So about a year ago I saw a post on Reddit of concept art of Charon, the ferryman of the dead as a taxi driver, full post here.
After revisiting that post, I still really liked the idea, since it feels like it would fit near seamlessly thematically into Deadlock's world of occult noir. That's why I wanted to post it here, asking for it to be considered as a hero for the future, as well as sharing some of my (admittedly rough) concepts for his abilities. I used https://itzfred.github.io/Deadlock-Graphic-Designer/ to make some basic ideas, and after workshopping them a bit on the discord server and reddit, I present some ideas for consideration. I know the numbers are off, I have no idea what would be balanced, but I wanted to share the general ideas anyway, since numbers can always be tweaked.
General idea of what kind of character Charon would be: with these abilities, I see Charon as a sort of area denial/support hybrid, similar to paige. His abilities revolve around him being a former ferryman turned cabbie, so I experimented with some different ideas.
1. Lantern of Guidance. The reasoning for this is that in many descriptions, Charon has a light affixed to the front of his boat, and I figured that could be interesting. I wanted to set him apart by having his abilities be less healing and more speed focused, and this is the perfect encapsulation of that. It encourages people to group up close to him, "guiding," them. I hate to make the reference, but when it's activated it could sort of work as a "boostio from overwatch."
2. Deluge of the Damned. I initially created this as a sort of hard cc, and that still may be applicable, but then I figured, why not give him a slight movement ability of his own, since he's always ferrying people around himself. That's why I gave him a sort of on-demand double jump, to increase his vertical moveset, which I feel could be really fun.
3a. Traveler's Fare. I struggled with this ability for a while, and after receiving feedback, decided to rework it entirely to Traveler's Insurance. I'm including it anyway because maybe someone with more game design experience could workshop it to something better, maybe something that's just the coin projectile, completely scrapping the paying soul currency for an ability gimmick (more on that soon).
3b. Traveler's Insurance. This is also pretty sloppy I admit, having been told it's just a better version of Luggage Cart for Doorman. Still including it because maybe the idea itself has merit, just needs some workshopping. I just think players would have fun being able to drive a car around and hit enemy players, even if it's just for a short time.
3. Cabbie of the Dead. Again, I wanted to lean into the idea of transporting the dead, and since Victor's ult is a thing, this may not be totally broken balance wise. It's a bit unstable considering I set it up so it only affects your teammates, and can't be used as a power spike for yourself. Maybe he can use it on himself? I don't know how that would separate it from Victor's ult, but I still feel that it could be interesting to use/play against. Again, rough idea, just wanted to get it out there.
On the idea of spending souls: I initially had that set up for traveler's fare and cabbie of the dead, since a big part of the mythos of the ferryman is accepting coin of the dead for passage to the underworld, and I wanted to incorporate that into his kit/mechanics. However, upon reflection, having abilities tied to the in-game currency is probably a bad idea. So maybe do his abilities without needing to tie in the soul system.
Again, these are very rough ideas, and could be replaced entirely with abilities that synergize better and tie together thematically, but I wanted to share the concept itself. To me, it really feels like a natural continuation of the themes of the game, and I think Charon as a playable character could be a lot of fun. Again, I take no credit for the original concept and concept art, that belongs to u/GloomFruit.
I hope you take this idea into consideration.
After revisiting that post, I still really liked the idea, since it feels like it would fit near seamlessly thematically into Deadlock's world of occult noir. That's why I wanted to post it here, asking for it to be considered as a hero for the future, as well as sharing some of my (admittedly rough) concepts for his abilities. I used https://itzfred.github.io/Deadlock-Graphic-Designer/ to make some basic ideas, and after workshopping them a bit on the discord server and reddit, I present some ideas for consideration. I know the numbers are off, I have no idea what would be balanced, but I wanted to share the general ideas anyway, since numbers can always be tweaked.
General idea of what kind of character Charon would be: with these abilities, I see Charon as a sort of area denial/support hybrid, similar to paige. His abilities revolve around him being a former ferryman turned cabbie, so I experimented with some different ideas.
1. Lantern of Guidance. The reasoning for this is that in many descriptions, Charon has a light affixed to the front of his boat, and I figured that could be interesting. I wanted to set him apart by having his abilities be less healing and more speed focused, and this is the perfect encapsulation of that. It encourages people to group up close to him, "guiding," them. I hate to make the reference, but when it's activated it could sort of work as a "boostio from overwatch."
2. Deluge of the Damned. I initially created this as a sort of hard cc, and that still may be applicable, but then I figured, why not give him a slight movement ability of his own, since he's always ferrying people around himself. That's why I gave him a sort of on-demand double jump, to increase his vertical moveset, which I feel could be really fun.
3a. Traveler's Fare. I struggled with this ability for a while, and after receiving feedback, decided to rework it entirely to Traveler's Insurance. I'm including it anyway because maybe someone with more game design experience could workshop it to something better, maybe something that's just the coin projectile, completely scrapping the paying soul currency for an ability gimmick (more on that soon).
3b. Traveler's Insurance. This is also pretty sloppy I admit, having been told it's just a better version of Luggage Cart for Doorman. Still including it because maybe the idea itself has merit, just needs some workshopping. I just think players would have fun being able to drive a car around and hit enemy players, even if it's just for a short time.
3. Cabbie of the Dead. Again, I wanted to lean into the idea of transporting the dead, and since Victor's ult is a thing, this may not be totally broken balance wise. It's a bit unstable considering I set it up so it only affects your teammates, and can't be used as a power spike for yourself. Maybe he can use it on himself? I don't know how that would separate it from Victor's ult, but I still feel that it could be interesting to use/play against. Again, rough idea, just wanted to get it out there.
On the idea of spending souls: I initially had that set up for traveler's fare and cabbie of the dead, since a big part of the mythos of the ferryman is accepting coin of the dead for passage to the underworld, and I wanted to incorporate that into his kit/mechanics. However, upon reflection, having abilities tied to the in-game currency is probably a bad idea. So maybe do his abilities without needing to tie in the soul system.
Again, these are very rough ideas, and could be replaced entirely with abilities that synergize better and tie together thematically, but I wanted to share the concept itself. To me, it really feels like a natural continuation of the themes of the game, and I think Charon as a playable character could be a lot of fun. Again, I take no credit for the original concept and concept art, that belongs to u/GloomFruit.
I hope you take this idea into consideration.
