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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kodiak" data-source="post: 4809552" data-attributes="member: 8642">Piratecat asked me to comment on my experience starting as a new player in an established campaign.  I don't have a sense for how it must be for other people, but in my case it was absolutely wonderful!  I've missed playing with these guys ever since the Defenders campaign ended, and getting updates on the goings-on in the new campaign from my husband Sagiro (who plays Cobalt now, and played Velendo previously) made me miss it all the more.  So as soon as my babysittering in-laws arrived for the summer, I jumped at the chance to join Piratecat's new game.  [I should mention that Piratecat has been extremely accomodating and supportive as I tried to navigate the whole gaming-with-two-kids thing.]  For me, showing up at his game with my new character was kind of a homecoming.  All of the other players in his campaign are very generous role-players, making it easy for me to settle in.  The group was at a point where they were just deciding what to begin next, so I didn't need a whole lot of context.  We didn't have any combat the first game, which was probably just as well since I'm a little intimidated by my stack of 15 power cards (I don't have much 4th Ed experience).  Yet I still managed to feel cool and useful right away, as I got to cast a "lower water" ritual to good effect (Piratecat tipped me that that would be a useful one to know), and to wow everybody with my 30+ perception checks (lucky rolls, people assisting me, a +13 perception, as well as my shaman "speak with spirits" power).  After playing Mara  for so long (and Kibi in Sagiro's campaign), I desperately wanted to play someone with a high spot check!  Piratecat always does a great job adding vivid details, like the swamp spirit I got to interact with during the casting of the ritual, upping the coolness factor even more.The only thing that was an issue for me coming into an established campaign was striking the right balance between playing a character I really wanted to play and playing a character who rounds out the party.  Piratecat's campaign didn't have a healer and didn't have a leader, and already had two rogues (high DEX was the other thing I was longing for after so many years as Mara, and I had initially wanted to play a swashbuckling halfling rogue).  Everyone made it clear that whatever I decided to play would be fine, and we'd make the group work regardless, but it's more fun for me as a player when I feel like my character brings something unique to the party. (I struggled with this a while as one of three mages in Sagiro's game, and addressed it there with a custom Earth-mage prestige class and focusing less on "boom" and more on walls etc).  That said, I wasn't keen to play a devout cleric, having just played a Paladin for so long. The Shaman sounded interesting, but I had a hard time envisioning a human shaman character I liked.  I thought a halfling would be more fun - I really like the halfling boat people concept in Piratecat's new campaign, and a halfling shaman just seemed lighter and merrier - but they were exactly the wrong thing stat-wise.  I didn't want to play a dwarf (I'm already one in Sagiro's campaign) or an elf.  Then Piratecat came across the "Wilden" race, and that immediately appealed to me (though it seems odd that their stats are perfect for a protector shaman but their "nature's aspect" ability is largely useless for shamans).  I didn't particuarly care for the name or the concept art, but liked the fact that they didn't really think of themselves as individuals, and had this strong connection to each other, to their trees, and to Feywild as a whole.  It seemed well-suited to a shaman.  This may sound odd, but I saw the Dalai Lama speak at Foxborough Stadium a few weeks ago.  Obviously, he is a very very important religious and cultural figure, and has many profound things to say, but the thing that struck me most about him was his demeanor.  He was completely disarming, this warm-hearted, giggling man sitting cross-legged in an armchair with his monk's robes, Patriot's cap and parasol, telling stories.  Of course a D&D character cannot emulate the Dalai Lama, but this is the kind of bearing I want for my character - someone who is impish, merry, and wise - and I think a Wilden shaman is well suited to that.  And so Bramble was born.</blockquote>

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