I've been meaning to ask for some feedback on what is easily my most played character, Wavemaker. Or as Ceceily puts it, the horny midget fish cowboy musician. What do you think about her? Is she boring? Interesting? Do you hate her accent or anything else about her? For those of you who don't know, Wavemaker is a 4'4 Hyltol, weak upper body but pretty strong lower body (dat booty doe). Her dad is a human (adoption) and her mother was an assassin who got close to her targets by boinking them. Both are dead after a long happy life. Wave is an Ex hitman turned musician who's gone back into the hitman deal. More to be added when needed, leave comments and all that below.
Wave to me is one of many template characters around here. Specific talent+sex+killer+raised by humans+silly accent is something I've seen a lot of. Based on the character concept alone, I want to puke. That being said, the concept only makes me puke because so many people run it all into the ground. It is entirely possible for those aspects to be part of a good character, and honestly most of my negativity comes from being jaded on said aspects. I haven't studied her well enough to say that I like where you're going, but definitely be aware of how played out the basic concept is. There is plenty of room for originality, and I would love to see someone actually do a concept like this proper justice.
WELL WHAT DO YOU KNOW?! I DIDNT COME HERE TO BE ATTACKED. But honestly, she needs to get around more, I've been keeping her in the den for most of the time here. I think I balance it all out in a believable way.
My only issue with Wavemaker (besides the IC reversion from a civilian to a combatant, which is more a gripe about everyone playing fighty characters and no one playing normal people) is the cowboy bit. "Raised by Humans" is a common way for someone to say "I like scales/feathers/flowers, but I want to play a Human. So I'll be adopted by a race that's, by-and-large, only been active in the galaxy for a short time, a portion of which has been spent falling apart after their home system was compromised. Then I can just act like a Human!" And while that's okay from time to time, it is oh so very, very overdone. To the point I just think it's lazy writing/snowflakism anymore. Of course, it's a trait that's implanted upon conception of a character. You can't really take it back. I suppose I'm trying to say: 'Be more than the sum of a bunch of mish-mashed cliches and tropes, too commonly abused by the community at large." Beyond that, be careful with combat RP. It's a slippery damn slope of play-to-win antics and OOC drama.
OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS? CAN A MOD HELP ME NOT BE SPAT ON LIKE THIS? No yeah, I regret the cowboy thing after seeing it be such a trope here to have your character act out of race. I've recently had wave go into a 'get back to your roots' kind of deal so she's doing just that. Can't get rid of the accent though.
I don't think i've ever seen a flaw in wave, that being said she's never been in a scenario where she needed a flaw. When I first saw wave I didnt want to rp with her because she felt too cookie cutter and my character and absolutely no interest in even acknowledging her. Its only when wave started to interact with vivian is when I brought her to talk to wave. That being said, wave drinks, if not more than asa and thats saying something. Asa doesn't drink a bottle a day, she just has her "moments". yet wave I constantly see throwing out empty bottles with little to no effect. You just need to give her an obvious flaw, and either pick a bard, or an assassin, you can't be both... well.. you can but there's a thin line. try and be something other than those two maybe? this server's two most popular occupations are assassins and bards. To summarize, I agree... too cookie cutter
I wanted to point something out, but Fel nailed it again. The whole 'raised by humans' and cowboy thing just feels like a bad way to make an alien character interesting. There are many other ways to make an alien character interesting and unique in it's own way. But sadly you shrugged that away and went with a cowboy frog. It is a pretty new character and you can allow yourself to change this and that. So do it, if you want.
Wait really? I can just hit her over the head with the re-do hammer? Alright hold on here I'ma tweek her character.
I'm literally just removing her 'adopted human dad' out of the picture. Then she just becomes an alchoholic ex hitman musician returned hitman.
To be fair, this is starbound. Alien pirates wear human pirate clothes. Alien chefs wear human chef clothes. This is not hard sci-fi. These things are already in the game.
This isn't about the universe. This is about characters. This is about stereotypes and cliches and overused concepts and mary sues. This has nothing to do with what a fish wears.
