Likability of Rock Rackus

[BobertoEnFuego]

I just started Act3: Digging for Lies and just introduced Rock Rackus to my group. Turns out, they HATE him. (I may have overplayed his shallowness).

Personally, I find him zany and satirical of most PCs (over the top adventures, self-centered, etc).

I was wondering how other groups thought of him/did they warm up to Rock Rackus in later adventures.

I ask because I see that Rock Rackus is a recurring character in later adventures and I assumed he becomes sort of a well liked character (e.g. invested in Rock Rackus' death in Adventure 9). If my party does dislike him so much, should I replace him with a more well liked NPC (I have a few dockers that the party have grown a soft spot for)? Or does Rock Rackus' abrasiveness lead to a hilarious "eye roll 'not this guy again'" scenarios?

Just wondering how Rock Rackus played out for other groups.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Noodle]

My group definitely gives him the eye roll whenever he shows up. (We're in Adv 6 at the moment)
They ended up leaving him in jail in DfL. My group has a docker who has kind of acquired Rackus' popularity - he's the new hotness for the fickle attentions of the public.

 

[RangerWickett]

My friends were distinctly of the opinion, "This guy gets us." They enjoyed using him for their own devices, like convincing him to stage a concert to promote one PC's candidacy as mayor of the Nettles. Also, I just really enjoyed playing him, so maybe they were humoring me.

 

[BobertoEnFuego]

Thanks for the feedback!

I guess it depends on how the group decides to "use" Rock Rackus. I guess they don't have to like him. Good to know!

 

[efreund]

Rackus was extremely popular in my group. I even had a theme song for him that played whenever he walked on stage (he was literally the only character in the campaign that had one). His heading in my players' writeups of the sessions afterwards would be "God (a.k.a. Rock Rackus)".

He was popular with my Skyseer, because he had allegedly traveled the stars, and was popular with my Vekeshi because he had some connection to the Dreaming. Rackus always seemed to be a spanner in the works of whatever entity they were opposed to at the time, so he got on their good side that way. They found him funny in a Deadpool sort of way. I played him up way, way over the top - I believe the devs originally modeled the NPC after Kanye West, so I just took that to a parody-level extreme. The rest of my campaign was pretty grim and straight-laced, so he really stood out as something different (with musical introductions and everything).

We didn't have any Dockers in my party, FWIW, so there wasn't any toe-stepping. (And they went to Grimley if they needed any serious Docker work done anyway.)

 

[mdusty]

My docker player likes him once she talked him into actually caring for the other dockers and not just using them to get popular. But the other players can't stand him though. I definitely played him up like a Kanye West like character too. I toned it down a bit when I realized even the docker player didn't like him at first, and when that happened she really liked him a lot better. She absolutely adores him now.

 

[Samuel Cole]

Our Vekeshi Mystic killed him off in Adventure Three - I think the party got about two scenes with him, tops, before he bit the dust. I replaced him in later adventures with the cousin of one of the PC's, and the group responded much better to it.

If you're group doesn't like Rackus, it's really pretty easy to replace him. I personally found him to be silly in a way that didn't work with the tone of our game, which tends to be more dramatic than farcical.

 

[gideonpepys]

My players love Rock Rackus (or at least they used to do, we're only just starting up the campaign again after a three-year break). Funnily enough, I expected them to hate him...

 

[BobertoEnFuego]

I just wanted to start off by thanking everyone who shared their experience and gave advice. By reading your comments I was able to revamp how I play Rock Rackus and he was much more well received. I started off by playing him more the self-centered narcissist and toned him down to more of a fool with too much power (Kanye West style). Just having the idea of Kanye in the back of my mind really helped.

I personally love every character within Zeitgeist so I was a little worried when one wasn't received as I expected.

If you are curious about what my party decided to do with Rock Rackus, my party decided to take him under their wing to "re-educate him." The two party members associated with the Vekeshi Mystics received their letters to assassinate Rock Rackus. However, after deducing the signature of the Old Stag was forged, they decided to sneak Rock Rackus out of the city instead. They "killed" Rock Rackus through a potion of catatonia and snuck him out (Rock Rackus loved the idea of him becoming a "Jesus figure").

After sneaking Rock Rackus out, the party wanted to humble him using their Fey connections. Unfortunately, no Fey creature wanted to mess with him due to Rock Rackus' encounter with the Unseen Court. So instead, the party decided to take Rock Rackus with him to the Ziggurat, promising him a split of the treasure. This lead to many fun uses of Rock Rackus including:
-"You gotta put a rock in that trap. A YUUUGE rock. And I know my rocks or my name isn't Rock Rackus"
(in regard to the Crushing Force Trap

-"You gotta dream big!"
(in regards to the "Hallucinatory Floor Room")
Followed by "You didn't dream big enough!" when the trap triggered

Overall the party is split. Half are like RangerWickett's group with "this guy gets us." The other half rolls their eyes whenever he does something. But at the end of the day, my group is having a lot of fun and thats what counts.

Thanks again!

 

[Ajar]

Awesome! My players were intrigued by Rock, and made some effort to convince him to be a force for good after talking to him in prison. They weren't sure if they'd succeeded until I assumed the role of Rock in one of our sessions and sang this little tune... (lyrics here)

Later, during a session run for us by RangerWickett himself (with me guest-starring as Rock Rackus), my players awoke after a night of drunken revelry to discover that one of their number had actually MARRIED Rock! Spoiler alert: that marriage is still going strong. And when he "dies"... well, hell hath no fury like a recently-widowed double axe-wielding ranger!


Edit: Hilariously, the PC who married Rock is NOT portrayed by my actual wife, who is also a player in the game (our group is 3 couples with me as the DM). Fortunately, my real marriage is also still going strong.