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Message: <blockquote data-quote="toucanbuzz" data-source="post: 9626337" data-attributes="member: 19270">Going with the "downfall of someone who could have been better" because of hamartia (a fatal flaw that leads to the hero's eventual downfall), then I think I've got a player masterfully roleplaying it out in the Dragon Age setting (a morally ambiguous, gritty world) in the most complex of ways I'd never have imagined. It's a bit lengthy, but aren't all good tragedies?<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Character creation: a 15-year-old serving boy had his youth stolen by a spellcaster. It's an actual spell in the game, very nasty. He was left alive in the body of a 70-year-old man and no one believed he was the boy. He went off on his own, learning beginner spellcraft from a sympathetic Witch of the Wild (they're anti-establishment). He planned on finding the guy someday, learning this spell, and repaying the favor. However, he's also acting with the emotional maturity of a 15-year-old. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He joins other adventurers and despite his age, quickly becomes their "good luck charm" (his current spells aid others, manipulate fate, and magic in this world has no components, so you can't tell if these types of spells are being cast). Everything always seems to work out when he's around. He does some good, helps people. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sometimes his 15-year-old emotional level is funny (he relies on others in the group to handle his money and asks for permission to have some).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sometimes it's crazy (when he meets a willing wench for the first time who is playing on his emotions to help get her out of her small-town life, an NPC who started out with just a 1-paragraph descriptor).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sometimes it's bad (when the wench does get out of town thanks to the PC and later appears interested in a younger, hotter guy who isn't arthritic, our immature character is devastated; later when he meets a demon - one that thrives off the emotional highs and lows of mortals - that secretly offers to help him out, he agrees). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This leads to the wench coming onto him (she's been ensorcelled), and he believes it's because he's gotten successful, dressed better, has (poor) knowledge of wines now. He probably should suspect the truth, but he doesn't want to. The delusion is much better. The issue isn't important for the rest of the party. If the 70-year-old guy wants to hook up with a much younger person, that's his prerogative. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He continues to delude himself when she abruptly leaves that she is in love with him, that she's waiting for him in "the city," and she's going to open an Inn, and they'll have kids together. It's all he talks about during downtimes. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Our character is becoming a very powerful mage, delving into Death magic. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He dies in a pool of lava in a future adventure, but thanks to his necromancy, clings to existence as a shade. His mind breaks (this type of coming back causes a permanent madness, randomly rolled, and he believes now that the wench has a doppleganger...it'll let him excuse any behavior he doesn't like of hers as the doppleganger).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He confesses his backstory to the rest of the party but not his shortcomings. He doesn't see them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He quests for a body. He still believes he has a future with the wench. He finds a body he can use, a woman's body. It'll do for now, but he has hopes if they find a special religious artifact, he can be "healed" of all ailments and restored to his original body.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He goes to the City finally and finds the wench. She got married, husband died suddenly, and now is saddled with his 5 kids and debt. She doesn't know our PC is in a new body. She is told he's dead. She is relieved. She unleashes her fears of him, her hate, her belief that she was ensorcelled. She also wants money. They kind of screwed her over, luring her out of her small town and away from her parents, enthralling her with tales of the adventuring road. At least that's how she remembers it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Our PC's obsession continues to delude him. She doesn't mean it. That's something the imposter of her would say. No one can dissuade him.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">He's now convinced it's his body that's a problem. He masters the age-draining spell. He ambushes some foul street ruffians, makes his body younger. He's angry, lashing out. The religious artifact becomes his goal now. It will fix everything. It'll fix him, it'll fix the wench.</li> </ul>If that isn't a character downfall from hero, not sure what else is. And yet, he still might play a part in saving the world (after all, if the Blight destroys everything, he doesn't get the wench and doesn't get that storybook happy ending).</blockquote>

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