PB 'realism'
-
I have been totally sucked into that thispersondoesnotexist site.
-
To answer the original question, and not the tangent about mac & cheese (btw, crunchy only before it's cooked pls), my PB 'realism' is based on how much of an approximate match the picture or pictures are to my mental image of my PCs. Sometimes that mental image evolves over time and I eventually feel the need to change PBs, or fail to find a new match and nuke the current one.
-
I will just strait up do the @desc to be a description of whomever I decided to use as a PB. As a creeper, I have a library of photos to potentially use for characters. Most of them aren't actors or actresses.
For instance, I had a Wagner Werewolf on FC... I just googled 'Blonde MMA woman' and went down the rabbit hole until I found someone. In other cases, I will strait up go out of my way to mould a character to fit the PB if there is a gimmick - TR Werewolf, there was jokes about a Ukelele bard going on in the OOC room when I was apping in. So damnit, I took the specialization and found a Ukelele player for the PB.
AS FOR PBS AFFECTING MY RP... also yes. If there are two players/characters using the same person, I will go out of my way to mistake one for the other, as punishment for them not combing the wiki to make sure their CHOSEN PB was not already in circulation (something else I'll do, like a creeper).
-
This post is deleted! -
@Jennkryst said in PB 'realism':
AS FOR PBS AFFECTING MY RP... also yes. If there are two players/characters using the same person, I will go out of my way to mistake one for the other, as punishment for them not combing the wiki to make sure their CHOSEN PB was not already in circulation (something else I'll do, like a creeper).
With some actors, you can have different people use the same PB, but if you pick the right role they look very different, have very different styles and vibes and everything. That works!
-
@Jennkryst said:
AS FOR PBS AFFECTING MY RP... also yes. If there are two players/characters using the same person, I will go out of my way to mistake one for the other, as punishment for them not combing the wiki to make sure their CHOSEN PB was not already in circulation (something else I'll do, like a creeper).
...well as a punishment, that's kind of hard on the one who took the PB first. I'd guess there's a reasonable chance they're already mildly annoyed about someone else taking 'their' face, to start with.
I've had some fun mistaken-identity/wow-you-look-just-like RP with people who weren't bothered by it, though, and back in the days when PBs weren't really a thing (and wikis weren't at all), I nonetheless chose someone as a visual inspiration that someone else had also picked (with some tweaks), and their resemblance ended up being a big story point, which was kind of awesome.
-
This whole thread is dumb. PBs are solely to decide if someone's hot enough to bang.
-
Back when I use to RP, I actually transitioned from real life PBs to artwork PBs. There were two main reasons why I had decided to make the change. One, I didn't want the actor I picked as my PB to influence my character style or RP style, I get the feeling that I may unintentionally have my character act or react how the actor would in a recent popular movie. The second reason is linked to my first, I don't want other people who RP'd with me to unintentionally form an unintended image of my character due to how they recall memories from movies they watched where my PBs.
To me, artistic works are more free form and open ended to interpretation, less of a chance to draw the focus away from your character to the actor or actress playing the character. Also, I personally feel that anime characters are just fine as long as they properly portray the character in an artistic manner, feel free the fight me on this. Weebs rise up!
-
@KDraygo I think there's definitely room for some anime style PBs. For instance, some of the card games that are done in a painted anime-inspired style are absolutely realistic enough to mix in with most else. (I forget the name of the card game I'm think of at the moment, but it has a ton of neat imagery.) For fae creatures or monster forms or similar, it's prime image hunting ground, too.
Throwing a chibi magical princess as a main image into a WoD game where everyone else has photos, though? Nnnnngh, plz gawd no. It's also really awkward re: apparent age there, as much of this specific style of chibi imagery looks very child-like even if the characters are supposed to be adults. This tends to be the kind of thing I personally notice or take issue with, for both the 'age' issue and the mental jarring of it. (I'd have the same problem with someone throwing a photo PB onto an anime game where everyone is using anime style pics.)
-
Do PB fires your imagination, even if its never seen by others? Or is the critical part that its seen by others?
-
@Misadventure said in PB 'realism':
Do PB fires your imagination, even if its never seen by others? Or is the critical part that its seen by others?
For me, it is often just to fire my imagination. Sharing it to others just shares a more precise picture than my writing can manage.
-
@Misadventure said in PB 'realism':
Do PB fires your imagination, even if it's never seen by others? Or is the critical part that it's seen by others?
I am an aural thinker, not a visual one, so I only imagine my own characters as a few defining characteristics without context (for example, this gunslinger I have in my head dresses in layers to keep from getting sunburn and has freckles across her nose and cheekbones, but I don't know what color her eyes are or how she wears her hair). PBs are something I pick begrudgingly, sort of the same way I begrudgingly wear pants when I go out: because it's the custom of the culture.
-
This post is deleted! -
I am the same way. The right PB can help me, but I have zero need for anyone else to see it, nor any desire to see their selection. I expect that's just me though. It has the artificial feel of selecting a miniature or cardboard hero to represent your character.
I will say customizable minis have come a long way, and while not at all perfect, certainly help. It might help, in my perspective at least, if PBs were in fact a customizable interface like some video games have. Something about the player selecting the choices in an obvious fashion helps me overcome the ill ease I feel about the use of real people.
-
@Misadventure It can be a root for how I see the PC and formed them, yes! Even if never seen. For me though that tends to NOT happen with photos/actual actors and more with art, which then I get frustrated trying to fine a photo to match the fact that everyone else uses photos (if they do). It doesn't always happen with art (there's always music involved too, and not always of the same time era/style of the MUSH too which sometimes means people make fun of it as well).
Maybe because I use other people's wikis they're created of their PC as a launching point OR just a supplement/insight into what their creator was thinking when they first got on the grid, and most of my experience with them is going to be formed by that personal interaction rather than anything static, I'm not super attached to someone else totally adopting my vision for how they should see my PC.