Playing the same character since 1985? Gwah?

[Jacob Marley]

I have a couple of characters that I still play that have their origins in the early 90s. Granted, this group is unable to get together more than once or twice a year to play. This is a far cry from when we were younger and played four or five times a week! We also made up new characters all the time. Some survived and thrived; other perished.

 

[Walker N. Waistz]

To say that I was incredulous is a bit of an understatement. I asked what level they were. The highest level character was level 15.

Am I the only one who can't understand how they've played at least 700+ game sessions and no one is higher than 15th level? Am I remembering AD&D's XP tables wrong?

 

[Piratecat]

Speaking just for myself, we ignored XP (and have for more than a decade) and had the group level when it seemed appropriate. In 2e/3e, we did once every 10-12 sessions, or 2 levels a year. Nowadays it's once every 5 sessions, or 5 levels a year.

For a game like this, you tend towards more plot/mysteries/role playing and less towards constant combat. The rewards tend to come when you uncover information.

 

[wingsandsword]

I guess my question is this: What's the longest you've ever played one character?

Tabletop? Maybe a little over a year. Every campaign I've ever been in has been maybe a year and a half or less in duration.

Larping? Completely different story.

Back when I did WoD larping, I had the same character for about 3 years (as long as that local larp ran), playing regularly every other Saturday night.

I've got a fantasy LARP (NERO International) character I've been playing regularly since summer of '98 and is now a 42nd level Elf Scholar (roughly equivalent to a Elf 21st level Wizard in D&D terms). Now, how often I play him depends on the real-life happenings going on in my life, but it's been anywhere from a weekend to 2+ weeks out of a year.

 

[Ringlerun]

I started a WEG Star Wars character in the summer of 89. We played twice a week until 2000 then once a fortnight until 2008 now we get together about 4 times a year to play the same characters. Not sure how many hours of play as some weekends we would start midday saturday and not finish until late sunday.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm running a 4e campaign that started 4 months before the books came out. The characters (which I co-built with the then-players, being the only one who had a clue about the rules back then) have, in all but one case, gone through multiple players and are 28th level next tuesday.

It's an interesting thing to have the characters outlast their players. I allow judicious retraining, as long as the character still feels like themselves (unless there's a good story reason as to why they made the change, like when the fighter married a priestess of the Raven Queen and went a bit... goth.)

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I'm lucky if a character holds my attention for more than three months.

That is about the point I finally start feeling like I really know my character and am really starting to play them well. Playing less than that for me feels like crib-death of the character.

 

[Tallifer]

I could happily play some of my characters for quite a long time, but I have never ever met a dungeon master who can last more than a year with the same game: they always want to try new systems.

My question is: how do you people keep your dungeon masters enthused?

 

[Grazzt]

My campaign has been going since 1986. One of the regular players is still playing a character that appeared in the second play session. The regular game is (almost) every week.

Mine's been going since about 1986 as well. My brother has two of his original characters from then. (Half-orc cleric and dwarven fighter). Both are his first two characters he ever rolled/played. They've survived all this time. Another player has one of his first characters as well (human fighter). I think this guy was rolled up in about 1987 or so.

 

[Tuft]

Speaking just for myself, we ignored XP (and have for more than a decade) and had the group level when it seemed appropriate. In 2e/3e, we did once every 10-12 sessions, or 2 levels a year. Nowadays it's once every 5 sessions, or 5 levels a year.

For a game like this, you tend towards more plot/mysteries/role playing and less towards constant combat. The rewards tend to come when you uncover information.

When I played a weekly three-year Savage Tide campaign with lots of exploration and interaction extras tucked on, we begged our DM for halved XP and berated him when he wanted to give out XP bonuses, as we all liked the campaign and our characters so much and wanted them to last and last and last...

Yes, sometimes XP bonuses can be a curse and not a blessing...