Brainstorming Cast for Massively Cross-Genre Setting

AngryBob from That one place Since: May, 2009

#1: May 25th 2011 at 5:05:25 PM

The setting(The Canvas) is one that brings together one(1) creature from each of many alternate universes. They all share one thing in common: These creatures were responsible for(directly or indirectly), failed to stop, were the last victim of, or were otherwise connected to the end of their world. There's no specific rule that decides who ends up in the Canvas and who doesn't, as long as they have even the most tenuous connection to the end of their world.

Some of these characters are blatant ripoffs, some are homages, some are original(or at least, I'd like to think so), and some are mix/matches of existing tropes. I need a whole menagerie of them, and am coming up short in the creativity department. Also, feel free to tell me what you think of the characters themselves and the setting/plot.

The plot is for a tabletop campaign I plan to run sometime in the future, with the P Cs being some of these "remnants." Ultimately, the "circles" of remnants compete, cooperate, and otherwise work through the levels of the Canvas(Which is hardly a safe environment in and of itself) to sow the seeds of the new multiverse. Details below.

Characters so far:

Johnny: A 50s/60s style greaser that happens to have accurate visions of the future. Failed to act on his dreams concerning the meteors. In the Canvas, is understandably much more attentive of them.
Roggh: A reptilian creature that, armed only with its wits and trusty axe(and venomous bite), personally hunted the rest of its world to extinction. It my defense, it was a really small world. In the Canvas, it finds itself in another world full of new and exotic prey.
Kali: A warrior woman with unrestricted teleportation ability. Teleported away from her dying world, only to find herself in the Canvas. Now wants to guide the new multiverse toward recreating her world, or a close approximation, so that she might see it in its glory days.
eN°217b33f: A creature from a race that thought it had perfected itself through cloning and genetic manipulation. As the only "imperfect" member of that race, was the only one that survived when a new plague turned up. In the Canvas, doesn't seem to have any stated purpose, having been simply kept sedated in a pen until its keepers could determine exactly what "went wrong," and once they had, to be terminated.
Alcreycia: An ancient lich that destroyed her(its?) world out of boredom and spite.
Moonflower: A practitioner of tactical(out of necessity in the Canvas) and pharmaceutical(recreational and medicinal) apiculture. Kind of a hippie. In fact, she was one of the few hippies on her world, and the last one to die when the nukes fell.
The Scarlet Sovereign: In his world, was an Omnicidal Maniac who was disappointed beyond belief when his universal nihilator, instead of ending his existence, deposited him in the Canvas. Seeks to find a way to destroy the canvas and prevent the formation of a new multiverse. Fond of pulling Psychic-Assisted Suicide on his enemies, although in his case it's body control instead of mind control.
Slim: Not its actual name, only the name given to it by those aware of it. Nothing more or less than an Expy of the Slender Man. Exact differences and similarities to be decided.
Grolgv’wlPh’G’naHlg’Rilgn: An Eldritch Abomination that ate its world. Essentially a centipede the size of a freight train with too many tentacles to safely describe in any kind of detail. Due to the unique qualities of the Canvas, is perfectly understandable when it deigns to speak.
Leeroy: Guess. This version has Powered Armor and twin chainswords. Pretty friendly if you get to know him and don't mind cleaning up after him.
Greb: An animate, firebreathing lawn gnome. Exact personality traits to be decided.
Surtr: A Badass Longcoat Master Swordsman with white hair and an unnecessarily long sword, with the word "MOMMY" carved into every inch of his skin. Working with the Scarlet Sovereign.
The Maimed Princess: A figure that knows all, sees all, and can talk to you telepathically whenever she feels like it. Spoilered for Squick: Reason she's in the Canvas: She was the one that gave birth, chestburster-style, to an eldritch atrocity that ate her world. If you peel away the extensive veils and life support, you see a young woman that looks like she swallowed a live grenade sometime before or after someone went to town on her face and limbs with a crowbar. Uniquely, none of this damage was healed on her entrance to the Canvas. Appears non-evil for now. Her ultimate goals in the Canvas are unknown, but it's assumed she's working toward the same goal as everyone else.

Expansion on the plot and setting:

The canvas is made up of five layers.

The first layer, the Masque, is the layer the remnants awaken in. It crawls with dangerous creatures and other remnants. Here, the remnants seek out their "circle," a group of remnants they have a apecial connection to. In game terms, all it really means is "characters that they'll be penalized for attacking." Once the circles locate an actual, physical circle, they are lowered into the Devoid.

The Devoid is where most of the story takes place. It's an infinitely large white room. As the circles collect "meat,"(by defeating minions, automata generated by the Canvas itself, and completing quests given out by similar automata and generated by the Canvas, and raiding other circles, if they are so inclined) they build camps with useful buildings(don't know how mixing Age Of Empires and tabletop gaming will work out, but hey, there's a first time for everything) and eventually construct the gate to the next layer.

The Collage is a mashup of all of the surviving circles' home worlds. I say surviving because some of the circles at this point will have been wiped out, either by minions or by other circles. This layer contains the sequestered components for another gate. Each circle has to find the components to its gate while avoiding the more powerful minions and probably the more hostile circles. The next gate leads to the Coliseum.

In the Coliseum, the ban against T King is dropped, and each circle begins in a tower. The remaining remnants must gather a piece from each tower, each of which is guarded by a Titan, an enemy of immense power. Unlike the Collage, where there were components of many gates, each component here is a component of exactly one gate. The Canvas presumably intends the circles to kill each other off, but this is unlikely. Regardless, the last gate leads to a comparatively small layer.

The last layer is Yggdrassil, which is, coincidentally, the name of the entity that the surviving remnants must defeat. Once defeated, its energies(or whatever I decide) can be used by the survivors to create the new multiverse.

edited 26th May '11 11:26:24 AM by AngryBob

AngryBob from That one place Since: May, 2009

#2: May 26th 2011 at 10:00:16 AM

So, because I've gotten no responses, I'd at least like to know something. Is the concept

a) So awesome you immediately decided you couldn't add anything to it,

b) So terrible you didn't want anything to do with it,

c) So bland you didn't care, or

d) So unorganized that you didn't finish reading the post?

If it's the last one, I can fix that immediately. If it's the rest, I'd at least like to know your initial response to the premise and characters, even if you don't have any suggestions at the moment.

edited 26th May '11 10:00:53 AM by AngryBob