First Well RPed Character?

[Poltergeist]

Arella

I think my first was Arella, a human bard in an excellent 3rd edition campaign. She was very young, but very bright and exceptionally beautiful. She tried to compensate for her insecurity by acting tough, leaving all the other players thinking that she was really, really bitchy when in fact she was terrified half the time. She tended to see her beauty as a curse, rather than a gift, and fully half the time would try to hide beneath a hooded cloak to avoid attracting unwanted attention. She played her cards close to her chest so few of her team mates really understood what was going on with her (only the DM really knew as I wrote a journal of the adventures as her personal journal), leaving them mostly thinking she was just cranky, irritable, and impulsive.

I had intended to have her go over the edge, spending a few sessions seeming perhaps a bit mad, and then finally settling into who she was and what she could do. Sadly, the campaign ended abruptly due to group dynamics so I never got to see her through to the end. Still, it was really the first character that I found myself role playing so intensely that my feelings about the other players were often overshadowed by Arella's feelings towards their characters while we were "at the table."

****sits back and remembers the campaign wistfully and wonders if he could ever convince the players and DM to find a way to resurrect it****

 

[e3_Jeb]

I'm enjoying reading this, so here's to shameless bumping...

 

[ThoughtBubble]

The first character I played with a reasonable amount of depth was Laura A Callahan. From the outset she was designed as a support character. As a medic/electrician/driver, her job within a unit was to provide transit into dangerous areas, work communications equipment, and patch up the wounded. She was going to be cheery, supportive and curious in an almost annoying fashion. She would also have a sharp tongue when she got angry. It was going to be a post apocalpytic game, but I was expecting a little more fallout 2, and a little less mad max.

Things didn't run quite to expectations. I guess waking up as one of six people in cryogenic stasis tubes in the middle of the desert will do that to you. Aside from a leer or two, most of the rest of the group paid no attention to her, and for the first few weeks, we were wandering through the wilderness, without enough equipment to make use of her skills as a medic. She tried to keep a happy face on, but hunger, wearyness, feeling usless, and constantly getting negative responses from the group started wearing her down. She did manage to make some major contributions, which were all overlooked. She gradually became quiet, thoughtful, and desperately in need of some attention. This is how she learned self reliance.

Around this time, the Doc, one of the other people in the group started growing out, into more of a guardian sort. They started to tenatively get close to each other. Oddly enough, it was a gift of a cigarette (hard to get in the post apocalyptic future), that cemented things between them as slightly more than friends. She didn't smoke it, just kept it tucked behind her ear. This is how she learned compassion.

Later in their travels, the Doc becomes a little more distant, seems to be worrying about something. They try to talk, but they've never been good at it, and don't have any luck then. The next day, the Doc's just gone, left before everyone gets up. She finally smokes that cigarette. This is how she learned abandonment.


She does her best to keep everyone else together and moving, but Laura's in a bad mood that no one can really dispell. They manage to get some work. It's digging up the ruins of an old town. Manual labor is about all drifting vagabonds can expect, but it pays for gas. While they're digging, some of the ruins shift and two of the members of the group fall in. She shouts to the onlookers, gets rope, and in the single most heroic thing I've ever done in an RPG goes climbing down into the unknown on a rope secured around a friend's waist. Unfortunately, fairly early in her climb, she loses her grip, and falls, nearly dieing in the process. This is how she learned caution.

They made it out, having to go through the ruins of the town. They found more than a clue down there though. They found a map, and got in contact (via the internet of all things) with people. People who knew who they were, and what was going on. Half the group was nervous about it. Laura said she was going to go, no matter what, but that she'd take them where they wanted to go first. To her surprize the entire group said they'd go with her, they'd back her decision. The thought that they really were a team, that they really cared was amazing. This is how she learned joy.

Before they left, she dropped off a message for the Doc, just incase he did show up again. He'd want to know about this. If anyone could tell she was secretly hoping for him to find them again no one said so.

On the way, they ran into some highly organized folks protecting the outlying farmland. Trying to talk with them didn't work so well, and got the party violently interrogated. She realized that she needed to be more careful in the future, not all folks are nice.

They ran into the Doc again, a few days later. At first, she was overjoyed, but it was like he had completely changed. He was arrogant, unthinking, and unable to see anything from any position other than his own. He constantly thought he was right and didn't bother to think of the consiquences before he acted. She tried to bring him around. She tried to re-kindle their friendship. When that failed, she fumed and wondered what was wrong with him. What Laura couldn't understand that he was exactly the same, but that she'd changed.

Worse was simply that she and the Doc would offer completely different approaches to a situation, and the group would typically follow him. She simply felt dimished, as if her presence didn't mean anything anymore. She started putting that rapier wit to good use, and would stack insults on the rest of her team when something could have been avoided by listening to her. She starts to become the person no one is sure why they tolerate anymore. This is how she learned frusteration.

She realized just how little use she was to the party during a job where her contribution to the group was simply to stay out of the way, and not offer any counter ideas to wandering in the woods, or breaking and entering. Things were actually more efficient with her doing nothing.

Her stint in the campaign ended after she put her neck on the line several times to get information from the head of the techno paramilitary they'd joined up with. Their response to the information was 'cool', and then to begin planning. The fact that no one even said thank you was too much for her. She told them to "Keep me out of whatever idiocy you're planning," and stormed off.

The final words she heard before leaving was "Ok, I guess I'm covering the door. What's with her anyway?"

I've been talking with the DM, and she may just be re-appearing as a villian.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Well, this isn't my character per se, but rather the first campaign I ran in which Role Playing figured largely.

We were 13 year olds playing the Palladium Robotech RPG, and I (as DM) had the PC's playing pilots of Destroids (which, in the Robotech milieu, are basically grunt Infantry mechs).

We played up a lot of inter-service rivalry, particularly between the PC's and the Verotech Fighter Aces (who were the "Heroes" of the Cartoon which inspred the game). It was pretty good natured rivalry, but there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the Destroid Pilots got the dirty work, while the Verotech Pilots found themselves with more glamourous roles.

After playing for awhile, I was going to "reward" the PC's with a promotion to their own Verotech Fighter Wing (Black Sunrise Squadron), with nickname/callsigns, regimental uniforms...the whole nine yards.

When the promotion was announced...the PC's stunned me by turning it down. They were Destroid pilots, and Destroid Pilots were (and I kid you not) DESTROID 4 LIFE.

I liked that campiagn a lot, but found the system irritating. I'm contemplating running something similar using Mongoose Publishing's Armageddon 2089.

 

[psychognome]

Lissa Whiterock, a Gnome Illusionist/Rogue in a D&D 3e campaign that we haven't played in ages now.

When playing Lissa I threw most of my common sense out of the window and just had fun. Performing practical jokes on the group, taunting enemies in battle... gee, I really liked the character. One of her best actions, due to her low Wisdom, was sticking her hand into a fire elemental, 'cause she thought it was an illusion. Turned out it wasn't. Ouch.

 

[Dyluck]

Well, even though I didn't get to play him very much, my first character from d20 Modern would be the one I had the most fun role-playing - especially making his backstory...

His name was Jack McGregor, a hard boiled cop from the streets of L.A. He had taken an assignment to raid a drug factory, and something was up - he could just tell. Jack and his partner, Frank, burst into the back room to find none other than Victor, Jack's old partner, a good-cop-gone-bad! In the firefight that ensued, Jack was able to jump out of the way, but Frank didn't make it. Frank grabbed Jack and gave him his dying wish, "Frank, you have to clean up this city for me... My wife is pregnant with my son, Jimmy. I don't want him to grow up in a place like this." Jack, enraged, went against orders and killed Victor by himself. Jack was kicked off the force, and now roams the city, searching for a chance to make justice!!!