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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 2918698" data-attributes="member: 14159">"Mr. Impractical Character Concept"I know one player who is very bad for this.  He comes up with a character concept which he thinks is really cool, he'll talk about it, maybe sketch it or write a short bit of fiction about it, come up with an elaborate background story.  He's very enthusiastic about playing this character.  He is typically inspired by the newest anime or manga he's bought for these characters.There are three problems with this.  One is that the concept may only vaguely or loosely fit into the current campaign.  In D&D it may be a member of a race the DM wasn't planning on allowing (wereraven and wemic have been two I recall) or use a class or other mechanics the GM wasn't familiar with or even he didn't fully understand (in 2nd Edition using Skills & Powers/Spells & Magic coming up with incredibly convoluted custom classes, when the GM would allow them for minor changes to classes but didn't like for them to be too heavily modified).The second problem is that these characters are usually painfully useless once in play.  A hindrance he thought would be just nifty for roleplaying becomes a horrible crippling condition fairly quickly (a drunkard character in a system where alcoholism is a fairly serious hindrance, or a dependence on a special drug that he has only a limited supply to start out with, and he didn't bother to read the rules for it).  The limited scenarios he had in mind when he came up with the character are exceeded after, or during, the first adventure.  He'll lack critical skills, or have a spell list so specialized and esoteric that it's nigh useless, or otherwise be really nifty if you're imagining adventures around what he can do, but not as an RPG character in a party.The third problem is that he cycles through these ideas pretty regularly.  Every month or two he'll have a new idea.  If he's playing a character from his old kick, he'l grumble and whine about it being useless and there is a new, nifty concept he wants to try.  Since his characters tend to die fairly quickly, it means another short-lived, impractical character is on the way.  The few times he's had characters last in the long term are ones he whines about as not being as powerful as the rest of the party, or are so far from his original concept that he doesn't find them fun anymore (since he's now thinking of a new concept).</blockquote>

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