Creativity, or lack thereof...

[Oryan77]

Have you ever discussed character creation with the guy?

Ripping off a published character or even using the same PC in different games is a no no for me. I don't mind if the PC is inspired from a character, but at least change the name and try to be original when roleplaying him.

But when a player begins to make a PC and can't think of a concept, I always suggest using a movie or book character that they like as inspiration. And if they showed me a PC and it was the same build with the same name as a known character, I would ask them to pick a different name.

Can't you ask him to at least pick an original name? Do you encourage him to be more original in his character builds? Sometimes people just can't think of character concepts, and when you throw some ideas at them it can get their juices flowing and might spark an original idea. Having your own original character concepts usually makes playing the PC more fun. I'm not sure why you wouldn't have done this or discussed his plagiarism if it bothered you...I definitely would have

 

[Oryan77]

In my longest running 3e campaign I had one player name his Barbarian after the beer he was drinking while making the character...

Ohhh, I always imagined it being a wizard, but a Barbarian named Bud the Weiser would be even better!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I thought some more about the Beerbarian...

It is also good that your player wasn't drinking:

1. Blue Moon
2. Dixie
3. Landshark
4. St Pauli Girl
5. Steel Reserve High Gravity Lager
6. Velvet Cream Stout

And I'm sure there are some more...

 

[blargney the second]

Stella!

 

[ZzarkLinux]

My dream character to have in a game would be Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
If someone could make him work, it'd be epic.

My nightmare character would be Inuyasha.
I don't think I could play in a game with "Windscar" happening every round.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

My dream character to have in a game would be Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
If someone could make him work, it'd be epic.

My nightmare character would be Inuyasha.
I don't think I could play in a game with "Windscar" happening every round.

Generally, for direct adaptations for characters, I've found Mutants and Masterminds to be the "go to" system. For example, Bobobo-bo-bo-bobo and Inuyasha.

With D&D or Pathfinder, there's usually some creative adaptation of the character required to fitting a knock-off into the class-based mechanical terms. Bui then, perhaps this is another hidden opportunity for the GM to negotiate with the player to put his unique spin on the character.

For example, some guys on the paizo message boards were talking about how to stat up a character based on Fezzik from the Princess Bride. The end product of the discussion turned out to be a half-orc Brb/Mnk. The character's back-story is that he's of uncertain parentage sometime after his family's farm was ravaged an orc raid. Starting off as a fairly wild and wooly barbarian, the character would eventually join up with some monks to get even better at unarmed combat. Now of course, they used Fezzik as a starting point, but the final version of the PC seems to have noticeable differences.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I'm okay with your player. The fact that he gets a thrill from roleplaying characters from fiction is not unusual. Show me a player or GM who says he has never done that at least once whilst gaming and I'll show you a liar. We've all been there. It tends to be relatively new to intermediate players who do this. It's ok -- and not hurting anybody, imo. He'll probably grow out of it.

Or not, I suppose. But playing the same borrowed characters all the time as a player? If he's otherwise paying attention and engaged? Sounds like a fine player to me. Count your lucky stars man. You could do a lot worse.

Now David Eddings writing the same cut-out characters time-and-time-again and using them across multiple series under different names? THAT I happen to have once had a problem with...

But your player? Let him play man. He's just having fun.

 

[Garthanos]

My dream character to have in a game would be Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
If someone could make him work, it'd be epic.

My nightmare character would be Inuyasha.
I don't think I could play in a game with "Windscar" happening every round.

Isnt that a Warlocks eldritch blast reskinned.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Good names for a Beerbarian

1. Pale Rider
2. Bock
3. Ki-Rin
4. Tiger
5. Newcastle
6. Anchor Stout
7. Red Dog

BTW...do we want to pronounce Beerbarian as "Beer-bare-ih-ahn" or "Beer-bar-ih-ahn"?

 

[The Shaman]

Now I really want to play a barbarian named Slow Elk, Trout Slayer, or Moose Drool.