Do you get the chance to shine in the game?

Quasqueton · May 20, 2004

Maybe you designed your monk to be a mage killer, but never actually got to face a mage.

Maybe you designed your sorcerer to be a mind-controlling master, but encountered only undead and constructs throughout the campaign.

Maybe you designed your cleric to be the ultimate undead blaster, but ended up never encountering anything more than half a dozen skeletons.

Maybe you designed your barbarian to be the mook quisanart, and got to use cleave just about every round of every combat.

Maybe you designed your bard to be a totally smooth diplomat, and the campaign turned out to revolve totally around the king's court.

Maybe you designed your wizard to be a general-purpose mister fixit, and every complicated situation the group gets in can be solved by one of your odd spell choices.

How often does your character(s) get a chance to shine in the way you planned for him or her to shine? What are your best examples?

Quasqueton

Henry · May 20, 2004

My best example comes off with me being a smart-aleck.

A psion who watches a wizard with no open lock or knock spells fumble with a jail cell lock for 30 seconds, while I cooly lean against the doorway, both arms crossed, and manifest knock.

(Sorry, Torm.)

Sometimes My PC gets to shine, but I'm usually happiest in a support role, so I build my PC's such. If I'm contributing to the Party's success, then I'm living the dream, so to speak.

diaglo · May 20, 2004

read the story hour in my sig.

i make sure i let my DM/referee know exactly what i want to do with my PC.

life's too short to play crappy RPGs.

milotha · May 20, 2004

IMHO: If you have a good GM and a decent character concept you should get the chance to shine regularly. Some of the best GMs I've seen alter the campaign and the encounters to allow the players to get their concepts off. This doesn't mean that they always succeed at their attempts, it just means they get to make an attempt. So, stealthy characters get to sneak, undead slayers encounter some undead, etc in the course of the campaign. This makes the game more enjoyable for the players since they get to feel useful, even if it is an illusion. Who doesn't like to shine, and if it isn't destroying the other players fun, where's the harm in it.

That being said, I've been in campaigns where the GM seemed to actively prevent tha characters from doing anything either by 1) setting the DCs at absurd levels 2) If you got good at it, it was never in the campaign again. Hey look - I do 20 bonus points of damage to undead and an undead is never seen again. 3) railroading prevents anything from working.

My current best example of getting to shine is my wizard/rogue. I wrote him up as a conman, flimflam artist, who posses as a wizard of some renown in the backwater area that the campaign is situated in. I set up my booth and sell my wares (mostly useless trinkets), fortune reading talents, magical tricks, etc to the yokels. Now, for some unforseable reason, the rest of the party has joined in on the scam, and we make an excellent group of used car salesmen in the D&D world. It's a great opportunity to roleplay the character. We make a days wages doing it, and it's an excellent plot hook.

Torm · May 20, 2004

I usually play a Half-Celestial when possible, so I get plenty of opportunity to shine.

Kormydigar · May 20, 2004

Quasqueton said:
Maybe you designed your monk to be a mage killer, but never actually got to face a mage.

Maybe you designed your sorcerer to be a mind-controlling master, but encountered only undead and constructs throughout the campaign.

Maybe you designed your cleric to be the ultimate undead blaster, but ended up never encountering anything more than half a dozen skeletons.

Maybe you designed your barbarian to be the mook quisanart, and got to use cleave just about every round of every combat.

Maybe you designed your bard to be a totally smooth diplomat, and the campaign turned out to revolve totally around the king's court.

Maybe you designed your wizard to be a general-purpose mister fixit, and every complicated situation the group gets in can be solved by one of your odd spell choices.

How often does your character(s) get a chance to shine in the way you planned for him or her to shine? What are your best examples?

Quasqueton

This one was not my character but was a character from a game I ran a couple of years ago. I was running a GURPS fantasy campaign set in Yrth in the city of Tredroy. The pc's began the game with a traditional intro adventure investigating a dead wizard's tower. One of the players had created a wizard with many mind control spells, (almost exclusively mind control spells). The tower was full of undead servants which had to be dealt with. The wizards player panicked after one session of being ineffective and changed characters. He created a more flash bang combat type wizard before the second session of play. During the next few sessions he was happy, and the party was adventuring out in the wilderness on a quest for a special item. When the party returned to the city, the heart of the campaign began. The pc's started working for a crime family against the other crime factions of the city. It was a situation like the movie Miller's Crossing except there were four main factions instead of two. Once the heavy npc interaction in the city got underway, the wizards player was really sorry he didn't stick with his origanal character. His mind control abilities would have been devastating! This character would have had more than his chance to shine, he could been the party hero.

William Ronald · May 20, 2004

Torm said:
I usually play a Half-Celestial when possible, so I get plenty of opportunity to shine.

Or just bring enough boot polish to always look spiffy -- even if the adventure is called Against the Oytughs .

On a much more serious note, the lack of an opportunity to shine was one of the BIG problems at the end of my former gaming group. Characters with skills in diplomacy and knowledge did not matter in a game where how much damage your character could do in a single round became the prime standard for judging a character. (The group, which had existed in some form for 21 years, split. The DM was tired of DMing, and everything became unbalanced. Ironically, I was planning on leaving the group even before the DM quit.

)

I think it is crucial for players to feel that their characters can shine and make a difference to the party. It is frustrating to play a character who is supposed to be a wellspring of knowledge when that knowledge is never needed in an adventure.

the Jester · May 20, 2004

In omrob's epic game, I play an alienist/planeshifter built to flee at a moment's notice.

I get a chance to shine almost every game.

Painfully · May 20, 2004

Regardless of your character type, I think it is in those unexpected moments of brilliance (whether success or failure) that really make the biggest impressions. Everybody already knows that the undead hunter is better at hunting undead, etc. It's when he tactfully diplomacizes with a ghost that can really make things interesting.

Piratecat · May 20, 2004

It helps to talk to the DM. Someone in my game (Galthia) built his character to be a scout, but a deep gnome NPC already had that task. When the player confessed that he felt somewhat frustrated, it was simplicity itself to have the NPC take "back scouting" duty and give the PC the much more important forward scouting position. I was happy to switch things around a bit in order to let him do what he was best at.