I'm sorry, your character idea is too awful.

[Hella_Tellah]

To add to your Penultimate loner: the Lone Wolf. The Wolverine guy. The one who has no reason to be with the party, thinks he's better off on his own, and would rather scout ahead or is disinterested in the party's main objectives.

Somehow I've avoided having players try to pull this, but I think it's just my generation. We all grew up on Final Fantasy and other early JRPGs, so we've had it up to here with that trope. "Oh, you're the silent, sullen loner type? Me too! We're all silent, sullen loners. It's just one big continent full of silent, sullen loners. No towns, no settlements, just brooding angst."

 

[MonkeyDragon]

First of all, that Kobold Paladin is the most awesomnest thing I've heard all day. I WILL find a way to work that concept as an NPC into my game. Yoink!

It's important that players are included in the planning of a game, so that everyone's on board with the tone. In the end, though, the DM is the one who SETS the tone. And the DM has to like the game they're presenting to the players.

So I don't see anything wrong with asking players to go along with certain guidelines when creating characters. I think it's just fine to say "That's a fine concept, but it's not right for THIS game. Save it for later."

I think it depends on the length of the game, as well. I recently ran a two shot that was an enormously silly parody of 300. The players were all 8 year old spartan boys. Everyone had to be human, choose from a few fighter classes, and had some other restrictions. They fought persian kobolds. It was rediculous. The players LOVED it. If it was more than a short, I would have had rebellion.


I will ALWAYS say no (or put on the kibosh in my pregame handouts) to characters who can't get along with other characters, the Lone Wolf, and walking disruptions.

It all comes down to my Golden Rule: Thou shalt not allow thy fun to come at the expense of anyone else's fun.

 

[MichaelSomething]

My DM wouldn't let me play a Human Female Paladin of Sehanine! What a jerk! I even showed him a list of her good qualities!

1. She battles evil by moonlight
2. She wins love by daylight
3. She never runs from a real fight
4. Her name is Serinna
5. She will never turn her back on her friends
6. She is a great defender
7. She is also very dependable
8. Did I mention her name is Serinna?

 

[Cryptos]

There was one that I strongly tried to steer away from the insane, and one that I wish I would've disallowed.

The one I took a strong hand in, shall we say, refining was for a Vampire game, from a girl that hadn't roleplayed before. She wanted to be, basically, everything. And the most important person in the game. Had her concept been carried through, she would have been an Indian Princess (so not kidding) who had a graduate degree and became an assassin with knife expertise under the guidance of her radical professor from college, who under her cover identity was traveling with circus freaks, and her boyfriend was a rock musician, and then she was embraced to become a vampire because a Prince's rival thought she was ideally suited to kill the Prince so that he could assume power, but the Prince found out and killed her sire, but left her alive because she was so useful.

I blinked. I said, "Is this character by any chance named Mary Sue?" She didn't get the reference. She said that her name was Sapphire. Huh. An Indian Princess assassin knife expert with an MBA that lives with circus freaks and has a rock star boyfriend, named Sapphire. At this point, I was seriously considering running out of the house screaming.

Let's just say I intervened and heavily edited that backstory. We never got to play because of other circumstances with that group, for which I'm almost thankful.

Another one that I wish I had the foresight to disallow was an alternate reality Multiple Man in a heroes game, who was an Elvis impersonator. Strike that, he was in truth all the Elvis impersonators. They were really all just one guy, a mutant. It was funny, and so I allowed it. Then the player decided the best way to roleplay Multiple Elvis was to try to challenge everyone to a fight every chance he got, and when that failed go off in the middle of fights to make peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

I've been more fortunate with D&D and Star Wars games.

 

[Herobizkit]

For Planescape: Shadrack the Hellforged: Warforged Warlock (N) around 6th level with a mute gnome artificer co-hort. Shad is actually the reincarnation of a former servant of a demon lord who finds himself in his current form due to some questionable wording in a contract about immortality and eternal service. The gnome is actually a cultist, as are all of his other 'followers', of the demon lord trying to bring him back around the evil.

This... rocks. The whole thread. Wanna move to Canada? I'd love to DM such a cool character concept.

In regards to making an evil race Paladin, you should really move here. Currently, I'm DMing a 3.5 solo gestalt campaign with the following:
female drow Sorcerer/Favored Soul of Eilistraee ('the leader' and only PC)
male gnoll Barbarian/Rogue (follows generic God of Slaughter, wields scythe)
male duergar Monk/Psychic Warrior (arrogant and selfish)
male goblin Warlock/Druid (semi comic-relief, but is unoffical 2nd-in-command)

I am runnng the "Ruins of Dragon Mountain" boxed set. My player and I had the brilliant idea to play "evil" races that wanted to follow the "heroic" path and go through a traditional "PCs are teh good guys" pre-gen campaign. The awesomeness abounded as we made out way deeper into the storyline -- this combo of races and classes works entirely too well, both in theme and ability. You'd love it.

 

[Herobizkit]

I initially read this as saying they were created by Metallica, which had me scratching my head for a bit. Then I started thinking this was actually the most awesomist idea ever. Then I saw I'd misread.

I mean, think about it: death-metal kobold paladins... on motorcycles.

This reeks of awesomeness.

 

[Herobizkit]

I guess that, fundamentally, a character with multiple personalities is just too much cliché for me. I don't like it when it's Edward Norton doing it, I don't like it when it's Kevin Spacey, and I don't like it at the table.

I'd like to make a suggestion for this player.

If this players enjoys playing multiple personalities, why not nurture this by pointing it in a "makes sense for your campaign" kind of way? I'd suggest that the player make a bard, and focus on acting. Maybe the Bard is so stage-struck that, no matter where he goes, he thinks he's in some kind of performance.

Also, you could engage the player's interest in a similar fashion by making him a "spy"; max out acting, disguise, and have him play a "social infiltrator".

Heck, go one more tick on the crazy side and actually have him be the dashing "hero with a secret identity"; when he's in costume, he acts one way, and when he's normal, he acts "normally".

 

[Holy Bovine]

As a DM, I keep my mind open and let the players police themselves. That kind of character would have to find resistance from the rest of the party.

As a PLAYER, I find it infuriating to work with apathetic anti-hero types. Previously true neutral, now merely unaligned (and damned violent about it!), they often have no detectable motive other than to suddenly be opposed to whatever it is the party has just decided to do, and is willing to walk off on their own to do something else.

Oh - I don't mind them walking off alone. It allows me to either kill them off or ignore them.

 

[Starbuck_II]

My DM wouldn't let me play a Human Female Paladin of Sehanine! What a jerk! I even showed him a list of her good qualities!

1. She battles evil by moonlight
2. She wins love by daylight
3. She never runs from a real fight
4. Her name is Serinna
5. She will never turn her back on her friends
6. She is a great defender
7. She is also very dependable
8. Did I mention her name is Serinna?

Who is the god Sehanine?
But that is an awesome story: Reminds me of a girl named Serena on an anime about Sailor Soldiers that were pretty.

I'd love to play in a campaign besides that character.

 

[Set]

While not 'Egyptian God of Mexican Wrestling' level quirky (his 'Nut Buster' is the coolest wrestling move, ever), my most unusual character was for a Spelljammer game, a Tinker Gnome Giant Werehamster Clockwork Mage. Everyone laughed, until the party was were taken prisoner by the Mind Flayers and he burrowed us to freedom!

As a DM, I try to avoid mood-wrecking characters, but there's always someone who wants to play the Brujah who used to be a professional wrestler or whatever. As long as it's okay with the other players, I go along with it.