Excited to Die: Do you keep backup characters?

[Thanee]

No.

Bye
Thanee

 

[diaglo]

in older editions i kept 3d6 handy.

with the newest ones, i have 13 backup PCs handy. and level them up as we level up.

 

[MadMaxim]

Both my players and I have a tendency to create backup-characters mainly because there are so many concepts we want to try out, but I'm trying to enforce a certain amount of attachment. Otherwise, I'll end up with a party that looks nothing like the party that started the campaign and that would really wreck the story. And like others have mentioned, players seem to lose interest in their current character when they've got the next 10 characters ready to roll...

 

[Shallown]

I have like 9-10 back ups for my present character. I tend to think a lot and use mycreative energies this way when I am not Gming. Our DM tends to like that we have back up characters ready for several reasons. One is it allows for less disruption chould a death occur. Since as players we have made an agreement that we won't bring back dead characters just to make the ganme a little more risky and exciting. I mean some characters may be raised but they will step out of the campaign and start new characters. Second reason is this allows the back up characters to be seen and such in the background so when they are intorduced they won't be total strangers to the party. and third this allows the gm to work them into his own background so they have reason to adventure and connections to the campaign at large.

Now some back ups I have are made to fill roles in the party such as the scout, thief trap finder, the meat shield etc. I have fun with the ideas. I am running a wizard right now and most my replacements are fighter types so I can do something different. It may change the groups dynamic but that's just something that makes adventuring a little more interesting.

Later

 

[Alenda]

In the session I DMed last week, I had the party fight their mirror images. It was a tough and long fight and it really came down to the luck of the roll. For Belen, luck was certainly against him in that fight. The mirror image of his halfling wizard was just kicking his PC's butt! In three rounds, his PC was on the ground, bleeding out. Belen's first reaction was "Help! Somebody heal my character!" After a moment's thought, though, he got this really wicked look in his eye.

"You know," he said, "I think this is the perfect time for the mirror mage to cast fireball." They were fighting in a very small room which had no visible means of escape. Fireball most definitely would have killed his character.

Lucky for me, the mirror mage was killed before his initiative came around again. But, it made me realize that I had a player who had definitely lost interest in his character.

 

[Belen]

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"?

Actually, I used to make my players create backup characters as par for course. Their backup characters could be used as NPCs to connect to the story and thus make it easier to bring into the game.

Of course, I used to be a deadlier DM and then I grew a bit soft. Luckily, Jon Potter wants me to be deadlier again, so the gloves are now off.

 

[Belen]

In the session I DMed last week, I had the party fight their mirror images. It was a tough and long fight and it really came down to the luck of the roll. For Belen, luck was certainly against him in that fight. The mirror image of his halfling wizard was just kicking his PC's butt! In three rounds, his PC was on the ground, bleeding out. Belen's first reaction was "Help! Somebody heal my character!" After a moment's thought, though, he got this really wicked look in his eye.

"You know," he said, "I think this is the perfect time for the mirror mage to cast fireball." They were fighting in a very small room which had no visible means of escape. Fireball most definitely would have killed his character.

Lucky for me, the mirror mage was killed before his initiative came around again. But, it made me realize that I had a player who had definitely lost interest in his character.

It would have been cool for evil me to kill the whole party.

 

[Umbran]

Not purposefully, no. But I do always have several character concepts floting around in my head (what gamer doesn't?). And invariably I do think about which of those would be best to insert into the game if my current character becomes fertilizer...

 

[IronWolf]

I don't make backup characters. Maybe a rough concept will cross my mind, but I prefer to focus on my current character and keeping him alive as long as possible.

 

[The_Gneech]

The other GM in my group has a tendency to fixate on my character as the lynchpin of his campaigns ... so I'd have to make a pretty heroic effort to get my character killed off. Not that I haven't been tempted. I like my warrior-mage, but after a while, I want to do something different.

Fortunately, he's started a second "pickup" game (designed to last the length of his 3.5 revision of "The Lost City"), and I finally get to play somebody else for a change, at least for a while.

For me, the ideal "campaign" would be several unconnected adventures that all shared the same background, rather than a single big story ... I'm always wanting to try something new.

-The Gneech