Help me make a list of awesome character ideas!
I’m putting together a list of stereotypes for character ideas. I’m building the list using iconic characters from movies and fiction. It is my intention to use this list to build personalities for characters that will be used in some one-shot games, but I’m sure the list could also be used for instant NPCs and such. Here is my list so far:
Females:
- Agent Starling from Silence of the Lambs
- Uma Thurman in Kill Bill
- Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight
- The Baroness from GI Joe (TV show, not the movie!)
- Red Sonja
- River from Firefly
- Tank Girl
- Sarah Connor in Terminator 2
Males:
- Humphery Bogart in The Maltese Falcon
- Sherlock Holmes
- R.Lee Ermey (a.k.a. “Gunny”) from Full Metal Jacket, Mail Call, Lock’n'Load, etc.
- Bruce Willis from Die Hard
- Vin Diesel in Pitch Black
- Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs
- Indiana Jones
- Doc Brown from Back to the Future
- Dracula
- Chuck Norris/Van Damme/Steven Seagal/sweaty action man
- Adam Baldwin in Chuck (or maybe his character in Firefly)
- Aaragorn from LotR
- Gandalf/Elrond from LotR
- James Bond (Sean Connery era–Gold Finger is the perfect snapshot)
- Micky from Natural Born Killers (could have Mallory as a sidekick NPC)
- Batman
- Captain Picard
- Samual L Jackson in Pulp Fiction
- Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean
- Brock Sampson in Venture Brothers
- Tony Stark in Iron Man
I’m finding it much more difficult to populate the female list. Help me out! Post your ideas for iconic characters in the comments!
Female:
Dr. Dana Scully from X-Files
Milady / Lady de Winter from the Three Musketeers
Agent Olivia Dunham from Fringe
Cmdr. Susan Ivanova from Babylon 5
Velma from Scooby Doo
Where’s the love for Zoe in Firefly? Or even YoSaffBridge?
Sidney (is that spelled right?) from Alias
Buffy/Faith/Willow/Anya/Tara
La Femme Nikita (in whatever incarnation)
Kara Thrace/Starbuck
Samantha Carter from SG-1
7 of 9
Milla Jovovich’s characters in The Fifth Element, or the Resident Evil movies
Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley
Han Solo!
@Sean: Scully is a good one. I love the idea of Velma!
@Bevin: Sorry, I always felt Zoe was a supporting character that didn’t stand on her own dramatic feet. Thumbs up for Starbuck and Ripley.
@Rotwang: Dear lord, how could I have possibly forgot about Han!
How about Horatio Hornblower and/or Richard Sharpe? Stereotypical enough, I’d say. And there’s Marlo Stanfield from The Wire as a warlord/crimelord, and
Female… Is there a reason Leia isn’t mentioned? And of course Mathilda Lando, Natalie Portman’s character from Léon.
Males:
The Two Uncles in Second Hand Lions (Robert Duvall and Michael Cain)
Kevin Costner in Waterworld
Mad Max
Hunter S. Thompson (as himself or as portrayed in Venture Brothers)
Jesse James (The outlaw)
Females:
Iria
Calamity Jane
Morticia or Wednesday from The Adams Family
Uma Thurman was like a thousand times drop dead gorgeous when she was still younger.,-.