I’m one of those people who’s constantly toying around with ideas for new characters, whether they’re meant for here in the comic, or tabletop roleplaying games, or random ideas for my Patreon page, or just for my own amusement. Some stick around for years waiting for their opportunity, others come to me in the moment, and many others come and go without ever seeing the light of day.
One of the things that always kickstarts my imagination is reading character ideas and suggestions. They don’t always inspire me as they’re written, but they get my mind going in the right direction. So, in the spirit of that, and to indulge in an experimental exercise of my own, here are some character ideas straight off the top of my head:
- A person cursed with lycanthropy who transforms into a vicious were-beast not during a full moon or when they’re threatened, but only when they feel extreme happiness.
- A wizard who can only cast their spells through sign language, despite not being deaf.
- An astronomer who is afraid of the dark.
- A traveling merchant who buys and sells voices.
- A clown whose mission is to hunt down and destroy evil clowns, in an effort to put an end to the ruination of their profession’s reputation.
- An android from outer space marooned on a fantasy world who discovers their circuitry is a natural conductor of magic.
- A shapeshifter whose transformations are so slow and hideous that they must hide away for three days to fully change their shape, during which time they are vulnerable.
- A spiderlike creature who is determined to be a vegetarian.
- A satyr who lost a wager and is now bound to be celibate for a year.
I’ve given no prior thought to these concepts, so I have no attachment to them. This was a fun exercise for my own imagination, like a workout so as not to let muscles deteriorate. Do with these as you will, or perhaps they’ll get your imagination going if it’s in need of a jumpstart!