airwalkrr
Adventurer
His name is Dravus. He is a half-orc wizard from the city of Greyhawk. Dravus was raised by his mother, Sylvania, a Suloise sorceress of little sanity who had mated with an orc of the Pomarj that she charmed in battle many years ago. Unfortunately, Dravus inherited his mother's mental state, and to this day is beset with multiple-personality disorder. His alternate egos include Zagyg, demigod of madness and magic, and Zagig, Lord Mayor of Greyhawk. He has a tendency to assume one of these personalities in the most inopportune of times, often assuming he has magical talent far beyond his means and growing confused when his casting of meteor swarm yet again fails due to the confounded "dead-magic" zones that seem to follow him wherever he goes.
Dravus is not the keenest of wizards. His low intelligence made him the ridicule of his elven and human classmates at the University of Magical Arts where he studied. However, that has never deterred him. He is resolute in his his determination to prove his mettle in adventures that defy the limits of survivability and has learned to rely on his axe as much as he does his spells. Dravus has never had any formal training as a fighter, ranger, or other martial discipline, but through sheer dedication he learned to master the use of the greataxe to compensate for his limited spellcasting potential.
Despite having a rather mundane intellect for a wizard, Dravus is still more cunning than the average man and always tries to use his brain first. He deliberates on matters of strategic importance and is always certain of himself. He is also quite accustomed to style. He is always accoutred in the latest fashions and never accepts anything less than the penthouse suite at the inns he frequents. He feels it is his right as a distinguished adventurer (or demigod or Lord Mayor as the situation requires) to enjoy the finest things life has to offer. To add to that, Dravus is quite the ladies' man. Despite his somewhat brutish countenance and direct manners, his lavish style makes him quite the play-boy. And what he lacks in social graces he makes up for in good looks. His tusks have been filed to a more reasonable size such that he can cover them with his lips when he desires and he is always well groomed, perfumed, and finely attired.
***
Now I admit there is a more devious purpose to this thread than simply telling you about my character. This is, in fact, a real character of mine that I play in the RPGA and I have made nothing up about him (besides the obvious fact that he is a fictional character). I am often accosted at conventions by other players who wish to tell me all about their characters (you all know who I am talking about, seems like it is always the same guy). What this usually amounts to is a description of all the various combat maneuvers the character is capable of, the potency of the character's spells, or obscenely powerful artifacts and magic items the character has acquired. You know, I am all for hearing stories of other players' play experiences and tales of epic adventures past. But I really don't give a rat's ass about what your character can DO.
Now I don't hate powergamers. I am a powergamer myself. Though I often opt to play "unique" characters instead of "optimized" characters, I always find ways to tweak my characters so that they are still very good at something. Dravus, for example, despite having nothing but wizard levels, is still fairly adept at combat, having taken feats like Martial Weapon Proficiency (greataxe), Improved Toughness, and Power Attack. But the issue here is that when describing my character to others, I rarely mention anything that has to do with his statistics. To me, it is all about the character, not his abilities, and I feel it makes for a much more entertaining and conversation-worthy topic.
This thread was inspired by a conversation I was having with a friend recently over AIM. He and I agreed that "character generation" is a lost art that has denigrated into "statistics generation" in D&D. That is, by and large, players no longer create characters, so much as a sheet of abilities of what their character can do. Some of them are lucky to even have a name that wasn't ripped off verbatim from the latest anime or sci-fi/fantasy series. I loathe being approached by players at conventions who wish to tell me how their characters were such munchkins that the ancient red dragon never stood a chance, or standing there listening to a discussion about which class to multiclass into next to make the character as powerful as possible. I am all for character optimization, but when it is done at the expense of the actual character is when I feel the game is no longer any fun. Around 90% of the gamers in my area are just like that too, and it has gotten on my nerves a little bit. It is hard to find a campaign that doesn't denigrate into a lame excuse for a tactical exercise. Tactics and character design are part of the game, but they aren't the ONLY part of the game. How many people are really going to remember that your character dealt an average of 54 points of damage per hit? I know I've encountered such characters, but I don't remember a single other thing about them, and rarely can I even remember what the player looked like. Dravus is known by name in my area solely for his personality. Not that I'm interested in creating a legacy or anything, but I like to contribute to making the game memorable for all involved and adventuring with a bunch of statistics as opposed to characters with personalities and motivations of their own is not very much fun.
What do you think, Enworld? Is character generation a lost art that has given way to "statistic generation?" Is the story that important anymore or is D&D really just a tactical board game?
Dravus is not the keenest of wizards. His low intelligence made him the ridicule of his elven and human classmates at the University of Magical Arts where he studied. However, that has never deterred him. He is resolute in his his determination to prove his mettle in adventures that defy the limits of survivability and has learned to rely on his axe as much as he does his spells. Dravus has never had any formal training as a fighter, ranger, or other martial discipline, but through sheer dedication he learned to master the use of the greataxe to compensate for his limited spellcasting potential.
Despite having a rather mundane intellect for a wizard, Dravus is still more cunning than the average man and always tries to use his brain first. He deliberates on matters of strategic importance and is always certain of himself. He is also quite accustomed to style. He is always accoutred in the latest fashions and never accepts anything less than the penthouse suite at the inns he frequents. He feels it is his right as a distinguished adventurer (or demigod or Lord Mayor as the situation requires) to enjoy the finest things life has to offer. To add to that, Dravus is quite the ladies' man. Despite his somewhat brutish countenance and direct manners, his lavish style makes him quite the play-boy. And what he lacks in social graces he makes up for in good looks. His tusks have been filed to a more reasonable size such that he can cover them with his lips when he desires and he is always well groomed, perfumed, and finely attired.
***
Now I admit there is a more devious purpose to this thread than simply telling you about my character. This is, in fact, a real character of mine that I play in the RPGA and I have made nothing up about him (besides the obvious fact that he is a fictional character). I am often accosted at conventions by other players who wish to tell me all about their characters (you all know who I am talking about, seems like it is always the same guy). What this usually amounts to is a description of all the various combat maneuvers the character is capable of, the potency of the character's spells, or obscenely powerful artifacts and magic items the character has acquired. You know, I am all for hearing stories of other players' play experiences and tales of epic adventures past. But I really don't give a rat's ass about what your character can DO.
Now I don't hate powergamers. I am a powergamer myself. Though I often opt to play "unique" characters instead of "optimized" characters, I always find ways to tweak my characters so that they are still very good at something. Dravus, for example, despite having nothing but wizard levels, is still fairly adept at combat, having taken feats like Martial Weapon Proficiency (greataxe), Improved Toughness, and Power Attack. But the issue here is that when describing my character to others, I rarely mention anything that has to do with his statistics. To me, it is all about the character, not his abilities, and I feel it makes for a much more entertaining and conversation-worthy topic.
This thread was inspired by a conversation I was having with a friend recently over AIM. He and I agreed that "character generation" is a lost art that has denigrated into "statistics generation" in D&D. That is, by and large, players no longer create characters, so much as a sheet of abilities of what their character can do. Some of them are lucky to even have a name that wasn't ripped off verbatim from the latest anime or sci-fi/fantasy series. I loathe being approached by players at conventions who wish to tell me how their characters were such munchkins that the ancient red dragon never stood a chance, or standing there listening to a discussion about which class to multiclass into next to make the character as powerful as possible. I am all for character optimization, but when it is done at the expense of the actual character is when I feel the game is no longer any fun. Around 90% of the gamers in my area are just like that too, and it has gotten on my nerves a little bit. It is hard to find a campaign that doesn't denigrate into a lame excuse for a tactical exercise. Tactics and character design are part of the game, but they aren't the ONLY part of the game. How many people are really going to remember that your character dealt an average of 54 points of damage per hit? I know I've encountered such characters, but I don't remember a single other thing about them, and rarely can I even remember what the player looked like. Dravus is known by name in my area solely for his personality. Not that I'm interested in creating a legacy or anything, but I like to contribute to making the game memorable for all involved and adventuring with a bunch of statistics as opposed to characters with personalities and motivations of their own is not very much fun.
What do you think, Enworld? Is character generation a lost art that has given way to "statistic generation?" Is the story that important anymore or is D&D really just a tactical board game?
