D&D Players, What is Your Quirk as a Roleplayer?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- What is Your Quirk as a Roleplayer?
Put your stories in the comments below they could be in our next video! If you have your own video ideas submit them to us on Reddit at r/MrRipper
Stay tuned for more awesome DnD content!
/ discord
Source
archive.4plebs...
www.brianvaugh...
Stay tuned for more awesome DnD content!
*Please ignore YT God's feeding zone down below!
#mrripper #dungeons and dragons #dnd stories #reddit stories #please sub for nat 20s #how to play dnd #one dnd #one d&d #how to play dungeons and dragons #dnd character creation #dnd 5e #asmr #reddit stories compilation #reddit stories funny #dnd story #ask reddit videos #family friendly gaming #dungeons and dragons how to play #dungeon master screen #tabletop simulator d&d #player character #dnd encounters #dnd campaigns
I can't help but love when my characters get _angry._ Whether they're good guys with a tendency to berserker-ism, grumpy older bastards who've officially lost their patience... or calmer, serene, soft-spoken figures who've just had their own well-hidden Berserk Button pushed _in the worst possible way._ Angry "something needs to die now" moments are just so much fun to play out... especially if it results in my character doing something aggressive and reckless. Can also be funny if my resulting Big Thing ends up being a flop because the dice have decided to hate me today.
Coming from that profile pic, this is beautiful.
@@garyboyles5762agreed, it was spoken like a true candidate for the red lantern corps
I have a tendency to build secrets into my character's backstories that might be revealed, in one way or another, after a considerable amount of time; something that the character doesn't want to share, or that they're simply not interested in discussion/being reminded of, or even that they're not aware of.
That trope is honestly kinda annoying most of the time. "You thought I was a human but i am ACTUALLY an Asimar sent here on a mission from God to blah blah blah blah....."
"You thought I was a human but I am actually a DEMON PRINCE BENT ON WORLD DOMINATION BUAH HAHAHAHA"
@@electromancer2645 I can see why those kinds of things might be annoying, but generally I tend to stick with more "personal-scale" stuff.
For instance, one of my characters resents himself because he blames himself for the deaths of his siblings, an event which has shaped his whole life since, and is something which he would not be inclined to share with anyone. No "grand design", no "changing the world", just something deeply personal that matters to one person.
Whenever I have a character who speaks two languages, I have it so that whenever they curse, they say the word in a language that isn’t common (Common in my case, being English). I represent the swear with a whistle, as if I’m censoring myself. For example “What in the name of the knurled balls of (loud whistle) Aberlithe was that!” Plus my fellow players get to fill in the blank with whatever they want!
One day, you need to just take a really really deep breath and whistle for as long as you ca uninterrupted…
@@blindbrad4719 or make it sound like Morse code
I like non monk brawlers, and it's always a disappointment when a system basically doesn't allow for one.
For real, I just want to be a boxer without any of the flavorings or stereotypes attached to Monks.
Don't want Ki points, don't need to meditate or study martial arts.
I just want to punch a monster.
Really. _Really. _*_Hard._*
Use the fighter’s unarmed fighting fighting style and battle master fighter. It looks like a fun build
I make very witty characters even when their charisma is low i cant help role-playing that way its honestly a large flaw
Honestly same. I just like quips and it’s hard to stop once a good bit gets rolling.
I find that with lower int/cha characters it’s fun to make really dumb observations and blatantly bad puns. It takes its own kind of wit and usually fits the character.
@@emperortime4380 The party is surrounded by villagers pointing spears at you. Your character says "Guys, I think they heard us." 😆
Anti-monologuing: I have a hair-trigger response to bad guys monologuing that isn't really under my control. Worse, I get creative to the point where I joke that I get a +4 to rolls _in real life_ to come up with ways to break the monologue and villain. Nobody has had anything important broken by me suddenly producing or inventing some massive overkill stratagem out of thin air, but its is something to be aware of.
The best time for a surprise round is now: If the party is in dialogue with an opponent, and I determine that they're someone we can't just defeat outright, I start observing the situation. If it becomes apparent that the conflict is intractable and fighting is all but inevitable as soon as everyone realizes no one is going to step aside, I initiate and hopefully end combat. I haven't had anyone _stay_ angry with me for initiating combat out of seeming nowhere once I explain what I was responding to - but it does tend to appear as if I attack NPCs for pausing too long while speaking.
Details only the GM & I know are there: If I like a GM I regularly play with, I devote a lot of attention to figuring out how they see the world they're making. I try to develop a model of things that they expect to be in a scene but may not bother to describe in detail or at all. This one has annoyed fellow players since it occasionally looks like I get away with "making up" things, even though I almost always frame my assumptions about the details of a scene as questions. OTOH, it is _so cool_ when I have a good enough idea of what's going on in detail that I can pull some miniature combat detail-exploiting in a game where we're using theater of the mind for combat.
My characters are always prepared to kill anyone and everyone they interact with. It's just a matter of whether they are given a reason or not. I especially love doing minor, seemingly harmless things, that can rapidly turn fatal. For example, if I know I'm going to be fighting a dragon, I will throw chain all around the room, especially around pillars, boulders and obstacles. When the dragon comes out, that chain quickly gets wrapped around it's neck, and I use physical leverage to strangle/muzzle/restrain it in the chains depending on what's needed. The best instance of this was when a dragon particularly pissed me off. I had the fucker drawn and quartered, personally tanned his hide and crafted armor out of him. But I kept his skull, which the party necromancer trapped his soul inside of. He can only speak when given permission by a specific command. When my character dies, he will remain indefinitely trapped inside the skull, with no one else ever learning the word to permit him to speak. Doomed to an inescapable, slow death, waiting for his own skull to decay enough to break the seal and free his soul.
Motherfucker ate one of my favorite NPCs.
Having an accent, I love trying and pulling off a German/French/Russian/Irish/Scottish accent for a character, even if the characters doesn’t need it, it just fun to do and really throws off any if I do a heavy one
my German ex-nazi doctor would be BFFs with your chars then. :)
Our Gunslinger uses a French accent so whenever he slips into German or Russian we jokingly go OH NO THEYRE GERMAN/RUSSIAN XD sometimes he even take a moment to go "okay lets see if I can get the accent right today"
He said "Quirk"
Not "Crutch"
It can be both, it’s just how you play it
I have two: the first is playing characters who SHOULD BE the edgiest bastards you’ve ever heard of, but are sweet as a bean with a tinge of ‘Very angry on the inside’. That or they just look edgy, but are actually pretty chill. We’re talking a Tiefling Paladin, born to an Aasimar descendant of Zariel who is mistreated by his communit, but is an oath of redemption. A Dragonborn blood hunter who witnessed his parents ripped apart before his eyes, and instead is a good natured fellow. A ridiculed inventor which a broken leg who wants nothing more than to protect his home with a grand invention, who makes little toys for his Brice and nephew.
The other is making characters who have experience in the setting, but get their ass beat I a big way before the start of the story. I like playing a character with a lot of history, and having connections to pull from.
Also I end up as the leader in a lot of campaigns. Sometimes intentionally, other times simply because the rest of my friends are a bunch of indecisive shitheads whom I love to death.
God, I can relate to that last part.
Most recent game I've been in has had a lot of that, and I'm always sitting there like. "This was *not* the group to make a shy character with."
... Said shy character has also been the tank. Rolled HP has been max every level up. She's a wizard.
I've never played DnD but I have thought of several characters I would like to play and I am seeing a pattern already. Light-hearted/sillier characters who have an 80% chance of being Kobolds
I like to break the norms of my character's race like a Drow loving the sun for some reason but can't stay in it for long.
My friends actually hate that I love to use foreign words to name my characters; sometimes with words I have no idea how to pronounce
I really love getting into character, but looping in impov jokes is one of my favorite things to do.
My whole style of roleplaying is giving my characters a voice that makes them as memorable as possible. This can range from the chipper and friendly southern drawl I gave a Goblin Inventor to a high pitched, screaming, throaty voice I gave to a Fleshwarp Alchemist.
I love playing madmen! In every character, *something* in their brain got crossed resulting in eccentricities and wierdos. My current character is obsessed with collecting magical items/ingrediants, another character of mine is obsessed with another PC (Essentially a life-linked bodyguard), I have a concept for a character that literally cannot comprehend what an enemy is, it's a blast!
My characters are typically supportive to the point of sometimes fading into the background until they need to contribute.
This is partly due to the fact that I end up just enjoying the vibe too much and end up vibing mid game
Oh same and my dm always complains about it
I end up as the 'team mom', taking care of the others, encouraging them, making sure they are healthy and well, all that stuff.
I usually end up being the party dad. I’m currently the ancient eldritch party grandpa knight. Smokes his pipe, likes his tea, shares adventuring stories, randomly shares deep insight eclipsed by madness.
All my characters are researchers in one form or another, from a professional archeologist (for a setting-specific reason, "abstract scientist" is by default an archeologist) to a tabaxi from a land-locked tribe worshiping the god of the sea. I tried to play something else but bumped into the "what is interesting for me to do vs what the character would do" dilemma every time.
I always end up collecting trinkets from the dead, ex: their broken weapon, an arm, a bit of a map, ect.
I've been on a kick of making characters that have little combat skills, but an extreme variety of skills and expertise to avoid such grisly options.
I will always add at least one broad conditional to my character in which they will never accept undertaking an action that violates said conditional even if it would be mechanically beneficial.
I not only act out my character, but any character that is closely related to the character. Of course, I let the DM do the rolling for the npc, but I just love bringing characters to life with how I imagine them. And it turns out I had a natural talent for voice impressions, so it has let my creativity soar lately (especially for my College of Spirits Bard)
I did this once! Ended up giving an archmage's lair to an NPC because even though I figured out the hard part of a riddle, it wasn't something my PC would have thought of. I had been idly playing the NPC, who was more intelligent than my PC and _did_ think in the appropriate way. So, the apprentice wizard got to control the tower and my PC got bupkis. (This was OK, the PC in question would have found the tower neat, but at that point he wasn't interested in lairing up as much as he was in political power. Later, he regretted it. I never did.)
I always have a seemingly infinite supply of an inconsequential item that doesn't have any mechanical benefit on my characters. For my firbolg tempest cleric, he always had fresh oranges on him (which he would eat without peeling) and for my human fighter she always had bandages (she had the Japanese delinquent vibe going so she always needed them for her body, and later for all the wounds she took since she often was the enemy's main focus). I always mentioned having them for flavor and nobody ever questioned where I got them or why I never seemed to run out, so it just became an accepted running joke
Im usually the comic relief both in and out of characters
I love having a voice for my character and i love them having extremely strong beliefs/characteristics that can land me in trouble with the wrong people
I tend to be a method actor for my characters. Leads to great RP, but it can also result in some friction with less serious players. Find it tends to be avoidable long as I mention it beforehand.
Addicted to pain. I always play close warfighters like Paladin, Warrior, Barbarians, and Fighters. Either heavy armour with a big weapon, a sword and board, or both.
Turns out I'm the Loony. I ended up relentlessly eating a buffet's worth of food on an airship and still took a sandwich for later
I tend to really lean into the class/species combo if it's a character I'm playing without a tie to another player, alignment can be a factor as well if it fits. Though if I'm playing a character of mine from elsewhere I'll try to be accurate to them while fitting into the lore of the campaign.
If I am playing with that tie on the other hand I'd want to play with the stereotype the class/subclass has (for example played an Undead Warlock Haregon, was actually the sweetbean of the pair)
My artificer has a problem with prime numbers. Some bandits empty their coins total in 17 coins. When I came up at the end of the conversation and noticed I added 7 more silver and gave 5 gold to all 6. Group was prepelxed while GM smirked.
I love being the bug guy/tank, basically running directly to enemies attacks to make sure my teammates don’t receive damage for that I love the artificier warforged armorer since It’s basically made for making enemies focus you
I play characters that have some sort of mental deficiency, because I have brain damage and I'm bad at taking notes lol.
While this is more of a thing I’m starting now with my “main” characters (aka, my dnd characters when I’m a player and my major OCs like Torch) are all interconnected in some way to a multiversal jump point town place. My tiefling bard Callie Maria once found this town when she went in her first demonic hunt and the crux of her personal quest was getting back to that first town that treated her like an actual person and not a soldier. Two character concepts I have are this father daughter duo of inventors who’s story I plan to flesh out across two different games (currently Kate, the daughter, is in a Space Pirate game where her father’s been killed/abducted/assimilated/whatever-the-dm-has-planned, and in a future game I plan to bring the father in as a warforged who underwent consciousness transfer from his flesh to survive long enough to save his daughter or smth). My High Elf Wizard Elegard doesn’t have connections to this town yet other than being a very loosely connected friend to the founder of the town, none other than my first OC Torch
God that Walking general store player would be so much fun to play with
Yes, yes, you would, he kind of sounds like me in real life, always trying to be prepared even extra prepared
I always play the silent type whether that is is strong and silent or by social awkwardness
An idea: A character that *can't* talk even if they wanted to. Don't even tell the other players until a situation arises where you'd *have* to speak.
Could be mute. Could just not speak common.
Kind of reminds me of the time I minmax'd how long a character could hold their breath. Went an entire underwater session before the party realized the character had been holding their breath the *entire* time.
My quirk is probably how I have a tendency to play really unoptimized on purpose.
stat wise my characters are usually solid and can fulfil their role just fine, but I handicap myself in some other way.
for instance I played: a barbarian who didn't want to rage, melee fire only sorcerer, a one armed rogue and a paladin who hides the fact he is a paladin and rarely use any of his paladin powers.
my next character is probably going to be a conjuration half orc wizard who will fight in melee range with a sword that he is not proficient with.
I always give my characters an irish accent. Its one of the few accents, aside from possibly some form of southern American accent, that I can pull off convincingly. I also tend to make my characters near-paranoid in anything approaching being a dungeon.
I also now have q wonderful idea for a character or NPC: they're a kleptomaniac who steals anything not nailed down, has a bag of holding and a handy haversack to tote around their seemingly endless supply of stuff, and are more than willng to sell their goods to you- often in the middle of a dungeon, crypt, or similarly strange place. They'd also have the ability to freely swap between the planes, if they're an NPC.
My characters all turn into memes within the group without exception.
13:25 somewhat relatable, if i got my heart set on something, I'll do what i gotta to make it happen.
I can make anything silly and most of the time it's random and ends up having in game effects our wizard teleported us and I said the cheese puffs I was holding turned blue now we can't have food when we teleport
Not sure how it happens, but my characters *always* somehow end up as the heart/moral focus of the group. I haven’t really played any evil characters, which may be a contributing factor, but the fact that I eventually become the group's sweet cinnamon roll that cannot be allowed to die just astounds me.
I'm not saying that the rest of the group is intentionally going out of their way to baby/protect my characters, just that I feel they're just as or even more emotionally invested in my character than their own.
i tend to make weird or memey characters that turn out to be the voice of reason and the last line of defense against becoming murderhobos. i made "bob the necromancer" for dragonheist and on numerous occasions ive had to slap the warlock for 0 damage to prevent an eldritcxh blast from erasing the peasant who has the info we need and hasnt given it yet.
previous campaign was homebrew (i think) and i played as a plasmoid fighter/paladin. the weirdest character but the only one to not have daddy issues or ptsd. only crazy thing about her is that she stopped finding gods special after fighting 2 and chating with 2 others. by end of campaign she had tripped the god of lies and one magic god who never introduced themselves (rude) twice.
My character quirk is my characters are, almost without fail, completely obsessed with dragons. Some of them want to serve one, some want one to be their friend, and most of them want to find a way to become a full blown dragon.
I will adopt sidekicks! Especially if they’re Kobolds! Running joke in my groups
I have a friend like that. First adventure, ended up basically adopting a goblin named "Splug" who he gave booze to and Splug ended up being *very* gung-ho about turning on his old boss. Splug died horribly. Ever since, that character kept trying to "adopt" new sidekicks, naming each one "New Splug", adding an extra "new" to the start for each one. It's gotten kind of ridiculous. "New new new new new new new new new new new new new new new new Splug." Not sure how many "new"s we got up to by now, but that campaign is long since over. Buford will always be around in some form or other, though...
I've been playing my first ever campaign for about 6 sessions (today happenes to be our seventh and I'm already excited) and i think my quirk is somewhere between "mom friend" and "bro" where I'm super supportive of the plans of my teammates even when i don't know what they are and simultaneously physically hold their shirts so they don't run into traps like dum-dums. Also my character (a warlock) has an in game reason to be an instigator of conversations due to his deal but I'm bad at it so far
Somethings I do that I guess could be considered as quirks are when I play a character to roleplay that character I try to put myself in their shoes. To help do this I like to describe each action they take intricately with a great amount of detail. This is especially true for spells. When my characters cast spells I usually describe them and what they do with the material components that causes the spell to happen and each spell has a different hand signal that I do in real life to differentiate all of them. One of my all time favorite characters was an abjuration wizard pyromaniac. Each spell had its own hand gesture. Magic missile was a finger gun, scorching ray was sticking my hand out like iron Man, I had a wand of fireballs so me casting fireball was me holding a pencil like a wand as the gesture
needlessly pretty diaries.
Basically everyone of my chars get's his own handwriting with a unique pergemant/paper texture, a big leathery front- and backcover, they are all written in different styles, they get a theme song that is cited at the start of the diary.
I like the idea that when you finish a campaign and you transcribe your last notes into a complete text that you have the story of what happened in a real nice form that you can go back to when you're feeling a bit nostalgic ...
I can never take my characters seriously. My bard is incredibly sad and tragic, but here I am in the death house, just doing my best Belle in the library impression, dramatic ladder swing and all
PANR has tuned in.
Very quiet and soft spoken, almost to a point where I seem timid, until enraged by someone/thing. I can have a good alignment or evil alignment but I don’t do lawful very well because I like to be somewhat creative with how I handle things and lawfully half of them wouldn’t fit.
Gimics.
Find a one or two note things you can do with your character and keep expanding on those 2 things.
In party dynamics that can work but as NPC's they become party favourites to be either loved or hated.
I have a tendency to play soft-spoken squishy utility casters. I just love helping other people accomplish fun things. And being a moral compass. (or as close to one as you can have whenever you still OK with necessary killing, but not good at it.)
sub-tank and sub-healer on standby while being main tactical scout, leaving the heroic stuff to the protagonists
I'd say my quirk would be I make character whom are often brighteyed adventurer types like boys going off to see the world for the first time. They often are well liked by the party as they often don't have tragic backstories and are here purely to have fun on an exciting adventure.
I have chose this as most players often try way to hard to make a reason to adventurer and be in a party. I counter this trend and thus I stand out as well as a friend who will work with the other PCs to give them more depth as a normal person they can RP with
Somehow, my characters always wind up being “The Voice of Reason” in my parties.
When That Guy wants to touch the Obviously Cursed Magical Artifact, I’m usually the one trying to stop the hyperactive sticky-fingered loot-goblin from accidentally (or intentionally) killing us all.
That being said, “Guy who’s willing to touch the Obviously Cursed Magical Artifact” is also an important party role.
But I’m sure as hell backing away before he does.
My Quirk is wanting to either develop a character for future stories or genuinely attempting to have a true change of heart for a character.
Current character in Curse of Strahd is a ~400 year old Dragonborn Fighter who has sacrificed those closest to him in his crusade to gain enough power to truly protect those he cares for. Told my DM that I either want him to fully redeem or double-down on his path for power.
So when I saw this, I was going to post that my quirk is playing characters that subvert a well known trope, like playing characters with a happy family that's doing well, or playing in a system where magic can be very overpowered and instead turning it into a support character. But then I just spoke to one of my best gaming friends and have come to the realization that my quirk is in fact playing REALLY complicated character classes/archetypes... but not just playing them. Playing them -fast-. Like, he basically told me in all the time we've played in the current campaign we're both part of, a particular skill I have has only made me drag the game along once in the year I've had it (and it's a skill I use basically every session), but it's a skill that he doesn't think he could trust the majority of the people we both have known from other tables to not have their turns take 5-10 minutes just to figure out. I also love playing one of the most complicated classes in an already complicated game system (Pathfinder 1e Arcanist), and when I stopped playing that class I went to ANOTHER class that can be really complicated if you use a certain alternate feature (Bard with Bardic Masterpieces... and I had like 4 of them at level 8, one of which I could combine with equally complicated magical items to give everyone a +4 on the majority of their checks through a bunch of bonuses all combining into one.)
So yeah... I like making things hard on myself. I think I've always held the belief that if I dive into the deep in right off the bat with the most difficult parts of a game system it's the best way to learn the most you can about the system as quickly as possible. Maybe that's wrong, but it doesn't stop it from being fun lol
Spawn of chaos I was born in it molded by it. Also leads to some of the funniest PVP possible.
I want to be a hero of sorts. Playing a Chaotic Evil right now as my last Good Guy was called boring (he didn’t even get 3 sessions Guys, come on), and I’m not sure I like it.
Also turns out I really like to add anomalies to my characters from time to time. My Christmas One-Shot PC had the quirk of never being able to escape the direction North. Any attempt she’d make to escape the “Winter Hellscape” would just backfire in strange and unexpected ways. She could stare at a Compass as she walked south, but after a moment of time (few hours, a day or two) she’d wind up right back where she started (if not, even further North) with the compass pointing backwards, which is impossible.
Character advancement mapped out to level 30;
Campaign ends within a month 🫠
I almost always get a horse/wagon. It just makes sense to me for any flavor of adventurer to have a mobile home. Playing a merchant? Keep your spare goods in there. Playing a Wizard? How else are you going to carry around a library worth of books? Rogue? A wagon with a secret compartment is perfect for smuggling. Bard? With a few adjustments and a handful of torches, and you got yourself a traveling stage. No matter what character I play, if we're not on a boat then I'm in a wagon. That's just how I roll.
Forgetting important things that the DM has told us. UNLESS I've been drinking at the time of the notes and when remembering them is relevant, Drunken recollection
I have two habits I've noticed while playing. The first is playing the PC who's probably going to die, not trying to but if there's a trap or an ally is in trouble I'll be the first there. I like it because it means I get to save another player's PC, and if my PC dies then I might get to try the next character I've been thinking of. The other habit is getting roped into the evil PC's hijinks as I usually play lawful/neutral or neutral/good characters.
I have a tendency to make jokey character concepts and play them straight. Things like "how would a hive mind of birds go about integrating with civilization"
I have 3 major quirks that come out intermittently in characters. 1. Smugness. My characters will occasionally have moments of just being plain smug usually, in social encounters or taunting an enemy. 2. Group Advisor. I often give advice to the about what to do. This advice isn’t always followed but is at least taken into consideration even if the character giving it probably isn’t qualified to give it. 3. Lies that aren’t lies. I lean towards Lying by omission so it can never really be argued that I lied just that I didn’t tell the whole truth or deliberately worded it deceptively but is still technically true.
I enjoy making custom rules, not always ones that help my character (in fact a lot of the time it ends up being a huge nerf).
so the moment I'm comfortable with the DM, I'm going to be sitting down with them thinking up any way to give them some kind of homebrew rules just for the joy of making and following more rules.
and my character will often be defined by whatever homebrew this is. large portions of their backstory will revolve around explaining why these extra rules are in place for them, it will often be a key part of their most defining backstory moments.
if I'm not comfortable with the DM yet then I'll just play a dragonborn/kobold wizard/sorcerer/warlock
I actually have a few default quirks I end up leaning towards, though there is some overlap.
My first and most likely to play one is The Builder. Got a problem? Need something to blow up without magic, want to make your stick hit harder, or set a trap? Maybe you need a a specific tool for a a specific niche thing? That's where the builder thrives, typically a skill monkey, but never always magical. Whether its making fireworks or booze, a better weapon or armor, or just tinkering to make an odd device that does something some day, I find just trying to make contraptions to do something entertaining. My favorite classes tend to be things like the Alchemist from pathfinder or the Artificer from Dnd for theses sorts of things.
My second one is The Min-Maxer. When I create a character I usually have it set up to do just a few things, but do them really, really well. this one i typically my middle ground one that overlaps with the others. Not much explaining is really needed for this one
The last one is The Chaos Gremlin. When you're at a table, there is usually at least one, though they tend to be disruptive. I have gotten comments from friends that when I play a chaos gremlin they usually find the antics entertaining but due to the shenanigans being done don't detract or otherwise disrupt and take people in a whole other direction. They are usually just more over the top things being done that i usually do in bursts of 3 so as to not become annoying. When playing this type, my favorite motto is "There was a point we passed where we should have stopped... But lets keep going and see where this rabbit hole leads."
Me and my characters tend to end up in leadership positions.
Wouldn’t call myself a great strategist, but certainly got a braincell or two for tactics and planning. And a “fine, I’ll do it myself” mentality - I avoid showing initiative unless no one else does. And people often don’t.
Couple that with somehow being able to get people to follow, just go with whatever I propose, just collectively go “Why the fork not, he’s the boss now”… Well, yeah, that’s what happens.
Implicitly or explicitly, it seems like my characters often take the lead. Or people just tacitly decide to follow someone who didn’t really intend to lead anyone.
There is probably only one campaign I can think of where I was actually able to take the back seat.
Example: One of my Only War characters speedran from Pte. to Lt. within a month in the timeline just because the higher-ups had a hunch he’d do for the job and the predecessors were recently killed.
My D&D characters also tend to end up directing the party in combat. One of my friends calls this "commander mode".
I don't feel the need to take the lead *per se* , but awkward silences murder me, and ending them ends up my priority. I really, truly try not to be a protag, but it's always just so silent... still waiting to meet social butterflies so I can just be the people watcher I'd rather be.
I tend to play characters that have a prop that they carry with them every where they go, so that I, the player, can play with it. I’ll pretend to turn the page of my comically large book, summon spirits from my crystal ball, or take a drink from my character’s tankard of ale. Even if it’s just a bow, I’ll try to roll an attack as if I’m letting go of the bowstring.
Ive always had a pension for more chaotic characters.
Ive never been the one to say "no guys, lets not go check out that noise in Murder Forest".
My current main character is going through what can only be described by him as a madness arc. His past is coming back to haunt him in his sleep. He hasnt been sleeping. Taking points of exhaustion from time to time, but bone daddy's coffee helps from time to time. He is having vivid and tangible hallucinations.
And now, he is going to begin to disguise himself as others because he doesnt want to be seen. He is no longer wren.
But my first character was another rogue who was a deep dwarf. He used his beard spikes as weapons and moved like a ninja.
It's boring because, as a roleplayer, I am a pretty bog standard "flexible" type - I can (and like to) talk in accents and with little flourishes like bows and physical acting, but I also can play it lowkey if the party isn't down for that so I don't bog things down for them.
But as a player, I pride myself in my flexibility. I tend to never push for a specific role and am always down to fill whatever the party may be lacking so everyone else can freely play what character they want. Also I tend to be the "combat manager" in fights, keeping track of buffs and conditions (a trait I picked up from playing 4th edition) to help both the players and the DM, as well as making at the table suggestions in character if a player is stumped by choice (talking is a free action) and being the reference guy for any rules confirmations. I try to give a positive connotation to being an enabler and rules lawyer for the tables I play in, within reason and specifically with newer players and/or DMs.
I enjoyed playing characters with improvised weapons. The thumbnail? Totally have played that character.
The one time I actually tried to play evil, it turned out to be chaotic stupid and the DM lectured me afterwards about it.
I try to connect every character I have through my backstories. I started with a halfling cavalier who became a great general for a pocket dimension kingdom with a flying horse and a magical lance.
Then when the group wanted to play Dragonheist, I played one of her descendants who had tried to steal the magic lance and fled to Waterdeep where she promptly lost it (its sentient, so it got itself lost.)
When that game went to shit, I played a Dragonborn Nobel who had read the legends of the Cavalier and decided to become forego her life of safe luxury to become a wandering Paladin who did Good Deeds. She still kept to two loyal (and beleaguered) servants, Feather the Tabaxi messenger, and Glavin the half-elf butler/groom.
(Speaking of not naming your backstory characters, perhaps look up a name to make sure it's not an annoying catchphrase of a secondary character of a well-known adult cartoon.)
Then we have the brother of Feather, who ended up with Wild Magic and had to go to The Academy of Magic, which... actually was not a Harry Potter homebrew.
I'm not sure how my latest character's story is connected, because I actually kind of had to make him on the fly, but I'll get there.
I've noticed that some of my more recent characters have some sort of permanent injury that doesn't hold them back at all. Half-orc pirate with a mechanical eye, human fighter with one arm, kobold storm herald with necrotic scars on his vocal cords, revenant... etc.
I love playing characters that are just Mountains compared to most people, I do enjoy the Crafty rouge or the Nerdy Wizard but the 6'4" Human is just always more appealing to me
I genuinely don't think I have one: if I do, one of my fellow players/DMs would have a better idea. I have some things I do a bit more often than others (accents, special secrets to come out at opportune moments, unusual rwce/class combos), but I can't think of anything that would count as a "quirk."
... Wait, I've got it. The closest I can think of is that, if the setting allows it, I can & will incorporate dinosaurs into my character in some way. Some highlights:
- Asgrimm Thunderbeard (D&D), Totem Warrior Barbarian from a tribe that worships dinosaurs;
- Niblet (D&D), Kenku Circle of the Moon Druid, eventually unlocks the ability to take a Velociraptor wildshape;
- Gertrude "Dino Girl" Waters (DC Universe), palaeontologist by day, shape-shifting dinosaur superhero by night;
- Cosmo The Space Raptor (Masks), hyper-intelligent raptor from the hollow earth who pretends to be from space.
- Squamatos Rex (Stars Without Number), genetically modified supersoldier infused with dinosaur DNA who rejects his programming to become a humble cargo hauler
I JUST LOVE DINOSAURS
IS THAT SO WRONG
I like playing the Token Normal character, as I find the idea of some Average Joe adventuring alongside ancient elves, crazy aliens, or reality warping wizards to be equal parts amusing and inspiring, and because the crazy character builds of my friends look even more epic in comparison. I also like playing Support, whether as a Buffer, Tank, or Healer, as I find helping my real-life friends far more rewarding than defeating imaginary enemies. I also like playing Versatile characters, adapting to the needs of the team is very satisfying. So you put all these together, and I usually play a human druid, or the closest approximation that the system has.
Haven't gotten into D&D yet (mainly because I have no friends), but I AM planning on trying to RP TWO characters at once, both of whom will INSTINCTIVELY know what the other is thinking at a glance.
One is hopefully going to be a special forces sniper, while the other one is supposed to be a [bullet hell caster/brawler].
Whoever my DM ends up being, I am positive that I will be giving them a headache the entire time.
Also, a good backstory trope I thought of is something I like to call the "Curse of The Chosen". Effectively, if the character comes from another world/dimension/country/etc, they were the "Chosen One" of their homeland.
The "Curse of The Chosen" trope means that they are SIGNIFICANTLY more likely to become the "Chosen one" again, typically to the character's increasing annoyance/frustration the more often it occurs.
I play the wrong class.
As in when I play a character of a class I play them like a different class.
I played a sorcerer like a rogue because he is a swashbuckling storm sorcerer, and I thought lightning pirate would be cool, I am currently playing the least edgy rogue ever as a fencer, and have realized I’m playing him like a bard. My bard was a dwarves heavily armored historian who cared deeply about history, and was basically a paladin. I have plans to make a paladin/warlock hybrid using archery patron and path of ancients, thus playing them like a Druid.
My very first character in 5th edition was a wizard (using a nerfed version of the UA lore mastery subclass) who had such a strong focus on skill proficiencies that I made jokes about her being "intelligence bard".
My quirk is I always give my characters a random flavor flaw that sometimes never comes up but other breaths life and character into well the character. I once made an alchemist that was horribly terrified of ghosts. He was most of the time able to able to identify things due to his Intelligence but other times, such as the first time he ever encountered a Will-o-Wisp, would just barely miss the knowledge check and would spend his actions screaming and running for his life even when not actually endangered. Another character was in a campaign where we were told prior to the game started had a scarcity of Elves so I decided to make him devoted to Elven beauty and would purposely fail any and all Will saves that were caused by any elves or monsters that disguised themselves as elves. He also would insist on collecting anything Elven made as part of his loot.
My tendency is having half race of something, a monster or half monster type, or a lycanthrope of some kind, and making them play against how they would be typically seen as, going against the norms, while being able to fully express and flesh out the character that explores who they are and where they came from
I am the force multiplier, as in if you manage to either piss me off or my characters, say goodbye to whatever plan, enemy faction,stronghold or city Will be removed completly,case in point: current character managed to topple a WW2 esque Evil faction in about a work day by killing their top general,his personal Death Squad, go to their City ,completly destroy a bio logical weapon, barged in their base like i owned It and pulled off a Cue ala Death of Stalin.
I do nearly all of these depending on my mood during character creation.
I have a knack of gravitating towards Batman Arkham Knight style takedowns during points in the campaign where we have to infiltrate a fort or castle. By my count I've managed to kill 8 separate people by pulling them off of the ledge that I'm hanging on. I don't understand why my DM let's me do this when I'm not even playing a rogue.
I typically file off the serial numbers of something I like, and usually, it's a combo of something + Disney character, often times the protagonists. My DMs are typically movie buffs so I can say what inspired them and they'll understand what tropes I'm going for. My oldest character is Astrid (httyd) meets Hilda, but my longest running character is Milo Thatch (Atlantis) meets Magi Luna (Ferngully). And most probably understand exactly the types of characters those two archetypes become as a whole character
Grandma's doilies are *highly flammable*
I like to play characters with little to no self-preservation instinct
and yes Im totally ready to accept (telegraphed and not ass-pulled) character deaths
I name my characters after real-world objects and then make their personality an abstraction from that
I made up a city called Kessel Ridge that has the strange property of randomly blipping around the multiverse. Any new sectors of the city and anyone in the city when it blips goes with it to the next place. The city is a melting pot of the multiverse and an urban planner’s worst nightmare. Most of my characters are from this place.
Why? So I can make references to things like the Borg and crypto in character.
I always manage to play melee class characters with something goofy and disarming about them. Most recent ones were a gnome dex fighter (who intimidated less through size and more through making creepy faces and having no fear) that stole the buttons from an enemy sorcerer after literally yeeting his weapons at him repeatedly, and a tiefling gunslinger who didn't ever speak due to not wanting to scare people with his deep and demonic voice and his sidekick: a young (and therefore nerfed) unicorn that acted as his steed, moral compass and mouthpiece
More of a character type than a quirk but basically the heroism and chivalry guy (and a few others there)....while looking like a monstrosity or aberration of some sort. Either as big as possible or as small as possible depending what flavour I'm going for..
Also basically have no skill in deception and a habit of being as bluntly honest as I normally tend to be.
Needless to say I'd be garbage undercover or as a spy of any sort.
I've also had the party mistake me for an enemy creature multiple times. Also good way to test if the party has murderhobos.
A few examples being an oozemorph fetchling monk (basically a semi-liquid shadow fey grappler) and a fleshwarped oracle who looks like a flayed naga, wears a plague mask and is perpetually bleeding (but not taking dmg due to having enough resistance) but behaves like a stereotypical british gentleman and wields a cane pistol. (Pathfinder side as usual since that's my main system).
I absolutely love this!
I love playing super heroic characters, but I've never really thought to do it with a particularly monstrous character. Closest I can think of was the chocobo. Unless you count kobolds (but they're so smol and cute!). Going as small as possible with a very brave character is such a vibe. It evokes a lot of symbolism.
And no skill in deception sums up a lot of my characters. Every so often I play high deception characters, but I basically only play one extreme or the other, there. Either a great liar, or can't lie to save their life!
I've managed to be mistaken for an enemy creature before. But that was more a party member wasn't paying a lot of attention.
It doesn't seem to matter what class I'm playing, or what the actual character I play is like, I tend to be the emotional backbone of the party. Maybe this says as much about me as it does about the group I play with, but in every game I've played with them I always end up being the party member most emotionally in tune with the rest, the glue holding the parry together through hard times.
Whenever I make a Warforged, I always give them an intrest in birds.
I love naming my characters after flowers. Bonus if said flower happens to thematically fit my character in some way.
Ironically, I have yet to play a druid.
I've found myself trending towards tradesman or people who took up a life of adventuring but also have a main gig. Artificer engineer, Rogue Locksmith (DnD5e) Mutagenist travelling surgeon (PF2e). I do tend to avoid front line martials, instead opting for back line martials and taking advantage of cover rules
I have a big tendency to lean towards races with underdeveloped lore in my dms worlds or monstrous races. My favorite races to play are kenkus, tritons, shifters, and goblinoids, as I find most of these races tend to have some roleplay within the worlds already set in either through the unknown or fear. I also love at the end of the campaigns breaking a lot of the stigma towards them. I also love having tons of npcs for each character going so far as within one game designing my characters 12 siblings as it was the whole point he was a assassin.
I’m currently playing a shifter barbarian fighter who has a long and sad backstory, his goal right now is to claim a island and open a area where not only shifters but anyone who feels they don’t belong or needs a place to be came come and have a family through him and his own family as he understands what it’s like to be at that lowest point and have no one there.
The other is a hobgoblin paladin who is working towards trying to shatter the chain around goblinoids and meglubiyet. Forming his own kingdom where goblinoids all live equally, it also sounds like he’s bringing sea elves with them as they are a race who were left to rot by thing and is currently dating one of the them.
I always give my characters a similar character arc that connect to eachother
For example i have two different characters that are siblings, one is the grumpy one and the other is the happy "i love everything!" Cheery one, the grumpy sibling will go through an arc where they learn to relax and warm up to things while the happy one has to learn that being empethetic wont always get her anywhere and she learns how to fight while still being a pacifist