Something I've noticed as I'm creating my own fictional story, instead of relying on pre-built worlds and characters, resulting in fan fiction, is that game characters are much easier to design.
Like, I'll sit down with a game book, and see all the possibilities, and my imagination will run wild with like ten different character concepts that I want to create. But I've been working on five unique characters for my own story and it's been a two-year long project so far!
So, the thing that I've realized is, is that when you're working on a role playing character, it's using the foundation of the system mechanics for that game. I can create two identical character concepts ("a psychopathic sharp-shooting gun-bunny"). One in ShadowRun (a cyberpunk setting) and one in GURPS (genre agnostic) will turn out to be two completely different characters. And this is because the characters are restricted to the specific game mechanics they are created with.
Meanwhile, if I were to create this same character concept purely in my own fictional world, I'd have the entire universe of options at my disposal. And I think that's probably my issue. I have too many options for my mind to process right now.
Like, I'll sit down with a game book, and see all the possibilities, and my imagination will run wild with like ten different character concepts that I want to create. But I've been working on five unique characters for my own story and it's been a two-year long project so far!
So, the thing that I've realized is, is that when you're working on a role playing character, it's using the foundation of the system mechanics for that game. I can create two identical character concepts ("a psychopathic sharp-shooting gun-bunny"). One in ShadowRun (a cyberpunk setting) and one in GURPS (genre agnostic) will turn out to be two completely different characters. And this is because the characters are restricted to the specific game mechanics they are created with.
Meanwhile, if I were to create this same character concept purely in my own fictional world, I'd have the entire universe of options at my disposal. And I think that's probably my issue. I have too many options for my mind to process right now.
