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A "head canon" thread - how does the NPC come to life in your own imagination? (expect spoilers)

LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
edited March 2014 in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
The NPCs all take life in our imaginations uniquely, and we develop our own personal vision of them.

One example for me is Faldorn, who I'm using now for only the second time in nearly 15 years of playing the game. Because she is charged by her order with the task of investigating the Iron Throne, and because of the True Neutral alignment required for druids which is supposed to be all about balance, I'm currently imagining her as a poised, coolly serene spy. And for this game I made her a whole lot better looking:

image

(She has a Charisma of 15, let's not forget.)

This conception is loosely inspired by Scarlet Johansson's portrayal of Black Widow in the Avengers.

Now, from the standpoint of her lines in the game, about all we get is that she's 1) rather terse, 2) totally devoted to the Oak Father, and 3) once or twice perhaps (if at all) she's apt to voice her contempt towards civilization, given that she is as a member of the Shadow Druid sect. She will get into it with Jaheira, a Harper who embraces civilization. But in my game Jaheira and Khalid left the party much earlier, and I don't expect their return.

And then of course in BG2 Faldorn is developed into more of a hardcore fanatic. So if we take that into account I guess I could have played her more as sort of a grunting, feral, stick figure of a Shadow Druid. But that doesn't seem like as much fun to me.

In my own current game she does have her radical sensibilities about civilization being a blight. But she is tasked with being a spy, essentially. So she does not wear her heart on her sleeve. She keeps her inner convictions under wraps. She is reserved in general, and definitely about her most heartfelt beliefs. And that is in the interest of being effective in completing her mission. I would say that is in accord with high Wisdom.

I felt it would be enjoyable to take some slight liberties with the character concept to make her a little more complex and spice up the game a little bit. I'd like to think that my concept of Faldorn for this game remains roughly within the vague framework the game gives us.

Anyway, that's just one example.

What are some of the ways that the NPCs for either BG1 or BG2 get more development in your own head as you play them?
Post edited by Lemernis on
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Comments

  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    edited March 2014
    I want to add that this sort of touches on a larger subject of how faithful adaptations of characters "should" be as they get developed by new writers for whatever project--which is ultimately a matter of individual taste, but nevertheless seems to fuel endless discussion amongst gamer nerds like us.

    A friend of mine who isn't a gamer but loves the world of comic book superheroes and I have such a debate going about the portrayal of Superman in Man of Steel. My friend argues that for Superman to kill (anyone, for any reason) simply is "not who he is." Myself, I actually like the fact that the film's adaptation of the character makes him more morally complex and "human" (i.e., fallible).

    But anyway, the same basic set of considerations applies here to the NPCs in the BG saga. How far is too far away from an original character concept, and so forth.
    Post edited by Lemernis on
  • DregothofTyrDregothofTyr Member Posts: 229
    Where did you get that portrait, you made it yourself? It's awesome.
  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    edited March 2014
    @DregothofTyr Isn't that a great portrait? No I didn't design it, someone posted it here at the BGEE forums last year. (Sorry, can't remember courtesy of whom, or who originally made it.) The full set for the Override folder (in .bmp format) may be found here, though.
    Post edited by Lemernis on
  • TyranusTyranus Member Posts: 268
    edited March 2014
    Imoen

    Technically, she's the same age as you, regardless of which race you pick for your PC. Every time I include her in my groups, though, I always treat her like a little sister. Someone who is naive about the world and doesn't think much about the consequences. She was a thief in Candlekeep, which mostly just involved pick pocketing dusty old tombs and hiding from Hull. That's just not enough action for some spunky thirteen year old know-it-all.

    @Lemernis Superman kills people all the time. Throwing otherwise unbeatable villians into the Sun is like a special game he plays. I was fine with the way Man of Steel ended, because at the end of the day Superman isn't a total wuss like Batman. He's willing to take out someone who proves themselves to be a sufficiently formidable threat.

    edit: Let me re-phrase. Batman isn't a wuss because he doesn't kill people. He's a wuss because of WHY he doesn't kill people. He's selfish. He embezells billions of funds to finance his own fantasy of punching bad people in the face. Rather than removing those threats to society, he continues to throw them into the swiss cheese jail that is Arkham where they inevitably break out. He does this just so he can to punch them in the face again and continue the cycle.
  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    edited March 2014
    Tyranus said:

    @Lemernis Superman kills people all the time. Throwing otherwise unbeatable villians into the Sun is like a special game he plays. I was fine with the way Man of Steel ended, because at the end of the day Superman isn't a total pussy like Batman. He's willing to take out someone who proves themselves to be a sufficiently formidable threat.

    Personally, I agree. But my friend, though, he argues that according to Superman canon (established in the comic books) his credo is to never, ever, for any reason take another life. And Ma and Pa Kent instilled that value in him (so the film also deviates from canon also by having Pa Kent suggest to Clark that it would be alright to let a bus of school kids drown in order to protect his identity).

    By the way, I expect this Superman tangent will take off on its own (Edit: Or not. :-))--and that's okay with me, i.e., people can feel free to discuss it here as an example of a basic element of the larger discussion about BG series NPCs. We're probably going to end up with the OP discussion and this one alongside each other in the same thread, but hopefully they will weave together in an interesting way.
    Post edited by Lemernis on
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    - LOL self-conscious Anomen, love it. Very easy to imagine.
    - I almost never use Keldorn, but he might work as a mentor.
    - I actually agree with you on Xzar, i.e. in my perception he's quite clever and knows very well what he's doing and what he accomplishes with his behaviour (unlike insane Tiax, or Anomen the bragger). My disappointment re: Xzar in BG2 is that he gets tricked so easily by that Harper lot, and that he dies :(
  • CoutelierCoutelier Member Posts: 1,282
    I have lots and lots... I'll do some Imoen and Aerie since that always comes right away anyway.

    Imoen I imagine somehow had ended up as a pickpocket in Baldur's Gate, before being found by a harper and sent to Gorion (her bio says she arrived in CK ten years after you). She was always bright of course, but naturally only with access to the tomes of the library was she able to absorb huge amounts of knowledge eventually leading to her developing an interest in magic, despite never quite losing her roguish ways. Sometimes she drifts apart a bit from the main character to to her refusal to grow up, but she tends to adopt Aerie as a little sister instead and when she isn't teasing, is being otherwise playful and trying to encourage the elf's inner rebel to come out.

    Naturally I've lots of headcanon about Aerie as well. Her mother being a playwright and her father being a natural philosopher. Obviously when she freed from her cage but lost her wings, even though Quayle took care her in she still had to work in the circus like everyone else. I imagine apart from lots of chores like cleaning up and scooping elephant droppings, she may have helped Quayle developing new spells and props for circus shows. But from her father she gets her desire to explore and solve and understand things.
  • SionIVSionIV Member Posts: 2,689
    Bustication said:

    I'm not really sure if this is headcanon or the writers' intended understanding of the character, but I don't see Jan Jansen as a whimsical, happy-go-lucky free spirit, nor an early-onset gnomish dementia victim. Nearly every line we see from him is a carefully constructed act. In truth, he's a calculating, conniving confidence trickster and a fairly ruthless criminal profiteer.

    In his first interaction with Charname, he tries to sell a useless (to anyone but him) product with a load of carefully rehearsed flimflam. Most of his interjections are long spiels intended to muddle whatever issue is under discussion (or, in a more charitable interpretation, occupy the enemy to give the party time to react). His party dialogues are almost exclusively coded insults to the more simpleminded or honest party members, which could be the idle hobby of a bored genius or just a way to keep in practice.

    The only time we see past this charade is during his personal quest, when he drops the senile act and instead speaks with earnest fear and righteous indignation about his family enemies. This, too, is an act. He manipulates the party into helping him when he's perfectly capable of solving the problem himself, so that he can remain by the sickbed. Why? He's no healer. He plays the devoted, worried caregiver In order to break up a marriage and catch the girl who got away. His ruse fails, he swears revenge on his rival, and yet (to many a player's frustration) he never acts on it. This is because he was never really that interested; she was just another gem to steal.

    Jan is exactly what it says on the tin: a Chaotic Neutral Illusionist Thief. Personally, I wouldn't have the devious runt any other way.

    I agree with a lot of the things you're saying, with the exception of his female interest in the quest. I do truly believe that he felt something for her. His personal quest is in my opinion the most sad part of the game series, it just shows that you don't always end up with a fairy tale ending. And that it should happen to Jan Jansen of all people, the happy go-go trickster? Makes it even more bitter sweet.
  • elementelement Member Posts: 833
    edited March 2014
    I imagine that for my druids Jaheira and Faldorn act as two conflicting mother figures. Each representing a different path my character could take as a young impressionable druid

    As to Jan maybe i'm being cynical but I feel like the writers idea was simply that they saw Baldrick and thought it would be nice to have there own version in BG2, Turnip jokes, beard, Family stories and all
  • JalilyJalily Member Posts: 4,681
    Bustication said:

    His ruse fails, he swears revenge on his rival, and yet (to many a player's frustration) he never acts on it. This is because he was never really that interested; she was just another gem to steal.

    He does in his epilogue.
    Jan Jansen's life following his association with was typically convoluted, the barest of details hidden amidst his half-truths and whole lies. According to his published memoirs, "A Jansen in Every Port," after a short prison term for monkey smuggling, he returned to his first love... monkey smuggling. This led to the now infamous Gibbon Riot of '72, a tumultuous and altogether unclean event that seemed to center on the estate of the Shadow Thief Vaelag. Jan would deny that he had planned the downfall of the rogue, but he was unable to explain what practical application he had intended for a horde of knife-wielding simians. Nevertheless, the death of the admittedly disliked and generally suspect Vaelag could not be attributed to the young gnome. Strangely enough, Jan had alibis for each and every second of the day in question, and what a day it must have been! Relatives from across the Realms came forward to say that he had stopped in for tea and turnips. At his later wedding to Lissa, Jan was asked how he managed to be in so many places at once and yet still so far from the scene of the crime. "Well," Jan would say, "when you have that many monkeys, anything is possible."
  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    Tyranus said:

    Batman isn't a wuss because he doesn't kill people. He's a wuss because of WHY he doesn't kill people. He's selfish. He embezells billions of funds to finance his own fantasy of punching bad people in the face. Rather than removing those threats to society, he continues to throw them into the swiss cheese jail that is Arkham where they inevitably break out. He does this just so he can to punch them in the face again and continue the cycle.

    I thought the reason Batman doesn't kill is because to do so would put him on the level of the criminals that he's trying to stop; and he has sworn an oath to forever avenge his parents' senseless death at the hands of criminals.

    But the real reason it became canon for comic book superheroes not to kill was the 1954 Comics Code!
  • SionIVSionIV Member Posts: 2,689
    I've always seen Haer'Dalis as somewhat a liar and a shady character. I do enjoy having him in my party but i wouldn't trust him, he's pretty much in it for his own reasons and i doubt he would feel too bad about betraying my party.
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Yep, in my perception he's one of the least trustworthy companions you can have. Worse even than various (neutral and chaotic) evil NPCs like Xzar, Vicky or Shar-Teal.
  • NecomancerNecomancer Member Posts: 622
    edited March 2014
    Head cannon is a huge part of any BG run I do. I left two examples of head cannon stories in the fan creations. My paladin, Yotama, spent much time mourning those he lost when I decided death was permanent (with two exceptions made during the big demon battle on TOTSC, they were merely badly "wounded"). The fight he had with Khalid and Jaheria over going to the gnoll fort is another good example, with Jaheria insisting he stop wasting time by helping everyone ever and him insisting he does because reasons.

    I also remember saying that when he was a child he never took well to his lessons, always a more active child then one for study. When a wandering adventurer gave him a worn and near useless notched longsword as a kid his fate was sealed. He trained with the guards, becoming more and more martial as he did, partly to Gorion's disappointment.

    I also decided Imoen is his link towards his humanity, so to speak, when she was gone he acted much angrier and more aggressive, obsessed with nothing but saving her to the point where old friends worried for him.

    My newer character, a bard, is forming his own head cannon. My favorite bit of it was his meeting with a priestess of Sune.

    Growing up he always was a bit of a girl chaser, always interested in women even at a young age. Naturally one would think this would make him endeared towards Imoen, the only other person around his age in Candlekeep, but the one time they played house ended with them asking a monk how divorce works.

    He was clumsy, overly complimentary towards women, creepy in some ways. Then one day a priestess of Sune visited and found his fawning charming in a overly enthusiastic young person sort of way. She had seen it before, girl obsessed young men who knew not how to handle women socially or...well, otherwise.

    She gave him a bit of advice, smirked when he made a fool of himself, told him to calm down and back away when needed and one night he was to deliver her some food to her room, only to find her on her bed, wearing a smile and not much else.

    After she was to leave he ran to her, begging her to stay and asking if he could go with her. Eventually saying he had fallen in love with her. She leaned over, kissed his forehead and said "Good. Now go and love some more."

    This indecent shaped him more then most, and these days hes simple a calm and social flirt, charming in his own way and valuing friendship and companionship more then his own gratifications. It helps that Imoen is always nearby teasing him and making fun of him, ensuring every women knows exactly what kind of man he was or possibly still is. One would wonder why he keeps her around.

    Those who wonder this would not know of the time they buried Gorion together, how they held each other quietly as she let him release his tears and mourning, listened, comforted him and in turn was comforted by him. They have a deep bond and besides, he likes having someone around to keep him humble.

    I should really try writing my "Bard diaries" in the fan creation section sometime. It'd just be his dairy of his daily life after the game began, featuring such entries as "Today Imoen and Neera whispered to each other behind me, looked at me, then broke out in laughter. No good can come from this."
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    @Necomancer, that's awesome. That's a really cool bard!
  • NecomancerNecomancer Member Posts: 622
    @BlackRaven I have to admit, I stole the "Good, now go and love some more" from a movie called Harold and Maude. Its a comedy of sorts about a young man who falls in love with an old woman and when she says it its...Well, I won't spoil it but its much more powerful then my version. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance, and can get over the idea of a young man and old lady being in love.
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Necomancer said:

    @BlackRaven I have to admit, I stole the "Good, now go and love some more" from a movie called Harold and Maude. Its a comedy of sorts about a young man who falls in love with an old woman and when she says it its...Well, I won't spoil it but its much more powerful then my version. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance, and can get over the idea of a young man and old lady being in love.

    Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I'll see if I can find that film. Thanks!
  • CoutelierCoutelier Member Posts: 1,282
    So from a writing point of view, Imoen and Aerie are a really good match as best friends, with their similar (both good, loyal, and affectionate characters who have been imprisoned and tortured), but with good contrast as well (Im is silly, doesn't think much about consequences of her actions, while Aerie can tend to over think and worry). But Aerie would obviously like to be less reserved and nervous around people, and her love of Chiktikka Fastpaws shows she has an interest in pranks and mischief, so Im's just the right person to help set her inner child free. While Aerrers can hopefully teach Im to take some stuff a little more seriously and apply herself.

    While Jaheira is always the mother figure or at least the teacher in the group. She can be harsh to others, like Im and Aer, but that's because I think she understands their potential and wants them to grow. Although Aerie does admire her, it leads to tragic misunderstanding but they learn to respect each other eventually.

    For some reason I've always imagined that if Minsc were ever cured of all his head injuries and returned to normal, he'd turn out to be a jerk.

    Also in my head canon, the party never let Tenya go to the temple of Umberlee, but instead took her to Beregost to stay with Firebead for a while. Mostly at Imoen's request since she felt sorry for the girl (so I never ask to see her).

    And as for Batman and other superheroes no-killing policy, putting aside the morality, it's always just struck me as not particularly realistic since there are times when a villain is obviously not going to be restrained and cause a lot of harm and death to others.

  • LemernisLemernis Member, Moderator Posts: 4,318
    edited March 2014
    The BG1 NPC Project is a great example of what we're talking about. Although there they have modded new dialogues into the game, which we for our own inventions just have to imagine, and in some cases journal out in our own creative playthrough projects. But it's the same basic idea for sure. I mean the BG1 NPC Project version of, say, Imoen Xan (;-P), is not the one I would have written--nor would you. But that serves to illustrate the point.

    Conceptions of the NPCs can evolve for each of us too. Next time I might imagine Faldorn as more of a Eco-extremist, who knows!
    Post edited by Lemernis on
  • dustbubsydustbubsy Member Posts: 249
    Transgender Xan! I love it!
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