Without Inspiration by CarloValente

It was Matt Damon that inspired my DB Cooper character in Timewatch: Deja Boom. Isn’t that weird?

I was sitting on my couch watching a late night interview with Matt Damon, and he suddenly broke out into an imitation of Matthew McConaughey. It was a solid impression, and the audience loved it. It even earned a few chuckles from me before I tried doing my own impression of McConaughey. After a few tries, I was able to get a word or two to sound like the actor, and that began my obsession with his voice.

Two months later, I used that obsession to create the fork-tongued time traveling charlatan known as DB Cooper for our Timewatch campaign.

Inspiration comes differently for people. I swear that Jesus creates his fantastic characters by looking over his shoulder towards the movie posters I have hanging on the walls. Angela, on the other hand, will usually get her inspiration for characters from history and young adult novels. Daniel and David? Hell, I doubt they even know where their inspiration for characters come from.

So, for this post, I’ve decided to share with you my inspiration for my characters. Some might be easy to spot, some might be be from left field, but this is my list of what inspired my characters!

Barsha da Barsha – Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader

Oddly enough, Barsha was created when I was playing Everquest. I tried to name my ogre ‘Basher the Basher’ but it was sadly taken. However, in a brief glimmer of childlike intuition, I realized that ogres probably couldn’t speak or spell right, thus Barsha was given his name!

However, a character is more than a name. They are personality. Honestly, as pretentious as it sounds, I took a lot of inspiration from Frankenstein’s Monster. The creature was brilliant.. however what was scary was how his thought process worked. He was so inhuman with his planning, but still familiar enough that made it uncomfortable. Like a monkey playing poker! Add a bit of funniness from the Orcs in Warcraft III (“Stup pokin’ me!”), and that was how Barsha was born. Daniel and the rest of the crew evolved him to something more, but that was how the character was first created in my head.

Jack Mavrickson – Hollow Earth Expedition

Jack Mavrickson was first inspired by the cowboy in the Mummy. Sure, people might have loved Brendan Fraser in the movie (admittedly, he was sort of awesome), but I loved the cowboy that was offed by the Mummy half way through the movie. He had the right look, the right attitude, and the right sort of gun slinging skills to pique my interest. And when Angela brought up running a pulp campaign, he was the person I used to create Jack Mavrickson.

Byron Clayton – Unhallowed Metropolis

We played Unhallowed Metropolis a few days after a Black Adder marathon. I loved the snootiness of the main character in that show, and I adored the cleverness of the dialogue. A Dash of Tony Stark and a pinch of House, and Byron was born. However, the other player characters were what sculpted Byron to be the character he is. Moira played by Angela allowed for Byron to constantly have an audience to his whining. Doctor Charles Israel played by Daneal gave Byron an intellectual to debate and argue with. As for Marcus played by David, he supplied the brotherly role that Byron so desperately wanted to fill.

So  those were the inspirations for my three favorite characters. Some of the inspirations were a little goofy, but I think they made some rather interesting characters. So, Fandible Readers, what inspired your greatest character or your most vilest of villains? Share it with us in the comments!

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