Tell me about your favorite character of all time.

[Henry]

Solomon Hawkden, Hero of Bel Breka

It's almost too hard to say, but the one character I've had that stuck out as non-stereotypical was Solomon Hawkden, The Hero of Bel Breka.

Solomon (male human) grew up on a farm, always knowing he really didn't belong there, idolizing the stories of the black sheep of the family, a half-orc adventuring aunt named "Greatmum Gurda," who lived in the same town (recently deceased). Gurda taught him many things in his youth, like how to handle weapons, how to dive for cover if explosions happened, how to win at armwrestling through hidden cheating, etc. -- Everything except how to farm, which he was PATHETIC at.

He had made friends with a local halfling scalawag, Garrett the Short, and a displaced Elven Wizard , Enilus Stormwarden, far from his homeland who for some reason couldn't return, and misspent a good deal of his time with them. This upset Father greatly, but was ameliorated somewhat when his group accidentally unrooted the trail of the Kidnappers of the Princess of Bel Breka. He left town, after, ahem, surreptitiously allocating Father's Life Savings onto his horse and taking them with him.

Solomon is not, by any stretch, wise. (His Elven Wizard companion even doubts his sentience). He gets surprised quite often, He misunderstands the motives of nearly everyone around him, even friends sometimes, and will even wish his halfling friend good fortune in front of the beings the halfling is trying to hide from. However, he comes up with some rather clever plans every now and again, has a very commanding presence when need be, and fights like a devil and drinks like a demon. He's never afraid to jump into a fight to save a friend, and has sacrificed his life once to rescue the princess they sought. (He was restored to life by a kiss from the same Princess).

Solomon in some ways is me, comic effect in others, and in still other ways what I desire to be. Therefore, he's probably my favorite creation to date.

 

[sniffles]

Right this minute I'd say my favorite character is one of my current PCs, Telemnar Rohendil (see my story hour in my sig line). I've been playing him for nearly 3 years and he just keeps on being fun.

Telemnar is a sun elf from Evereska in the FR setting. He was a horse trainer for many years while his wife Erendis, a cleric, went off adventuring. He was content with that for a long time, but eventually he grew weary of being left behind and when invited to join his wife in the outside world, he eagerly accepted. He's a little naive about anything non-elvish or non-Evereskan, since all he knows about the world beyond the Hidden Hills is what his wife told him when she came home - and like many people she didn't like to talk about "work" when she was at home.

Telemnar is brave, honest, trustworthy and loyal. In a nod to my fondness for LOTR he's become good friends with the party's dwarven character (who is fortunately played by a good friend of mine). Since he's a horse trainer I also get to indulge my tiny sense of superiority in being the only player in the group with much knowledge of horses.

I'm looking forward to watching Telemnar grow as the campaign progresses. But if you ask me again tomorrow I might say another character. I'm pretty nostalgic about a Champions character I ran several years ago, and I also have a soft spot for a RuneQuest PC I ran for a number of years.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ugh, what a tough thing to choose! Two real choices here:

Emerlin Watchever the dwarven cleric Marthammor Duin. I like to believe that all of our characters have a little bit of our own personalities in them. Emerlin captured so much that I was struggling with at the time. He was terribly shy, stuttered constantly (I was a very shy and awkward teen at the time), had a tendency to end the night snoozing in his ale, yet was a great hero and of good heart.

Dalon Lionheart, human cleric of Tyr. He was my longest-lasting character, and was certainly a bit of a cardboard cut-out. But he was fun, all bellowing battle-cries and goody-goody holy attitude.

 

[Tonguez]

Orbril the gnome - Alchemist, Grand Master of the Royal Circus Maximus

Orbril grew up in a rural burrow far from the city but had an unhealthy obsession with alchemy which would often have the burrow filled with noxious fumes, the occasional explosion and lots of hilarity. Finally his 'Gra' (grandfather) decided to send him to an old freind a human alchemist who worked in the theatre (special fx). Orbril was trained in the manufacture and use of fireworks, smokes and bangers which he loved. He also learnt some theatre, a bit of juggling and acrobatics and out on the streets a little bit of larceny.

It was later whilst travelling north that he capture his first giant carniverous hamster. He took thisto a local half-elven animal trainer (who had a couple of griffons) for help and it was his training of the hamster (and its subsequent mate and offspring) that inspired him to create the circus...

Anyway Orbril has been manifested in a number of settings (DnD and otherwise) and when I DM Orbril or the Circus are likely to make a cameo somewhere (even if its just the PCs passing a brightly coloured caravan being pulled by a herd of giant carniverous hamsters)

 

[Gulla]

That would be Philippe of the Woods. A scrawny bard in a Prince Valiant saga following the search of the Holy Grail. He was a charming and competent bard/skald but a total pacifist in a world of magic and knights.

Our finest moment in the saga (which spanned 5 years real world time and 4-6 groups of players interacting in the same saga) was when we won the Grail and gave it to Lucifer (yes, that Lucifer), who promptly used it to redeem himself and close down Hell. The problem was that all the demons and monsters of Hell then had nowhere to live so they moved. To England.

This did not harm Philippe though, as he had left England for Faerie to live (forever) with his love.

I still have a collection of Philippes more famous poems and ballads

Håkon

 

[Karl Green]

I have three really…

The Jackal – an Champions 2nd ed character, who was a doctor who could change into a were-jackal and had ‘fear’ (+ presence attack) howl that he used a lot. I loved this character and then the GM killed him (we ran a very GRITTY comic book game way before the 90’s wave of comics… I think cause we were all old-school D&D players and it just stuck with us).

Ka’lik the Knife – a GURPS character that I originally thought was going to die right away. I used knives for heaven sakes, and did not wear much if any armor. Got into a fight with two other players in an ally with five assassin-cult member dudes. At the end of the battle, Ka’lik had killed three of the assassins by himself and the other two ran off, while the other two players were lying on the ground dying. Then later had to break into Inn where more assassin-cult members are holding one of the players hostage. Again, Ka’lik comes out of fight unharmed and two more dead assassins. Then break into gambling house rule by cult, kill two more assassins and scare off a couple more. Now death-cult assassin master thinks Ka’lik is some kind of rival assassin cult and starts hunting him down… big fight, Ka’lik gets his but handed to him by master (I think Ka’lik was around 160 points while the master was like 300!!) but saved by other players ganging up on super master assassin to kill him.

Tallin – another GURPS character, a ranger type who carried a spear. REALLY long campaign, one of two characters that survived the whole campaign (GM was very brutal). In the end, had a semi-cursed minor-artifact like spear weapon and was cursed with werewolf bite, but ran into the deep forest and was eventually able to control ‘the beast’ and went around hunting all the orcs from the Great Forest.

Present character that I REALLY like Eban – (can’t remember the rest of his name but it is long) Stygian Scholar/Sorcery in a Conan game. I am the weakest, least combat effective character in the game… yet I almost always am the one that kills the big-bad AND survives the game without going into the negatives or being left for dead. Tricky, “oily” and sneaky acting around the rest of the players BUT always help them out… so they trust him… to a point. Lots of fun to play this guy BUT I really have to stay on my toes as I can be taken out soooo easily (unless I have my meat-sheilds, I mean allies, in front of me)

I have had some good D&D characters but they don't stick out like the above

 

[Rel]

I've been eyeing this thread for over a day, undecided. Why don't you just ask which of my children I love best, der kluge?! Actually that's easy since I only have the one...

Anyway, I've settled on Fimbul "Fim" Ferryford - Sociopath with a Heart of Gold.

He was a Halfling Rogue. Never multiclassed. Never felt the need. He used daggers, both thrown and in melee and never met an adversary on the field of battle whom he wouldn't have rather stabbed to death in their sleep.

He was boon companions with a heavily multiclassed Barbarian/Sorcerer/Fighter/Rogue and they saved each others lives more times than I care to recall. And I swindled that stupid bastard out of his share of the treasure every time I got a chance. His other companion was a pathetically sub-optimal build in the form of Malhavoc Shadowlord, Elven Wizard/Cleric. I made fun of his name until the day he died. Then I stopped making fun of it and instead had to carve the godawful long thing onto his tombstone.

Fim was known for his "Bag of Tricks" which was a Hewards Handy Haversack in which he stored Scrolls, Potions, Minor Magic Items and Miscellania of every description. We never ran into an enemy or situation for which Fim's bag had no answer.

Fim's hobbies included stealing from innocent passers by and stabbing helpless women in the face (mostly the non-innocent type who conjure demons in their spare time). He knew no greater joy in life than to put an enemy at a massive disadvantage, coup-de-grace him and then (and only then) make fun of him. He also took very good care of his family, setting up a trust fund for them to ensure a decent measure of financial security while he retired and lived like a king in Patagonia.


Honorable mention for my favorite character of all time goes to Nakor of the Seven Isles (patterned after Nakor from the Raymond E. Feist books). He was an immortal old man who's memory was quite mortal (he had a lot of deja vu). He was an illusionist who wielded a three foot stick of walnut as his weapon and had a bag of endless oranges. Loved the guy.

 

[Shadeus]

Back in 1st-edition AD&D, I played a human thief named Derek Shadowalker in a very mixed party. A ranger with a 3 Cha who wore a hood at all times. A evil magic-user who used to collect the body parts of our slain foes. A would-be bard who sold his genetalia to get the stats required to even be the class (his name was Sarnov, but we always called him "sawed off").

Shadowalker was a real mean SOB. He used to routinely steal taking wands and selling them, but only after carving a replacement wand at night. Or swapping out potions of healing for vials of urine. He was a bold thief who was made a deadly assassin by one magic item: gauntlets of ogre power.

On one memorable adventure, he got the whole party banished to the abyss (I still swear the only exit was the one marked to the 32nd-level of the Abyss). He ended up dying at level 9 (with enough XP to be level 10...name level!) after his own party tied him up and sacrificed him to a demon.

Cursed for all his vileness on the Prime, his ghost was forever to walk with his hated party wizard whom he constantly argued with. It was a mutual torture.

He later was resurrected by his arch-nemesis who sent him back in time to find out what happened just before the arch-lich Vecna was destroyed by Kas. Shadowalker barely survived that encounter only to return to his time and become the charmed slave of a vampire mistress.

I'd like to say he had a great background, but it was one of my first AD&D characters and the only background I had on him is that he hates the upper class...and I have no idea why.

Don't be shy, der_kluge. Be sure to write up one of your own.

 

[DoctorPhil]

I like Warriors because i like to hack and slash monsters and stuff.

 

[BigTom]

I am torn between two characters, so here they are.

The first was Tarl son of Tarl. Tarl was a dwarven warrior with a bit of piety thrown in. To Thor. So basically you had a fighter/cleric heavy on the fighter. Tarl was brash in the way only a stoneheaded young dwarf can be. He had absolute faith that he could find a way to defeat any opponent, and he was not afraid to try it even when caution said otherwise. His headlong charges often got him into deep trouble, but a combination of skill, toughness, luck and inventive companions somehow got him through. Tarl used the power Thor gave him to make himself last longer in combat and to smite those not willing to get into melee with him. Thor seemed to approve. Tarl actually survived over a year of campaign time until the game ended with the DM moving out of town.

The conversation that immortalized Tarl went something like this:
Villager: The tower of evil lies an hour from town!
Tarl: Good, then we can vanquish evil before breakfast.
Villager: But there are thousands of creatures there!
Tarl: Hmm, then it may take a while. We better have breakfast first.
Villager: Are you insane?
Tarl: (to companions) Ok, so lets have a good breakfast then go vanquish evil. Who's with me?

The thing to remember is, as ridiculous as that conversation sounds, Tarl would say those things with absolute seriousness and believe he could pull them off. Occasionally he did too.


The other was Wallaby Jones, Crypto-zoologist. Wallaby was an Aussie with something of a maverick attitude in a CoC world. He was famous for the discovery of the Red tufted Wallaby, thus the name. Wallaby eventually got to be a Crypto-specimen after a rather shocking encounter with a weretiger. He got bitten, survived, killed the attacker, and contracted lycanthrope. Thus, Wallaby became the first lycanthrope to work for Delta Green. Wallaby went between serious therapy to maintain his humanity and dabbling in Bast worship after that, but he never really lost touch with his humanity. Delta Green was desperately afraid of him because of his bestial nature, but his sheer ability in combat and his willingness to use it on their behalf made him an ally they couldn't lose. Wallaby eventually retired when the strain became to great, and lived to a ripe old age before the Great Old Ones returned to destroy the world.