[RP maybe] Talking with some friends about potentially joining their game with supernatural themes. One of my character ideas is just

Alien that pretends to be a human just. Really unconvincingly

Basically the Steve Buscemi "hello fellow kids" meme:

Which lead me to think maybe... maybe he does just look like young Steve Buscemi.

^That face is exactly the level of earnest and "oh, I think I am doing this well!" I'd be going for

Omg that would be amazing

Imagine this face asking, "May I have one of your earth-twinkies so that I may partake in human metabolic processes? As we humans are known to do?'

"Greetings fellow human teenagers. Shall we go to the establishment known as "Ruby's Diner" which I am lead to believe is a popular location for an activity known as "hanging out"?"

...Not sure if the bit is sustainable long-term, but could make for a good "dip my toes in the water" minor character while getting a feel for the game.

I mean I think it could be sustainable depending on what kind of long term development you'd want alien to have

thinking real hard about Ax from animorphs

You've got a good point about long term development. That really should be the main thing to aim for since that's where the sustainability would come from.

I've got about... 4? Sketchy potential character ideas to play off of.

So I probably need to lurk the threads a bit and see what jumps out at me.

(Right now the half-fish-person or fae changeling ideas probably have the best tie-ins for a long term story arc. Since both would have a "find out more about my origins/where I came from and what that means for me, a teenager" story hooks)

I love them already.

Ahaha, yay~

hee, that's always fun

defamiliarization

Ooh, there’s a term for it! Of course there’s a term for it--but yes! Good times!

Okay, so what I am leaning more towards making (because I have better ideas for a background). Is a girl who is a theatre/performing arts buff who is visiting The Weird Town because her dad lives there and the weird powers she gets imbued with while visiting are siren-like.

...Which leads me to realize. I am basically just making another bard character.

This would make my... third bard-ish character? LOOK. I CAN STOP ANY TIME I WANT!!

(might still pick up the alien as an NPC/secondary character, tho)

Also, thinking about how these powers would play out. The upside to the powers: they could result in great moments of Persuasion and Charisma, obviously.
Downside is I am thinking: draws the Attention of things you don't want to get attention from (aka: the eldritch beings in the area)

Maybe she has one (1) physically offensive attack (Black Canary-ish scream) the nerf being she might well take a bit of damage from her own attack.

And OF COURSE I am going to crib Cutting Words from the actual 5e D&D spec. She is a high school aged kid, she probably had this in her repertoire before Weird Powers came into play.

LMAO class ability for high school girls

I mean, if anyone can deal psychic damage without trying, it’s teenagers

(Teenagers and toddlers. My dad still avoids singing in front of people because I told him to stop at 3 y.o. >_> )

akska oh no... IT'S TRUE THO