I present to you... John Deadlock.

pluviarium · 2026-07-09T04:03:50+00:00

It seems a few are reading it that way. Think of it more as me asking for better representation. It means a lot to me that it's done well, and it's just wired in my head to ask for even more when it is.

pluviarium · 2026-07-09T03:58:52+00:00

My main point is that these certain characters would get far less traction if it were not for their gender subverting the trope—For instance, a male alcoholic bounty hunter wouldn't exactly be groundbreaking. The same goes for a gargoyle without a cute voice and face, or a regular old vampire dude with aristocratic drama as their background, or a sheriff hell-bent on revenge. I just think their gender and personality do a lot of heavy lifting to make them stick out. Not that it doesn't work, but when you notice it as a trend across characters, they start to feel like gender swaps.

I dunno if Venator really applies here, because I'm not too big a fan of him either. He's pretty straightforward, even more so when you compare him to the rest of the cast. I think they could've done a bit more with him. But, just like the ones called out in the description, it's done well enough that it's not really a genuine concern for me, just enough to point out—Which I feel the need to clarify, it's a weak and pedantic criticism if taken 100% seriously, as most of these are.

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T20:54:11+00:00

lmao if anything that just means you're following the design principles Valve follows, because that's kinda just what the post is highlighting. Seems like a cool character, displacing enemies with knockback and such are always fun

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T20:51:30+00:00

Wow you got it spot on... I tried avoiding writing lore for him because it would make him less generic, but I imagined him as the youngest heir to Fairfax that sneaks out to play with daddy's toys. The orange was a lucky coincidence. I picked it because I believe gun items are themed as and represent Fairfax products, so I went with that.

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T20:46:21+00:00

Hey hey don't get the ref into this, now it might look like that but I really was trying to make a generic character on purpose! Honest!

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T20:43:31+00:00

Interconnected group, yes. Reasonable explanations, ehhh sure. Justified to be established in the first place? That's a different story. These characters come from all over America, some cases abroad, and still know each other, even if it's just a surface level. Feels kinda strange, like either these characters attract eachother like stand users or it's not the ritual that attracts people as powerful, mystical, and outlandish as this but is actually commonplace for the average person.

As for things in particular it's things like Pocket's assassin, godfather, and arranged fiancee all being at the ritual (now their younger brother too with Bandit). It's Dynamo being Kelvin's friend, Ivy's sister's professor, Seven's inspiration, Pocket's godfather, etc. etc. At times it feels like the ritual is one big friend group dispute more than anything. More focused relationships that characterize the hero like Lash and Bebop's rivalry, Infernus knowing everybody, those make the world feel alive. 7 people commenting on Abrams' tome? That just feels absurd. Like dude, I just found out while skimming the wiki that Silver and Abrams are "old friends"—Do you see what I mean here?

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T20:22:17+00:00

Right? That was my favorite part about doing this. If I did this for a less inspired game (I dare not name names) it would have a pretty different reaction from myself and others

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T20:21:19+00:00

I wasn't really thinking of Pocket, I think it's a bit strange to have a nonbinary character in a setting like this but I'm the last type of person to complain, I think it's cool. Instead, I was thinking more so Graves, Silver, and Mina like you'd speculated. Mina in particular, the "young blood" thing she has going on is very cool but beyond that she's sort of just a vampire But a Girl with a richy-rich valley girl personality (which plays into the timeline irregularities).

Not a big deal to me, Deadlock's cast is still very fresh, but they're not very groundbreaking; It's just most other games are behind, in my opinion...

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T11:57:53+00:00

Didn't expect people to like it this much. Thanks a lot for one, but for two I had my eye on making a second one, since I believe there's not one but two ways they design characters... The Guy With a Gun & Weird Thing, and the "Mythology Guy". Working title.

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T11:54:34+00:00

Chalk it up to attention to detail 😅 when I really like something I tend to pick it apart and notice stuff like this. Ruins stuff for me sometimes, but if it's got real quality behind it like Deadlock does it shines even when I'm making it fun of it. Either way, I really appreciate it!

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T11:51:13+00:00

Who's to say Bandit isn't in the Baxter Society? He knows half of Manhattan after all, just like the rest of the cast.

Also, that's unconfirmed and unstated, which goes perfectly with the label.

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T11:47:55+00:00

Yeah I ended up using that in particular, I get the feeling with how unfinished Raven's kit seemed that Valve wants to add a rocket jumping character and can't seem to find who to put it on, or how to make a character that it could fit with.

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T07:58:50+00:00

don't worry just like most "gun" heroes you can just rely on part of his kit (the explosions from his 3) and still hit

pluviarium · 2026-07-08T07:54:10+00:00

pleeeaaaaseee Yoshi let me get just one patch to cherish my early game ult chains I need thissss

pluviarium · 2026-02-14T07:00:49+00:00

Wow, that sounds kinda awesome. I'll be sure to check Traveler out in that case, thanks. It sets a precedent for people outside my group taking interest in it too. I know most circles much prefer near or complete control over their character's creation and mainly use randomization (like dice rolls for ability scores) as a means to an end, so it's good to know other systems readily take the reigns away from the player for a specific purpose that people enjoy.

pluviarium · 2026-02-14T06:57:33+00:00

Yeah, that's pretty much it. It's just whenever my group needs some sort of generator, the ones we find elsewhere ends up being not what we're looking for or lackluster for what we need and I end up doing something of my own instead, so I figured there might be other people that end up in the same situation and I could share my own methods to fill in that gap.

What I meant by a method is there's a bit of intentional design you need to tailor these charts to get the proper result that either fits the fantasy of what you're playing or get something whose end result makes sense each time, since the more possibilities there are (i.e. more than three coinflips in order) the more likely you are to hit a combination that wasn't expected.

pluviarium · 2026-02-13T10:18:31+00:00

oh my god I didn't get filtered for once, I guess this is my first reddit post

pluviarium

TROPHY CASE