Do you actually CARE about your PC?

[coyote6]

Depends on the character, so some more than others.

Some of them I wish I could still play, others had their time & their story's basically done. Others I might like to play, but I doubt it would work now -- games have changed, groups changed, I've changed, times have changed, so the things that made me like 'em then might not work now.

As to why different characters -- well, for a glorious while, we gamed a lot, and playing the same campaign over and over got old, so we'd run a couple-three games concurrently. And then some campaigns die, for a multitude of reasons; when that happens, it's new campaign time and thus new character time.

 

[Belorin]

I've been playing D&D since 1977 and I have cared about most of my characters, especially Baran, my Ranger from 1E and Belorin, my Eldritch Knight from 2E both of which have built strongholds.
3.5 gave me Odhran the Bard plus some others.
I also have a Call of Cthulhu investigator whom has lasted an entire campaign (only mildly insane) that I'm quite proud of, Algernon Chambers.
My Mutants and Masterminds hero Quark is currently recuperating after a major encounter with his nemeses; Strangeness and Charm.
Currently I am playing a half-orc Ranger named Garokk in Pathfinder and I'm DMing 4E.

Bel

 

[Doug McCrae]

Yes. I have a problem though, I want my evil PCs to die (or rather I want their story to end in death) and my good PCs to not die. Which doesn't really work in traditional rpgs. Life and death depends on the dice and other nonsense.

 

[Mallus]

I care a great deal about the characters I like.

(which sounds kinda oxymoronic, but bear with me)

I can create a near-limitless number of PC's, give them funny names, and kit them out for adventure. But I can only create a much more limited number of interesting characters (in the fictional sense), whose personalities are amusing enough so that I'd want to explore the game world with/as them for the length of the campaign. And a smaller number still of characters that 'jive' w/the group.

So yes, I get attached to certain PC's. Power and mechanical issues aside, they're simply not that many interesting made-up people in me. I... ahem... cherish the one's that really work. Not that I weep bitter, crystal tears when they die --actually, our two main campaigns are pretty death-lite.

This is why the whole high-mortality, 'just roll up a new one' play style isn't for me. I just can't furnish enough of them w/personalities.

 

[Asmor]

I'm a bit odd in that, as far as I can tell, I'm utterly incapable of becoming attached to a single character. I change characters frequently (I'd probably roll up a new character every session if I thought I could get away with it).

I want to become attached to a character, but it's yet to happen.

 

[Barcode]

I get attached enough that if they die, I want them to die well.


The same applies to NPC's and villains when DM'ing. I don't need them to live forever, but it does piss me off when they "die like a punk" when they are supposed to be a memorable, scary villain.

 

[Doc_Klueless]

If for some reason a character does not "click" with me, I immediately kill it and make a new one (with DM/GM approval). I'm there to have fun. It's imperative that I like my character and care about him.

I've actually only done this twice. Same campaign. DM couldn't catch his stride or feel for the campaign and changed its tone twice. He was more than willing to let me switch to better match the tone of the campaign.

With that out of the way: I'm very careful when I make a character. I never make a character that doesn't appeal to me. I'm open to any role (striker, healer, etc.) that is needed by the team. But that's only a small portion of the character. I come up with quirks, backstory, etc. that appeals to me, increases my by-in to the character and, thus, vastly increases my enjoyment of that character. All of which fuels my caring for him.

 

[baradtgnome]

I am usually extremely attached to my characters, but that assumes they live long enough to form the attachment. We play a limited amount of different games, and a small number of campaigns within them. We are not racing from one game to another, and tend to play our characters over many years. Heck, I have characters from our long retired AD&D campaign that I would play again in a heartbeat if the opportunity arose.

 

[Campbell]

I tend to view the characters I play in the same way I view NPCs when I run a game. I might grow to like a character, but I don't really self-identify and never forget that I'm dealing with the stuff of fiction. I'm kind of the same way when it comes to reading books, watching movies, or playing video games.

 

[Dragonbait]

Not typically, no.

I'm attached to very few characters, and those that I am attached to exist in my own creative world and just happen to have numbers assigned to them in a system for the moment. Even if they die in-game, I don't care. I can reuse them later. They will live on in my other creative works: art, writing, etc.

I've found that even though D&D is my main game, most characters I make are filling a niche and designed around a "job" rather than a personality and concept, therefor I'm less likely to get attached to them than in other games.