How would you create a young John Constantine type character? Would you shoehorn him into an Infrnal Skin, because he’s had problems with demons and addiction, or would you create a new Skin altogether.
For those unfamiliar with the Hellblazer character he’s essentially an occultist who, in attempting to save the world and his own soul will frequently use others, as bait, as distractions, as long as the ends justifies the means. He’s clever, he knows his stuff, but he’s a poisonous little viper that will bite you if it saves his own skin. He has elements of the trickster, and although arguably a good guy he’s, well, a selfish one, who looks out for himself before others (and saving the world may well be just a means to saving himself in the long run).
That’s broad brush-strokes, I suppose – more details can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Constantine
In short, however, he spent his teenaged years as a rebel, a runaway and a punk – at heart he’s a charismatic charlatan and a man who lives by his own rules – there are elements of the Infernal in there, but it’s unlikely he’d ever bow down to a demon unless he had no other option…
Infernal with magic as dark power
The last time I played an Infernal, I explicitly made the connection to Constantine, although I went beyond that. I played him as a wise ass kid who’d made a pact with the devil to survive leukemia (pace Bad Habits).
I sort of want to spin him as a Serpentine, with his family being all the old friends he’s led to their dooms.
Of course young Constantine hasn’t doomed too many people. Yet. 🙂
I think the most straightforward answer is the infernal, but to be honest you can probably shoehorn him into quite a few skins, and you probably don’t want to play an exact copy in any case.
John Constantine was very much a man of his and this one of the things the various reboots have failed to really address. The Swamp Thing/Hellblazer Constantine was a punk who hated Thatcher and hopped in and out of creaking NHS mental institutes in the 80s before the radical transformation of mental healthcare with care in the community et al. You can’t just substitute punk with acid house and Ravenscar with Newcastle CAMHS and end up with the same character.
A young Constantine now would probably be a disaffected former member of Occupy living in a squat in Manor House in constant fear of eviction and impressing hipsters with magic tricks to get by on drink and drugs. I would focus on the essence of that character you want first – it has to be more than just John Constantine.
The fun would be making him a totally different skin. I can see how it could work with Ghoul, Chosen and Queen for example. Constantine has always been a bit of a Vampire, and Witch has possibilities as well.
At the end of the day, you’re only telling chapter one of that character’s story and if you plan to keep it feral, it might end up going in a totally different direction to what you originally planned.
If you want him to do somewhat right in the end or at least mean to, yet drag all his friends into terrible places with him, the Choosen might be a good choice.
I agree, the Infernal is the simplest Skin – there are obvious connections.
That said there are elements of the character I don’t see as well represented, and I was considering what would fill that void, what sort of Skin.
To me John has always been a trickster more than a straight forward magician, and I’ve not seen anything that quite fits that role. His backstory certainly has moments when he could’ve been considered Infernal, even if he wriggled his way out of that situation, and whilst he seems to have some of the same nuances as the Witch he doesn’t seem quite as pissed off. Or unjustifiably pissed off, I suppose.
I think ultimately I’d be curious as to how to create a young Constantine-like character, a cocky bastard who knows a thing or two about magic, but ultimately thinks he knows more than he does, and yet who has an uncanny knack for landing on his feet when everything falls down around him. Part of me has always thought of Constantine as a human Loki, someone who plays with fire and whose friends often get burnt as a result.
I suppose I’d like to see that sort of character in the early stages, seeing what drove them to become the bastard they are (and then, since it’d not be a carbon copy of John, seeing what fresh hells the character throws himself into as he matures).
Sounds like a Witch to me.
Hmmm. Doesn’t quite mesh together for me.
Even as a punk, JC was too pretentious to be a punk. Have you read Venus of the Hardsell (or even better, heard: http://youtu.be/lV6Sl_u1s3M)? It’s easily two songs back to back. Of course, it could just be that Jaimie Delano didn’t understand the genre, but I see hipster ideals appealing to a young John.
I think JC was very much a British punk. This is the scene that mutated into the New Romantics and Goth. They very much had a pretentious side.
Afaik Jamie Delano was just reporting his own youth.
Yeah, I’d say that the character had some very definite British punk leanings, particularly with the retrospective punk stories in the final story arc. I can see how some hipster elements might appeal to John, but on the whole I see him as reactionary, fighting against things that he disagreed with, even if it was more attitude than planned rebellion.
Chosen with the Arsenal move sounds right too.