@Amber's Rant (8/13)

[j31c3n]

Since it has little-to-nothing to do with the comic itself, I thought I'd make a new post for it.

I know exactly what you mean and how you feel about making characters for RPGs and having them never used again.  I've had some many great characters just vaporized that way.  I'm sure a lot of us have had similar experiences, so would it be off-topic to use this thread to talk about our favorite failed characters?  I've got to jet right now, but I'll be back later today with my favorite.

[Caswin]

I've got three characters created this summer in two RPGs that have yet to take off and one big one I never bothered to got into.  To varying degrees, I like them all.

Povec Bufsi (it makes sense if you devote a week of code-cracking to it), you WILL fly yet...

[Azlan]

I do so abhor putting lots of effort into a character, only to have the game last a few sessions or the character be left behind... killed meaninglessly or so many other fates that belittle the effort put into playing the personality and building the background.

[Ryudo Lee]

I've similar experiences, but there was one character that stood out and did just the opposite. 

It was from a D&D campaign my friends and I have been making on and off for the past decade.  He's a gnoll barbarian with a rich background, deep relationships with the other characters in the game, and is one heck of a survivor.  He's survived three total scrap and remakes of the game, he's been brought back from the dead (in game) once, and another time had his left arm lopped off.  I swear, this character just cannot die.  There are people I've never met who know about this character (mostly because my friends brag about him).

And he's the only one who's ever survived that long.  Every other character I've made has ended up either dead or put away because the game stopped.

[Azlan]

My first serious set of characters lasted in a campaign for ten years.  Neni has many characters that she has played with her groups in the past, many of whom lived to retire and became background characters in her friend's campaign world.  Now that is a fitting end.

I've similar experiences, but there was one character that stood out and did just the opposite. 

It was from a D&D campaign my friends and I have been making on and off for the past decade.  He's a gnoll barbarian with a rich background, deep relationships with the other characters in the game, and is one heck of a survivor.  He's survived three total scrap and remakes of the game, he's been brought back from the dead (in game) once, and another time had his left arm lopped off.  I swear, this character just cannot die.  There are people I've never met who know about this character (mostly because my friends brag about him).

And he's the only one who's ever survived that long.  Every other character I've made has ended up either dead or put away because the game stopped.

I've had a character like that, but it was in a Rifts game, and we use that system as our powergaming fix... so it goes without saying.

[superluser]

I know this, as well.  I had a character that I thought had a lot of potential, but the game was aborted after two sessions, which really sucked.  I hope some day to dust him off and send him back into another game.  He was a chaotic good heir to the throne who chose instead to become a game show host.

[Damaris]

We occasionally play D&D, Vampire, and another game which someday you all will find out about- so I have three characters.  I always use the same character inside a game universe, although the three are very, very different.  It's fun, because you get to know them, and to understand them.  It's nice to be able to watch them grown and evolve.

[Kenji]

Welcome to the world of "Why Firetush gave up on RPs".

[Azlan]

I've had to play a lot of Vampire, unfortunately... from my first character, a basic Tremere all way through my Anarch Kiasyd Baron and Dark Salubri named for a fallen angel.  I've even LARP'd it >.>

There is a certain level of attachment to characters in games that are done well, but I find that some games, even with an excellent character cannot be redeemable.  One such example is Mana's "The War Continues", phenomenal potential in my second character, horrible execution in game.  I find even super fun characters cannot save abysmal games.

[Netrogo]

I don't play much D&D but me and my friends do play BESM alot, I've had quite a few characters in that drift into obscurity in less time then I spent making them. One particular favourite was from a 'Law of Ueki' rp we were doing. To anyone who knows the show, my char had the ability to turn bikes into chainsaws

[TheAuldGrump]

Gods know I've been there. I dropped out of a GM's games because he kept switching games and/or settings week after week after week. It drove me crazy, and you never knew when, or if, he would ever get back to a setting/game.

On the other hand I tend to run the same setting for years at a time, but am a tad controlling as to what is allowed for PCs. (Err, sorry Bill, but this is Ars Magica, not Vampire - Tremere are mages, not vampires....)

The Auld Grump

[techmaster-glitch]

...........

You do know that there is already a thread for this exact rant?

[RJ]

...........

You do know that there is already a thread for this exact rant?

Good thing I know how to use merge. 

[Kenji]

...........

You do know that there is already a thread for this exact rant?

Good thing I know how to use merge. 

"RJ used Merge!"
"The topics were fused to one!"
"TAG became confused!"

[TheAuldGrump]

No, I just lost the Confused condition.

The Auld Grump, who could have sworn he looked... probably not far enough down the screen.

[Azraelle]

I was introduced to roleplaying by my brother-in-law.  I made a character for a custom game that his wife created, and we played that campaign for months.  Then she got tired of it so we moved on.  After that, no character I ever created got used more than three times.  My brother is a character generating nutcase - he'll start a new game out of the blue simply because he wants to create another character.  And he doesn't just use pre-generated game systems like D&D or Whitewolf, he creates a completely new game system of his own design for every single game.  That means, not only creating a new character, but learning a new system as well.

[nikename2]

Heh, I did do Vampire on a couple occasions, it didn't last long though. Mostly because of conflicting time with classes and meeting times. Of the times I did end up doing RP I mostly played a comedy relief character, example: Ganondwarf. Do I really need to say anymore? 

Usually people just lose interest, I suppose. Plus nearly everyone I know is going off in different directions so that doesn't exactly help.

[Manawolf]

As a DM who works closely with his players, I'm reaching about a dozen unused (most over level 10 and gestalted).

I even have 12 characters I'm working up for a show (their character sheets will be part of the online content for the gamer nerds).  They may never be used in an actual RP, but we'll just have to see.

The stopping of the RP I had on this forum was also a dissapointment, had at least two new characters coming in.

[The Lurking Dragon]

Put me in as another "Me too." please. The way I was encouraged to make characters for gaming is think of them as a character and not just a statsheet so making one up and then having the group just fragment and the campaign go poof grates on me intensely.

[Manawolf]

As a D&D player, I tend to go the opposite route, but then again, I sometimes find the back story can come naturally once you have done the powers and skills the character has aquired.  That's certainly how it's been working out in my latest workings (and it certainly helps to have plenty of resources on the cultural heritage of the races I like to use).

[The Lurking Dragon]

Eh, true, I tend to (normally) in D&D figure out a good spot to fill in the party and design a character to do that, but then I figure out how to make the character fun too. Backstory gets figured out as the game progresses. (Decisions come up in game, and I make them, then figure out *why* I made em. =p)

[Reese Tora]

Well, I can't say I'm in quite the same boat with my characters.  I put good effort into making a character, but I usually pick some nebulous concept and form the character around that.  The rest of the character tends to form as the game progresses.

Unfortunately, I tend to play characters that end up dead, so I've had trouble becoming attached to any one of them.

So far as online games go, D&D is not well suited to play by post due to the structure of combat.  I've aprticipated in... four different online D&D games in teh last year or two, and they all tend to peter out as one player or another loses interest or forgets to post, which delays the game and causes others to likewise lose interest.

I think that my characters in those games had some rather good potential, but, alas, are likely never to see the sterile light of my monitor again.

My normal game IRL goes better, but the group tends towards infrequent meetings and combat, less on character development. (Now that one guy doesn't show up at all anymore, we're getting more of the latter, though.)

[ITOS]

All characters I put in roleplays or stories are actually actors playing a part. They work together to infiltrate your worlds and reach their secret goal.

So the characters I use are actually fine with an RP dying or themselves getting killed. It means they can quit early and take the afternoon off.

[Ryudo Lee]

What I really dislike is when I make a really good character that I really want to play and then the game never starts.

Case in point, a buddy of mine was going to start up a vampire game and I had created a very unique malkavian.  In his backstory he was turned during the time that the DARPA net was starting to come up, so he became intimately familiar with computers and was able to learn them as they evolved.  And then he discovered video games.  In his free time (not hacking or feeding) he was playing a game or two... or three.  He had done so much gaming that he eventually lost his own identity and would randomly take on the identities of other video game characters.  I really wanted to play that character, just to see how the others would react when he would "become" Kain from the Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver series.

[Azlan]

I really wanted to play that character, just to see how the others would react when he would "become" Kain from the Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver series.

Throwing around the name Kain/Caine/Khaine in a Vampire game can get you in a lot of hot water...

[Turnsky]

What I really dislike is when I make a really good character that I really want to play and then the game never starts.

Case in point, a buddy of mine was going to start up a vampire game and I had created a very unique malkavian.  In his backstory he was turned during the time that the DARPA net was starting to come up, so he became intimately familiar with computers and was able to learn them as they evolved.  And then he discovered video games.  In his free time (not hacking or feeding) he was playing a game or two... or three.  He had done so much gaming that he eventually lost his own identity and would randomly take on the identities of other video game characters.  I really wanted to play that character, just to see how the others would react when he would "become" Kain from the Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver series.

he was aces in LoK Defiance. me, i haven't really played any PnP based RPG's.. i did play Creative group writing based RP's on IRC, though, but i kinda lost touch with it after i really started getting going with another creative writing experience; webcomicking, still, it helped me find my roots, and gave me valuable experience in character creation, and logical progression of things within a particular setting.  i still pop in there from time to time to say hello, though.

The only actual RPG series i really got into was the two KOTOR games.

[Ryudo Lee]

I really wanted to play that character, just to see how the others would react when he would "become" Kain from the Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver series.

Throwing around the name Kain/Caine/Khaine in a Vampire came can get you in a lot of hot water...

I know.  It woulda been classic. 

[Kaerou]

Ive so many characters I want to play but never can.. and so many characters Ive made that never got played.. i hardly get to RP anymore. ;_;

[lucas marcone]

most of my characters are one shots. i make something up tailor them to the RP and when it ends i scrap them. because of the wide veriey of gameing here i never know if ill ever use him(*cough orher cough*) again.


and dont get me started on city of heros. so many levels 1's ill never play but thought that coustume would look badass!