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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sorrowdusk" data-source="post: 5412532" data-attributes="member: 96342">I will play Devils Advocate for a moment, because there is ONE example in my history (A Call of Cthulhu Game, non-d20) that somewhat resonates with what you have been saying. OKAY. Let me tell you about Altair. Altair Qasim was supposed to JUST be a pulpy action-style gun guy, he was wealthy, stylish, English born-but not "white" and for a twist, a big game (and monster hunter) who was greatly inspired by THIS [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2ipL58N75c"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2ipL58N75c[/ame]   My LAST three characters in that campaign were occultists focused investigators whom I had hoped would one day learn a few 'real' spells, but they all died off without seeing any of that, so I decided to create a 'heavy' to support the party. It was great.  But then...it got better.  That character ultimately only fired that Elephant Gun ONCE at some zombies, and that whole aspect became signature, but secondary to his character. He was educated in classically greek and latin and LOW AND BEHOLD. We find a book. You know what they say about the books in Call of Cthulhu. He became a black magician, that even ex-cultists turned drunkards would go "Wha'tha hell ya foolin' wi'tha'guy EEE'S A GORRAM BLACK MAGICIAN!" He was handy and the party liked having him around, plus he was rich so he financed a lot of things. At the same time though...he was dangerous. The number of people that died in that campaign (by the standards of less lethal games) was INSANE. But a lot of odd things were connected to him as well. Things like... * A School Fieldtrip to a public library being slaughtered by a summoned creature that went rogue. (Blamed on a Mountain Lion-my character was an 'expert'. ) * Several miscellaneous people going into comas for weeks due to him "testing" things on them. * Several dozen people being killed in a hospital duel with the BBEG, including multiple summonings ala Poke'mon. And prior to the duel? The BBEG didnt know I knew magic and used a spell to melt my big ass gun. Waste of spell. "Was supposed to impress, sunny-jim?"  * Followed by A Mass Traffick incident injuring some 40 odd people. I did enjoy cutting him up into pieces with my machete waaay too much (although the rest of the party lost some san over that). Albeit-HE DID eventually come back anyway. (*police sirens*) "....blast!" * A Few dozen people drained until unconsciousness in a ritual disguised as a play audition as planned by him to facilitate a ritual that needed POW when the party wouldnt be enough. * Handwritten Occult Books mysteriously changing (he made fakes and switched them to keep the info to himself-though he also shared with an early FBI/Deltagreen who ahd heard of his monster hunting exploits on the side). And most of this went unknown until the end of my character after he had been killed during an encounter (he was my longest living character, AND he got all the way down to 1 San.) The general weirdness of the setting seemed to mask this. Only then did I tell of how he practiced magic. They assumed he knew what he was doing, when really, he didnt at all. He just figured some meditations and some words and gestures, and tried things to see what would happen. And since our GM didnt like telling what the actual POW point cost was, or ANY of the actual mechanics for spells...my charcter just sort of 'experimented' a lot and stumbled his way through. He wasnt afraid to...try things on people from his window. And he only tried his first botched summon/bind in a public place because he didnt want to do it alone in some forsaken place where he would be far from help (they were quite resistant to conventional weaponry, so he was concerned for cover and first aid....that and maybe yeah there might be more things for it to vent its wrath upon.) He negotiated with the strange entities we learned to contact that seemed helpful in our endeavours to stop the BBEG. He tried to get some others of the party to learn one or two things, but seeing what it had done to others including the BBEG and his (undead) 'Dragon' (<- see Tvtropes), they didnt want to touch the stuff. He also tried to get them to offer corpses as offerings, seeing as the party's patron liked human flesh (he reasoned 'HEY-we already shot these guys up, we can hide the bodies from the cops. And besides, if we do it this, dont we gain something in return?' Despite that they were too reluctant, and went for conventional methods. We did that a lot.) Probably the most bad thing the party was aware of was him shooting a wounded gangster who talked back to him (which would make the chemist who picked up a hypereligious derangement believing the 'monsters' NOW not only to be real which he had denied, but also to be 'demons' his adversary. ) Furthermore, he was the first character, I'd ever wrote character journal's for on a regular basis-to actually think about what my character thinks about and put it to paper. (The GM and the party also liked reading them-albeit, I left SOME things off paper...so they would not know...but he was in on it). In the end? He was THE most BAD-ASS I have ever played or had the ejoyment of playing. EVER. And it all happened by chance that he actually became what I had wanted/hoped/intended my prior characters to be. And the funny thing is, looking back, I dont think the prior ones would have been as good at it. I will never forget that character. So YES-what happens during gameplay does have an affect. Albeit that is a rare example in my gamepaly history, where something IC had a huge an effect on 180'ing the direction of a character. It was an exceptional moment. Still, I DID develop ideas and the DM was willing to talk with. We talked a LOT out of game about potential scenarios and twists, and things I might like my character to be involved in-although it seriously didnt begin until that unexpected "turn" in events with my 4th character.  ALTHOUGH one could argue it was just a case of me jumping at the chance to do what I had WANTED to do in the FIRST place, what I had been trying to set up my prior characters for but just not found the chance. I suppose part of what made him so interesting was that he seemed atypical or against the archytype. Everyone expects the occultist/spiritualist to get sucked into the vortex of madness like that, but not a sporting big-game type, who while he had SOME interest in the occult given his cryptozoological hobby and interest in trophies. The GM liked my character so much, the way I played him, and the way I wrote IC he would sometimes run extra sessions before or after regular game so I could do stuff or look into stuff. At the end of it all, he died like the rest of my characters-FAR less than sane with a slew of derangments and surrounded by horrible things that should not be. But DAM did I feel it meant something and at once was happy to see him go out like that, his soul consumed by his patron and at once sad that I would have to pick up another character sheet. HE BRIEFLY CAME BACK THOUGH-during a seance performed by the (mostly) new party on members of the old party, he spoke (voiced by me for a moment) before his partron possesed the medium  wrestling control and was all "HE BELONGS TO US NOW" and that was scary crap cause the medium got killed and my NEW character ended up in jail for a lil while trying to prove his innocence to the authorities.</blockquote>

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