Friday, August 7, 2020

All My Other Characters

I hold on to old character sheets, like a lot of folks do. Since the great slump of 2020 continues apace, I figured that sorting through them would be a good way to get something out the door.

In roughly chronological order:

  • Greasetrap (3.5 Human Swashbuckler M) - Cook on a pirate ship and my first character, who unceremoniously died in my first session by being death-rolled by a crocodile. It was a very valuable lesson.
  • Frank (3.5 Human Ninja M) - The replacement for Greasetrap, rolled up in the same session. A nothing character whose entire gimmick was an unfunny "nothing suspicious to see here" deal.
  • Ned (3.5 Human Cleric/Inquisitor M) - A character who actually lasted a decent number of sessions, enough to prestige class into Inquisitor. Actually got married and had a kid due to a solo session with the GM (since no one else showed up that night). Notable for jumping immediately to "burn the house down" as a response to demons. Got horribly mutated by magic at one point. Wings and acid blood, I think.
  • Ampersand (3.5 Warforged Fighter F?) - I think at some point they ended up magically fused into a gigantic flesh abomination, I don't rightfully know. Couldn't have been longer than 1-2 sessions.
  • Beedle (WEG Star Wars, Alien Transient M) - A one-session character, a goofy alien in a hazmat suit who loved cheap plastic tchotchkies.
  • Ommin (WEG Star Wars, Jawa Trader M) - Another one-session character whom I can recall nothing about.
All of these were in the space of a single year of college, but then my DM graduated and game-running fell to me for a couple years.

  • Sidris Minapoujanis (3.5 Elf Rogue/Bard F) - This DM had a strict "no drow PCs", which was easily circumvented by just making a grey-skinned elf.
  • Dempsey (3.5 Human Druid M) - Alignment written as "Green/Black", carried around a bag of holding full of salt to preserve body parts in because he was a necromancer. One session character.
  • Nadiyya (3.5 Warforged Barbarian F) - Likely a second incarnation of Ampersand. Nothing of note.
  • ???? (3.5 Human Cleric M) - I know I went for an Egyptian theme, nothing else. One session character, character sheet lost.

This takes me out of college and, thankfully, out of 3.5 for good. There is a time of fallowness, and then the situation improves and I find both public groups and the online OSR community.

  • Meatpie (5e Tiefling Monk F) - The gutter monk, first emerging in a short-lived roll20 campaign with randoms I was in.
  • Pema Hafhansdotir (5e Goliath Barbarian/Paladin F) - By the power of HUGE! A character for a live game in a local shop. Not the best fit, but I needed a game at the time.
  • Meatpie (5e Tiefling Monk F) - Second outing of Meatpie in another online game, this time without randos.
  • Peregrine (5e Human Paladin F) - A soldier turned towards more peaceable pursuits. The character that got me to swear off 5e with random groups due to the tonal disconnect between myself and the 5e community at large (Or at least the ones I was dealing with) when my attempts to reason with the goblins (as I spoke Orc) were ignored and we had to murder them anyway.
  • A bunch of single-shot characters: Ambrose the Warrior Monk, Hassan the Teamster, Pollux the Blue Mage, Lucian the Thief, a whole lot of DCC peasants.
  • Ayo (DCC Drunken Monk F) - Meatpie in all her glory: drunken, gluttonous, lecherous, blasphemous, and violent. My favorite character of the whole bunch, in the best campaign I've been in as a player.
  • Anbara (Esoteric Enterprises Mystic F) - The Book Club witch-cultist of librarian god Aza-Thoth and noted horrible gremlin-person pornographer, who died in a fiery explosion in the middle of a sad vampire stripclub. Second favorite character.
  • Mr. Devereaux (Esoteric Enterprises Low Man M) - While I loved the idea of the character (southern gentleman devil in a skin suit), he both didn't work well with the rest of the party and died in a party wipe anyway.

Observations

  • I think I still have lingering 3.5 trauma. 
  • Periods of being a player are spread out in chunks, separated by years.
  • Fuck playing casters. I remember I always chose cleric because you didn't have to select specific spells to memorize, because that mechanic is bullshit and I hate it.
    • This is likely lingering 3.5 trauma.
  • I have traditionally had a great deal of trouble playing in a game that lasts for any time at all. Of everyone on this list, Ned, Pema, and Ayo / Meatpie are the only ones who got more than three sessions, at least as far as I can remember.
  • I have literally never played in a long-running campaign that is not D&D or affiliated.
  • I really like barbarians, monks, and paladins. Become HUGE. Defeat HUGE problems.
    • This is likely, again, rooted in lingering 3.5 trauma. 
  • I would like to play in a longer game that is not D&D related if you are running it let me know.

17 comments:

  1. Time between first and last, eight years give or take.

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  2. Awwww! You are very kind! Ayo was a great character and it was a blast to have her and you along for the wild ride that was that game.

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  3. Barbarians are currently my favourite class to play, as they can be played as anything from knight with anger management issues to an advanced stage Jekill and Hyde situation. The only PC class that wields weaponized trauma, in a way.

    Also, even in Pathfinder, usually has a enough options without being overwhelming.

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    Replies
    1. "YOU ARE HUGE! THAT MEANS YOU HAVE HUGE GUTS!": the class

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    2. I set all my barbarians to 2m height just for that.

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    3. I ran a goblin barbarian (in 4e no less) but I think at this point I would just wanna be a huge boi.

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  4. I seem to recall Pollux and Kyana's barbarian causing some havoc in a temple at some point...

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    Replies
    1. That dwarven temple where hobbits did graffiti with black paintspray?

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  5. You've inspired me to blog the same

    https://lapidaryossuary.blogspot.com/2020/08/wanna-see-all-my-d-characters.html

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  6. You really started a trend! And I hope you get go play in a long campaign - but honestly, anything that last a year is a sort of success.

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  7. Replies
    1. Martin O did a side-adventure in my campaign early this year.

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  8. I'm amazed you can remember characters from so long ago. I can barely remember what I've played last week!

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    Replies
    1. My memory is normally swiss cheese, this post is brought to you by my habit of hoarding notebooks

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  9. I'd offer you a position in my university Edge of the Empire game, but we're in Australia so timezones are too far.

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  10. Running a modern day GURPS campaign right now. Probably not for you if you ain't a GURPS-head though. Was inspired by the EE setting, although magic is just Alchemy not actual spells. The party is a gang of criminals in Florida who are involved in the alchemical underground, just months after the federal government collapsed into chaos and economic failure.

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