How Do You Know You're a PC?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

We've had a rather large number of "if you had D&D levels IRL" threads in the relatively recent past, and they've got me to wondering: how do you know if you're a PC? PCs gain a number of very significant benefits, such as immunity to having your attitude changed by Diplomacy.

So how do you know you're a PC? How can you ensure you're a PC? It'd be both weird and hilarious and very, very useful if there was a pre-existing feat for this (even in 3rd party), though I'm not holding my breath on that one.

So, any takers?

[Goaty14]

When you're walking from town A to town B, and a group of goblins (of which are just enough to make it an appropriately-CRed encounter) attack, and then you roll your eyes "these guys, again?" you think to yourself.

When 3-4 other people, each suited for a role in an adventuring party, want to join you in your "quest" (even though you're just off to the other side of the world for a taste of them exotic berries).

When whatever monster you fight drops more treasure than when others fight monsters...

That's then you know you're a PC.

[Bronk]

I'd say... if you get into a few fights, and you actually get better at it? Or suddenly gain access to new spells, that sort of thing? That's PC land.

If, on the other hand, you've been in countless battles, but are still a low level peon? That's NPC land.

If you've been stagnating for a few years, but suddenly get a lot more powerful after pledging yourself to a charismatic leader? Still NPC land.

If you've been stagnating for who knows how long, but a random time after being defeated in combat you suddenly jump wildly in power? NPC. Also, better see a lawyer about a will.

NPCs don't gain XP unless they're attached to a PC by being a cohort, otherwise they only gain power through DM fiat.

[OgresAreCute]

If your entire family dies and you leave behind a perfectly secure job to go on some nebulous "adventure".

[Ken Murikumo]

House cats no longer pose a lethal threat

[Castilonium]

If you're on your own and meet a group of adventurers who are exactly as powerful and well equipped as yourself, and they unquestioningly allow you to join their party and begin trusting you with their lives, you're a PC. Especially if one of their previous party members very recently died.

[OgresAreCute]

If you're on your own and meet a group of adventurers who are exactly as powerful and well equipped as yourself, and they unquestioningly allow you to join their party and begin trusting you with their lives, you're a PC. Especially if one of their previous party members very recently died.

Especially if one of their previous party members very recently died and you are somehow not alarmed by the high death-related turnover rate.

[Particle_Man]

From The Gamers: "You look trustworthy. Would you care to join us on our noble quest?"

[Kalkra]

You seem to meet mysterious people in taverns at regular intervals, but never when you're already working on the quest the last guy gave you. Also, you start multiclassing like crazy, you live the life of a murderhobo, and you try to get thrown into an Otyugh Hole.

[Particle_Man]

You will run *towards* the angry dragon threatening the town.

[Selion]

When you meet a few other people you associate with them quickly and begin traveling and living with them for your life. This is until you hit the magic number of 4 associated, anyone you meet from that time on is absolutely irrelevant and could end robbed or killed by your hands. This attitude changes again if one of your 4 closest friends die, then you'd befriend literally the first person you meet

[Florian]

- You have two traits, one of the potentially a campaign trait. Only PCs have traits.
- You have an active XP progression.
- Your HP are rolled, not based on the average for your class/type.
- You don´t have an "initial attitude" and accompanying Diplomacy DC.
(- The whole world is centered around you and your friends. You potentially don't even split up, like, ever)
- You can chose the Leadership feat.

[Saintheart]

If you set out in life with more gold in your purse than entire hamlets scratch out in six months of backbreaking work, you know you're a PC.

[Awakeninfinity]

Probably when you have this feeling of self-aggrandizement and sense of absolute purpose.

[Telonius]

We've had a rather large number of "if you had D&D levels IRL" threads in the relatively recent past, and they've got me to wondering: how do you know if you're a PC? PCs gain a number of very significant benefits, such as immunity to having your attitude changed by Diplomacy.

So how do you know you're a PC? How can you ensure you're a PC? It'd be both weird and hilarious and very, very useful if there was a pre-existing feat for this (even in 3rd party), though I'm not holding my breath on that one.

So, any takers?

Option 1: Let somebody beat you up, and see how quick he levels.

Option 2: Figure out roughly what level you are, and total up your assets. (Not foolproof, since the DM may be stingy / you may have extra wealth for plot reasons).

[Torpin]

are you in a possible but not realistic to ascend, spot in a line of succession, such as first child of the 3rd child of the king, 2nd in command to cell of a resistance movement. do your words carry clout without becoming law? sometimes when you are about to do something stupid, do you feel an Omnipotent, omnipresent being say "are you sure?" for some reason have you never rolled your ankle and had to limp for a day?

[Kyberwulf]

You guys are making it seem like real life is D&D... When it is clearly a low-level human only d20 offshoot.

I think one way, is if your life is constantly in flux, and you keep getting money for doing illicit things...or at least highly dubious.

[SimonMoon6]

We've had a rather large number of "if you had D&D levels IRL" threads in the relatively recent past, and they've got me to wondering: how do you know if you're a PC? PCs gain a number of very significant benefits, such as immunity to having your attitude changed by Diplomacy.

So how do you know you're a PC? How can you ensure you're a PC?

That's the answer right there.

Find a Diplomancer. Ask him to change your attitude. If he can't, no matter what, then you're a PC. If he can, then you're not a PC.

This is also a good test to tell if a given character that you encounter is a PC. If a Diplomancer can't change his attitude, then he's probably a PC. (Or you could just look around the table and see if anybody currently present is playing that character; if not, they're probably an NPC.)

[Gnaeus]

If you are Deadpool, you know.

[Alabenson]

* If you go out to by groceries and stumble into the middle of a conspiracy to destroy the world...then you might be a PC
* If you need work and your first instinct is to head to the nearest tavern...then you might be a PC
* If you find yourself spending an entire town's net worth on magical weaponry on a regular basis...then you might be a PC

[Hand_of_Vecna]

When you recognize events around you as contrived attempts to elicit specific reactions, but you still react in the expected manner so as to not rock the boat with your meta gaming.

[Quertus]

If this is D&D (checks forum), then... i definitely agree with the diplomacy bit. However...

When you and 3 or so friends murder anything that looks even remotely questionable, and loot anything even remotely valuable, but put up with **** from each other, despite your unparalleled collective wealth.

When, no matter how much you loot, somehow, your net worth always standardizes to something close to a set standard - a standard which is higher than that of almost anyone else.

When things that your Sense Motive tells you are a "dire threat" tend to die rather than kill you. But it tells you that your closest friends are all a "fair fight", no matter how ridiculous that may be.

When, if you stopped to think about it, your history / backstory makes so much more or so much less sense than that of almost everything else around you. Also, it seems to have been written by someone different than everything else around you.


You will run *towards* the angry dragon threatening the town.

"He ran towards the danger? He is like a super boov"

[Thurbane]

You don't automatically die at 0 hit points? :smalltongue:

[Bronk]

How can you ensure you're a PC?

You wake up and go about your humdrum day, when, after having your mind bent via diplomacy once too often, you suddenly realize you're an NPC. Suddenly, you have special knowledge that others don't... that you're being puppetted by some human DM in an alternate reality, and this person controls all, above any god or even overdeity. Not only that, you look around and you're being rendered... the DM is concentrating on you.

Wanting to be a PC, you head out, looking for any preexisting PCs that must be out there, before it's too late and the DM moves on. Realizing that if you do something, or say something, it's only because the DM has also said it in his or her version of real life, you start talking, giving yourself all sorts of fun levels and abilities, then stating that your character should be given to the one at the table having the most trouble making their own character.

But, just as your new character sheet is being passed across the table, you realize that now, because of your special insight, it's you who is puppetting the DM! And through the DM, your entire multiverse! Why would you give up your newfound powers?

It's time to make some changes...

[Particle_Man]

I think you just described a David Lynch campaign. :smallbiggrin:

[Elvensilver]

You always feel that you should be someone else. You don't have a static knowledge:One day you do know something, the next day all this knowledge is gone.
You feel the urge, to sit in taverns and talk to anyone that sits down at your table. Random strangers whisper secrets and quests of violence and crime to you, and somehow, it feels right and more real than your normal life.

[Particle_Man]

That memory can be tricky, true. Even worse than day to day. Sometimes even after a long combat, or worse, after spending a long time prepping for a major fight, you might suddenly need to be reminded what magic items you have, where the people you are/were fighting are, who did what, even an hour ago . . .

. . . it is as if your took a few months off and forgot a lot of stuff, even though this all happened only moments ago! :smallsmile:

[unseenmage]

When you feel as though you can actually kill a deity.
Or that you can talk smack and the deity might not kill you.

If you wield a family heirloom and feel strong enough to take on the world.

If your father is an evil overlord.
Or grandfather.

Or if your parent was once a master swordsperson. But is now in hiding.

When you are the literal center of the universe.

When that anime girl falls on top of you just so... for the fourth or fifth time this episode.

[HouseRules]

If I level up faster than "The Hobbit" then I must be a PC. This adventure took 1 year, and the 1 level per adventure rule means that my character cannot level up until a full in story year has occurred.

If I level up faster than "Lord of the Rings" then I must be a PC. This adventure took 9 months, and the 1 level per adventure rule means that my character cannot level up until 9 months in story has occurred.

If I level up faster than 1 level per week as Gary Gygax limited player characters to one adventure per week (Ernie Gygax plays everyday of the week while he was a kid with his father Gary as the Referee while the adult players play once a week), then I must be a PC.

[Erloas]

You have a narrator.

You're the last survivor of your race/town/ship/family.

You're from a reclusive and mistrusted species but no one ever has a problem with you.

People from your city/village/tribe never leave but you are for whatever reason hundreds or thousands of miles away just in time for some interesting event to happen.

[Lord Raziere]

When your taken over by an alien force beyond your control that thinks your entire life is a game and directs you to constantly go forth into danger while yelling strange random numbers.

[Luckmann]

How do you know you're a PC?
When I'm being played.