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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psychotic Jim" data-source="post: 5196111" data-attributes="member: 547">Hmm, I’ve had a few players that seem to follow general patterns to create the same sort of general character archetypes.  Usually it hasn't gotten to the point where it bothers me too much, as I tend to run with it and my players latch onto hooks that allow their characters to evolve.  Oftentimes what makes a character memorable or unique isn't just his initial personality but the things he does and the relationships he builds in game.  These can't be directly ported from a fiction source, so often in my experience they allow for some organic growth.For example, one player of mine wanted to play a grim, Punisher type vigilante in a Nightbane themed Mutants and Masterminds campaign.  His character started fairly derivative, but fighting supernatural monstrosities quickly made him into a sort of "fish out of water" guy that still really kicked butt. He also got a bit of a "Odysseus complex" or survivor's guilt going on when most of the other characters died over the course of the game (it was quite dangerous!).  This led the vigilante PC to become sort of a protective squad leader or even a fatherly figure to some of the other PCs.  This father figure element took a more literal and totally unexpected (from my perspective) dimension when the group found an orphan child that was to be sacrificed by a sinister cult.  The vigilante took the child in the child as his own. Seeing supernatural evil also caused him to rethink the evils of "normal" criminals by comparison, and this caused him to lighten his stance on normal humans somewhat.  He ended up adopting more nonlethal tactics when fighting normal humans.Another player of mine has a tendency to play selfish sorcerers who would become gods.  I turned it into a hidden plot twist by making them incarnations of the same soul.  It resonated well and turned into an epic storyline.Guess my point here is that it’s not always what people begin with that matters.  I may have been lucky to have had really good players, but when I gave them opportunities for character and story growth, many times they took advantage of them.  And like the vigilante example above, a lot of the time I wasn’t even aware of how or even if the presented situation would influence their character development.</blockquote>

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