Lame-O Characters in Your Party

[blackshirt5]

There is one. OK, their were many, in the old group, but I'll let Jeremy tell the stories of Drakken, Spock(later Juwock), and others. For right now I've got two stories to share:

Olmek and Carnor Jax.

Olmek, was pretty basic. He wouldn't have been a lame character if the guy playing him had put some effort into him. Olmek was supposed to be a legendary general capable of giving rousing speeches; hence, we expected rousing speeches. Instead, we got the following exchange:

DM: OK, is Olmek gonna say something to the townspeople(yes he had to be prompted, this is a guy who's been gaming for several years, and he had to be prompted by the DM to even speak to the townspeople as opposed to slaughtering everything)?

OP(Olmek's Player): Yes. *mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble* Now, I roll my Charisma! *rolls dice*

Lame.

Carnor Jax was just horrible. It was in a space fantasy game called Fable, which had a very Machiavellian feel to it; plenty of negotiations and backroom deals in place already; Jax came in and he was a corrupt Valor Knight(of the same organization as my character, Mr. Han); now, Han, as was already seen by many, was a veteran of the Galactic War and pals with a Gold Dragon named Rafe. So Jax's player, Phil, takes me aside(this happened often; we played in wide areas so we could have plenty of whisper-conferences going on):

Jax: So, Mr. Han, how has the galaxy treated you?

Han: Fine, fine. My old sidekick is dead, but beyond that I'm rich, ennobled, and betrothed to an elven princess. Yourself?

Jax: Fine, fine. I'd like to ask you a favor, knight to knight.

Han: Shoot.

Jax: I want you to help me kill Rafe.

Han: You're frickin(not what I said) crazy. He's a dragon, and he's my bud.

Jax(at this point the guy starts sputtering): But, but, we're Valor Knights!

Han: And...?

Jax: Well...We're Knights! We're supposed to stick together! All for one and one for all!

Han: You're thinking of the Musketeers. They were French. I'm an elf. I'm not french.

Phil: Piss off Andrew! *stalks away*

Just as bad was his description and name combo. Carnor Jax is a name right out of Star Wars Expanded Universe. He described his character as:

"Dressed in black loose robes with an array of short hrons all over his head and balck and red tattoos all over his face. He wields a double-bladed red vorpal sword(Vorpal in this game rewrote most matter into nothingness). His name is Carnor Jax."

Let Angcuru regale you with other stories of Fabilian Lameness.

 

[Bauglir]

OP(Olmek's Player): Yes. *mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble* Now, I roll my Charisma! *rolls dice*

Lame.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?t=68069

Not everyone, even someone who has gamed for years has the charisma or acting skill to pull off everything their character can supposedly do...

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

Yeah, I get ya but why play a character you have no interest in RPing? Especially a leader type. You have to expect that you will be called upon to actually *talk* in character.

Besides, RP games should be about stretching your boundaries. Otherwise, we'd be playing RP geeks pretending to be RP geeks.

 

[Storminator]

Yeah, I get ya but why play a character you have no interest in RPing? Especially a leader type. You have to expect that you will be called upon to actually *talk* in character.

Besides, RP games should be about stretching your boundaries. Otherwise, we'd be playing RP geeks pretending to be RP geeks.

Check out Thoughbubble's post in this thread...

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68090

Sounds like what you've got going on. Maybe the player just doesn't get it.

PS

 

[hong]

Check out Thoughbubble's post in this thread...

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68090

Thoughtbubble is talking out of his bubbly ass on this one. CRPGs are as diverse and varied as PnP RPGs, and lumping together everyone who plays them betrays nothing more than a lack of knowledge of the genre.

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

Check out Thoughbubble's post in this thread...

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68090

Sounds like what you've got going on. Maybe the player just doesn't get it.

PS

Naw, I posted that with the Charismatic General who mumbles out the side of his mouth in mind.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Just my two cents...

I do have to say, just because the fighter character (mentioned above) sucked in battle doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the character.

I don't play characters geared for combat very often (like most fighter classes). In one 2nd edition D&D game, I was banned by the DM from playing one.

I can sit in an 8 hour gaming session and never roll anything higher than a 6 on a D20. Have done it several times. The way I got banned was because the DM had a killer fumble chart - if you rolled a nat1, you had a good chance of either injuring yourself or a party member. I rolled 8 nat 1s in 1 battle. The character was asked to leave the party by the other PC's, and the DM told me to make a mage.

Other than that, I can relate to the "problems with elves". In one campaign I played, all the elves were insane (or came off as such to my PC). They all had a death wish in addition.

Did I mention that the only elves we met were other PCs, and banned from Evermeet?

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

Update!!!

After getting trounced by an iron golem that walked through her hail of non-magical bowfire, the Elf gets a big whack o' gold. We set off after an elementalist cult.

What's that sound?
Huh?
Oh, that must must be all the gold the Elf is carrying around months later!!!

So, the Elf with months of downtime in the game and a solid week in real time, doesn't ever buy some enhancements for the bow. Some amulets, some rings but no magicky arrowy schtuff.

Did I mention elementalist cult? The same ones who tried to kill us earlier. So the Elf sits this one out too, not because of poor choices but because of no choices.

And she fails damn near every saving throw and misses nearly every attack.

 

[blackshirt5]

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?t=68069

Not everyone, even someone who has gamed for years has the charisma or acting skill to pull off everything their character can supposedly do...

OK, point taken. But at least put a bit of effort into it. He'd mumble random words! At least pause for drama and effect!

 

[Kichwas]

I mean, if you were taking volunteers for a dangerous mission, wouldn't you at least want someone with confidence in their own ability?

Anyone else have temp-to-hire characters in your party?

When I played in an FR game earlier this year, we had a few players who enjoyed losing their characters on a regular basis.

I took to thinking that we were just recruiting bodies to fill in the front lines and cushion the impact of an enemy assault, but had a problem finding more than one or two of them at a time...

That's kind of how I see any melee character now, built to get killed so my PC can stay alive.

That said, even bad acting is better than "...", and everyone should take an effort to speak in character when they can, or even speak in third person when they have to, rather than just wallflower it until a die is dropped in their lap.

Even when I have a character who's voice I can never really capture (such as Selise in the above campaign actually), I try to speak in third person with actions as much as I can to give her all the voice I am able to come up with.

I've just started playing a bard, Sisi, my first try at that class, and I've found her voice is coming to me very quickly (though not all there yet). Speaking in first person is taking up a good portion of my actions, and should hopefully grow. Two of the other players are still largely wallflowering though - hopefully we can break them out of that soon. Or sacrifice them to the gods of front-line battle.