RP Influences

[LQJT86C]

Who or what have been some big influences on your roleplay in this hobby? Books, movies, other handlers, other characters, etc. What's shaped your RP and your characters?

When I first started, the person who actually showed me how to "play" this game was Rob Leland. Before I ever RP'd I ran a league, and I did everything live in chat until Rob said "Hey, you know there's actually a bulletin board for all this right?" But as far as the STYLE I wanted to emulate, UWA was in my opinion the best league on Prodigy by miles, so I looked to the top guys there early on. JN, Kevin Schmid (GUNS, Monty), Gregg, Mike Stanton, Katz, Paul Kobylarz (Big Bet in NLW), those were the handlers I judged myself against. I'd imagine some of the older guys would cite CSWA much in the same way, 'cause that was the big thing when they started, but I never got into that.

If I narrowed it down, though, from '97 when I started until present day, the actual characters who influenced me the most (especially with Castor) were: Great White Void (Rob Leland), Ares (Ryan Engleman), Michael Manson (Mike McNichols), and Troy Windham (Gregg, duh). Gregg was really the guy who made me want to write funny RPs, and do big angles. Mike Randalls was my favorite character, but I'm not sure much of those roleplays actually influenced me. Ernie Garrett was a guy who influenced my RP, though his character (Alex Wylde) wasn't a big influence.

The movie Ed Wood is really what sparked me to create Castor Strife (not Goldust, hard as that is to believe). A Clockwork Orange, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Apocalypse NOW, Jaws, Spaghetti Westerns- those are some of the movies that directly and indirectly get my mind in "writing mode". Industrial and Heavy Metal get me writing as well. Horror novels and history have a big influence on me as well. When it comes to more comedic characters, it all pretty much comes from real life experiences, and people I've known. "Life is stranger than fiction"- Chuck Palahniuk

Also, Eastern porn influences me.

 

[jediPREZ]

I've always tended to be more influenced by random books, movies or music. Some of those influences have been tongue-in-cheek (see Randalls as Gandalf in CSWA), but when I take things seriously (which is rare) -- I try not to let the influences direct too much of the writing anyway. The Eastwood Man with No Name Trilogy was an influence on Randalls after CSWA shut down. Various psychotic/quirky villains have probably influenced Craig Miles as well. Music has influenced both heavily as I stated. Music has probably been the most predominant influence for me. You'll be seeing alot more garage band blues/punk music in NFW in 2011.

My only bigger influence in our little game-world has been JN from a stylistic standpoint, I definitely don't tend to RP in the same way he does. But I like to keep track of how he transitions his camera work, etc. He was one of the forerunners of that style and I've tried to use that as a jumping off point, when I'm writing show pieces. And when we decided to co-run NFW, I had to adapt my style to mesh with his...so the shows looked uniformed versus "JN did this. JK did that."

But I can't really say from an RP standpoint that I've ever been "influenced" by anyone since I'm so nuts in the head, I always looked at it as the competition I had to beat. I've mellowed out on that over the years and I enjoy alot of the writing I see in NFW from the handlers, but I feel what makes my NFW writing unique and special...is the fact that it's all coming from some random place in my brain that's all my own. hehe

That's not to say I won't ask what someone thinks in an IM or what their character should say...just stating why my writing may be very, very weird in this game.

 

[User Poets]

Music, mainly.

Eli Flair was influenced by Marilyn Manson, Type - O - Negative, OTEP, and Henry Rollins.

Impulse is influenced by Jello Biafra, NC Shuva, Queen V, and my various musician and artist friends.

 

[Deacon]

Right now, it'll probably be anyone because I'm going to be pulling from everyone. My influences though have been Pete, Ed Young, Chad Merritt, at least when I was starting. Ed & Pete were more akin to the basics of RP writing. Chad was more for the old video style promos I did before each match (wish I would've saved some of those).

Through the years, I've had more people that I enjoyed writing w/ (Katz foremost among those during the Deacon/Randalls feud), but I think I'd already developed my style and if I made changes to the character, it happened almost organically (Deacon becoming the "bear" name to play against the "wolf").

But my writing is largely influenced by ... writing, and reading. That would be everyone from Max Lucado (Christian inspirational writer) to Eldon Thompson, Neil Gaiman, Frank Peretti (all novelists) and the comics I'd read (though not sure which ones influenced Deacon's RPs most). It largely depended on what I was reading, and in the RP world, who I was bouncing off of.

Writing this time will be unique because, even though I wasn't using Deacon in fW, I have him in my 2nd novel as a supporting character (who says all of this is wasted effort?!!). There, he's taken on a mentoring role which I don't think I ever did effectively in fW writing. Not sure it'll fit here, nor am I willing to make him the "old vet" entirely, even if he's done this for 13 years.

It'll be interesting to see what happens this time, but I imagine I'll be strongly influenced by those around me here in NFW until I figure out my role and style for this run.

 

[GreggG]

Influences on my characters:

Troy Windham When I started him, I was 16/17. I pretty much based him on, "If I was a rock star, how would I act if I went into my darkest desires?" Over time, he now has a lot -- David Lee Roth, Freddie Mercury, Ashton Kuchar (or however you spell his dumb name) and Vinnie Chase from Entourage.

Dorchester Stratton Kind of your standard 80s John Hughes movie rich kid villain meets Marlo from The Wire (obnoxious w/ his money but cold and ruthless). As DC Stratton, I took a lot from the skateboard kids in my neighborhood.

WildStar Kevin Costner's character in Bull Durham (earnest, heartfelt "team leader" type).

JJ DeVille John Heder's character in Blades of Glory (Still working on him -- but depending, prissy but talented).

Bobby Jack Windham Tim Tebow but more like a Rapture-style Christian. (Using his public forum to prosletyze but is probably a bit delusional about the whole thing.)

August De La Rossi Standard Williamsburg hipster (Annoying poser.)

Rayne Emma from the Next Degrassi (Young, hip girl who is deceivingly smart and knows how to pull the levers without anyone noticing.)

Tsunami ECW-era Tajiri, that Japanese dude in 16 Candles. (Completely serious in the ring but goofball out of it with bad Japanenglish vocabulary.)

 

[Biron]

Jack Bryant - Definitely, some Arn Anderson. Music, sometimes, if it puts me in the right mood (Hair o' the Dog, bunch of songs Katz has linked me to). Most the old Westerns, anything Eastwood, but especially The Outlaw Josey Wales.

 

[Justin]

You should throw in more Doc Holiday.