The character concept you never got to play...

[Shortymonster]

I have spent the last year running a Cyberpunk 2020 game, and having a great time with it, but in the back of my head I've been looking forward to my next experience as a player. I love being a GM, but come the end of the summer, I'll be in an RPG designed and created by a couple of mates of mine that I've had the privilege of playing twice before, while they were still testing out some ideas. I know the world and the system very well by now, and as such have had a nice little idea gestating in the back of my mind for months now, as a sell sword duelist, who makes his money being a second for noblemen who can't fight with a sword, but keep getting themselves into disputes of honour.

Sadly, the closer I get to the start of the game, the more I realise that it's pretty unlikely that character I end up with will be the same as the one I have in my mind. This is down to a number of reasons, such as rolling for attributes, starting at a low level, and also the fact that I will be part of a group of other payers, and my concept could be overly antagonistic to some other concept, and so might need to be changed.

Since this happened before, I though I would offer some advice to players who have a killer concept that might never be made, but I'm also interested in hearing if this has ever happened to anyone on here. Sound off below with awesome ideas that never saw action at the table, preferably with the reason why they never saw the light of day.

 

[Umbran]

Most of my never-played concepts come from campaigns that never got off the ground. The GM pitches the idea, we make concepts and... session one never happens.

 

[Mallus]

When my group was considering a Fate/Spirits of the Century campaign, I cooked up Cro-Magnum, P.I., a caveman thawed from a block of ice who became a private detective in L.A. Used a long-barreled pistol as a club, had a great mustache, and drove a fancy (borrowed) car (badly).

When someone proposed running a Mouse Guard game for his 10 year-old son, me and a buddy immediately replied "I'll play Maus Kinski" and "I want to play Maus Nomi". Thus Maus Guard as born. It would have taken place during the 1980s, either in West Berlin or Manhattan.

I still want to play a supers game where I can play Yoko Sokko (and her giant abstract sculpture-robot, Fluxus). Because a mash-up of Yoko Ono and Johnny Sokko resonates with me, for reasons I can't quite explain.

I'd also like to revisit Cloud Strike, the wuxia peasant labor organizer. I did play him for a few sessions, and they were a blast. His premise was simple: 1) a group of mystic martial arts masters live on Zu Mountain --cf. Tsui Hark's Warriors of Zu Mountain -- 2) they're all Communists, "The Central Revolutionary Committee of Zu Mountain", 3) Cloud is their disciple/apparatchik. In his brief career his led the survivors of a destroyed village to a dismal marsh, rechristened it "Nine Cranes Collective Farm and Worker's Paradise #1", and started writing their "Five Year Plan".

 

[Jhaelen]

Well, I typically don't think about character concepts before I've read about the character creation rules. I like to be well-prepared and have a feeling of what is going to fly given the rules and what isn't. Alternatively, if I trust the GM (i.e. he's well versed in the system), I'll tell him about a concept I'd be interested in and ask him how I might realize it given the available options.

So, if a character concept doesn't see play, it wil be because the game/campaign fizzles before it starts.

I remember a rather unusual character I created for a mini campaign in 'Das Schwarze Auge' which we had planned to play during our vacation. It was supposed to be the side-kick of a famous Indy-style archeologist/explorer who had basically inherited all of his idol's stuff after his unfortunate untimely demise due to a death trap while delving into a forgotten temple. So, he set out trying to get famous (and rich!) himself, studying the deceased's notes and travelogues for potential adventuring sites - or grave-robbery.

 

[delericho]

I always wanted to play the reluctant Paladin - the character who was picked out by his deity to be a Paladin, who doesn't really want that calling, but who feels that when your god asks you to do something you say "yes".

But I so rarely get to play, and there's so few DMs I trust not to abuse a Paladin (and most of them DM 4e - I don't mind the edition, but I detest its take on Paladins). So, the concept will never be played. Oh well.

 

[RobShanti]

I've always wanted to play a giant mecha pilot...specifically, one of five whose mechas join together to form an uber-giant-mecha:

1. The young, pure-hearted-but-serious leader of the group
2. The slightly older, slightly darker and more cynical counterpart to #1
3. The girl
4. The big guy who's a brick
5. The little guy with thick glasses who's really brainy

I would want to play #1 or #2.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I had one I was really excited about, played for about three sessions, then had to drop the campaign due to time constraints. The basic concept was Indiana Jones as a dwarf. It was like Reese's Cups, where you mix two awesome things and something exponentially better comes out of it. The DM liked it enough that he kept him as a significant NPC for the rest of the campaign.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Meh. Character concepts are a dime a dozen.

 

[Umbran]

Meh. Character concepts are a dime a dozen.

Vague ones, perhaps. "I wanna play a fighter that uses a two-handed sword and wears a kilt," is easy. A fully developed concept with backstory, depth, plot hooks, and a few different lines along which they can develop both mechanically and dramatically take a bit more work.

A concept is easy. A concept you'd really love to play is often not.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Vague ones, perhaps. "I wanna play a fighter that uses a two-handed sword and wears a kilt," is easy. A fully developed concept with backstory, depth, plot hooks, and a few different lines along which they can develop both mechanically and dramatically take a bit more work.

A concept is easy. A concept you'd really love to play is often not.

Maybe it's just a product of being a DM, but I don't find even very detailed character creation to be very effortful or involving, and I tend not to personally invest in any one particular character (whether playing or DMing). There are tons of mechanical elements and story ideas floating around in my head, to the extent that I don't really worry about the ones that got away.