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View Full Version : Gamer Tales Which charatcer\campaing did you most involved yourself?



Ysmir
2018-08-25, 10:34 AM
Everybody has a lot of characters they like, but theres always that on that we like the most, one that we had the most fun roleplaying,the one that we identify more. SO, post here whichever character you liked the most to play. MIne is this:

In a Cycle Of Inheritance cenario, my charatcer were Ysmir (yes, thats were my name came from), the middle son of a Nordic/Viking family of 5: Father, Mother, Daughter (20), and sons (me [16] and my little brother [10]) we lived in a farm, 1 hour away form the nearest village. Let me tell, the conversations between a family of barbarian, is just hilarous. Things like " Boy, you better bring food home, or else i gon' sent yo flesh to my friend Odin, got it?". Anyways, i was walking in the forest (im the least barbaric of my family, but i still have that viking blood you know :smallbiggrin:) and found tracks of a big animal, and it lead me to a Dragon, protecting his rider. The rider (a female elf), gave me a map, her sword, and a sack with a dragon egg inside, and told me to take it to a place indicated in the map, then, she died because of a strong necromancy spell. i ran to my house asap, and at that night, the egg hatched and i became a Rider. Apart from that, i had a girlfriend at the nearby village, but her dad (the smith of the village) didnt approved our relationship, but we met anyways. It was rather interesting, because the DM made her mute, an i was the only that knew Libras, and thus, her only friend (ahh, love). Well, at that campaing theres was everything, a character i liked, comedy, Dark Souls level of diffilculty (my dragon lost one eye in only 6 months with me), an overall good storytelling.

That was my favorite character, which is yours?

Quertus
2018-08-25, 01:43 PM
So, I'm not really sure that favorite character, character I most relate to, character I'm most invested in, and campaign I and/or my character are most invested in are necessarily related / strongly correlated, let alone identical. And you listed other criteria - like humor - that made it best for you. From this, I infer - perhaps incorrectly - that the thread is, "list your favorite character, and the reasons why", or perhaps "list your most enjoyable campaign, and the reasons why".

So, trying to find a sweet spot for all of that, I'll go with Armus. Armus was fun even before I got to play him.

D&D 2e, rolled stats, and I actually rolled up stats that matched my concept for the character. Well, almost - his Strength was too high. So I asked the GM* if I could lower his Strength to match my concept. I was told "no". So I thought a bit, and asked if we still did 2-for-1 trading. The GM, recognizing my tone, cautiously answered yes. "OK, I take two points off my Strength, and add one to my... Strength. Then I take two points off my Strength, and add one to my Strength." Repeat a few more times until I'm satisfied with the result. The GM just shakes his head.

Armus is a continuation of several other characters' history, and an event that they'd rather forget about. Growing up, Armus never knew his parents. He was raised by the state, and showed a great aptitude for tactics (if not for much else). He received a very well-rounded education, where he excelled at theory - especially military theory - but failed at most practical applications.

Eventually, his skills were put to the test in the field. According to the official report, there were several unusual factors in his squad's TPK. First was the fact that one fellow student, who had been loaned a Staff of the Magi by his Master, was found with a state-issued dagger in his back, slid skillfully between his ribs. Second was the huge magical crater of indeterminate origin. Third was the fact that Armus' body was never recovered.

... And that's just the tip of the iceburg of his backstory!

I got to play the character in numerous scenarios, under a variety of GMs, and really get a feel for who he was. He even found out that the explosion had catapulted him to an alternate reality, where one of his adventuring companions happened to be the daughter of the mage who, um, died mysteriously just before that explosion. And meet him, alive and well, in this reality.

I enjoyed playing Armus because he was really easy to play. He was a "moody teen-ager" so, if I was in a mood, I didn't have to try to separate player and character in that regard.

I enjoyed playing Armus because he was the weakest character I'd ever played - and joined the then 7th level party as a 1st level character, to boot - so he allowed me to stretch my wings, tactically, without completely outshining the rest of the party.

Armus has a rather twisted moral compass. Very much like a believer in the "greater good", although his (secret) tagline involved more "I do this so that you need never know it needed to be done". EDIT: I just remembered that I used to word it more in terms of "protect them from the truths that would destroy them".

Armus was deeply religious. He worshipped the groups favorite deity, who was a former PC of mine. After the world blew up, Armus, struggling to hold the remaining pieces together, became High Priest of Bendeth, despite being a lay follower.

And there's many, many more reasons, that are just too much to go into in just one sitting.

* Rotating GM, so, technically, I asked "a GM"...

GunDragon
2018-08-25, 03:46 PM
The character that sticks out in my memory the most was Cenrien Greenwood, an elven battlemage. At one point he became a death knight somehow and spread the death knight curse to another person. Eventually, the two death knights dueled to the death and he barely won it, and as a result became owner of an entire castle. The castle was later overrun by a huge undead army though.
Mr. Greenwood was the only character I played who actually managed to father children. He had 3 of them, I think.
It was years ago, and he did lots of awesome crazy stuff, but my memory of it all is a bit fuzzy. He eventually died from getting blasted by a hag's fireball.

That Viking character seems pretty interesting. It almost sounds like his story could be made into a tv show or something, though it does kind of remind me of Eragon. A female elf, a dragon, a teenager who becomes a dragon rider living on a farm near a village, etc.

Was that Armus guy a cleric, then? And I am curious why you chose to reduce his strength.

Ysmir
2018-08-25, 04:13 PM
The character that sticks out in my memory the most was Cenrien Greenwood, an elven battlemage. At one point he became a death knight somehow and spread the death knight curse to another person. Eventually, the two death knights dueled to the death and he barely won it, and as a result became owner of an entire castle. The castle was later overrun by a huge undead army though.
Mr. Greenwood was the only character I played who actually managed to father children. He had 3 of them, I think.
It was years ago, and he did lots of awesome crazy stuff, but my memory of it all is a bit fuzzy. He eventually died from getting blasted by a hag's fireball.

That Viking character seems pretty interesting. It almost sounds like his story could be made into a tv show or something, though it does kind of remind me of Eragon. A female elf, a dragon, a teenager who becomes a dragon rider living on a farm near a village, etc.

Was that Armus guy a cleric, then? And I am curious why you chose to reduce his strength.

Yeah, it kinda has some inspiration on Eragon hehe. Also, battlemages are one of my favorite characters concepts (since my voking character became a sort of one, when he got his dragon, you can see to which point this goes.) Armus also look like a really interesting and complex character, it would be interesting to DM a session with you playing with it, to see how it plays out.

GunDragon
2018-08-25, 05:23 PM
Yeah battlemages are pretty cool. They are not as good in melee as a straight up fighter or barbarian, but they can still hold their own. And they're not as good at magic as a straight up sorcerer or wizard, but they can still cast spells that matter. I really like having the option to swing a sword or cast a spell.

I think Armus would make a good supporting character, but I think also he could make a decent leading character as well.

And on the topic of that Viking kid Ysmir, I think his story also reminds me of that one show How to Train Your Dragon, which also features a kid who gets a dragon and flies him around and stuff. Not to mention the Viking themes in that one too.

Cenrien Greenwood was one of those few characters I have played that actually got a full and complete story in a game. I have played so many characters where they never got much closure. Either they got killed off too early, or the campaign ended prematurely for dumb reasons.

Cluedrew
2018-08-25, 09:03 PM
There are a couple I could pick, I'm going to go with Kelly "who has been everywhere and survived everything", at least for this post.

In a... more localized end of the world Kelly was a mercenary and had been for almost a decade. "There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots." Which is not to say that Kelly was a coward, but had a very... non-adventurer way of approaching situations that involved preparation, asking questions, hedging bets and de-escalation.

The moment (or one of them) that the character came together for me was during character creation. I got a vehicle, a jeep with a mounted grenade launcher and modifiers for rugged and old. I realized it was sort of the vehicular form of the character. It was an odd revelation but one that helped me out. The jeep sort of became Kelly's best friend, especially since the campaign didn't last very long. Things escalated very quickly and the campaign ended after the second session when we used a nuclear warhead (6 actually) to kill a giant plane eating monster.

Kelly was actually the only PC to survive that. Unfortunately the jeep was lost.

Ysmir
2018-08-25, 09:11 PM
Yeah battlemages are pretty cool. They are not as good in melee as a straight up fighter or barbarian, but they can still hold their own. And they're not as good at magic as a straight up sorcerer or wizard, but they can still cast spells that matter. I really like having the option to swing a sword or cast a spell.

I think Armus would make a good supporting character, but I think also he could make a decent leading character as well.

And on the topic of that Viking kid Ysmir, I think his story also reminds me of that one show How to Train Your Dragon, which also features a kid who gets a dragon and flies him around and stuff. Not to mention the Viking themes in that one too.

Cenrien Greenwood was one of those few characters I have played that actually got a full and complete story in a game. I have played so many characters where they never got much closure. Either they got killed off too early, or the campaign ended prematurely for dumb reasons.

Now that you have said it, it really sound like Hiccup from how to train your dragon (expect that i want to be a warrior), but since that campaign was based on the Eragon series (Cycle of Inheritance) it would lead that way, i think the major diferences between my character, Eragon and Hiccup, are my backstory (viking boy that was forced to leave his homeland at the age of 10, been poor for a good time) and goals in life (get married with Lilia [my mute blacksmith girlfriend], go back to my homeland, save my family. etc). But anyways, in which system you made Mr Greenwood? Do you remenber his spells\feats , im really interested in it (you know, its hard to create a battlemage, just seeing how other people does it).

GunDragon
2018-08-26, 06:31 PM
Mr. Greenwood? I don't remember the system he was used for, but it wasn't D&D or PF. It was some kind of homebrew thing.
But if he were a D&D/Pathfinder character, he would probably be an elf magus. He specialized in two-weapon fighting

ElChad
2018-08-27, 12:06 PM
My favorite character is one I made as a joke for mini side adventures whenever my girlfriend and I hang out with our DM (they're roommates, so it happens frequently). Our group meets twice a month, but we hang out more often, so we have our own little stories in the world.

Mad Charon, the Chaos Bard. A vagabond minstrel who travels across Midgard, stealing bar patrons' ale and always ends up putting his nose where it does not belong. With zero self-restraint, he saunters for tavern to tavern telling tales and listening for secrets. His sidekick, Tuli, a holy bearfolk, is a no nonsense paladin who travels with him, acting as his muscle and physical restraint. Neither of us came up with a reason why we traveled together, and we like it that way. Anytime Charon gets in too deep, or insults Tuli (read : most of the time), he usually gets picked up and thrown over a shoulder until he behaves. After being falsely accused for regicide (but it's more like, being an accessory to regicide), Charon found himself stuck in a foreign kingdom's jail with his partner. Together, they broke free and are trying to earn enough money by doing missions to get themselves smuggled back home, so they can get sweet sweet revenge for being set up. (Those responsible are the same villains that the main party is starting to realize they are facing.)

I play him with an obnoxious Welirishbriitishiscotishralian (Just a terrible mutt of badly jumbled accents) accent, and just do my best to make my girlfriend and DM laugh with inappropriate jokes and being obnoxious. He came into existence after my girlfriend had a bad day, and I wanted to cheer her up using the only thing I'm good at, absurdity.

Calthropstu
2018-08-27, 01:35 PM
My 2e swanmay psionicist. She was psychoportative and so could literally go anywhere, any time. I loved that character and what was done to her was just wrong.

I also love my pf mythic oracle who was able to put nearly 50 summons into play in a single combat. That got wild.

Florian
2018-08-27, 05:06 PM
Hm. Tough to decide after some decades of gaming and having played some characters for years.

I think the most emotionally involved and intellectually challenging character was in a longer L5R campaign, a Scorpion Bushi named Bayushi Amaro. Truth be told, at first, I didn't want to play in that particular campaign, so I goofed around at character creation and tried to figure out how to cram all the recommended ninja advantages and skills on a still serviceable Bayushi Bushi framework, while also trying to start with/qualify early for Bitter Lies Swordsman, Saigo´s Blades or Emerald Magistrate, depending on where the campaign would develop.

Thing is, I had to go deep into disadvantages to get all the necessary stuff. so one of the things I got for that character was Junshin - "Pure or heart", so a true follower of Bushido ....

It was a blast to play the whole thing straight, not even without the typical clansman angle, just pure nobleman and bushido. Ok, starting with more or less wholly unusable skills, I had to use void points like they were candy and luck was with me. It was one of the rare campaigns that we actually played beyond insight rank 5, so I was quietly surprised when the gm contacted me and offered to break the rules in a major way, by allowing me to pick Void Mystic as the second school, after completing the first 5 ranks in my basic school (Bushi and Shugenja can never multiclass in L5R), based on my deep connection to the void by then.

Quertus
2018-08-28, 12:20 PM
The character that sticks out in my memory the most was Cenrien Greenwood, an elven battlemage. At one point he became a death knight somehow and spread the death knight curse to another person. Eventually, the two death knights dueled to the death and he barely won it, and as a result became owner of an entire castle. The castle was later overrun by a huge undead army though.
Mr. Greenwood was the only character I played who actually managed to father children. He had 3 of them, I think.
It was years ago, and he did lots of awesome crazy stuff, but my memory of it all is a bit fuzzy. He eventually died from getting blasted by a hag's fireball.

That Viking character seems pretty interesting. It almost sounds like his story could be made into a tv show or something, though it does kind of remind me of Eragon. A female elf, a dragon, a teenager who becomes a dragon rider living on a farm near a village, etc.

Was that Armus guy a cleric, then? And I am curious why you chose to reduce his strength.

No, Armus was not a Cleric - I thought that "lay follower" conveyed that. The GM at the time probed me for details about the hierarchy of the church (which had been much more than decimated when the world quite literally blew up**), and was surprised to learn that Bendeth's was one of the few religions where the position of High Priest did not require one to actually be a Cleric.

If I made an Armus-like character in 3e, I'd probably make him a Commoner, then ask the GM for a custom prestige class to make Commoner weaker. :smalltongue: In short, Armus is all about player skills (although items help, at times a lot!).

Player skills, and tactics. In his "normal" party, Armus would generally move to protect someone with better defenses than himself, for reasons even the Playground has yet to divine.

How did a Death Knight die to a Hag's fireball? Was he already on (un)Death's door?

** In retrospect, I'm not certain whether the world blew up due to the actions of the party (we were messing with powers beyond our comprehension (not that that says much, given our comprehension)), the actions of the beings that we didn't murder to death (friend or foe), or the actions of semi-parallel campaigns in the same world. If that last one, then the destruction of the world may have been my fault...


Armus also look like a really interesting and complex character, it would be interesting to DM a session with you playing with it, to see how it plays out.

I've been struggling to find a way to word this that doesn't sound like metagaming, but... Armus relies a bit on Knowlege:GM. Single sessions with Armus aren't usually as interesting as the long-term plans and manipulations he engineers. Which are only successful (or, at least, fun) if I know what kind of plans will be fun to engineer under a given GM.

For a normal one-shot... hmmm... one party asked him about his gear. Armus explained that "this sword was a gift from a now-deceased dwarven king; this sword was a gift from an angel after I freed it from captivity; these boots were made from the skin of a snake that disturbed me before an important diplomatic meeting to unite not-yet-warring city-states", etc*. Then I was told that one of the party members had a Ring of Truth, and was asked how that sounded to him. OOC, they learned a lot, as I struggled to parse Armus' tale - unlike most of my characters, Armus views "the truth" as just another tool, and some of his descriptions involved bending the truth a bit, viewing things from a certain PoV. But, as it was all technically true, their characters learned less than the players themselves did. Otherwise, Armus' performance in the session was... lackluster. He makes tactically correct decisions without the moxie to back them up. And, if necessary, utilizes items to bridge the gap.

Another one-shot, Armus makes a deal with a Wizard, then meets an obvious PC.

Armus: "Um, I'm quite happy with this deal, you really don't need to convince me with a Geisha Girl or anything..."
PC: "Geisha Girl? Do you think all Geisha Girls wear platemail?"
Armus: "... only the good ones."

Did I mention Armus' significant Wisdom penalty? Yeah, definitely not a cleric. :smalltongue:

As part of the series of adventures, the party met Important NPC™, who was also Beautiful Woman Important NPC™. She invited the party to join her for dinner, and sat at the head of a large table. The players all wanted to get on her good side. The players could see the gleam in my eyes as they vied for position around her. But Armus just waited. Some of the other players grew nervous at the gleam in my eyes as I said not a word, and Armus just waited. Once everyone had sat down, Armus strode to the opposite end of the table, sat at the opposing head of the table, and declared, "I'm glad everyone knows their place". That's the kind of little stunt I enjoy pulling with Armus.

* "this bow was a gift from a Bladesinger mentor; these arrows (and pants and tunic) I made myself; this cloak, I found in the ruins of a dead city; this rope, I was bound with by Drow, and used to strangle one of their High Priestesses; this walking stick, I looted off my own dead body". Or something like that.


I think Armus would make a good supporting character, but I think also he could make a decent leading character as well.

Armus did both. He started the series of adventures as the party's kick-me, and ended it as party diplomat, party leader, and high priest. I'm struggling to remember any other characters I've played that acted as party leader, come to think of it.

SirBellias
2018-08-28, 06:49 PM
Player skills, and tactics. In his "normal" party, Armus would generally move to protect someone with better defenses than himself, for reasons even the Playground has yet to divine.


Huh. We have a righteous character that frequently stands in front of the better defended characters in our game too, except they actually ARE a cleric. Well, and paladin. He really should have better defenses than the rest of the party, he just doesn't, and that's fine.

Favorite character played? I'd say Lyla Crownheart. A young, bright, optimistic, and faithful acolyte of the Holy Church of Bahamut, she brought smiles to everyone she met. She proselytizer, bringing in crowds for the teachings of the Dragon God while fixing the roof and practicing her dance routine on off days.

Until she and some other servants of the church met a few other unlikely friends from the elven lands, and were tasked with investigating the workings of a reclusive noble, who ended up stabbing her through the heart in his death throes (he was dabbling in some blood magic shenanigans to bring back his family, so we don't really blame him).

In death, she was told that she was not going to Mount Celestia as promised, and would be stuck in Limbo for eternity unless she agreed to serve an unknown force. She resisted the call for what seemed like half a year to her, then finally succumbed and returned to life in the arms of her bewildered companions.

As she learned more of the God she served, she grew to appreciate his efforts to keep her alive, and now actively spreads his whispers through the night. The other Bahamut worshipers aren't really okay with this, but one of them at least understands her decision, and they still travel together because there's a world that needs saving, dammit, and they're the ones to do so.

She's grown a bit less foolhardy in the past couple months, occasionally becoming the voice of wisdom instead of the bane of it. The world has been breaking her down as fast as it builds her up, and she's learned from her mistakes like only the easily impressionable can. If we bothered with alignment, she'd have started at chaotic good and is now firmly in the chaotic neutral category. She isn't afraid to return what's been done to her, and that makes her dangerous to anyone that threatens her friends.

Cluedrew
2018-08-28, 08:51 PM
this walking stick, I looted off my own dead body... {Claps}

Also I have my theories as to why Armus defended the party member with better defences, but I feel knowing the answer would ruin the fun, so I don't plan on checking.

I will also talk about Amanda (or Ammanda, I made a mistake on her sheet and was never sure to say her parents gave her an odd spell of the name or not). She had almost the same build a Kelly in many respects, hardly identical but looking at their sheets they seemed to belong to the same archetype. They do not.

Amanda was brash, idealistic and full of the kind of bravery that might actually just be foolishness. She was not my standard play style at all, to the point I shocked everyone into silence by doing exactly what I said I would with the character. I guess they hadn't internalized it. But playing her was really interesting, because she existed in the back of my mind for quite some time, in this weird half formed state that was loose enough I could shape the character for the campaign, but well enough I never found myself wondering about what to do. The fact she solve problems in a simple manner made it easy. By the end I managed to turn "I shoot it" into a bit of a joke.

I remember that the other players said she felt like the "main character", but because she got a rather complete character ark out of the story. I'm not sure if she did really, but she did go to from unemployed at a bar to captain of another PC's security force to a lone fighter holding of a swarm of monsters while the other PCs huddled behind her. That was actually a great scene because although she was the only one fighting (well some NPCs provided some cover fire) every single PC did something to get us through that scene.

Kyrell1978
2018-08-29, 05:19 PM
I've played two characters named........Kyrell. Both were in the Star Wars universe thought the first was in the old West End Games system and the second was in the d20 version. They were polar opposites of each other (on purpose). The first was a self sacrificing Jedi that was the embodiment of all that was good and wholesome and the second was a self serving mercenary sniper and pilot who would kill nearly anyone for the right price (no non combatants). I believe that they each served to explore the boundaries of my own personality through the dichotomy of their character.

Calthropstu
2018-08-29, 06:37 PM
I've played two characters named........Kyrell. Both were in the Star Wars universe thought the first was in the old West End Games system and the second was in the d20 version. They were polar opposites of each other (on purpose). The first was a self sacrificing Jedi that was the embodiment of all that was good and wholesome and the second was a self serving mercenary sniper and pilot who would kill nearly anyone for the right price (no non combatants). I believe that they each served to explore the boundaries of my own personality through the dichotomy of their character.

I played something like that in the same campaign. A cleric of pelor/necromancer duo inhabiting the same body. Became a quest because we needed to find the source of undead groups strangely spread all over the place with no orders... Who happened to be me.

Kyrell1978
2018-08-29, 06:39 PM
I played something like that in the same campaign. A cleric of pelor/necromancer duo inhabiting the same body. Became a quest because we needed to find the source of undead groups strangely spread all over the place with no orders... Who happened to be me.

That's pretty cool. Did you kill.....yourself?

Calthropstu
2018-08-29, 06:50 PM
That's pretty cool. Did you kill.....yourself?

Lol no and yes.

Eventually we found a psionic power that would fix the problem. I wrote up the character as 2 separate entities inhabiting the same body. A pair of twins who had been hit with a fusion at a very young age that went horribly wrong. A modified version of fission (which the party had to pay to be researched) separated us, and the party gave my alternate an ultimatum: answer for his crimes or die.

He surrendered, escaped and was hunted down and killed.

Blaede
2018-09-06, 03:18 AM
DnD Birthright Campaign Setting.

My character was a Human Fighter, Lord of Coeranys.
We played the campaign for 18 years :smallsmile:

Kyrell1978
2018-09-06, 08:41 AM
DnD Birthright Campaign Setting.

My character was a Human Fighter, Lord of Coeranys.
We played the campaign for 18 years :smallsmile:

Wow. That's commitment.

DigoDragon
2018-09-12, 05:37 AM
Wow. That's commitment.

That really is. My longest running character (also my fav) is Doctor Wagon, a pony combat medic for a Fallout Equestria pbp campaign that has been going on four years now.