Characteritis

[Heliomance]

Any of you suffer from this strange condition? The urge to build characters, far more than you'll ever have a chance to play, exploring different concepts, different builds. It's thoroughly annoying. I have all sorts of different things that I want to try out in a game, and not enough time or games to do so in.

My latest is a V:tR "friendly neighbourhood" Nosferatu. A doctor in life, he takes the concept of primum non nocere seriously. He swore an oath to do no harm in life, he doesn't see why that should change in undeath, and his 9 willpower agree with him. The idea is to head for Humanity 10 and Golconda.

[FMArthur]

I have this, and so I DM. It means there's less chance to flesh out a character because the PCs usually don't care, but it means I at least get to try out concepts.

[dsmiles]

I'm always thinking of concepts (not builds, though, I like to let the build take shape during play) I would like to play in DnD. I just file them away in the part of my brain dedicated to DnD.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm currently dealing with a bout of this, making characters for the various Pathfinder Adventure Paths on the off-chance that I'll get to play in one instead of needing to run it.

[Jay R]

Any of you suffer from this strange condition? The urge to build characters, far more than you'll ever have a chance to play, exploring different concepts, different builds. It's thoroughly annoying. I have all sorts of different things that I want to try out in a game, and not enough time or games to do so in.

No, I don't suffer from it. I certainly have the condition, but as long as I enjoy building characters, it's a way I get to play more often than I can get together with my friends. My primary reason to take part in these discussions is to play with the ideas in the game on days I can't get with a group.

I realized long ago I will design far more characters than I will ever play.

[PersonMan]

I tend to have a large number of concepts and builds(although most of my concepts are based around one of three builds). When I was in this one group that met fairly irregularly(once a month or so, twice if it was a good one, but we'd play for a good 10 hours at a time) I'd change characters incredibly often. The same sort of thing afflicted the whole group, but in campaign form. As a result, we'd have 5+ campaigns going at once and new ones popping up every now and then, as well as an ever-changing cast in the ones that lasted long.

I've basically accepted this, since I tend not to build the characters(I do seek out games for some really good concepts) and the ones I don't use lose my interest fast.

[Seb Wiers]

My latest is a V:tR "friendly neighbourhood" Nosferatu. A doctor in life, he takes the concept of primum non nocere seriously. He swore an oath to do no harm in life, he doesn't see why that should change in undeath, and his 9 willpower agree with him. The idea is to head for Humanity 10 and Golconda.

Carlisle Cullen as a Nosferatu, then? (Sorry, but the comparison is obvious, and will turn up in game.)

Typically when I get that, its because I'm using a new system and want to try some variations on a theme, by way of comparison / optimization.

[Heliomance]

Carlisle Cullen as a Nosferatu, then? (Sorry, but the comparison is obvious, and will turn up in game.)

Dienowkthx.

And I'm pretty sure that no, no it won't, as none of my friends like Twilight, or know enough about it to come up with that comparison. I certainly didn't.

[Choco]

I definitely have this condition. Every game I play in, I have countless characters ready to go at a moment's notice. Character creation and background writing is my favorite part of the game, so like FMArthur I also DM just so these characters have a chance at seeing the light of day. Even if the whole point of some of most of alright, ALL of their existence is just to be the PC's XP bag...

A side effect of this condition is that I am not bothered by character death. The moment my HP drops into lethal levels I am shocked and saddened, but the very next second I perk up again, realizing that now I can FINALLY try my next awesome character out .

[Just_Ice]

Characteritis is prevalent. DnD 4E character creator is often the cure, because it's fast. It's also kind of limiting, but for the better half of characters it's the quickest way to make them playable.

[rayne_dragon]

I get this frequently. Sometimes it's because I have a great character concept that I want to play, then rapidly find another concept I want to play, leading to me getting bored with my old character and switching to a new one as soon as I can. Other times, it's just because I enjoy making up new characters and I don't actually want/need/feel compelled to play the ones I make up.

There does seem to be a type of character that I'm fairly consistant about playing though that I tend not to switch out when I'm playing it, even if I come up with a neat idea for a new character to play.

[Zaydos]

I don't have this right now

I mean this is my natural state of things, but right now the font is dry.

[Mastikator]

I have this, and so I DM. It means there's less chance to flesh out a character because the PCs usually don't care, but it means I at least get to try out concepts.

I was gonna say this, but instead I'll just quote it.

I also have Encounteritis, I have an urge to invent encounters, I like to see what happens when you throw other player's characters into the mix.

[Viszla]

I am inexorably addicted to making all kinds of different builds for the Star Wars Saga Edition game. In the course of one week, I made three level 15 characters, including a Twilek Jedi lightsaber duelist, a Yuzzem Martial Artist, and a Yuuzhan Vong Scout/Scoundrel skill monkey, with levels in Shaper in order to specialize in Biotech, that uses razorbugs and thudbugs as his primary weapons. I have fully mapped the attributes, feats, talents, and skills of all of these, as well as the force powers for the saber duelist, and a backstory for the Yuzzem martial artist.

[LibraryOgre]

I used to. I find the desire to do this has gone down over the last ten years or so.

EDIT: Hmmm... I should expand upon this.

When I got started in earnest in the early 90s, making characters was fun. It was enjoyable to manipulate the system and see what I could come up with, especially in a fiddly system like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness.

However, as my library expanded, it became less interesting. There were only so many options that seemed "good", and getting the "best" usually involved looking over several books. It became more work, and other aspects of the game drew my attention.

I'm still a bit of a character-hopper, especially in 4e, where I feel less connection to the character and am usually unsatisfied with whatever I make (it doesn't work QUITE like I want it to). However, the desire to just randomly make a PC is less pronounced than it was.

[Seb Wiers]

Dienowkthx.

And I'm pretty sure that no, no it won't, as none of my friends like Twilight, or know enough about it to come up with that comparison. I certainly didn't.

<Shrug/> Archetype overlap happens. I'm sure somebody who actually reads vampire fiction could turn up 10 precursors to Carlisle; he's just the one I turned up with a 20 second google search. If I can come up with that based on my wife watching a movie on Netflix in the same room at some point, then I think your fellow players might see a connection, fans or not.