OOTS - The Players

[orsal]

I think Wolfwood2 has pretty much nailed it:

Belkar - Player wants to be a hack and slasher, but whenever it comes to character building stuff is unable to resist the temptation to go with what is cool over what is effective. DM agreed to let him play an evil character on the grounds that it would be funny. I'd guess the hate-on for Miko isn't a roleplaying thing either, as the player is just venting an out of game hate.

Agreed. The great irony is that this player is a lousy roleplayer -- just wants to hack+slash, that's his idea of what D&D is or should be -- but by completely ignoring the roleplay aspect of the game, creating this single-focused character he actually ends up with one of the more entertaining, if unrealistic, characters in the game.

Roy - I'd bet that Roy's player usually plays spellcasters and is deliberately going against type by playing a pure fighter. He probably considers himself a pretty smart, tactical player and took the high intelligence so he'd always have an excuse for plans. Despite the PC not having many social skill ranks, the player is a good talker and does well right up until the DM makes him roll the dice. I'd gues he's a reliable player the DM has known a long time, so the DM felt confident hanging the main plot of the campaign off him. I'm not absolutely sure, but it's possible that Roy's father is based off a previous PC the player had.

I don't know about his previous characters -- he may well have played all over the map -- but he's one of the better roleplayers in the group. He's able to tailor his motivations to his stats (or vice versa) quite well, creating a very believable character while avoiding the cliches (like "dumb fighter").

Elan - I'm inclined to agree that the player is somewhat smarter than his PC and is deliberately playing a somewhat stupid bard because he thinks it's funny. He wrote the "evil twin" into his backstory and dared the DM to use it. Wasn't taking the game very seriously until he got interested in the romance subplot.

I think Elan's player is one of those who keep saying "I'm roleplaying!" as an excuse for bad in-character decisions. He thinks that only be creating suboptimal characters, and using what abilities he has suboptimally, does he demonstrate that he's getting into character. Roy's player is especially frustrated, since he has figured out quite well (and demonstrates by example) that there is no contradiction between great roleplaying and effective play. All Roy's carping about Elan are just an in-character expression of what Roy's own player is saying about Elan's. Elan's player finally agreed to do something about it, and the DM helped him patch the problem by offering him a tailor-made ridiculously munchkiny PrC to compensate for everything he's done with the character up to this point.

Durkin - Durkin's player probably hasn't played many RPGs. He's still a little reluctant to speak at times, gets confused about what the spells do and how to stack bonuses (but the DM goes easy on him), and a lot of the time likes fading into the background.

That's the best explanation for Durkon that's come up in this thread.

Vaarsuvius - I agree with the earlier poster that V's player is a power-gamer who loves blowing things up. He's also not nearly as good at planning as Roy's player is.

Not just that, but a rules lawyer extraordinaire. I'm fully expecting to learn that Vaarsuvius is a diviner, despite having very little interest in divination spells, because it lets him get by with only one favoured class.

Haley - Haley's player is a 1E veteran and still thinks he's playing the "thief" class. (Though he does bother to back it up with IC motivation.) I think possibly he was absent for a few sessions so the DM stretch the 'not able to talk' (which originally was only supposed to last one session) out a lot longer so as not to have to have the character say anything.

There I disagree with you. Haley's got a good Bluff, and is the only character in the group who can Sense Motive if the world depended on it. She's clearly expanded the rogue repertoire past the original Thief model. But she is still getting used to the idea that the class can now be Good, trying to play the rogue as a bit of an archetypal thief but with an unlikely alignment, and only doing a so-so job of it. She's rather more beholden than Roy's player to archetypes and the cliches implicit in them.

 

[wingsandsword]

About the idea that V's player isn't much of a roleplayer: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0010.html

I think his player tries occasionally, but isn't too good at it. Trying to be dramatic just comes off as boring, so over time he's learned to just blow things up, which is what he's good at.