On the original fantasy board that I'm reworking, I have a list of characters who have been mentioned vaguely in the large overlying plot[s]. They are not canons. I stand in the view that as the game is not rooted a published book of any sort, they can't be canons. In most senses, they're not also not canons as besides some small details, nothing is said about the character [if you can really even consider it a character at that point]. For example, the spots that have the most informtion about who the character is are the four leaders of my made up country. Even then, it doesn't go beyond their gender [only one is female], general age range [states which one is the youngest, and which is the oldest, and the other two are somewhere in between], and their general standing on the main issue that's causing conflict in the country at the moment.


Besides, my plans for the list would make it a very flexible one, that would have things added to it and taken away, including member requested spots. I suppose it's more like a list of character ideas and spots.

Can anyone think of something shorter and snappier than 'List of Character Ideas and Available Positions'?

'Pre-made Characters'

or

'Plot Characters'

or

'Character Ideas'

or

'Adoptables'

?

Those are some that I've seen on other sites.

I call them Stock Characters on my site.

i like the idea of calling them

'Adoptables'

or

Stock Characters

I have a few on my site but i just call them NPC A4P (avalible for Play)

We go with adoptables on my forum.

I'd suggest that or, as stormyhearted suggested, Stock Characters.

I think "Adoptables" sounds the best.

Oo, I like Stock Characters, but that just sounds like they're cookie cutter chars, though. I use Adoptables. I call it Adopt-a-Char! :D

I call them premades and shout at the monitor when people call them 'canons'. In fact, I will not join a game that claims a premade as a 'canon'. That's just parading their idiocy for everyone to see. -Twitches- I can feel a rant coming on, for serious.

In terms of my game, I used to call them Wanted Characters, and they were all together in a thread called 'Wanted Posters', like in cowboy movies? XD. Yeah, I thought it was cute, anyway.

Ready-baked? 'cuz, you know, the whole pregnancy/creation/bun-in-the-oven thing?

Or half-baked?

-Is hungry- -goes in search of foods-

LOL!! That gave me a good laugh. But I do like the ideas. And I totally understand about calling non-canons canons. I find myself yelling at the monitor frequently. -pats monitor- Poor thing. It's constantly the butt of my twitching rage.

HA! Wanted. That's soo cute. I love it.

Half Baked works because they're only half way to being complete. I usually give people the option to change or add to the character's profile and history and whatnot. I don't evn usually choose a face, I let them do it. So Half Baked is appropriate.

I think I'm gonna use that ...

Ugh. I'm debating this issue at Meliora right now. Currently, the main members of the royal family and a few other partially pre-made characters are being referred to as 'canons'. I cringe every time I look at the word, but I was completely confused about how to refer to them. I know perfectly well what canons are, but it seems to be a word that's evolved to include pre-made characters connected to the main plots of a site. I don't like that, but I'm worried about using a vague term that will confuse people that are new to the site.

Although the suggestions here are certainly helpful in most situations, I'm not sure that they really describe Meliora's 'canons'. They are pre-made in a way, but only basic details are provided. They are certainly adoptable character ideas, but that doesn't emphasize their importance to the site-wide plots. :angry:

I'll keep checking back here to see if anyone can come up with a great general term that suits my situation (one that I'm sure is fairly common). If we can come up with some good ones, we should set up a poll and try to establish a universal term for original 'canons'.

I like not-canons, lol. On my site, I call them pseudo-canons.

Yay! I want to thank you for not calling them canons! I usually call em Pre-Mades as well but I like Adoptables. Sounds a bit better.

Yay for Panda's ideas! Choose something fun. Even if your name for them doesn't really work, people will probably be interested and click into a thread named 'Half-baked characters' anyway and then you can explain they are what most people incorrectly call 'canons'.

You could go with a pregnancy theme...I'm not going to suggest anything because today I feel averse to embarrassing myself ^_^

I used to call them pre-mades or positions (because I don't give any info but 'the leader' etc) but I will also check up on this thread and henceforth call them something fun.

I've taken to calling them Original Canons, because, quite truthfully, that's what they are. They're a mix of canon (as a premade character) and they're original.

Curse my lack of creativity! :p

Erm, we call them Available Characters.

Well, in that case, I use Major and Minor Characters. The major ones being those that are key to the plot and the minor ones being ones that are just around when they're needed. I wanted to step away from the Main Char, Supporting Char because it was being used a lot in my affiliate groups' sites. And I did not want to use canon because that's jsut not what they are. They're my own creation, and are essential to the plot. Right?

At first I was just referring to them as NPC's, but they weren't. Cause an NPC is a random person that won't be around long. Or is just needed in one location. For those I do have people/characters, but they just post under the NPC account Employee, Bartender, Demon, Witch etc.


I also like Original Canon. Because it's true. They are canons in the sense that they are the main characters that the plots are fueled by. But they're not the creation of a director or novelist. Hmm. that gets me thinking ...

Technically, our main characters for our sites would be considered canons, because if the world existed in a book, movie or tv show, they would be the canons. Unless I miss my mark on what a canon is ...

I never actually heard people use the term 'canon' in the rpg world until I started surfing around RPG-D.

I always saw sites that had lists of 'Characters in Need of Players' or 'Adoptable Characters.'

In all cases, players themselves were contacted to play the characters, as they might be puppies at a wolf rpg, or family members at a human rpg.

I never really liked the term canon, so hooray to you! :]

I think stock-characters are the ones that sound best. Adoptable does describe them well, considering they weren't made by the person who'd be taking them as their own, which is cute, but stock does have a similar idea to it.. tough one.
Since the characters are involved in an specific plot, I think Silver Wolf's idea is probably a good way to go, with the Major and Minor chars.

:) Thanks.

And for the Stock vs. Adoptables, I think you need t olook at your site in terms of environment. For example, if you have kind of a formal group, you'd want to go with something a little more formal like Stock Characters. But if your group is fairly laid back and you're one of those admins that likes to be friendly and whatnot with your members (which is perfectly fine), then Adoptables may be the way to go.

For me, I use Stock as opposed to Adoptable because Adoptable sounds more...fleshed out, I guess. When I think of Stock, I think of bare bones- the absolute necessities. I guess I spent too much time listening to my car-fanatic ex. :pink:

lol! But you bring up a good point, though. Ithink having two types of 'adoptables' would a be a good idea. Like, have one ste of characters where hey have the very bare-bones. Those would be the ones that you need in certain places like store owners or something. THey have a name, a general written description of their looks and a short history that's vague enough for someone to expand upon. These could be called Stock Characters.

Then another set of adoptables that are fully fleshed out and the player that takes them on doens't need to do anything but learn the personality and whatnot. All the graphics and everything has been taken care of for them. These could be the Adoptable Characters.


Hmmm ... I like that idea! I think I'll take my own advice :lol:

I'm boring. Mine are "available NPCs."