Character Introduction: Mao - CustomCharacterCards

Character Specs:

Character Class: Monk
Character Race: Tabaxi
Character Level: 5

Backstory/Description:

Mao is a foreigner and doesn't speak fluent Common.

Her fur is white with many grey stripes.
Her bear totem makes the fur thicker and her tiger totem has tinged the tips of each fur follicle orange to give her a bit of an otherworldly glow.
She wears "spiked armour" though it is easy to take off when she goes into rage. She has no gloves or boots. She has a crude bear skin cloak.
She has a silver earring with a tigers tooth in her right ear.
Her eyes are dark brown with golden flecks.
She carries a backpack and her primary weapons are a great warhammer and a greatsword.

Mao often seems stupid or dimwitted to others due to her incomplete comprehension of the language. Most of the time she simply repeats a familiar word or phrase someone has said near her. She thinks other people are stupid for using so many words (many of them strange and confusing) when simple body language and occasional words are how REAL adventurers communicate best. She doesn't like to waste time, preferring to get tasks done so that wandering, window-shopping and wondering can take up the rest of the time.

Her home region is a forest atop a mountain (her eldest sibling is named "the tallest tree on the spotted mountain"). She was born somewhere in the middle of a six-kitten litter but was paler and more stout than her siblings. Her name translates to "she who is like the potato at dawn" referring to her hard skull and inediblity.

One of her siblings went waterbound (gross) and offered to transfer Mao to cure her wanderlust. It was a horrible trip but she made it... she now wanders the land taking odd jobs and meals where ever they may turn up.

Character Moodboard

Preliminary Character Concept:

Using mostly 'average' artistic skills, a poor skim of the description, and leaning a bit on the mood board, a touch of inspiration, and then forgetting that description again, a basic concept was sketched out.

The concept was iterated somewhat, then applied to a physical 'CustomCharacterCard' template.

As a finishing touch a 'demo' QR code has been applied, the intention being to log the character's unique ID, as well a provide a handle against which certain in game values can be tracked.

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Where to from here...

This is by no means a finished product
The initial concept leaves lots to be desired: "erm I thought she didn't have gloves?" "Where are the totems" and a few others.

This is where we come in. As part of that 'we', I shall attempt another drawing before the edit window on this post closes, perhaps one a little closer to parts of the description. In addition this description is now in the public domain, as such, any one with any interest, inspiration, or just plain skill may also 'take a crack' at this, lets see where it goes...

At this stage, as you can see, these are physically drawn, and using a physical template. This is partially done to demonstrate ownership of the concept, however the hope is that in time, there shall come to be a 'platform/methodology' whereby players can submit basic character specs, backstories and descriptions, thereafter, we would love to crowd-source interpretations of these characters into character concept art, applied to digital templates, and given digital handles.

The handle is quite important, as it could be a means to further reference experiences that character has, as well as how they are changed by their experiences in the world.

The hope is that in the future batches of character specs, descriptions, backstories and maybe even 'mood-boards' can be used as inspirations for concept art that players can truly feel inspired by.

The belief is that the blockchain can provide a means to store latest character data and visuals, meaning that players and DMs never again have to worry about losing/forgetting their sheet, not having a good character description, or loosing track of gold etc