Now Actively Casting Roles for the Near Future
Active casting for my FanComic Embrace the Dark has reopened and will remain so until all open slots have been filled, I will be reviewing both new and past submissions and will make a point to comment on notable character suggestions.
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There's a mountain of text here about what I'm looking for (and what I'm not looking for) so I have marked the most crucial parts with *IMPORTANT* that you should read at least before you suggest a character, though considering everything will likely increase the chances of your character making it in.
ATTENTION to those submitting actual game characters or characters used in previous FanFics
I've marked certain sections and points with a ==!== as they may affect the existing concept of the character you already have, you should address these sections for your character.
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Things to Keep in Mind *IMPORTANT*
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Not Everyone Gets to be a Star
I make no promises to anyone for their character making it in, you might spend an hour describing your dream character and they may only end up with a minor role, or not even appear at all. I won't say any character suggestion is bad, but I may not be able to find any way to include them into the plot regardless of how much work or thought you put into them. That said characters with more thought and description will have greater consideration then those with less effort put into them.
The character selection here is going to be far more rigorous then most FanFics because I can't bring a character into been by simply saying "so-and-so walked into the room", I actually have to model, texture, and animate all characters and any specialized gear/props that may go with them, not that I discourage lots of submissions, in fact suggesting multiple characters would be a good idea if you want an idea of yours to make it in.
Creative Leeway ==!==
Unless specified by the submitter, I reserve the right to borrow, change, and/or omit parts and aspects of characters as I see necessary to use them, this may include changing names or combining parts from multiple peoples suggestions into a single character, if there is an important element to your characters appearance, personality, and/or history that you believe is integral to them please tell me, otherwise everything else is subject to change at my discretion.
Think Outside the Box
For those who follow my Spiral Spy works you should know that what I can make in terms of gear, armor, and props is not limited to what you see in-game, it is perfectly okay to suggest customized gear and weapons for your character but keep in mind that there is a limit to what I can do and how much I'm willing to do for a single character, so if you say something like "I want my character to have a full mechanized battle suit" chances are I will toss your idea out the window.
I have an ongoing showcase of what I can do with character and gear design that you can view to see what is possible in my other thread SPIRAL SPY SCENES.
View it here, do further down to see more
Things I CAN'T do (at the moment):
- Bow and Arrows (I've tried)
- Two-handed melee weapons (working on finding a way)
- Whips, robotic tentacles, or anything that needs a lot of fluid, uniform movement (Too hard to animate)
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Differences Between the Story and real Game Play
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Specialized Squad Roles
Squads can be larger then four people, and will often include characters with specialized roles such as squad leader, heavy weapons expert, medic, etc. Keep this in mind for your suggestions.
I'd also like to mention that, although there may be room for loner types, a majority of the knights will work in squads (whether the group will stay together is another matter) at least initially, if your main character has friends/squad mates you would like to see it would probably be a good idea to give a description of them too at some point as I am also looking for supporting characters as well.
Realistic Weapon Carrying
In my prologue story you may have noticed that characters often have their larger weapons slung over their back when not in use, I plan to carry on with this so knights will be limited to carrying 2 "large" weapons at most, I will assume smaller handguns and swords are holstered or sheathed.
Your Shield Actually 'Blocks'
Shields do not form a protective bubble around characters, they will act like real shields and actually take and (hopefully) absorb blows.
Bomb Toss
Bombs do not discriminate between friend or foe in this tale, as such they will often be tossed like grenades or remotely detonated from a safe distance.
No Instant Health Pills or Revives
That would kind of kill the drama.
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Character Requirements *IMPORTANT*
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I'm going to keep the required elements for a submission here minimal and leave it up to people to embellish their ideas further:
Name:
Obvious.
Gender:
Also obvious.
Personality:
What outlook does your knight take? Optimist, pessimist, etc? Are they friendly, mean, shy, charismatic, etc. What are their mannerisms like, are they the type that says "is not", "isn't", or "ain't"? How do they react under pressure? etc...
Wow that was short. Though chances are pretty slim for your submission if this is all you give.
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Optional Information
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Here are some optional information categories you can give, its not limited to these and you don't have to fill them all (hence optional), if you do not fill out a category I will assume you are okay with whatever I put in.
Appearance/Armor:
If you want you can leave it up to me to decide what a character should look like, otherwise you can specify the appearance of your character, keep in mind armor is not limited to what is in game but keep it reasonable and based off of something that does exist. It is also possible to make knights taller or shorter then usual but I will not be taking to the extreme either way.
Weapons:
Same as Appearance/Armor, but I'm willing to stretch the range of possibilities more here, keep in mind that I'm going to try and be realistic about what Knights can carry in terms of weight so you won't see anyone running around with 4 Troika like swords.
History/Background: ==!==
If your knight has past experiences, relations, or other forms of personal baggage you think I should include or be aware of mention them here, be careful of saying something that would force me to go off on a personal issue tangent from the main story like "he's searching for his lost father" and such similar past issues that people may expect me to address somewhere in the course of the story.
A lack of experience can also be a feature of your character, perhaps they are a trainee who finds him/herself thrown into a situation they are not ready for.
Relations: ==!==
Does your character have any important relations? Are they in a squad, know of, or are related to another character you or someone else has suggested? How important is it to your character that I include this relation?
'Twist' Degree: ==!==
How far will you allow me to make surprise revelations or changes to your character? Such as it turns out your character is actually a lumber disguised as a knight (not going to happen) or your character is revealed to be a homicidal snipe killer (also not going to happen), tell me how much you want your character to stay as 'your character'.
If your character has friends/squad mates/pets who you hope to play supporting roles you can also tell me how you want me to treat them as well in terms of this.
Pets/Sidekicks:
You can suggest a pet/sidekick for your character, but don't expect everyone to have a snipe/wolver/mechaknight/mewcat/whatever in tow behind them, if there are pets it will be limited to very few characters having them.
Expendability: *IMPORTANT* ==!==
How okay are you with your character been killed off? Do you want them to survive in the end? If you like to reuse your characters in other Fan-Fic works you may not want them to die (or this could be a perfect opportunity to have them die :D) in the course of this story. Saying nothing here will be taken as that you are okay with whatever I to your character.
I will listen to you if you want your character to live but DO NOT ask for me to make sure your character dies, and certainly don't tell me what kind of dramatic death sequence you want, knowing a character is destined to bite the dust will kill the tension around them when things go south, if you do want a specific death mail it to me personally in game and I will consider it (I won't promise I will carry it out) as not to give it away here.
Make note that asking for your character to definitely survive will reduce their appeal to me as I don't like having a 'Saturday Morning Cartoon Hero' type who everyone knows is going to live no matter how bad things get, I would really like there to always be the potential for death for the main characters in this story.
If your character has friends/squad mates/pets who you hope to play supporting roles you can also tell me how you want me to treat them as well in terms of expendability.
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Here's a template you can use for your character, you don't have to use it as these are only guidelines:
Name:
Gender:
Personality:
Appearance/Armor:
Weapons:
History/Background:
Relations:
'Twist' Degree:
Pets/Sidekicks:
Expendability:
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Iffy/Unlikely Submissions
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Non-Knight Characters
I won't say that I won't accept any characters from other races besides knights, however it is a long shot that they will make it into the story.
Villains (UPDATED)
It is the antagonists, not the heroes, who drive a story, without them there would be no tale as it is what they do that the protagonist has to respond to, I have the important villains already planned out and adding anymore would mean rethinking the overall plot, it is possible that suggested minor henchmen types could be accepted but the chances for a villain who would have an impact on the plot is less then 1%.
UPDATE: I've reconsidered parts of the plot and there is the possibility for a small (5 or less, certainly not more then) number of antagonist knight characters, I will put further details of what I may be looking for when I decide whether to include them or not.
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How to Get Your Suggestion Rejected *IMPORTANT*
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Mentioning the words "magic" or "superpower"
This is SK not WoW, if you want your character to throw fireballs give him a flamethrower, not have him spew them from his hands.
Wall of Text/Disorganized suggestions
You may have the best idea for a character who would be perfect for a starring role here, but if you submit it as a wall of 20 lines of unbroken text I won't even bother to read it, incomprehensible grammar will also turn me off so make sure your submission is put in a way that doesn't make peoples eyes hurt when they look at them.
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How Long will Casting Go for? What About Revisions?
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I don't plan to close casting for a while, possibly never, however the sooner you submit your idea the better the chances of them landing a major role, if you submit an idea late ('late' has yet to be defined) they might just end up as cannon fodder or as that guy in the background doing something.
You are welcome to submit as many characters as you want, and make changes to them until/if they show up in the story, I suspect many people will be revising their characters after the first few chapters are put out when they get a better idea of what I'm looking for.
If you do revise a character make sure you inform me of the changes you have made.
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NEEDED/FILLED ROLES *IMPORTANT*
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To help with the casting process I've devised a chart to keep track of what I'm roughly looking for by showing what sort of characters I need for each chapter when they are introduced, check this to see if your character made it in or if you can think of a character to fill a hole. For some roles I have a kind of character in mind that I want, at which point I will describe what I'm looking for.
Types of characters
Main Character: Lead roles that the story will revolve around, they will see the most character development and drama
Supporting Character: A character who is closely involved with a main character but does not have the story focus on them, like a best friend for example, likely to follow where the main character goes and follow their actions, possible chance of been turned into a main character depending on direction of story
Minor Character: Used to fill out necessary roles to make the story work such as extra squad mates, nonetheless important though and could have their own sub-stories and dramatic scenes, possible chance of becoming a supporting character. More vulnerable to sudden/shock deaths (refer to Torozae from the prologue :P)
Generic Character: Sometimes I will just fill a role with an unimportant knight I make who may not even be given a name, they will often end up been cannon fodder or background characters.
What I need for...
----Chapter 1----
Squad 1
Avaren: CONFIRMED - ( with amendments) - Squad Leader (Main)
Typhon: CONFIRMED (with amendments) - Second in Command/Guardian (Supporting)
Kyrie: CONFIRMED - Medic (Supporting)
Urrick: CONFIRMED - (with amendments) - Bomber/Technician (Supporting)
Frostex: CONFIRMED - Technician (Supporting)
Squad 2
Esira (a character I made ;) ): CONFIRMED - Squad Leader (Main)
Jael: CONFIRMED (with amendments) - Second in Command (Supporting)
Auger: CONFIRMED - Bomber (Minor)
Generic - Squad mate
Generic - Squad mate
----Chapter 2----
No changes planned
----Chapter 3----
No changes planned
----Chapter 4----
No changes planned
----Chapter 5----
Squad 3
Rex: CONFIRMED - Squad Leader (Main)
Drake: CONFIRMED (with amendments) - Second in Command OR shared Squad Leadership (Main)
Generic - Squad mate
Generic - Squad mate
----Chapter 6----
Robida: CONFIRMED (with amendments) - Civilian (Minor)
Soro: CONFIRMED(with amendments) - Technician (Minor)
???: ??? - Gremlin Assistant (Minor/Supporting?)
----Chapter 7----
Squad Characters (Squad Assignment TBA)
Gyli: CONFIRMED (with amendments) - Striker(?) (Supporting)
Artini: (Unconfirmed)(with amendments) - Swordsman (Supporting)
Jed: CONFIRMED (with amendments) - Gunner (Supporting)
Regnan: (Unconfirmed) - Gunner (Supporting)
Clide: (Unconfirmed) - Technician (Supporting)
??? - ???: (Supporting)
Other(s)
Reanu: CONFIRMED (with amendments) - Swordsman/Bomber/Solo Knight (Supporting)
----Chapter 8----
Squad 4
Gwilren: CONFIRMED - Squad Leader (Minor)
Rosco Barns "Silk Finger": CONFIRMED - Gunner (Minor)
Fragor: CONFIRMED - Bomber (Minor)
York: CONFIRMED - Guardian (Minor)
Zale: CONFIRMED - Technician/Medic (Minor)
Augustus: CONFIRMED - Swordsman(Minor)
??? - ???: (Minor)
Other
Captain Hammer: (Unconfirmed) - Navy Marine Platoon Leader (Minor)
Ailment: CONFIRIMED - Swordsman/Solo Knight (Supporting)
----Chapter ?---- (will be included eventually)
??? - ???: Unconfirmed (Main?)
??? - ???: Unconfirmed (Supporting?)
??? - ???: Unconfirmed (Supporting/Minor?)
??? - ???: Unconfirmed (Supporting/Minor/Empty?)
----Chapter ?----
TBA
Please keep in mind that new roles will continue to open up, a suggested character may not appear until later, just because your suggestion doesn't appear on the current list does not mean there won't be a possible future role for them
I loved the Comic, so I might Join.