Roleplaying help.

[Jack Lancer]

I need a little help brainstorming for an off althanas character I have.

The short version: I've got this character named Livia who for some reason was cursed and now whenever she smells Garlic she transforms into a male named Ray, whenever he smells roses he transforms back into Livia.:eek: I need to figure out why Livia was cursed, and I'm stumped. Need more info?

The long version: Ray was the original character I made for the quest I'm doing at my friends house, Ray is a complete jerk even though he tries to get along well with others. He is very well versed in animal lore and devotes a lot of his time studying more about animals during classes. He is a fighter that uses a sword thing is, after the first 3 gaming sessions, I lost his character sheet. So I made Livia, who was supposed to be a temporary replacement for Ray and a seperate character until I found Ray's character sheet character sheet, but I wasn't able to find it so I recreated ray and decided on the curse I described above. By the way, Livia can be mean at times, but overall she is easy to get along with. She also is well versed in animal lore, but not even close to as well versed as Ray. Livia has also studied animal training, unlike Ray. Her weapon is an axe.

Here is what I've figured out so far: Livia was the one cursed, not Ray. Livia tried to act tough, like she thought a man should act in order to keep people from realizing her curse, but it backfired as Ray started to develop a personality of his own based on that, and now he is a total jerk whenever he opens his mouth, despite trying to be helpful most of the time. Livia and Ray do remember what the other side did when they were out, but they can not communicate with each other yet. Ray despises Livia for being the original and is depressed and frustrated because he thinks that he is just a figment of her imagination, and he knows that he was just created for the sake of the curse. Livia hates Ray because right now almost everyone knows they are one and the same, and Ray, though he tries not to, is driving away all her friends.

Now, I know there are many creative minds out there willing to help me out here, and I'll give you more info if you ask for it. I'm asking you guys to please help me figure out the answer to this question. What did Livia do in the past that got her cursed?
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While I'm at it I may as well keep this thread open in case I need help in the future.
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Heck, since all the great minds might gather here, why don't I just keep this open for anyone to post in if they need roleplaying help.:D

[Zook Murnig]

This smells of Ranma 1/2...

[AdventWings]

Well, that's what I was gonna say until I see those two had different personalities.

I'm more inclined to say "Lunch" from the classic Anime Dragonball. :D

However, I can probably think up a couple ideas on how you can go about with this curse. Gimme a day or two, I just need to get my engines warmed up.

*Just finished writing two short stories that will go on sale locally within two days*

[Jack Lancer]

This smells of Ranma 1/2...

Why did I know that was going to come up. No, it is not a ripoff of that anime/manga. I'm familiar with that one, of course, but I made sure to stray as far from that as I could as soon as I started to see the similarities.


Well, that's what I was gonna say until I see those two had different personalities.

I'm more inclined to say "Lunch" from the classic Anime Dragonball. :D


I never really watched much of the original Dragonball. Who is Lunch? (Please don't tell me I walked into some kind of joke here. I'm almost expecting somebody to reply "You are.":eek:)


However, I can probably think up a couple ideas on how you can go about with this curse. Gimme a day or two, I just need to get my engines warmed up.

*Just finished writing two short stories that will go on sale locally within two days*

Thanks, I've been stumped for at least 5 playing sessions, and while I've been able to avoid answering the question so far, I don't know how much longer I can go without at least having some sort of answer.

Oh, and by the way, what are your books? I'd like to read them sometime.

[HikariAngel]

"Launch", not "Lunch".

She's a Dragonball character who has a personality 180 every time she sneezes.

I would try to come up with ideas, but all of my multiple personalities are just that, personalities not curses. Raven is also working on it, so that should be plenty of help if I know him.

[Hashi]

Pretty sure it was "Lunch", since everyone in DB was named after either food, (ie Vegeta = Vegetable, Kakarot = Carrot) or an item of intimate clothing, like Trunks.

Anyway, as for the character I'm wondering why you picked garlic. For one, your character can now never cook or eat Italian food. Sucks for her. Two, that's an item that is closely tied with the vampire legend. Both the flower blossom and the root, depending on which legend you are talking about. So, just off the top of my head I'd say either have it tie in with vampires somehow or pick something that isn't so tied to a popular legend.

[Jack Lancer]

Pretty sure it was "Lunch", since everyone in DB was named after either food, (ie Vegeta = Vegetable, Kakarot = Carrot) or an item of intimate clothing, like Trunks.

Anyway, as for the character I'm wondering why you picked garlic. For one, your character can now never cook or eat Italian food. Sucks for her. Two, that's an item that is closely tied with the vampire legend. Both the flower blossom and the root, depending on which legend you are talking about. So, just off the top of my head I'd say either have it tie in with vampires somehow or pick something that isn't so tied to a popular legend.

It was actually the DM that chose garlic. The game takes place in a combat school. It is sort of a Final Fantasy 8 knockoff. Most of the games my friend DMs are based off some game or another. You may be asking why I didn't mention the setting earlier. I didn't want you to base what the curse was on that. You see, the curse supposedly took place before Livia was enrolled. Plus it isn't based in the FF8 world, just the idea of the combat school was taken from FF8 as far as I can tell.

In any case, back to your question. Why garlic? Why a flowers? Simply put, because they are so commonplace that it's not easy to avoid either one. Now, as for that whole vampire thing, that's something I never thought about, but I doubt Livia has met a vampire before.

[Vampiric Angel]

Pretty sure it was "Lunch", since everyone in DB was named after either food, (ie Vegeta = Vegetable, Kakarot = Carrot) or an item of intimate clothing, like Trunks.

What about Piccolo? I know you could say Pickle, but a Piccolo is an instrument.

[Hashi]

... it's still a noun, which would support "Lunch", also a noun, as more consistent to the naming pattern than "Launch" a verb. But this is not a thread to argue DBZ, so why are you posting something so inane in a thread about something totally different?

[Vampiric Angel]

Don't talk down to me....I know this isn't a thread to argue DBZ. (Which in fact, if it were, I'd win. :P) I was just putting in a sarcastic comment. Go to most of the threads around here and you'll see posts just like this one. So calm down.

[Hashi]

Sigh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Earthlings_in_Dragon_Ball#Lunch

Can we get back on topic now?

[Jack Lancer]

Alriiiiiiight. that off-topic conversation was somewhat random. Getting us back on topic here.., I will say this. I sort of need some Idea by next tuesday, and I'll take all suggestions into consideration.

(Tuesdays are when I have my roleplaying group BTW.) So, while I have more than 2 days, it's not much more.

[Tsukiko]

mew I'm kinda tired though it looks like this link will be quite helpful.

http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm

I always used it when I GMed and it's helped me a ton and good luck with your gamer night.

[Crystal Suncrest]

Thanks. It won't exactly help with what I need help with now, but at the same time, it may help me solve some other problems I may have later on.

[Jack Lancer]

Bump because I'm that desperate for help.

[Hashi]

I actually just hand an idea. The setting is a school. Now, where there's a school there's a rival school and where there's a rival schools there's got to be competition of some kind and where there's competition there's rival characters.

And sometimes rivals will do anything to win, including say, dabble in forbidden curses? Pay old gypsy women to curse a rival? Or even a rival school's teacher doing things forbidden cursy things to rival school students.

Just throwing that out there to see if that's something you could work with. Even if it was a cursed placed before she was enrolled, if this is a world (or in Althanas terms, region) were combat schools are common, that doesn't mean she couldn't have made enemies at a rival school before she got there.

Or even if it's not specifically a rival school but a rival student at the same school that say, is older and was already attending and did it to discourage her from attending.

If you wanted something not school related at all, it's kinda hard to pull out of thin air without knowing more about her background and the world/region specifics. The only other thing I could think of would be some kind of inherited/legacy curse. Every third female of the whatever name line have it. Knowledge of it is supposed to be passed down mother to daughter but for whatever reason her grandmother wasn't able to tell her mother to tell her. If you want it to be even more of a kicker, it's something that didn't manifest until puberty.

[AdventWings]

I'm back, although the engine's not quite warm yet. Oh, well. It'll have to do.

-Idea #1-

Livia was in fact cursed through an action of her own when she was a bit younger and just starting in Animal Training. Because she was inexperienced, she inadvertantly caused one of her training animal to die (I propose from forgetting to feed him, which can be played out through various comedic circumstances although being starved to death is no funny thing) and his spirit now haunts Livia and takes control of her whenever she smells garlic.

Of course, as he is dead for some time before haunting Livia, he forgets how he died and only knew that the two had some sort of history together to be stuck in such a predicament.

-Iea #2-

You can say that Livia's ancestors used to mistreat their servants/neighbors/hired hands and Ray is one of those who return to exact retribution on the family.

Why garlic and roses? Ray used to work in the kitchen (thus his connection to garlics) and Livia loves roses. These triggers who would be the dominant persona of the body.

-Idea #3-

Well, more or less closely parallel to what Hashi suggested. It was a curse that runs through the family from the time they gained control of a Bewitching Jewel that implants a person with a male and female persona. This was used in the old times for when the family had to create and impersonate nonexistent people of the opposite sex. As time went on, the accumulated trace magic would amplify itself in people with certain phenotypic characteristics. It could be Magic Amplification or merely genetics, but the end results is that Livia and Ray are two parts of a whole - one and the same, but equally different.

[Crystal Suncrest]

Or even if it's not specifically a rival school but a rival student at the same school that say, is older and was already attending and did it to discourage her from attending.




-Idea #3-

Well, more or less closely parallel to what Hashi suggested. It was a curse that runs through the family from the time they gained control of a Bewitching Jewel that implants a person with a male and female persona. This was used in the old times for when the family had to create and impersonate nonexistent people of the opposite sex. As time went on, the accumulated trace magic would amplify itself in people with certain phenotypic characteristics. It could be Magic Amplification or merely genetics, but the end results is that Livia and Ray are two parts of a whole - one and the same, but equally different.

I'll likely do one of these two.

I would need to tweak them both a bit, but I like them.

Hashi's Idea would work well, but I imagine that it would be a family member trying to stop Livia from attending.

Advent's idea is equally interesting and I think the only tweak I'd have to make is that instead of being genetics, it was Livia that found the bewitching jewel that she could use to impersonate the opposite sex, but it worked too well when she used it.

I'll run all the ideas by my roleplaying buddies when I get the chance, which will likely be next tuesday since I won't be anywhere I can print anything out until sunday, and I don't want to try to remember these ideas.

[Crystal Suncrest]

I'm sure someone out there is wondering how my roleplaying group went, so I'll post the important fact here.

I was saved from having to make any decisions thanks to Super Smash Brothers Brawl. My friends and I decided to take a one tuesday break from roleplaying and play brawl instead, so I have a bit more time to think than I thought. if anyone has any more ideas, let me know.