Xfiend's Reboot Character Workshop

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Xfiend's Reboot Character Workshop

Post by xfiend1013 »

Well, the purpose for this is for people to ponder the reintroduction of rebooted characters. It's just something I wanted to do for myself, but figured it'd be easier to do on the boards if anyone wanted to workshop this sort of stuff.

What sort of stuff? Let's find out.

So I do plan on coming back to do a little rebooted material. Part of the reason I haven't been active is that I finished a grand arc with the story of the character I was playing, Garrett Granth. The possibility of rebooting this character in interactive threads is interesting.

So I ask myself - what's the character? What makes him tick? What's his long story? I have been playing, essentially, one character since the Sony days. That means that, for my entire adult life, I've had a go-to RPG character in the back of my mind, one who's been retold in various settings, games, systems, and stories.

Garrett began as a Hitchhiker's Guide insert into Star Wars. Even though it was a LONG time ago, I remember consciously modeling him after Ford Prefect. This element - the cynical know-it-all strung out on drugs and drink, writing for the obviously titled "Galactic Guide" has remained at least a fringe part of the character at all times. As the demands of the story grew, Garrett became a doctor, a slicer, a mathematician, a genius mechanist, a physicist. Later iterations saw him as an anarchist, adventurer, con man, and above all, an explorer.

The years of Garrett got tugged in a lot of different directions, and In the end, it was inevitable, he got a little bit of the old Doctor Who, and not just because he had a Sonic Screwdriver. Interestingly enough, the Sonic Screwdriver was a Doctor Who element introduced by Douglas Adam when he wrote for Doctor Who, bringing us full circle. If you don't believe that I was... who-fluenced, check out Garrett's speech with Sivter at the end of the War of Darkness, here, and tell me a Doctor wouldn't deliver it.

But what made Garrett "Garrett" could be boiled down into a few elements - all of which I want to keep in a reboot. 1: He's kind of an everyman. He doesn't have Jedi Powers, he's not a super-soldier. He knows a LOT about the Star Wars universe, sure, and is smart and capable in a way that nobody real could be - but he's not set apart by it. 2: He uses information as his weapon - be it hypermath, con-man secrets, or just having the neatest gear. 3: He's got it out for The Man - whoever that might be.

Various elements of those three have waxed and waned over the years, but those three things seem to drive the core of the character. If anyone else has anything to add, feel free - I'd love it.

In the reboot, I'm going to try and focus on those three aspects - he's an everyman, he's using secret knowledge against his opponents, he's a touch of the rebel. Things that haven't worked (or worked, but weren't an essential part of the character) in the past - making him a business tycoon, a family man, a ladies man, a player in major moments of galactic history, possessor of supernatural luck - are going to be ditched. I want to take the opportunity to twist and pull on the core elements to come up with something new.

So if you're going to reboot an old favorite - what makes them THEM? What do you want to see them do, and what parts are you going to push and pull with? I see this as a great opportunity to recast familiar faces without all the weight of the endless backstory, and a chance to jettison all the stuff that didn't work, or got put in for the wrong reason (like my temporary Whosanity).

Who knows, we might be looking at Better Call Granth - adventures of a space lawyer, when this is all done.
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Re: Xfiend's Reboot Character Workshop

Post by Jagtai »

Well, I have two I am considering rebooting at the moment (I'm sure more will follow).

The first one is my Dark Jedi Zaara Archin. She was always severely underused, partly because I never came up with a decent storyline for her, and partly because my various Sith took over as the big baddies. This meant she was relegated to "convenient NPC baddie" when my Jedi/gray Jedi/Sith needed one.

I'd like to reinvent her, because I liked her. She was cynical, selfish and believed that the end always justified the means. But at the same time, I thought of her as a charming, beautiful and intelligent woman, who was shaped by events.

So now, I am considering making her the "heir" of some ancient Sith Lord or something, and allow her (and me) to discover her goal in life through writing. I suspect she'll end up a gray jedi, but we'll see.

The second one is, essentially, me; Jag'Tai Vroenik. I have a good idea of what he's like, the problem is that he was originally thought up for the old Star Wars: Galaxies, and works best in the Rebellion Era.

I've been considering replacing him with some of my other Bounty Hunter people, and I probably will, but I keep coming back to him. So who knows? Maybe Jag'Tai will show up in an older form?

I'm sure I'll reboot many more characters, but these are the ones I'm working on right now.
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Re: Xfiend's Reboot Character Workshop

Post by xfiend1013 »

Addendum: Something that I think DID work: Garrett's extreme force insensitivity. It was a fun thought-experiment, the whole "is actually hard to find if you're a Jedi" thing. Plus, being numb to telepathy meant he often missed out on "I'm telling you IN YOUR MIND" stuff. And, it was always fun to see how Jedi characters reacted.

Something I think did NOT work: Garrett as a clone. Later, the clone thing was mainly written as a retcon explanation for my age/appearance/force issues. However, I had planned it to be a thing, and it never worked out.

I think it's interesting to see how you'll work with a "never got the chance," character, Jag. Especially given that you're saying it happened because of "stuff got in the way."

Given that we're entering a "no stuff in the way" zone, characters like that - who had a ton of potential but were stifled by contingency of all the stories - could really break out and do something. Something different, especially.
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Re: Xfiend's Reboot Character Workshop

Post by Cadden »

Interestingly enough, I originally wasn't going to reboot anyone. But, I relented. Originally I was still going to deal with the Mandalorians, but it wasn't my initial intent to make it through Cadden. I decided to bring him back because I wanted to take him back to the original intent I had for him. Seeing this as room for improvement, I decided to retcon him in this iteration as being an actual Mandalorian from the start, from a Mandalorian world. (I have yet to determine which.)

So Cadden is now no longer Force-sensitive, harkening back to when the current Cadden wasn't. I don't know his stance on the Jedi or the Force, if he even has one. But he's back to being a bounty hunter in Mandalorian armor. I decided, as well, in the realm of improvements, to make him pursue leading the Mandalorians as a whole. (This was before that silly policy came about that now prevents me from doing so.) But, now, he merely leads a "small" (because I have no set size or numbers) cadre of Mandos as he pursues that goal. Which, unless otherwise allowed at some point down the line, current rules and policies disallow that from ever happening. But this isn't a rant, just a disclaimer.

As for others who I'd be rebooting? I'll be picking up some of my other Mandalorians, though I'll probably be renaming most of them. I know, specifically, I'll bring in Clan Aden, but beyond that I'm not sure. They'll be staying pretty much the same.

But that's pretty much it for my reboots. I've no intention of rebooting anything else in present MBT continuity.
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Re: Xfiend's Reboot Character Workshop

Post by Pryde »

Oh gods, if we're lamenting all of our bad decisions then I have so many. The thing I've always regretted the most is the utter nonsense I filled Isis' backstory with. First she kills her father because he killed her mother then I decided someone else killed her mother and he took credit for it to "protect her" then I decided he somehow survived and appears later, it makes my head spin. Then her family kept growing by exponential leaps and bounds. First she had a sister, then she had a brother, like what the crap was I thinking? Isis was my first MBT character on these forums and has always held a special place in my heart as being the most interesting character I've created despite her garbage backstory. So, for the reboot I'm going back to the very first story she had appeared in and doing everything over.

This time around her mother dies of illness, plain and simple. Father and daughter have a rocky relationship and Isis is an only child. Sadly, that means I won't be rebooting either Adrian or Caitlyn which means Akaitlyn's not going to make it over to the reboot (I'm sure so many of you are saddened to hear this). The first time I wrote about her she was already an established bounty hunter, this time she's still a novice. Instead of hunting a guy who happens to be selling weapons to the Xen'Chi she's hunting a guy for like tax fraud, or something, who happens to be part of a smuggling ring selling weapons to the First Order. This story is how she builds her reputation.

Other characters I plan to reboot? Well, Felicity, of course, cause she's always been one of my favorites. Hirai, because Isis needs her Clara and Halo still hasn't gotten back to me... >.> Jessica, because I needs a pilot for Green Squadron and of all the X-Wing pilots I've written (two, I think) she's the most interesting. Her current backstory is still a work in progress but I think it's going to end up being something like stunt pilot turned resistance fighter after tragic event, or something.
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Re: Xfiend's Reboot Character Workshop

Post by Mir »

Pryde2000 wrote: Sadly, that means I won't be rebooting either Adrian or Caitlyn which means Akaitlyn's not going to make it over to the reboot (I'm sure so many of you are saddened to hear this).
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Re: Xfiend's Reboot Character Workshop

Post by Archangel »

The only character I'm sure that I'm rebooting is Cale Qualto, who was barely used before, and mostly as a Mary Sue of mad skillz leaving the Empire for mercenary work. I decided to keep his background in intelligence work, even keep his lenient streak, but instill in him a great and fervent belief in the Order of the old Empire.

Also, I'm mostly not writing him, but his daughter (also a retcon). He'll show up, sooner or later, but she's one of the heroes of the story.

The problem with rebooting most of my characters is that my very favorite ones were Force-sensitive. Renato Farani, Feldar T'kappi, Radek Vidar, Vuntar Greth, Darth Miasmus, Korax/Mulgirtab/Lugen/Tarroth/Shiar Mestic/Thomas Briggs (I should try to pick a single name to refer to that character...). They're also all characters that were very strongly shaped by the old MBT canon (well, except Vuntar Greth, but I never developed him much). Given that, I'm not inclined to reboot them at the moment, because doing so would basically mean starting them from scratch (due to the new MBT rules), and if I'm starting a character from scratch... why not start them from actual scratch (like Modig Falla, my Talz priest-to-be)?

I also thought about rebooting the Kuras Tetrarchy, but its whole history is steeped in more Legends material, not to mention powerful Force-users, than I care to research. Maybe I'll reboot Carveik, eventually. I liked him.
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Re: Xfiend's Reboot Character Workshop

Post by Jagtai »

Archangel wrote:The problem with rebooting most of my characters is that my very favorite ones were Force-sensitive.
I have much the same problem. My favourite characters (besides Jag'Tai) were my Jedi Knight (well, Master now) Aldar Melron and his Padawan Mira Keen, and some of my Sith. None of these work now. Neither does my ex-Sith in the Brotherhood of Twilight.

Additionally, most of my favourite non-Forcer characters were from the BSC, which I will not be rebooting.

So, I have to either reboot some formerly fringe characters, or come up with new characters. And that prospect is kinda growing on me.
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Re: Xfiend's Reboot Character Workshop

Post by Vox »

I'm looking forward to doing a proper reboot of a character instead of having to have him nearly be killed and brought back to health to reboot him. Pretty sure his name might change as well. Who knows. I don't have a lot of time to do writing these days so it'll be a reboot but in at least a reasonable way.
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