Here’s a fun idea to create new characters. I would suggest that you need three people to do this, but I guess you could also do it with four to six people.
First, each of you draw a rough sketch of a new character. The sketch should be a visual representation of the character. No brainstorming at all – you draw one character each, without meddling with how the other people’s characters look at all.
Now, assuming you’re sitting in a circle, pass the sheet to the person sitting on your right. That person should now come up with a name for the character. Done that? Good. You now have three (or four to six) characters with designs and names.
But you don’t know anything about them yet. That’s the next step.
Pass the sheet on to the person on your right again. He or she now has to come up with one character trait for this character. For example, “lawful good” or “easily embarassed” or “talented musician” or “very religious” or “vegetarian”. Don’t pick this out of thin air, it should be something you feel is appropriate for the character you’re giving it to – but being creative is okay.
Now, pass the sheet on again, and the next person should now come up with a second character trait for the character. You’re not allowed to use a character trait that is impossible in combination with the first character trait – for example, if the first trait is “good”, you can’t say “evil”. But you can say “kleptomaniac.” You also can’t go against the character sketch – if it shows a skinny girl, you can’t say “fat” – but you can say “chocoholic”.
Pass the sheet on again, and repeat until each character has five or six character traits. You now have three (or four to six) characters you can introduce in your webcomic – or, if you prefer, clash them all together to create a new webcomic. Share brotherly with the two (or three to five) other people you’re creating them with, of course.
I think that this could be a pretty interesting way to develop characters, and assuming I manage to get a couple of people together I will probably try this once.
96 down, 4 to go. That’s FOUR to go.
This sounds like fun. I’m going to try this.
Thanks! I should probably add that one doesn’t have to have real friends to do something like this, it could probably be arranged online, too. But of course, if you have a group of friends who can do this sitting around a table, that’s the social way of doing it.