Most continous Characters at once

[big teej]

my group has a tendency to roll up new characters, run a campaign for a bit, and then start a new one (either with a new DM, or just start again) but at the same time, keep "running" the others

So I am curious if my group is alone in this tendency (or at least, alone to the degree we do this)

please by all means list every character you've played and what makes them fun (or unfun) for you, and how bad you want to go back to playing them..


I'm curious

So for my bit, these are all my characters with unresolved camaigns, in chronological order (to the best of my knowledge)

Cog Skulltaker - Human Barbarian of Khorne. also, a planeswalker (because he was so much fun I refused to roll up a new character since we kept jumping campaigns)

Blake Hunts-With-Bears - Human Ranger, worships Taal

Maximilllian Thanos - Human Necromancer

Roche SmoulderBeard - Dwarf Knight, Worships Grimnir, Grungi, and Valaya

Valek Knifebeard - Dwarf Rogue, worships multiple gods

Grok StomachRumble - Ogre Ranger, worships The Great Maw

William - Human Fighter1/Monk4, worships Tymora

Bjorni Fellblow - Human Boar-totem-Barbarian, worships Ehlonna

Sohn of the Riverheart - Human Bard, no diety at this time (he's looking for one though)


okay your turn

[Gnaritas]

We do one campaign and finish it.

I can see some reasons to play two at the same time, but never more, there will be much less involvement in the games you play imho. The story needs to advance, the players need to be able to stay in their character and not think "ok, uhm, who am i playing again and what happened a month ago...".

That said, the reasons for two games:
- A different DM, when a DM wants to play once in a while too, this is a decent option.
- If you play on say...two nights a week and one player cannot be there on one of them, but this could be considered two groups.

[Nihb]

This kind of things happen to our group, but it usually ends with the previous campain being dropped.

We had a great campain but the DM didn't have enough time to continue DMing, so I became the DM and started a side-campain in the same world. First DMing experience, things were ugly, but we had our fun. One of the players, eager to play high-level characters (beyond 16) DMed a campain in the following summer. When he gave back his DM badge, the original DM still didn't have time, so it fell on to me. Inexperienced DMs will let seriously bad things happen. So, I suggested that we start again at a lower level.

I had planned to take the characters from 1 to epic, but mid-way, I felt burnt-out and had to take a break, and the players decided to start again with new characters.

Ready to come back, I was planning a campain with our new characters, but a special event last saturday made most of the players switch to 4e and to their one-shot characters.

There are a few reasons players will want to jump from one campain to another. Starting a new campain is dooming all the others, at least in our case.

But, I guess, if people like two DMs who have different DMing styles, it'd be possible to play two campains at once.

[ShadowsGrnEyes]

most i ever had at one time was 4.

spelscale sorcerer
VOP healer
mephling ranger
human factotem

It got complicated and we wrapped 2 of the 4 games. Then did the other two continuously for a while.

With our normal gaming group, we usually have 2 games going at a time. each claimng one regular day during the week.
Right now we have a Midnight game going on Sundays and a custom setting running on Wednesdays.


The other 5 days of the week we try to pretend we're not geeks by going outside and getting exersize or spending time with our families. (as several of us have children. . . children not old enough to play dnd. . . yet. . . <<. . . >>. . . )

[Ranger Mattos]

4 right now, plus a NED character:

Lvl 1 elf ranger

Lvl 1 human fighter (with homebrew ACF for manuevers)

Lvl 11 (4e) half-orc ranger

Lvl 8 (4e) goliath barbarian

[Snake-Aes]

My group finished just last month a 2 years long campaign, we started the next one last week. The record was 3 years tho.

[AtwasAwamps]

Hrmmm...

3.5
Paladin 5/Crusader 1
Barbarian 1/Scout 3
Barbarian 6/Champ of Gwyn 1
Bard 9/Warblade 1
Ranger 2/Cl. Cleric 2

4e
Swordmage
Warlord


SO yeah. All of those. Some of them do not get played often...

[Ormagoden]

I actually highly dislike playing more than one character at any given time (except when DMing.) It is very tough for me to "switch modes of thinking" for really in depth PCs for some reason.

That being said I think sixis the max I ever played in any single campaign at once. Although to be fair the campaign was set in a universe and any time you made a character they'd be "somewhere out there" for another PC or NPC to mess with.

The list

*A robotic gargoyle apostle or robo jesus
*The god of Riots and Rage
*The most deadly assassin in all of space
*A floating Psychic worm about the size of a cat
*A planetary guardian werewolf
*My own self created nemesis for my robotic gargoyle apostle


(I really liked putting the words "Robotic Gargoyle Apostle to Robo Jesus" to paper. LOLZ)

[PersonMan]

My current group has:

-A running d20 Modern campaign
-A quasi-running Star Wars Saga Edition campaign
-An Evil DnD campaign
-A non-evil DnD campaign
-3+ Campaigns in the works
-An epic DnD campaign
-A lower-level DnD campaign
-A 3rd level DnD campaign
-6 DMs, 2 non-DMing(so far) members...

I've played too many characters to list. Since my group meets fairly infrequently(twice a month is good for us...), I make up new characters in between meets. It's rare for me to play a character for more than one(maybe two) sessions...

In the past I'd play more characters at once, but I couldn't really play them all as well. So I only play one at a time now. Unless I'm DMing, of course.

[Escheton]

I once played about a thousand gibberlings. Though that is simultaneous and not continuous and I was dm'ing at the time.
Still the most though.

[Theodoxus]

It would never occur to our group to play more than one game simultaneously concurrently. However, I do have a number of iconic characters I enjoy playing, depending on the campaign needs.

[big teej]

The reason our group hops campaigns and characters so often is because we can't consistently get the same people to show up.

and since we got tired of "a plot hole opens up beneath -missing player's character- and swallows him.

-player returns-
a mysterious black hole appears and vomits forth -insert character- "

pretty quick, so now we simply have a campaign running for nearly every combination of players (hence so many)

Spoiler

Show

there's 6 players and our group and 2 DM only people, and then 3 of the players are willing to Dm, so we have 5 DM's in our group,
so the campaigns consists of
players 1 - 6 + DM A
players 1 - 6 + DM B
players 1 - 3 + DM/player
etc. on down the line....

I hesitate to use the names of my buddies so I can't list the numerous variations....

but thankfully my "group" seems to have settled on two campaigns to focus on (3 if you want to get technical)

DM B is running me and 2 - 4 other players through the temple of elemental evil, which I've asked we focus on before I have to leave

and then me and and one of the other players are running solo campaigns for each other

and now I've rambled....

[the humanity]

Human Beguiler 18 (he was a gnome, for a while)
Human Bard 2
soon to include either a whisper gnome or elf rogue/swashbuckler.

discontinued characters...
half elf paladin
wood elf fighter
human rogue/fighter/assassin (entered assassin too late be useful at it though)

[big teej]

Human Beguiler 18 (he was a gnome, for a while)

was?

I am intrigued. please elaborate

[Snake-Aes]

Reincarnation?
Quest to get rid of "this dirty...humany feelings"?
My elf was a weasel for a while.

[Caliphbubba]

We do this, because we like to play different game and let other people Run the game from time to time.

Currently I believe we have 3 current campaigns running. Usually we play one for a few months, then switch to another one when someone gets tired of running the game.

I think the most we've had going at once was 6, one game being ran by each memmber of the group.

[Yorrin]

Our group has trouble playing the same character for more than about 7 levels, myself excluded. I remember one campaign where all of my players went through about four character, though that campaign did go from level 1 to level 26.

Usually if one of our characters die we just reroll instead of bothering with revival. It help keep everyone at about the same level and allows us to create a bunch of new characters, since that really is the best part of the game.

[~Nye~]

running games
Icharus Van Houten - Human Cleric6/knight4
Harvester 5 - Warforged Fighter 3
Kurokaze Feathergale - Halfling Rogue3/Wiz5/ArcaneTrickster8

Retired campaigns:
Kain Shadowish - Human Rogue 7/Assassin 10
Tyran Wickerweave - Human Binder 8
Isaac Undermarche - Halfling Archivist8/Stomlord2
Ryn-Ryn - Githyanki Battle Dancer 7
Kazen Blackarrow - Half-Elf bard 5
Nortix Kendl - iIda Adept 5

On top of this I am DMing for 3 games.

Most of these games are on hold, mainly because my friends live in differant countries and come down when they're on holiday or they're at uni or working too much. I doubt I'll ever re-play my assassin, but I keep his character sheet for memories.
In the last campaign I played two characters simultaneously, one in a private session, and the other in the main session, my cleric was evil, and my binder (his sister) was good, but the populous of the world perceived the opposite. Was awesome being the main villain for the first chapter :)

[the humanity]

was?

I am intrigued. please elaborate

the first time I played him, he was human, but he died 20 minutes in and was resurected as a gnome, so he became my gnome beguiler. later, he fell unconscious through a prismatic wall and was turned to stone and got shot into limbo. instead of just wishing I was in the room with them, the party added 'in his original form', so I'm now a human again. well, he is.

no quest to get rid of the humany feelings, though as the player he was tougher as a gnome, his original reason for joining the party was an unhealthy attraction for the (female) human ranger (and a healthy hate of the BBEG). now he has a shot again with the ranger.

[Dr Bwaa]

Our group is absurdly guilty of this, for two main reasons. First, there's the issue of us all often living in different places, so campaigns with everyone minus one person spring up constantly. Then, anytime anyone feels inspired (all of us DM (five of us in the core group)), that person will decide "I have a new campaign! Everyone roll up a monk!" (not kidding; that happened recently). My still-running characters/campaigns (I make no attempt to approximate chronological order, and several campaigns have rotating DMs, so I'm not even going to mention that.):

Spoiler

Show

Tordek Balderk Bloodhammer//Hangard Orcslayer - Dwarven Fighter/Barb with an intelligent Bat'leth, with whom he exchanged souls (and character sheets) after the Deck of Many Things produced "body functions but soul is trapped elsewhere." The last session of that campaign was basically this.

Kong Po - Monk/Paladin in the aforementioned Monk campaign. This one just started.

Ajheed - A hexblade in a silly "party" that is trapped in a dungeon for the amusement of "Our Benefactors." Theoretically, up to one person may earn his/her freedom by defeating everyone else, but we haven't played this campaign in a few years. Ajheed became a planeswalking NPC as a result.

Mumbles Keebler - a Gnome Bard in our oldest-running campaign, Mumbles hasn't seen much action because the last few times this campaign was run, I was a few thousand miles away and that DM doesn't like skype-D&D.

Aiden du Mer - an Irish Frenchman in about 1342 AD. He's a cleric with the best ability scores I have ever rolled* and in a very RP-heavy campaign, which is basically historically-accurate 1340s Europe suddenly turned into D&D--so spells are granted in dream through visions of the Archangel Michael, and so forth, and I have to discover the spells I want to use. It unfortunately uses all five of the core group, which means it is almost never played, as it competes for time with Jonny's Terrorist Camp...

Spoiler

Show

No scores above 16 were allowed, and I rolled (4d6 drop lowest) 18, 18, 17, 17, 14, 13, which is a 69-point-buy. I was allowed to take the excess points (since nothing could start above 16) and give myself a 16 in every ability score. Booyah.

Claaus O'Neal - A human fighter/Devoted defender, and my character in Jonny's Terrorist Camp, every one of our favorite campaign at present and so named because we are fugitives (despite our generally good alignments) and, in the way of PCs, incredibly destructive. And when the PCs oppose the government, Terrorism is generally the only word for it. We play about two marathon sessions of this campaign every year (for the last few years), because that's about how often the five of us are together in one place, but it has lasted from level 1 to 16 and is our second-longest campaign (the longest chronologically in-game).

Dale - A bounty hunter modeled on Jubal Early, Dale and his partner Lucidian are opposite ends of the personality spectrum. THey are also the only two PCs in this somewhat-recently-started campaign, which makes the campaign one of the most-played ones I'm in right now.

Kane - "Helm's Arbiter," Kane (a duskblade) is a late addition to a party of two other melee fighters with a knack for accruing NPCs. This was also a recently-started campaign with at least a few more sessions in it before the end of summer.

Stuart - A monk in a campaign where each of us was supposed to play ourselves in the D&D world (with our own ability scores... ouch), who was then crossed over after two sessions to a d20Modern setting in which he was a Gun Kata Master. The DM in this game is notoriously flaky; I do not expect a return despite the campaign still technically being "open."

In the Name of the King - A campaign that I'm running in my homebrew world to encourage me to flesh it out more. This campaign unfortunately also uses the same core five who are normally tied up in JTC, despite everyone's attachment to their characters and to the plot, and worse; my notes live on a computer that currently doesn't, so we haven't played this one in a few months.

Carl Farlson - A Halfling Chaos Mage/Barbarian, Carl is the preposterousest of three preposterous PCs in a campaign primordially dubbed "Interwebz." This is one of the campaigns with the longest expected lifespan, since it has never been played face-to-face, and therefore has fewer troubles with getting everyone on board at once.

Laelah Vrenn - A mage in a party of Mages, Laelah is the first full-caster I've ever played (Aiden doesn't count since he really just wants to be a paladin), and is the silliest class combination in a party of squishy mages (Wizard 5/Incantatrix 5/Abjurant Champion 5/Incantatrix ++). This is a campaign with the same group and format as Interwebz, and therefore has a similarly good life expectancy, despite it being quite new and with its status as the first game one of my friends (the non-core one) has ever DMed.

There are several other campaigns with the same friends that I'm not involved in, and probably more still that I'm forgetting, but you get the picture.

Grand Total: 12 ++

[big teej]

Reincarnation?
Quest to get rid of "this dirty...humany feelings"?
My elf was a weasel for a while.

.......I am intrigued.... elaborate

Spoiler

Show

@$#^ come on guys you KNOW i am goin to ask!!!

the first time I played him, he was human, but he died 20 minutes in and was resurected as a gnome, so he became my gnome beguiler. later, he fell unconscious through a prismatic wall and was turned to stone and got shot into limbo. instead of just wishing I was in the room with them, the party added 'in his original form', so I'm now a human again. well, he is.

no quest to get rid of the humany feelings, though as the player he was tougher as a gnome, his original reason for joining the party was an unhealthy attraction for the (female) human ranger (and a healthy hate of the BBEG). now he has a shot again with the ranger.

19 + 4

Our group is absurdly guilty of this, for two main reasons. First, there's the issue of us all often living in different places, so campaigns with everyone minus one person spring up constantly. Then, anytime anyone feels inspired (all of us DM (five of us in the core group)), that person will decide "I have a new campaign! Everyone roll up a monk!" (not kidding; that happened recently). My still-running characters/campaigns (I make no attempt to approximate chronological order, and several campaigns have rotating DMs, so I'm not even going to mention that.):

Spoiler

Show

Tordek Balderk Bloodhammer//Hangard Orcslayer - Dwarven Fighter/Barb with an intelligent Bat'leth, with whom he exchanged souls (and character sheets) after the Deck of Many Things produced "body functions but soul is trapped elsewhere." The last session of that campaign was basically this.

Kong Po - Monk/Paladin in the aforementioned Monk campaign. This one just started.

Ajheed - A hexblade in a silly "party" that is trapped in a dungeon for the amusement of "Our Benefactors." Theoretically, up to one person may earn his/her freedom by defeating everyone else, but we haven't played this campaign in a few years. Ajheed became a planeswalking NPC as a result.

Mumbles Keebler - a Gnome Bard in our oldest-running campaign, Mumbles hasn't seen much action because the last few times this campaign was run, I was a few thousand miles away and that DM doesn't like skype-D&D.

Aiden du Mer - an Irish Frenchman in about 1342 AD. He's a cleric with the best ability scores I have ever rolled* and in a very RP-heavy campaign, which is basically historically-accurate 1340s Europe suddenly turned into D&D--so spells are granted in dream through visions of the Archangel Michael, and so forth, and I have to discover the spells I want to use. It unfortunately uses all five of the core group, which means it is almost never played, as it competes for time with Jonny's Terrorist Camp...

Spoiler

Show

No scores above 16 were allowed, and I rolled (4d6 drop lowest) 18, 18, 17, 17, 14, 13, which is a 69-point-buy. I was allowed to take the excess points (since nothing could start above 16) and give myself a 16 in every ability score. Booyah.

Claaus O'Neal - A human fighter/Devoted defender, and my character in Jonny's Terrorist Camp, every one of our favorite campaign at present and so named because we are fugitives (despite our generally good alignments) and, in the way of PCs, incredibly destructive. And when the PCs oppose the government, Terrorism is generally the only word for it. We play about two marathon sessions of this campaign every year (for the last few years), because that's about how often the five of us are together in one place, but it has lasted from level 1 to 16 and is our second-longest campaign (the longest chronologically in-game).

Dale - A bounty hunter modeled on Jubal Early, Dale and his partner Lucidian are opposite ends of the personality spectrum. THey are also the only two PCs in this somewhat-recently-started campaign, which makes the campaign one of the most-played ones I'm in right now.

Kane - "Helm's Arbiter," Kane (a duskblade) is a late addition to a party of two other melee fighters with a knack for accruing NPCs. This was also a recently-started campaign with at least a few more sessions in it before the end of summer.

Stuart - A monk in a campaign where each of us was supposed to play ourselves in the D&D world (with our own ability scores... ouch), who was then crossed over after two sessions to a d20Modern setting in which he was a Gun Kata Master. The DM in this game is notoriously flaky; I do not expect a return despite the campaign still technically being "open."

In the Name of the King - A campaign that I'm running in my homebrew world to encourage me to flesh it out more. This campaign unfortunately also uses the same core five who are normally tied up in JTC, despite everyone's attachment to their characters and to the plot, and worse; my notes live on a computer that currently doesn't, so we haven't played this one in a few months.

Carl Farlson - A Halfling Chaos Mage/Barbarian, Carl is the preposterousest of three preposterous PCs in a campaign primordially dubbed "Interwebz." This is one of the campaigns with the longest expected lifespan, since it has never been played face-to-face, and therefore has fewer troubles with getting everyone on board at once.

Laelah Vrenn - A mage in a party of Mages, Laelah is the first full-caster I've ever played (Aiden doesn't count since he really just wants to be a paladin), and is the silliest class combination in a party of squishy mages (Wizard 5/Incantatrix 5/Abjurant Champion 5/Incantatrix ++). This is a campaign with the same group and format as Interwebz, and therefore has a similarly good life expectancy, despite it being quite new and with its status as the first game one of my friends (the non-core one) has ever DMed.

There are several other campaigns with the same friends that I'm not involved in, and probably more still that I'm forgetting, but you get the picture.

Grand Total: 12 ++

-hats off to you, I've been out done -bing- point/cookie for you

also... an all monk campaign.... I am intrigued..... I may have to try this



MOAR MOAR

[Kylarra]

We have 3 campaigns going currently.

Since I'm ST for our Exalted game, only two characters though, my ninja-esque Scion: Hero char and a swarm druid for 4e

[Tal_Akaan]

My group is currently playing 3 games, technically. I started a Pathfinder game and was starting to get the itch to play, so the other DM in the group said he would run a 4e game at the same time. For the past 6-8 months i have been planning a Star Wars game that centers around a player who may be moving shortly, so we paused the Pathfinder game to play the Star Wars game.

My group just started doing the multiple game thing recently, with only 2 people who are willing to GM and both of us love playing, so multiple games helps keep us from getting burnt out on GMing.