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A question I've had simmering in the back of my mind for a couple decades
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<blockquote data-quote="Quasqueton" data-source="post: 1410846" data-attributes="member: 3854"><p>In many places through the years (most recently, many of the EGG articles in <em>Dragon</em>, but that isn't the only place), I've read references to an interesting phenomenon. Players having characters that they take from game to game. </p><p></p><p>For instance, I've seen this reference mostly regarding cons and tournaments where players would not have a character of the appropriate level to join an adventure. <strong>Note: And I'm not talking about the "Living" whatnot games.</strong> Most of the references I'm specifically talking about are from the early days of AD&D, before the organized "Living" campaigns.</p><p></p><p>I've seen these tales of a new player joining a group, and there being a comment, "but this is the lowest/highest level character I have." Or the nightmare games where the regular players would have their characters attack and kill the new player characters to get their magic stuff. And the new players would comment (usually in an article in <em>Dragon</em>) about how their character(s) barely escaped that game.</p><p></p><p>What I'm talking about here is kind of difficult to explain without looking up and quoting all the references (especially from <em>Dragon</em> years ago), but basically it seems that AD&D players from the early days had specific characters that they would/could take from game to game. They wouldn't make up a new character when joining a game -- they'd pull out an established character that they supposedly have played before.</p><p></p><p>Only once did I actually encounter this kind of thing in my own gaming career. A new player was going to join my group, just for one adventure, and he brought with him a collection of characters that he had been playing. At our game table, he picked out one character (out of his notebook of PCs) of the appropriate level to match the other PCs, and even had a mini already painted and ready (picked out of a mini box he had for all his PCs). This was not a matter of him making up a character specifically for my game, but rather him picking from his virtual stable of already played characters. This player only played with us for one game session, and I never again personally met anyone who did this.</p><p></p><p>Every other player that joined one of my games created a new character specifically for that game. I did the same when I joined someone else's game.</p><p></p><p>I mean, sure, I have the character sheets for many of the characters I have played over the years, but I'd never even think to bring one of them directly into a game they weren't specifically created for. I might make a new character based on the same concept (if I hadn't been able to fully play the concept with the original character), but I definitely would not show up to a new game with a notebook of old characters.</p><p></p><p>Have you ever experienced this? Does this practice continue?</p><p></p><p>Quasqueton</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quasqueton, post: 1410846, member: 3854"] In many places through the years (most recently, many of the EGG articles in [i]Dragon[/i], but that isn't the only place), I've read references to an interesting phenomenon. Players having characters that they take from game to game. For instance, I've seen this reference mostly regarding cons and tournaments where players would not have a character of the appropriate level to join an adventure. [b]Note: And I'm not talking about the "Living" whatnot games.[/b] Most of the references I'm specifically talking about are from the early days of AD&D, before the organized "Living" campaigns. I've seen these tales of a new player joining a group, and there being a comment, "but this is the lowest/highest level character I have." Or the nightmare games where the regular players would have their characters attack and kill the new player characters to get their magic stuff. And the new players would comment (usually in an article in [i]Dragon[/i]) about how their character(s) barely escaped that game. What I'm talking about here is kind of difficult to explain without looking up and quoting all the references (especially from [i]Dragon[/i] years ago), but basically it seems that AD&D players from the early days had specific characters that they would/could take from game to game. They wouldn't make up a new character when joining a game -- they'd pull out an established character that they supposedly have played before. Only once did I actually encounter this kind of thing in my own gaming career. A new player was going to join my group, just for one adventure, and he brought with him a collection of characters that he had been playing. At our game table, he picked out one character (out of his notebook of PCs) of the appropriate level to match the other PCs, and even had a mini already painted and ready (picked out of a mini box he had for all his PCs). This was not a matter of him making up a character specifically for my game, but rather him picking from his virtual stable of already played characters. This player only played with us for one game session, and I never again personally met anyone who did this. Every other player that joined one of my games created a new character specifically for that game. I did the same when I joined someone else's game. I mean, sure, I have the character sheets for many of the characters I have played over the years, but I'd never even think to bring one of them directly into a game they weren't specifically created for. I might make a new character based on the same concept (if I hadn't been able to fully play the concept with the original character), but I definitely would not show up to a new game with a notebook of old characters. Have you ever experienced this? Does this practice continue? Quasqueton [/QUOTE]
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A question I've had simmering in the back of my mind for a couple decades
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