Longest running character

[Tanuki Tales]

Title basically sums it up perfectly: Who was the character that you've run the longest? This doesn't have to be the literal longest, but can be the longest from any specific tabletop game that you happen to care to mention.

I've personally never been in a game that last more than one, two sessions tops, but I did take a fancy to a dwarf I made for a one-shot/rarely to be played again game that a friend who's out of state for college ran two or so weeks ago. His name was Gauth Gaeasson, an optimistic Stonelord//Warpriest who viewed all creatures as brethren (though humanoids are the current "favorites") and wielded a darkwood greatclub painstakingly carved to resemble a Dwarven Hekatonkheires.

[imaloony]

We had one particular AD&D campaign that lasted years. The main reason for this was that the group was only able to meet for a couple of sessions each year (Though each one was a monster 2-3 day session). I played two characters in that campaign, but I was originally only playing one: Roy Falcion, my elven ranger. He died a few times, passed maybe one out of thirty of the fear checks I had to make in that campaign, gained the title of "Elven Dartboard" after an incident involving a Wu Jen and two Darts of the Hornet, and was a Machine Gun with his bow "White Wing"

After the campaign, I took my share of the loot (Which was a metric ton, by the way) and established a guild dedicated to defending the weak from evil at reduced rates.

Interestingly enough, we're playing a new campaign in the same world and I'm playing Roy's daughter, Adriana (Who is a Druid). She hates him because it was more or less his fault that her mother and her two sisters died (Along with a good chunk of her village) and she's hunting him down, but we're finding out now that Roy is in custody and that there are some Dark Elves who seem to be speaking for the guild (Nothing says "Evil" like Drow taking over your guild!) and we'll probably start looking into that soon.

I really liked playing Roy, but I never gave him TOO much of a personality until we were mostly done with that campaign. My favorite character I played was in a campaign that lasted half a year, and his name was Rilk Halfwright. He was a human fighter who worked as a Lion Tamer in the circus. He was loud, obnoxious, full of himself, and absolutely obsessed with adventure. He had no sense of subtlety and seemed really rude, but he was often just trying to be friendly (The mage HATED Rilk IC). He fought dual-wielding a whip and a short sword, he had a giant mohawk, hung trophies of animals he had beaten/tamed on his modified breastplate, and did I mention that he LOVED ADVENTURE? I did? Well, he LOVED ADVENTURE (So much so that he named his magical Short Sword "Adventure Time!") That's another world that I'm playing in a new campaign set in the same world (300 years later here) and I'm playing one of his descendants. Rilk is pretty much regarded as one of the greatest heroes in history, and the character I'm playing really hates it because everyone treats her differently because she's related to this great hero, and she really wants a chance to prove herself.

Those two were probably my favorite, and I probably played them longer than any other character (I played in a lot of campaigns that went exactly NOWHERE. An assortment of thieves, rangers, and clerics, mostly).

[Melville's Book]

An arcane gish named King Zelstan. No, really, his first name was King, it was kind of funny. Even moreso when he did, in fact, become a king.

I played him almost weekly for four years. He dug into the early Epic levels after a little over a year and a half, then upon learning of a chosen one in the future he put himself in a sort of extradimensional cold storage and level-drained himself back to level 1. He partook in that adventure for full length, reaching level 24. The group mostly disbanded at that point, as three of the players (out of five players and the DM) were family and moved for military reasons. In-character, Zelstan took his remaining friend and they went out to find another multiverse, which we played out for about six months before we decided to find more people and start a new campaign.

He holds a special place in my heart. I admittedly find myself putting him in positions of leadership as NPCs in campaigns I run even now, but he never does much of anything except give fancy speeches in the early stages of the campaign so I figure it isn't an issue.

[DigoDragon]

This is pretty difficult as historically I'm the DM and any games I'm not running tend not to last long. :smallfrown:

I think the longest time I've played a character in a campaign was back in 1996, when the group I was with were involved in a Final Fantasy 6 "sequel" campaign. Took place five years after the game and sessions were once a week for about 8 months. So, that was probably the longest. I played as the artist Relm and my brother played as the blue mage Stragus. We were a hilarious team at the table, throwing friendly insults at each other and switching who was the 'straight man' every few hours. Fun times.

[iceman10058]

A Human Illusionist i played in the same custom game world a friend of mine ran. He ended up becoming so ingrained into the story, i had to retire him for years at a time in game. he was best know for posing as a powerful lich necromancer to scour the world for necromantic tomes and scrolls due to the fact that in the game world, necrmancy was only know to a very small number of individuals, all of whom were powerful undead.

[BWR]

Sir Agememnon Rosehall, Knight of Solamnia. Played him about 10 years. He showed up again as a major NPC in the follow-up campaign.

A follow up is Hida Akira, samurai warrior in a very alt-u L5R game. I've been playing him about 10 years (about 2 years on hiatus, sadly), though he's mostly retired now (at the age of 70). After about 5 years of solid playing, he gradually got less and less screen time until the point where he doesn't do much besides train the younger generation and terrify the heck out of courtiers in the Imperial Court.

[ElenionAncalima]

A character I am currently playing in Pathfinder I have been for a little over a year that started at level 2 and is now level 12. I think that is the longest.

She is a Rough Rider Fighter/Scout Rogue gestault with a pegasus mount.

Although technically she started out as a Ranger/Rogue, but the DM let some of us retrain/rebuild out characters during a 3 month downtime period.

[Defiled Cross]

I ran a Human Fighter by the name of Shaddak through most of my Middle and High School adventures.

Believe he was level fifteen when the vessel he was piloting across the Great Green was boarded by the merciless Captain Dravin.

Needless to say, he was subsequently drawn, quartered, and tossed to the ravenous beasts that lapped at the ships hull.

He is fondly remembered.

[Wraith]

My longest running character by a LONG margin was Solitaire, a Death Squad-kit Operative in PbP SLA Industries.

I played as him for a little over 4 years, even though he was actually a very simple character concept - he carried a chaingun with a big tank of ammo strapped to his back, had enough dexterity to fire it on full-auto 5 times in 5 combat rounds, and made movie-related wise cracks at every opportunity. And yet, in simplicity there was a lot of fun; with a one-dimensional approach to combat he had lots of skill points left over so as to always be useful in other situations, which I always like doing.

Sadly the game folded when I moved house and lost my internet for 6 weeks. I lost the habit of posting and never went back, and later found out that the GM had his own problems at about the same time and quit, too. :smallfrown: