of defeats the purpose.
Also I have a hard time then imagining the character as their own character and not just a role being played by an actor. And if I don’t really know who that actor is… I don’t know what they look like or sound like or even how tall they are (and maybe not even what gender we’re talking about here). So there are occasions that such GMs might as well told me that an NPC looks like “some guy”.
Have you seen the PAX 2016 Penny Arcade game? Mike Krahulik runs the game, and he periodically shows his own illustrations when he introduces new characters. It was funny watching it with Laurel. She was just sitting there like, “That’s an amazing idea! Why haven’t I been doing that?”
Alternatively, learn to draw your own characters! It isn’t too difficult to begin, and tutorials are everywhere if you want one. Sure, you’ll never be as good as some DeviantArtist Rembrandt (or at least I won’t), but you’ll feel extra-proud of your character, and you can keep updating the artwork as you go.
One of my favorite aspects of D&D is how often I feel compelled to go learn something to use it for the game. I’ve learned accents, survival skills, you name it. “I don’t know how, but my character would know” should be a temporary excuse until you go look up how between sessions. Art is a bit more of a meta skill for D&D, but it is still very worthwhile.
But if I put points into Profession (artist), I’ll have to take points out of Video Games and Slacking. I want to be a well-rounded PC, you know?
You have me there!
I usually draw the characters myself. It’s really fun to take the time and really try and nail down the particularities of them, it alsocreates a certain sense of bonding and belonging among the players.
I’m no artist, so I usually rely on my better half to doodle my characters. Recently however, I joined a campaign where the GM let folks start at 2nd instead of 1st if they A) wrote up a backstory and B) drew a character portrait. The first one came naturally to me, but the second one was all kinds of intimidating. After I got out Laurel’s light box and found something close enough to trace, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the experience. I might have to make it a habit. 🙂
I’ve never let the fact that I can’t draw stop me from drawing characters and monsters:
Here’s my ekolid warmage oc Formacid:
https://s20.postimg.org/tof5bjl8d/Placronym_-_Sized_and_Cropped.png
and here he is casting magic missile:
https://s20.postimg.org/mo0ca8y7x/Magic_Missile_-_Colored.png
and here he is causing trouble at a bar:
https://s20.postimg.org/orjy9ecsd/Mug_Throw.png
and here’s a Sibriex:
https://s20.postimg.org/jawp19u0t/Sibriex_-_Tidied.png
and here’s a nycaloth:
https://s20.postimg.org/u6o2wmeyl/Nycaloth_With_Baatezu_Weapon.png
These were all from a shortlived D&D/Planescape based game I briefly ran on the now defunct MSPA Forum. That game also involved a description of the abyss as looking like a GWAR concert or a heavy-metal album cover, which was accompanied by this illustration of the abyss:
https://s20.postimg.org/vvjdzgqil/Like_A_GWAR_Concert_That_Doesn_t_End.png
which was based on an actual GWAR album cover
Quest Idea: Escort the secret metal-head princess to the Abyss for a show. Keep her safe in the Mosh Pit (of Pain)!
Apparently my image host changed their address. the “.org” in those links will need to be changed to “.cc” to make the links/addresses work. At least they’re still better than photobucket though.
I just steal a picture of the internet. Closest match I find is what he looks like.
That was always my go-to as well. Then I married an artist. Of the two options, I recommend the latter.
I’ve done this for many of my characters. Mostly my Transformers OCs. But I have gotten drawings for my first two Pathfinder characters – Lini the Archaeologist and Irlana the Hunter. And last year I got sketches done of two characters from a novel I’m working on and turned into Pathfinder characters. Even as sketches, they looked great and were absolutely perfect.
Links to portraits? Having read this much about Irlana, I wouldn’t mind looking at her. 🙂
Here’s the link to Irlana and her boar Mick. https://www.deviantart.com/shozurei/art/Irlana-and-Mick-698880196
And here’s the link to Lini. https://www.deviantart.com/twintwosgirl/art/Commish-Lini-the-Gnome-709287439
I haven’t been able to get access to a scanner to post the sketches of the other two.
This one, of the player character from the RPG videogame “Dungeons of Dredmor”, I drew with the assistance of the Artbreeder AI
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2708453213
Nice! But because I can’t resist: Hooooooooo!
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/thundercats/images/8/86/WilyKit_WilyKat.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20111003022102