Skyrim Character Building » Discussions


Builders Discuss: Topic 1 Inspiration

Tags: #Builders Discuss 
  • December 9, 2016

    Hello everyone and welcome to a new series in the Skyrim Character Building Group. Lissette and I were brainstorming some things a while back and she had the great idea of creating a series of discussions based on the various aspects of creating a Character Build for Skyrim. The initial inspiration was the similar “Writers Discuss” series that has been going on in The Story Corner part of the Vault. So the plan here is to postulate a different question to you builders and aspiring builders every week or so and have you guys and girls participate in a discussion concerning that topic. The hope is to get people thinking, sharing, helping, and improving in all things CB related.

    So for our first topic I have what I feel is a rather “easy” question for you to think about, but It’s one that is central to building and without it no Character Build would exist. So please tell me….

    What Inspires You to Build?

    Now I would be remiss if I myself did not answer this question, and I will, but first I want to give the floor to you the community, so please share where your builds came from.

    -Vargr

  • December 9, 2016

    Pictures. Artwork. I am inspired by artwork. 

    I´m browsing Google or Pinterest quite often, just downloading any fantasy art that catches my eye. But sometimes I bump into an artwork that..."speaks" to me. Artwork that makes me want to play that character on the picture. And so I do that. 

    From artwork to Roleplay and Lore and then to Gameplay. I´m one of those who wants to enjoy the feel of the character, who wants to connect with it, and gameplay alone can´t do that. Gameplay is the last important thing for me. I make builds with simple gameplay, yeah. But every title picture in my build is the picture that inspired the build and they are absolutely kicking arse, selling the builds better than my clumsy words can. 

    But there are exceptions of course. Old Telvanni Enchanter was inspired by Galar Rothan which is an NPC in Morrowind - it was more of an accident that inspired that build. Goldpact Knight was inspired by Paladin class of the same name from Pillars of Eternity, Bleak Walker too, though it was actually the title picture that made me tie it to Pillars of Eternity. 

    So...yeah

  • December 9, 2016

    What inspires me to build?

    Oh man, this is going to be kind of short.  Haha, shut up everybody, no, not eveything I say is a gazillion words long. But it really hit home for me after some thought on the subject and looking the common thread behind all of my builds and WiP. And it is so simple.

    To tell a story.  That is what inspires me to build. To bring a character to life, whether it's a character from my imagination or one based on the lore. My background in the TV is writing and I can never really escape that element of who I am, nor do I want to. For me, building begins with a compelling story to tell about a character. The playstyle and really everything just supports the story part. 

    To me, building is just another way to tell a story. A story that the player of that build can participate in and experience on their own. 

  • Member
    December 9, 2016

    The short answer would be: What doesn't?

    I've made builds just because I found a gameplay trick I liked. I've made builds inspired by lore. Recently Karver and I even made a build inspired by a book. Once I've got my spark I'll look for real life myths or TES lore (if the build wasn't originally sparked by it) to flesh the whole thing out.

    I like this method and probbaly won't change it anytime soon. However, I've also noticed a bit of sad consequence of the fact that I usually end up looking for the artwork as one of my last steps; once I've formed the complete image of my build in my head it's difficult to find appropriate art. I've abandoned multiple build ideas because I simply couldn't find any art I found appropriate. Granted, that was a while ago, I barely even remember what those builds were about to begin with.

  • Member
    December 9, 2016
    I'm with Karver all the way. Artwork is mostly where I get all my ideas. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest looking at all the fantasy boards. There's so much inspiring art on there. Sometimes, though, a certain piece of armor that I really like inspires me to center a build around it, like the Forsworn Headdress in my Blood Stag. And lastly, characters are pretty inspiring, be they charters from my own stories, like I based my Master of Blades off of, or charters from books/comics/anime I like, such as my upcoming Mad Hatter.
  • December 9, 2016

    @ Karver and Blooded:  I expected that there would be builders who are inspired by a work of art and then create the build around it, i imagine that the top two inspiring things for CB is this and reinterpreting characters from other universes and placing them in Skyrim (ala Crossworlds).  I tend toward Teineeva's problem with art, I come up with the concept and get the writing done then I go out looking for art.  I will probably eventually replace the art in manyof my builds with Screenshot if/when I get Skyrim for my PS4.  Unlike Teineeva I've never had much issue with finding appropriate art for my builds, the hardest was probably the Grave-Worm.

    @Liss:  I love story driven playthroughs, my most story centric build would be the Cursed in which I basically retell the Wolfman in Skyrim.  My problem with this approach, and it is not something any of your builds are guilty of, is when the story overtakes the build.  On several occasions I've thought to my self "This isn't a build so much as a Profile" and we have a group for people to share their roleplay profiles.  But my thoughts on this are better left for a future discussion.

    Thanks for commenting, I'll be adding my own inspirations momentarily but I wanted to respond before i did so.

     

  • December 9, 2016

    Those of you who are familiar with my builds might say that I was inspired by classic monster movies, since I did a whole series based on classic movie monsters like the Wolfman, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, and others. And you wouldn’t be wrong, though the way those builds came about is a bit less straight forward than that.  I have also been inspired by classes that appear in other fantasy games like Dragon Age and Dungeons & Dragons, specifically the Blood Mage and Druid respectively.

    Probably the best way for me to describe what inspires me to build is to start at the beginning.

    The Pyromancer: My very first build, and one of my favorite playstyles. I always gravitate toward magic centric characters and I’ve always enjoyed the destructive nature of fire magic. The real inspiration for this build was the Vault herself, the community and all the other great builders put in me a desire to participate, and honestly if it weren’t for all the other builders I probably would never have bothered. At the time this was going to be a one and done kind of deal, I never planned on creating another build after this one (I’ve currently released sixteen builds, two faction profiles, an extensive treatise on Necromancy, and a single profile) but the act of building was so fun that just creating this build inspired me to create more, this would lead to The Cryomancer, the Electromancer, and the Blood Magus which was doubly inspired by my focus on elemental magic (blood instead of fire) and the Blood Mage class from Dragon Age.  This focus on ‘mancer’ builds also lead me to Necromancy and the creation of the Chirurgeon which in turn inspired the Resurrectionist Faction and a twin series of builds, one based on this faction and one based on classic movie monsters. (plus the Necronomicon series)

    Currently my inspiration has been brought about by limitation. Just about every Event that the CB has had since I joined a year and a half ago has been something that I initially planned on not participating in. However the parameters and limitations invariably got me thinking about Skyrim in new ways and every event that I have participated in has resulted in a build that I genuinely enjoyed. Sometimes I just happened to have a build that fit the bill (which is why the last Crossworlds Event saw me enter three builds) but the best ones are those that where directly inspired by the limitations of the event. For instance the Courier, the Grave-Worm, and recently the Rito’rishaj’iit are all builds that were directly inspired by the limitations of the event, without which these builds would not have been made.

    So in conclusion my initial inspiration was just a desire to participate in which I fell back on what I had the most experience with. From that came the loosely defined series of mancer build and monster build. Then there are the builds that resulted from me just wanting to play a certain way and figuring out how to do that with what was available. Finally, the limitations of events kindle the creative fires and led to some of my favorite builds to date.

    Like Teineeva Said “The short answer would be: What Doesn’t?”

     

  • December 9, 2016

    Vargr White-Tree said:

    @ Karver and Blooded:  I expected that there would be builders who are inspired by a work of art and then create the build around it, i imagine that the top two inspiring things for CB is this and reinterpreting characters from other universes and placing them in Skyrim (ala Crossworlds).  I tend toward Teineeva's problem with art, I come up with the concept and get the writing done then I go out looking for art.  I will probably eventually replace the art in manyof my builds with Screenshot if/when I get Skyrim for my PS4.  Unlike Teineeva I've never had much issue with finding appropriate art for my builds, the hardest was probably the Grave-Worm.

    Well, I actually have to agree with Teineeva here, about that part where you make a gameplay and can´t find artwork. Like... I still have two characters I want to play. Light Armor,Block Wood Orc but the thing is I won´t play it or even post a build until I will find a suitable art. And I still haven´t. Not a single artwork matches my image of that character. Also want to do Heavy Armor Mercenary focusing on using Wards. These are two gameplay builds I want to play but I probably won´t because I´m not inspired enough to play them. Gameplay isn´t enough to convince me. 

     

  • Member
    December 9, 2016

    Other people it is that inspire me, when I first arrived on the Vault I selfishly played every build that took my fancy, it was only then I decided it was time I put something back, now further down the line, with new Hosts in Skyrim CB, the announcement of an event was enoughe to inspire me to create something else, as for the future, I will have to see how my most recent build fairs, will it end up in a death match, and be deleted? who knows, but one things for sure, the announcement of further competitions, and events will further inspire me to create more, and more, and hopefully better builds for the future.

  • Member
    December 9, 2016

    Art is my biggest downfall as a builder, sadly.  I have no creative ability with art and photoshop or anything else so I'm completely limited to internet searches and in-game screenshots. 

    As for where my inspiration comes from I think that is where my creativilty shines.  I am obviously not the best builder but every one of my builds has honestly come from a different point of inspiration. 

    I've been inspired from in-game scenes such as the mudcrab and burnt out hut to the west of Whiterun  or an NPC in game that pops up periodically.  I've been inspired from a particular weapon or piece of armor that I wanted to build around.  I've been inspired by a song of all things that made me picture a build in Skyrim that could mimic the song lyrics.  I've been inspired by a particular spell that I wanted to use or hadn't seen used in a build before; even if it was a spell that really didn't do anything.  My current build hit me out of nowhere after seeing the cut scenes only about 1000 times (lol) over all my playthroughs.  One transpired from a book that I had read that had a memorable character and I wanted to superimpose him into Skyrim.  I've been inspired by movies.  I've been inspired by the bit of an idea that I was then able to take and build off of a talking point.  So I guess, any little scrap has the ability to trigger me thinking about Skyrim and how to incorporate that idea into a build.  They don't always work out and I've seen several dozen builds just die on the drawing board because as I started researching my ideas I realize that the concept won't port over to a build successfully.