Kay, so... 8 of those pictures aren't even MY characters, 2 of them actually having "original" designs,
Super Mystic doesn't even count; it's a form, so don't cry,
Striker is literally solely made to be able to compete with overpowered SRB2 characters,
And the rest have an actual backstory to them. Don't judge a book by it's cover.
P.S.: Why don't you set an example?
Oh goody. This will be more fun than I had expected.
I'm going to take a gander and say the 8 that you're talking about are two SMS pics, three Sonic pics, Jill, May and... Conduit or something? Still leaves like 16 pictures that actually are your characters. And I'm going to guess that the two "original" you're referring to are Cyan Aqua and... god I don't even know what. Cyan is literally the only character in your library that isn't a hedgehog or fox. Or I
think it isn't; looks more like a wolf. Even then, his whole design feels rather contrived. Overly clothed with an oversaturated palette. Manipulates water (Because you have to make him an elemental gimmick that isn't
too overpowered right? Most characters are manipulating fire after all. Or lightning. Or the fabric of time and space.)
"Super Mystic doesn't even count; it's a form, so don't cry" -- Oh good to know, Super Mystic Tails isn't original enough to be a fancharacter; it's even lower than that. Thanks for establishing this for me.
"Striker is literally solely made to be able to compete with overpowered SRB2 characters" - And you think this is a good thing,
why? You've literally just made a character that's more overpowered than everything else. Also he's a hedgehog, probably from an ancient race or something. Bonus points for breaking the same ground as everyone else there.
"And the rest have an
actual backstory to them. Don't judge a book by it's cover." - I couldn't give two shits what your backstory is. The fact of the matter is that your perception of what a "good" fancharacter is is narrowly limited to the character designs set by the official cast. Pretty much all of them use Sonic or Tails as their base, change the color, put way too many clothes on them, give them hairstyles or different tribal markings, and then give them some sort of elemental power. The worst of the official games don't do this. Look at the cast: Blaze the Cat, Cream the Rabbit, Chaos, Emerl, Vector the Crocodile, Jet, and notice how all of these are not only different
species (if Chaos and Emerl can even be classified as that), but also have dramatically different designs. The least original characters ever introduced to the series
might have been Shadow and Silver, and you've easily trumped their level of mediocrity simply by trying to justify them with clutter and trinkets.
If it seems like I'm being hard on you, don't worry; your work isn't even close to the worst example in the Sonic community, if only because the bar has been set so low to begin with. And for what it's worth, you're probably not as clueless compared to your roleplaying friends' notions of originality.
I personally don't do fan characters because I have no use for them. If I were to actually make a character (and I do have the art and mental capability for it), it would have a functional purpose, likely for an SRB2 character wad that uses some sort of fun gimmick, and its design would be inspired by how it plays. I would avoid copying off of the designs of any of the official cast and would instead strive for something new that follows the general art style of SRB2/the old Sonic games.
If you want my opinion on what a
decent fan character is, here are a couple examples:
http://www.deviantart.com/art/Just-plain-Ruby-63011078
A species less frequently used, nonderivative and not overcomplicated design, a focused color scheming. To my knowledge, the only functional purpose of jen's characters is to bend elements and act as some of the official characters' girlfriends, which is not that inspiring. But from an aesthetic standpoint she does a good job.
http://mb.srb2.org/showthread.php?t=31025
Yes, Hinote is a decent character. Species less frequently used, nonderivative design, focused color scheming. Her personality is imbued into her sprites, and her gameplay is balanced and simple, but also distinct from the official characters.
Honorable mention:
http://mb.srb2.org/showthread.php?t=37629
Obviously Tails inspired, but the stylization is so distinct from anything else on here that I can't really criticize it.