Creativity, or lack thereof...

[Fifth Element]

I'm going to give Hobo the benefit of the doubt and assume he was being flippant in an attempt at humour. Can't blame the man for something I do myself far too often.

Otherwise, yeah I'm with Umbran on this one.

 

[amerigoV]

Be thankful! I hate creative players. They always are trying to break the game with Fly and Mules (the worst ones have Flying Mules).

On a more serious note - yeah, just roll with it. The player knows what he likes.

In a twist of irony to your player, when I was a baby gamer in high school (circa 1985) we were going to run a Belgariad themed game. I had just started the books so I did not know what it was all about. So I made a Paladin named Rambo... (lets just say it was a short-lived campaign)

 

[nedjer]

I sure wouldn't turn him away for that. Could be seen reading Wizard of Earthsea and touch on Sparrowhawk's internal conflict or paas him a compilation Ultimate X-Men and a copy of Wolverine Not Dead Yet. Or set him up with a help me out by trying this NPC for me for a session . . . want to see if he'd make a good recurring enemy? Basically, give him the fuel and he'll burn

 

[howandwhy99]

Character expression isn't the only kind of creativity or roleplaying. Maybe he is a good puzzle solver? Maybe he has brilliant ideas regarding the game that don't relate to character personality? It's hard to say without a full picture. But I've seen plenty of folks who essentially play the same character or class every single game. It's what they enjoy most of all and I wouldn't begrudge them for it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In my longest running 3e campaign I had one player name his Barbarian after the beer he was drinking while making the character...

He pretty much just smashed stuff.

Beers I hope he wasn't drinking:

1. Fat Tire
2. Arrogant Bastard
3. Billy Beer
4. Bud Light
5. Red Stripe

 

[The Shaman]

They always are trying to break the game with Fly and Mules (the worst ones have Flying Mules).

Don't you mean a DonkeyPegasus?

. . . I was wondering who else had this issue (if you consider it an issue) of a lack of creativity in their party?

As long as the player is constructively contributing to the game during actual play, I don't really care about the source of her character inspiration.

Creative in play is far more important to me than creative out-of-game.

 

[Scribble]

Beers I hope he wasn't drinking:

1. Fat Tire
2. Arrogant Bastard
3. Billy Beer
4. Bud Light
5. Red Stripe

Hah it was Yuengling... His Full name ended up being Yuengling Brown.

SMASH!

 

[Garthanos]

I can myself get a bit obsessive compulsive about character designs.. some of those are characters that really couldn't be designed well in other games I have played. That doesn't even make those the ones I will most want to play however... so I can be sympathetic to somebody wanting to build Belgariad characters.

Umm I quite think Hobo was trying humor and ummm failing perhaps?

 

[blargney the second]

I think it's actually kind of cool. There are some great Campbellian characters in the Eddings' books. At the very least, you can be happy as a DM knowing what kind of story he likes.

 

[Barastrondo]

I'll admit I prefer to see original characters (or at least pastiches of two distinct characters), but that's because my players have spoiled me rotten. If I pitch a baroque Gormenghast-like fantasy, they come up with bizarre librarians and clockworks. If I throw out "superheroes, but with covert mystical origins" as an idea, I get college students on a first-name basis with Thunder God Indra. Living paintings, surly G-Men, heavenly swords forged into human form, drawing-room-comedy necromancers — I admit I take a lot of delight in seeing just what in the world my players will come up with next.

That said, even if I did feel slightly disappointed with a new player coming up with a derivative character, I would do my damnedest to get over it. For all I know he or she would be knocking all my expectations out the window three sessions down the road. It's happened before.