Players: Do your characters need to be kewl?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There are two main types of fantasy protagonists, in my opinion:

You have the Everyman. His name might be Bilbo Baggins or Wart or he might be a swineherd. Amazing things might happen to him, and he'll certainly evolve if he survives his adventures, but at the end of the day, he's still a regular guy (or girl).

And then you have the Kewl Guy. He might be the chosen of the gods (or a god), the last surviving practicioner of an amazingly potent form of magic/combat, a member of an insanely rare race that happens to be just like everyone else but better or the bearer of some awesome weapon. Nothing about these folks is regular, from their awesome skills to their wardrobe and appearance to even how they move.

Now, when I started playing D&D, everyone was an Everyman. They were farm hands who had put down their plowshares and picked up swords or they were the town drunk finally shocked into sobriety or what have you.

Today, though, I'm seeing more and more player characters that are kewl. I've seen entire groups of kewl characters, where every character seems to be vying to be the star of the campaign.

Is it just my personal experience, or is there a trend towards kewlness and away from the Everyman? If this is a trend, what's behind it?

And players, are your characters more kewl than they are ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances?

 

[Mouseferatu]

While I'm normally okay with polls requiring one extreme or the other, this one really needs an "It depends" option.

I've played both types. I'll continue to play both types. I enjoy both types. And I don't have a really strong preference one way or the other; it depends on the character concepts and the campaign.

 

[Seeten]

I cannot possibly vote.

I'm currently playing a Waitress in an Urban Arcana game that is just that. A Waitress.

I'm playing a Drow Dread Necromancer in another campaign, "The only Drow Worshipper of Nerull currently in the World's Largest Dungeon" with a huge scythe, and a mandate from Nerull himself.

So I guess an "It depends" on what I want, what the DM wants, what the other players want, etc.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So the split is exactly 50/50 when making characters?

 

[lukelightning]

Default D&D requires a party comprised of people covering different roles, so you might as well take your role and shine in it. And by level 5 or so you are pretty far removed from being "just plain folks."

 

[Just_Hal]

While I'm normally okay with polls requiring one extreme or the other, this one really needs an "It depends" option.

I've played both types. I'll continue to play both types. I enjoy both types. And I don't have a really strong preference one way or the other; it depends on the character concepts and the campaign.

Quoted cause it is my thoughts exactly....

 

[3d6]

I've played both. My previous character was more of an everyman (if we're just choosing between those two choices). He was a traveller from another continent who was searching for his brother. My character before that was a changling (half-fey, not doppelganger-light) warlock in a campaign that was pretty short of magical characters and magic in general, who I think would probably fall into the "kewl" camp. A character than can fly around and shoot lightning from his fingers in a campaign where most people have never seen magic of any kind is pretty special.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Default D&D requires a party comprised of people covering different roles, so you might as well take your role and shine in it. And by level 5 or so you are pretty far removed from being "just plain folks."

I think real life shows us this isn't true.

You are surrounded by people who have travelled the world, done things that you can barely imagine and have had all sorts of experiences. And yet, at the end of the day, they came home (or moved to a new home near you) and blend in with everyone else.

Who you are and what you do are two different things here. No one who knows my father can necessarily tell that my father can speak 7 languages and has a Bronze Star from Vietnam. He's just a guy who likes to putter around in bookstores and putter around on his ragged sailboat. He's an everyman but he's certainly up there in levels.

Likewise, a lot of the kewl characters I see are kewl from level one, with cat-like reflexes or a gaze that ordinary people avoid meeting or a voice that can cut through the sound of a crowded tavern with just a soft word. That's not experience, that's innate kewlness.

 

[Mouseferatu]

So the split is exactly 50/50 when making characters?

I honestly couldn't say without going back over all my characters. If it's not 50/50, though, that's due specifically to the needs of the campaigns, and what I was in the mood to play at the time. I truly don't have an innate preference, one way or the other.

 

[Crothian]

My everyman characters are cool.