The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

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Vagrant Orpheus
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The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

This is an experimental challenge I wanted to try out for a while. I've used the technique of drawing inspiration from music for many of my COMIX characters, and I suspect many of you have also used such a technique. Thus, this is a quick and easy challenge that I propose, along the lines of Vic's Oldschool Worldbuilding Challege (go and participate if you haven't already!). It's also partially a substitute for Secret Santa, however is far more relaxed.

The idea is simple. Each person who wishes to participate signs up and provides a list of 5 songs. I'm not going to enforce strictly how you go about selecting this music, but I personally will be combining the playlists from all 3 of my computers and hitting the Random button 5 times. But it's left open for whoever joins, so you can hand pick your favourite songs, or songs you think would make an interesting challenge to use as a character basis, or whatever.

Then each person who wishes to contribute will be randomly assigned another person and that person's songs, by myself. From there it's simple, the music is your launching pad, and you can create that launching pad however you want. Use all 5 songs, or just use one. Use the mood created by the music, use the lyrics, or perhaps the video clip or a nifty AMV. Supplement it with similar music or videos or whatever, I don't care, it's up to you. Just as long as the basis for the character can be traced back to the list of songs to a reasonable degree.

The character profile doesn't have to be long at all, it might just be something like we see in the COMIX Character Concepts thread. if you want, create more than 1 character using the songs. With 5 songs you could reasonably create up to five characters, it's up to you. The setting for the character can be entirely original, or the established universe of the person who provided the songs. Or COMIX, because practically anything goes there and it's an all-in universe. That's up to you.

I have no idea how many people will be interested or how long sign ups will take, but I expect the writing period to be pretty simple and non-stressful, given how busy this time of year is. Perhaps a month in total, finishing end of January, if we start it up after Secret Santa finishes. This is just casual fun to get us all doing a bit of simple writing without getting all tangled up, and also just something to get an idea of how people may view the music tastes of their fellow OZ1 forumites.

Feel free to ask questions, make suggestions or simply discuss in this thread as well as sign up. It's a multi-purpose thread.
Last edited by Vagrant Orpheus on Fri Dec 05, 2008 2:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

SIGN-UP BOARD

1. Vagrant Orpheus
Song Selection:
1. Metal Gear Solid Theme: Teaser OST - Harry Gregson Williams (Later on in the list of 5 I got the 8-Bit Snake Eater song, but figured 2 MGS songs didn't work in such a list.)
2. Chase the Sun - Planet Funk (Quite possibly one of my favourite songs ever. And I didn't pick this song up from darts :P)
3. Stairway to Heaven - The Doors Cover Style (Since I have 100 covers of SWtH the chances were pretty good that this song would show up somehow.)
4. Werewolves of London - Adam Sandler
5. I'm So Post-Modern - The Bedroom Philosopher
Man, with this song selection a character just writes itself in my mind. Interesting to see what the take is of whoever gets me.
Last edited by Vagrant Orpheus on Wed Dec 31, 2008 3:59 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Certainly, I'll have a go at this, unless there's some kind of Minimum Contribution to the Greater Creativity of the Board requirement. Which I would find offensive (the worst kind of discrimination, the kind against me!)
Speakers Songs:
1 Wet Sand, Red Hot Chilli Peppers
2 Exo-Politics, Muse
3 Satori, Rodrigo Y Gabriela (instrumental, is that OK?)
4 The Secret of the Black Fox, Heather Dale
5 A Thousand Kisses Deep, Leonard Cohen
Thrown together by a process of what songs I kind of think, based entirely on my unconscious responses, could lead into the same kind of story at different points.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

It's perfectly fine to have an instrumental. I lulz, cause I know all the artists, but not one of the songs you listed. Time to YouTube!
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Dakarne »

I've chosen based off of random choices from my music collection.

My songs:
  1. Planet Hell, by Nightwish - YouTube
  2. The Mystic's Dream, by Loreena McKennitt - YouTube
  3. Taking Over Me, by Evanescence - YouTube
  4. Wytches, by Inkubus Sukkubus - YouTube
  5. Elves of Lúva, by Battlelore - YouTube
Last edited by Dakarne on Thu Jan 01, 2009 6:58 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Nevermind »

This intrigues me.
Nevermind's songs:
1) Jezebel - Sade
2) Hallowed be Thy Name - Iron Maiden
3) Ameno - Era
4) Reise, Reise - Rammstein
5) Barra, Barra - Rachid Taha (from the Black Hawk Down soundtrack)
Yes, Jazz, Metal,...something, more metal, and soundtrack with ethnic singing. Have fun with that one. A compilation of some of my favorite songs? You got it. I'm pretty sure you can find all these on YouTube.

(In advance, I'm sorry to whoever I get.)

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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Dakarne »

Well, I put down Metal, Metal, Metal, Metal, and Not-Quite-Metal-But-It's-By-A-Metal-Band... :P Yes, I have a very wide listening list, but a very narrow genre selection. Ah well.
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'For the moment, mortal, they find the thought of killing me more desirable than that of killing you.'
'And what are their chances?'
'The answer to that is evident in how long they've been hesitating, wouldn't you think, mortal?'

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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Reservoir »

I've long toyed with the idea of writing entire OSaS narratives based on certain songs in my all-too metal collection...I'm positively squealing at this idea!
1. What I've Done - Linkin Park
2. Broken, Beaten, and Scarred - Metallica
3. Breathe - The Prodigy
4. Wednesday 7 - Mechwarrior 4 Soundtrack
5. Soldier of Fortune - Opeth
Last edited by Reservoir on Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

Lulz, what is it with all you metal heads? I can assure you that my list will contain no such metal. Just not something I listen to.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Malchus »

Huh, that's funny. Over the past few weeks I've actually been trying to formulate an idea for a Slice of Life story and its characters based solely on randomly selected songs from the 80s and 90s. I'd be intersted if January weren't gonna be so darn busy for me. Plus, there's still the SecSan which I've yet to write due to my extreme laziness.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

This can work for the people who couldn't go into SecSan either due to unfamiliarity or lateness.

SecSan can be the potato sack hopping contest thing.

This can be the apple bobbing, or something.

You guys go do your Altarnate Pop Rock thang.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

You did notice the bit where it says it's not starting until after SecSan is wrapped up, right? I stated that specifically so it wouldn't clash, you lazy people :P
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Shroom wrote:This can be the apple bobbing, or something.

You guys go do your Altarnate Pop Rock thang.
Orpheus, I think this is a slight on the honour of your contest and everyone taking part. Especially those not taking part in secret santa because they are completely capable of doing so but have other things that need to come first thank you very much, just because they're not taking part in what could be considered the harder contest doesn't say anything about their artistic ability...

Also, Orpheus, are you waiting for everyone else to submit their playlists before yours goes up or something?
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

Yeah, pretty much. If we end up with lots and lots of metal, I'll try to vary my list up as much as possible, instead of randomising it.

Anyway, yeah, I proposed this thing to take place after Secret Santa, so I don't really see the problem. Plus, if you're capable of writing up a story of any length in a month, you can easily come up with a character concept, I'm sure. But hey.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Reservoir »

I think what he meant was that, between this Challenge and SecSan, you made this seem lightweight and the lesser. And, to some extent, that makes sense to me: we're talking about creating a character, not a storyline from another author's universe! However, I agree with him in asserting this: this Challenge, though not as complicated or possibly complex as SecSan, should still be considered an equal of sorts. After all, one man's definition of how a song sounds to him is different than someone else; as such, basing an entire character from one song (or, perhaps, could we bend the rules and make one character from ALL the songs?) would be a task unto itself.

Yeah, that in a nutshell. And, if you want, I can change mine to include some symphonic and more...different selection of music.
"You may never fire a single shot in your entire term as a Common Star Militia servicemember. Some would naively consider that a milestone, representing all that the CSM and CSN are made to be. But, it doesn't mean you will ever forget the things you will hear, see, or do during that time. Cloak and daggers has become child's play, Privates and PFCs: welcome to the Thick...may God watch over you all."
-CSM Chief Master Sergeant Andrew Ford, to CSM PFC John Karmach and the other recruits of the Common Star Militia, Outer Colonies Branch, Section 13, 319 Division, Class of 4133
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Dakarne »

I've made a few mild edits to my music list, reducing the amount of metal, because I have many other genres in my music folder.
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'For the moment, mortal, they find the thought of killing me more desirable than that of killing you.'
'And what are their chances?'
'The answer to that is evident in how long they've been hesitating, wouldn't you think, mortal?'

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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Invictus »

Skipping over my large collection of non-English/impossible to find songs:
Song Selection:
1. Thoughts of a Dying Atheist - Muse
2. March of Cambreadth - Not sure which version
3. Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve
4. Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
5. Cigaro - System of a Down
Hmm...
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Is there still an admissions deadline for this challenge or are people free to put their songs down if they feel like it right up until the writing starts?
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

Right up until the challenge officially starts. I'll assign you all people around that time.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

Just so you all know, I'll be returning home about the 27th or 28th. Since I don't intend to start until after SecSan finishes, expect me to assign you all your writers on the 29th or 30th.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Artemis »

Hello everyone.

1. Space Lion, by The Seatbelts - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqc9Fujtt7k
2. The Screenwriter's Blues, by Soul Coughing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpZD8DVTXPU
3. Backfire at the Disco, by The Wombats - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_UxB5CC ... re=related
4. Horizon, by Assemblage 23 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIkXBp8KiDg
5. Never the Same. by The Supreme Beings of Leisure - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRtDilPt ... annel_page
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Reservoir »

I made a single revision, since I couldn't find that song on Youtube. As such, here are the Youtube links as well.
Reservoir wrote:1. What I've Done - Linkin Park http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjBZh-yRmkc
2. Broken, Beaten, and Scarred - Metallica http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03sfsCgtwPc
3. Breathe - The Prodigy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91AzGRDaUo0
4. Kashmir - Led Zeppelin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTaOvzZKRxA
5. Soldier of Fortune - Deep Purple (I like the Opeth cover better) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEP3TClmGDs
"You may never fire a single shot in your entire term as a Common Star Militia servicemember. Some would naively consider that a milestone, representing all that the CSM and CSN are made to be. But, it doesn't mean you will ever forget the things you will hear, see, or do during that time. Cloak and daggers has become child's play, Privates and PFCs: welcome to the Thick...may God watch over you all."
-CSM Chief Master Sergeant Andrew Ford, to CSM PFC John Karmach and the other recruits of the Common Star Militia, Outer Colonies Branch, Section 13, 319 Division, Class of 4133
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by speaker-to-trolls »

Excellent choice of replacement, if I may say.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

Shame that there are only 6 entrants, but we can cope with that. If anybody wants to enter late, they still can, I'll shuffle myself around to cope with it. So people, I've rolled some dice and you'll be writing a character for:

1. Speaker-to-trolls: Writing for Reservior's songs.
2. Dakarne: Writing for Vagrant Orpheus' songs.
3. Nevermind: Writing for Invictus' songs.
4. Reservior: Writing for Dakarne's songs.
5. Invictus: Writing for Nevermind's songs.
6. Vagrant Orpheus: Writing for Artemis' songs.
7. Artemis: Writing for Speaker-to-trolls' songs.

I'm thinking we agree to have it done by the 15th January. 2 weeks and a bit. have fun, people. I look forward to results.
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Re: The Music Makes the Man (Character Creation Challenge)

Post by Dakarne »

With Invictus' permission, I have swapped lists with him. Sorry, Orph, but I can't work with your song list very well.

I've also made one final edit to my own list, and included a bunch of YouTube links.
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'For the moment, mortal, they find the thought of killing me more desirable than that of killing you.'
'And what are their chances?'
'The answer to that is evident in how long they've been hesitating, wouldn't you think, mortal?'

-Anomander Rake and Ganoes Paran in Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
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