Overhaul help thread...

[Piero]

I'd been planning to overhaul the "Milan Trio," the three cyborgs I'd played in the Milan RPG back when it was around, and I figured it would be useful to have a sounding board for my ideas on what I'd like to do with them. The objective of this exercise is to get some second opinions on ideas to improve these characters. I made this a general overhaul thread since I've got a bunch of other characters who I might end up overhauling in the future.

Anyway, to start with, here's the background on the three girl's handlers (I figure it's important to know who their handlers are):

Adelina's handler is Arturo Bertoni. He is in his mid thirties and is a former member of the Carabinieri's elite "Tuscania" paratrooper regiment. He's very level headed. In the Milan RPG he was the "senior" handler at the new Milan branch and had something of a leadership role.

Elisabetta's handler is Sonia Milani. Sonia is a former Polizia di Stato officer and is rather young for a handler. She joined the SWA because she wanted to carry on the work of her older sister, a SISDE agent who was killed in the line of duty.

Gina's handler is Adamo. He's a type A overachiever from a family with a long history with the Carabinieri. He served briefly with the GIS before being temporarily sidelined by an injury. His combat skills are excellent, but he's not so good at dealng with the interpersonal aspect of being a handler. (To start with he was stupid enough to think a teenager would be easier to deal with than a young child.)


Anyhow, this are how I'm thinking of portraying the girls in their revised profiles:

Gina has a bit of a mischievious streak, and is particularly notorious for her tendency to hit on other cyborgs (I figure that she tends to be half joking, half serious when she does that). With the revised version of her character, I'm thinking of really playing up the idea that she's a person who knows feel's she's lucky to have a second shot at life and intends to make the most of it. If she gets in a little trouble along the way, so be it.

She's also an exceptionally good operator. She knows she was given a second shot at life to do a job and she is very good at that job. On the other hand however I'm thinking she also doesn't feel she owes the SWA and her handler much more than a good on the job performance. I'm thinking she may even somewhat dislike her feelings of loyalty towards her handler. She knows they're probably the result of her conditioning (which is fairly light, but present). Plus Adamo is a really serious guy, and with Gina being the type of person she is, well... would you really expect her not to try to cause him some headaches when he makes himself such a tempting target?

Elisabetta is also a very mischievious character. She's inquisitive and intelligent. She's also cute and has a handler who is very fond of her -and she is well aware of those facts. I'm hoping that people can buy that a micheivious disposition is likely to crop up under those circumstances.

I'd previously thought that Elisabetta and Gina might be "sisters in arms" of a sort due to them both having mischievious tendencies, but I've been reconsidering that aspect. At the very least I'm thinking of ditching the ideas of them being roommates.

Finally there's Adelina, who really could use a bit of an overhaul. She was kind of the straight man to Gina and Elisabetta, and is somewhat overshadowed by them because of it. I want to try to make her more interesting. The trick is going to be doing that without destroying her character. In the Milan RPG she had a leadership role because of her status as a member of the seniormost fratello that was transferred to the new branch.

For some reason, I'm kind of tempted to give her some moe-ish traits. I've thought she might have a bit of a complex about how young she looks (in the Milan RPG she tried to make herself look more like her actual age (nineteen) rather then the fifteen years she was back when she was converted) and possibly about how some of the newer operatives are better at certain things than she is. On the other hand however if she's actually a well seasoned veteran she should probably realise that it probably doesn't matter if some of the younger cyborgs are better than she is at certain tasks. Also I'd thought about taking a cue from a certain character from a recent anime and giving her a major sweet tooth. I'm thinking however that she doesn't like letting that sweet tooth show because she's trying to project a serious image.

Actually I'd been thinking that Adelina and Gina might make a fun pair. Their handlers are former members of units that had close connections, and Adelina's seriousness would make her a perfect target for Gina's mischievious side.

[ElfenMagix]

Overhauling them should not be hard at all.
Just take them out of the RPG and use them elsewhere. Since they are already predefined, unless you want to change some of the definition around, they should still be useful in other RPG, Art, and Stories.

[Piero]

In the past, I'd often found that talking things over with someone else could be very helpful if I was feeling uncertain about how to handle particular aspects of my OCs. Granted I get the impression that sometimes the act of actually telling someone what I was thinking of doing could make me more confident in it, but regardless of whether it was actual feedback that helped or whether simply getting the ideas out helped, the point is that those discussions did prove helpful. Plus other people may be able to offer suggestions or expand on an idea, which can be useful.

[ElfenMagix]

What do you in them so far:
What specialities?
What weapons?
What tactics?...

And of course, what history of origin?

[Professor Voodoo]

Finally there's Adelina, who really could use a bit of an overhaul. She was kind of the straight man to Gina and Elisabetta,

The "straight man" can be a funny character, but you really have to put in the hard work of establishing persona first. Once the audience is comfortable with who Adelina is it becomes doubly funny when she breaks character and does something unexpected.

The classic way of using a serious charcter outnumbered by pranksters is to make her unduly dignified then heap comic misfortune upon her head.

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