Reginald, The Shambler (Zombie Character, Art + Backstory!)

[TheCelloPony]

Hullo, while I was playing I bounced around the idea of a vegetarian character in my head. That lead to me considering what the exact opposite character would be like, and I eventually came up with the idea of a gentleman and scholar who just so happens to be among the walking dead. Funny how things go, huh?

Here's the concept art I drew of him: http://i.imgur.com/mp8k5.jpg

Onto the /meat/ of the concept, then.

WINCHESTER

THE SHAMBLER

Backstory

Winchester hailed from great Britain, born an aristocrat life of privilege and limited tolerance for riff-raff. Bent on getting a major in Biology due to his unrelenting interest in the human body. In the middle of his early studies, however, he caught a sever case of a disease named 'death' after trying to see if the chemical formula he used to preserve the human flesh he researched on in his spare time was edible. After dying, however, he got back up, brushed himself off, and wrote in his log "No, the preservation residue does not taste like turkish delight". His dark science preserving his own corpse in a state of barely-living, he continued his research and completed his studies, getting his Master's degree, all around him blissfully unaware that he was, in fact, a corpse.

Despite his horrid case of 'being dead', Winchester went on to do great service to the world of Biology, particularly in the areas of the human brain. He was suspected to be selling the specimens to the black market, as the brains he was provided would sometimes disappear in his possession, but this was often turned a blind eye to simply because of his brilliance.

Into his later years and as he became more obsessive with his work and the human body in general, little came to be known of Winchester, and the finer details of his person seemed intangible to most.

What was known, however, is that he was a man of few words who would often mumble one or two-word sentences in response to conversation or objects being presented to him, and that he would sometimes mutter the word "Brains" on a whim. They knew he was trustworthy, enough so that they set him the job of investigating the many cases of cannibalism in the area. They knew he held as little regard for the limitations of his discoveries as he did for his personal hygiene, as his dead and rotting flesh peeled away from him (they simply passed this off as a disease and didn't want to be rude in asking of it) and that he was a picky eater who would eat a diet consisting of beef, lamb, pork and human flesh. Despite his quirks, he was well-liked amongst his peers.

However, a series of media tabloid photos taken by sneaky paparazzi revealed to the world his odd behaviorisms, and after further investigation experts reported that he was, in fact, dead. This came as a shock to all of his co-workers, friends, and his wife and children who all had no idea that their loved one was the walking dead. His world ruined, Winchester drunk the night away (up until he ate the bartender, of course) until he passed out, waking up on an island of unknown origin and unpredictable nature.

Abilities

Carnivore - Being a flesh-eating zombie, can only eat meat. Any attempt to consume fruit, vegetables, fauna and any related bi-products of them will only make him hungrier. As a result, strategies such as berry farming or stockpiling honey/eggs are ineffective on him, as he can only eat flesh. This provides a more challenging early game and encourages hunting for fresh meat. To make up for this, he heals more hunger from raw food, not as much as when cooked, but still a larger amount. This allows him to sustain himself away from his encampment or in areas with a lot of meat. Additionally, he can eat Monster Meat with no penalties to his health. However, raw food will not recover health for him at all, forcing him to cook food when damaged, which he will be. As a direct result, cooked Monster Meat will heal him. This encourages him to hunt monsters alongside other reliable meat sources in order to get their meat, making him a combat-focused character who is at risk a lot of the time.

Pain Tolerant - Winchester is incapable of feeling pain. He still sustains damage and eventually dies as every other character does upon being hit by a hostile, but tissue damage and similar effects do not effect him. As such, he can set /himself/ on fire with a torch, and burn enemies and NPCs around him when they get too close. He can also set trees and plants on fire, but not as easily as with a regular forest fire, as human flesh doesn't burn like wood does. This can also serve as a last resort, setting yourself on fire just before your torch runs out in pitch black. This means he can kill enemies a lot faster, light himself up when he needs light and additionally of course makes him immune to fire damage.

Grateful Dead - Winchester is technically stuck in a state of pre-death, where his mysterious concoction that he stupidly drank is the only thing really sustaining him and stopping him from fully dying. As such, he's not really 'dead'. If he's revived through the use of an amulet or item with similar revival qualities, rather than becoming a zombie again he will come back as a human. He has no special qualities, being a regular human being, and won't even grow a beard like Wilson does. This is a form of punishment for using revival tactics, as you lost all of the quirks and advantages that he had as a zombie (The immunity to status effects and ability to set yourself aflame), but also loses the weaknesses (Only being able to consume meat). Adds another layer of depth to him, and forces you to create a new set-up for your new form, as if starting anew.

Horrid Visage - Winchester is, quite frankly, a mess of a man. His flesh and skin peeling away to reveal bone, and the way he shambles as if in constant pain is a terrible sight to behold for anyone. As a result, Pigmen will refuse to accept meat from him and will in fact attack him if he gets in range to give them anything. However, spiders and tallbirds will be horrified of him and will not attack him unless he attacks/steals from their nests respectively. In fact, spiders will run away from him if they're strays (i.e, if Reginald destroyed their nest) and won't attack him unless provoked, even at night.

Personality

As a zombie, his vocabulary is very limited. He can only speak with very simple terms and most of his actual language consists of moans. Like, say you were to examine a tree, he'd simply say "Treeeeee, uhhhhg...", or if you were to examine a rabbit, he'd say "Meeeaat, uuaaaaaaaaah...". Other times, he'll simply moan "Braaaaainnns".

As a human, he becomes much more literate. You could pass him off as simply having Wilson's dialogue, as I understand doing all that work for two characters would be a large order.

But yeah, to close it all off, I'll be really surprised if people end up reading all of that. It became way longer than I originally intended! I just felt that he'd fit the setting and dark humour of the game very well. We have what we can interpret as a madman scientist, a pyromaniac and a young girl who for all we know could have murdered her twin sister. Why not a zombie? Makes about as much sense as everything else (which is the way I like it). So yeah, any opinions would be appreciated, I'd love to be able to play as something of a similar vein!

EDIT: Added some features to him to make him stronger, and more of a 'risk-reward' character, while his human form becomes a 'no risk-no reward' variation. He's supposed to be a character with trade-offs that make him interesting to play, and is supposed to lose those trade-offs upon dying. Thanks for all the critique!

I understand his name doesn't start with a 'W' either. Sorry, I didn't seem to notice that pattern in the game... herp. I've had all instances of his old name replaced with a classier, more fitting one.

Edited November 26, 2012 by TheCelloPony

[TheCelloPony]

No opinions? Comments? Criticisms?

[Cerberis]

People on this forum are scared of walls of texts. Like my posts about a Giant Lady Spider in a top hat which wasn't nearly as bad as the Baron Barrenbaron of Bad News...which was bigger and mostly got comments about how big and scary it was.

[PhelsarusBeel]

Hmmm i need to say i like the idea of an Undead character specialy the part about the inability to eat fruits because this can change a lot in the game because this would reduce you to 4 food sources morsel, meat, drumsticks and monster meat (maybe you should give him the ability to eat monster meat without losing health) also i have some ideas what i would add to an zombie character

How about the ability to attack without a weapon (maybe with his claws or by biting an enemy)

Also i would give some specials about pig interaction like they attack him on sight but you can bite pigs to turn them into zombie pigs that are on your site and you can zombiefie a whole pig town (including the king) of course the zombie pigs would be your enemy when you are a human again

Maybe there could also be a way to turn back into a zombie but it must be realy hard to do so you cant just say "OK im close to death but i have an amulet and i can turn back easlie no need to worry" like how about you can create a potion that can turn you back but i would need 1 mandragora and you need to find a graveyard to burry yourself to raise again as an undead you still could use revive items but it would be harder to turn back into your old form with the benefits

And at last how about a special drop only he could use i talk about brains plain and simple maybe sometimes an enemy could drop one and it would restore a great amount of hunger for him and also some health (basicly his version of the egg but harder to get)

Also you should think about some cooking recipes that could only work with him

So thats all i can think of what you could ad to an undead character but still its your idea and you can do what you want with it but if they would make an zombie character i would hope they take some ideas from your suggestion (because we all know everything improves when you add zombies to it)

[bendking]

I like this, pretty well fleshed out and good ideas, I would like to see this implemented, although I would like other ideas to be in the game first, like the spider trainer idea, that is just super cool.

- - - Updated - - -

I like this, pretty well fleshed out and good ideas, I would like to see this implemented, although I would like other ideas to be in the game first, like the spider trainer idea, that is just super cool.

[Shawn]

Good idea, I like it.

[Robwill]

Nice I like this idea

[Luna Lovecraft]

I quite like the concept of a character that changes its playstyle for whatever reason.

I feel like the advantages to the character aren't clear enough however, I might intentionally make it a point to become a human using this character.

Perhaps something like meat heals the food meter for 1.5 times as much? That could make up for the lack in vegetable foods.

[rojvol]

I was just like "another sucking idea?" but it turned out to be pretty good! But you have to change his name so it will start with "W" thats the rule number one in character creation.

[TheCelloPony]

Hmmm i need to say i like the idea of an Undead character specialy the part about the inability to eat fruits because this can change a lot in the game because this would reduce you to 4 food sources morsel, meat, drumsticks and monster meat (maybe you should give him the ability to eat monster meat without losing health) also i have some ideas what i would add to an zombie character

How about the ability to attack without a weapon (maybe with his claws or by biting an enemy)

Also i would give some specials about pig interaction like they attack him on sight but you can bite pigs to turn them into zombie pigs that are on your site and you can zombiefie a whole pig town (including the king) of course the zombie pigs would be your enemy when you are a human again

Maybe there could also be a way to turn back into a zombie but it must be realy hard to do so you cant just say "OK im close to death but i have an amulet and i can turn back easlie no need to worry" like how about you can create a potion that can turn you back but i would need 1 mandragora and you need to find a graveyard to burry yourself to raise again as an undead you still could use revive items but it would be harder to turn back into your old form with the benefits

And at last how about a special drop only he could use i talk about brains plain and simple maybe sometimes an enemy could drop one and it would restore a great amount of hunger for him and also some health (basicly his version of the egg but harder to get)

Also you should think about some cooking recipes that could only work with him

So thats all i can think of what you could ad to an undead character but still its your idea and you can do what you want with it but if they would make an zombie character i would hope they take some ideas from your suggestion (because we all know everything improves when you add zombies to it)

Hullo, I really like some of your suggestions. I decided to add the idea about the pigmen being hostile towards him when he gets a certain distance.

I'm not sure how much creating an infestation would work, though. He's not designed to be a 'minion master', shall we say. He's more or less intended to be a powerful stand-alone character who is designed to sustain himself as he hunts and able to kill things faster by setting himself on fire to make up for the fact he's avoided by them and can't get assistance from pigmen.

I added the method of revival because, not only did it make sense, but it punished you for reviving because you're forced to change your playstyle and recreate/relocate your encampment as a result.

I considered making 'brains' a rare drop for him, alongside the option of eating corpses and making it so his hunger doesn't deplete for a while after getting it full. The problem with all of them was it would make it too easy for him to stockpile food and would encourage him to set up a place and get a lot of brains or be able to save up food because he'd just be able to eat corpses or enjoy his grace period of his hunger not depleting. I designed him with a hunting-based aesthetic in mind, as a character who is forced to explore the world and near-constantly kill other creatures as a mans of survival, just as you'd expect a zombie to. Your ideas certainly hold water, but I don't think they fit this particular design of a zombie!

[TheCelloPony]

I quite like the concept of a character that changes its playstyle for whatever reason.

I feel like the advantages to the character aren't clear enough however, I might intentionally make it a point to become a human using this character.

Perhaps something like meat heals the food meter for 1.5 times as much? That could make up for the lack in vegetable foods.

Hey, thanks for the criticism. You're completely right, I don't think his weakness of only eating meat makes up for his ability to kill things faster either. I made a change so that raw meats sate his hunger more than normally, but makes it so only cooked foods can restore his health as a result. I think it sounds like a nice trade-off and means he's encouraged to heal up and ready himself for more hunting at the end of the day, especially since monster meat won't hurt him and he'll as a result be more combat-orientated. Thanks again!

[PhelsarusBeel]

Hullo, I really like some of your suggestions. I decided to add the idea about the pigmen being hostile towards him when he gets a certain distance.

I'm not sure how much creating an infestation would work, though. He's not designed to be a 'minion master', shall we say. He's more or less intended to be a powerful stand-alone character who is designed to sustain himself as he hunts and able to kill things faster by setting himself on fire to make up for the fact he's avoided by them and can't get assistance from pigmen.

I added the method of revival because, not only did it make sense, but it punished you for reviving because you're forced to change your playstyle and recreate/relocate your encampment as a result.

I considered making 'brains' a rare drop for him, alongside the option of eating corpses and making it so his hunger doesn't deplete for a while after getting it full. The problem with all of them was it would make it too easy for him to stockpile food and would encourage him to set up a place and get a lot of brains or be able to save up food because he'd just be able to eat corpses or enjoy his grace period of his hunger not depleting. I designed him with a hunting-based aesthetic in mind, as a character who is forced to explore the world and near-constantly kill other creatures as a mans of survival, just as you'd expect a zombie to. Your ideas certainly hold water, but I don't think they fit this particular design of a zombie!

Thanks that i was able to improve your idea

To the thing with the pig infestation it was more of an idea so he can still trade with the pigs it wasnt meant for controlling the pigs just so you can still get the gold for trading meat with the zombiefied pig king but maybe you could choose something different like instead of pig towns you can find a skeleton or ghost king that you could use for trade just so he has no disadvante when it comes to tools or research with gold i mean there is already an idea for a minion master and 2 of them would be kinda boring

[Llyr]

Odd that I just made a viking themed char who can only gain hunger benefits from meats, but can heal off of berries and such....

[horatio_svetlana]

Love the backstory. Great idea for how the mechanics of it would work.

I think zombiefying the pigs should just make them the same to you as they normally would be. You'd still have to feed them meat to get them to follow, course, they'd be all zombied up.

Also think he should take fire damage, however he can still be lit on fire. So it'll be useful, but Willow already has the no fire damage thing.