"Same as" PC's - OK in your campaign or not?

[Ramien Meltides]

I'm sure most gamers here are familiar with the Knights of the Dinner Table, and the way that the Knights have 'backup characters', and how "Knuckles the 14th" continues to adventure when Knuckles the 13th dies.

My question is this: How permissable in your campaign is it for a player to bring in a character that's nearly (or exactly) the same as a dead or missing character he replaces?

I find myself in a strange situation... we recently began a new campaign, and my bugbear barbarian character, Yurgozan, died due to some poor luck with the dice. It was only our second game of the campaign, and I had written up a considerable amount of backstory regarding Yurgozan's tribe, his history, etc. In addition to that, the miniatures I ordered from Reaper to represent Yurgozan are due in a few days.

Now I'm tempted to create another bugbear character to take advantage of all the trouble I went to when creating the tribe. I'd take different feats, use a different weapon and a different name, have a somewhat different personality and outlook, but essentially I'd be playing the same type of character: Male, Bugbear, Barbarian, melee fighter.

At the same time, I am apprehensive about the reactions of the players I game with. Is it childish or immature to want to keep going with the story of a dead character this way? Or should I just "suck it up" and create a cleric?

 

[John Crichton]

I would check with the DM to see what he thinks, first. But I would probably make a new character and put this character on the backburner and play him sometime in the future.

 

[Darkness]

Yeah - might be good to play a bugbear cleric or something.

Still, I wouldn't discourage you, either.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Seems like an awful lot of work to go to waste, it might be cool to have another member of the fallen PC's tribe join the party to restore honor to the fallen PC or to wreak vengeance on his chosen foes.

 

[alsih2o]

i could see this being a hideous example of sophmoric trivialism, a hilarious metagame spoof, and an interesting story with impact throughout the campaign.

it will all depend on how you handle it.


come up with something that makes it work, approach your d.m. and run it well.

 

[Drawmack]

IMC there must be one major and three minor differences between the character that just died/went missing and the one your playing.

Major differences are race, class, sub-class and sex

Minor differences are everything else and he'll be almost garenteed of a different level cause the new character must be one level below the lowest level character currently being played.

just my $0.02

 

[Dinkeldog]

I generally allow the player to play the character that he wants. If you were in my campaign and weren't done exploring the character of a bugbear barbarian, then raising would be easily accessible or you could bring in another bugbear barbarian.

 

[Cake Mage]

now I have only done this once, but maybe make your new character his twin. That way you can keep most of the fighting style and have the same background. That or you can make his younger, or older, brother (or sister if you feel so inclined). This also gives you a goo plot hook for your cahracter to raise enough money for a reseruction, or vengance, whatever. Only works once though, remember that. You don't want to have the sixtuplets in your family come one after another after your lost brother and sisters.

 

[Crothian]

I've never done this or allowed this in a serious game.

 

[Humanophile]

In this specific instance, ask if everyone's cool with it, and if nobody complains too loudly go for it. You did a lot of work for someone who died that early on, and since the old character didn't have that much influence on plot or backstory, I wouldn't want you to feel cheated out of all the work you put into him if I were your DM.

Just realize that this should be a one-time compensation. In general, cloned characters are tacky, and show a lack of imagination. If you did get your effort's worth out of a character, say one good plot arc, move on after he dies. But a sesson or two, retcon who the dead guy was and let your new guy come in.