Weird Character ideas...

[Mayhem1979]

Hi, in an effort to "break" a supplement / expansion I'm working on, I need to you to give me ideas for a whole lotta different characters/races.

So ideas people... just tell me what they are, what abilities they have, what quirks, what weaknesses, how do they stack up physically against a human... evrything you think I need to know.

The weirder the better, and they can be from any genre you want.

[kenjib]

The Merchant-Priests of Baloch
   
   BELIEFS
   The merchants-priests of Baloch, god of avarice and gluttony, are bloated and immensely wealthy.  Dark ships that make no sound as they glide through the water slip into port and trade with mainlanders.  To many, they operate simply as cutthroat merchants trading in both goods and information with a knack for being in the right place at the right time.  To those who seek them out in desperation, however, they offer great bargains with terrible hidden costs, luring their targets with promises of anything and everything while using immensely complex contracts that they twist to their advantage.  Too often a person finds that he has unwittingly sold his soul to the service of Baloch in the afterlife.  If the legends are true, this a fate for which no reward in the temporal world could ever compensate.  Some merchants from the mainland follow this cult in secret, and have beneficial arrangements with the priests in exchange for helping to set up new victims and gather information.

      The history of the merchant-priests is largely shrouded in mystery, as are the rites of their religion.  Indeed there is even speculation among scholars who dare study such things that the merchant-priests are not altogether human...
   
   ORGANIZATION
   If there is any order or hierarchy to the merchant-priests, it is certainly never seen by the uninitiated.  The merchant-priests have an unearthly sense of common purpose, and have never been seen to disagree, argue, or exert authority over one another.  The black ships that they sail are crewed by slaves under the close supervision of a small cabal of the merchant-priests.  These slaves are often former clients.

      The merchant-priests are also served on their island home by a great number of slaves.  These unfortunates must attend to their every need, and there are a great many needs.  The merchant-priests always remain seated and exert as little effort as possible in all ways.  Servants feed them, bathe them, clothe them, guard them, carry them from place to place on lavishly decorated litters, and perform every other action that is in their capacity to perform.  For a merchant-priest to take a single step on his own would be one of the greatest humiliations possible – perhaps second only to being outsmarted in a contract negotiation.  They are never encountered without servants.
   
   RELATIONS
   The merchant-priests are utterly scrupulous in following the letter of the law, but twist it’s intent so cruelly that their actions are always of the sort that seem they should be illegal, but never are.  As a result, while countless rulers and bureaucrats despise them utterly, they invariably have a great deal of trouble finding reason to incriminate them (and even fear doing so for their dread reputation).  Their uncanny ability to unearth secrets has also made them untouchable by those in power for both the benefits of trading for this information and the threat of blackmail.  Thus, the merchant-priests remain free to enter many of the ports across Haalyr.  The merchant-priests of Baloch do not visit Namarundi though, as by order of the king they are to be slain instantly if caught within Namarundese waters.  The merchant-priests of Baloch do not seek confrontation, and when presented with an obstacle such as this simply seek more willing victims.  They likewise will never engage in a fight, relying utterly on guards and servants in this regard.

[Mayhem1979]

Not bad, but it's a bit lacking in specifics.  :)

Most of that's just roleplaying, not really game mechanics.

Are they magic users (even if it's not traditional TROS magic)?  

Most of what you described there is just a bad reputation and a specific moral and ecomnomic mindset.  I'd give them a few bonuses (wit +1, +1 ma, free skill boating, x2 starting wealth), a few penalties, flaws, and restrictions (-2 health, cannot take conscience as an SA, flaw bad reputation and obesity).

But the rest, as I said before, is a bit to lacking in spcifics for me to put together a PLAYER character / race for.

[Mayhem1979]

Nobody has any other character made up or from a book/movie/anime/tv show/ whatever that they'd like to play in an RPG?

[Fizban]

Archilies the Greek hero, I'd like to see you pull him off.

Cerbus, the gardien of hades.

Hulk.

Carla from Lodoss War

Neo, Matrix.

Emmy, from The Redemption of Athalus.

[Krammer]

Slimey. He's a blob. That's about all there is to it. He was an NPC i threw into a scenario for fun, and he ended up staying around for the entire campaign. Amazingly enough, he was unbelievably powerful, and doesn't really die.... at all. I mean, really, he's just slime. He has a cool personality, too. Sorta like some hip dude from the '80's.
Another wierd NPC we had was Frankie, the lesser Demon. Yeah, he was cool. One of our players convinced him to be an individual, and not follow the dork who summoned him. It was interesting, I must say. Eventually, Frankie even got a soul. Boy, that was cool. Now he's off in the Demon world trying to do cool stuff. Yup, he's cool
Another idea for a wierd character is one that I got from a good book, The Return of Santiago. The character(s) is Tweedledee and Tweedledum, or the Tweedles. They were this crazy thing that was all-powerful and bizarre. With the wave of an arm they could rearrange the molecular structure of whatever. The only way they could be killed was by destroying the entire planet they were on. That way, they couldn't breathe, and they died. sure, they are a little bit invincible, but aren't we all?

[Jake Norwood]

Zatoichi, the blind swordsman. Or, think about "Blind Fury," with Rutger Hauer (the American "inspired by Zatoici" movie)

Jake

[sirogit]

I'm going to try to be difficult.

Willy Wonka.

It, from the Stephen King book.

The Scarlett Witch from Marvel.

The Fonz

Ninjas that live in shadows.

An organism that lives inside of songs somehow.

Bender from Futurama

An aspect of Guilt from Nobilis

A creature that was responsible for and is accurate to every undead myth known to man.

A dude made out of antimatter.

Hannibal Lectar.

[Mayhem1979]

Whoa... I guess I didn't know what I was getting myself into when i asked for weird ideas.  :)

Some of these are going to be fun though.

Though I already know how to do the guy made out of antimatter.  It's called he's dead... as is everyone else within approximately a hundred and fifty miles.  He had just about enough time to think of blinking before this happened.  :D  

Physics are fun  :D


As for the rest... this'll take a while.