Excited to Die: Do you keep backup characters?

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Well, for the first time this weekend, my current character came close to death (tiny Chinese beauty nearly consumed by a zombie monster with RIDICULOUS DR!! Oh no!).

Anyway... while I was quite sad that her life was in the balance, I was actually kind of excited at the opportunity to write up a new character (Cha. Hero with the Leadership talent tree!).

Have you ever found yourself in the same situation? Do you brainstorm concepts for backup characters "just in case"?

 

[Crothian]

When I was younger I was like this, but now I perfer taking acharacter a longer way and never try to think of new characters when I PC.

 

[howandwhy99]

Normally no, but it just so happens our DM in one campaign has asked us to draw up characters just in case. 4 our of the usual 6 (two more on occasion make it 8) are currently stone statues in the City of the Spider Queen. The bad part is we left them in a very bad spot. The 2 who survived are stuck in the ethereal plane, but back out. These two might even die from starvation or whatever else.

In the other campaign we can make characters in a handful of minutes or less. But in truth I should probably keep some interesting starter backgrounds on hand just in case. I don't like being rushed coming up with a cool concept. But it probably could revisited/flushed out after that session.

 

[Greylock]

Do you brainstorm concepts for backup characters "just in case"?

All the time. Sometimes I even roll them up and actually make a char sheet. Never have found a situation to use one, but I enjoy the exercise. I have a "phantom" char in my current game, that I like to imagine adventuring on the other side of the game world.

 

[ForceUser]

Not really. I have concepts that float around in my head, but I don't bother to flesh them out until I have to. Also, I find that the less I plan long-term and the more that I follow spontaneous inspiration, the more I enjoy a character I've created.

 

[Zendragon]

I have tons of them with first level stats. I keep them all with a short back story, then when I DM and need an NPC, I grab one that fits the situation. Just have to add levels as appropriate. The ones that are left when we start a new campaign, I just usually pick one of those.

 

[frankthedm]

I tell my players to make backup PCs with 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12 for thier scores.

 

[Goblyn]

I find that if I'm playing a PC and I make a backup one, or even have a good idea for a new one, it seems to curse my current character who soon meets an occasionally humourous demise.

Thus it is something I try to avoid doing.

 

[devilbat]

When DM'ing, I discourage fleshing out backup characters.

All to often, players who have created backups have lost interest in their regular characters, while becoming enamoured with their "new creations". I tell the players that I don't want to hear a thing about their other ideas, unless their current character has exoted from the game.

 

[DaveStebbins]

I often have backup characters which can be used in case one of the group members can't make a particular game night. Since much of my gaming was done with a previous group a couple decades ago, I get nostalgic and love recycling old characters with the new rules. I often have them show up as NPCs when I DM too.

This is seldom necessary due to character death in our games, however. My current groups seem to be very gunshy about killing characters (or allowing characters to die). Having had dozens and dozens of PCs die in previous campaigns, the prospect doesn't bother me a bit as I have lots of character concepts and roles I wouldn't mind playing. However, on the one occasion when it did happen (the mage yelled "duck" in elvish before casting the lightning bolt, but my PC -directly in the line of fire- was the only one on the battlefield which didn't understand elvish, and he failed his save), everyone else at the table looked stricken and the DM went out of his way to make sure my PC was raised. Everyone seemed weirded out because I wasn't bothered by my PC's death.

-Dave