I’m going to keep using Iason and I have decided that playing a normal human is too close to home, after all, I’m trying to escape reality aren’t I?

 

Part One: Expanding the character, The initial design

 

Lets say I still want him to have a human appearance so I don’t have to stick strictly to fantasy based story lines. I’ll let him keep his Japanese form but I want to give him gifts and possibly another form to take. Where do I start? There are many fantasy races, so many that it may become difficult to decide what you want to be. As a beginner you might want to stick to the easiest to explain away, a Mutant or Altered Human. This allows you to give your character powers or a look outside the norm.

 

 

Iason is a vain creature; I want him to be able to keep that vanity even if someone is too rough with him. How can I do this? Well, what if I give him the ability to heal fast and take no scars from the incident? That turns him from a human into a mutant. Now there has to be an explanation for his eyes to glow, right? What if it’s an overcharge of energy in his body? Obviously it’s emotional triggering, so now I can decide what emotion triggers it most and why.

 

I know he is in a lot of pain most of the time, either physical or emotional. So the easiest explanation is to say pain causes the charge. Now, that being done I can decide how powerful I want that charge to be capable of reaching and what he can do with it. This is where your imagination has to start working. I decided to start out slow and describe each power as I created it. It’s important to know your characters limits for expansion and to describe it to the other player. If you come up with something new you want it’s also best to have a reason for it to happen. Don’t just all of a sudden have a god-like character no one can hurt, it makes them to hard to play with and makes other players feel distant towards it and not want to play. Weaknesses are a GOOD thing in r/p because it allows for the character to seem more real and lets the other player get attached.

 

Iason Tonyaka (revision one into fantasy)

Age: 16 and a half       Eyes: Emerald      Hair: Black       Skin Tone: Light bronze

Race: Mutant/human

 

Powers:

Healing factor- can heal from wounds without gaining scars and body kills off infections and or diseases before they can truly harm him.

Pain absorption/Energy reflection: Absorbs pain and it’s reflected in his eyes by the level they glow how much energy he has built up from it

Weakness: uncontrolled powers; has to still have the limb attached to heal from his wounds without a scar.

 

Now we know he absorbs pain and turns it into energy, but what can that energy do to be expelled, and how long can he hold onto that energy? I decide to link the energy to his healing, and make it so when he goes to sleep that energy slowly dissipates, or can be used to be able to healthily continue remaining awake beyond the length of time a human should be able to. Now I have to decide the setting of fantasy I want for him, this may make me want to expand upon his abilities.

 

Part Two: Deciding a fantasy setting to play the character

 

This setting is what will decide if you want to expand your character further to meet the requirements of play. I am going to stick to New York, but I’m going to shift it to an alternate reality which allows mutants to exist. I decide I want them not to be so expansive as perhaps a comic book may take it, but I do want the element of possible heroism while my character begins to expand. With that in mind I base it, but don’t fully take on the concept, on a comic I know a lot about, a boarding school setting for mutants, with Iason as a runaway who is taken in.

 

Now as I am deciding this I realize that a villain may come into play, however for now I want Iason to be entering the school not knowing he has powers let alone that alone else does. Thinking on this basis allows for me to even play him before expanding and thusly allowing new powers to develop using the original basis.

 

With Iason knowing nothing about mutants it creates an atmosphere of disbelief in the character. If Iason doesn’t know about them, seeing one use his powers or meeting a mutant who looks entirely different will gain an immediate reaction. I create nightmares as another weakness. It adds to his reaction, now he can think he is asleep and caught in a nightmare.

 

Put in a villain that Iason already knows, Lucious Morningstar, the man who captured and had him abused for money. Now that there is an ability to easily take down a human, Lucious cannot remain human either. I am forced to expand him as well. Now that you can see that the world becomes more complicated and advanced it’s time to decide if you want the characters to really be just mutants. Maybe you even want to add an element that is other worldly, a scene from a place that does not exist in the real world.

 

Personally I enjoy the idea of some where like Avalon. It adds magic, gives a reason for more magical creatures to exist and a place they can go to hide from the human world if need be. You can create your own place or take one from mythology as I have and recreate it to your design.

 

 

 

Part Three: Races outside humans and mutants or You ain’t one of us!

 

There are many races one can choose from once you move beyond mutant powers that come naturally. Let me give you some ideas of what a mutant can have for a power so you can tell the difference between a mutant and a mystical creature.

 

Energy manipulation- the ability to use energy or create energy to use for powerful blasts of sound or something like a lightning bolt or even just what you see on TV when a mutant sends a bright light at someone else that can hurt or kill them

 

Time manipulation- The ability to slow, speed up or even stop or skip through time. A time traveler is one of these as are those people who can slow time to accomplish goals. The idea of stopping time is actually just slowing it to the point where no one around your character is moving fast enough to be noticed. If you truly stopped time then your character would cease to exist. It takes time to create energy enough for something to exist.

 

Healing Ability- This can range from healing quickly from minor wounds to literally regenerating limbs. This is a vast power to play with that many species can have. They can sometimes even use it to heal others through blood transfusion and sometimes the exchange of other things.

 

Power absorption or creation- The ability to absorb another’s powers through touch, kiss or other physical contact or the ability to copy or create others powers in themselves or others through the same method.

 

Telepathy, Empathy- ability to read minds is telepathy, it can also be used to talk to each other through thought or enter another’s dreams. Empathy can be related but isn’t always, Empathy is the ability to sense and feel what other people are feeling emotionally or physically.

 

Telekinesis- Most characters with telekinesis are also telepathic, but they do not have to be. Telekinesis is the ability to move or lift objects and or people with your mind. When expanded it can also be used to create shields or even fly.

 

Control or manipulate the elements- This is any element you choose from weather to fire, water earth even life and death. The character can create the element if you want with no requirements from their surroundings or they can be limited to what is available from where they are. They can do anything from using fireballs to turning the fire into an actual shape such as a dog, cat or if your really powerful a fire dragon. If you choose life, death or both they might be able to kill or raise the dead at will. Be careful though, the more power they have the less real they become. It’s always a good idea to restrict how much they can do and for how long before they get worn out.

 

 

These are all basic powers that can be manipulated as I did with Iason to make new unheard of powers. Now any species or race can have these gifts, but some species may have them naturally when it comes to fantasy, or they can acquire them magically. It’s up to you to decide how you want to play it off. Now lets see a few basic magical or other worldly races.

 

Elf- a dead give away is their ears which are naturally pointed. However you can create a length of the ear to make it easier or harder to hide the fact they are an elf. Some have an unearthly glow to their skin while others may have pitch black skin and white hair. You can give your elf any color skin you wish, after all it is fantasy! Most elves are the same height as humans and so if you choose they can blend in easily enough.

 

Dwarf- Dwarves are usually short stalky beings with large beards. They have no real distinguishing features besides their height and their unusual strength for their size. They usually have two skin tones, either look like a white person or look like a black person. They have a smaller range of choice, but they can be very fun to play.

 

Halfling- Halflings have pointed ears of an elf and the smaller stature of a dwarf, but can’t grow beards and tend to be reclusive to their society. There are the few who venture out and usually they become good little thieves. Once again fantasy to the point where the imagination is the limit.

 

Dragon- dragons can have human forms or they can be stuck in their dragon form. It’s usually best to allow them to have some sort of smaller more human sized form instead of keeping them in their massive size for role playing. After all who wants to approach a creature that can tower over some of the largest human made structures in the world? They can be any color and their powers are not limited to any one kind so they are one of the most versatile of races to play.

 

Unicorn- Once again you may want to give the unicorn a human form, more so it doesn’t get hunted down instead of size. They tend to be innocent and naive normally, being the pure creatures they are and can manipulate nearly any magic they please. They do have one major weakness though, their horn. When cut off they lose their human like form and their magic. So be protective of this type of character and give him some allies or at least some outside source of help.

 

Vampires- Most people know what a vampire is, but they have many abilities and many ways to be played. Not all vampires can fly or read minds, but many in the fantasy realm can and almost always they are stronger than normal. They can have the old weaknesses of sunlight and a dire need for blood, or maybe you prefer to think they can walk in daylight and eat normal food- if they want to. Do a little research though, you’ll find in the old myths they have A LOT more weaknesses and the best way to play a vampire is to have a lot of knowledge and a good reason for them to nor have the weakness, such as age or magic they have learned. Any species can be a vampire and there is more than just the blood drinking kind. Enjoy coming up with all the ways you can play this off and once again keep in mind too much power with no weakness gets boring fast.

Were creatures- you aren’t restricted to wolves you know. Any forced shift by some outside source into any animal makes you a wear creature. Most of the time they are allergic to silver or at least some common object. Like vampires though it’s a good thing to go ahead and research the myths to decide what exactly you want to use and why.

 

These are a few basic races and species to play in the fantasy realm, there are many more and it’s always fun to research new ones and decide what you want to play as.