Jeff Heikkinen
2004-10-22 06:44:08 UTC
For your commentary and/or amusement, here is something I recently
posted as a .txt file on my gaming group's Web site.
Character types to avoid
The hyperkinetic, obnoxious spotlight hog
The Man With No Name
The dual-scimitar-wielding Drow ranger
Conan the Librarian
The Wrong Toadstool
The spotlight hog comes in quite a few varieties. The root of the
problem is usually that the player designed his character as the star of
the show, not as a member of a team; that or the player just lacks the
social graces to back down and let others enjoy the game on something
other than his terms once in a while. Some such players assume that if
the others don't complain in front of them, there isn't a problem, which
shows a rather poor understanding of human nature. In any event, make
sure your character will work with the others and that you as a player
aren't taking up too much more than your share of the group's time and
the GM's effort.
The Man With No Name is the character who comes in with no background or
personality to speak of (this includes most backgrounds of the loner-
orphan-with-a-shadowy-past variety). While it's okay to start out
sketchy and develop the details in play, starting as *too* much of a
blank slate makes it almost impossible for the GM or the other players
to relate to or motivate your character. At a minimum, come in with a
name, a couple of motives or personality traits, a minimal sense of your
character's moral beliefs and a vague idea of where you want your
character to go in the future (it's okay if the latter changes a lot).
The dual-scimitar-wielding Drow ranger refers to obvious ripoffs of
characters from movies, novels, TV series, etc (the direct reference is
to Drizzt Do'Urden, hero of many Forgotten Realms novels and one of the
most frequently "cloned" characters around). While the occasional homage
can work well, in general it takes an experienced player who is flexible
enough to understand that the character *won't* be exactly like the one
in the source material - and even embrace this fact as an opportunity to
put his or her own stamp on it - to pull it off. (Murdock, Laurie
Smith's character in my recently ended Birthright game, is an example of
doing this *well*.) In less capable hands this is a recipe for
disapointment for the player and hard on suspension of disbelief for
everyone else, and even if it works it's likely to be less satisfying in
the long run than something more original in all but a few cases.
Conan the Librarian is what I call characters who have no motivation to
actually go on adventures. At some point your options boil down to two -
retire the character, or take suspension of disbelief out behind the
shed and kill it with an axe. Neither is a very satisfying experience.
Characters surprise you sometimes, and not always in a good way, so
sometimes it can be understandable for this to end up happening, but try
to avoid characters where you can see it coming a mile off. Adventurers
are not normal people; they make their livings taking risks that most
people would dismiss as insane. They need to have ambitions that don't
involve retiring into quiet obscurity.
One other character type to avoid is worth mentioning - the character
who used to be of a normal race like human or elf, but got transformed
into something else after angering a witch, eating the wrong toadstool,
or encountering some other supernatural agent. First of all, in D&D and
some other fantasy games this sort if thing normally isn't that hard to
undo, so the character is likely to lose their big "hook" early on.
Secondly I'm not that enamoured of characters with bizarre races to
begin with. I know a lot of people are, and I am aware that WotC has an
entire book on the subject (as does at least one other D20 publisher),
but personally I just don't see the attraction. But my real objection is
just that it's been overdone in my games over the last few years. If it
hadn't been, I might be more willing to accept it.
--
Let's not let this drift into a topic about playing your alignment. I
have too much to do to be able to properly ridicule and post whore.
- Rob Singers
posted as a .txt file on my gaming group's Web site.
Character types to avoid
The hyperkinetic, obnoxious spotlight hog
The Man With No Name
The dual-scimitar-wielding Drow ranger
Conan the Librarian
The Wrong Toadstool
The spotlight hog comes in quite a few varieties. The root of the
problem is usually that the player designed his character as the star of
the show, not as a member of a team; that or the player just lacks the
social graces to back down and let others enjoy the game on something
other than his terms once in a while. Some such players assume that if
the others don't complain in front of them, there isn't a problem, which
shows a rather poor understanding of human nature. In any event, make
sure your character will work with the others and that you as a player
aren't taking up too much more than your share of the group's time and
the GM's effort.
The Man With No Name is the character who comes in with no background or
personality to speak of (this includes most backgrounds of the loner-
orphan-with-a-shadowy-past variety). While it's okay to start out
sketchy and develop the details in play, starting as *too* much of a
blank slate makes it almost impossible for the GM or the other players
to relate to or motivate your character. At a minimum, come in with a
name, a couple of motives or personality traits, a minimal sense of your
character's moral beliefs and a vague idea of where you want your
character to go in the future (it's okay if the latter changes a lot).
The dual-scimitar-wielding Drow ranger refers to obvious ripoffs of
characters from movies, novels, TV series, etc (the direct reference is
to Drizzt Do'Urden, hero of many Forgotten Realms novels and one of the
most frequently "cloned" characters around). While the occasional homage
can work well, in general it takes an experienced player who is flexible
enough to understand that the character *won't* be exactly like the one
in the source material - and even embrace this fact as an opportunity to
put his or her own stamp on it - to pull it off. (Murdock, Laurie
Smith's character in my recently ended Birthright game, is an example of
doing this *well*.) In less capable hands this is a recipe for
disapointment for the player and hard on suspension of disbelief for
everyone else, and even if it works it's likely to be less satisfying in
the long run than something more original in all but a few cases.
Conan the Librarian is what I call characters who have no motivation to
actually go on adventures. At some point your options boil down to two -
retire the character, or take suspension of disbelief out behind the
shed and kill it with an axe. Neither is a very satisfying experience.
Characters surprise you sometimes, and not always in a good way, so
sometimes it can be understandable for this to end up happening, but try
to avoid characters where you can see it coming a mile off. Adventurers
are not normal people; they make their livings taking risks that most
people would dismiss as insane. They need to have ambitions that don't
involve retiring into quiet obscurity.
One other character type to avoid is worth mentioning - the character
who used to be of a normal race like human or elf, but got transformed
into something else after angering a witch, eating the wrong toadstool,
or encountering some other supernatural agent. First of all, in D&D and
some other fantasy games this sort if thing normally isn't that hard to
undo, so the character is likely to lose their big "hook" early on.
Secondly I'm not that enamoured of characters with bizarre races to
begin with. I know a lot of people are, and I am aware that WotC has an
entire book on the subject (as does at least one other D20 publisher),
but personally I just don't see the attraction. But my real objection is
just that it's been overdone in my games over the last few years. If it
hadn't been, I might be more willing to accept it.
--
Let's not let this drift into a topic about playing your alignment. I
have too much to do to be able to properly ridicule and post whore.
- Rob Singers