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View Full Version : Do you ever get tired of your character?



Fenryr
2012-06-19, 05:07 PM
Yo, hi! I apologize if this thread has happened before. I play Pathfinder/3.5 but I guess this can apply to all games:

I've been playing with the very same character for more than one year, once a week. Almost every week (obvious exceptions like holidays or an important day at school and/or job). In the 2.5 years I've been playing I've used only ... 3 characters? One for a year, one for 4, 5 months and the other one another year (beside from sudden oneshots which were pretty scarce).

This last character I'm using is awesome, I love her. She's crazy, random and Chaotic Good (almost Pinkie Pie). Pretty fun. But I seem to run out of ideas every time. It wears my mind a lot to come every week with a new catch phrase and random actions that never happened before. Suddenly, I had the urge to ask for a one shot to play a Neutral Evil character. A single day. That's all I asked for ... but now I think I need more days.

I'm getting tired of my character? The problem is that I can't just switch. It's a character! She has hopes, dreams and she will never rest until she accomplishes all of them. Right now she has a very importan mission to clean her name (in the middle of a dungeon, too). Killing her in a suicide actions is out of question too. I will not change her alignment without a good reason (mostly campaign or story reason).

Whan I can do? Keep a low profile for a while? Rest from my game for a few weeks? Hurry to finish the campaign?

Thank you for reading.

Yukitsu
2012-06-19, 05:31 PM
I don't get tired of my characters, but that's because I make sure they grow as people. That they change and evolve as the game goes on and the experiences of the campaign mould them into a different sort of adventurer. Just try to think how she would change as time goes on, maybe have her mature a bit.

kyoryu
2012-06-19, 05:48 PM
Seems like your options are:

1) Change characters
2) Change your character

2 seems the easiest to me. Character growth is normal, and is a sign of good roleplaying - we're verbs, not nouns. Having the character get past some of her randomness would be a good sign of character growth, finding something she believes in.

This doesn't mean she'd have to change alignments. Chaotic doesn't mean random silliness. It means a preference for unstructured settings, and individual freedom.

It's almost inevitable that a character played that much for laughs gets boring after a while - there's only so much you can do with it. Wide caricatures like that are great starting points for characterization, but terrible ending points.

navar100
2012-06-19, 05:51 PM
It's happened twice to me. The first was long ago in 2E. I was playing a cleric of Justice/Revenge. Not having Healing sphere as per the Priest Handbook, thus no Cure Wounds, sucked. That wasn't the only factor, but I was just not having fun with the character. When an opportunity came to pick from the Deck of Many Things I took it because I really didn't care if my character died or otherwise became unplayable. I picked two cards and got the cohort and 10,000 XP which bumped me a level. That helped.

In those days we rotated DMs with the same characters. I discussed not having healing with another DM in a later game, and he agreed it was a problem. Through roleplay my character prayed and was granted the Healing sphere. I gave the character another try. To force myself interest I started creating new spells. Though new ideas at the time, by coincidence in 3E terms I invented Divine Power and Mass Heal in effect if not word for word among them. :smallsmile: The character became fun again to play, my first character ever to reach 15th level by the time he was retired.

My second character was a warlock for a 3E game. I hardly ever missed with an Eldritch Blast and played it up. I had fun using Beguiling Influence. Several months later Tome of Battle came on the market. The campaign didn't just start, but it was still new. I remember during character creation I couldn't decide between paladin or warlock but chose warlock because I had more roleplay interest. However, if Tome of Battle had only been published then I would have played a crusader no question. I was still having fun with the warlock mechanically but disagreement with the DM on how the roleplay story was panning out was starting to get on my nerves. A roleplaying opportunity to retire the warlock and play a new character arrived, and I took it to play the crusader I was aching to do. He would eventually be a crusader 11/swordsage 2/master of nine 5 upon campaign end, one of my favorite characters.

Frenth Alunril
2012-06-19, 06:36 PM
It might be time for you to move away from the chaotic character. I used to be the type, now my favorite character is lawful, and thinks chaotic characters are completely unreliable. It makes for great rp, and icly arguing with your party is a great way to ruin a game establish party cohesion.

Sometimes we have to realize that the chaos within us is best left to it's own devises. You might not be ready to step away from that.

But it's something to think of, just to throw out there.

You have to make your own choices. My next character will be a sword and board fighter. Just for kicks.

Malak'ai
2012-06-19, 06:51 PM
My advice is to find an aspect of your character's personality and expand on it.
If your the dark, brooding mage, then work on having her delve deeper into her own mind.
If your the class clown/comic relief, find new and interesting was to show this even if it means you have to take a few cross-class skills in tumble/balance/perform so you can act the jester when socalising and it always comes in handy in combat when tumbling under the enemies legs or putting on a show to distract the BBEG.

HeadlessMermaid
2012-06-19, 08:10 PM
Character growth is normal, and is a sign of good roleplaying - we're verbs, not nouns. Having the character get past some of her randomness would be a good sign of character growth, finding something she believes in.

This doesn't mean she'd have to change alignments. Chaotic doesn't mean random silliness. It means a preference for unstructured settings, and individual freedom.

It's almost inevitable that a character played that much for laughs gets boring after a while - there's only so much you can do with it. Wide caricatures like that are great starting points for characterization, but terrible ending points.
+1.

That said, if you're absolutely sure that you can't keep having fun with this character, there's no point in tormenting yourself. Random and unjustified suicide isn't your only option.

Ask the DM's help, and cooperate with him (her?) to orchestrate Pinkie Pie's departure. Say, a bunch of NPCs can appear, and if she follows them, she'll be able to clear her name. So she says farewell to the party, goes away, and you can roll another character.

In short, invent a a plausible scenario where she'd have a good reason to leave, and, with the DM's blessings, make it happen.

The Bandicoot
2012-06-19, 08:48 PM
I once(ok many times) played a gnome bard. This one had the Lazarus Born feat and nasty luck when it came to getting hit. After no less than a dozen near-death experiences and one ACTUAL death I rolled my Fortitude to come back and kept it covered with my hand. "He's been through enough, I'm just going to let him rest."

Lappy9001
2012-06-19, 10:55 PM
Why not start a new campaign? I'm sure you're not the only one in the group who's in need of a change.

Or perhaps put her on hiatus? Maybe she leaves to guard the group's castle/HQ while another aspiring adventurer takes her place?

Kaun
2012-06-20, 05:26 PM
I get bored of everything...

But yes i get bored of characters, to counter act this i tend to run games because then i get to play infinite different characters!:smallwink:

Hemnon
2012-06-20, 06:23 PM
I've had this experience before. i was play WFRP and at the time i tended to unconciously play my characters too much in my own image, hence me 3 different characters in one session ended up being that same damn bland jester personality.

though now i try to expand my characters to be other aspects than those i represent myself, but still keeping them coherent and not too random.


btw, reading up on a chosen alignment is also a great way to learn about your character. Chaotic Good forexample, is an alignment for characters that could seek justice and not letting small things such as the law. it could also be a character that respects independent thought and peoples rights to be who they are.

chaotic evil however is fx. a character that does bad thinks because deep down they want to. it can also be the evil villain that doesn't care about treatises and peoples personal lives.

Fenryr
2012-06-23, 10:09 PM
Thanks a lot guys! I spoke with my DM and he will get us into a small sidequest to clean the name. After that, Pinkie Pie will help the Red Gauntlet (Eberron) to recover their glory and prestige. Therefore she will retire once the name is clean because she has important stuff to do. Thanks again and cheers!