Uncool Characters

[erucsbo]

Of course ... in fact, one time my gaming group got together to play a superhero based genre (1e V&V) and we all had ridiculous names and almost no powers whatsover.

We had names like Inconspicuous Lad, Unimpressive Lad (that was my hero), Muffin Man, and on and on. Boy did we have our heads handed to us when we met a real bad guy....

But it was a LOT of fun.

Sounds like Mystery Men (the movie).
Watch it if you haven't already. Great soundtrack and fantastic 3rd rate superheros (Mr Furious [he can get angry], the Shoveller [guess what he can use], the Spleen [don't pull his finger], Invisible Boy [only when no-one is watching and his clothes don't go invisible either], the Blue Raja [uses his mom's silverwear] and the Bowler [well, actually his daughter - and she can use a bowling ball]), and to keep on topic - definitely uncool characters (well, most of them are).

 

[Graf]

Hey, has anybody else had the experience of unjoying playing purposefully 'uncool' characters more than 'cool' characters?

Slightly off topic but this is the core skill of a decent DM.
Obviously you can make a few “cool” NPCs but the vast majority of people in the world need to be decent at things (otherwise they wouldn’t be the-dukes-advisor/ the-capitan-of-the-guard/whoever) but not cooler than the PCs.

Generally I find the trick is to aim for a bit of uncoolness.
I would also suggest that the most compelling characters in books tend to be uncool with strong motivations. (Snipe is much more interesting than Harry Potter, for example).

 

[Wik]

I once played a space explorer named DIRK DAGGER! (Yes, there was an exclamation point in his name). I played him as an over-the-top pulp hero - pretty much, Zap Brannigan, but before futurama was on the air. Dirk had such great lines as "But she can't be the villain... she's obviously a female, and thus, I shall rescue her!", and "Good news, men! I've discovered this space termite is immune to lasers! We're now one step closer to defeating it!".

That was a lot of fun, although I should mention it wasn't a very serious game.

I also played a halfling fighter in 2e named Griffin Wondersprig, who is my all-time favourite PC. He was pretty much a carbon copy of Sam Gamgee, except I had never read LotR when I created the character. Loyal to his friends, honest, hard-working, and rather innocent. Griffin was frickin' AWESOME.

 

[Dragonbait]

I play hobbits, gnomes, and kobolds. I don't think you can get any cooler, and appear to be super-uncool to the common anime-styled or epic hero. I have found the trend to push the kewl level up and up in games to be disturbing, to say the least. Of course, I could just be a fuddy-dud who has created a fictional time when characters were a bit more of the "average joe that went on to great things" rather than the "dragon-blooded descended of the emproer who has already mastered melee and arcan combat. Oh, and he wields a double-bladed sword."

 

[genshou]

I love for the PCs to start out "uncool" and become heroic and cool once they have a reputation (and a few levels). That's usually how it happens in my games, and with my own PCs.