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Extended Thoughts on: Matt Grier/Malypsis Grier
4 years ago
General
Let's talk about the elephant in the room (no, not that one, that was last journal): this is a Dungeons and Dragons based character, so that must mean I've done more than a few campaigns myself, right? Maybe even hosted a few? How many campaigns have I been a part of?
And the answer is... none. I've never played DnD. I didn't know anything about DnD before this character. The closest I've come to DnD is being invited to a possible session and then never hearing from it again.
I'm... going to focus not on my ineptitude here, but on the trust of my client. Despite knowing that I didn't know anything about DnD, they still had faith that I could do their character justice, even when I didn't have faith in myself, which is quite the honour. And I think it paid off! Because while I didn't come away from this character as a killer dungeon master, I do feel quite pleased with how this character turned out, and the inspirations and takeaways I did gather.
For instance, a big inspiration for this character didn't actually come from DnD: it came from a previous character of mine, Charlie Pelletier/Nakhta Renaud. I think this is my favourite character, and possibly my best, and I really enjoyed writing such a narcissistic character. Malypsis is no narcissist, but she does has a pretty massive ego, and I wanted to distance it from Nakhta's megalomaniac neurotic ego. Malypsis is a hero, not a villain! So why is she so flamboyant and showoffy?
My initial answer touched on tiefling discrimination, using the flamboyance as a defense mechanism, but I ended up scrapping that in favour of a less unfortunate fate, as well as a more entertaining one (I swear, me and my obsession with invoking too real stuff in my niche stories...). Turns out just being called 'the hot one' might not be best for your self-esteem; better to be hot and talented! So that's why Malypsis acts all high and mighty: because she feels she has the skills to pull it off. I also got some great advice from pkhtjim and Ebikio (yeah, we're kinda friends, no big deal, just me being super cool and famous and very humble) that gave me a good angle for Malypsis: as the 'goofy side-character' wanting to be the star. And in this character, she is!
And now for your usual dose of boring trivia:
- Name time first, though it sadly isn't much this time around: Matt is from my client, and Malypsis is from a tiefling name generator. Womp womp. Though her keeping her last name was good for showing that she still had most of her memories, so there's that.
- The three members of Malypsis' party are all related to other characters/stories I've had, and each one from a different source. From most obvious to least, “The Heft” is a pretty blatant reference to Dexter Feiselberg, the 'goat necromancer' is a reference to a commission I got from Ebikyo which you all need to read right this second now now now it's sooooooo good, and the addict rat is... a lot. You see, I have been in a campaign before, but not a DnD one, and I played a ratfolk with a drug addiction. The session fell apart pretty quickly, and... I'm 99.9% sure that it's my fault, overplaying my character and making everyone else uncomfortable. If there's somehow anyone reading this who was a part of that campaign, I just wanted to say I'm very, very sorry for being... well, that player.
- I'm almost positive that I've used the exact same Undertale reference before in a story, and it's only 'almost' because I had to check all of my characters to see if I had. I couldn't find anything, but... it's somewhere, I'm sure.
- A lot of my '''research''' into tieflings was just reading off of a wiki article and/or peppering spell names into the character. DnD lore is deeeeep...
- While I still wish I knew more about DnD, I am very proud of that “What the Phlegethial fuck” line. That thankfully survived a rewrite, not that it was in any danger of getting scrapped.
- So here's something that's come out of nowhere: I've gained this outright obsession with hooves. I suppose it's not too out of nowhere (remember nine-pocket-ice-horse-boots?), but it must be pretty damn noticeable, since my client was willing for Malypsis to have them, for my sake. Thankfully, I was very mature and declined, because that's not what my client really wanted. Truly, I am as humble and mature as our Malypsis.
- My music choices for this character were... I guess extremes? I either listened to brutally heavy stuff, like the latest Frontierer album (which slaps) to menial pop songs, like that Olivia Rodrigo album (which somehow, slaps almost as hard). And my usual Joji for the final few stages, of course.
- ...You still here? Good, that means I'll let you in on a little secret. Most of the opening descriptions for Matt Grier are copied directly from my client's last character. Even the introduction, which is unique to this character, has the same structure as the last character. This isn't (wholly) from laziness; my client wanted a very similar starting character to the last one, so I borrowed the same descriptions of his physical features, kinda making Matt a new starting character in name only... and even then, I would've used the same name if I could. Which character am I talking about? I'll never tell~ :P xDDddD #justlmaothings
My question: what have been some of your favourite DnD experiences? And if you haven't played, what's your favourite fantasy moment?
/roll 1d20 for conclusion: 20
- yoshielder
And the answer is... none. I've never played DnD. I didn't know anything about DnD before this character. The closest I've come to DnD is being invited to a possible session and then never hearing from it again.
I'm... going to focus not on my ineptitude here, but on the trust of my client. Despite knowing that I didn't know anything about DnD, they still had faith that I could do their character justice, even when I didn't have faith in myself, which is quite the honour. And I think it paid off! Because while I didn't come away from this character as a killer dungeon master, I do feel quite pleased with how this character turned out, and the inspirations and takeaways I did gather.
For instance, a big inspiration for this character didn't actually come from DnD: it came from a previous character of mine, Charlie Pelletier/Nakhta Renaud. I think this is my favourite character, and possibly my best, and I really enjoyed writing such a narcissistic character. Malypsis is no narcissist, but she does has a pretty massive ego, and I wanted to distance it from Nakhta's megalomaniac neurotic ego. Malypsis is a hero, not a villain! So why is she so flamboyant and showoffy?
My initial answer touched on tiefling discrimination, using the flamboyance as a defense mechanism, but I ended up scrapping that in favour of a less unfortunate fate, as well as a more entertaining one (I swear, me and my obsession with invoking too real stuff in my niche stories...). Turns out just being called 'the hot one' might not be best for your self-esteem; better to be hot and talented! So that's why Malypsis acts all high and mighty: because she feels she has the skills to pull it off. I also got some great advice from pkhtjim and Ebikio (yeah, we're kinda friends, no big deal, just me being super cool and famous and very humble) that gave me a good angle for Malypsis: as the 'goofy side-character' wanting to be the star. And in this character, she is!
And now for your usual dose of boring trivia:
- Name time first, though it sadly isn't much this time around: Matt is from my client, and Malypsis is from a tiefling name generator. Womp womp. Though her keeping her last name was good for showing that she still had most of her memories, so there's that.
- The three members of Malypsis' party are all related to other characters/stories I've had, and each one from a different source. From most obvious to least, “The Heft” is a pretty blatant reference to Dexter Feiselberg, the 'goat necromancer' is a reference to a commission I got from Ebikyo which you all need to read right this second now now now it's sooooooo good, and the addict rat is... a lot. You see, I have been in a campaign before, but not a DnD one, and I played a ratfolk with a drug addiction. The session fell apart pretty quickly, and... I'm 99.9% sure that it's my fault, overplaying my character and making everyone else uncomfortable. If there's somehow anyone reading this who was a part of that campaign, I just wanted to say I'm very, very sorry for being... well, that player.
- I'm almost positive that I've used the exact same Undertale reference before in a story, and it's only 'almost' because I had to check all of my characters to see if I had. I couldn't find anything, but... it's somewhere, I'm sure.
- A lot of my '''research''' into tieflings was just reading off of a wiki article and/or peppering spell names into the character. DnD lore is deeeeep...
- While I still wish I knew more about DnD, I am very proud of that “What the Phlegethial fuck” line. That thankfully survived a rewrite, not that it was in any danger of getting scrapped.
- So here's something that's come out of nowhere: I've gained this outright obsession with hooves. I suppose it's not too out of nowhere (remember nine-pocket-ice-horse-boots?), but it must be pretty damn noticeable, since my client was willing for Malypsis to have them, for my sake. Thankfully, I was very mature and declined, because that's not what my client really wanted. Truly, I am as humble and mature as our Malypsis.
- My music choices for this character were... I guess extremes? I either listened to brutally heavy stuff, like the latest Frontierer album (which slaps) to menial pop songs, like that Olivia Rodrigo album (which somehow, slaps almost as hard). And my usual Joji for the final few stages, of course.
- ...You still here? Good, that means I'll let you in on a little secret. Most of the opening descriptions for Matt Grier are copied directly from my client's last character. Even the introduction, which is unique to this character, has the same structure as the last character. This isn't (wholly) from laziness; my client wanted a very similar starting character to the last one, so I borrowed the same descriptions of his physical features, kinda making Matt a new starting character in name only... and even then, I would've used the same name if I could. Which character am I talking about? I'll never tell~ :P xDDddD #justlmaothings
My question: what have been some of your favourite DnD experiences? And if you haven't played, what's your favourite fantasy moment?
/roll 1d20 for conclusion: 20
- yoshielder
As a DM there was a very funny moment when I told the party they were going to visit the Fairy King and I put a lot of emphasis into asking for their names (as the king), and it only registered to two of them that giving him their names might be a bad idea the moment after they gave them.
-And what might your names be my intrepid friends?
-Oh it's Bardy McBardsson... wait a minute-!!!!!!!!!!!
I think one of them would have to be that time I accidentally exploded a mountain. You see, there were veins of highly volatile ores in the walls, and an ooze in front of me, I had a gun, and I thought that the ooze would be a lot more...semisolid than it wound up being...
I'd be happy to join some Discord adventuring sometime too!
(Also, distantly: "Wait, are you calling me a villain? Show yourself at Kittering Castle and say that, I dare you!!!")
Though more on topic - I remember when we talked about this guy, the Tiefling character! This might just be the opportunity to check out more Transformania Time stuff you've done.
He murdered one of them in front of me and I cried, because it was so artfully done. ;~;
He ended up convincing a dragon made out of cake that eating other sapient beings was wrong and made a best friend that day in a willy wonka factory gone wrong.
Long story short, I was an archeologist and rogue, who was explicitly from a country neighboring the one where all the action took place, because I was secretly a newly inducted spy in the service of said neighboring country's royal family, with my task being to steal magic artifacts and shit for the glory of the motherland. Then it turned out the crown prince was under the influence of some evil demon. Being the loyal and patriotic soul that I was, I promptly stabbed the fucker who dared to call himself my master's master. Fun times.
Another highlight of that campaign: A village of goblins retroactively turning friendly, because the DM built it assuming 5 players would be storming it, only for 2 of them to not show up.