I'm sorry, your character idea is too awful.

[Nai_Calus]

Who is the god Sehanine?
But that is an awesome story: Reminds me of a girl named Serena on an anime about Sailor Soldiers that were pretty.

I'd love to play in a campaign besides that character.

Sehanine Moonbow is the elven goddess of dreams, death, mysteries, transcendance and I probably forgot a thing or two, associated with the moon. Unless he means the 4e one, who's the goddess of the moon and the general patron of elves and doesn't bear much resemblance to Sehanine Moonbow other than the name and association with the moon and elves.

That said, I'm torn between laughing myself senseless and wanting to hit MichaelSomething for giving me a mental image of Sehanine Moonbow dressed as a Sailor Soldier. Worse, the subsequent mental image of Sehanine Moonbow *and* Corellon Larethian dressed like that, fighting over which one of them gets to be Sailor Moon... Though I suppose Corellon would do better as one of the Starlights, what with the whole 'What do you mean 'choose one' for gender on this form' thing he has going on.

I guess Vhaeraun can be Tuxedo Mask.

-

I make terrible characters. I'm almost always CG, usually at least part elf, often a bard, and generally devoted to some ideal like protecting the right of all sentient beings to live as they want, so long as they don't hurt others by doing it. It's what I enjoy playing, the world is morally questionable enough that I don't want to be morally questionable in my relaxation time, but it always clashes so with the CE rogue PC someone invariably makes, and I end up metagaming why my character hasn't reached the end of his patience and run the rogue through a few times even though the character would... (I hate PvP and the CE guy has as much right to his character as I have to mine.)

And yeah, I have a CN halfling barbarian sitting around waiting to be used someday, along with a half-orc Bard. I really must get over character concepts that just don't work mechanically. (I'd play a half-orc cleric of Corellon Larethian if the rules allowed it. Character has a reasonable enough reason for why a half-orc would be serving the god of the elves, but yeah, rules.)

 

[Starbuck_II]

Sehanine Moonbow is the elven goddess of dreams, death, mysteries, transcendance and I probably forgot a thing or two, associated with the moon. Unless he means the 4e one, who's the goddess of the moon and the general patron of elves and doesn't bear much resemblance to Sehanine Moonbow other than the name and association with the moon and elves.

Oh, right, I forgot that.

That said, I'm torn between laughing myself senseless and wanting to hit MichaelSomething for giving me a mental image of Sehanine Moonbow dressed as a Sailor Soldier. Worse, the subsequent mental image of Sehanine Moonbow *and* Corellon Larethian dressed like that, fighting over which one of them gets to be Sailor Moon... Though I suppose Corellon would do better as one of the Starlights, what with the whole 'What do you mean 'choose one' for gender on this form' thing he has going on.

I guess Vhaeraun can be Tuxedo Mask.

That means Corellon is really a female?
The Starlights are females that gender change to be on earth because boy bands attract females better than girl bands.
And they want to find their princess.

They change back to females when they transform also.

And the plan works so it was a good plan.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I think what this thread makes clear is that its not a problem having to do with unusual characters, its more to do with unimaginative/one-note players who mistake oddness for coolness. Lots of the ideas given here have been way, way cool.

I've always allowed certain players a lot more leeway than others. Always will. Some players you just KNOW will find a way to make something cool. Others you just know will be disruptive no matter what limitations you put on them. Two players might pitch essentially the same character concept, and one woudl be great, and the other would be incredibly annoying.

 

[Prisoner6]

About the only time I forbid a PC is when the player is trying really hard to build something overpowered. It's usually along the lines of "look, I made a new prestige class..." or "hey, I found this race in a supplement..."

I think what this discussion is clustering around but never actually addressing is that the problem is really with the PLAYER and not the CHARACTER. That guy who comes up with the character that will ruin your game is really just a player that will ruin your game. Override his character and he'll just make a new one just as messed up.

And yes, if you get the chance to play with Mallus, do so. (Hi Mallus)

 

[Tewligan]

However, I have seriously considered Dwarven Bikers ala Hell's Angels, but couldn't think of a good fantasy equivalent of motorcycles.

Ponies?

 

[Tewligan]

I was in a short-lived WoD campaign where all of the party members were night security guards for a gated community where strange things were happening. Well, all but one of the party members, anyway - the odd man out was a 6'+ street magician from Sweden who tooled around town on his unicycle. It was kind of tough to get geared up for an ostensibly horror themed game with the GM saying "Okay, night falls and you're all meeting for your shift at the security office - umm, and also your tall, gangly foreign street magician friend pedals up at midnight on his unicycle."

 

[wally]

Another was a vampire who was the daughter of a Benny Hill-style televangelist. She was convinced that Jesus would return as a vampire, so they had to "pave the way" for his resurrection.

Do you mean Benny Hinn?

I cannot picture Benny Hill as an evangelical unless there is a lot of fabulously perverted jokes and some female dancers in the background.

-wally

 

[Holy Bovine]

I was in a short-lived WoD campaign where all of the party members were night security guards for a gated community where strange things were happening. Well, all but one of the party members, anyway - the odd man out was a 6'+ street magician from Sweden who tooled around town on his unicycle. It was kind of tough to get geared up for an ostensibly horror themed game with the GM saying "Okay, night falls and you're all meeting for your shift at the security office - umm, and also your tall, gangly foreign street magician friend pedals up at midnight on his unicycle."

I lol'ed

 

[Carpe DM]

Great thread.

A few rules we use:

1. The Camera rule. The camera follows the action, and that means I do not have to give equal time to people who wander off in order to hog the spotlight. I simply gloss over what happened to them, and get back to the party.

2. The Story rule. I tell players in the beginning that they have a duty to the story, and to the other players. You can do *anything you want* in my games, but if it makes the story consistently and purposefully worse, you're out.

3. On Chaos. I have always had the most trouble with Chaotic alignments. Not because chaos doesn't mean something, but because players have such a hard time understanding how to play it. Chaos does not mean you can do whatever you want. It does not mean that you are random. It means that you are willing to transgress social norms in order to promote personal freedom.

We have an *awesome* game going right now, in which all of the players are evil, and most of them are chaotic. They are freedom fighters, anarchists, fighting against the worst tyranny the world has ever known. The PCs are going to destroy the world, because the alternative is eternal slavery. And they are absolutely evil in their devotion to chaos. Nothing, no moral qualms whatsover, slow them down in their drive to keep the world from being enslaved.

-Carpe

 

[Arnwyn]

If you DM, what kinds of characters have you had to say no to?

Probably a bunch, though I'd have to see examples in order to say yay or nay.

But off the top of my head:
- anything against the tone of the game we've agreed on
- anything remotely sexual
- anything 'silly' (who's the final arbiter of "silly"? Me. Yay!)
- Oh, and pretty much everything in Mallus' list