Play Style Gripe!

[Kid Charlemagne]

It seems to me that a lot of the times, the wierdest characters are a shortcut to characterization. If you're playing a human, you can work within subtle gradations of what a character can be; that's much harder to do with stranger combinations.

 

[WayneLigon]

I feel for you. We had a long running group. The GM would almost always GM save during the Christmas rush, so one of us would run something during those months. As a GM he'd make perfectly normal NPCs. As a players, invariably, he'd create some weird off-kilter character that was more joke than anything else.

 

[Umbran]

It's not so egregious an example in and of itself; it's just the latest in a long series of characters who jar. Does every campaign have to be Callahan's Crosstime Saloon? How about a little Tolkienesque cliché, just to be different?

For many folks, being blatant or wacky is just a simpler way to reach a unique character. Yes, it is possible to be unique by exploring character depth, but for many that is more difficult to achieve consistently. It is usually more difficult to "stay in character" when what makes you who you are is deep or subtle.

Right now, I'm playing in a GURPS campaign, and I'm pretty darned sure that to everyone else at the table I look like "a guy with sword and shield". In three sessions, little has come up that touches on the character's unique outlook, motivations, or behavior that would stick in anyone's minds. For many, that would not be satisfying. Others might really want to stick out more.

 

[DragonLancer]

I'd sure like to find these games they're in that make them tired of playing "standard characters" so I could join one. -.- I'm sick to death of going around in parties made up of nothing but weirdies all the time. I've been playing since 1984 and can count the number of campaigns that didn't have a bizarre party on one hand -- without using all the fingers.

-The Gneech

I know the feeling. Thankfully I have a group who are more than happy to avoid the weird templates and races.

 

[Twowolves]

C'mon, tell us the concept, then we can all laugh at it together!

BTW, I've rarely seen oddball concepts from my players. Well once a player wanted to make a commoner dual wielding sickles (a seriously PO'd farmer), just to see if the party would let a commoner into the group! He was evil to boot, too, so it's a good thing the experiment was left on the drawing board. Made for a strange villain later on, though.

"Farmer Bob" was a concept seen many many times in old games I've been in. It was from back in 1st ed, when some veteran role player would get sick of hearing the noobs complain about "needing" high stats/great gear to be worthwhile. The vet would make a human fighter with no stat over 12, carrying some farming tool as a weapon, and then proceed to make Farmer Bob the most unique, memorable character of the campaign by *gasp* role-playing him to the hilt.

 

[Evilhalfling]

"Farmer Bob" was a concept seen many many times in old games I've been in. It was from back in 1st ed, when some veteran role player would get sick of hearing the noobs complain about "needing" high stats/great gear to be worthwhile. The vet would make a human fighter with no stat over 12, carrying some farming tool as a weapon, and then proceed to make Farmer Bob the most unique, memorable character of the campaign by *gasp* role-playing him to the hilt.

hmm wasn't this in KODT? an old charater of BAs?

Btw I just rolled up a charater with 11,13,12,13,10,13 - He is the son of a wealthy goldsmith, who had a hankering (but no aptitutde) for adventuring, made him a non-dex rogue, who may take a level of fighter for the armor.

 

[Henry]

Y'know, this this thread has given me an idea to start removing humans from the game world, and make the game world MORE like what my Players compose in the group. In our Eberron game, we have a changeling, a halfling, a half-elf, and a half-dragon -- except for one temporary NPC, not a single human in sight! If I start reducing the humans, start making all the rangers they encounter targetting everything BUT humans, remove all humanbane weapons, and make all banes one of the types they play, then there will finally once again be an advantage to playing humans, because nobody's ever SEEN one before!

 

[jester47]

One way to handle the wacky character syndrome is to roll with it. Run them through the wackyest, most non-sensicle, pun-filled adventures you can. You might have a good time. But I bet they will see the immaturity of it all and you might get a request for more serious material. Then again you might not.

Or if you think they might simply just want to be contrary test them. Tell them that you are going to run the kind of adventures above. Tell them you are inspired by Terry Pratchet and you are going to go as goofy as you can get. Then see if they decide to make serious characters (to stick out in the goofy world). Then just tailor the adventures to the kinds of characters they make.

 

[diaglo]

I'd sure like to find these games they're in that make them tired of playing "standard characters" so I could join one. -.- I'm sick to death of going around in parties made up of nothing but weirdies all the time. I've been playing since 1984 and can count the number of campaigns that didn't have a bizarre party on one hand -- without using all the fingers.

-The Gneech

human fighter
elf bard
dwarf druid
halfling cloistered cleric

discover a badly injured human spellthief at the foothills of their village after travelling all day.

the village is on fire and an army of lizardmen is still active in the area

there are ways to play standard pcs as unique if you have the right group. come to hotlanta.

 

[Ferrix]

I'll agree with this sentiment, it happens even here on the PbP boards.