Have you ever played a character who starts at 1st level but was higher level before?

[Green Knight]

I ask because that's an idea that I had recently and will be playing in a Forgotten Realms game I'll soon be playing in, and in a Ravenloft game I may start soon after.

In the Forgotten Realms game the idea is this: The character was about 12th level when he got captured by enemies and thrown into a dungeon, taking all his fancy equipment and selling it off. Worse yet, there was a ghost prowling the dungeon, tormenting the prisoners within and energy draining them. Fortunately, he was able to escape, managing to steal some equipment from the storage room belonging to other prisoners (Equal to the equipment a 1st level character normally starts off with ) but not before the Ghost drained him down to 1st level.

In the Ravenloft game, this was my idea: The character finds himself on a road, walking into the nearest town, with no memory of who or what he is or how he got on that road or where he's going. Total amnesiac. Unbeknownst to him, he was a much higher level character, but with his loss of memory he also forgot all the experiences he had accumulated, thus rendering him a 1st-level character. Thing is, as he advances in level, again, he regains bits and pieces of his memory. So once he reaches the level which he was originally at, he'll have regained all his memories.

Anyway, those are 2 ways that I've come up with to start a new campaign with a 1st-level character who was previously of higher levels. So has anyone else done this? And if so, how did you do it?

BTW: The reason I did it in the first case was because I wanted a character in his late 30's with a much deeper background then your average 1st-level PC, and being 1st-level with 0 XP just wouldn't fit. In the second case, I've been wanting to play an amnesiac in Ravenloft after watching an episode of The Twilight Zone in which you have the same scenario. A guy with no memory of who he is or how he got on that road stumbles into town (Except that the town is empty). Been wanting to do something similar ever since, and I thought getting more memories back as I advanced in level would be a good idea.

 

[NeuroZombie]

Not personally, but one PC in my group, Greystar, was one a poserful mage from another world (Actually from a PBEM based on AOL), who was in the midst of battle and mis-cast a powerful spell and thus ended up on my world (I'm the DM) as a first level wizard with knowledge of his old life, but unable to tap those experiences.

 

[Rel]

It's not exactly the same thing, but I once played a character in another system who was immortal. The trick was that he didn't have a great memory. So while he could recall the last 30-40 years or so fairly well, beyond that everything was pretty hazy.

It was a great tool for the GM. Once in a while, we would come across some old ruins and I would remember when the city stood. Or we would find a bit of ancient text and I would translate it without thinking about it. Sort of a constant, permanent deja-vu.

One of the best moments of the campaign was when a major villian looked at me and said, "So, we meet again!" I said, "We do?"

I never did find out exactly what I did to that guy in the past, but it must have been pretty bad because he didn't like me much.

 

[Davelozzi]

No I've never done that, but it's a very cool idea, especially for Ravenloft.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Yes, my first 3E character was exactly that. A dwarf, formerly 10th level or so, who was drained down to 1st when his clan's stronghold was over run. His whole concept was that he was driven to retake his stronghold, liberate dwarven treasures, and smite evil. It was really fun running this guy through The Forge of Fury. I felt all cool and original, up until I read the Icewind Dale trilogy last month. Feh. That Bruener guy is pretty much exactly my character.

Anyway, your second concept is also an original unoriginal: the character concept of the amnesiac adventurer is perfectly, entertainingly, wonderfully explored in the classic D&D computer game Planescape: Torment. You play a Nameless character who wakes up in a morgue with no memory of who he is or how he got there. His body is covered in tattoos, clues written to himself. Here's the rub: he can't die. Or rather, he can't stay dead. Each time he dies, he simply wakes up on the slab in the morgue once again. The game is about this character's rediscovery of himself as he wanders the city of Sigil, occasionaly encountering characters who he met in one of his infinite previous lives or uncovering clues to his immortal existence.

Pick it up. It's one of the best works of fiction I've ever played/read.

-z

 

[Drawmack]

I read a book that did something like this. The title and author escape me right now but I will look them up and post them tonight when I get home.

The guy was the king. Then the villians stole his identity. How they did this was to find a vagabond and stick the king's consciousness into his body, put the evil guy's persona into the king and put the vagabonds persona into the evil guy. Then they blank the kings mind.

He remembers his name, how to walk and stuff like that but has no conscious memories. He still remembers how to do everything he could do before, but he doesn't remember what he could do before. Slowly he gets his memories back. Once he has his memories back he has to reclaim his throne, but how exactly can he do that when he doesn't look like the king and someone who does is sitting on the throne?

Just a possible idea for you. Here is how I would recommend playing it regardless.

Make up a complete character of whatever level you were before you lost you memories. Then the GM gets that character sheet and you don't get to see it again. The GM uses it for skill checks. For example if you have 10 ranks in hide then in the campaign you have a reason to hide the GM would use those 10 ranks and not whatever you have written on your sheet currently. Then to gain stuff back after you do something a couple of times taht you could do you ''remember'' that you could do it before, hence getting your old stat back. It will make maintaining the level of the character a nightmare but not impossible. Also it will be up to the GM to work parts of your memory into getting those skills back.

 

[Decamber]

Sounds as an interesting concept, and it should be quite easy to build plots upon it too. I might steal for later use...

One of the best moments of the campaign was when a major villian looked at me and said, "So, we meet again!" I said, "We do?"

ROFL!

 

[The_Gneech]

The "Revenant" computer game had a similar concept; the hero was resurrected for the skills he'd possessed in life, but a side-effect of the resurrection was that he couldn't remember his previous life. He did find that over time, certain things "came naturally" to him.

The first half of it is a great game; unfortunately, they ran out of money or time or both before they had to finish and publish it, so the second half is weak. But it was a neat concept!

-The Gneech

 

[Morrow]

In the second case, I've been wanting to play an amnesiac in Ravenloft after watching an episode of The Twilight Zone in which you have the same scenario. A guy with no memory of who he is or how he got on that road stumbles into town (Except that the town is empty). Been wanting to do something similar ever since, and I thought getting more memories back as I advanced in level would be a good idea.

I've never played a character like this, but I am putting together a mystery/ horror type campaign based on a similar concept. The world is going to hell in a handbasket - holy wars, signs of the apocalypse, 'elder gods' waking up and munching on the souls of unsuspecting mortals, the works.

The PCs are the only ones who know why all this is happening, but they can't remember. Either whatever they discovered was so terrible that they're suffering some kind of trauma-induced amnesia, or someone caught them and stole their memory to keep them from telling others what they saw. Either way, they wake up in the middle of nowhere, not only can't they remember what happened to them, they can't remember anything beyond basic class abilities. They have no names, no histories, and no idea who they might have pissed off. Can they figure out who they are and remember what they saw before it is to late?

Anyway, that's the idea.

I seem to recall someone else posting about a similar idea last month. I think it involved a party who had been dumped in the River Styx.

Morrow

 

[novyet]

I actually did this not too long ago for a ravenloft game, I played a fighter named Jeffery Ferragon who had barely escaped with his life (more or less) from a vampire. He scavenged some money and gear off of his former companions and fled to the nearest town. It explained his feats too. (Dead Man Walking, Cold One, and Back to the Wall) He was a cool character to play, but sadly he too was killed by that vampire later on.