Hot answers tagged character
28
Talk to the player about why they are playing this character this way
Does the player have a larger purpose? What's the point? Is there a story they are trying to tell. Try to understand what's going on in her head about why she's approaching this character in this way.
She knows a lot about Victorian Europe, perhaps this is a typical archtype for this ...
23
It's probably useful to distinguish between playing more than one character sequentially and more than one character at once. I'm assuming from your question that you mean at once.
I'd say it's acceptable any time your group is comfortable with it. Some games explicitly call for this: Apocalypse World gives players the ability to play multiple PCs as part ...
20
It is usually considered outside the DM's job scope to directly increase the hit points (or combat effectiveness in general) of one particular character. Players have a certain amount of freedom in how they build their character, which occasionally means they shoot themselves in the foot.
But the DM can do some things like:
Offer a way to remove the ...
18
Is this really a problem?
Mary Sues in fictions, especially fan fiction, are annoying partially because the world warps to suit them, in an RPG that will not happen (or at least not in the same way) becuase the other players and the GM provide elements that are out of the hands the person running "Mary Sue". Mary Sues also tend to be too perfect in ways ...
17
Borrow from the story of Walter White wikipedia
Might I suggest watching the AMC TV series Breaking Bad? wikipedia It is the story of the transformation of a low-key high school chemistry teacher into a drug lord.
American author and essayist Chuck Klosterman said that Breaking Bad is "built on the uncomfortable premise that there's an irrefutable ...
16
I see evil player characters as presenting three basic challenges to a game.
Motivation. The plot hooks which work to pull good PCs into an adventure won't necessarily work for evil PCs. Worse, the hooks that do work on evil PCs might not hold them all that well. Depending on how invested the player is in his "evil" persona versus how much he cares about ...
16
I think this question is related to another one, at least in the broad strokes. In that vein, I will refer you to my answer to that question.
But your question doesn't seem to be as focused on following the plot of a pre-existing piece as it is on letting the players take on those roles. Which, if I am interpreting you correctly, makes this a very different ...
16
I have tried this in two ways in the past. I think of the two, only one will be of use for your objective.
PC Villain in the Group
Create the villain with its player and discuss what their villainous goal actually is. Ensure the player can and will commit to being a villain. Their goal should require the villain to need to be close to or involved with the ...
15
Absolutely talk to her out-of-character before doing anything in-character
There may be in-character things you do want to do with this character to make her more interesting, but you need to talk to the player first, to explain your position, offer her the chance to counterargue the point, and let her know that you’re not just ganging up on her, the ...
15
The alignment system is not very good
It doesn’t make a lot of sense, there are numerous cases where the suggestions for what is in each alignment are contradictory, it relies on the poorly-explained idea that there are objective, cosmic Goods and Evils and Chaoses and Laws. It works well enough for simple adventure-fantasy where we are the Good guys, ...
14
In AD&D1E, and the predecessor "Classic" D&D, the Paladin is not permitted to be Evil. A Dragon article (Laking & Mesford, Dragon, Issue 39, GOOD got you down? Try this for EVIL: The Anti-Paladin NPC. Reprinted in Best of Dragon Vol II) provided for an Anti-Paladin, who is in essence a lawful evil paladin.
So, yes, there is an Evil Paladin, but ...
13
Tragic heroes can become villains when they decide the ends justify the means. As their willingness to do "whatever it takes" to achieve what they consider to be righteous goals grows, "whatever it takes" tends to become more and more terrible.
As with blackmail, these things start small and snowball: once you've lied to the king about how his lost son died ...
13
Given the fallout setting, where there's no 'psionics' or magic as such (at least as far as anything appearing the games so far). Broadly speaking you've got a few options:
Introduce psionics or magic into the game (this isn't part of the fallout canon).
Go with mutation (this does appear in the canon setting).
Tell the player no
I think that the first ...
12
Speaking from a GM's point of view...
Advantages to taking over characters long-term:
Skipping character generation
Campaign gets to keep an established character
Player gets to start with a hopefully well-developed character
Disadvantages to taking over characters long-term:
Player doesn't get to design their own character and may lack investment as ...
12
HeroMachine is a quick-and-dirty full-pose character creator that I've successfully used to represent an entire party of fantasy characters and a variety of humanoid monsters. The fixed base pose makes a HeroMachine character instantly recognisable as such, but the variety of features and accessories makes it surprisingly flexible.
12
The best way to make sure your players invest in character backgrounds is, in my experience, to actually use those backgrounds, and reward players that provide them. Players will not do something they don't consider worth doing.
The rewards vary from group to group. If you haven't done so already, I suggest taking notes of what kind of thing is the most ...
11
Actually, you might want to consider using some of those computer game tools that you mention. Ever since Eve Online was released (possibly even earlier), 3D character creation in computer games has become incredibly advanced. Check out the most popular computer RPGs of recent years and you will probably find several tools that allow you to create highly ...
11
Is it a significant problem if the character is dis-interesting bordering on annoying? Perfection (by any definition) is woefully hard to find in real life. So are dragons and lightning bolts used offensively.
There is no particular reason why stories are less interesting with Mary Sue characters than without. Sure, it causes the story to lose one type ...
11
I think your problem is not so much with his alignment as it is with his class- or specifically, his job.
Not all rogues are thieves. I've seen the class be built many different ways- from charming con men to light on their feet boxers. But lets be honest- 90% of the players playing a rogue want to steal stuff and stab people in the back, and most approach ...
10
We tried, with decent positive level of success. In retrospect, however, we felt a decreased immersion.
In what situations is it acceptable
for players to play more than one
character each at the same time in the
same game?
When you desperately need cannon fodder. Example: when playing a slaughter house module such as Return to the tomb of ...
10
This Is Not A Problem
Mary Sues are a problem in other media because the plot bends unrealistically to how great they are.
They are a problem in gaming mainly when a GM brings in a Mary Sue NPC/GMPC and bends the world to fit their "coolness" at the expense of the rules and/or story as well.
A player in a trad game, however, who lacks narrative control ...
9
First, some formulas:
Base: 10+HalfLevel
AC: ((Dex||Int Mod + LightArmor) || (HeavyArmor) ) + Class Bonuses + Feat + Floor(Level/5) + Shield
Fort: ((Str||Con Mod + ArmorMod) ) + Class Bonuses + Feat + Floor(Level/5)
Reflex: ((Dex||Int Mod + LightArmor) || (HeavyArmor) ) + Class Bonuses + Feat + Floor(Level/5) + Shield
Will: ((Wis||Cha Mod + ArmorMod) ) + ...
9
Mages in 4e are actually not pathetic at low level; in general, the designers made a strong effort to keep classes balanced and effective from top to bottom. Most of the time, it worked.
However, I do think that in general some classes are harder to play than others, which I think is relevant to your question. I've bolded the classes that appear in the ...
9
My answer is, very strongly, "a bit of both."
It's very important to provide clear histories in order to ground the characters. In a con game your players won't know the characters, probably won't know the world, and may not even know or like the entire genre you're in. You have to provide enough information to let a total stranger understand how this ...
9
I have played "PCs as villains" in various ways. The more you want a long, traditional campaign play with all the PCs "in the group," the more constrained you will be in options - a one shot or a planned several session adventure, you can accomplish this all sorts of wild ways.
Covert Bad Guy In The Group
In a long Night Below campaign (AD&D 2e), I had ...
9
A lot is going to depend on what you mean by 'get magic'. A lot of it is going to depend on your GM, so that would be a good first place to start, i.e. talking with him about what you're trying to do. Moving on to the character, there are two sides to this, but after the comment above, I'll start with systematically.
In DFRPG, you have to justify ...
8
Players running more than one character at once is almost always going to mess with immersion to some extent: it splits up the "I" out-of-game between several "I"s in-game. How badly depends on the particular players and the particular group dynamic; in some it might not noticeably impact immersion, but in most it'll give you at least some trouble.
That ...
8
Oracle is a spontaneous, divine spellcasting class. She has a greater number of spells per day than a Cleric, and can cast without preparing in advance; but, she has a narrower list of spells that she can choose from. She is the divine equivalent of a Sorcerer (whereas a Cleric is comparable to a divine Wizard).
Be mindful that Oracle isn't especially tuned ...
7
The hardest thing about Evil characters is not making them parodies. As in the old saying "Chaotic Evil does not mean Chaotic Stupid!"
Next is defining Evil in any useful way.
Given that the typical understanding of "evil" in RPG terms is that the character always puts him or her self as the ultimate beneficiary of all their actions, there is a strong ...
7
Campaign Cartographer has a supplement for doing just that: Character Artist Pro
I use CC2 and CC3. Love them. Wish there was a real Mac version... but it runs under WINE on Mac, Unix, Posix, and Linux, and natively on XP or later.
But I've not personally used CA Pro... but one of my players did, and it produced great output.
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