D&D 5E Literary Clones

[Shiroiken]

On the subject of creating character clones in general:
I don't see any reason that cloning should be looked down upon, especially considering how many times I've seen DM books say that it's okay to steal plots from films and stories. If stealing a plot is fine for the DM, then cloning a character is fine for a player.

Really what it comes down to is the level of lazy.

A DM who just runs the Lord of the Rings without any modification is just as horrible as a player who plays a Drizzt clone. However, it is usually much easier to differentiate a storyline than it is a single character. I managed to run a series of adventures based on Knightfall (from Batman) and no one noticed the similarities until near the end, even the comic book geek.

You can draw inspiration from a character without making a clone, and I think the real question becomes where the line is drawn. I highly suspect this varies greatly from person to person.

 

[Redthistle]

Criticizing the use of a cloned PC seems to me to be protesting too much, but to each their own.

Shakespeare certainly was not above poaching good ideas from other playwrights.

Often attributed to Oscar Wilde, the quote "Good writers borrow, great writers steal" cannot actually be traced back to him, according to research by Keith Sawyer (see https://keithsawyer.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/good-writers-borrow-great-writers-steal/), but more likely was first expressed by T. S. Eliot.

The idea that there are only a limited number of plot-lines has existed for a long time. Likewise, using character-tropes is a time-honored tradition in RPGs. I see little difference between cloning a beloved character from another source and, say, using a pre-gen character.

And consider that just as "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy" [attributed to General Von Moltke, serving under Bismarck in the Franco-Prussian War], no PC clone will likely maintain its integrity with the original after the first game session. The joy of the game may be sourced from prior work, but that is only a seed sown: what sprouts and blossoms is the product of the DM's story combined with the fertile wit of the assembled players.

 

[Mephista]

I've made on-the-fly NPCs that are drawn straight from books, because, honestly, they're good for quick inspiration. There's a lot of NPCs that come and go in games. As a PC? Never. That bores me.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Criticizing the use of a cloned PC seems to me to be protesting too much, but to each their own.
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Disclaimer: this is from my own experience, so take it FWIW

There are two main reasons why I generally roll my eyes pretty hard when an experienced player plays a clone.

1. "Oh man, this again. I'm tired of this clone. You literally are only limited by your imagination, use it to play a character of your own." Drizzt and Tass are two examples I've seen played way too much
2. Special snowflake. Drizzt is also a huge example of this. All players want their PCs to be special, but these are players who want their PCs to be extra special and get extra special treatment in the game because the characters they're basing their PC off of got extra special treatment in the books they are pulling the clone from. Yeah, I am fully aware how every woman ends up infatuated with Drizzt because of his angsty emo darkness, but guess what? Women in this game world don't really care for it. In fact, because you're a drow, they scream in fear and have alerted the militia. Don't get mad at me because I'm not DMing your PC like Salvatore writes Drizzt. I'm not Salvatore.

Both reasons almost always hurt overall game play for the rest of the group. That's why I personally protest. Can't speak for anyone else.

 

[Redthistle]

2. Special snowflake. Drizzt is also a huge example of this. All players want their PCs to be special, but these are players who want their PCs to be extra special and get extra special treatment in the game because the characters they're basing their PC off of got extra special treatment in the books they are pulling the clone from. Yeah, I am fully aware how every woman ends up infatuated with Drizzt because of his angsty emo darkness, but guess what? Women in this game world don't really care for it. In fact, because you're a drow, they scream in fear and have alerted the militia. Don't get mad at me because I'm not DMing your PC like Salvatore writes Drizzt. I'm not Salvatore.

Well said.

I should clarify that when I'm thinking about clones, it is not an exact copy of a published character, but rather, it is a PC strongly inspired by some character in fiction that the player really likes, i.e., the Iron Druid, Indiana Jones, etc. There have been those moments when I have had to explain to a player that the game doesn't work like a novel, where the author has far more latitude and is not restricted by the game's rules.

I'm one of those mean DMs who insist that the players use a standard array, to avoid the chance of any PC being comparatively overpowered compared to the rest of the party. This also helps to constrain precisely cloning a PC from a favored hero.

 

[Mercule]

I honestly don't think I've cloned anything. I've done "inspired by" a couple of times, but when you start with Hannibal King and and a bit a sorcerer, I really don't think that counts as a clone, anymore.

Really, I can't even take a character from one system and recreate him in another correctly. They always end up changing too much.

 

[jrowland]

Heh. Well I am using Fantasy Grounds for a gaming group with my Junior High buddies (we're 40+) and so far we have Iron Man (Eldritch Knight weaponsmith), Tony Montana (Assassin Rogue drug dealer), and a couple others I shall not describe on a family friendly forum.

I made them, they named them and play them, so I answered yes, Literary Clones (although bad ones)