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Taking20 okay that is it how does D&D work you got my attention i never played D&D but it keeps popping up not just your channel but a few and I want to play it but I don't have a clue how and where to start or what to learn and what to do so please since I see your channel more then others can you open up a dour for me and tell from where to begin and how to start
Taking20 If I may suggest an exception to writing a lot of backstory, is describing your character's development through their childhood, especially if that childhood has notable influences on the character *beginning* their life as an adventurer. For example, in 3.5 I had a Szarkai Drow, who at the beginning of gameplay is a Houseless mercenary, after his first mission to the surface allows him to not be present for the killing of his family by a lower-ranked noble house, as is the norm in a Lolthite Drow city. Because he's Szarkai, it's in his backstory That he was raised and trained in secret, without actually attending Sorcere or Melee Magthere, and yet, since Szarkai are believed to be blessed by Lolth, he was expected to excel studying as both a swordsman * AND* a wizard, with the constant threat that his mother would let his sadistic eldest sister torture him to death if he failed. No pressure, right? This, when a DM will allow me to run the character, is the justification for granting the character a few feats and spell-casting levels, before actually taken class levels. From there on, I alternate alternate between actually Rogue and Wizard, as the basic melee feats needed are covered, rogue levels play better with the intended combat style, and primary stats for both classes are nearly identical. Oh, and there's also a possibility that his youngest sister, whose fondness of him bordered on intimate (This is pretty normal and mild for Lolthite Drow) might still be alive. His imp familiar, is secretly trying to nudge that relationship together too.
If done properly, kobold encounters could be deadly. Realistically, since kobolds are pack creatures, if a warning goes out from one small group, the party could be quickly surrounded by at least 30 kobolds. If this situation occurs at night, or in a dark cave, in a somewhat open area, the kobolds have advantages due to dim light and their pack tactics ability. A party of 4 new adventurers would have an average of 7 kobolds to fight, making an average of 35 damage if all attacks hit on the first round. A barbarian amongst the party would even the odds a bit more, but most of the party would be unconscious.
Sure, kobold encounters can easily be deadly. Also the correct housecat encounter can be deadly. They have a 40% chance to hit a character with 12AC (about average at level 1) and do 1 static damage. Barbarians have ~14 starting HP, so 30 cats could also take out a level 1 character.
All this talk about elaborate backstories being terrible makes me want to play a character with a super elaborate backstory and the flaw "is a pathological liar".
I played a character like that once. Was a witch that have two main flaws: She talks a lot and she lie a lot, even for insignificant things. She was very powerful and resourceful on her own, but as always come with lies and deceptions, everyone seems to underestimate her, and i use that in my favor more than once. In interpretation I always start a scene talking or in a middle of a sentence, telling random stories even if the other characters aren't paying attention at all. One of my favorite characters ever.
Evan Alexander one of my characters is a half elf bard, and he rolls performance and deception all the time telling how he has killed a dragon and has slept with a tree and all sorts of crazy stuff
"My character is sitting in a darkened corner of the room, his cloak pulled over his head hiding his face..." "Oh no, another edgelord lone wolf" "As He notices your gaze from across the room, he abrubtly stands up and walks over to you, his arms full of boxes of girl scout cookies. You notice his mouth is completely full of cookies as he offers you an open box of thin mints. 'Whffm smmf?'"
This is why you have a big, bulky, overly friendly martial class on your team. "Ah, I see you're trying to be dark and edgy, be a damn shame if I came over and bothered you into talking to me because I have the IQ of a grape and mistook your brooding glares for genuine interest!"
Every campaign I've been in has had like 2-3 "lone wolf" people who just insist on being the cool asshole who doesn't get along with anyone, it seems like most new players just default to this type and it's so annoying.
Every tavern my group enters is, as a running joke, either perfectly circular so that there are no corners, or is under the influence of strange magic to make it a 4D hyperobject with far more corners than it ought to in this dimension
@@StretchyPlays I went and did a bit of research about how to mesh with a group better before I started getting involved, and I wish others would too. The whole "edge-lord supreme" thing sucks. My first character was essentially a NG friendly middle-aged warrior from the cold north who eventually left his village to aid others and explore the world.
Had a bard friend that critically succeed on his con save and he played the same song for a 6 hour ride in the wilderness, I stole his lute while he was trancing. No one tried to kill me. He still had his bagpipes though. My character is going to hear "a horse with no name" when she is burning in hell.
What’s really amusing and garners only slightly less hate is when you reverse of pick pocket a party member and use slight of hand to put random junk into their pockets. I had one party member absolutely convinced that I was stealing from him. It took him quite some time to realize he had a lovely growing button collection. BUT I DIDN’T HURT ANYONE. (Physically.) Mentally, the poor boy was a paranoid wreck every time I would pass the DM a note and player would have to roll something.
I had a problem in my campaign with two players like this. One is a Half Elf Sorcerer with the discusting Abyssal Bloodline. He wants to roleplay the "touched by demons blood" char. Everyone in the party just hate him. My wife just treatened him with her elf archer two times. The other one is a yordle rogue who really like being hated. I can't imagine other reason. He robbed his sister when she saw the sorcerer being possessed and killed his girlfriend. In a city with no weapons allowed. He trew rocks at the big dumb fighter of the group for no fucking reason and robbed 60kpo of the bank of the city his Mother live on. when the team was in that city and just get away! I had to make a secondary table called "the villains RPG" to put these characters on and they play other PCs at the inicial one.
I play a rogue, but she is an assassin, not a thief with the compulsive need to steal anything in their path. Yet I still get “don’t let the thief get it!” I don’t steal. I get paid to kill people. What is there to confuse? It’s actually pretty amusing because in the party, the npc bard that travels with us is apparently the only one with enough sense to take anything from the chests we encounter. Everyone else kind of just forgets about it...
lol that'd also be Hamlet. .. WAIT HOLY SHIT THAT'S THE FIRST TIME I'VE REALIZED THE LION KING IS BASICALLY HAMLET WITH LIONS WTF WHY DID IT TAKE ME SO LONG TO SEE THAT
ToastyMarshmallow ... I don’t know if you’re being serious or not because that is a fact that a lot of people discovered already. Still, if it’s your first time finding out, congrats.
@@couragew6260 yeah...I can be, well, not the sharpest knife sometimes ^^; took me thirteen years to figure out t-shirts are called that because they're in the shape of a t
Look, figuring out how a character from some work of fiction would work in DnD is fun. I've made Sniper from Team Fortress 2, King Dedede from Kirby, Zero from Megaman, and others. But making your character literally just a character from another piece of media will most certainly cause the character to wear their welcome thin quickly. It's like "Oh gee, we've got a bit of a conundrum in choosing between freeing these enslaved humans and therefore causing the Drow to hunt us down or leaving them in their terrible condition but leaving us intact. I wonder what the guy who's literally Emperor Palpatine will do."
The character I made is literally incapable of being a “lone wolf” because the second he gets too far from his friends or is alone for too long, he gets lost. That’s also his backstory, he got lost in a cave system and stumbled his way out at the start of the campaign
I always have at least a couple of ideas on the works, if something happens to my character. I'm starting a one-shot in a week, and playing a young character, so I'm hoping nothing happens, but I still have a new one brewing too, if shit goes down.
For me, I have the general concepts there - some character traits, personality, class(es), combat style, and I try to write a few inconsequential things that made the character who they are today. Nothing is ever set in stone and I plug it in to whatever campaign with the help of the DM.
I'm in the process of building two level one characters each for Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e, Starfinder, and DnD 5e. Also damnit I need a group to play with. So far everyone I ask is looking for a DM/GM for those systems and I have little experience DMing/GMing.
Yeah just modify them for the campaign. Your whole back story doesn't have to be entangled with the plot, just make sure you're motivated and reasonably close to the events.
Bob: I gonna be the lone wolf, always working alone, not caring or trusting anyone. GM: Alright! You all are now on your way for the quest! Bob! Your character never joined the party. Roll a new character. Bob: .....
Literally had something like this happen in a campaign I’m in. One of the players was initially supposed to be in and out of the campaign because of her schedule, so she didn’t make a character with a ton of connections to the party. However, before the game actually started she found out that she COULD make all the sessions. However, she didn’t alter her character’s backstory or personally at all so that he’d have reason to stay with the party. So after the first session he just...left, and our DM just had her make a new character since she was still unwilling to change her first character in any capacity. And then she goes and does the same exact thing with that one!! Literally never hung out with the party when in town, and brushed off any attempts at conversation. So frustrating. Don’t make other players have to twist your arm in order to get you to participate in the story.
Having a loner character as an excuse to explain in game why they're never with the party due to irl scheduling conflicts is pretty clever. It's too bad she couldn't pull it off.
We currently have a healer who refuses to heal the party. Totally a buzzkill and no one wants to play with him. We've even tried to intentionally tried to get him killed.
Had a friend that played a barbarian but never raged and it annoyed the hell outta everybody cause he got downed all the time. I told him he should've been fighter that came from a barbarian background but said "no I wanna be a barbarian"
I definitely try to avoid the "Lone Wolf" trope, and I think the one biggest moments where it came up with a payoff was when my character made a simple mistake that ended up in them spending two years off-screen in the Feywild while the party experienced it in a matter of seconds. A few sessions later and they realized how callous my character had suddenly become, and it became an emotional moment for everyone when the paladin asked "Do you feel alone?"
worst mistake ive made was in a homebrew where i learned how to speak Ethereal and accidently called down and angry god and our next campaign is having to deal with that
@@Dancan799 Not even magic, plate mail is way more than you can afford at level one but ah it's just a nonmagical item, of course my fighter would have it.
10: Making a character based around a single pun or joke. It's funny the first time, and then every time after that it is a tired one dimensional character.
I Gotcha, bro. I have a spare, legendary character fail sheet. Just for you. His name is teefee. He has 1 hp, 1 mp, 1 intelligence, supernatural reflexes, dodge rate is out the ass, attack is a -5, he has one support spell that cost 1 mp that allows you to see anything and everything within a 1000 cubic feet radius, he can also fly anywhere. P.S., he's a common house gnat. Have fun.
My favorite backstory I wrote was for a bard who's trinket was an enchanted rose, he had a fling with an Orcish girl who he met at one of his performances, and they eventually fell in love with each other, and she joined him on his travels across the kingdom. At some point, he bought her a rose and had a wizard enchant it so as long as their love for eachother was strong, the rose would never wilt. After a VERY bad quarrel between them (caused by the bard), she left him and headed back to her hometown. After weeks of depression and regret, the bard caught notice that their rose still had never wilted, and despite his wrongdoings, she never actually stopped loving him. Instead of rushing back to her, he's decided to join a group of adventurers and better himself through the experiences of the world, in hopes that he can return to her a better man then he once was. Edit: Woah! I had no idea this comment gained so much traction over the last months, I guess I'll answer some of the questions I see "Ok that's awesome...but how did the story end?! :D " Sadly ended like the tragedy of most D&D games... scheduling conflicts stopped us from continuing after about 7 sessions, was still a good 7 sessions tho. "He didn't think about looking at the fucking rose earlier?!" Well he had, but plants don't wither and die in a single day, and with how devastated the character was he wasn't really looking for ways to fix things or if there was a chance to, he assumed it was already over and nothing could save their relationship. I also thought it would be funny to fuck with my fellow players hearts by when he did return to her she actually didn't love him, and the wizard just sold him a plastic rose, an undecided alternate ending for him. And to all the people complimenting the background idea and my writing skill I give my biggest thanks, D&D was my way of channeling my love for writing so I'm glad to know my stories are enjoyed, and to the people who said they basically cried, such is the way of the Bard to pull at the heart strings of his audience. (╭☞ ͡⎚ ͜つ ͡⎚)╭☞
That's all you need sometimes. My last character: He's a lawful evil yuan-ti shadow sorcerer. Later I decided that not long ago he got pissed about the higher ups killing someone he was trying to get information out of that sort of spiraled him onto a path of self discovery as he left his home behind to find a _different_ way to become a god. Alas it was in the Curse of Strahd, and in the travels with the party, he managed to become lawful good through his actions and change of mindset while all but one of the other 5 players turned various shades of evil.
I did a 3.5e game where I started play as a goblin rogue1st/wizard1st. Background: a wizard caught me hunting rats around his house. " Charm " my goblin and keep him as a grounds keeper and I learn arcane by over hearing his students study. After my goblin cast his first cantrip, he got some real training.
Tried my first minmax with an orc fighter. The campaign began with a horse race, requiring Animal Handling checks every turn. Talk to the DM. Figure out the game you're playing. And rest in peace Urok Gro-Orzgurk. Legend says he's still making his way around that final lap.
And that’s why I plan to make a character with multiple versions which are just different classes and little changes in personality like: (version A: loyal. version B: deceptive) just in case
@@satannn Not op ive been meaning to get my dnd adventures started for about 9 years now, ive made a few characters over the years but never found a group. Oh well at least baldurs gate 3 will exist at some point so i can rp by myself lol
Best character of all time is the Orc Rogue Thrack, no points in any stealthy skill, all dumped in charisma and intimidation, when trying to sneak past he would just shout "You cant see Thrak"
"My character is Alfred Lowe - 6th generation village baker. His parents are still alive and, while never being affluent, have been nothing but loving and supportive his entire life. His greatest skill is his sourdough rolls, and his greatest weakness is the confectioners daughter from down the road."
@@TangentGear Technically, that's the back story. He ended up being possessed by a demon the night before meeting the rest of the party, and becoming 'adopted' by them after they managed to exorcise him - showing a prepensity for magic afterwards, and eventually becoming a cleric. It didn't go too badly, all said.
Yea. I have one character who just came out of Secret Agent school (It was the setting) and we started at lvl 1. So I wrote very little in her backstory. On the same note I have a character in a fallout Universe that is from before the war. So I had a lot to write and ended up on a long Story. Good thing the GM likes to read backstories. Like for real. If you are lvl1. Your adventure starts now. Not 20 years ago. There should be no 80 Year old Wizards that are lvl 1
Sure, but as said in the video, there are probably going to be less hooks that hit your character personally and bring them into the overarching story. Your character will still be following the story, but you will inevitably end up watching other characters have much more personal stake and draw in, while your stake will mostly just be the stake of the overall geoup.
Agreed- having something is a start, but especially for brand new players I think it's asking a lot to come up with where they're from when they don't know the world yet so don't understand the options anyway. If I have never heard of the US I don't understand the difference between being from NYC vs. New Orleans vs. Southern California. I think tying in backgrounds sounds nice, but if it's just going to be something you forget you said about yourself when you're trying to get a feel for a new game and what your character's immediate personality is like, and might even adjust that personality as you get a feel for what works, it's just confusing and limiting. Edit: And this applies even if they read up on the world. It's hard to get a real sense of place until you play the game a bit.
You know, with my group, we have three requirements when it comes to backstories, and this system works amazingly for us. This not only gives you enough information you need to effectively roleplay in this campaign, but it also allows the DM to have enough freedom to work with your backstory and to introduce it into the campaign. I'll give the rules followed by an example. 1: Where are they from? Talk with your DM to establish where in his world your character hails from, not only from a geographical perspective, but from a personal perspective as well. Often times we are required to give information about our guardians and a memory of home. I once played a monk who essentially never stopped seeking self improvement, but at the same time found a way to enjoy life, and the one who taught him this was his shifu. About once a week, after intense the day's intense training routine, they'd sneak out of the monastery to go to the tavern for a night of fun. 2: Give 3-5 known people. Since we just talked about guardians, they are exempt from this. Give three to five people your character has met throughout their lifetime, this will help cement your character's relevance in the world. Friends, family, rivals, or even lovers. You will need to give at least one memory shared with any one of these people. Hell, the first time we implemented this rule, we were playing Legend of the Five Rings and I had a brother who happened to be the murdery ninja sort who bit me in the rear so much throughout that campaign. 3: Give your character a motive. There is no use in a character who isn't motivated to do anything, or worse, doing something that goes in the opposite direction of your character's motivation. Talk with your DM to discuss a proper motivation that will also work well with the other party members and their intentions. In one of my current campaigns (currently in three), I play a little girl who rather than becoming something her parents wanted her to be, she ran away from home to become an adventurer like those in the stories she'd heard growing up (generic as hell, but it works, and the child is 8 years old (also created the perfect excuse to try experiment with a classless homebrew system the DM, my brother and I once discussed (it's working quite well))).
One of my players managed to get across a good backstory that fulfills these requirements in a single paragraph. He's definitely getting plot hooks based on his backstory.
Me: “My name is Sigurd Rattelion. My father was a dragon and my mother a drunken shieldmaiden who claimed her legs could sunder any male of any race. My father and mother made love for six years straight, I was born in year 4 of the maelstrom as a grown man from the sheer magnitude of testosterone involved, and was thrown clear of them. They still clash in such combat to this day. I was raised by wolves until the young age of 32. I always believed myself one of them, as that is what they told me. When I found another human who asked me why I was biting them, I realized I had been lied too, and skinned them all for hats to pay them back for their treachery- it should be noted that these were not the original wolves. This was a considerable misjudgment on my part. I became a sell sword after that, using my powerful muscles, natural charm and talent for bashing things in with a club to my advantage. With money in my coffers and mead in my belly, I now come to you for adventure.” My DM; “... Jesus Christ John we asked you what kind of toppings you wanted on the pizza.”
Oh my gosh that sounds so much like my friend I’m stealing this. His story is his parents were to busy making a better baby to name him so he burnt down there house to prank them back. Then remembered that was his house to. So he decided to become a monk and punch some goats. Then the dm introduces us to him by having him walk into a bar with 2 goats under his arms, throwing them into a orphan fighting ring and beating the orphans and goats to death. Great lad just gets himself downed to much
Well my wild mage goliath grew one size larger with wild magic and cast thunder step to appear NINETY FEET above the demon we were fighting and fell on top of them so it was great
Having a DM work your character backstory into a campaign is the best, which is why I always cater my character to the story. I played a pervy wizard, who's spellbook was disguised as a porno magazine. At one point the party got their items stolen by thieves and they didn't take my spellbook because they didn't check.
I remember playing with someone who to put it bluntly, had the idea that you had to win dnd. He didn't make characters as much as he made THE characters. He would basically roll for race or class and then optimize them from there with almost no input on backstory or traits. Needless to say that the group fell apart
Wonder if running a non-combat campaign would have helped. Run an intrigue/diplo campaign, a survival campaign, or a heist campaign. Not sure it would help, but those styles tend to be RP heavy instead of stats and build reliant.
My best character was Stakuga, a Orc Barbarian woth an intelligence of 4, a Wisdon score of 6, but his Strength and Constitution was VERY high. My DM even allowed me to go over the max for those two attributes. He could speak only a few words, so most interactions with him could be described in a few words. "Stakuga not smash?" Or "Stakuga Smash!". He was loved by all because he had no backstory to tell of, (Mostly because he couldn't tell his friends), but he had the MOST growth out of everyone. He learned to love and be compassionate to those he cares for and crush those he doesn't. He had substance with very little words. That is my best character, and I'll be damned before y'all shit on him.
My character was G-01D3N. A construct made by ancient dwarves (ancient dwarven actually traducts his name to D-13 death 13. Tarot cards). He was disabled thanks to old age for quite some time. And a thunderstorm ended up hitting him. Making him power up again. He was like a child at first. But whenever he got into combat. He would remember little bits of his past and get slighty...more pacifistic. Often trying to stop the enemies from attacking while in the middle of a fight. He also had no charisma. He actually had it. But sucked at conversation an example being "i am volo. Bookwriter. Scholar. Legend" "I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF YOU" "ooo...kay then" he also had a faulty core. That meant he would live on borrowed time. So much so that thunder and lightning would give him 2 temporary hit points. He always kept it a secret to the party out of worry. His final battle was against a beholder. Where he grabbed the thing. And used all of his eldritch knight slots to kill him with thunderwave. I tought all of that would kill him. I gave a helluva speech "this world...is foul. Nothing but tragedy ever happens. No one does anything but fear for their lives...its diseased. But those people (my team) they taught me to not care about that. To not cry about tragedy. To live as my own person. To not be binded to others. They have taught me how to live. And now i shall teach you what you failed to learn the first time you tried to kill me. *only i can do it*" and i gave him a ton of damage. And tought i died. But the gm said: "so. After expending all of his leftover energy. golden falls to the ground. Seemingly dead" and the beholder looks at him. And tries to use paralysing beam to finish me off. He crit fails. And blasts me with energy again. Literally making my core normally funciont. Giving me a free turn where all my attacks were going to do thunder damage. And i got a long rest the next turn. So...power surge. Double green-flame blade. Tunnel fighter defense. He was pretty much dead already. And burned to the ground with the help of my team. Which got some bonuses thanks to the speech. In the end. Golden was a friend first. An adventurer second. "Im no hero. I am a machine. I am a friend. I like being a friend. I dont like being a hero"
Dude, I know what you mean. One of my absolute favorite characters was a Troll Headunter in Shadowrunner. I forgot his name, but his personality was unforgettable. Simple: He was incredibly dumb and slept inside waste disposals. But he was useful and always ready to fight for a mission. Once we tried to infiltrate a development studio of a game, and when police arrived we had to come up with a story why we were standing here. We opened the hood of the car to pretend like we needed to repair something, but for my troll their was no such thing as pretending to people that are more intelligent. So he put his hand into the engine and destroyed the exhaust manifold by crushing it with his hands. Needless to say, the character that was built to simply be rich got a minor aneurysm from that, because that was his car. We had a good laugh. We went into the studio as if it were ours. But ofcourse, nothing to pretend for him. As I was asked who I was I said "personal security". Never spoke a lie, that troll. :D
I have the same thing! Muk Brak only wants a full plate armor, and he barely speaks English or understands like society. He’s got 3 int, but he is loved by the others since he hugs things a bit too hard and hits enemies a little too brutally. It’s a character that works when played well
I would love to play a “lone wolf” who thinks of himself as a lone wolf but everyone else knows he’s desperate for friendship that’s why he’s with the group.
That's actually a descent potential for character development. Seeing that your ways don't work, or work less effective, learning the value of friendship
My first character is slightly like this, in his own way. It’s a Red Dragonborn Druid, and we’re doing a pirate themed campaign. Basically, he was the first member of his clan not born into slavery. As such, he grew up hearing of what it was like before, and cautious of the people that had once enslaved his family (humans in general). After reaching adulthood, he decided to venture off on his own to make something of himself. Well, that traveling brought him to a forest that he made his home, especially after he found himself drawn into the beauty of it all. As time went, he began to care for injured wildlife and nurture new plants. Few years of this, including meeting fae and elementals due to how loving he was for nature, he found a group of humans had started a farm just beyond the edge of the forest. Sum up the next 2 years, he began to tryst those humans and even fell in love with one. He took to teaching them of his forest home, and that was a mistake that he came to regret, and has made him slow to trust anyone, with an especially deep loathing of any and every human. Said humans, after having a fertile farm, decided to raid his forest and start destroying it to expand. In rage, he slaughtered them all with fire, burning their farm down. He began to wander and destroy, leading to his imprisonment and thus meeting the rest of the party (all of us criminals of some act). He’s open to the others enough since everyone else has decided to also be Dragonborn. But anyone outside the crew he’ll need lots of persuading to befriend. But humans, I’m thinking will get either snarled at, or lots of snark and sass if he’s forced to interact with them and another player can’t speak for him. Based on how the campaign goes in the end, and how our dm ties everyones backstories into future events, I coukd see him ending in a few ways. Dead, even more a loner so that he just shuts down around anything that isnmt an animal or plant, or he opens up enough to possibly befriend a handful of humans and comes to their aid for something, despite being a pirate. And that’s just a few possibilities for him!
In my first campaign, my party entered the final boss room of a dungeon without taking a rest to recharge spell slots. Needless to say we all died, but not before I tried to use our wizard as an elven shield.
A key failing of mine is the: Here's an interesting mechanical combination I want to try to see how it plays. Wow, that was cool. Um. Now I'm bored with this character. Too much crunch, not enough fluff.
I played one of those in a one-shot. The trick is, a paired him with an animal companion who had the exact opposite goal: that of who exploring and eating everything. It was great. Somehow the roleplay from that one-shot was legendary.
I threw a YOUNG (not even an adult) black dragon as a miniboss at my party once. The Hobgoblin Artificer walked right out and didn't help at all during the fight. They won, but now Chuck the Hob is forever picked on for his cowardice.
Harry Potter syndrome. Dont make "the chosen one". That puts u right in the middle and makes u the main character. Thats not fair to the other players, or to the dm who already has a story planned. Dont play harry potter, the boy who lived. Play Hagrid, the half giant who was kicked out for crimes he didnt commit, or Dobby, the cheerful former servant who lives life to the fullest :)
I like it when noone is really a hero in DnD. It's just characters achieving their motivations. The fact the path of the game is heavily affected by luck and random dice rolls affects this alot the hero won't automatically succeed in their moments characters will fail and succeed now and then allowing for different games on the same campaign. Also am pretty new to the game so I didn't play another of builds so am jumping for one class to the other which means I didn''t really get into a comfort zone atleast not yet.
Miles Main another addition to the protagonist play style is that personally I've been having a special kind of fun in experiencing or hearing about all the comical ways a character can die.
DMing (and playing 5e) for the very first time. The buddy that convinced me wasn't very interested in the idea of starting at Lv.1 because the character fantasy he wants (Geralt/Witcher) doesn't gel with a Lv.1. I explained that Lv.1, to me, didn't mean some peasant picking up a sword, but someone who hasn't really done anything to stand out from their peers. They're average at what they do or the things they do, which isn't bad, but it isn't something that pushes them to grow. So I told him that his character had been hunting monsters for a few years, but that's it; nothing extreme and just going through the motions of the job. As part of a hunting school the rule was that they were loosely corralled within certain regions, growing strictly familiar with the local flora/fauna/threats, but little in the way of knowledge outside their region of operations. The setting is a homebrew where the world discovered a foreign, arid continent that was put on the back burner as a war broke out, but the players start as interest was renewed after the war and people want to get their hands on artifacts and treasures. So the motivation for him to go to this new land involves a smuggler bringing a foreign creature into town to sell to a noble, it breaks loose, goes on a rampage, and it takes multiple hunters from the various schools to put it down having no experience with anything of its like. He decides that the best method to stop this from happening again is to travel to the new land to learn the beasts there, including the one that started all this, but his school disagrees saying the incident was a one off and not worth breaking tradition. Eventually I plan to have him cross train with hunters from the other schools who had similar situations occur but did agree that the time had come to remove the boundaries of tradition from their schools and learn this new land and threats as a way to see his character grow to becoming the hero fantasy he has in his head. As I said to him: Geralt is the focus of the story not because he's a Witcher, but because he's Geralt. He started as 'just another Witcher' like all the rest until circumstance and choices led him to become the exception to the norm.
I have several characters ready to go, but they are all loosely formed. They are pretty generic and can be adapted to many campaigns, but if one doesn't fit another one will.
I got really lucky my first time playing, it was even a first time DM but he crushed it. My character hit the last taboo on the head, he was a miserable rogue who didn't play well with others, and was generally an asshole. The DM being awesome paired me up quickly with our fighter who is a staunch team player who is always looking out for the good of the group. He quickly saved my characters life multiple times and opened up his ability to trust in others. Later as per my backstory the man who had trained my character ran into him as a ghost, he was the one who instilled the trust no one attitude. And in the after life he was alone and miserable and it allowed my character to have the realization that that wasn't where he wanted to end up. Cut to nearly 2 years later in the same campaign, our Noble fighter Ahote was cut down by the big bad right in front of my rogue, while he was devastated, he took up Ahotes ancestral weapon, and adopted his do or die by the team attitude and is now the leader of our party. This game kicks so much ass, and again a real shout out to our DM who absolutely crushes it week in and week out. And of course, rest in peace Ahote.
Thank you for your comment, you just gave me hope for running my first campaign! I’m a brand new player, after years of having interest in the game but no one to play with, I finally realised if I want to play I’ll have to get a group together myself and just have a crack.
I had a similar issue once. My character was the sole survivor of a dragon attack that left him scarred and deformed, so now he has a sour disposition to everything in life. He was originally going to meet the group with another player, but she had to drop out of the game before we started, so my jerk of a character had to start alone. The good news is my DM came up with a plan that has been working so far, but I definitely see why people don’t like lone wolves
As a GM, I have dealt with Lone Wolf characters in the following fashion: leave them in town, and have an NPC join the party. Quest giver comes around and asks for help and they say "I don't see how that concerns me" and walk away? Let them. It's the tactic of a child; trying to force you to pay them more attention as a price for getting them involved. Having the character get ditched in town is a natural consequence of their indifference, and seeing the look on the player's face when it happens is usually priceless. After they've missed some of the content, I dangle another hook to get them involved. I've yet to have a single lone wolf refuse to bite.
So she wasn’t a lone wolf, but once while playing dnd I was describing a scene of fire and hell when one of my players ( I was the dm ) asked we why I wasn’t getting the Druid involved. I turned to the Druid (My little sister who’s missed 2/3s of all the sessions we’ve played and goofs off a lot and pretends that she knows what she’s doing even though she’s new) wasn’t in her seat. Her a a character that was at zero hit points where talking on the couch near by. I sighed and replied. “Nah... i’ll Wait for her in the next session,” later that night she was all pissy that I didn’t involve her in any of the action until the end(Btw she left the party so she could spent time with her friends the next week and I was going to bring her back into the story next time she played) and I turned to her and said. “ Narcissistic’s Moon spire,” the main quest they are on, a moon spire they need to find and repair. I kept referencing this and everyone else understood it. She stared at me and said “what the hell are you talking about?” In which I replied. “ You’re not interested in my story, this game, or Your character. So give me your dice and burn your characters sheet, unless you want to actually fucking play instead of fucking around then getting upset because I didn’t include you,” She’s still playing
@@TigirlakaLaserwolf6 You're missing the point. The character _can't_ destroy the village because the DM isn't narrating their exploits. The player and character do nothing that session. _Nothing._ If the player of the character who refused to go on the adventure tries to say what their character is doing, politely but _firmly_ point out that you are narrating the exploits of the _party._ If he wants his character to abandon the party, fine. He can choose that. The consequence of that choice is that there is nothing for him to do this session. He has chosen to not play D&D. After the session is over, you make it clear to this player that it is neither your job, nor the other players' job to convince him to play. He is expected to create a character who wants to adventure with the party and whom the other PCs would want to adventure with. If he can do this, great. If he can't, just say so and you'll find another person to take his seat at the table.
what was mentioned about "working with your dm to make a character that fits the narrative" really hit home for me! often times, i tend to make flexible characters that can fit in any story but really solidifying them to that world and that narrative is the trickiest part, especially since the dms i play with can be very tight lipped about their world building. there needs to be a good trade off to make the character believable in THAT world! thank you for sharing this and bringing this little tidbit to my attention!
I wanted to play a twist on the "lone wolf" type, where he's actually quite helpful if just you ask him. Just a shy hunter guy when you meet who prefers to sleep under the stars. He misses out on important things when there's food to be had.
i've always wanted to introduce a character like this 'He is in the shadowy corner, dark robes with the cloak up obscuring his face. He is leaned forward, arms on the table, hands around a mug and all you can make out is his eyes squinting at you. You speak up and he, full body winces, 'ah not so loud, not so loud,' he mutters, hand moving to his head. 'Never shoulda challenged that dwarf lass to a drinking contest, fuck it's 3 days later and im still hungover.'
"Taboo #3: Having too much backstory" "My name is Yoshikage Kira. I'm 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don't smoke, but I occasionally drink. I'm in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning. I was told there were no issues at my last check-up. I'm trying to explain that I'm a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn't lose to anyone."
Back in Japan, heart surgeon, numba one. One day, boss man shakuru San calls me in. He tell me I need to do surgery on him. So I do it. But oh no! Accident! Shakuru San die. I move to America where Daryl give me job in warehouse. But big secret, I kill shakuru San on purpose! I good sergeon
One of my party members was chaotic evil and we were all good or neutral, and our aim was to save the kingdom. That character's selfish and impulsive actions undermined the mission and forced the dm to constantly rewrite scenarios and improvise. We had to kill him as our characters wouldn't let the world suffer to satisfy this one maniac.
Evil characters don’t really work with good/neutral characters unless the have the same goals and are somewhat disciplined. Chaotic evil in particular sounds like a huge hassle to deal with
I was allowed to be an Awakened raven with levels in cleric. Maxed my wisdom. Strength was a 4. But his backstory was his entire Murder (clan) worshipped the Elder Gods and he was destined to be a prophet Fluff-wise, every spell he knew was visually modified to include tentacles and miasma I played him so enthusiastically that 3 DMs begged me to use him in their campaigns until he died
One of my favorite characters was a pirate bard of valor. He was suave, attractive, and strong. I knew I had to come up with a really good flaw to balance his personality, so I made him completely illiterate. Cant read a word.
I’m playing a bard/rogue in one of my games. He started as a drop in character, so never gave him much motivation or background. When I became more regular to the group, I decided, sod it. He’s a bard.. he’s along for the story. And the sex. Basically, by going on adventures with the party he has lots of stories of heroics to gather, and then perform at inns and whatnot. Also, lots of people to sleep with! Though, I also decided that, as he grew up in a travelling theater troupe, he knows relationships can screw with party dynamics, which is why he never pursues any of the player characters.
I've got 4 players exactly like this. Needless to say, the game is built around the Valkyrie and the self-obsessed sorceror until I can squeeze literally anything out of them.
I regretted how I ended my Centaur paladins backstory, it was all tied up in a bow and finished but now I know it would have been much cooler if they were still hunting the people they were after instead of having done it before the story started
Lmao my bf and his friends want to play so I'm gonna DM for them. First thing my bf says is "I wanna play a chaotic evil character that stalks the heroes and try to kill them." "No" "But it will add to the suspense!" "I can add my own suspense thank you! You aren't murdering other players for no reason thats not how this shit is gonna go down."
Oh! IDK about that.... You have a player willing to play what amounts to basically, an NPC antagonist of the party. You might want to find a way to run with that.
This ~can~ work...but is probably best for experienced groups that have been playing together. Also their needs to be the right mindset for the party betrayal. I’m doing discussing something similar with a DM for one of my games I’m in (I’m the player) BUT I’m planning on (as the player not the character) loosing. There’ve also been many moments where the party and my character have butted heads and they don’t trust her (they also know she’s evil). I do think it’ll add a lot to the game...as long as it adds to their fun and doesn’t take away from their fun. (Again - I’m planning on this as a loss with the party coming out on top. Trying to have fun with friends not f them out of a satisfying conclusion.)
I’d love to make a handsome, naturally talented lone-wolf character. Here’s the twist: Worst possible charisma score. He’s not alone by choice, he can’t hold a conversation to save his life and absolutely spews inappropriate comments. “Filter” isn’t a word that has graced his lexicon. >You are greeted by a waitress in the tavern. “Wow you must be super poor to be willing to work in this dump. Are you willing to have sex for a bit of coin?” >You are overwhelmed by angry tavern patrons that quickly form a mob and throw you out of the tavern.
Jess Horserage You can be wise and still make a mistake. You’re just wise enough to realize that you made a mistake. If you’re looking for someone who doesn’t make mistakes in the moment a high charisma/intelligence is good.
My second character was so perfect for the world we were in that her family ended up being a major plot point. I didn’t intend for it to happen but I love working with the dm to get a character who is really part of the world.
My backstory had my character come from my homebrew world... one year later my dms world and my homebrew world are so interconnected that they are essentially the same world
One character that comes to mind is this Paladin in a game I joined. I had made up a quick little drow thief to get myself into the campaign, and became good friends real quick with the other Drow. The Paladin played out his racism for our race a lot, and I mean A LOT. So, one day in the campaign we get trapped in some kind of dungeon with no lights. Me and the other Drow can see in the dark, and start leading the party out, killing all the little one-hit creatures on the way to make a safe path. We scouted a little ahead and found the exit, and promptly told the party. The Paladin totally playing up his racism said he didn't believe us and went the opposite direction, into a room full of about 30 one-hit monsters and proceeds to get swarmed while we get the rest of the party out. They ask us to go back in, and we do, but only to watch him die, high five, and tell the party we were too late. Needless to say he was HYPER salty about his character dying, but the DM was just like "You were an ass to literally the only two people who could have saved you, consistently, even WHILE they were initially trying to save you. What did you expect?"
I think that the roleplay concept is good. A stuck-up paladin that has racist tendencies and doesn't trust a member of the party sounds like it could be a really cool character development idea. Imagine at the end if this hard journey he finally learns to trust the character that he initially hated. Or maybe he wanted his character to die a villain. He would keep telling himself the same lies and end up paying for it. It could make for a neat character if eveyone's on board with the idea.
Im doing a similar thing as an oathbroken paladin, bit rather than racism the cleric in our party and I distrust eachother heavily because i broke my oath that was made under her god. Its fun as we absolutely hate eachother, but bc I'm so much of a tank we kinda need eachother.
Yeah a racist paladin might be a Legolas & Gimli story Or it might be like the OP described. If the paladin doesn't understand that character progression is a thing (some people just want to roll dice) and just plays what's written on his sheet then *dont* make them a racist
That actually sounds great right up until the player took in-game, in-character actions personally. Especially obnoxious since that player had been an in-character ass and presumably expected everyone else to understand.
I have a run on joke were I have this character that I change slightly everytime. sometimes they have an obviously fake mustache, different backstory, or maybe their name is slightly changed ex: Ari Applewood = Ari Pearwood. my best friend is usually the dm so she tries to add at least one npc per campaign that asks my character if they are Ari from a different campaign and they always deny it.
There are (at least) two approaches of character creation. It is all well and good to create a character ahead of time, but keep the backstory vague -enough- to be incorporated into a wide variety of stories if you ever plan on actually using them. But always be ready that, if you hear the idea of the DM/GM's world or story, to create a new character tailored to that specific world or story. DISCLAIMER: I am a newcomer to the game that... actually hasn't played yet but has high interest... just what I feel is a good mindset going into it. Could be wrong. Will probably find out soon enough xD
Whenever I make npcs for my players I always try to make the traits almost contradictory. Some examples were: A hermit loner that lost their family is the most energetic and upbeat. The brooding amnesiac rouge was the most loving to his partners. The clumsy "idiot" archer was the best assassin in the country (and also most wanted). The "sophisticated," responsible wizard blew up his school as a child and would do it again if he had the chance. Just little traits that conflict each other were what made my party absolutely love those npcs and made them into reoccurring characters.
I ended up adopting a one shot character I had played. He was a pre made character who was a lizard folk ranger. He was neutral in alignment and I read a blurb about eating fingers of the dead as a delicacy. I took that an rolled with it to the point where he had a voracious appetite and would scavenge the battlefield for nourishment. We were sent on a quest to find missing people and my character asked out loud if he could eat those he found dead. The entire party just turned and stared at him. You could assume he is a broody type but he was merely introverted. We came across the goblins like kidnap people and dispatched them, afterwards he started eating some of them, to the disgust of the party (playfully of course). They guy who sent us on our quest asked us how we found the goblins, my character blurted out “delicious!” I had so much fun playing him. The group loved the unashamed awkwardness of the character too. The DM told me to keep the character sheet. Lol
As a DM I just tell players during creation "do whatever". I'll take whatever backstory they've given and just make it work. It's a made up world anyway, I can find a way to squeeze somebody else's creativity in to it. Character build won't work that well with my setting or plan? Well they can cross those bridges when they come to them. Feels boring to have a group of characters designed to conquer my challenges. In my current campaign for example I said "do whatever" and a player got a vampire homebrew class (though I did look over it first for balance). Vampires weren't a part of my campaign at all originally but I managed to get them in and honestly it did nothing but add to the plot I already had in mind. As for the world, the homebrew he had to feed daily to go in sunlight (among other things), could only rest in a coffin and would die in water. Two of my mcguffins were in the desert and the ocean. They're currently on a quest to obtain an item to help the vampire survive the desert, so essentially his bad choice in race created a whole adventure.
That's what my DM's do too. I think in some cases it makes the game a lot more fun and challenging. It also can open up opportunities for character/team building within the game.
I'm almost done with a character for my first campaign. Our DM gave us a short paragraph of basic plot, taught me and a friend how to go about character creation and helped us with stats and stuff since we're noobs (the DM and 2 of the 4 of us know what theyre doing) and his only rule was "no evils" which he said was for a plot reason.
I want to make my next character the classic "where are my powers from, I have amnesia" only to realize he had a bad concussion, wandered away, and was thought dead.
Great point about the lonewolf character - the best example I've seen was one who was traveling with their only friend in the world and would go to great lengths to protect them. The worst I've seen was a guy who was so committed to being an edgelord loner that he kept trying to leave the party, betray them, and start fights with them - like literal fights, wanting to initiate combat and shit. It kept turning into this bizarre roleplay mishmash of players trying to stay in character but also trying to stay as a party when it didn't really make sense for them to. I tried talking to him about his behavior several times, but eventually we had to just continue without him. So his character got what he wanted in the end lol.
youre a DM im assuming, so just a short pitch and if you could give me ashort reply itd be great! Im brand new to this game and i was thinking aout a rogue theif/assassin Tiefling or Human. i did want to be a bit of a loner, bc theives work best alone, but now im not so sure. ofc id work with my party and not start a fight, but i definetly wouldnt be open with my group a lot. and i think thatd be a good thing for my character to develop throughout the story. im thinking something about his dad or mom would constantly make false promises and it ended up giving him severe trust issues which would go along with his character arch-type. how does that sound?
Thieves do not work best alone. Have you seen Ocean's Eleven? Try to make friends with the other characters, and find their roles in your grand heist your character will plan later in the campaign. (possibly, if the DM can work it in) If your character has trust issues, you need an anchor to the party. He either trusts one or two of them, or he trusts that he can get what he needs from them. Over the course of the campaign, there should be events that would lead to trust, which is a great arc if it happens. If it doesn't, or the opposite happens, you still have great ways to go. Probably need to be charismatic. :)
THANK YOU!! i was really needing my help for my arc, and if you could spare the time what about an assassin bc i might play that as my Archtype instead
also, what i mean that theives work best alone is that many others can compromise their situation or location. imagine playing with a party with a paladin and you all need to infiltrate a house or castle and that paladin's plate armour is just making all that noise? but i also see what youre getting at
There was one game where my brother was playing an edgy teifling cleric but it worked because i was playing an over happy assimar druid who was constantly bugging him. We were quite the pair, a passive healer teifling and a slightly blood thirsty moon druid assimar.
That is f-ing awesome!!! It reminds be of characters my brother and his friend made his friend was a overly sexually pyro cleric and my brother was a was a revenge obsessed Paladin that was best friends with him but also kind of wanted to kill him and kept trying to keep him from setting everything on fire
I love it~ I'm part of a campaign that has something similar going on. We have a moon elf born Tiefling wizard/fighter and a sun elf born Aasimar cleric/bard
Fix is simple: make players generate their characters at first session. If you're not blocking all non-human characters, make your players roll randomly for their race. The challenge is in playing what you got.
Kinda a creation/gameplay taboo, The players who create a super shy, quiet type but when it comes time to interact with NPC's becomes hostile and blatantly disregards their claimed backstory.
Even more uncomfortable. The player who can't speak infront of others declaring that want to be the face of the party, the bard, the negotiator and charming socialite... And the DM lets them citing that it would be good for the player to learn confidence. Then sitting through week after week of a player stammering and mumbling through charisma check after charisma check, waiting for it to suddenly cure their chronic shyness - and becoming insanely anxious that it isn't working so begins going to some pretty Dark places every game night. Unless you are going to rely on PURE rolls don't put players in roles they can't handle.
Once played Stalker as Jerome Jenkins, a genius doctor who could cure basically any wound. However, because of a personal trauma in his past, he freezes up when he sees throat wounds or kidney wounds. His father died to severe kidney illness before Jerome became a "genius" doctor. The condition was so severe he started bleeding from all orifices and his throat burst. The DM happily took advantage of this weakness in my "OP" Character. The other side of it is that he was a complete and total non-combat character. Another weakness the DM happily took advantage of. Genuinely one of the most fun campaigns I've played. Jerome had to, at one point, hold up a simple handgun and point it at an enemy forces' officer. Literaly caused him to shake and he couldn't pull the trigger. The whole non-combat aspect in a combat heavy compaign was incredible, because not only I, but the party had to completely change their approach from going in gung-ho to actually scouting out the place and taking it step by step. Moral of the story: It's not a bad thing to play a character that doesn't quite fit the campaign. However, if it changes the way the rest of the group intends to play, make sure everyone is on board with it. At the same time.. Be gentle on it if your DM is new. I was lucky enough to have a very talented DM at the time.
I once played an Air Genasi Barbarian and roleplayed him like he was a surfer dude in normal rp, but when raging he saounded like hulk hogan. That was a fun one.
Imagine showing up to a session based on the mythic world of Nash Bridges and you have clearly rolled a character from another plane altogether....Miami Vice!
Biggest mistake I made when making a character was the exact opposite of the the lonewolf, he was a total social butterfly. I always had to talk to a variety of NPCs and would bounce around the area. And it wasn't so much the concept that was flawed, but the execution. I started hogging table time over and over and over and night after night. (I know I know, the DM is partly at false for not pausing me, but she was a newer DM and loved how involved both I and my character were in her world) The table started to grumble and get really put off by it, unfortunately, it got to the point where we couldn't just slowly reign my character in, so for the benefit of the table, I retired the character. The most fun, most difficult and most challenging character was actually the character that I made in response to having to retire a character that I loved so much, and I was a little bitter about it at the time, but I did it because I really believe that if you can't find "that guy" at your table, you might be "that guy". So I made a monk, a monk that had all but taken a vow of silence, he literally would not talk above a whisper and when he did talk, it was as few words as possible. By the time I actually finished creating him, I had cooled off and was thinking maybe this was a little passive-aggressive and could go bad. So even before I played, I came clear to the table about how I felt, told them I made the character to be the complete opposite of the other one and that he almost never talked. Then the magic happened, the DM worked my character into the situation and the other players at the table took it as an opportunity to intentionally misinterpret my character at times, which lead to hilarity and laughs all around. The challenge was to keep the character, in character while not taking away from the group. My favorite (and a few of the other player's favorite moment with that character) was after about ten sessions, the bard being wary of anyone that didn't speak asked my character why he was there. My character motioned to the party, then waved his hand through the smoke of the fire and padded his chest (at this point the wizard had basically learned my character's sign language), so the bard took the actions to mean "Y'all give my heart warmth" when really what was meant was "Y'all done be lost without me".
because I really believe that if you can't find "that guy" at your table, you might be "that guy". You give good advice but i have to disagree with this or at least say be careful with this thinking. There doesn't have to be one of "those guys" at every table. It is entirely possible to have a table where everyone is just genuinely a great person and player. I have the joy of playing at one of those tables. Now you might say but how do you know you are not being that guy? Well simple i look at all the checkmarks of being that guy and realize that i don't fill any of them. Except for the dead parents part maybe.
@@AngwarACE Hence why I said "might" you might not be that guy, and you may be blessed with an awesome table. I have had quite a few of those tables. What the line means is, just because you don't see a problem at the table, doesn't mean there isn't a problem at the table, and take a moment to be honest with yourself. (Which it seems you have).
My current campaign : 6 different kingdoms pick a representative to make a team of heros, sort of like the Avengers. My character, stole of the identity of my kingdoms famous masked hero after.. stumbling across their body. So my rogue charlatan is pretending to be this hero 😂😂 My awesome DM , announced to our BOUNTY HUNTER TEAMMATE (I had no idea) that he was looking for my characters real identity. The roleplay is so great cause the bounty hunter always gives me side eyes hehe. I'm hoping for some real wholesome character development though!!
This has one fatal drawback. Interparty banter is good, having characters that are almost doomed to one day come to blows can be devastating to a campaign. I absolutely would insist that the GM make sure to let the players develop the bonds of the characters before 'the big reveal' because this is a dangerous thing for the bounty hunter teammate character. Your DM just told them they will have to make a horrific choice, either abandon the character concept almost entirely ... or capture and imprison and npc a player character. If you trust the players, that's awesome.. but be wary. That's all I'm asking.
Not my mistake per say but making characters specifically designed to “control” other characters at the table. A priest of a god who pulls rank on the paladin putting the player in the position to either fight the cleric derailing the entire night or yield to the bullying nature of the group and go along with it. Ex2: same situation when a player is playing a Drow assassain from a destroyed house and a player makes you only surviving relative and your twin sister pulling rank on you constantly (also she’s the paladin this time and you have no hope to ever be able to fight her in a fair fight) making you have to choose between fighting or being bullied and having 0 fun....
I've had an old grizzled veteran who's backstory was they use to be an experienced adventurer that was with a party. Then they were seduced by the dark side, went bad, and my character didn't. So they viciously beat him into a 10 year coma and his body atrophied back to level 1 weakness. So his goal was to get back to full strength, act as a mentor to the more green party members, and learn to trust people again
Huge pet peeve with other players: Some of us have busy lives. Some of us have school, and work, and all that to worry about. So if we’re setting aside 2-5 hours a week to play D&D, we’d like to actually play D&D. I’ve put aside studying, cat sitting and work to go to a friend’s house to play, only to have the DM decide we’re gonna spend 2 hours watching a movie instead of playing when we agreed to. I can watch movies without driving 20 minutes to your house. If you don’t wanna play, then just say so.
Oof. Or people in the group get distracted way too easily with personal stories and bullshit they read on social media. We have a running gag in our group where if we starting wasting time for too long, someone will say "so we're in a cave". As a reference to a campaign where we were in the underdark for a very long time and kept getting distracted quite often.
@@darwinxavier3516 That's actually a solid way to get out of it. Mostly in my games, I just remember the last thing the GM said and go "So we were..." and usually everything tapers off. Everybody's guilty of a little banter, just don't banter away the entire game.
Dear lord I had a would-be DM who did that almost every week. We rolled our stats and that was it. Every single week he'd find excuses to put off playing D&D so he could get drunk and watch movies. The tiniest holdup canceled the session, he had 4 weeks to get things ready, and all he had to show for it was just a poorly drawn map. Shit drove me up a fucking wall because I had to drive 30-40 mins across town and waste that much gas for literally nothing. After he got snippy with me about it I told him to fuck off with his alcoholic ass and dropped those plans from my week. I got me a new crew with an actually competent DM, Started just last week and I am so happy to be a part of it now.
I'm an avid "beer and pretzel" type of Player AND GM... BUT I can't stand wasting everything to get to a Table only to sit through BS... instead of the Game. I like the RP' of the Game as much (or more) than the next guy. At the same time, if we can sit through a 4+ hour long session without a single die rolled, we're no longer Playing D&D... Sorry to burst a bubble or two, but that's just a fact of life. It's fine to collaborate on a story and all, but if you don't need a dice and roll system, you're probably not Playing the Game you think you are. ;o)
My DM told us to create our characters without telling us the story. We found out the story the day of our first session. Turns out everyone hates tieflings more than in the usual campaign and well... a friend and I created tieflings, let’s just say we’ve had it rough.
Had a DM doing something similiar. I rolled a Tiefling rogue, and after we ran a lvl1-3ish module, we jumped straight into an Undead apocalypse campaign where the first and only town we went to hated Tieflings. It was not a fun year long campaign.
@@Riplee86 I have a regular group. It's all about finding people who aren't tossed and actually care about the story making sense. People who like any of the shit from 4e tend to be the biggest arseholes I have come across. Worse than 40k Grey Knights players.
The one I always warn players about is: Don't make an intense backstory unless you're ready to roleplay it out. If your character killed their whole family in a horrible wildfire, you need to be ready to roleplay out the effects of that. Obviously you don't need to be Liam O'Brien, but you need to do SOMETHING. I usually recommend new players to make a more relaxed backstory. If they want to have that traumatic past, I'll let them have it. They just need to be ready to back it up in game.
My DM wanted a backstory, so I sent him a paragraph of backstory along with two well-formatted pages describing my character's eight siblings. Not only did it do a good job of describing where my character was coming from, but it gave him materials for people we could run into in the campaign. It also gives me some in-universe backup characters to roll up.
PalPlays i always like stuff like that. I always like to look at critical role and how they do things and they make an outline of their backstory then they work the the dm to fill gaps and he makes personal notes on the answers to their questions so he can reveal them later in the campaign
@@Goldenman89327 I'll also change the backstory depending on what level I am starting at. If my last character died at level 5 and I'm rolling up a 6th level character, then that character will have gone through some stuff. Something that EVERYONE should try to avoid is making your character a "bastion against evil" when you're starting out at level one. It only serves to wound their pride as their level one character is treated as just that, and it makes it super awkward for everyone else playing. Early leveled characters should have very little in terms of story feats (like slaying a dragon). It makes the DM feel better about giving you cool things to do when you roll well, and it then gives your character a chance to develop.
I'm gonna put my two cents in. I would recommend making a pseudo-detailed backstory, and leave it open ended. If you have a good DM, they'll the in your backstory.
My group has been playing for a few years. So naturally we all have a few characters that we have come up with but never got a chance to play. In my great wisdom I decided I would DM a campaign where the others could run their favorite unused character. Session 0 was used to group plan the adventure, because no one needed the time to make characters. Our first session was kind of rough. Trying to make vastly different personalities mesh took alot of creativity. But we just had our second session and some really great role play lead to the party coming together. With luck this might be one of my best games ever.
In a 3.5 campaign I'm running (custom world not a premade one) one of my charcters rolled a gnome wizard who follows Kord and his only goal is to one day be physically strong enough to fight, kill, and supplant Kord as god. So all his spells are buff spells (mage armor, shield, enlarge person, etc) which uses before running in (no armor mind you) to wrestle and punch the crap out of enemies. Literally everything is a challenge to him. Its been an absolute joy to DM for this guy cause it makes literally everything so much more interesting
I'm doing a 3.5 custom campaign where the end goal is for the PCs to become gods. All because the God who sent them on their quest wants more company in the pantheon of literally every God we can think of. And the characters dont know that's the goal, they think they're supposed to end this war by whatever means they choose.
Caleb in Critical Role is a perfect example of the loner who can only trust his one companion at the start of the campaign but allows himself to come to trust the rest of the party through his desperation to make some coin and escape the squalor and monotony of his present existence. He's a loner but his needs lead his character to naturally provide a rich tale of growing and expanding friendship and trust.
I hated him the first time I saw him. But by the time to take on Thotdack I bloody loved his razor sarcasm. I dont have the ability to pull off a character like him.
I quite enjoy how Liam is letting Caleb have moments where the mental tug-of-war comes to the surface, but doesn't saturate the campaign with them or let them go on too long. Will Caleb follow His Plans or will he finally admit that he kinda cares about his fellow Nein - that's how the loner aspect is an interesting starting point for character development.
Tried my hand at DMing for my usual group. I specifically told my group it was a more serious setting and I ended up with 2 meme characters, one player who didn't have any sort of back story or personality, and one decent character. Sometimes players just dont care about the campaign setting and want to watch all you've worked on burn.
I have a wonderful Lawful Evil Eldritch Knight that is absolutely perfect for the campaign I was in at that time. We went from level 10 to 15 and by the end she basically turned into an abjuration casting sniper with her rifle. I love that character so much
Aragon from Lord of the Rings, or Strider as he was known is a good example of how to do a lone wolf character. He started off brooding and stand offish but quickly became a savior to the party and became a reluctant leader
On the lone wolf, we have a simple rule- i, the DM, am on the side of the party's fun. Sometimes that pits me against the party with my monsters, sometimes for them with my NPCs, but I'm always in on the side of the party having fun. If don't want to put effort into having your goals align with the others and don't want to join unless you are motivated, I will leave you at the tavern. If you turn against the party, you will no longer get the special treatment of being a party member that limits how far fighting can go. Because I'm not on your side, I never was. I'm on the side of fun for the group.
I have a buddy who always wants me to tell them cool ideas for a specific type of character. But the thing is, if I don’t tell him literally every little thing for his character, he completely forgets about it. An Artificer who has 0 of his infusions ready. A Necromancer who hasn’t read ANY of his class features of material costs for his spells. It’s slowly driving me nuts.
*Some extra advice on that 5th one:* one of the most difficult things I’ve learned while playing dnd is that sometimes you have to go against your own personal judgement in order to stay true to your character. It can be difficult to remember sometimes, but your character is not supposed to be *you.* By instead following the guidelines you’ve set for them in terms of their personality and judgement when you play them, you maintain continuity and help to assure a clearer image for your character.
Like Sam Riegel from critical role. If he's going to do something based on what he knows but isn't sure his character knows, he consults the DM about whether the character would likely be aware of the same or similar information.
I wholeheartedly agree. I remember putting this into practice most clearly with my current character: Ronorth the half-orc barbarian. He's a jovial guy: really loyal to his friends, got a temper but a worshipper of Tempus, and overall a jovial dude. His best friend got kidnapped by bandits when his hometown got burned down (long story short, the bandits were sort of loan sharks). He also likes a good-natured tavern brawl, the kind where it's sort of like a friendly spar. He heard the bandits were nearby, so he's asking the barkeep about it in the tavern where we all meet during session zero. Now Ron is a hulk of a man: 2 meters tall, built like a tank, looks kind of goth-ish and has a habit of decorating his clothing with the smaller bones from his enemies. He knows how intimidating looks, so he generally tries to openly be the big ol softie he is. There's some rowdy drunk guys spouting some racist bullcrap about half-orcs. Our Rogue, a waitress there, decides they had enough to drink. They're too far for Ron to hear. After a bit, they come up to him to tell him to his face. He raises an eyebrow, and tries first to just talk them off him at first. "The barkeep said I was welcome." Yeah, didn't work, they're pretty insistent on getting all up in his face. And other patrons are starting to back them up. So it's time to show them that if they want to cruise for a bruising, then they're getting more then they bargained for. Ron gets up, stands at his full, towering height, crosses those arms with biceps the size of your head, and says: "Now, is this really your best idea? Why don't you try throwing me out then, huh?" I roll well enough on the intimidation check that one makes the smart choice, and backs off. But the other one loses his last brain cell, grabs him by the shoulders, and actually tries. If that were me, then I would've shoved him off me and said: "Best count your blessings, because you're not even worth it." before leaving. But I know Ronorth wouldn't stand for this, just like any of my characters outside of D&D. So while I knew what would happen if I did what he would do, I made the call on what HE would do instead anyways. Ronorth shrugs the guy off, pulls back his arm... And he socks this racist right in the jaw. We all roll for initiative, and the entire party steps in to help me. I wasn't planning on starting the first encounter of the campaign, but there I was. Just because my character would follow up on his threats more then I would. And I'd gladly do it again.
I’d say that a lot of character creation is knowing you’re own group. One of the characters I played had (what I thought) was a pretty cool dual personality secret backstory and after 4 sessions I found my group was just not interested in any hint I was dropping or any role play I was doing. My DM was super cool about it though, although the campaign sadly ended before much happened with it.
Same, I've had two separate people send me the exact same meme about making characters, i enjoy making characters, i have four channels in our campaigns discord based on fully made and fleshed out characters that I still update as we progress in the game
Advice for players who want to create lone-wolf characters: Study Raven of the Teen Titans; that is how you properly integrate an edgy loner into a group narrative.
You mean when he was working against the team under the "Stone" alias and was actually being mind-controlled? How does that offer any sound pro-group loner advice? Cyborg as Stone was exactly the kind of loner character that tears groups apart. Might as well base the character off of Red-X.
1. giant themed you say? gnome grappler barbarian/eldritch knight/bard build coming right up! 2. I kinda agree, but the caveat I have is this is a great way to refine a character. 3. I tend to err on having a bit of a blank slate - how they got there, why they did, etc. and let the story unfold & shape them. 4. see above. I tend to had an idea of what i have/want but the dice have a mind of their own & I lean into it. 5. flaws can be both a blessing and a curse - it's down to how both player and DM treat it. 6. I get the lone wolf thing but as long as the player is open to co-operating with the group/growing with them i don't see a problem. thanks for coming to my TedTalk!
When players in my campaign join our group they create a "Stable" of 5 characters: 2-1st lvl, 2-2nd lvl, 1-3rd lvl. None of the characters will be of Evil Alignment. No more than 2 of the characters in each players stables may even share the same class, race, or alignment. This is for the sake of diversity as well as multiple adventure opportunities not all available to each character. Every character created after the original "Stable" starts at 1st lvl and no player may play an evil character for the first calender year they are part of the campaign. If a player decides to no longer play a character in their stable they may either retire it completely from the campaign or surrender it to the DM to potentially be altered and used as a future NPC.
If I told you that I had a player that did the first three in your list... Much of these are why I have taken up a different method of character development. Before any dice are rolled, there’s a session zero. We talk about the upcoming campaign, any limitations, changes, or additions to what can be. Then I interview each player one on one. I ask them seven questions that define their character’s outlook and personality. It takes ten minutes, and I learn more than the dreaded 20 page backstory nonsense. The player learns about themselves as well. I break the players into “friend groups”. They pick which character knows which. This speeds up getting the group together, develops synergy, and tends to remove “lone wolves”. Even after all this, I have one player. That one I mentioned first. He always finds a way to miss the meetings, ignores the info, and makes a character counter to the campaign and the group and justifies his actions through the same excuses. Even if that Character dies, he makes yet another contrary thing that the majority of the players end up conspiring to kill.
The best way to handle this that I've seen was a GM years ago who, after a player described character as a member of a secret cult dedicated to "death, betrayal, and evil", simply asked the player "Why the hell would I want that in my game?"
mortalLP Sure! 1. When you’re out of the room, an NPC would describe you as ___. 2. What would you kill for/die for/live against all odds for? 3. What do you love? 4. What do you hate? 5. What do you see as your character’s end goal? 6. What’s your perceived method of getting there? 7. What is your character’s downfall? As the DM, I learn a LOT from this conversation. So does the player. They tend to focus less on their past on more on their future. That one problem player? He refused to answer these questions.
Wow. Nice list. My group tends to get overly attached to backstory, and under...-ly attached to integrating any of it until their backstory IS the plot. A little more attention on the future would be a welcome change. Thanks!
This was useful. I started to play rpgs last week, just me and a friend. I started my character as a lone wolf, but only on the inside. He was charming a girl, to use her as a human shield, and female company. But after a while he actually fell in love with her. I was expecting a very cold and insane character, but now, through her love, he is changing. Neither me, or the dm were expecting this, but it's fun
@@Yayaytree I was referring to Shinobu. Right at the start of the Stray Cat arc, he got worried that he was beginning to care for Shinobu because he was distressed when she got hurt.
Got a bunch of new players in my campaign, and I am a new DM. I basically just told them that background was to help with role-playing as it's on a small set of islands away from their homes. It was quite interesting to see where some of the backstorys went. A half orc noble who is the bastard abandoned daughter of a far away lord. A snotty wizard who is collecting tomes for her library back home. And of course, the bard that needs adventure to gain confidence and experience for writing epic poems.
Eh, I've done it. He was actually my best character ever. It all depends on how you play him. My guy was "evil", but was a well-intentioned extremist. He worked with the party because he saw them as useful pawns, and he did good deeds in the name of his evil god to win converts (Cleric of Hextor, 3.5e; when Hextor was god of tyranny).
It really is a shame that more people can't figure out how to play evil characters alongside non-evil ones. Too many end up steering their characters into serial murderer territory. GM made our characters and I was given a CE Bard in a game where we were stuck traveling through these dangerous caverns. First chance my Bard got, he tried to ditch the rest of the party. Once he turned a corner and got glimpse of some Orcs, he realized he wouldn't be able to get out by himself. He needed help, even from the bossy Paladin.
Here's an idea for an interesting loner character. Making him/her/it "totally a loner, y'all"...but he has intense separation anxiety and can't stand to be alone.
"I'm a lone wolf. I'm a loose canon. I walk my own path." "...Okay, cool. Well, how about you go-" "Me go where? Away from here? From you? Wait, let's talk about this"
@@TheMento98 "Yeah yeah leave me alone see if I care! I am not going to that dangerous place!...never..." When the rest of the group leaves send a message to the DM about trying to sneak behind them without getting caught. Rather you do get caught or not it would be fucking hillarious! They are in the middle of a fight and you can see one of your dear friends being nearly killed and you jump out and take a shot at the giant to distract him "Where the fuck did you come from...ehhh...How weird..guess I just so happened to be teleported to this place..must be fate..haha..ha..emm..lucky you huh?!"
We have a fun concept going right now in Curse of Strahd. During our session zero, our DM floated the idea of not knowing which campaign we were running OR what classes everyone was before we made our characters. We all enjoyed the idea (all of us are experienced in D&D). So, we all created our characters not knowing we were going to run Curse of Strahd and we also didn't know what class everyone else was (we did that so no one felt like they HAD to take a role since no one else took it and instead created a character they really wanted to play). That led to an Eldritch Knight Crossbowman, Sword and shield battlemaster, evocation wizard and thief rogue. No healing besides second wind and we stuck up on health potions, but we love it. No deaths so far.
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If I may suggest an exception to writing a lot of backstory, is describing your character's development through their childhood, especially if that childhood has notable influences on the character *beginning* their life as an adventurer.
For example, in 3.5 I had a Szarkai Drow, who at the beginning of gameplay is a Houseless mercenary, after his first mission to the surface allows him to not be present for the killing of his family by a lower-ranked noble house, as is the norm in a Lolthite Drow city. Because he's Szarkai, it's in his backstory That he was raised and trained in secret, without actually attending Sorcere or Melee Magthere, and yet, since Szarkai are believed to be blessed by Lolth, he was expected to excel studying as both a swordsman * AND* a wizard, with the constant threat that his mother would let his sadistic eldest sister torture him to death if he failed. No pressure, right? This, when a DM will allow me to run the character, is the justification for granting the character a few feats and spell-casting levels, before actually taken class levels. From there on, I alternate alternate between actually Rogue and Wizard, as the basic melee feats needed are covered, rogue levels play better with the intended combat style, and primary stats for both classes are nearly identical. Oh, and there's also a possibility that his youngest sister, whose fondness of him bordered on intimate (This is pretty normal and mild for Lolthite Drow) might still be alive. His imp familiar, is secretly trying to nudge that relationship together too.
Player: creates decorated war hero who has killed millions of people through several battles
Also player: dies to first kobold encounter.
If done properly, kobold encounters could be deadly. Realistically, since kobolds are pack creatures, if a warning goes out from one small group, the party could be quickly surrounded by at least 30 kobolds. If this situation occurs at night, or in a dark cave, in a somewhat open area, the kobolds have advantages due to dim light and their pack tactics ability. A party of 4 new adventurers would have an average of 7 kobolds to fight, making an average of 35 damage if all attacks hit on the first round. A barbarian amongst the party would even the odds a bit more, but most of the party would be unconscious.
Isildur from The Lord of the Rings.
@@AshtonMonitor May I introduce you to... Tucker's kobolds!
media.wizards.com/2014/downloads/dnd/TuckersKobolds.pdf
Sure, kobold encounters can easily be deadly. Also the correct housecat encounter can be deadly. They have a 40% chance to hit a character with 12AC (about average at level 1) and do 1 static damage. Barbarians have ~14 starting HP, so 30 cats could also take out a level 1 character.
I like to play as kobalds when possible
All this talk about elaborate backstories being terrible makes me want to play a character with a super elaborate backstory and the flaw "is a pathological liar".
I played a character like that once. Was a witch that have two main flaws: She talks a lot and she lie a lot, even for insignificant things. She was very powerful and resourceful on her own, but as always come with lies and deceptions, everyone seems to underestimate her, and i use that in my favor more than once.
In interpretation I always start a scene talking or in a middle of a sentence, telling random stories even if the other characters aren't paying attention at all.
One of my favorite characters ever.
My first character was like that, but sadly I wrote her very poorly.
So... a Lore Bard?
Kyle Landoni honestly I could see it done with most classes but kinda leaning that way. Definitely would take the charlatan background
Evan Alexander one of my characters is a half elf bard, and he rolls performance and deception all the time telling how he has killed a dragon and has slept with a tree and all sorts of crazy stuff
"My character is sitting in a darkened corner of the room, his cloak pulled over his head hiding his face..."
"Oh no, another edgelord lone wolf"
"As He notices your gaze from across the room, he abrubtly stands up and walks over to you, his arms full of boxes of girl scout cookies. You notice his mouth is completely full of cookies as he offers you an open box of thin mints. 'Whffm smmf?'"
This character sounds like a male version of Ruby Rose... (the RWBY character, not the actress.)
This sounds like a very cool kid/teenager rogue/spell caster character idea
Got me in the first half.
And it was a suprise for sure, but a welcome one
Oh. my. god. Perfect. Fake out edgelord!
I would adopt this character as my child in-universe, even if my character was younger. I love my emo ray of sunshine.
Inside of you are two wolves:
One is a lone wolf
The other is a lone wolf
You are boring
I dunno. I've always considered myself more of a lone swordfish. NYOOOOOOM
MarteenaRV ah, you must be a human, because you’re BORING.
But it’s eDgY
This is why you have a big, bulky, overly friendly martial class on your team. "Ah, I see you're trying to be dark and edgy, be a damn shame if I came over and bothered you into talking to me because I have the IQ of a grape and mistook your brooding glares for genuine interest!"
Inside you are two wolves:
Two big buff wolfs
You're a gay furry.
Lone wolf characters...
DM: "Sorry, there are not enough shadowy corners in the tavern for all the lone wolves..."
So does that mean lone wolf characters are more acceptable in worlds where buildings are not square?
Only acceptable in packs ;) oh, the irony :D
Every campaign I've been in has had like 2-3 "lone wolf" people who just insist on being the cool asshole who doesn't get along with anyone, it seems like most new players just default to this type and it's so annoying.
Every tavern my group enters is, as a running joke, either perfectly circular so that there are no corners, or is under the influence of strange magic to make it a 4D hyperobject with far more corners than it ought to in this dimension
@@StretchyPlays I went and did a bit of research about how to mesh with a group better before I started getting involved, and I wish others would too. The whole "edge-lord supreme" thing sucks. My first character was essentially a NG friendly middle-aged warrior from the cold north who eventually left his village to aid others and explore the world.
Remember rogues...steal FOR the party, dont steal FROM the party...seriously, everyone will hate you
Had a bard friend that critically succeed on his con save and he played the same song for a 6 hour ride in the wilderness, I stole his lute while he was trancing. No one tried to kill me.
He still had his bagpipes though. My character is going to hear "a horse with no name" when she is burning in hell.
What’s really amusing and garners only slightly less hate is when you reverse of pick pocket a party member and use slight of hand to put random junk into their pockets. I had one party member absolutely convinced that I was stealing from him. It took him quite some time to realize he had a lovely growing button collection. BUT I DIDN’T HURT ANYONE. (Physically.) Mentally, the poor boy was a paranoid wreck every time I would pass the DM a note and player would have to roll something.
I had a problem in my campaign with two players like this. One is a Half Elf Sorcerer with the discusting Abyssal Bloodline. He wants to roleplay the "touched by demons blood" char. Everyone in the party just hate him. My wife just treatened him with her elf archer two times. The other one is a yordle rogue who really like being hated. I can't imagine other reason. He robbed his sister when she saw the sorcerer being possessed and killed his girlfriend. In a city with no weapons allowed. He trew rocks at the big dumb fighter of the group for no fucking reason and robbed 60kpo of the bank of the city his Mother live on. when the team was in that city and just get away!
I had to make a secondary table called "the villains RPG" to put these characters on and they play other PCs at the inicial one.
Even I'm the rogue then I'm a rogue. I still from whomever I wish too
I play a rogue, but she is an assassin, not a thief with the compulsive need to steal anything in their path. Yet I still get “don’t let the thief get it!” I don’t steal. I get paid to kill people. What is there to confuse? It’s actually pretty amusing because in the party, the npc bard that travels with us is apparently the only one with enough sense to take anything from the chests we encounter. Everyone else kind of just forgets about it...
“My character’s got the noble background. His father was murdered by his power-hungry uncle, and his name...............is *Simba*
Let me guess..
Also a tabaxi?
lol that'd also be Hamlet.
..
WAIT HOLY SHIT THAT'S THE FIRST TIME I'VE REALIZED THE LION KING IS BASICALLY HAMLET WITH LIONS
WTF WHY DID IT TAKE ME SO LONG TO SEE THAT
ToastyMarshmallow
... I don’t know if you’re being serious or not because that is a fact that a lot of people discovered already.
Still, if it’s your first time finding out, congrats.
@@couragew6260 yeah...I can be, well, not the sharpest knife sometimes ^^;
took me thirteen years to figure out t-shirts are called that because they're in the shape of a t
Look, figuring out how a character from some work of fiction would work in DnD is fun. I've made Sniper from Team Fortress 2, King Dedede from Kirby, Zero from Megaman, and others. But making your character literally just a character from another piece of media will most certainly cause the character to wear their welcome thin quickly. It's like "Oh gee, we've got a bit of a conundrum in choosing between freeing these enslaved humans and therefore causing the Drow to hunt us down or leaving them in their terrible condition but leaving us intact. I wonder what the guy who's literally Emperor Palpatine will do."
The character I made is literally incapable of being a “lone wolf” because the second he gets too far from his friends or is alone for too long, he gets lost. That’s also his backstory, he got lost in a cave system and stumbled his way out at the start of the campaign
Lol
That just sounds like zoro from one piece
@@DaCrackar or ryoga hibiki from ranma 1/2. the guy literally can't follow a straight line.
Do your party have to keep him on the fantasy equivalent of a kid harness?
@@robertheinrich2994 WHERE THE HELL AM I NOW
“You shouldn’t make characters before you start the campaign”
Then there’s me who has 6 characters unused in a binder lol
I always have at least a couple of ideas on the works, if something happens to my character. I'm starting a one-shot in a week, and playing a young character, so I'm hoping nothing happens, but I still have a new one brewing too, if shit goes down.
For me, I have the general concepts there - some character traits, personality, class(es), combat style, and I try to write a few inconsequential things that made the character who they are today. Nothing is ever set in stone and I plug it in to whatever campaign with the help of the DM.
I'm in the process of building two level one characters each for Pathfinder 1e, Pathfinder 2e, Starfinder, and DnD 5e. Also damnit I need a group to play with. So far everyone I ask is looking for a DM/GM for those systems and I have little experience DMing/GMing.
HAHA literally me, I have 5
Yeah just modify them for the campaign. Your whole back story doesn't have to be entangled with the plot, just make sure you're motivated and reasonably close to the events.
Bob: I gonna be the lone wolf, always working alone, not caring or trusting anyone.
GM: Alright! You all are now on your way for the quest! Bob! Your character never joined the party. Roll a new character.
Bob: .....
#Savage
Literally had something like this happen in a campaign I’m in. One of the players was initially supposed to be in and out of the campaign because of her schedule, so she didn’t make a character with a ton of connections to the party. However, before the game actually started she found out that she COULD make all the sessions. However, she didn’t alter her character’s backstory or personally at all so that he’d have reason to stay with the party. So after the first session he just...left, and our DM just had her make a new character since she was still unwilling to change her first character in any capacity. And then she goes and does the same exact thing with that one!! Literally never hung out with the party when in town, and brushed off any attempts at conversation. So frustrating. Don’t make other players have to twist your arm in order to get you to participate in the story.
Having a loner character as an excuse to explain in game why they're never with the party due to irl scheduling conflicts is pretty clever. It's too bad she couldn't pull it off.
We currently have a healer who refuses to heal the party. Totally a buzzkill and no one wants to play with him. We've even tried to intentionally tried to get him killed.
Had a friend that played a barbarian but never raged and it annoyed the hell outta everybody cause he got downed all the time. I told him he should've been fighter that came from a barbarian background but said "no I wanna be a barbarian"
I definitely try to avoid the "Lone Wolf" trope, and I think the one biggest moments where it came up with a payoff was when my character made a simple mistake that ended up in them spending two years off-screen in the Feywild while the party experienced it in a matter of seconds. A few sessions later and they realized how callous my character had suddenly become, and it became an emotional moment for everyone when the paladin asked "Do you feel alone?"
worst mistake ive made was in a homebrew where i learned how to speak Ethereal and accidently called down and angry god and our next campaign is having to deal with that
#7: Forgetting to create a character.
8
Creating a backstory that grants you a semi magic item with out telling the dm and/or not writing any of it down or finishing it
@@Dancan799 Not even magic, plate mail is way more than you can afford at level one but ah it's just a nonmagical item, of course my fighter would have it.
#9: playing yourself/anyone seemingly unwilling to risk their life for anything.
10: Making a character based around a single pun or joke. It's funny the first time, and then every time after that it is a tired one dimensional character.
I Gotcha, bro. I have a spare, legendary character fail sheet. Just for you. His name is teefee. He has 1 hp, 1 mp, 1 intelligence, supernatural reflexes, dodge rate is out the ass, attack is a -5, he has one support spell that cost 1 mp that allows you to see anything and everything within a 1000 cubic feet radius, he can also fly anywhere.
P.S., he's a common house gnat.
Have fun.
My favorite backstory I wrote was for a bard who's trinket was an enchanted rose, he had a fling with an Orcish girl who he met at one of his performances, and they eventually fell in love with each other, and she joined him on his travels across the kingdom.
At some point, he bought her a rose and had a wizard enchant it so as long as their love for eachother was strong, the rose would never wilt.
After a VERY bad quarrel between them (caused by the bard), she left him and headed back to her hometown.
After weeks of depression and regret, the bard caught notice that their rose still had never wilted, and despite his wrongdoings, she never actually stopped loving him.
Instead of rushing back to her, he's decided to join a group of adventurers and better himself through the experiences of the world, in hopes that he can return to her a better man then he once was.
Edit: Woah! I had no idea this comment gained so much traction over the last months, I guess I'll answer some of the questions I see
"Ok that's awesome...but how did the story end?! :D
" Sadly ended like the tragedy of most D&D games... scheduling conflicts stopped us from continuing after about 7 sessions, was still a good 7 sessions tho.
"He didn't think about looking at the fucking rose earlier?!" Well he had, but plants don't wither and die in a single day, and with how devastated the character was he wasn't really looking for ways to fix things or if there was a chance to, he assumed it was already over and nothing could save their relationship.
I also thought it would be funny to fuck with my fellow players hearts by when he did return to her she actually didn't love him, and the wizard just sold him a plastic rose, an undecided alternate ending for him.
And to all the people complimenting the background idea and my writing skill I give my biggest thanks, D&D was my way of channeling my love for writing so I'm glad to know my stories are enjoyed, and to the people who said they basically cried, such is the way of the Bard to pull at the heart strings of his audience.
(╭☞ ͡⎚ ͜つ ͡⎚)╭☞
Okay, that's pretty solid.
This is fucken beautiful. You seem like a great story writer.
this is the best backatory ive seen
THAT’S BEAUTIFUL
this is giving me some great ideas for my character, thanks :)
My entire backstory is that I'm a goblin. That's also my personality trait and my flaw
That's all you need sometimes. My last character: He's a lawful evil yuan-ti shadow sorcerer. Later I decided that not long ago he got pissed about the higher ups killing someone he was trying to get information out of that sort of spiraled him onto a path of self discovery as he left his home behind to find a _different_ way to become a god.
Alas it was in the Curse of Strahd, and in the travels with the party, he managed to become lawful good through his actions and change of mindset while all but one of the other 5 players turned various shades of evil.
I did a 3.5e game where I started play as a goblin rogue1st/wizard1st.
Background: a wizard caught me hunting rats around his house. " Charm " my goblin and keep him as a grounds keeper and I learn arcane by over hearing his students study.
After my goblin cast his first cantrip, he got some real training.
This is just me as a person
One of my favorites was my goblin bard. Add a bit of cowardice, ADHD, and a trumpet, we still joke about him years later
I played that character but also half drow. She was a druid.
Kwilix Farevani was horrible and I love her
Tried my first minmax with an orc fighter. The campaign began with a horse race, requiring Animal Handling checks every turn.
Talk to the DM. Figure out the game you're playing. And rest in peace Urok Gro-Orzgurk. Legend says he's still making his way around that final lap.
And that’s why I plan to make a character with multiple versions which are just different classes and little changes in personality like: (version A: loyal. version B: deceptive) just in case
Are you saying your Orc fighter literally died during the race
I’ve never played d&d in my life and I am SO EXCITED to remedy that!
Good luck Ali! Remember: have fun.
Taking20 Thank you and I will do!😃
@@arthurshat7793 have you gotten the opportunity to play yet? :D
@@satannn Not op ive been meaning to get my dnd adventures started for about 9 years now, ive made a few characters over the years but never found a group. Oh well at least baldurs gate 3 will exist at some point so i can rp by myself lol
Same
Best character of all time is the Orc Rogue Thrack, no points in any stealthy skill, all dumped in charisma and intimidation, when trying to sneak past he would just shout "You cant see Thrak"
Only works if you're standing very still.
@@The482075 "I can see you move, you just ate a nut"
stolen from d&d memes subbredit
@@CryptidVulpes never said it was mine
@@RemnantShard oh sorry
"My character is Alfred Lowe - 6th generation village baker. His parents are still alive and, while never being affluent, have been nothing but loving and supportive his entire life. His greatest skill is his sourdough rolls, and his greatest weakness is the confectioners daughter from down the road."
Tzisorey Tigerwuf i wanna see this guy in action
@@TangentGear Technically, that's the back story. He ended up being possessed by a demon the night before meeting the rest of the party, and becoming 'adopted' by them after they managed to exorcise him - showing a prepensity for magic afterwards, and eventually becoming a cleric. It didn't go too badly, all said.
You'd gain bonus xp every time you brought fresh baked goods to my game. :)
@@mrothgeb Blueberry muffins shaped like they contain the screaming souls of the damned?
DOUBLE XP!
When I give my character a minimal background, it’s because I’m there for the journey, not the backstory.
Yea. I have one character who just came out of Secret Agent school (It was the setting) and we started at lvl 1. So I wrote very little in her backstory. On the same note I have a character in a fallout Universe that is from before the war. So I had a lot to write and ended up on a long Story. Good thing the GM likes to read backstories.
Like for real. If you are lvl1. Your adventure starts now. Not 20 years ago. There should be no 80 Year old Wizards that are lvl 1
Sure, but as said in the video, there are probably going to be less hooks that hit your character personally and bring them into the overarching story.
Your character will still be following the story, but you will inevitably end up watching other characters have much more personal stake and draw in, while your stake will mostly just be the stake of the overall geoup.
Agreed- having something is a start, but especially for brand new players I think it's asking a lot to come up with where they're from when they don't know the world yet so don't understand the options anyway. If I have never heard of the US I don't understand the difference between being from NYC vs. New Orleans vs. Southern California. I think tying in backgrounds sounds nice, but if it's just going to be something you forget you said about yourself when you're trying to get a feel for a new game and what your character's immediate personality is like, and might even adjust that personality as you get a feel for what works, it's just confusing and limiting.
Edit: And this applies even if they read up on the world. It's hard to get a real sense of place until you play the game a bit.
The detail/epicness for my characters depends entirely on starting level.
You know, with my group, we have three requirements when it comes to backstories, and this system works amazingly for us. This not only gives you enough information you need to effectively roleplay in this campaign, but it also allows the DM to have enough freedom to work with your backstory and to introduce it into the campaign. I'll give the rules followed by an example.
1: Where are they from? Talk with your DM to establish where in his world your character hails from, not only from a geographical perspective, but from a personal perspective as well. Often times we are required to give information about our guardians and a memory of home.
I once played a monk who essentially never stopped seeking self improvement, but at the same time found a way to enjoy life, and the one who taught him this was his shifu. About once a week, after intense the day's intense training routine, they'd sneak out of the monastery to go to the tavern for a night of fun.
2: Give 3-5 known people. Since we just talked about guardians, they are exempt from this. Give three to five people your character has met throughout their lifetime, this will help cement your character's relevance in the world. Friends, family, rivals, or even lovers. You will need to give at least one memory shared with any one of these people.
Hell, the first time we implemented this rule, we were playing Legend of the Five Rings and I had a brother who happened to be the murdery ninja sort who bit me in the rear so much throughout that campaign.
3: Give your character a motive. There is no use in a character who isn't motivated to do anything, or worse, doing something that goes in the opposite direction of your character's motivation. Talk with your DM to discuss a proper motivation that will also work well with the other party members and their intentions.
In one of my current campaigns (currently in three), I play a little girl who rather than becoming something her parents wanted her to be, she ran away from home to become an adventurer like those in the stories she'd heard growing up (generic as hell, but it works, and the child is 8 years old (also created the perfect excuse to try experiment with a classless homebrew system the DM, my brother and I once discussed (it's working quite well))).
Origin, contacts, motivation - excellent and elegant list!
One of my players managed to get across a good backstory that fulfills these requirements in a single paragraph.
He's definitely getting plot hooks based on his backstory.
Me:
“My name is Sigurd Rattelion. My father was a dragon and my mother a drunken shieldmaiden who claimed her legs could sunder any male of any race. My father and mother made love for six years straight, I was born in year 4 of the maelstrom as a grown man from the sheer magnitude of testosterone involved, and was thrown clear of them. They still clash in such combat to this day.
I was raised by wolves until the young age of 32. I always believed myself one of them, as that is what they told me. When I found another human who asked me why I was biting them, I realized I had been lied too, and skinned them all for hats to pay them back for their treachery- it should be noted that these were not the original wolves. This was a considerable misjudgment on my part.
I became a sell sword after that, using my powerful muscles, natural charm and talent for bashing things in with a club to my advantage. With money in my coffers and mead in my belly, I now come to you for adventure.”
My DM;
“... Jesus Christ John we asked you what kind of toppings you wanted on the pizza.”
My pizza has Gorgonzola cheese and Terrasque sausage, cooked in a faerie fire oven...a Heroes Feast 😉😎
@@aaronhumphrey2009 Thanks to one of my sessions, I took 'Tarrasque sausage' in the wrong direction.
👏👏👏👏
Carter Lamberton OH LORD!
Oh my gosh that sounds so much like my friend I’m stealing this. His story is his parents were to busy making a better baby to name him so he burnt down there house to prank them back. Then remembered that was his house to. So he decided to become a monk and punch some goats. Then the dm introduces us to him by having him walk into a bar with 2 goats under his arms, throwing them into a orphan fighting ring and beating the orphans and goats to death. Great lad just gets himself downed to much
Error 5, not enough flaws
*chuckles in wild mage* I am the flaw
*turns blue and explodes*
@@justanaverageferret *turns into a potted plant* "well fuck"
@@elizataylor1726 *Turns in a Sheep, my time has come :(
Well my wild mage goliath grew one size larger with wild magic and cast thunder step to appear NINETY FEET above the demon we were fighting and fell on top of them so it was great
@@dylanneal9281 what level was this at?
Having a DM work your character backstory into a campaign is the best, which is why I always cater my character to the story. I played a pervy wizard, who's spellbook was disguised as a porno magazine. At one point the party got their items stolen by thieves and they didn't take my spellbook because they didn't check.
I remember playing with someone who to put it bluntly, had the idea that you had to win dnd. He didn't make characters as much as he made THE characters. He would basically roll for race or class and then optimize them from there with almost no input on backstory or traits. Needless to say that the group fell apart
Wonder if running a non-combat campaign would have helped. Run an intrigue/diplo campaign, a survival campaign, or a heist campaign. Not sure it would help, but those styles tend to be RP heavy instead of stats and build reliant.
My best character was Stakuga, a Orc Barbarian woth an intelligence of 4, a Wisdon score of 6, but his Strength and Constitution was VERY high. My DM even allowed me to go over the max for those two attributes. He could speak only a few words, so most interactions with him could be described in a few words. "Stakuga not smash?" Or "Stakuga Smash!". He was loved by all because he had no backstory to tell of, (Mostly because he couldn't tell his friends), but he had the MOST growth out of everyone. He learned to love and be compassionate to those he cares for and crush those he doesn't. He had substance with very little words. That is my best character, and I'll be damned before y'all shit on him.
He learned to love.
Stakuga definitly smash.
My character was G-01D3N. A construct made by ancient dwarves (ancient dwarven actually traducts his name to D-13 death 13. Tarot cards). He was disabled thanks to old age for quite some time. And a thunderstorm ended up hitting him. Making him power up again. He was like a child at first. But whenever he got into combat. He would remember little bits of his past and get slighty...more pacifistic. Often trying to stop the enemies from attacking while in the middle of a fight. He also had no charisma. He actually had it. But sucked at conversation an example being "i am volo. Bookwriter. Scholar. Legend" "I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF YOU" "ooo...kay then" he also had a faulty core. That meant he would live on borrowed time. So much so that thunder and lightning would give him 2 temporary hit points. He always kept it a secret to the party out of worry. His final battle was against a beholder. Where he grabbed the thing. And used all of his eldritch knight slots to kill him with thunderwave. I tought all of that would kill him. I gave a helluva speech "this world...is foul. Nothing but tragedy ever happens. No one does anything but fear for their lives...its diseased. But those people (my team) they taught me to not care about that. To not cry about tragedy. To live as my own person. To not be binded to others. They have taught me how to live. And now i shall teach you what you failed to learn the first time you tried to kill me. *only i can do it*" and i gave him a ton of damage. And tought i died. But the gm said: "so. After expending all of his leftover energy. golden falls to the ground. Seemingly dead" and the beholder looks at him. And tries to use paralysing beam to finish me off. He crit fails. And blasts me with energy again. Literally making my core normally funciont. Giving me a free turn where all my attacks were going to do thunder damage. And i got a long rest the next turn. So...power surge. Double green-flame blade. Tunnel fighter defense. He was pretty much dead already. And burned to the ground with the help of my team. Which got some bonuses thanks to the speech. In the end. Golden was a friend first. An adventurer second. "Im no hero. I am a machine. I am a friend. I like being a friend. I dont like being a hero"
You made Hulk + Groot.
Dude, I know what you mean. One of my absolute favorite characters was a Troll Headunter in Shadowrunner. I forgot his name, but his personality was unforgettable.
Simple: He was incredibly dumb and slept inside waste disposals. But he was useful and always ready to fight for a mission.
Once we tried to infiltrate a development studio of a game, and when police arrived we had to come up with a story why we were standing here. We opened the hood of the car to pretend like we needed to repair something, but for my troll their was no such thing as pretending to people that are more intelligent. So he put his hand into the engine and destroyed the exhaust manifold by crushing it with his hands. Needless to say, the character that was built to simply be rich got a minor aneurysm from that, because that was his car. We had a good laugh.
We went into the studio as if it were ours. But ofcourse, nothing to pretend for him. As I was asked who I was I said "personal security". Never spoke a lie, that troll. :D
I have the same thing! Muk Brak only wants a full plate armor, and he barely speaks English or understands like society. He’s got 3 int, but he is loved by the others since he hugs things a bit too hard and hits enemies a little too brutally. It’s a character that works when played well
I would love to play a “lone wolf” who thinks of himself as a lone wolf but everyone else knows he’s desperate for friendship that’s why he’s with the group.
Yes
That's actually a descent potential for character development. Seeing that your ways don't work, or work less effective, learning the value of friendship
My first character is slightly like this, in his own way.
It’s a Red Dragonborn Druid, and we’re doing a pirate themed campaign.
Basically, he was the first member of his clan not born into slavery. As such, he grew up hearing of what it was like before, and cautious of the people that had once enslaved his family (humans in general).
After reaching adulthood, he decided to venture off on his own to make something of himself. Well, that traveling brought him to a forest that he made his home, especially after he found himself drawn into the beauty of it all. As time went, he began to care for injured wildlife and nurture new plants.
Few years of this, including meeting fae and elementals due to how loving he was for nature, he found a group of humans had started a farm just beyond the edge of the forest.
Sum up the next 2 years, he began to tryst those humans and even fell in love with one. He took to teaching them of his forest home, and that was a mistake that he came to regret, and has made him slow to trust anyone, with an especially deep loathing of any and every human.
Said humans, after having a fertile farm, decided to raid his forest and start destroying it to expand. In rage, he slaughtered them all with fire, burning their farm down. He began to wander and destroy, leading to his imprisonment and thus meeting the rest of the party (all of us criminals of some act).
He’s open to the others enough since everyone else has decided to also be Dragonborn. But anyone outside the crew he’ll need lots of persuading to befriend. But humans, I’m thinking will get either snarled at, or lots of snark and sass if he’s forced to interact with them and another player can’t speak for him.
Based on how the campaign goes in the end, and how our dm ties everyones backstories into future events, I coukd see him ending in a few ways. Dead, even more a loner so that he just shuts down around anything that isnmt an animal or plant, or he opens up enough to possibly befriend a handful of humans and comes to their aid for something, despite being a pirate.
And that’s just a few possibilities for him!
So Kirito from SAOA
That’s- That’s Cloud-
In my first campaign, my party entered the final boss room of a dungeon without taking a rest to recharge spell slots. Needless to say we all died, but not before I tried to use our wizard as an elven shield.
A key failing of mine is the: Here's an interesting mechanical combination I want to try to see how it plays. Wow, that was cool. Um. Now I'm bored with this character. Too much crunch, not enough fluff.
I think you should then focus more on creating a character based on a personality, rather than in game mechanics.
Bonus taboo: the character who just wants to go home.
And the ones who avoid danger and stays outside the dungeon.
I played one of those in a one-shot. The trick is, a paired him with an animal companion who had the exact opposite goal: that of who exploring and eating everything.
It was great. Somehow the roleplay from that one-shot was legendary.
Remember. A key part of the hero's journey is firstly refusing the call of adventure, only to be forced into it later...
Kinda like the movie Falling Down lol
I threw a YOUNG (not even an adult) black dragon as a miniboss at my party once. The Hobgoblin Artificer walked right out and didn't help at all during the fight. They won, but now Chuck the Hob is forever picked on for his cowardice.
Harry Potter syndrome. Dont make "the chosen one". That puts u right in the middle and makes u the main character. Thats not fair to the other players, or to the dm who already has a story planned. Dont play harry potter, the boy who lived. Play Hagrid, the half giant who was kicked out for crimes he didnt commit, or Dobby, the cheerful former servant who lives life to the fullest :)
I like it when noone is really a hero in DnD. It's just characters achieving their motivations. The fact the path of the game is heavily affected by luck and random dice rolls affects this alot the hero won't automatically succeed in their moments characters will fail and succeed now and then allowing for different games on the same campaign.
Also am pretty new to the game so I didn't play another of builds so am jumping for one class to the other which means I didn''t really get into a comfort zone atleast not yet.
Unless the GM tells you he wants to make you Harry Potter of course.
Miles Main another addition to the protagonist play style is that personally I've been having a special kind of fun in experiencing or hearing about all the comical ways a character can die.
I would let someone play the "chosen one" and simply not tell them they have a legit delusion disorder =D
Would it be ok if your character did have a (somewhat) magical destiny, but it has almost nothing to do with most of the adventures?
DMing (and playing 5e) for the very first time. The buddy that convinced me wasn't very interested in the idea of starting at Lv.1 because the character fantasy he wants (Geralt/Witcher) doesn't gel with a Lv.1.
I explained that Lv.1, to me, didn't mean some peasant picking up a sword, but someone who hasn't really done anything to stand out from their peers. They're average at what they do or the things they do, which isn't bad, but it isn't something that pushes them to grow.
So I told him that his character had been hunting monsters for a few years, but that's it; nothing extreme and just going through the motions of the job.
As part of a hunting school the rule was that they were loosely corralled within certain regions, growing strictly familiar with the local flora/fauna/threats, but little in the way of knowledge outside their region of operations.
The setting is a homebrew where the world discovered a foreign, arid continent that was put on the back burner as a war broke out, but the players start as interest was renewed after the war and people want to get their hands on artifacts and treasures.
So the motivation for him to go to this new land involves a smuggler bringing a foreign creature into town to sell to a noble, it breaks loose, goes on a rampage, and it takes multiple hunters from the various schools to put it down having no experience with anything of its like.
He decides that the best method to stop this from happening again is to travel to the new land to learn the beasts there, including the one that started all this, but his school disagrees saying the incident was a one off and not worth breaking tradition.
Eventually I plan to have him cross train with hunters from the other schools who had similar situations occur but did agree that the time had come to remove the boundaries of tradition from their schools and learn this new land and threats as a way to see his character grow to becoming the hero fantasy he has in his head.
As I said to him: Geralt is the focus of the story not because he's a Witcher, but because he's Geralt. He started as 'just another Witcher' like all the rest until circumstance and choices led him to become the exception to the norm.
"you shouldn't make characters before a campain"
me having never played D&D crying in the corner with my druid fairy
....I have a Goliath I want to play so badly. I will likely never ever at a single game. 🤷♂️
OMG! I'm finally playing my druid fairy in a campaign right now! I've been waiting to play her for so long!
I have several characters ready to go, but they are all loosely formed. They are pretty generic and can be adapted to many campaigns, but if one doesn't fit another one will.
I got really lucky my first time playing, it was even a first time DM but he crushed it.
My character hit the last taboo on the head, he was a miserable rogue who didn't play well with others, and was generally an asshole.
The DM being awesome paired me up quickly with our fighter who is a staunch team player who is always looking out for the good of the group. He quickly saved my characters life multiple times and opened up his ability to trust in others. Later as per my backstory the man who had trained my character ran into him as a ghost, he was the one who instilled the trust no one attitude. And in the after life he was alone and miserable and it allowed my character to have the realization that that wasn't where he wanted to end up.
Cut to nearly 2 years later in the same campaign, our Noble fighter Ahote was cut down by the big bad right in front of my rogue, while he was devastated, he took up Ahotes ancestral weapon, and adopted his do or die by the team attitude and is now the leader of our party.
This game kicks so much ass, and again a real shout out to our DM who absolutely crushes it week in and week out. And of course, rest in peace Ahote.
Thank you for your comment, you just gave me hope for running my first campaign! I’m a brand new player, after years of having interest in the game but no one to play with, I finally realised if I want to play I’ll have to get a group together myself and just have a crack.
True Resurrection costs 25k, don’t leave a brother hanging man.
That interaction with the old mentor gave me some Jacob Marley vibes.
"Scrooge, don't be like I was! You must learn to love your fellow man."
I had a similar issue once. My character was the sole survivor of a dragon attack that left him scarred and deformed, so now he has a sour disposition to everything in life. He was originally going to meet the group with another player, but she had to drop out of the game before we started, so my jerk of a character had to start alone.
The good news is my DM came up with a plan that has been working so far, but I definitely see why people don’t like lone wolves
That’s fantastic!
As a GM, I have dealt with Lone Wolf characters in the following fashion: leave them in town, and have an NPC join the party. Quest giver comes around and asks for help and they say "I don't see how that concerns me" and walk away? Let them. It's the tactic of a child; trying to force you to pay them more attention as a price for getting them involved. Having the character get ditched in town is a natural consequence of their indifference, and seeing the look on the player's face when it happens is usually priceless.
After they've missed some of the content, I dangle another hook to get them involved. I've yet to have a single lone wolf refuse to bite.
So she wasn’t a lone wolf, but once while playing dnd I was describing a scene of fire and hell when one of my players ( I was the dm ) asked we why I wasn’t getting the Druid involved. I turned to the Druid (My little sister who’s missed 2/3s of all the sessions we’ve played and goofs off a lot and pretends that she knows what she’s doing even though she’s new) wasn’t in her seat. Her a a character that was at zero hit points where talking on the couch near by. I sighed and replied. “Nah... i’ll Wait for her in the next session,” later that night she was all pissy that I didn’t involve her in any of the action until the end(Btw she left the party so she could spent time with her friends the next week and I was going to bring her back into the story next time she played) and I turned to her and said. “ Narcissistic’s Moon spire,” the main quest they are on, a moon spire they need to find and repair. I kept referencing this and everyone else understood it. She stared at me and said “what the hell are you talking about?” In which I replied. “ You’re not interested in my story, this game, or Your character. So give me your dice and burn your characters sheet, unless you want to actually fucking play instead of fucking around then getting upset because I didn’t include you,”
She’s still playing
holy shit you're smart! you would make a great teacher ;)
We tried that once
We returned to village that had been essentially destroyed
@@TigirlakaLaserwolf6
You're missing the point. The character _can't_ destroy the village because the DM isn't narrating their exploits. The player and character do nothing that session. _Nothing._
If the player of the character who refused to go on the adventure tries to say what their character is doing, politely but _firmly_ point out that you are narrating the exploits of the _party._ If he wants his character to abandon the party, fine. He can choose that. The consequence of that choice is that there is nothing for him to do this session. He has chosen to not play D&D.
After the session is over, you make it clear to this player that it is neither your job, nor the other players' job to convince him to play. He is expected to create a character who wants to adventure with the party and whom the other PCs would want to adventure with. If he can do this, great. If he can't, just say so and you'll find another person to take his seat at the table.
James Oakes r
A lot of the over the top backstory problems could be solved by adding "pathological liar" to the character sheet.
what was mentioned about "working with your dm to make a character that fits the narrative" really hit home for me! often times, i tend to make flexible characters that can fit in any story but really solidifying them to that world and that narrative is the trickiest part, especially since the dms i play with can be very tight lipped about their world building. there needs to be a good trade off to make the character believable in THAT world! thank you for sharing this and bringing this little tidbit to my attention!
I wanted to play a twist on the "lone wolf" type, where he's actually quite helpful if just you ask him. Just a shy hunter guy when you meet who prefers to sleep under the stars. He misses out on important things when there's food to be had.
i've always wanted to introduce a character like this
'He is in the shadowy corner, dark robes with the cloak up obscuring his face. He is leaned forward, arms on the table, hands around a mug and all you can make out is his eyes squinting at you. You speak up and he, full body winces, 'ah not so loud, not so loud,' he mutters, hand moving to his head. 'Never shoulda challenged that dwarf lass to a drinking contest, fuck it's 3 days later and im still hungover.'
Honestly, that's still a rather typical lone wolf.
Because in the end there are several types of typical lone wolfs.
@@fairystail1 I couldn't help but read the dialogue in an Irish accent.
"Taboo #3: Having too much backstory"
"My name is Yoshikage Kira. I'm 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don't smoke, but I occasionally drink. I'm in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning. I was told there were no issues at my last check-up. I'm trying to explain that I'm a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn't lose to anyone."
Beautiful
“Taboo #4: Having too little backstory”
“My name is Yoshikage Kira. If i were to fight, I wouldn’t lose to anyone.”
#4 - I'm JOJO
I did not see that jojo reference coming
GG
Back in Japan, heart surgeon, numba one. One day, boss man shakuru San calls me in. He tell me I need to do surgery on him. So I do it. But oh no! Accident! Shakuru San die. I move to America where Daryl give me job in warehouse. But big secret, I kill shakuru San on purpose! I good sergeon
One of my party members was chaotic evil and we were all good or neutral, and our aim was to save the kingdom. That character's selfish and impulsive actions undermined the mission and forced the dm to constantly rewrite scenarios and improvise. We had to kill him as our characters wouldn't let the world suffer to satisfy this one maniac.
Evil characters don’t really work with good/neutral characters unless the have the same goals and are somewhat disciplined. Chaotic evil in particular sounds like a huge hassle to deal with
I was allowed to be an Awakened raven with levels in cleric. Maxed my wisdom. Strength was a 4. But his backstory was his entire Murder (clan) worshipped the Elder Gods and he was destined to be a prophet
Fluff-wise, every spell he knew was visually modified to include tentacles and miasma
I played him so enthusiastically that 3 DMs begged me to use him in their campaigns until he died
One of my favorite characters was a pirate bard of valor. He was suave, attractive, and strong. I knew I had to come up with a really good flaw to balance his personality, so I made him completely illiterate. Cant read a word.
i have a friend who DMed a game with an illiterate swashbuckler. he said it was hilarious.
that's hard for a bard. where does he get his song from? earing them?
Daniel Ribeiro musicians don’t need to read to play. It’s not really that hard.
Your bard seeing signs of 'do not enter' and 'beware' be like : That sign can't stop me because I can't read
@@ClassyChassiss LOL this is 100% his energy. I hope this whole illiterate thing cooks up trouble for my group
Character taboo I've seen: the literal unmotivated character.
Not fame, not money, not a damn thing could get this character to do anything.
Lot of Druids are like that.
Basically, unless something unnatural is happening, Druids don’t care. Not all are like that but a lot are.
@@arandomzoomer4837 Well the green wizard in hobbit is a good example that it isn't really a problem in the right campaign.
that's when you knock them out and abduct them
I’m playing a bard/rogue in one of my games. He started as a drop in character, so never gave him much motivation or background. When I became more regular to the group, I decided, sod it. He’s a bard.. he’s along for the story. And the sex. Basically, by going on adventures with the party he has lots of stories of heroics to gather, and then perform at inns and whatnot. Also, lots of people to sleep with! Though, I also decided that, as he grew up in a travelling theater troupe, he knows relationships can screw with party dynamics, which is why he never pursues any of the player characters.
I've got 4 players exactly like this. Needless to say, the game is built around the Valkyrie and the self-obsessed sorceror until I can squeeze literally anything out of them.
I just got invited to my first D&D group. I’ve been watching RUclips and reading the players handbook to get ready to play for the first time ever.
I regretted how I ended my Centaur paladins backstory, it was all tied up in a bow and finished but now I know it would have been much cooler if they were still hunting the people they were after instead of having done it before the story started
Lmao my bf and his friends want to play so I'm gonna DM for them.
First thing my bf says is "I wanna play a chaotic evil character that stalks the heroes and try to kill them."
"No"
"But it will add to the suspense!"
"I can add my own suspense thank you! You aren't murdering other players for no reason thats not how this shit is gonna go down."
Bahahaha
Oh! IDK about that.... You have a player willing to play what amounts to basically, an NPC antagonist of the party. You might want to find a way to run with that.
This ~can~ work...but is probably best for experienced groups that have been playing together. Also their needs to be the right mindset for the party betrayal.
I’m doing discussing something similar with a DM for one of my games I’m in (I’m the player) BUT I’m planning on (as the player not the character) loosing. There’ve also been many moments where the party and my character have butted heads and they don’t trust her (they also know she’s evil). I do think it’ll add a lot to the game...as long as it adds to their fun and doesn’t take away from their fun. (Again - I’m planning on this as a loss with the party coming out on top. Trying to have fun with friends not f them out of a satisfying conclusion.)
Shut the fuck up
You must be super fun at the table.
I’d love to make a handsome, naturally talented lone-wolf character. Here’s the twist:
Worst possible charisma score.
He’s not alone by choice, he can’t hold a conversation to save his life and absolutely spews inappropriate comments. “Filter” isn’t a word that has graced his lexicon.
>You are greeted by a waitress in the tavern.
“Wow you must be super poor to be willing to work in this dump. Are you willing to have sex for a bit of coin?”
>You are overwhelmed by angry tavern patrons that quickly form a mob and throw you out of the tavern.
I'm totally stealing that line for my chad Randian edgelord fighter/barbarian. I was already planning to give him negative int, wis and cha scores.
> “Wow you must be super poor to be willing to work in this dump. Are you willing to have sex for a bit of coin?”
But, that's fucking low wisdom?
Jess Horserage You can be wise and still make a mistake. You’re just wise enough to realize that you made a mistake.
If you’re looking for someone who doesn’t make mistakes in the moment a high charisma/intelligence is good.
As a woman who's been to a bar in her adult life I promise you this build exists plentifully
Sounds like SAO Abridged
My second character was so perfect for the world we were in that her family ended up being a major plot point. I didn’t intend for it to happen but I love working with the dm to get a character who is really part of the world.
My backstory had my character come from my homebrew world... one year later my dms world and my homebrew world are so interconnected that they are essentially the same world
One character that comes to mind is this Paladin in a game I joined. I had made up a quick little drow thief to get myself into the campaign, and became good friends real quick with the other Drow. The Paladin played out his racism for our race a lot, and I mean A LOT. So, one day in the campaign we get trapped in some kind of dungeon with no lights. Me and the other Drow can see in the dark, and start leading the party out, killing all the little one-hit creatures on the way to make a safe path. We scouted a little ahead and found the exit, and promptly told the party. The Paladin totally playing up his racism said he didn't believe us and went the opposite direction, into a room full of about 30 one-hit monsters and proceeds to get swarmed while we get the rest of the party out. They ask us to go back in, and we do, but only to watch him die, high five, and tell the party we were too late.
Needless to say he was HYPER salty about his character dying, but the DM was just like "You were an ass to literally the only two people who could have saved you, consistently, even WHILE they were initially trying to save you. What did you expect?"
That's some Karma right there
I think that the roleplay concept is good. A stuck-up paladin that has racist tendencies and doesn't trust a member of the party sounds like it could be a really cool character development idea. Imagine at the end if this hard journey he finally learns to trust the character that he initially hated. Or maybe he wanted his character to die a villain. He would keep telling himself the same lies and end up paying for it. It could make for a neat character if eveyone's on board with the idea.
Im doing a similar thing as an oathbroken paladin, bit rather than racism the cleric in our party and I distrust eachother heavily because i broke my oath that was made under her god. Its fun as we absolutely hate eachother, but bc I'm so much of a tank we kinda need eachother.
Yeah a racist paladin might be a Legolas & Gimli story
Or it might be like the OP described. If the paladin doesn't understand that character progression is a thing (some people just want to roll dice) and just plays what's written on his sheet then *dont* make them a racist
That actually sounds great right up until the player took in-game, in-character actions personally. Especially obnoxious since that player had been an in-character ass and presumably expected everyone else to understand.
I have a run on joke were I have this character that I change slightly everytime. sometimes they have an obviously fake mustache, different backstory, or maybe their name is slightly changed ex: Ari Applewood = Ari Pearwood. my best friend is usually the dm so she tries to add at least one npc per campaign that asks my character if they are Ari from a different campaign and they always deny it.
CrowIzGay different subclass, different class, different race, different sex, different favorite color
Plot twist: they are in fact each a different individual and each freaking out
That is beautiful.
its like doc and shoe from avatar the last air bender
This is Fizban/Zifnab from the Dragonlance Chronicles and The Death Gate Cycle
There are (at least) two approaches of character creation.
It is all well and good to create a character ahead of time, but keep the backstory vague -enough- to be incorporated into a wide variety of stories if you ever plan on actually using them.
But always be ready that, if you hear the idea of the DM/GM's world or story, to create a new character tailored to that specific world or story.
DISCLAIMER: I am a newcomer to the game that... actually hasn't played yet but has high interest... just what I feel is a good mindset going into it. Could be wrong. Will probably find out soon enough xD
Whenever I make npcs for my players I always try to make the traits almost contradictory. Some examples were:
A hermit loner that lost their family is the most energetic and upbeat.
The brooding amnesiac rouge was the most loving to his partners.
The clumsy "idiot" archer was the best assassin in the country (and also most wanted).
The "sophisticated," responsible wizard blew up his school as a child and would do it again if he had the chance.
Just little traits that conflict each other were what made my party absolutely love those npcs and made them into reoccurring characters.
I ended up adopting a one shot character I had played. He was a pre made character who was a lizard folk ranger. He was neutral in alignment and I read a blurb about eating fingers of the dead as a delicacy. I took that an rolled with it to the point where he had a voracious appetite and would scavenge the battlefield for nourishment. We were sent on a quest to find missing people and my character asked out loud if he could eat those he found dead. The entire party just turned and stared at him. You could assume he is a broody type but he was merely introverted. We came across the goblins like kidnap people and dispatched them, afterwards he started eating some of them, to the disgust of the party (playfully of course). They guy who sent us on our quest asked us how we found the goblins, my character blurted out “delicious!”
I had so much fun playing him. The group loved the unashamed awkwardness of the character too. The DM told me to keep the character sheet. Lol
Pgcrooner VA that’s hilarious!
Wheezing
For some reason, I hate just referring to someone "neutral." True neutral sounds better.
Negan's Evil Twin true neutral neutral
Double Neutral!!
As a DM I just tell players during creation "do whatever".
I'll take whatever backstory they've given and just make it work. It's a made up world anyway, I can find a way to squeeze somebody else's creativity in to it.
Character build won't work that well with my setting or plan? Well they can cross those bridges when they come to them. Feels boring to have a group of characters designed to conquer my challenges.
In my current campaign for example I said "do whatever" and a player got a vampire homebrew class (though I did look over it first for balance).
Vampires weren't a part of my campaign at all originally but I managed to get them in and honestly it did nothing but add to the plot I already had in mind.
As for the world, the homebrew he had to feed daily to go in sunlight (among other things), could only rest in a coffin and would die in water. Two of my mcguffins were in the desert and the ocean. They're currently on a quest to obtain an item to help the vampire survive the desert, so essentially his bad choice in race created a whole adventure.
+
That’s funny
That’s funny
That's what my DM's do too. I think in some cases it makes the game a lot more fun and challenging. It also can open up opportunities for character/team building within the game.
I'm almost done with a character for my first campaign. Our DM gave us a short paragraph of basic plot, taught me and a friend how to go about character creation and helped us with stats and stuff since we're noobs (the DM and 2 of the 4 of us know what theyre doing) and his only rule was "no evils" which he said was for a plot reason.
My group always breaks that first taboo because our dms have never revealed much of anything about the campaign.
I want to make my next character the classic "where are my powers from, I have amnesia" only to realize he had a bad concussion, wandered away, and was thought dead.
Great point about the lonewolf character - the best example I've seen was one who was traveling with their only friend in the world and would go to great lengths to protect them. The worst I've seen was a guy who was so committed to being an edgelord loner that he kept trying to leave the party, betray them, and start fights with them - like literal fights, wanting to initiate combat and shit. It kept turning into this bizarre roleplay mishmash of players trying to stay in character but also trying to stay as a party when it didn't really make sense for them to. I tried talking to him about his behavior several times, but eventually we had to just continue without him. So his character got what he wanted in the end lol.
Well, maybe he did not want to play with you anymore? but the fun part is, you can have his old character become a recurring villain.
youre a DM im assuming, so just a short pitch and if you could give me ashort reply itd be great!
Im brand new to this game and i was thinking aout a rogue theif/assassin Tiefling or Human. i did want to be a bit of a loner, bc theives work best alone, but now im not so sure. ofc id work with my party and not start a fight, but i definetly wouldnt be open with my group a lot. and i think thatd be a good thing for my character to develop throughout the story. im thinking something about his dad or mom would constantly make false promises and it ended up giving him severe trust issues which would go along with his character arch-type. how does that sound?
Thieves do not work best alone. Have you seen Ocean's Eleven? Try to make friends with the other characters, and find their roles in your grand heist your character will plan later in the campaign. (possibly, if the DM can work it in)
If your character has trust issues, you need an anchor to the party. He either trusts one or two of them, or he trusts that he can get what he needs from them. Over the course of the campaign, there should be events that would lead to trust, which is a great arc if it happens. If it doesn't, or the opposite happens, you still have great ways to go. Probably need to be charismatic. :)
THANK YOU!! i was really needing my help for my arc, and if you could spare the time what about an assassin bc i might play that as my Archtype instead
also, what i mean that theives work best alone is that many others can compromise their situation or location. imagine playing with a party with a paladin and you all need to infiltrate a house or castle and that paladin's plate armour is just making all that noise? but i also see what youre getting at
There was one game where my brother was playing an edgy teifling cleric but it worked because i was playing an over happy assimar druid who was constantly bugging him. We were quite the pair, a passive healer teifling and a slightly blood thirsty moon druid assimar.
Will Rockwell I like that you have a Ying and Yang symbol, while talking about that dynamic.
That is f-ing awesome!!! It reminds be of characters my brother and his friend made his friend was a overly sexually pyro cleric and my brother was a was a revenge obsessed Paladin that was best friends with him but also kind of wanted to kill him and kept trying to keep him from setting everything on fire
I love it~ I'm part of a campaign that has something similar going on. We have a moon elf born Tiefling wizard/fighter and a sun elf born Aasimar cleric/bard
Fix is simple: make players generate their characters at first session.
If you're not blocking all non-human characters, make your players roll randomly for their race. The challenge is in playing what you got.
Me, watching this to do ALL of these for the memes, complain about everyone breaking these taboos, then as my flaw - extremely hypocritical
Making a loner whose literally afraid of being alone, the dark, dragons, people bigger than him, people smaller than them. Etc.
Kinda a creation/gameplay taboo, The players who create a super shy, quiet type but when it comes time to interact with NPC's becomes hostile and blatantly disregards their claimed backstory.
Even more uncomfortable. The player who can't speak infront of others declaring that want to be the face of the party, the bard, the negotiator and charming socialite... And the DM lets them citing that it would be good for the player to learn confidence. Then sitting through week after week of a player stammering and mumbling through charisma check after charisma check, waiting for it to suddenly cure their chronic shyness - and becoming insanely anxious that it isn't working so begins going to some pretty Dark places every game night. Unless you are going to rely on PURE rolls don't put players in roles they can't handle.
Once played Stalker as Jerome Jenkins, a genius doctor who could cure basically any wound. However, because of a personal trauma in his past, he freezes up when he sees throat wounds or kidney wounds. His father died to severe kidney illness before Jerome became a "genius" doctor. The condition was so severe he started bleeding from all orifices and his throat burst.
The DM happily took advantage of this weakness in my "OP" Character.
The other side of it is that he was a complete and total non-combat character.
Another weakness the DM happily took advantage of.
Genuinely one of the most fun campaigns I've played. Jerome had to, at one point, hold up a simple handgun and point it at an enemy forces' officer. Literaly caused him to shake and he couldn't pull the trigger. The whole non-combat aspect in a combat heavy compaign was incredible, because not only I, but the party had to completely change their approach from going in gung-ho to actually scouting out the place and taking it step by step.
Moral of the story:
It's not a bad thing to play a character that doesn't quite fit the campaign. However, if it changes the way the rest of the group intends to play, make sure everyone is on board with it.
At the same time.. Be gentle on it if your DM is new. I was lucky enough to have a very talented DM at the time.
I once played an Air Genasi Barbarian and roleplayed him like he was a surfer dude in normal rp, but when raging he saounded like hulk hogan. That was a fun one.
Imagine showing up to a session based on the mythic world of Nash Bridges and you have clearly rolled a character from another plane altogether....Miami Vice!
Biggest mistake I made when making a character was the exact opposite of the the lonewolf, he was a total social butterfly. I always had to talk to a variety of NPCs and would bounce around the area. And it wasn't so much the concept that was flawed, but the execution. I started hogging table time over and over and over and night after night. (I know I know, the DM is partly at false for not pausing me, but she was a newer DM and loved how involved both I and my character were in her world) The table started to grumble and get really put off by it, unfortunately, it got to the point where we couldn't just slowly reign my character in, so for the benefit of the table, I retired the character.
The most fun, most difficult and most challenging character was actually the character that I made in response to having to retire a character that I loved so much, and I was a little bitter about it at the time, but I did it because I really believe that if you can't find "that guy" at your table, you might be "that guy". So I made a monk, a monk that had all but taken a vow of silence, he literally would not talk above a whisper and when he did talk, it was as few words as possible. By the time I actually finished creating him, I had cooled off and was thinking maybe this was a little passive-aggressive and could go bad. So even before I played, I came clear to the table about how I felt, told them I made the character to be the complete opposite of the other one and that he almost never talked. Then the magic happened, the DM worked my character into the situation and the other players at the table took it as an opportunity to intentionally misinterpret my character at times, which lead to hilarity and laughs all around. The challenge was to keep the character, in character while not taking away from the group. My favorite (and a few of the other player's favorite moment with that character) was after about ten sessions, the bard being wary of anyone that didn't speak asked my character why he was there. My character motioned to the party, then waved his hand through the smoke of the fire and padded his chest (at this point the wizard had basically learned my character's sign language), so the bard took the actions to mean "Y'all give my heart warmth" when really what was meant was "Y'all done be lost without me".
Jim P i like it
because I really believe that if you can't find "that guy" at your table, you might be "that guy". You give good advice but i have to disagree with this or at least say be careful with this thinking. There doesn't have to be one of "those guys" at every table. It is entirely possible to have a table where everyone is just genuinely a great person and player. I have the joy of playing at one of those tables. Now you might say but how do you know you are not being that guy? Well simple i look at all the checkmarks of being that guy and realize that i don't fill any of them. Except for the dead parents part maybe.
@@AngwarACE Hence why I said "might" you might not be that guy, and you may be blessed with an awesome table. I have had quite a few of those tables.
What the line means is, just because you don't see a problem at the table, doesn't mean there isn't a problem at the table, and take a moment to be honest with yourself. (Which it seems you have).
@@JPatterson61586 Oh shit i totally overread that somehow, sorry.
It is SO AWESOME that you wrote a wall of text for your comment. Cursed Sword of not learning from your mistakes - 2.
My current campaign : 6 different kingdoms pick a representative to make a team of heros, sort of like the Avengers.
My character, stole of the identity of my kingdoms famous masked hero after.. stumbling across their body.
So my rogue charlatan is pretending to be this hero 😂😂
My awesome DM , announced to our BOUNTY HUNTER TEAMMATE (I had no idea) that he was looking for my characters real identity.
The roleplay is so great cause the bounty hunter always gives me side eyes hehe. I'm hoping for some real wholesome character development though!!
Gonna be an awkward talk when someone finds the real body. Or did you get rid of it completely?
Is that an actual campaign? Cause that sounds pretty awesome.
Sounds amazing, but wouldn't work for Taking20
That's good, that's very good, hope you don't mind if I... borrow this?
This has one fatal drawback. Interparty banter is good, having characters that are almost doomed to one day come to blows can be devastating to a campaign. I absolutely would insist that the GM make sure to let the players develop the bonds of the characters before 'the big reveal' because this is a dangerous thing for the bounty hunter teammate character. Your DM just told them they will have to make a horrific choice, either abandon the character concept almost entirely ... or capture and imprison and npc a player character. If you trust the players, that's awesome.. but be wary. That's all I'm asking.
Not my mistake per say but making characters specifically designed to “control” other characters at the table.
A priest of a god who pulls rank on the paladin putting the player in the position to either fight the cleric derailing the entire night or yield to the bullying nature of the group and go along with it.
Ex2: same situation when a player is playing a Drow assassain from a destroyed house and a player makes you only surviving relative and your twin sister pulling rank on you constantly (also she’s the paladin this time and you have no hope to ever be able to fight her in a fair fight) making you have to choose between fighting or being bullied and having 0 fun....
I've had an old grizzled veteran who's backstory was they use to be an experienced adventurer that was with a party. Then they were seduced by the dark side, went bad, and my character didn't. So they viciously beat him into a 10 year coma and his body atrophied back to level 1 weakness.
So his goal was to get back to full strength, act as a mentor to the more green party members, and learn to trust people again
Huge pet peeve with other players:
Some of us have busy lives. Some of us have school, and work, and all that to worry about. So if we’re setting aside 2-5 hours a week to play D&D, we’d like to actually play D&D. I’ve put aside studying, cat sitting and work to go to a friend’s house to play, only to have the DM decide we’re gonna spend 2 hours watching a movie instead of playing when we agreed to. I can watch movies without driving 20 minutes to your house. If you don’t wanna play, then just say so.
Oof. Or people in the group get distracted way too easily with personal stories and bullshit they read on social media. We have a running gag in our group where if we starting wasting time for too long, someone will say "so we're in a cave". As a reference to a campaign where we were in the underdark for a very long time and kept getting distracted quite often.
@@darwinxavier3516 That's actually a solid way to get out of it. Mostly in my games, I just remember the last thing the GM said and go "So we were..." and usually everything tapers off. Everybody's guilty of a little banter, just don't banter away the entire game.
Haha yeah man we have a running gag where we don't start playing until 8 despite everyone getting to my place at 5:30
Dear lord I had a would-be DM who did that almost every week. We rolled our stats and that was it. Every single week he'd find excuses to put off playing D&D so he could get drunk and watch movies. The tiniest holdup canceled the session, he had 4 weeks to get things ready, and all he had to show for it was just a poorly drawn map. Shit drove me up a fucking wall because I had to drive 30-40 mins across town and waste that much gas for literally nothing. After he got snippy with me about it I told him to fuck off with his alcoholic ass and dropped those plans from my week. I got me a new crew with an actually competent DM, Started just last week and I am so happy to be a part of it now.
I'm an avid "beer and pretzel" type of Player AND GM... BUT I can't stand wasting everything to get to a Table only to sit through BS... instead of the Game.
I like the RP' of the Game as much (or more) than the next guy. At the same time, if we can sit through a 4+ hour long session without a single die rolled, we're no longer Playing D&D... Sorry to burst a bubble or two, but that's just a fact of life. It's fine to collaborate on a story and all, but if you don't need a dice and roll system, you're probably not Playing the Game you think you are. ;o)
My DM told us to create our characters without telling us the story. We found out the story the day of our first session.
Turns out everyone hates tieflings more than in the usual campaign and well... a friend and I created tieflings, let’s just say we’ve had it rough.
that's super shitty
Sorry man ):
Had a DM doing something similiar. I rolled a Tiefling rogue, and after we ran a lvl1-3ish module, we jumped straight into an Undead apocalypse campaign where the first and only town we went to hated Tieflings. It was not a fun year long campaign.
I hate tieflings. Worst PHB race, don't fit into most settings. They tend to get rocks falling on them or a Tarrasque after them in my games.
@@Riplee86 I have a regular group. It's all about finding people who aren't tossed and actually care about the story making sense. People who like any of the shit from 4e tend to be the biggest arseholes I have come across. Worse than 40k Grey Knights players.
There are a few character concepts that I haven’t been able to play because of campaign incompatibility.
The one I always warn players about is: Don't make an intense backstory unless you're ready to roleplay it out. If your character killed their whole family in a horrible wildfire, you need to be ready to roleplay out the effects of that. Obviously you don't need to be Liam O'Brien, but you need to do SOMETHING.
I usually recommend new players to make a more relaxed backstory. If they want to have that traumatic past, I'll let them have it. They just need to be ready to back it up in game.
Tried to play a healer. "Hey, I can be friendly and-- OH MY GOD, WHY AM I POISONING A KID!?"
T R A P S
*G A Y*
my first time playing d&d and being a cleric : Y e s ?, oh ,you're dead now.
@@felixargyle4871 Very... no homo
@@felixargyle4871 I mean I'm pretty gay but idk about the rest of us
My DM wanted a backstory, so I sent him a paragraph of backstory along with two well-formatted pages describing my character's eight siblings. Not only did it do a good job of describing where my character was coming from, but it gave him materials for people we could run into in the campaign. It also gives me some in-universe backup characters to roll up.
PalPlays i always like stuff like that. I always like to look at critical role and how they do things and they make an outline of their backstory then they work the the dm to fill gaps and he makes personal notes on the answers to their questions so he can reveal them later in the campaign
@@Goldenman89327 I'll also change the backstory depending on what level I am starting at. If my last character died at level 5 and I'm rolling up a 6th level character, then that character will have gone through some stuff. Something that EVERYONE should try to avoid is making your character a "bastion against evil" when you're starting out at level one. It only serves to wound their pride as their level one character is treated as just that, and it makes it super awkward for everyone else playing.
Early leveled characters should have very little in terms of story feats (like slaying a dragon). It makes the DM feel better about giving you cool things to do when you roll well, and it then gives your character a chance to develop.
I'm gonna put my two cents in. I would recommend making a pseudo-detailed backstory, and leave it open ended. If you have a good DM, they'll the in your backstory.
My group has been playing for a few years. So naturally we all have a few characters that we have come up with but never got a chance to play. In my great wisdom I decided I would DM a campaign where the others could run their favorite unused character. Session 0 was used to group plan the adventure, because no one needed the time to make characters. Our first session was kind of rough. Trying to make vastly different personalities mesh took alot of creativity. But we just had our second session and some really great role play lead to the party coming together. With luck this might be one of my best games ever.
In a 3.5 campaign I'm running (custom world not a premade one) one of my charcters rolled a gnome wizard who follows Kord and his only goal is to one day be physically strong enough to fight, kill, and supplant Kord as god. So all his spells are buff spells (mage armor, shield, enlarge person, etc) which uses before running in (no armor mind you) to wrestle and punch the crap out of enemies. Literally everything is a challenge to him.
Its been an absolute joy to DM for this guy cause it makes literally everything so much more interesting
He sounds amazing. XD
That sounds fucking hilarious
Beautiful, best of luck to him!
I'm doing a 3.5 custom campaign where the end goal is for the PCs to become gods. All because the God who sent them on their quest wants more company in the pantheon of literally every God we can think of. And the characters dont know that's the goal, they think they're supposed to end this war by whatever means they choose.
Caleb in Critical Role is a perfect example of the loner who can only trust his one companion at the start of the campaign but allows himself to come to trust the rest of the party through his desperation to make some coin and escape the squalor and monotony of his present existence. He's a loner but his needs lead his character to naturally provide a rich tale of growing and expanding friendship and trust.
A loner character done correctly may i add too! :p
Very true
I hated him the first time I saw him. But by the time to take on Thotdack I bloody loved his razor sarcasm. I dont have the ability to pull off a character like him.
MrBizteck i didn’t hate him at first, but i thought he seemed very bland. but im on i think ep 11 or so now and have very much warmed up to him lol
I quite enjoy how Liam is letting Caleb have moments where the mental tug-of-war comes to the surface, but doesn't saturate the campaign with them or let them go on too long. Will Caleb follow His Plans or will he finally admit that he kinda cares about his fellow Nein - that's how the loner aspect is an interesting starting point for character development.
Tried my hand at DMing for my usual group. I specifically told my group it was a more serious setting and I ended up with 2 meme characters, one player who didn't have any sort of back story or personality, and one decent character. Sometimes players just dont care about the campaign setting and want to watch all you've worked on burn.
I have a wonderful Lawful Evil Eldritch Knight that is absolutely perfect for the campaign I was in at that time. We went from level 10 to 15 and by the end she basically turned into an abjuration casting sniper with her rifle. I love that character so much
Aragon from Lord of the Rings, or Strider as he was known is a good example of how to do a lone wolf character. He started off brooding and stand offish but quickly became a savior to the party and became a reluctant leader
What? Aragorn was never standoffish. And he wasn't reluctant either. He carried the shards of Narsil around everywhere.
On the lone wolf, we have a simple rule- i, the DM, am on the side of the party's fun. Sometimes that pits me against the party with my monsters, sometimes for them with my NPCs, but I'm always in on the side of the party having fun.
If don't want to put effort into having your goals align with the others and don't want to join unless you are motivated, I will leave you at the tavern. If you turn against the party, you will no longer get the special treatment of being a party member that limits how far fighting can go. Because I'm not on your side, I never was. I'm on the side of fun for the group.
@@valcaron Orrrr maybe let people play however they want? Just a thought.
ohh you gave me an idea. the "lonely wolf" supposedly edgy and mysterious but oddly clingy and always underfoot too :-)
I have a buddy who always wants me to tell them cool ideas for a specific type of character. But the thing is, if I don’t tell him literally every little thing for his character, he completely forgets about it. An Artificer who has 0 of his infusions ready. A Necromancer who hasn’t read ANY of his class features of material costs for his spells.
It’s slowly driving me nuts.
The worst part? I’ve been playing DnD for 6 months, he’s been playing it for years.
*Some extra advice on that 5th one:* one of the most difficult things I’ve learned while playing dnd is that sometimes you have to go against your own personal judgement in order to stay true to your character. It can be difficult to remember sometimes, but your character is not supposed to be *you.* By instead following the guidelines you’ve set for them in terms of their personality and judgement when you play them, you maintain continuity and help to assure a clearer image for your character.
That's a great approach to roleplaying and I think it makes the game more fun! Lots more potential for compelling, even emotional stories
Like Sam Riegel from critical role. If he's going to do something based on what he knows but isn't sure his character knows, he consults the DM about whether the character would likely be aware of the same or similar information.
Yes but don't be _that guy_ - you know the one. DM: Don't steal from the party members / Rogue: But it's what my character would do!
I wholeheartedly agree. I remember putting this into practice most clearly with my current character: Ronorth the half-orc barbarian. He's a jovial guy: really loyal to his friends, got a temper but a worshipper of Tempus, and overall a jovial dude. His best friend got kidnapped by bandits when his hometown got burned down (long story short, the bandits were sort of loan sharks). He also likes a good-natured tavern brawl, the kind where it's sort of like a friendly spar. He heard the bandits were nearby, so he's asking the barkeep about it in the tavern where we all meet during session zero. Now Ron is a hulk of a man: 2 meters tall, built like a tank, looks kind of goth-ish and has a habit of decorating his clothing with the smaller bones from his enemies. He knows how intimidating looks, so he generally tries to openly be the big ol softie he is.
There's some rowdy drunk guys spouting some racist bullcrap about half-orcs. Our Rogue, a waitress there, decides they had enough to drink. They're too far for Ron to hear. After a bit, they come up to him to tell him to his face. He raises an eyebrow, and tries first to just talk them off him at first. "The barkeep said I was welcome." Yeah, didn't work, they're pretty insistent on getting all up in his face. And other patrons are starting to back them up. So it's time to show them that if they want to cruise for a bruising, then they're getting more then they bargained for. Ron gets up, stands at his full, towering height, crosses those arms with biceps the size of your head, and says: "Now, is this really your best idea? Why don't you try throwing me out then, huh?" I roll well enough on the intimidation check that one makes the smart choice, and backs off. But the other one loses his last brain cell, grabs him by the shoulders, and actually tries.
If that were me, then I would've shoved him off me and said: "Best count your blessings, because you're not even worth it." before leaving. But I know Ronorth wouldn't stand for this, just like any of my characters outside of D&D. So while I knew what would happen if I did what he would do, I made the call on what HE would do instead anyways.
Ronorth shrugs the guy off, pulls back his arm... And he socks this racist right in the jaw. We all roll for initiative, and the entire party steps in to help me.
I wasn't planning on starting the first encounter of the campaign, but there I was. Just because my character would follow up on his threats more then I would. And I'd gladly do it again.
Skyrim: Stealth archer
Oblivion: Stealth archer
Dark Souls: Stealth archer
Crysis 3: Stealth archer
Mount & Blade: Stealth archer
Dishonored: Stealth crossbowman
Wonder what will happen in D&D
>mount and blade.
>Stealth Archer.
Made me kek
Doom : Stealth archer (WAD)
*Rolls Barbarian* IM RIGHT HERE YA COWARD LASSES! "That felt good to get out of my system."
I've had a rogue be the partys bank and inventory. The party didn't like it, but they also couldn't see him half the time so...
How did u play stealth Archer in darksouls
I’d say that a lot of character creation is knowing you’re own group. One of the characters I played had (what I thought) was a pretty cool dual personality secret backstory and after 4 sessions I found my group was just not interested in any hint I was dropping or any role play I was doing. My DM was super cool about it though, although the campaign sadly ended before much happened with it.
my backstory is one paragraph of hapoy childhood and one paragraph of traumas, thats it
Then there’s me just making a character for fun because I have no friends to play with👌🏻😂
Hey ill play with u
if you have any online friends i highly recommend doing an online campaign. the one im in right now is awesome
I feel you dude
Same, I've had two separate people send me the exact same meme about making characters, i enjoy making characters, i have four channels in our campaigns discord based on fully made and fleshed out characters that I still update as we progress in the game
Advice for players who want to create lone-wolf characters: Study Raven of the Teen Titans; that is how you properly integrate an edgy loner into a group narrative.
no.
Why not? The writers of that show perfectly integrated her into the friend-group despite her being an edgy loner.
You mean when he was working against the team under the "Stone" alias and was actually being mind-controlled? How does that offer any sound pro-group loner advice? Cyborg as Stone was exactly the kind of loner character that tears groups apart. Might as well base the character off of Red-X.
I might steal this to work with my players who want to be the lone wolf PC if you dont mind
Why would I mind? I made the comment because I wanted people to see it and use it lol.
1. giant themed you say? gnome grappler barbarian/eldritch knight/bard build coming right up!
2. I kinda agree, but the caveat I have is this is a great way to refine a character.
3. I tend to err on having a bit of a blank slate - how they got there, why they did, etc. and let the story unfold & shape them.
4. see above. I tend to had an idea of what i have/want but the dice have a mind of their own & I lean into it.
5. flaws can be both a blessing and a curse - it's down to how both player and DM treat it.
6. I get the lone wolf thing but as long as the player is open to co-operating with the group/growing with them i don't see a problem.
thanks for coming to my TedTalk!
When players in my campaign join our group they create a "Stable" of 5 characters: 2-1st lvl, 2-2nd lvl, 1-3rd lvl. None of the characters will be of Evil Alignment. No more than 2 of the characters in each players stables may even share the same class, race, or alignment. This is for the sake of diversity as well as multiple adventure opportunities not all available to each character. Every character created after the original "Stable" starts at 1st lvl and no player may play an evil character for the first calender year they are part of the campaign. If a player decides to no longer play a character in their stable they may either retire it completely from the campaign or surrender it to the DM to potentially be altered and used as a future NPC.
If I told you that I had a player that did the first three in your list...
Much of these are why I have taken up a different method of character development.
Before any dice are rolled, there’s a session zero. We talk about the upcoming campaign, any limitations, changes, or additions to what can be.
Then I interview each player one on one. I ask them seven questions that define their character’s outlook and personality. It takes ten minutes, and I learn more than the dreaded 20 page backstory nonsense. The player learns about themselves as well.
I break the players into “friend groups”. They pick which character knows which. This speeds up getting the group together, develops synergy, and tends to remove “lone wolves”.
Even after all this, I have one player. That one I mentioned first. He always finds a way to miss the meetings, ignores the info, and makes a character counter to the campaign and the group and justifies his actions through the same excuses.
Even if that Character dies, he makes yet another contrary thing that the majority of the players end up conspiring to kill.
If I may be so bold, what are the seven questions?
The best way to handle this that I've seen was a GM years ago who, after a player described character as a member of a secret cult dedicated to "death, betrayal, and evil", simply asked the player "Why the hell would I want that in my game?"
mortalLP Sure!
1. When you’re out of the room, an NPC would describe you as ___.
2. What would you kill for/die for/live against all odds for?
3. What do you love?
4. What do you hate?
5. What do you see as your character’s end goal?
6. What’s your perceived method of getting there?
7. What is your character’s downfall?
As the DM, I learn a LOT from this conversation. So does the player. They tend to focus less on their past on more on their future. That one problem player? He refused to answer these questions.
Wow. Nice list.
My group tends to get overly attached to backstory, and under...-ly attached to integrating any of it until their backstory IS the plot. A little more attention on the future would be a welcome change. Thanks!
if the dude isn't gonna actually try working with the group, he can find another DnD group tbh
This was useful. I started to play rpgs last week, just me and a friend. I started my character as a lone wolf, but only on the inside. He was charming a girl, to use her as a human shield, and female company. But after a while he actually fell in love with her. I was expecting a very cold and insane character, but now, through her love, he is changing. Neither me, or the dm were expecting this, but it's fun
Sounds like a certain Yoshikage Kira...
@@GenericUser860 Did Kira really love Kosaku tho?
@@Yayaytree I was referring to Shinobu. Right at the start of the Stray Cat arc, he got worried that he was beginning to care for Shinobu because he was distressed when she got hurt.
@@GenericUser860 That's true now that I remember it.
Got a bunch of new players in my campaign, and I am a new DM. I basically just told them that background was to help with role-playing as it's on a small set of islands away from their homes. It was quite interesting to see where some of the backstorys went. A half orc noble who is the bastard abandoned daughter of a far away lord. A snotty wizard who is collecting tomes for her library back home. And of course, the bard that needs adventure to gain confidence and experience for writing epic poems.
I just joined my first campaign. Hopefully I don't mess this up.
Playing evil characters in a good campaign with all good or neutral players. Drives me up the wall.
Eh, I've done it. He was actually my best character ever. It all depends on how you play him. My guy was "evil", but was a well-intentioned extremist. He worked with the party because he saw them as useful pawns, and he did good deeds in the name of his evil god to win converts (Cleric of Hextor, 3.5e; when Hextor was god of tyranny).
It really is a shame that more people can't figure out how to play evil characters alongside non-evil ones. Too many end up steering their characters into serial murderer territory. GM made our characters and I was given a CE Bard in a game where we were stuck traveling through these dangerous caverns. First chance my Bard got, he tried to ditch the rest of the party. Once he turned a corner and got glimpse of some Orcs, he realized he wouldn't be able to get out by himself. He needed help, even from the bossy Paladin.
are you kidding? if you get a lawful evil character (my favorite alignment) in a good campaign it can be really cool
People can't define evil, i make evil more like driven in wrong direction
Here's an idea for an interesting loner character. Making him/her/it "totally a loner, y'all"...but he has intense separation anxiety and can't stand to be alone.
so basically all bark but no bite? That would probably make for some funny interactions.
"I'm a lone wolf. I'm a loose canon. I walk my own path."
"...Okay, cool. Well, how about you go-"
"Me go where? Away from here? From you? Wait, let's talk about this"
Sounds a bit like a tsundere, "I prefer to be on my own, but i'll join you guys cuz you need me, hmph"
@@Dregore Baka!
@@TheMento98 "Yeah yeah leave me alone see if I care! I am not going to that dangerous place!...never..." When the rest of the group leaves send a message to the DM about trying to sneak behind them without getting caught.
Rather you do get caught or not it would be fucking hillarious! They are in the middle of a fight and you can see one of your dear friends being nearly killed and you jump out and take a shot at the giant to distract him "Where the fuck did you come from...ehhh...How weird..guess I just so happened to be teleported to this place..must be fate..haha..ha..emm..lucky you huh?!"
We have a fun concept going right now in Curse of Strahd. During our session zero, our DM floated the idea of not knowing which campaign we were running OR what classes everyone was before we made our characters. We all enjoyed the idea (all of us are experienced in D&D). So, we all created our characters not knowing we were going to run Curse of Strahd and we also didn't know what class everyone else was (we did that so no one felt like they HAD to take a role since no one else took it and instead created a character they really wanted to play). That led to an Eldritch Knight Crossbowman, Sword and shield battlemaster, evocation wizard and thief rogue. No healing besides second wind and we stuck up on health potions, but we love it. No deaths so far.