If you are on any social media platform with artists, you may have heard the terms “OC”, which stands for “original character”, or “blorbo” which stands for… I don’t know, I think Tumblr just made that one up. The terms evolved because creators needed a way to talk about freeform character concepting. Whether they’re part of a fanfiction or just the guy you always seem to end up doodling in your sketchbook, it’s often the case that in the process of drawing and experimenting with scenes for these characters for fun, they really can develop cool backstories and deep emotional meaning in the creators’ minds, and that’s what we’re calling “Blorbology”.

In this Episode:

Have you ever developed original characters before you developed a story about them?

Our hosts tell us about their blorbos.

What is your advice to someone who has a lot of characters they care about, and wants to incorporate them into something like a webcomic?

BYOB (Bring your own Blorbo) Exercise

Each host introduces a new OC and we do a live roundtable where we talk about how we’d approach putting them all together into one story.

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Episode Release Date: March 26, 2025

Episode Credits:

Ally Rom Colthoff (@varethane) - she/they, chirault.sevensmith.net wychwoodcomic.com

Kristen Lee (@feathernotes) - she/they, ghostjunksickness.com lunarblight.com

Christina Major (@delphina2k) - she/her, sombulus.com

Rae Baade (@overlordrae) - they/them, empyreancomic.com

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The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again!!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.

Transcription

This transcript is auto generated by our recording software.

00:00.00

Krispy

Hello and welcome to screen tones where we talk anything and everything webcomics today. We're going to be discussing the term Blorbo characters and how we write about them I am crispy I yeah am dying i.

00:13.12

Delphina

No, don't do that.

00:18.30

Krispy

I'm crispy I use the pronouns she they and I make the comics ghost Ju sickness and lunarlight.

00:21.92

Delphina

And I'm Delphina I use she her pronouns and I make the web comic sombulous.

00:27.76

Thorb

I and I'm verethhane I make the comics terult and witchwood and I use see they pronouns I.

00:35.16

Rae

I and I'm Ray and I use they them pronouns and I make the web comics overlord of Raven fell and on imppy high i.

00:43.70

Delphina

Okay, so I'm going to hop in here to define blurology because if you're on any social media platform with artists. You may have heard the term o c which stands for original character or blurbo which stands for I don't actually know I think Tlr just. Made that one up. Um, but the terms evolved because creators needed a way to talk about freeform character concepting. Um, you know whether they're part of a fan fiction or just the guy you always seem to end up doodling in your sketchbook. It's often the case that in the process of drawing and experimenting with scenes for these characters for fun. They can really develop cool backstories and deep emotional meaning in the creator's minds and that's what we're calling lorology.

01:31.41

Krispy

And it's goingnna be really really fun kind of diving into this with everybody here. We have a little bit of a nice little special surprise that we're going to do half time in the episode. But for now we're going to go to our little kind of usual with our questions and I'm just gonna. Pop one off and attack you all with it. Um, so question number 1 have you ever developed an original characters before you developed a story about them. So tell me about that Delphi. What's up. But.

02:03.61

Delphina

And oh gosh well back in the day there was a little anime called Sailor Moon and me. And all of my friends decided that we all need Sailor Moon Personas so my sailormoonpersona very creatively was a sailor delphfina and she had power over water but it was different to sailor mercury it was cooler than sailor mercury right. Um, and yeah, it was just make basically me in a sailor suit because I think the the mary suitx idea kind of like happens to all of us at at some point we all want to make our little zoas and um and so you know it started. From there. Um, but I also pulled that character out of like the Sailor Moon context when I was um, getting into the internet at first and getting into forums and stuff and I like I wanted to try to like. Incorporate them into an rp so this was the sailor scout who was who are peeing with other other characters and stuff. Um, it was. It was very chaotic. It was very good but it was very much a case of here is a character that really doesn't belong.

03:12.98

Krispy

It did.

03:27.90

Delphina

To any sort of narrative that I'm just bringing in to play dolls with other people's characters and we're making a little story out of it and so that was really fun. Um I had some others too I had Ryle who was a wear raccoon. Um.

03:31.97

Krispy

You.

03:41.21

Krispy

Oh my god.

03:44.28

Delphina

She was pretty cool. Um, ah they they all kind of like coalesced into sidney eventually when I did start doing sombulous but like it was a it was a fun time and I think also um. I did a couple of d and d campaigns over the years they never really got too far. Um, but you have to make a character every time you do a d and d campaign and so there were a lot of little characters that I was like oh you know they're kind of fun. They're kind of nice I don't know what I'm going to do with them now. But I like. Think about them so that's been my experience.

04:21.22

Krispy

Oh my god I feel like my my third eye opened the moment that you started saying like sailor moon o c like not to be like 1 of those people that are like oh actually me too. Ah, but me too. Ah. Um, I was really huge into Tokyo muu and I definitely had those moments where you make like an o c kind of like from that universe to kind of project on or anything like like that. So ah, shaking your hand absolutely firmly here. Um I'm gonna go after Euthane. So have you ever developed an original character before you developed a story about them come on come on in here. Water's fine.

04:54.98

Thorb

Oh so so many I I actually I thought I knew what I was going to say and then I heard delphi's answer and honestly I guess it has gone back kind of as far as that because when I was like 8 on the schoolyard and reading a ton of. I was reading superhero comics at that point. Ah so like Batman Superman and I was watching like the shows um the like ah Batman beyond and like the justice league show and also occasionally on the like rabbit ears tv if we banged it hard enough to get a signal from Buffalo. We could watch x-men evolution and static shock on like 1 of the channels there and they were very important to me forwardively to the point where like me and like a bunch of little friends on the schoolyard. We would all like kind of pretend to be superheroes and when I started like. Figuring out that I enjoyed drawing what I would do was that I would draw portraits of each of the characters that like me and my friends would play and then eventually I just started drawing like more and more random portraits to pick like different like little characters to kind of act out like at recess the next day or whatever and then event.

06:04.21

Krispy

Yes.

06:07.50

Thorb

It turned into a whole like I ended up making like over 100 of these like just like portraits of characters and then sometimes when I had like friends over we would flip through the book and we would pick like which characters we wanted by like slapping the page it was anyway, it was weird.

06:09.21

Krispy

Oh wow.

06:23.23

Thorb

Ah, there was never like a formal kind of story about it. There was this sort of loose setting of like kind of ah an x-men-ish thing where they're all like in a school together and each one has a secret superpower that nobody else can know about because it's their like secret identity because I don't know I got a kick out of that sort of thing at the time. And then after a while like I you know I got I I turned 9 and then I turned 10 and like the stories that I was experiencing and like my understanding of them was you know, starting to grow and I started writing more stories. Ah, and like actually putting together narratives and looking at how like characters fit together. Ah and I actually was kind of trying to write witchwood as like a 12 year old like so that's how long that cast has been around. It's based on like the ah feels ridiculous.

07:06.66

Krispy

Oh.

07:15.90

Kripy

Come on.

07:17.68

Thorb

Was on air literally based on dolls that I used to play with as like one of my other weird little games. Um, and I just you know I kind of fell in love with these little little guys that that I was bumping around ah and I was like how do I make this into a story and because that's your life when you're a kid is school. It was in a school setting and that lasted like I think over the course of about two or three years I wrote out the whole thing as like a novel. Ah really rambly and long and then when I was in high school I tried to edit it to like make it better because I was recognizing that like this is the product of a 12 year old brain. Ah. And then after a while I was like you know what? I think structurally like as as soon once I moved on to college I was like I don't know if I'm vibing with this setting anymore. But I don't really know how to fix it or how to keep these characters around so I started working on turalt ah, which was ah developed in another kind of separate.

08:14.85

Thorb

B blurbo way because the characters in that one I developed through paint chatting with people like I just would draw random characters and then bounce them off of other people around me and then I came up with this character Kieran that I liked and like a dynamic that I liked and kind of paired it with like a story concept that I that i. Thought sounded cool. Um, so yeah, and then eventually once I finished tyralt I was like you know, maybe I'll come back to these these witch wood guys and see ah see what I can do. Um, so yeah I guess and I have a whole bunch of other like characters. Awaiting stories in kind of the background like I've just got this whole roster that whenever I'm like I feel like starting something new. Sometimes I'll pull I'll pull them up and be like what can I do with this this thing. Ah so far. Only 2 really big comics but sometimes I'll do short comics.

09:08.66

Thorb

Ah, and it's a fun way to kind of explore some of those backburner blorbos.

09:15.57

Krispy

Yeah, yeah, I totally feel like even with Delphi with euhane. We're thinking about like the origin of the b blurbo um and and kind of seeing where they developed from there and then eventually having a lot. We'll get to that later but having a lot of blarbos and. Ah, going through them like some kind of rolodex to see what they suit for like either a picture or like a moment or you know, just just something the vibes or something and being really young and deciding this stuff too like florvos were always in the mind they're always, they're always there ever so present with that. Um, with that I'm going to go after you right come on in I would like to hear about your um possibilities of developing original characters before you had a story about them.

10:01.93

Rae

And see for me. It was kind of interesting because I was like I was a book Mormon Elementary school. So I actually did have a lot of characters that did have narrative derivatives attached to them like straight from the beginning.

10:18.22

Rae

It wasn't until um, about 11 when I started role-playing that I started having a lot of original characters that didn't necessarily have a specific story in them because it was a group chat. And you just tossed your character into it. Um, with the it was in the dragon land setting and um, really, you just played as if you were in it if if you were in a character it um. In like a tavern and there were gardens outside and you know each chat room had like a different setting and you just role played um that way and um, it's it's funny because 2 of my first characters.

11:10.42

Rae

I have at ah Catiss Quick foot and night shadow I have actually been um, working on trying to make a comic with them again. So it's like kind of revisiting my oldest Blurbos and.

11:28.10

Rae

Creating a story around them. So that's been a fun exercise for me I think because a lot of about me has changed so they need to change too.

11:39.90

Krispy

Yup, no I love that point too because like you know, bringing it back to you know? Ah what thane said about witch would too how that kind of comes back and you're you're approaching it with like a a different perspective ah with those old old blurbos.

11:55.70

Rae

But you also got to find what's appealing about them and what was appealing about them to you in the first place too. So their core remains the same but a lot of the details can change.

11:55.94

Krispy

Um, I've definitely experienced that. Yeah, exactly.

12:09.40

screentonescast

I like seeing the kind of like progression of like where the b blurbo began and where the blurbo is now kind of thing. Um because thinking about it as far as ah, my own kind of answer to this. Goes. Um I but I was younger I did a lot of glorbos just because like I I had a blurbo character. Her name was Erica and she was part angel part demon and yeah.

12:42.17

Delphina

Hey now what' probably about Erica.

12:44.90

Thorb

I I love it and.

12:46.60

Rae

And I did that too. In fact, night shadow eventually turned into a half angel for a little bit and I'm like oh gosh. So.

12:50.74

Krispy

Um, ah, but but everybody there's a twist. She's also part dragon. Ah.

13:00.48

Delphina

Oh.

13:01.85

Rae

Yes, yes.

13:06.36

Krispy

Ah, and she was just my character that I made I was very inspired by ah the game legend of Leg Guya um absolutely years ago and she kind of came from one of the characters there and then you know you're just interested in a bunch of other things. So usually blurbos come from this. Primordial soup of things and I remember having her she was like my first hashtag official o c um, what we used to do oh god were you right? thing you're go embarrassing things on on the air. But what I used to do with. My co-creator space because she is my sister and we used to share our rooms together growing up we we'd have our 2 walls so we'd have the two beds and against each bed with the wall. We'd have a mural of every o c that we would make and and just. Be inspired and we would tape it to the wall like I made up a new Oc the reference for this o c goes on the wall just in case, my sister wants to draw this Oc and then the best part was is that we put copyrighted on it so you know just in case. Ah.

14:17.29

Rae

The original character do not steal.

14:17.84

Thorb

But Gaze can't be too careful.

14:22.42

Delphina

From your bedroom.

14:26.80

Krispy

Just see Kate anybody comes in. It's like wait a second I love this osie's dripping and a steal from like an 8 year old but that's just the things that we used to do um and they didn't have stories. They were just they were there for like. Rp time like Ray or they were there for like dull time like like ah thane and it's just they were just there and like we used to play paper dolls a lot and like we would either cut them out or we'd make little clay figures of them and then you'd just act out stuff like a barbie scene or an rp or whatever and and that's just how they were. Um, so it is interesting to see where they've come from now. Um I'll call myself later in the questions. But um, that's actually a good segue to the next question. Um, and I'm going to go after you Delphi. Ah, what is your advice to someone who has a lot of characters that they care about but and wants to incorporate them into something like a web comic so you know with a whole mural of blurbos but they want people to care.

15:35.45

Delphina

And it's tricky it. It can be very tricky because I think a lot of the story and a lot of the love comes from your own brain and you haven't exactly explained that to an outside reader yet. So when you're trying to make that shift like they they don't. Automatically know who this person is and what makes them important. So I think first and foremost you need to get outside of your own head if that involves like other creators. Reviewing your your stuff your initial pages or something and say okay, what do you think of this this character. What do you think their deal is do you like them. Do you what kind of adjectives would you associate with them. Are they edgy. Are they cool? are they funny um, just all of that kind of stuff. Um.

16:26.11

Delphina

Because you're going to have a lot of stew that you've been marinating in especially if you've had these characters since you were 8 or whatever. Um, so so. That's my first piece of advice and we've all been talking about too. How. Creating oss or creating blurbos that can be a very social thing that's a social activity that you do with your friends or your siblings and even if they're 100 % your property like you drew this character. You always played this character none of your friends have. Any claim to this character if your friends know and liked your characters. You might find it harder to do as much with them because you don't want to change anything because you have positive emotions associated with those memories. Um, and.

17:18.80

Delphina

That that might manifest in like what kind of dynamics they have with other characters. You might want to try to pull in the other characters that they like to to talk to back in the day. Um, and that can lead down a dangerous path of okay well now you have to get sign off from your friends from when you were 8

17:37.28

Delphina

You might not talk to anymore and um and that gets a little messy so to any extent that you could make that simpler for yourself that would be certainly something I would recommend and also sometimes you can't sometimes it's just like you know what I did like this character I. Kind of have some ideas for them but like it's it's off the table This is going to be too complicated for me. It's going to be too complicated for my friends and and I don't think I can adapt them to a story that I want to tell at my current stage in life.

18:14.87

Delphina

So It's okay to also just say you know what I'm going to take some of the aspects I like from this character and I'm going to come up with a new character. Um, and they're they're distinct from the other person so I won't necessarily have all of those emotional attachments to them. And that can help you move forward because um, you know at the end of the day web comics are a marathon and the larger story that you want to tell has to be able to sustain itself for years while you're putting together This story.

18:49.95

Delphina

And if you're too attached to dynamics or other things that don't represent who you are today or what you want to say today. That's not going to be a sustainable comic for you, you might struggle with that. So whatever you can do give yourself you. Permission to be looser with the concept of the character or mash a couple different characters into one character so that you have that space.

19:15.26

Krispy

You know it's so it's always interesting thinking about like kind of like where the b blurbos came from and the origin of the blurbo and and then eventually adapting them into something like a web comic because I've done that myself. Ah, the the cast of ghost junk sickness came from fan characters of final page 7 and you know they just kind of grew from there and then you had to learn to drop certain aspects and stuff like that. But 1 thing that I find interesting with having a lot of characters is that. Because they were just blorbos a lot of them had main character syndrome like they were their own. Everybody was their own main character so you had to learn to kind of like shave certain parts that might also take away from what made that character the character so you know listening to to what you were saying there Delphi was. It's it's interesting because you know there are gonna ah be some things that you're going to have to kind of sacrifice a bit and and reshape. Also when you kind of collaborate with other people to to make it into a cohesive story because you know there's a difference between um, you know having a. Roleplay with friends or anything like that or you know sometimes even a d and d campaign and having like onlookers kind of come in. They've been more successful with like you know the popularities with live shows and stuff like that kind of on their rise now. But um, you know there's still like an intimate kind of sense to it.

20:45.67

Krispy

And so I think that you do have to you know take a step back and and think okay, what am I going to be dropping from my character to fit them into something for folks to engage with and stuff like that. Ah, but I'm going to ask thene. What?? What's your opinion. On this, you know what's your advice to someone with all those blorbos and they want like a story.

21:11.71

Thorb

Honestly, ah my my ah I want to kind of tag on to Delphi's point because I do think that change is going to be essential anytime you're looking at taking some story element from 1 context and dropping it into another. Ah, you're definitely going to or even taking them from no context at all if they're just like an orb in your mind and you're just going to plop it into a new space. You're going to have to find ways to make these things tie into one another and connect together.

21:42.70

Thorb

So Whether you're extracting them from an existing roleplay with friends or a D and D campaign all those little threads of like their backstory and their personality and how they relate to other people if some of those are going to be key to that character's appeal like if the thing that makes you the most passionate about their character is. The fact that they are having to maintain a secret identity and like a superpower that they can't control and keep that all secret from their friends or something like that now you have to find a way to replicate that in this brand new environment like completely separate from that initial context of like your.

22:21.18

Thorb

Friends of C or your like D and D party and stuff like that. So like sitting down and really thinking about it like okay what is the core of this character. What is that thing that makes me really want to keep them. What's the thing that makes them a blorbo and not just like a name on a piece of paper and.

22:40.50

Thorb

Can you put that into another setting without losing your affection for it and if so how and it might take time it sometimes can take years I actually um with witchwood in specific. Ah when I was going through that story. Um I initially had a completely different protagonist. Ah, in those earliest versions of it like the main character of witch would which would had a main character like the current iteration of it is very much like a 4 man kind of party like and there's two who were kind of the ones who go show up in my marketing the most but all 4 of them are kind of important to the plot. But there used to be a single actual main character who was kind of an audience proxy and her name was Kitty and she was also one of my dolls ah and like she didn't really have like a power or a deal but she was sort of like that. Audience lens like she like watched everything else happen and she was very much like she was just kind of like the I don't know I don't want to call it like the the innocent one who like just like I'd want to be friends and help people out like stuff like that. Um, and because.

23:47.90

Thorb

I guess at the time I was initially coming up with it like I thought that like a story needed that because some stories do you? You got you have your like I don't know your Bella Swan or whatever to like sort of take everything in for the first time and be new to everything and not know anything about magic and whatnot. And as I started kind of trying to develop the new version of the story separating it all from a school setting taking these characters like just kind of picking them up and rotating them in my mind like what makes this person tick like how do they work? How do they fit together in my story as i'm. Figuring out this new setting like how does it work and I tried several times to fit her in like gave her ah a twin sister killed the twin sister like a whole bunch of stuff and a lot of those early plots kind of centered around her but like her personality was not really well suited outside of like kind of an rp setting.

24:39.50

Thorb

Because when you rp you can kind of just be like this character is just me like they'll just react how I would and you don't really think about them as being a character with like an arc.

24:51.28

Thorb

Or with like themes around them. You're just kind of reacting and being like well they're just like a person they're complicated. They're interested in the things that I'm interested in and that often doesn't actually work very well in a story when you're trying to present it to a wider audience and have it kind of resonate with a lot of people. Ah because characters are. Really people. They're fictional like they're they're constructs that serve a purpose in the narrative and I ended up just straight up deleting her and her ghost twin sister and I kind of merged her role in with Tiara ah who which also reduced the number of redheads that I needed to have in the story down to just one. They were all redheads because I I don't know I thought it was cool when I was 8 um, so yeah, that I guess would be the other The other thing that I would really want to say is like when you're. Taking ah a new character and putting them into a story whether it's because they're a blorbo or you're like my story needs a character to do this function in the narrative I need to come up with someone for that like you you could sometimes work in the opposite direction like it's not always a b blurbo being fitted into something sometimes there's a hole and you need a character to fill it.

26:01.27

Thorb

Um, but you should always be thinking about what their arc is and how it ties into the story themes because that can really strengthen the whole thing as a unit and that's definitely not something that I think about when I'm just coming up with blorbos and like shooting like little pies in the sky. But if if you want to be telling a story about. Something in specific like the the vibes that you want to go for like what is this story fundamentally about how do the characters support that that's kind of a very different mindset than just kind of brainstorming and euphing around. So yeah, that's that's my that's my tip for.

26:36.25

Krispy

Is a good tip is an absolutely good tip and I like that there's a lot of like experience from the rp side of things because like I think a lot of blurbos come from. You know that engagement and and wanting to explore like a story with. Ah character but not with the structure that an actual story that you want people to read ah kind of entails because maybe you do have a blurbo that you're like okay I know some of the basics like I know that Erica's a half demon half angel half. There's too many halves. But anyway dragon. And she has a mom who's a valkyrie who also owns a dragon. It's a lot I remember those details doesn't really make sense I don't know what story they belong to but you just there's details. Ah. Um, array I'm also gonna be asking you that question your advice to someone with all those characters that they care about and wants to incorporat the incorporate them into something like a web comic. What would you tell them.

27:41.53

Rae

And I would probably say that creating a hierarchy is very important for the characters because you need to realize not everyone can be the main character especially not at the same time and that is something that I see. Um, happen a lot for ah comics that are based off of Rps because you have all these very interesting characters vying for attention and there's just like no hierarchy like at all. And sometimes they don't always have a role or a goal to play. It's just their personalities are strong enough that the creators hoping that they stand up on their own. So.

28:36.69

Rae

And also another thing that um people looking to put their blorbos in their comics should keep in mind is even if they have a very rich past. You can't always show everything a lot of my role plays.

28:55.61

Rae

Um, even if they're like different role plays but the same character or multiple a use or whatnot some of my characters are like over a decade old so they have this overarching very rich background story. That you're not going to be able to fit in a comic, especially if you put more than one of your blurbos in your comic. Um, so you really have to know to pair pair that Down. Don't get too precious with the details and make sure the character fits.

29:34.29

Rae

Story instead of the story fitting around them because the chances are is that they're not going to fit very well if you try to do that.

29:41.66

Krispy

Yeah, it can get convoluted pretty fast and like I think that's always something that I think about that we talk about in screen tones is that you know more about the story and the blorbos and the everything than the reader or. On Looker will ever know and so understanding what kind of details you're going to be giving to them and what kind of setting what kind of stage you're going to be setting for them is really important to get like a outside opinion and and see what it It actually looks like because again we know all the details. We all know. The the secret betrayals and the twin sister who's a ghost and dead now and you're like Wow this sounds awesome but like how do you convey that and and whatnot um as far as some advice I could give to folks who want to dip their toes into something a little bit more structured and want to have like a story. Their blurbos for their mural of Blurbos Um, one of the things that really helped me was doing a lot of oc meme stuff like I would just back in the days of when Divv nert was nice. It's no longer. Nice. But. You can still go into some search engines and or some communities we have some in the screen tones and check out some little exercises where it kind of has your original character the ways that they say sorry or has ah.

31:11.44

Krispy

Your character interacting with another character was one of the biggest things that they had in devviator at the time where there was a list of numbers and these numbers were to correspond with the characters that were also put into this list of questions and you would fill out like 10 characters 1 through 10 and you'd put your blurbos in this and it would say what would character one do if character 5 ah was a basketball player and threw a basketball at their head random. But yeah.

31:38.17

Thorb

And oh my god I remember those I loved it the like the o c memes and they would have like 15 panels in them and each one would be a different little scenarios. Great.

31:39.92

Rae

I Would you love me if but would you love me if I was a worm.

31:47.62

Krispy

Ah, when character 7 Ah, yeah, yeah.

31:54.56

Rae

I like the relationship ones because that is that actually shows the dynamics between 2 different characters too.

31:55.48

Thorb

I Did a bunch of them and.

32:04.68

Krispy

exactly exactly and you know I find that they're a good kind of warmup before you get into stories too because it could be very I mean it is very daunting ah making a story with some structure and getting into a comic and stuff like that. Especially when you haven't really. Dabbled in a lot of that. The other thing that I've seen a lot of folks do is do ask blogs for their characters and kind of get some traction and I've actually seen um some creators basically make a story with the engagement that they get like almost homestuck. Style I'm sorry I'm dropping that there but it kind of you know there was. There's kind of a play between like people asking um questions for the characters and then the creator kind of getting ideas from that and extrapolating or going forward with it. So just. Kind of engaging that way. There's a lot of different ways to do it which is really really nice just because we have you know that access if you do jump into communities. You do jump into stuff like tumblr because Tumblr um is very original character kind of centric. Um. Not as far as traction some may say but you know honestly, it's just a good playing grounds for rp and um, just exploring that stuff if you can kind of get a handle of that. Um, but yeah I really enjoy the oc meme stuff to showcase personalities.

33:30.93

Krispy

Um, and just like the relationship ones that Ray mentioned and just kind of finding these templates like I said there are some in our community. We actually have a little thread for them if you're ever curious come join us there but you can find them I know they're kind of haunting the old deviant art. And I usually find them when I search like ocmeme templates and see where I go from there so a good exercise speaking of exercises I think it's time to go into Byob bring your own.

34:07.51

Delphina

Oh boy.

34:07.73

Krispy

B lorbo. So this is this is going to be interesting. So for this exercise I'm just going to tell everybody the rules. So Byob which is bring your own own blurbo exercise each host introduces a New O C and then we have to do a roundtable of where we're going to talk about how we approach putting them into a story so this is going to be pretty great. Ah um, I'm actually going to start with Delphi making a blurbo on the spot. Maybe tell us a little bit about the blurbo. And you know when we kind of get to know all of them. We're gonna make a story for them. It's gonna be good.

34:51.27

Delphina

I okay, all right? Well ah you can have my airship pilot character. Um I played her in my last tabletop campaign and her name is Talia she's kind of a blue collar energetic character I envision her as kind of like a Han Solo sort of figure.

35:08.50

Delphina

Um, so she's good with a gun. She loves a strong drink at the tavern um, and she's generally good naturetured she she likes to to look on the bright side of life. But um, she also loves to curse. She's sort of rough around the edges not always on the right side of the law but the the good natured type of thing right? um. And in her setting. There's floating islands that she travels from place to place in her airship. Um, there's a set of water gods called the aquas. So. She's also got some water benary avatar type powers that she can channel to heal people or make illusions and they also give her power to. Read emotions and thoughts and she gets a real good role. She can mentally do it like a kind of Jedi mind trick sort of power and make people not notice her or something and sometimes she uses this power to steal stuff that she wants. but um but yeah that's her. That's her little story and background. Um. She she was part of a campaign but she's kind of unattached now and she's she's ready to jump into the by o b.

36:12.83

Krispy

Hell yes, welcome Talllia I love this all right thing give us an a blorbo. Ah, ah.

36:20.80

Thorb

A blorbo you say I don't know what that is I mean wait I'm on this episode. Ah so I'm going to go with ah I'm also going to reuse a character So ah, his name is kale. He's got white hair because I like that sort of thing.

36:37.91

Thorb

Ah, he is a freighter pilot. Um, also of like an airship ah because the setting that I'm pulling him from also has sky islands funnily enough I Love that sort of thing. Ah so.

36:41.26

Krispy

Oh ok, ok.

36:51.18

Thorb

He is in his late 30 s um, he's a little disaffected estranged from his family very cynical about kind of the world in general. Um, but kind of has like a bit of a well I just got to do the job sort of Mindset. Ah and he takes whatever jobs he can find from whatever client will hire him which is sometimes. A little sketchy and he just turns a blind eye because he he doesn't want to know about it not his circus not his monkeys. Ah so yes, that's kale.

37:22.00

Krispy

But ah, all right? We're we're rolling with some good ones here actually Ray give us a blurvo.

37:29.36

Rae

And okay I will put forth Iris who's a shady woman who rides a sky manta array and sells random souvenirs to unsuspecting tourists.

37:40.93

Thorb

Hellier.

37:45.25

Rae

She travels in search of her childhood friend who murdered her family and she is snarky and short tempered at when you're not buying any anything Anyway, um.

37:48.79

Krispy

Oh my god.

38:01.50

Rae

And I just made all of that up on the spot I'm not reusing any characters.

38:07.88

Krispy

But okay I absolutely love this? Um, okay I'm going to throw in a blorbo too. So we have ah Talia we have kale and we have Iris I'm going to throw in a b blurbo called ah clover. Ah, clover strange wood and clover is a you know I'm just gonna go for some sky energy since we seem to be there, but clover always wanted to be a sky pirate. Um and wanted to fly a ship. I feel like that's some pretty good energy and maybe like clover is on the lookout for some mystical artifact or or something. Um.

39:00.53

Krispy

This is sorry this is great. Oh oh and Clover also has um, part dragon I'm going to say that I'm I'm going with this theme I'm thinking about my old oath weekss. So like exactly clover's always been on the surface hasn't been in the sky islands yet.

39:08.17

Thorb

Yeah.

39:09.89

Rae

I gotta go with the dragons though.

39:19.29

Krispy

But is somehow mysteriously part dragon. So um, now what we're going to have to do is figure out what kind of story what we would make it's it seems like it's kind of writing itself. But what kind of story we would make with that with this cast.

39:38.71

Thorb

And well hearing about Clover's mysterious deal I feel like that's got to be important somehow like this unknown Dragon heritage.

39:39.15

Krispy

And crew.

39:49.66

Thorb

Um, it's either going to be the kind of story where it like it's just there and random and nobody comments on it or that's going to be like the core of the whole thing. So I think that's a decision that we got to make early for.

40:02.40

Krispy

Ah, all right I'm gonna ask Delphi to to make a decision on that.

40:06.47

Delphina

I yeah I feel like we could do that we could do um you know the she's on the lookout from a mystical artifact. Maybe Iris is the woman who has that mystical artifact. So she's going to go. She's going to try to get to Iris's shop

40:22.94

Delphina

Somewhere in the in a distant sky and so she has to like either like sneak on board a ship or something like that and maybe that's that's Talia's ship um which kale is also also working on so they've got kind of this. Um, it's it's it's not a yeah above the board. Ship and stuff like that but she she sneaks on as a stoway and then they eventually find her and clover has to convince them to to go on this quest to find Iris.

40:52.37

Krispy

I like this I feel like because like kale seems to get whatever job like kale seems like the kind of character that's going to also have some kind of motivation for this mystical artifact as well. For a good pay but we don't know that as the audience. They don't know that but we're gonna get some betrayal I feel like Kay Kale's gonna betrayal I betrayal us betray us.

41:13.47

Thorb

Oh yeah, he's he's looking at it but only because he has a buyer who like who has hired him to find the thing because they want it and he knows that it's important to pull over.

41:23.28

Krispy

Oh my god.

41:23.83

Rae

And what if the spire what if the spire is the childhood friend that murdered Iris's family

41:32.80

Thorb

Oh oh, that's good. It really does.

41:33.39

Delphina

Oh ah, oh.

41:34.67

Krispy

it writes itself.

41:38.88

Delphina

Yeah, but I like the fact that we yeah, we've just determined that we've got these characters but we kind of need the antagonist and now we need to flesh out this childhood friend who maybe wasn't quite as. As you know, flushed out before. But yeah, we we start thinking about Iris we start thinking about what her her backstory and stuff is and what caused that schism between Iris and the childhood friend but she murdered the family. So so that's kind of the driving force I feel like.

42:13.61

Delphina

Talia maybe is just along for the ride I feel like I wanted her to be the captain and stuff. But now I'm just like no I don't think. That makes sense I think she's just kind of a support character in the scenario because there's dragons and there's murders and stuff and she's just doing her thing and.

42:30.50

Rae

But you could also add some extra stakes in there if you want Talia to be more of a main character too. So it's really a decision that you also have to make.

42:44.92

Krispy

Yeah, like what if Talia was actually hiding like a part of herself to get clover onto the ship be like like why would Talia let that happen and what if it was like I recognize you as kin because I'm also part dragon but I'm not going to say it like you know some more mystery. Um, and you know that kind of ties like her having any kind of empathy or or whatever clover is cause to get on here and kale's just there for the money and betrayal and you know Iris is helping out there too like getting them. Ah all kind of fixed up. But you know we we don't know some some. Past stuff that kind of ties into to all that shenanigans.

43:22.80

Delphina

okay okay I kind of like it too because clover does sound like kind of a younger character and I envision talia is a little older so you can have some nice contrast between here's a kid who's trying to figure out her part dragon aspect. But but Tali is older. She's she's come up with some coping mechanisms to work with whatever that dragon power is and like you can compare and contrast. Maybe it's a you know a good thing maybe Tali has a role model fork clover or maybe Talia is providing a bad exampleing.

44:00.70

Delphina

And Clover wants to to be a contrast to that so you could really work in some juicy story dynamics there and.

44:04.84

Krispy

I Love this.

44:07.17

Thorb

Um, I feel like it could be like a pretty interesting arc for the like the older cynical characters who are in on this like just as kind of another job and like becoming aware that this is so like something important to the others. Ah, and then there could be a bit of an arc going on in there like what do they do. Will it will it end in Betrayal will will those arcs end up just staying in a negative zone is Kale going to be like kind of the the Pseudo The the media antagonist who gets like defeated on the way to this other bigger antagonist or not and does this. Thing this Mcguffin object that they're all looking for does that relate in some way to the backstory like is that is that going to be important. Whatever the thing is or.

44:51.82

Krispy

God This is good I actually want to draw these characters now.

44:56.30

Delphina

I Know it's so good.

45:00.60

Krispy

But oh my God I actually immpressed with how invested I am because now I'm just looking at the notes I've been making as we're kind of saying this live and I'm just like okay but we actually have something kind of neat here.

45:18.20

Delphina

I I mean to the point.

45:18.97

Rae

And it has dragons I mean what more do you need and sky mantas.

45:19.17

Thorb

It's almost like for writers or something.

45:25.16

Delphina

Exactly I Love the Sky Manta Motif I Love the floating islands I think that's that's gonna be like very visually powerful altogether. Um, but yeah, it's interesting like doing this because like ah there there's no.

45:41.98

Delphina

Dragon stuff into Holly's backstory but like because I'm flexible with the the character's concept like okay, we can work that in we can We can say you know what's what's going on there. So um, so I think that's kind of part of the exercise here. That's what it's all about.

45:56.90

Krispy

Oh my god what if Talia like used to have like more of a showing of her part dragonist but like had to solve her like dragon horns kind of all epic like to hide I don't know I'm getting invested this.

46:14.34

Thorb

I' all angstty like fitting in the crew and.

46:15.73

Delphina

I do want I do want Kale to have a redemption arc I feel like that that would be good once he he.

46:20.55

Krispy

Yes.

46:23.21

Thorb

I Would love for that to happen.

46:24.93

Rae

He realizes something is more important than money in its friends.

46:31.38

Krispy

Ah, yeah, ah I like.

46:34.12

Thorb

That is catnip to me so I would be very pleased. He's been pursuing the job for so long and gradually as he spends time with these people. They start to wear down his cynical demeanor and then when it comes time to actually carry through with the deal either. He does it.

46:41.86

Krispy

Ah, oh.

46:53.67

Thorb

And then like that turns into a whole thing or he like rethinks it depending on when the climax of the story is going to happen right.

47:01.43

Krispy

I Feel like it's going to have like a fake out like it's going to be like this is the end of the story and then you're like oh it isn't ah it goes on forever. Well not forever, but more.

47:07.35

Thorb

I mean it it could lead to some pretty neat places when you have that like you know the the what do they call it like the darkest night of the soul or something like that like it's It's a part of the Hero's journey when like everything has gone wrong. Everything is awful like all the characters are having a bad time I feel like that betrayal could be that moment.

47:09.36

Rae

So season 2

47:26.44

Thorb

For this story. So I'm all about that and.

47:27.63

Krispy

Oh yeah, oh yeah, I'm gonna hit pause I absolutely love talking about blurbos as do all of you and I have learned so much in this episode and it's really neat ah to kind of. You know, come together make some blorbos and and see if you can work a story together that was a really really fun exercise and I definitely encourage folks. You know if you have your own group of friends even in the community they would be really really cool to to jump into this exercise as well. But with that. That has definitely been a chicken salad caesar wrap. Um I've been your host Krispy and you can find my works at Ghostjunksickness.com and lunarblight.com.

48:12.92

Delphina

I and I've been Delphina You can find my comic sombulus at sombulus dot com.

48:18.74

Thorb

I and I've been verathane, you can find my web comics at tyalt.sevensmith.net and at wychwoodcomic dot com.

48:27.76

Rae

I and I've been Rae and you can find my comic at empyreancomic.com and overlord of ravenfell is on webtoon.

48:39.65

Krispy

Oh my gosh wait. What if the mystical item was like a dragon's egg but it was like his brother or like yeah!

48:43.70

Thorb

Ah, oh oh my God Yeah feel like it for a while.

48:44.18

Delphina

That what I What if.

48:45.84

Rae

Oh and maybe that's why the childhood friend murdered her family.

48:54.91

Delphina

To steal the egg.

48:56.98

Thorb

AH!

48:57.98

Krispy

It writes itself! AHHH!