The Thread In Which We Rant

[Greg K]

I'll take an orphan character from a player whose plan is to have the character gradually view the party members as friends and, eventually, as his surrogate family.

 

[Hussar]

Oh, I agree. The orphan character as an archetype is certainly fine. I mean, there are certain backgrounds that pretty much scream orphan or at least character with few strings in the background. No worries. It's just that when every character, every campaign, stretching back years is like this, I get a bit peevy. If I were a parent in D&D Land, I'd bloody drown any child that showed the slightest inclination towards being an adventurer and claim self defense in court.

 

[ccs]

Right, so you have to switch up tactics.

Nah, same tactics, Just spaced closer together.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Oh, I agree. The orphan character as an archetype is certainly fine. I mean, there are certain backgrounds that pretty much scream orphan or at least character with few strings in the background. No worries. It's just that when every character, every campaign, stretching back years is like this, I get a bit peevy. If I were a parent in D&D Land, I'd bloody drown any child that showed the slightest inclination towards being an adventurer and claim self defense in court.

That’s what got Herod in trouble. Just sayin’.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I'll take an orphan character from a player whose plan is to have the character gradually view the party members as friends and, eventually, as his surrogate family.

...right before he improbably and tragically becomes orphaned again?

 

[Greg K]

...right before he improbably and tragically becomes orphaned again?

Lol. No. All, but one character made it to the end of the campaign.

 

[Nagol]

My policy is you can't just be an orphan.

Harry Potter? Orphan.
Frodo Baggins? Orphan.
Aragorn? Orphan.
Rand al'Thor? Orphan.

They were orphans, but they still had attachments to other people - in the first case dedication to his friends and working out his destiny; in the second and third cases to their surrogate fathers (Bilbo and Elrond); in the fourth case to the adoptive father he'd always thought was his "real" father (Tam).

Plenty of good orphan characters out there. Just don't be a simplistic unattached murderhobo about it!

(And here's what I don't get... why wouldn't you want attachments to characters and the game world. "Oh, the DM might make me go rescue them, or have obligations to them, or..." "DUDE, YOU'RE AN ADVENTURER! Save people, fulfill destinies and obligations, right wrongs... THAT'S WHAT YOU DO!" Why wouldn't you want that, rather than just going on mercenary quest of the week for 100 gp?)

Primarily because some DMs don't use just attachments as sources of dramatic need, they use them to try to emotionally torture players: "Ah ha! You are too late! The love of your life is now a ghoul infected with lycanthropy and carries a nycadaemon seed in her belly! Bwa ha ha! And the town that the group has adopted was targeted by the world destroyer! See what happens to those that you love!".

Other DMs refuse to leave the common history alone and desperately need to fiddle and add unwanted secret stories to reveal: "Ah ha! What you thought of as a loving mother is really an evil lich bent on <stupid plot #13>. All those memories of growing up in a loving house are now moot! Why don't you like the plot focus?".

Other DMs over-rely on the same set of hooks for dramatic need -- exactly how many times do I need to rescue Lois Lane before I cut all ties?

Other times, the player wants to build attachments organically as play develops as opposed to stipulating such attachments in the past because, frankly, there is no stipulated attachment on the player's part that can match one developed during play.

Or maybe because the player doesn't want a starring role in this ensemble cast and the more attachments that pre-exist for the DM to (ab)use, the more likely he will be thrust into such a role.

 

[jasper]

Dear Players, "No I will not include the new weapon which you think is uber, cool, and most powerful! This includes light sabers, light bo staves (Dart Maul thingy), Krull throwing disk, Zena's Frisbee, etc. Just reskin a weapon and ASK NICELY I may give it a bump."
***
Dear gamers of Rotten Dm, "Never ever give him a starbucks triple mocha. again."
***
Dear posters and gamers of Rotten DM, "Ignore the above post. They lie. I was not dancing on the con tables while was dming. They have not pictures to prove it."

****
Dear gamers, "CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELVES!" Signed mom.

 

[Sadras]

To Other Players:
Keep track of what is going on during combat and be thinking about what your character will do on your next turn, before your turn comes up. Nobody wants to stop the game while you decide what to do, review all your spells, recalculate your damage bonus, count range to the enemy, lose track of BBEG's mini, &c.

These days, as DM, I give them a slow 10 seconds before moving on to the next person. Hopefully they will have figured out what to do before the end of the round of combat otherwise they risk losing their turn.

Dear players
Besides @Eltab's brilliant post
Kindly bother to update your characters sheets on Obsidian Portal.
Please familiarise yourself with the basic notes that have been uploaded.
Do remove the nasty habit of just name dropping skills without purposeful action, hoping the DM does all the creative legwork for you in an open skill challenge.

 

[billd91]

Dear players,
Not all characters need to have a Tragic Backstory™.


BTW, Aragorn isn't actually an orphan. His father may have died when he was small, but his mother apparently died well after he came of age.