Are you special?

[Quasqueton]

Are the PCs in your campaign special? Are they "The Chosen"? Are they tasked with a unique and important task? Or are they just another group of adventurers wondering the land, of no more interest than any other characters their level?

Does your campaign have a reason why the game focuses on the PCs, other than because they have Real World Players at the game table?

Quasqueton

 

[Firedancer]

Are they special? Yes, in the sense they are leveled characters. That certainly sets them aside. Are they "the chosen", no more than the fact they are real life players.

I think if they were the ordained ones then I'd have to ensure they survived or find a really clever way to overcome their "destiny", its not something I have the inclination to do; I get plenty of enjoyment from the adventures I run them through and the plotlines they create from their actions.

I prefer the feel of adventurers getting by, doing good deeds yes (and sometimes bad), but because they chose to and because they strive to.

 

[Lockridge]

While most campaigns have the PCs be "special" (because they have levels) but not "chosen" I do also like to set up PCs as the centre of the campaign.
Most professionally designed adventures require the PCs to play the role of "the ones who help out the chosen one". In other words they help a king, or duke or something. This is harder to do though because it implies that they should live to meet their destiny - but then destinies are sometimes wrong anyway.

 

[el-remmen]

No, not inherently - though their choices and eventual circumstances might lead them to being seen as "special" or might have a special role in historical events.

 

[Mark Hope]

Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. It varies from group to group and campaign to campaign, depending on the feel I wish to evoke.

 

[Elf Witch]

In my current game yes they are they were chossen by Bahmut to fight for his cause. I think sometimes its fun to be the chosen ones.

my one player is going to end up being the world'a first paladin.

 

[Shemeska]

If by special you mean patsies...

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

They aren't heroes because they're the player characters. They might become heroes... if they win.

 

[I'm A Banana]

They're better than everyone else in the world. They're not the 90% of the world that is Com1's. They have ability scores beyond 10. They have wealth in excess of entire *kingdoms* sometimes.

Dang right, they're exceptional. They're usually part of a select group of exceptional beings -- adventurers, who have the greater abilities required to save the world from its greater threats. This includes the foils and villains they face, as well.

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

I almost always run campaigns where the PCs are the "only ones who can save the world." I've started to think in terms of PCs, and a select few NPCs and villains as being the "superheroes" of the campaign world, with joe average commoner, warrior, aristocrat, etc, alternately looking up to them or fearing them, and rightly so.

To my way of thinking, the PCs are like the main characters in a movie, or TV series, or whatever. In that context, they are Captain Picard, Cmdr Riker, Lt. Worf, etc...not the transporter chief, the nameless conn officer, or even Guinan. They are the heroes of the tale, they make the big decisions, they decide the outcome, and they save the day....or fail and everyone suffers the consequences of that.

Quentin and Marie