Characters are too vanilla! Let's spice them up!

[Dannyalcatraz]

Again, it all boils down to leveraging your imagination. Whether you start with a concept in mind and find mechanics to fit it, or you reverse engineer your PC's personality from the mechanics you put on paper doesn't matter, as long as you wind up with a fun PC to play...and have fun playing it.

If you're sitting there with your 4Ed books and decide to play a Battlemind because you haven't played one before, you may look at the sheet after you've filled in all the stuff and go..."Meh."

If that's where you stop, that's your fault.

Start looking at the why a being of the race you chose would be adventuring as a member of the class you chose. Why would he/she/it choose the weapons, feats and powers on the sheet?

That's more or less what happened with my Dwarven Starlock, after all. The Caribbean vibe was inspired by the Shadow Walk class feature. The hatred of Aberrations stemmed from me asking why a Dwarf would choose to be a StarPact Warlock.

Now, if you start down that road of reverse engineering and STILL go "Meh." looking at your PC's sheet, you have to ask yourself whether you can have fun playing the PC and filling in the personality as you play and interact with other PCs, or whether you should start over.

 

[ashockney]

Again, it all boils down to leveraging your imagination. Whether you start with a concept in mind and find mechanics to fit it, or you reverse engineer your PC's personality from the mechanics you put on paper doesn't matter, as long as you wind up with a fun PC to play...and have fun playing it.

Undoubtedly a good reminder to us all. Start from a character that you find interesting to begin with, and build from there.

 

[ashockney]

Actually, hitting the OP directly, I don't think you have to have a character play the same way from 1st to 30th level -- in fact, you can have radically different builds through the tiers (particularly if you loosen up on retraining rules, as LFR does).

Lets take my Deva Avenger -- Isa Sunrise.

Now what I find interesting is that the SPICE can come in several forms.

Fitting your character race, classes, and feat choices to build an interesting narrative.

Using your character backgrounds, quirks, and flaws to put SPICE into your character's design.

Now this latest suggestion also highlights a way to keep a character fresh by changing up the powers while you are builidng your character through levels. I think this latest idea may be more in line with what I originally had in mind. How do you make interesting and compelling characters to play!

I'd like to hear more about the LFR rules and how they are "loosened" up with regards to retraining. It sounds like you still spent feats, and are considering class options that grant you some of versatility I was hoping for.

Also, does this versatility add to your interest and enjoyment in playing this character? I'm thinking this is the kind of thing that would benefit all characters. Could this loose retraining and variety/utility in character options be built into more classes?

 

[mneme]

Now this latest suggestion also highlights a way to keep a character fresh by changing up the powers while you are builidng your character through levels. I think this latest idea may be more in line with what I originally had in mind. How do you make interesting and compelling characters to play!

Indeed. One reason I bothered with the reply, as the tangents others were taking were fun, but clearly not matching your initial thought.

I'd like to hear more about the LFR rules and how they are "loosened" up with regards to retraining. It sounds like you still spent feats, and are considering class options that grant you some of versatility I was hoping for.

Basically, LFR now lets you rebuild your character every level, as long as the result is a legal result by core rules, and as long as your race, class(es), and home region remain constant. So LFR characters can switch out builds, change out multiclass feats, and so on -- as long as it's possible to get to the same result using the standard rules (so no more than 2 Paragon feats at 11th level, and so on). This does mean that the characters can switch out stats so as to never have odd key stats, and don't have to plan everything out in advance...but it also means they don't need to plan everything out in advance and work out each change several levels at a time.

Also, does this versatility add to your interest and enjoyment in playing this character? I'm thinking this is the kind of thing that would benefit all characters. Could this loose retraining and variety/utility in character options be built into more classes?

It could certainly be built into a game; it's a pretty workable set of retraining rules. And yeah, I do think it adds to my interest; it means that when new options show up I can look at them and think about how I might work them into my character--and "taste" various options. It also means I can more easily express how the character matures and changes over time, letting her reflect her experiences, the people she meets and adventures with, and the more worldshaking experiences she undergoes. It also means the character can reflect my insight into how the game experience changes over time as you level; a Martyr is very viable in early heroic levels (once an Avenger has more hp than she's likely to know what to do with), but in paragon levels getting hit becomes a much bigger deal, and the "martyr" style becomes less and less appealing, wheras the +2 vs +1 damage bonus from Unity is a much bigger deal, particularly as one gets access to more multiattack powers.

Plus, you know, it's fun.

 

[Rechan]

However, one thing that D&D has never* embraced is the idea of Hindrances/Faults. My go-to system of Savage Worlds uses them as part of the character building process. They system also rewards you playing your hindrance when it is not convenient for the group (example: someone with Loyal going back for a captured NPC that does not mean anything to the Plot). I have found players find their groove for the PC's personality much quicker - lets face it, it is our faults that make us who we are as much as our strengths in life.

My favorite system that uses this is Fate 3.0 (the Dresden Files RPG, Spirit of the Century, etc) and there, character traits are referred to as Aspects.

A character gets 7 Aspects that define their character like "Stubborn as a Mule" or "Chivalry isn't dead, damnit". Players write their own aspects, as opposed to picking them out of a book. These are characteristics that define who the characters are.

When one of these character aspects would qualify in whatever they're doing, the player can tag one and get a large bonus. Such as if he has the "Ladies Man" aspect and wants to lie to a female NPC, he could tag it and come off as smooth and distracting, letting him lie.

However, the GM can also tag those aspects to entice players to do things that would complicate the story. For instance, let's say there's a femme fatale that the group doesn't trust. She attempts to for whatever reason seduce the PC with the "ladies Man" aspect. The player is having none of it but the DM tags his "Ladies Man" aspect.

Now either the player gets a mechanical bonus he can use later to do something, or he gets a mechanical penalty the player can choose to take if he does not go with with the action the DM is tagging (similar to how in your example the PC with Loyal has to go back for the downed NPC).