When another player builds a clone of your character.

[Fauchard1520]

Have you guys ever been in this situation? You roll up a character with a fairly standard archetype -- big dumb guy with greatsword; snarky necromancer; etc. -- only to find that another player is horning in on the same conceptual space. Is this a "stop copying me" problem, or do you feel like there's enough room in the campaign for similar character types? And if the players in questions do feel like, "I called shotgun on seductive bard," how did you resolve it?

Comic for illustrative purposes.

 

[pogre]

I run tables with more players than the average and overlap is inevitable. It does not bother me as a DM, but my youngest son goes to great length to try and carve out his own niche. When someone intrudes on his shtick (from his point of view) it does bother him.

 

[jasper]

Yes it happens. Deal with it. And no I not clicking on your link to drive your you click count up.

 

[dragoner]

Are we playing Paranoia? Send in the clones ... cue Mel Torme. Anyways, usually no, because sometimes they are complimentary, sometimes a good backup.

 

[uzirath]

Have you guys ever been in this situation? You roll up a character with a fairly standard archetype -- big dumb guy with greatsword; snarky necromancer; etc. -- only to find that another player is horning in on the same conceptual space. Is this a "stop copying me" problem, or do you feel like there's enough room in the campaign for similar character types? And if the players in questions do feel like, "I called shotgun on seductive bard," how did you resolve it?

I've definitely seen this happen before. It's a great opportunity to add depth to both characters. It's a good time for a player-to-player (or whole group) conversation about how to differentiate them. Maybe one of the greatswords gets swapped for a maul and one guy thinks he's a real Cassanova and the other one is a glutton (with a particular fancy for sweets): two fun numbskulls. Or maybe they are brothers. Or twins. Or from rival nations/tribes. It may be that the "copycat" player is inexperienced and doesn't have a good grasp of how to create effective role-playing hooks for their character. With a bit of guidance, I suspect that they would prefer to develop a unique character too.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Yep, it happens. The first time it happened in my game, I made them twins, there are some bad movies on the subject that you can get hints from on how to make it fun.

 

[Umbran]

Have you guys ever been in this situation? You roll up a character with a fairly standard archetype -- big dumb guy with greatsword; snarky necromancer; etc. -- only to find that another player is horning in on the same conceptual space.

Where I come from, we talk about our concepts before character creation, such that overlap only happens when the group thinks it is warranted.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Where I come from, we talk about our concepts before character creation, such that overlap only happens when the group thinks it is warranted.

Same here. We all chatted about concepts before the start of the campaign.

 

[Adamant]

We have 2 tempest clerics in our ghosts of saltmarsh campaign, but even with similar powers the personalities are completely different. Mine is the good, solid, reliable cleric of valkur(Planeshifted to greyhawk because I didn't know we were setting it there), who tends to be quiet and dependable and good at taking orders. The other one is the flamboyant and dramatic storm sorcerer/cleric of Procan. He tends to be the party face and leader.

 

[Ulfgeir]

It does happen, but even though we are a large group 7 players + dm, it does not happen that often. Usually we do talk about wat we are going for beforehand. But it does depend on what game we play.