Other Creating a League of Legends Champion

[Steel Accord]

So I normally love to create characters that exist in a given setting. Thing is, in those instances I usually have some hard rule set to stick to like rough character classes or archetypes to fit into a given setting. Like Star Wars has Jedi, Bounty Hunters, etc. Or 40K has the various factions and units therein. League of Legends though? . . . I mean the cast is already so eclectic that it's hard to know where to even start. Sure I could pick a region like Demacia or Ionia but that still casts a rather broad net. So do you guys have any questions to answer or some rough outline of creating a League Champion to RP as?

 

[Ransokyos]

I have a few ideas for an LoL character.

 

[Steel Accord]

I have a few ideas for an LoL character.

Such as?

 

[Ransokyos]

Such as?

One character I recently came up with has a unique Elemental Talent, though initially, he is only able to employ one element at a time, but in time will be able to merge two, or even three different elements as a new one. He can, however, shift between each Element (in this case, Fire, Earth, Water, Light, Air, Thunder, Venom, Darkness, and Illusion) though the tenth Element requires a very particular way to awaken it.

Each Element also has a Virtue tied to it and he gains a stronger connection to the given Element through its Virtue. Though he won't know what said Virtues are until they reveal themselves in times of great stress.

 

[Steel Accord]

One character I recently came up with has a unique Elemental Talent, though initially, he is only able to employ one element at a time, but in time will be able to merge two, or even three different elements as a new one. He can, however, shift between each Element (in this case, Fire, Earth, Water, Light, Air, Thunder, Venom, Darkness, and Illusion) though the tenth Element requires a very particular way to awaken it.

Each Element also has a Virtue tied to it and he gains a stronger connection to the given Element through its Virtue. Though he won't know what said Virtues are until they reveal themselves in times of great stress.

Where does this character come from and how did they acquire this magic?

 

[Ransokyos]

He's from another roleplay I have active. The ability lay dormant deep within his soul and Heart. It awoke under a time of great, life-threatening duress.

 

[Alteras]

Well, I think there's 2 general ways you can approach this:
1) Think of the Lore
2) Think of the Mechanics

LoreWhile it may be easy to say "pick a region," its honestly hard to do, and the most you'll get out of it is the aesthetic of the character. What you can do, if you're familiar with the indepth lore of LoL, is choose an event (and not like Noxus invades Ionia, but something more like "Twitch's corp poisons the battlefield, causing friendly fire on Riven's troops, leading to Riven's whole new character and lore"), and run with it. Of course, because of how often Riot changes the lore, there actually isn't much you can rely on other than generalities.

A way to subvert this is to make a new event, or piggyback off a general event (i.e. the war). This actually seems to be the path most riot devs take when doing lore, which makes sense since it reduces the chances of the champion as being taken as a 3rd wheel in a major character backstory. A good example of this would be Jhin, who both has a good backstory (not to mention amazing reveal), but also has a lore that didn't "alter reality" (he is an assassin, making him easy to fit into the Noxus invasion while also leaving him room to be his own).

Another one would be Tahm Kench. His lore is great. While he has no lore based interaction with other champions, he is still able to stand on his own while adding to Runeterra. His lore can effectively be a standalone story, but just the fact that he's from Bligewater not only makes his own demeanor slightly darker, but adds to the flavor of Bligewater being this backwater territory of pirates and monsters.

Unfortunately, what I described is quite general. Of course you can follow the path of "Race > Nationality > Character Alignment > etc." which will actually be a bit more streamlined than you think, while also applying what I said about adding to the Lore.

MechanicsThis is more like thinking as a Riot game dev. This method is much easier when you're creating a character for a combat oriented RP, since it would (hopefully) be a balanced character. Your sources of reference will basically be dev blogs, interviews, etc. Anything where the game dev(s) sat down and talked about how they approached a character. Honestly, even from here, you can sub divide it into "mechanics" and "lore" once more, but I think a better categorization if you follow this path is to either "follow a concept" or "fill a gap."

A good example of follow a concept would be Braum. During one of the dev vlogs, they explained that Braum started from the idea of someone carrying a giant shield. While they made the abilities, they almost made a completely different champion to Braum, which they described as "just a person who happens to carry a shield." So they backtracked and made all the abilities shield-centric, which led to Braum.

Something you should note, when they do something like this, the devs think of the abilities before even thinking about what the lore of the character should be, or what they should look like. For them, the aesthetic came from the abilities, not the other way around.

As for fill a gap, this is mostly the idea that some kind of playstyle is missing from some place. This has more to do with the meta of LoL (stares at Pyke), but if we only consider champions, this would be the equivalent of saying "We don't have a healer in our DnD party." Of course, with how vibrant the cast is, its difficult to think of a concept that isn't there. To be honest, this is really all based on feel, what the "player" would like to play as. Unfortunately, this is basically starting at square 1.

Perhaps a better way, albeit just 1% better, would to take the old Lore for Summoners and imagine what the "Summoners," "Nations," "In lore people," would want to see in Summoner's Rift. Of course this is really just the Lore interpretation of a Champion joining the league, especially an old lore. However, this can play well for you. There have been champions whose whole lores are entirely reliant on Summoners, such as old Jax lore.

I don't recommend "Fill a gap" from a mechanics standpoint, just because there's a high chance it'll leave the character feeling like a leftover.

Some ThoughtsLeague of Legends Lore is amazingly vibrant (albeit stupidly inconsistent at times), and it'll be tough to fit in a champion into it. Personally, the way I'll approach this would be to think of a someone fun to play as, and then either fit them into an existing event, or make its own dedicated event, and then think of the abilities from said backstory.

I'm well aware what I just said is kinda unsatisfactory, with it being quite general and applicable to almost any fandom, but it's probably the best since we're kinda at square 1 for this.

 

[Ransokyos]

I've always wondered how the Champions might react to Summoners from outside Runeterra showing up abruptly.

 

[Steel Accord]

League of Legends Lore is amazingly vibrant (albeit stupidly inconsistent at times), and it'll be tough to fit in a champion into it. Personally, the way I'll approach this would be to think of a someone fun to play as, and then either fit them into an existing event, or make its own dedicated event, and then think of the abilities from said backstory.

I'm well aware what I just said is kinda unsatisfactory, with it being quite general and applicable to almost any fandom, but it's probably the best since we're kinda at square 1 for this.

Actually it isn't unsatisfactory at all and the advice IS rather LoL specific. Not every fandom casts such a wide net. Thank you.