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Created an Ogre for the party to fight. One of the party had the tongues spell at the time and decided to talk it out with him. Through a series of difficult checks they convinced him they would provide food if he followed them. They kept providing food so he eventually became a npc with the party. The fun part was it was a Mythic game base so they were all becoming high level characters through strange and mysterious ways. At one point there was a statue that was supposed to grant a large Intelligence boost (+6) permanently. They told the ogre to touch it since they thought it was a trap and so he became a smart ogre. I had to essentially make him into a full fledged pc so long story short he now believes himself a king among men, wears extravagant clothes, and is attempting to start his own kingdom by "recruiting" people or creatures the party fights. Absolutely not what I expected but he is now one of my favorite characters
Also he hates fire because at one point they convinced him lava was food. He almost attacked them when he realized they had used him as a meat shield a couple times but instead realized that he was the one who acted on it regardless of who told him to.
I’ve “stolen” the old Toyota engineering term “5 whys” to explain critical aspects of my characters. Essentially you present something like: This character won’t ever drink healing potions. Then I ask why? Well because he thinks they make you weak. Okay why does he think that? Because his father taught him that. Why did his father teach him that? Because his father thought that would make him a strong warrior. Why did his father want him to be a strong warrior? Because he felt that his son wasn’t ready to take his place as his successor. Why didn’t his father think he was ready to become his successor? Because he wasn’t a cruel enough person. This line of questioning took a mundane if somewhat interesting aspect of a character and fleshed it out to become a backstory with an abusive and cruel father and a “I must make my dad proud” want that can be easily made into later character progression with a realisation of needing to be his own person.
Agreed physical description is important! I play a 8' 6" goliath Paladin and I cant tell you how many times my size came into play DM: Creature grabs your cleric and crawls up a 10ft ladder destroying it before continuing down the passage. Me: Rokk (my goliath) runs upto where the ladder was and pulls himself up to the next floor continuing the chase DM: How? The ladder is gone..how would you clear 10ft? Me: Rokk is 8' 6"! With his wingspan he easily reaches 10ft! If you want I can roll athletics to lift myself up but with +5 str I bet you I got this. I....was also used as a stand for the smaller members to see over tall rocks.....and I couldn't wear 90% of the armor we looted cause I was too big...to make it worse the ~3-4' rogues stole my share of money after we sold it cause I'd hardly notice them...but thats what made it fun haha
7' 10" goliath fighter here, in the last campaign I played. I had a scene like that at one point, but with a whole lot of piercers clinging to the ten foot high roof of a ruined corridor. Me: "Yeah, so I'm just going to reach out directly in front of me and peel them off the roof as I go." DM: "One of them cracks open an eye as you approach, it's clearly unused to making horizontal eye contact with things it was about to try and ambush-predate. There's an awkward moment as your gazes meet." Me: "I make an 'I see what you were about to do there' face and slowly shake my head" DM: "It attempts to scurry toward you and half-heartedly drop onto any part of you." Me: "With its 5 foot move speed and falling from directly in front of my face? I let it fall all all of, like, five feet? And plink off the toe of my boot, unfazed" DM: "Pretty much. They're not very adaptable, as hunting strategies go."
I'm late but no matter. I at one point played a 14 Inch tall sociopathic sprite wizard and it was just so beautiful. He quite often made a habit of sitting on the paladin's shoulder and casting spells from there during combat
I totally know what you mean. But at the same time Germindiamaican and Southafriwelshausscottikiwi are two of my favorite accents. Unfortunately the first was in a let's play episode I can't remember but for Southafriwelshausscottikiwi just look up the merchant from Resident Evil 4. Weird accents can be just great if they're consistently weird. I don't even know what you'd call hers but Nico from Devil May Cry 5 also has a bizarre accent and it's not a bad thing at all if you ask me. So on the positive side of messing up accents, you can make some great things lol
I just started this video but before I forget, physical description is so damn important. One of my players is a changeling witch in Pathfinder and I've always assumed her to be this typical changeling, tall with long dark hair, pale skin, cold and commanding in presence. Her appearance never came much into play since she's not in her body in the campaign, but I was writing her a dream sequence outside of the sessions to drop some plot hints, and it occured me that I never asked her how she envisions her character's initial appearance. Turns out she's short, plump and has messy ginger hair. And warts. This literally destroyed my vision of her character. And just because I forgot to ask her how did she look before her current predicament.
Mavander I ran a game with an evil party where one player had a character with a hatred of shapeshifters because one killed his mother. Another person was playing a changeling... needless to say it did not end well. The changeling offered life using the golden hands stayed blade to reduce the assassin's hp to 1 but not kill him. He stuck to his character and attempted to attack anyways so she killed him. I liked how it added to the story and that he stuck with the character but the player who had the human assassin became quite upset afterwards and eventually dropped from the game after several attempts with a new character to enact revenge on the whole party for "picking a monster over him". I tried to let it go and thought he might get tired of failing as the entire party was high level so it would've taken a lot to kill them but eventually one of his plans backfired and a bounty was placed on his head by the authorities.
I play online, over roll20, and we don't use webcams (because we don't all have 1). But I still sit like my character, nod, and things like that, doing little things the character would do, even though no-one else can see it. I had a half-orc barabarian, and I'd sit right up, because he was nearly 7 foot, and, whenever he talked, I would stick out my lower jaw, and just talk, because pushing out my lower jaw made me talk in the gruff voice of the Half-Orc, and makes certain letters hard to pronounce, which it would be if you had tusks coming out of your mouth (but it bloody hurts after a couple minutes). When I played an older wizard, I hunched up a bit, squinted a bit, and otherwise just kind of end up embodying stuff my character would be doing, even though, again, no-one can see it. When the Half-Orc was sitting there during a long conversation I zoned out a little, and started looking around my room, because the character doesn't speak common perfectly, so after a few minutes of long discussion and big words, he kind of gave up trying to understand it all, and got bored.
Pain points have made for some very humorous play in one of the games I played in. My character had an intense hatred of goblins for having killed his mentor. During the second session, we went to a location that happened to be my character's home town, so the party went with him to visit his parents. He discovered that his parents had died, and their ghosts informed him that they were killed by goblins. This sends my character into a blind rage that leads him to the nearby cave where the goblins were hiding, and he kills all of them. Later, the party comes across a portal that leads us 500 years forward in time. We meet with the king in this new time, and he informs the party that my character is hailed as a hero for having cleansed the world of goblins during his life. That is how far just a simple detail like "hates goblins" can go for making the story and character more interesting.
Heh, that'd be great, my wizard having a fear of horses while my barbarian cohort already has a fear of magic being used on him. "Why can't we just teleport?!" "Last time you nearly turned us into a totem pole with that tree! A horse is good enough!" We'd eventually compromise with me learning Phantom Chariot so I don't have to see the horses. And later I get excited discovering a mystery scroll, and develop a nervous tic when I learn it's Mount.
I have a wizard who is terrified of dragons because he was enslaved by one in his early adulthood. After his escape he developed PTSD, coming with nightmares and flashbacks. One time, our party was walking through a castle and we noticed some large footprints on the ground. After seeing that they looked similar to dragon prints, my wizard had a panic attack and was barely able to move for the next ten minutes. Turns out it was just bears.
Having small mannerisms that your character invokes *constantly* gives you another tool; just once, not invoking it when you should. Maybe the wizard that compulsively twirls his wand snaps to attention and brandishes it unerringly when the villain threatens his family. A characteristically silent warrior bursts into a tirade at an otherwise unremarkable slight. Things like that.
I recently started to play a Gnome Artificer and one of his many weird details was that two of his fingers were replaced with metal prostheses. The problem was: they worked with magic and we started as prisoners in a cell were magic didn't work. So everytime I wanted to move these two fingers I would manually bend them with my other hand. The others at the table were amazed
My Samurai's mannerism is that when ever he said his last name he would do a kind of arm movement and pose. Many NPCs in my GM's world picked up on this and would do this when addressing him when he would start to get a bigger name as a sign of respect towards him.
My tabaxi rouge was raised by goblins (she was abandoned as a child and a goblin tribe found and adopted her. They assumed she was some sort of pigmy bugbear) so she refers to all magic as ‘Booyag’ and keeps a pet rat. She knows how to ride wolves as well but that info hasn’t come up yet in the campaign
Cristiano Esteves sounds like a wizard I'm making who has a magical lute which sounds like a electric guitar. and with every spell he plays heavy metal.
I had a Lawful Good paladin who was the up holder of everything he deemed good, but was very snobby and thought of himself as superior to others because of his "noble blood". Galathon (which was his name) was later saved by a beggar and then that made him think of peasants, as he liked to call everyone, as more important than just bodies. Later in the quest he failed a will save verses the God of Corruption, and became the new anti-paladin Cain. Started slaying everything around him. Just wanting to bring chaos and death in the name of his lord. Except for the beggars, because he remembered that the meager beggars once saved his life. Was one of my favorite characters and everyone enjoyed him watching him grow and become the demon of chaos that he had become
"How do you create fear?" Crows. describe in Vivid detail a scene where there's a bunch of dead trees infested with crows that are eerily silent. describe how there's less color the world seems to be muted and mostly Grey
I have a gnome bard who's missing her right eye. Everytime a person says they want to go through the door on the right eye, she always asks where that is.
My favorite character I have played is also the most "lived in" and fleshed out character. He's not outright phobic of water but he gets real edgy and kind of snappy when around fast moving or deep water because he watched his older brother drown when he was a kid. He started out as a light hearted fellow but after some near death experiences and after his sister was kidnapped he kind of became a darker brooding type (lots of 1000 yard stares). But in combat he will risk his own life to save or protect his friends because he'll be damned if something bad is going to happen to those he cares about on his watch.
My favorite character was a young assassin that used certain alchemical...relaxation and anti anxiety aids. I even had him take a purge when he needed to sober up quickly. I laughed when the gm had my right arm cut off. I told the party that since I was a ninja my power had only increased through the maiming. Meanwhile my buddy who is a twink and can't help it was super salty because the dice weren't very kind to him that session. I was so into that character that I didn't care about failure. I didn't notice it when I failed as much as before and enjoyed myself more because of it.
My current favorite character is a Necromancer, but she's like the polar opposite of your stereotypical necromancer. She's shy and bookwormish, wears a big blue sweater and tiny reading glasses. She's studying necromancy because she's fascinated by ghosts after being possessed by one. She's also wholesome and endearing, despite being very antisocial. Easily some of the most fun I've had roleplaying.
This is great advice for fiction character writing in general. I have a 6'4" male character as one of my mains. That would affect his daily life for sure!
I think what we have lost is the sense of complete immersion by cutting out those small details you just mentioned. The game felt more real in those older games for a reason.
I think it depends on the group to be honest. There are some groups where I don't get immersion, and others where I do. I know Skype certainly prevents deep immersion by virtue of a screen.
I never describe my experiance. I slave in 3d modelling software for hours (Sometimes days) to create my character accurately, with all marks, tattoos ad equipment included. I then rig and animate it also, so my character image can be updated as I progress.
One of my characters is a rogue who refuses to open doors outside of a town or city because during our first adventure I rolled low to check for traps and almost died. Now he checks for traps and then backs away so someone else can open it. This is regardless of if I roll a one or a 20. When asked why he says one to many doors tried to kill him. What do you think of that? (I’m fairly new to d&d and such and am trying to find out new ways to play my characters. )
My character is a Elven ranger who hates nobles, as she was treated poorly when she was a maid. It makes her fearful and, that gives her a reason to join the rebellion in our story.
My character was made to be the stereotypical mysterious character but because he was so well-liked and everyone had such unique interpretation of him that the DM made it canon that each person sees him differently
I've only experienced pure fear in one game. A roll20 Aliens game where we're locked in a planetary base with a few xenomorphs. We had an actual interactive motion tracker and creepy music and I was generally terrified when that tracked started to show movement coming towards us
The best character I've ever played was a gnome midget. That wasn't just me being redundant. He was considered by other gnomes to be rather short, since he was 2'1". Since he was a wizard, the cantrip he most often used was Mage Hand. The spell he ended up using the most was Tenser's Floating Disk, since by standing on it he doubled his height with no real effect on his speed. He also was irrepressibly cheerful, even when he was about to die.
Starting the carrion Crown in a few days and since i had my character have siblings and a living parent in a location within the campaign I had to write up bios for 3 siblings and mother, then threw in my vision of the family tavern including what roles each family member filled. It really helped me get a better understanding of my character! I just have to hope my DM doesn't have an issue with me essentially creating the layout of a building in her campaign
Just got into my first D&D group, my first ever game is happening on a couple of days, and I'm really nervous about roleplaying, but this video has helped me a lot. Thank you so much :')
One of the first things I like to make sure I know is why in the world would my character leave home on adventure, and boy has it been a hard question sometimes! One of mine left home because his teacher is sick and he's looking for a rare herb to cure her, one was born in prison and wants to see all of the natural world, and a pair simply are seeking the ultimate thrill and true glory. It usually really helps me nail down a general personality and goals!
My character is in no way a Druid (she’s a Bard) but she despises when people harm nature. And whenever she might kill a wild animal (probably for necessary food) she will always thank it for its sacrifice. It’s probably good to mention that I haven’t ever played her yet, but I am working very hard on her.
I had a Pain Point be a very good changer for a character who I picked up. He was a side-character made by a current player who was part of a Brother-Sister halfling duet, the sister was made by another player. The GM didn't like the idea of two cheeky halflings doing things so he had the girl uhh... forcefully entered to death by an ogre, this was the point where I picked the character up. He became a raging alcoholic, was intoxicated constantly which made my rolls harder, his primary stats were ridiculous though so it wasn't much of an issue, his party had the other abilities he couldn't use anyway. I stopped playing because I didn't have a way to get there anymore and my character was taken out, to come back as a Witch Hunter (The ogre was a witches pet.). Instead of using alcohol to numb himself he used his anger and heartbreak to fuel a sort of combat rage and went around hunting evil. Was a nice turning point and made it easy to pickup a character and gave me a lot of satisfaction in progressing his story.
Thanks for your video! It's nice to see a youtuber so involved with his community too. I appreciate how much I see your name in your comment section on both of your channels.
I did have a halfling bard who was rather happy go lucky, until his mother got kidnapped by slavers. Just in that short time he went from bard to assassin. That set up some rather interesting opportunities where he would be a bard to infiltrate someplace, and then his daggers came out to play when no one was looking. The first ones to feel the bite of his daggers was the slavers who had his mother. Really, really scary to see a halfling bard pull a blade and one shot your evil high marshall, then disappear before anyone was the wiser. And he was just the entertainment!
Holy shit. Perfect excuse to wear a giant costume beard! Thanks for these wonderful ideas to help channel my character a little better during the game. I didn’t realize this is what I was missing!
Toast is super European, all of us eat it, when we colonised Australia and New Zealand they made fairy bread. Each country has their own different breads! Even the uk! Bread isn't just limited to bread bread too! Pastries count!
The fears bit can be especially interesting for the character. For instance, my first character in a game of Deadlands: Reloaded was a Metal Mage, but, because i limited him to only being able to control metal in a solid state, he had a paralyzing fear of mercury, because it made him feel powerless. When that character died and his soul transferred into my new character (long story), the new character kept that fear of mercury, though it was no longer paralyzing, but he also gained a fear of the demonic trees that killed the first character twice over. Later on, my DM used that fear of the demon trees to hinder my new character's progress while he was travelling through Hell. Before anyone asks, no, Hell and demon trees are not normal things to find in Deadlands. My DM is just a crazy person.
Another great video! I'm really glad you mentioned changing your character over time. In the last session, my wizard attempted to escape the police by creating a distraction and levitating away. He was swiftly disposed of by a squad of police via firing squad. I'm expecting that he'll probably have some fears of being out numbered by people with guys going forward. :)
Pain points is a great one. I made a LE character who was a sociopath, but their one main point of empathy was someone losing a loved one. They had lost a loved one in their past, which ended up with them becoming an assassin and losing their regard for human life. They still have the ability to care for others (hence how a LE character works well in a party), but it’s very slow to develop with the one exception of having empathy towards that one specific exception.
The content from this guy is incredible, I've really enjoyed learning more about rpg from watching his videos, as I am new to D&D. He's very knowledgeable and insightful and it has been a great help! I would however suggest watching at a minimum of 1.5x speed, as his talking rhythm is very slow. I've actually been watching mostly at 2x speed, and even that seems like regular mode.
I have been exposed to tabletop RPG for most of my life. I've loved them. I'm not good at playing though, and these videos of yours that I just found have helped a lot. Thank you
these videos are helping me create such an amazing character. I hope to watch her grow over our coming campaigns together. Thank you for all your hard work ♥
Really like this video, helps me improve on my current character. He started as a lv1 Dwarf Cleric with a great fear of the undead, cuz when he was young, his home was overrun with hordes of undead, but his parents sacrificed themselves to save him and his sister. He then later on wanted to work as a cleric as a way to banish and protect himself and those around him, his fear was still there, which he didn't like, he wanted to go out and experience the world to try to combat this fear, help more people, make the world a better place. Now, he's currently lv5 (lv3 Cleric, lv2Wizard) and he's dabbling into necromancy as a way to overcome his fear and instead use it's power against itself. But to keep him interesting, he's now starting to develop a fear of corrupting himself with the dark arts, he needs to balance the light and darkness, he's getting thoughts about him rising as a lich and a tyrant and ultimately becoming what he once feared the most.
Everything in this video is awesome, thank you. The tips are pure gold. Btw, you somehow look like you have been professionally painted and animated (no idea why, but it looks SO COOL). Take it as a compliment :)
You say that we don't see change in roll playing, but I always try to include character development within my characters. One such character was one named Rachel, who was a rogue that became an assassin for the soul purpose of killing those who would harm innocent people, but as time progressed she realized this was still murder, and that there is no way to truly get rid of this dilemma. Because of this she stopped being an assassin and instead ended up becoming a diplomat for a country to use her passionate beliefs within an environment that could gain allies for the people she cared about, changing her entire outlook.
Bacon Battalion RPG ah, that makes sense. Personally having a character change throughout the story normally makes it more fun and interesting for me, and usually other people, especially the gm
This is gonna help me so much in the campaign im playing in, when i made my character i didnt know how to do anything really and kinda made them a bit stale, after a few months of playing i felt i a bit more comfortable and now want to ask about changing them a bit not too much, thanks excited even more to play again.
My character loves people, all she wants is to be surrounded. Even so, she's a tiefling, and she doesn't realise that some people will always hate her. She is confident she can overcome her tiefling stereotype, ans so her growth is learning that some people in her world are cruel, and that some people will not like her, and that she must overcome the Naïve perspective that everyone can be good
@13:00 comic relief fears... You mean like your starfinder medic screaming at the SPOILERS: mutated electrovore after trying to play dead?🤣💗 That was gold, pure, solid, 24k gold. Thank you I almost fell off my chair that time
Just try to avoid RPing surprise stuff, talk about it with your DM beforehand. I tried to RP my character losing control when fighting a skeletal horse because my PC is afraid of them, but ended up ruining the session and everyone getting mad at me (and I deeply regret it)
I doubt you "ruined" the session, why do people think when they play a ROLEPLAYING GAME that everything will go according to some pre determined path? Thats dull. The environment should be flexible enough for characters to express themselves realistically
So you are absolutely correct about the first one. One of the quirks that my party adored was the simple but unique description I gave of my character. Basically the character is a wood elf with an obviously strong build, a warrior build really though still androgynous looking, however they are towering over most other elves at 6’4” (highly unusual but I do make it clear this is supposed to be a family trait of theirs). The other part is that my character is wearing the uniform of their faction in contrast to all the rest of the elves around them. They carried three swords, only one that seemed magical and the mundane ones covered so their designs could not be made out. They also wore a choker with the symbol of their faction and long, bright red tassel earrings. The character has tan skin with the unique type of scars one can get from being struck by lightning running up their hands and up their arms. Their eyes are bright green. One of the features the players have all their characters still mess with is the last one. My character has thick, textured, wavy dark brown hair. It’s joked on often that my character has a lot of hair that is mostly untamable. The cleric, who often hitches a piggy back ride now from my character, will try to smooth and braid it as we travel along which my character allows. I also mentioned that there seems to be the odd ink stain occasionally that my character may not have noticed to clean off (my character is a researcher and artist and like most artists will find they have gotten paint or ink on themself and not remember why or how). Despite the fact that my character seems a bit wild like, I will mention that my character stands with a graceful and proper stance, not stiff but not so casual that it’s improper, often either a stoic expression or faint fond smile on their face. This part isn’t really known yet, and probably not suspected until I got my art commissioned for this character, but this character is also trans, sorta. Kinda nonbinary and using she/they. Still, started male physically and hasn’t really gone through the magical process to full transition and is in no rush since they are more NB than otherwise. This is to explain some aspects of their build which are…notably missing (flat chest, slightly broader shoulders that don’t slope the same way as women’s often do, and the Adam’s apple that is often covered by neck jewelry and high collars). Anyway the party latch on quickly to the bits and pieces of physical description I have provided for them regarding my character and I find it sweet that they are invested. Makes my day! Seriously though, we love to joke about the height my character has because they are the second tallest of the party which is sorta hilarious at times. Makes them pretty good at playing up being a “bodyguard” which we have done before. Oh and for 2 the party finds my character sketching or writing whenever they have a spare moment. When asked, the character has said they are writing reports or drawing or writing poetry, which they have. One of the players warned me that their character might steal one to see which I ok’d. 3) my character is friendly and fond but is pessimistic who tries to be optimistic. Their story is they are a parentified eldest child who eventually left home after the toxicity got too much. They are compulsively a protector and caretaker. They also have a past where they lost their fiancé during an incident which further reinforced their fear of losing what means most to them. The ongoing war in the continent does not help. And that leads into 4. They are, as said, compulsively a protecter and caretaker. They also fully blame themself for the lose of their fiancé and will take on far more responsibility for things than they should. This last one is one of the major character arcs I have planned for said character. I want them to learn to stop that or do so in a more reasonable manner. Also this character is one who’s story is about living with the grief of a loved one having passed on (kinda think of that film “Up” and I think you get the general idea though adapted for dnd). And desires 5, well that leads back to the grief. And also the parentified eldest child thing. Let’s start with eldest child. To start with, my pc has had little to call their own for a long time, including what interests they take and how they use their time. As such, they developed a desire to have something to call their own. One of the ways they started this is by leaving home and joining the faction they did. The other was having a relationship with their fiancé. And that leads into the next part. Their grief. The life plan that they had finally made for themselves is derailed entirely when their fiancé passes away. My pc cannot return to their toxic family and the incident has also alienated them from their fiancé’s family too. They have few friends, some who have stopped talking to them after they lashed out after the incident. So my character is left to pick themselves up on their own. So what do they do with that unmoored feeling? They throw themselves into their research, something their faction fully supports (scholars after all) and so they do that for 15 years as they try to figure themself out again and what they want. And that is simply, a life plan, with, in particular, a life plan that includes something they can call their own. I plan to have that be the party, what with being the found family thing, but we’ll see how that actually plays out still. It’s on track for now however. So basically my character wants purpose. Oh but there is one flawed desire they also have. Due to their survivor’s guilt they also have a small desire they refuse to acknowledge and that is to be “punished” for failing to protect their fiancé. They want someone or something to reinforce for them that the incident was entirely their fault. Is it? Absolutely not! This is not a healthy desire and that is part of the point. It’s a flaw designed for one of my pc’s biggest antagonist to dig into and manipulate my pc with. Namely, the ex brother-in-law who blames my pc for their sibling’s death. My pc believes them. Simple as that. Reminder that it isn’t supposed to be healthy, which is something of a theme in the campaign, which is to conquer these unhealthy mentalities and senses of guilt that we should not take responsibility on our shoulders for as they aren’t ours to carry or even have. And for fears, that goes back to the incident. Other than the fear of failure my character has and a fear of a lack of purpose, as well as a fear of loneliness, my character has a phobia of the creature that attacked and killed their fiancé. Simple as that. So yeah that’s how I made this character and I adore it! I love it so much ☺️ and I’m so glad you made their points because it reinforced for me that I made a character who is very investable for my party to play off of. Always encouraging! Thanks for the video!
So I have spent a good 72 hours with the 6 questions and these fleshing points writing and creating a new character (thank you for making me a lot more passionate about my characters) as my stats were rolled and my skills picked I made a character that I know probably better than myself. I have created an emotional bond with this character and I made it with the GM and we are getting very close to actually beginning. Everything seems fine, I'm excited and I'm thinking about my character's backstory and reliving it over and over again as I see more opportunity to fill holes. The GM is fairly new and he has made a few mistakes in the past but these vids have helped a lot, and I am a very new player as well. I am excited and ready to play and he wants every character to have a phobia so that he can add to the story. I am having a hard time seeing how my character having a phobia helps him write the story unless if he intends to intentionally put each one of us new players into a position where we have a completely debilitating fear. I ran across a problem as I know he has read my character and I know that he agreed with it before and it left little room to add a phobia without changing a lot of my character already, and he decides that every character has to have a phobia even if it is something really small. He reminds me that it is just roll playing. Although I am already pushing some comfort zones with creating my humble character and a phobia is something that I do not feel I am ready to introduce into this as I am trying to play a character that doesn't bring much attention to themselves as much as them focusing on the needs of others. Simply she is a protector was raised by slave pirates, although she wasn't really a slave as much as she was a crew member so she has a fear of government authorities which will create conflict at times with the group, plus the slavers she was with well they were the type to sell a, to be discreet, "pleasure" slave and so she has developed a fear of men. The group that she will be running with has 1 female (2 including her) and 4 men that she will be showing a professional attitude around. She also prefers not to be in small spaces but she has been in many in her life which doesn't hit the phobia description. I can't wait till I can actually be playing to emphasize these points that will no doubt be a constant and yet he wants me to add more on top of it? Is this a time where I as a PC need to suck it up and follow my GM and change this characters backstory or stand up to my GM and say that this isn't fair. I honestly would rather keep the character I made the way she is and create an entirely different character for the story that can maybe be based more around a phobia because of a traumatic experience that he/she had. I figured before making it a big deal with the GM and being a bully to get some professional RP help.
We actually had something come up where my tortle weighed too much for a party member to carry but my legs were broken. It became a huge role play encounter that the group really enjoyed.
Great video! This gave me some pointers for my characters. Some critique on the content: I would consider renaming "Desires" to "Dreams." I understood your description, but I think dreams is a more fitting term for the lofty aspirations of a character. Sure, it's a but it a well-used and generic term, but that makes it easier to remember the core of the idea you're trying to get across.
12:52 My Skyrim character is actually afraid of horses lmao. Though in reality I only made her that way because I don't like fast travelling (via carriage or using the map) and I want her to be able to interact with her follower.
My current character is a former town guard with a dislike of the upper class, who is the only nonviolent member of an incredibly murderous group (I'm a Neutral Good character in an entirely Chaotic Evil and Chaotic Neutral party). Instead of character progression, he is regressing to become more like them - the people he initially had a "What am I DOING with this lot?" view of. At some point in the future, he's going to realize this is completely against his ideals and retire, and let the adopted Gnoll son he was forcefully given by the party take his place. Best character I've ever played.
Just now watching this for my first character from 2017, and I realize how much I can improve. Never really thought about fears and phobias, as well as a world view on top of my ideals. But now I realize my Dragonborn monk has a fear of rejection causing tension with his really just and righteous view of the world as he tries to reconcile decisions with chaotic and neutral companions. Thanks!
Ooooo pain points. My blood hunter is like that whenever Bahamut gets brought up. Long story but it's always fun to just think "nope. nope. nope. I'm out." and walk off somewhere
Is it ok for your character to have an odd hair/skin colour (example: white hair+extremely pale skin on a human who is quite young) if you can explain why this is the case?
That's between you and your GM. Just remember the consequences of that though - easily identifiable, marked as different. It's a great role-playing opportunity to be able to have to hide it when being chased, to have angst over the differences etc. It's a potential cool storytelling prop you can add to your character.
There is a genetic trait known as albinism, like if you were to see an albino crocodile. If you have albinism than your body is incapable of producing pigments that make up color so whoever has it is very pale, white hair, and grey eyes. Also a lot of people with albinism don’t have very great eyesight and have to wear glasses. And since i’m pretty sure glasses weren’t invented back then you should just try to make your character’s lowest stat perception
For an example of description effecting how i played i had a human draconic bloodline sorceress, she was being hunted for plot reasons that ill not get into, so i in game got my hair dyed and cut as it was one of the ways i could think of throwing of would be assassins, i also started dressing in bardic style clothes and tried my best to pass off as a nobody bard, which... thanks to a really bad dm resulted in one of the players being force to betray me and then the dm pulling the big bad out of no where so all that work... down the toilet.
Best part about this is, I’m not playing a RPG Nor am I doing a fantasy rp chilling with an online danganronpa role play on a server with an absolute asshole 4’10 childish mess of an oc while everyone is talking about their fantasy ocs and I’m just like- ahAH On the other hand; while I thought about all of these I never actually put much thought into how to play it into or tie it into his personality along with his situation. Even tho I’m not the targeted audience when it comes to this, this is actually a really epic video and is forcing me to go into depth
I once played a grung pirate which was literally just Kermit from Muppet Treasure Island, size included. This came into play beautifully when he attempted to grapple a fleeing murder suspect and ended up only being able to cling onto her left leg, causing the comical limp typically associated with a small child clinging to a parent.
My character is a half-teifling who is in a stage of grief where she believes that if she believes it enough, she can revive her lost love by finding an artefact that could revive him. So she's in a weird stage of hope and depression where talking about him is hard but she is starting to have hope, however unrealistic. She's shut out to the world, but is starting to open up, and starting to believe again. She's adventuring to find that artifact, and is starting to warm up the the other people that agreed to help her and come with her with their own goals.
My character has a fear of crowds :3 And that's actually a disadvantage picked in the character creation .. In order to get advantages you have to pay them with disadvantages xD
What do you do about players that just dont seem to care whatsoever about their character, not even their class or race? For context I have a player who when i asked what kind of character he was thinking of, he said simply "a knight". So i asked again, well, what kind. Theres always Fighter, tho we have a decent amount of dps as it is. But we do need a tank for the team. Maybe a Fighter, or even a Warpriest, to frontline? And his response was "no i dont want any of that, just make me a knight. medium armor and a greatsword." I have no idea what to say about it. I asked what kind of race, he said he didnt care. All he seems to care about is being able to mercilessly smash with a greatsword, and rp as a gentleman knight. Tried everything i could think of to get him involved. Eventually i literally made him a character and asked what he thought of it and the intended personality (idk if he wants a charismatic knight or a smashy knight), and he just said "sure, itll work" and no notes. Asked him if there was anything hed want to change, or add, or anything. Just got an "eh". I had actually made him a Barbarian Half Orc wth negative mental stats (20 point buy campaign) and really high physical stats who has a stature similar to lenny from Mice and Men. He means well and wishes for greater things and to help others, but he just cant help himself. He gets carried away, his Orcish blood boils a bit too thick. But in the end he has good intentions. This way he can smash, and hes semi tanky since Barbarians arent TOO bad at that. And beyond that RPing is up to him. Well, he decided to randomly throw in his only request: that his character be albino. Wasnt sure why, but ok. He's now albino. Aversion to fire and direct sunlight, as well as a slight bonus to disguise checks to pretend hes a burly, ugly elf. So I told him that as a gift, the town that knew of his good natured soul and his pesky condition decided to make him a patch cloak of pretty decent quality for him, to help with the sunlight. HE DIDNT UNDERSTAND WHY HE GOT A CLOAK, AND EVEN SASSED ME ABOUT IT. He had no intention of RPing the albino bit. He just wanted to say he was. And hes talking with all the info he the player has, and quickly and concisely some how, and has a casual, rolling accent and a self inserted charismatic attitude. And im just sitting here like IF YOU HAD WANTED TO BE A CHARISMATIC KNIGHT YOU SHOULDVE SAID SO INSTEAD OF REPEATEDLY SAYING GIBBERISH, I COULDVE MADE YOU A TACTICIAN FIGHTER SO YOURE MORE ABOUT THE CARE OF THE TEAM AND THE UPSTANDING NATURE OF YOUR LAWFULNESS. INSTEAD OF A CG HALF ORC BARBARIAN WITH NEG MENTALS. So i just dont know what to do. Maybe you can give me some ideas. All my other characters are super into their guys. I got a Human Gunslinger who has dreams of becoming a merchant and mass producing firearms for the country, seeing as how the world is relatively gunless. He wishes to fix that and be a gun toting mogul. I have a Human Bard whos actually female being played by a male character who has actually committed to the RP of being a woman who wishes to make herself and her compatriots world famous and to get as many people as humanly possible to know and respect their names. I have a Human and an Elf (two players) who are both Bladebound Magus who taught under the same master who wish to track down the ancient, lost arcane secrets in the world, albeit for VERY different reasons. The Human is negligent to fight, preferring his studies and his books greatly. He sacrificed his martial training a bit for an extensive array of research and studies and has become a veritable swiss army knife of a man. He wishes to track down the lost arcanes for the potential they posses and for the utilities they could provide. Then the Elf is more combat prowess than book smart. He left the library a bit more than hes proud of to practice with his blade in the yard. Hes a brilliant fighter with a dedicated heart towards his goals. He seeks the lost arcanes for the practical uses it could provide, as well as the raw power is no doubt holds for him. So I have all these interesting characters with players going all in for it, and then this other guy. Literally didnt make his guy because he didnt care enough to even tell me a play style, and is now RPing a completely different being from what i made for him. Any thoughts?
He must be more interesting in the mechanics than the roleplay. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it is frustrating to have a mechanics gamer in a role playing game or a role player in a mechanics game. Why don't you ask him about it. Without saying that he is playing the game wrong(because he isn't, just a different way), ask him if you can help him with his character and roleplaying. Tell him that this is a roleplaying group and that if you going to not roleplay then you might want an explanation for it. Like what if he's a construct made by the wizard of the party to help them in the journey, that way he doesn't have to roleplay, or maybe he's just very stoic and mysterious. I know that it might be hard to do this after you have already started, but you get the idea. And he's not ok with doing something like that, then don't push it. Unless he is ruining the experience for the other players, he can play however he wants. But if he is running the experience for the other players, then tell him that he does need to do something about it
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you very much. These really are covering some amazing territory here. World view is one of my first factors that I work on for a character. I've not specifically played with pain points, but I can see how some of my characters have had them on a certain level. But character goals... and even growth over the course of a game... those are both unbelievably helpful. Some of my favorite players have been ones that have grown and changed over the course of the game. One started out as the comic relief badass (as a point of reference, he was a flaming battlemage named Ruepaul), but by the end, the stress of his goal (which was actually to conquer a new homeland for his nation that had been turned into a magical wasteland) along with everything else that had been going on wound up transforming and developing the character. More recently, I've played a character that had an interesting mix of growth and lack of change. He was a very low wisdom character, but very good at what he did, which was bringing the pain with hellfire, despite being a very innocent young man, who dressed almost more like a priest than the warlock he was. What amused me the most was that he became a veritable Cassanova in the aftermath of saving a city from a cultist driven plague... despite still being very much dedicated to his God and goodness in general.
One of my favorite parts of my (recently deceased) Avariel was her fear of airships. She once lost a wing in battle (now had a prosthetic) and as a result of her struggles to find help and escape from the floating island she lost her wing on, she gained a terrible fear of falling and being unable to fly. Because airships were the main way to travel in that world, she would fly on them, but she refused to go indoors for more than a split second, lest the airship be shot out of the sky and she be unable to make it out and end up falling with it. She even refused to go inside when the party ran into a swarm of sky jellyfish, and the party ended up having to use Suggestion to keep her indoors until the jellyfish passed so they wouldn't kill her.
Talking about character development: just played the second session of a game where one of the characters (an elf wizard) had suffered from amnesia with a personality breakdown and doesn't completely realise when they do things that damage the party or it's mission. Got to the point where they nearly killed a player (because they were trying to defend themselves and didn't quite notice/ care that the other player was there) so they decided to leave for an elvish city we were avoiding because the elves were fearful of outsiders/ non-elves. He ended up getting attacked by a monster, but luckily he hadn't gone far and one of the party members was following him to make sure he didn't get us into more trouble. He is getting destroyed by the monster and the rest of the party is looking on, but we decide to stop the monster and help him out. He ends up running past the monster as we fight it and towards the elvish city. the druid spots this and decides to heal him as a parting gift and then the druid returns to the fight and the elf runs off to the city. We finish off the monster after a while but the wizard is long gone. The wizard had taken a broken wand with him which he intends to get repaired and give to my familiar, which loves all things magic. This, he hopes will make up for what he had done to the party when he eventually tracks us down again.
Guys, he doesn't advertise this often but i by chance stumbled on his actual gameplay with friends and it is literally the best on the net if you don't mind that they don't have critical role kind of budget. I cannot recommend watching his Bacon RPG series (which started as pathfinder and ports to 5e) enough! They also play star/futuristic themes as well but thats not my thing. Once you see the chemistry and patience of him and his friends (some perhaps completely new players) you will probably have a completely different impression. You've got to watch them in action! I am completely unaffiliated with anyone on this channel and just want to spread the word. Browse his channel. Most episodes I've watched are 30 minutes or less in duration because i don't often have 2.5 hrs for watching other games. He edits out a lot of the math of calculating damage and (since that takes up most of the time in episodes) it makes the play time be concise and compelling. Highly enjoyable and made me a better DM! Im posting this on his popular videos because of the proverb "let other praise you and not thee thyself"
6) Phobias & Fears: In Neverwinter Online; There's a Fire Giant that finds "small folk" off putting, and has issues with a really big bird. I wonder...
I love warlock flavoring, even with physical. Our DM made us pick a hometown on his country map. Whenever we visited the hometown of my Fiendlock, everyone would be afraid because my horns are bare. It was hilarious, no I counters whatsoever and everyone ran away. We basically walked in a straight line.
Want more tips, guides and insight into being a great game master or role player character? check out our channel. How to be a Great Game Master: ruclips.net/user/HowtobeaGreatGameMasterChannel
My character, Dumplin', started chaotic evil and ending chaotic good. We called it "the redumption arc."
As in the one and only Demon God Dumplin' ?
Beautiful
Is that a mf TFS reference?
So basically like Discord from MLP FIM?
Created an Ogre for the party to fight. One of the party had the tongues spell at the time and decided to talk it out with him. Through a series of difficult checks they convinced him they would provide food if he followed them. They kept providing food so he eventually became a npc with the party. The fun part was it was a Mythic game base so they were all becoming high level characters through strange and mysterious ways. At one point there was a statue that was supposed to grant a large Intelligence boost (+6) permanently. They told the ogre to touch it since they thought it was a trap and so he became a smart ogre. I had to essentially make him into a full fledged pc so long story short he now believes himself a king among men, wears extravagant clothes, and is attempting to start his own kingdom by "recruiting" people or creatures the party fights.
Absolutely not what I expected but he is now one of my favorite characters
Also he hates fire because at one point they convinced him lava was food. He almost attacked them when he realized they had used him as a meat shield a couple times but instead realized that he was the one who acted on it regardless of who told him to.
This is an actual character. Almost like a “flowers for algernon” ogre. Love it!
Only in dnd, amirite?
I’ve “stolen” the old Toyota engineering term “5 whys” to explain critical aspects of my characters. Essentially you present something like: This character won’t ever drink healing potions. Then I ask why? Well because he thinks they make you weak. Okay why does he think that? Because his father taught him that. Why did his father teach him that? Because his father thought that would make him a strong warrior. Why did his father want him to be a strong warrior? Because he felt that his son wasn’t ready to take his place as his successor. Why didn’t his father think he was ready to become his successor? Because he wasn’t a cruel enough person. This line of questioning took a mundane if somewhat interesting aspect of a character and fleshed it out to become a backstory with an abusive and cruel father and a “I must make my dad proud” want that can be easily made into later character progression with a realisation of needing to be his own person.
ooh that’s an interesting technique! I might try it since my new oc feels a bit bland
Agreed physical description is important! I play a 8' 6" goliath Paladin and I cant tell you how many times my size came into play
DM: Creature grabs your cleric and crawls up a 10ft ladder destroying it before continuing down the passage.
Me: Rokk (my goliath) runs upto where the ladder was and pulls himself up to the next floor continuing the chase
DM: How? The ladder is gone..how would you clear 10ft?
Me: Rokk is 8' 6"! With his wingspan he easily reaches 10ft! If you want I can roll athletics to lift myself up but with +5 str I bet you I got this.
I....was also used as a stand for the smaller members to see over tall rocks.....and I couldn't wear 90% of the armor we looted cause I was too big...to make it worse the ~3-4' rogues stole my share of money after we sold it cause I'd hardly notice them...but thats what made it fun haha
Aww it actually hurt my heart that your group stole your money! Lmao
Rokk sounds lovable, curse all who dare steal from him!
6'6" dragonborn here...his friend is a 3' gnome that likes sitting on his shoulder. Without height description, this wouldn't be possible.
7' 10" goliath fighter here, in the last campaign I played. I had a scene like that at one point, but with a whole lot of piercers clinging to the ten foot high roof of a ruined corridor.
Me: "Yeah, so I'm just going to reach out directly in front of me and peel them off the roof as I go."
DM: "One of them cracks open an eye as you approach, it's clearly unused to making horizontal eye contact with things it was about to try and ambush-predate. There's an awkward moment as your gazes meet."
Me: "I make an 'I see what you were about to do there' face and slowly shake my head"
DM: "It attempts to scurry toward you and half-heartedly drop onto any part of you."
Me: "With its 5 foot move speed and falling from directly in front of my face? I let it fall all all of, like, five feet? And plink off the toe of my boot, unfazed"
DM: "Pretty much. They're not very adaptable, as hunting strategies go."
I'm late but no matter. I at one point played a 14 Inch tall sociopathic sprite wizard and it was just so beautiful. He quite often made a habit of sitting on the paladin's shoulder and casting spells from there during combat
Ahhh accents the bane of existence's. fading in out of british, then to welsh, then to some sort of Australian then to scottish
Then to french
Then jamaican
Then the whole party is confused
I totally know what you mean. But at the same time Germindiamaican and Southafriwelshausscottikiwi are two of my favorite accents. Unfortunately the first was in a let's play episode I can't remember but for Southafriwelshausscottikiwi just look up the merchant from Resident Evil 4. Weird accents can be just great if they're consistently weird.
I don't even know what you'd call hers but Nico from Devil May Cry 5 also has a bizarre accent and it's not a bad thing at all if you ask me.
So on the positive side of messing up accents, you can make some great things lol
Me; all my characters have cool accents
Me: butchering the accents horribly
I do this when talking normally
did we play together? lmao
0:35 Physical description
2:48 Mannerisms
5:00 World view
6:35 Pain points
9:05 Desires
10:48 Phobias
Thanks XD
Thanks on a guys hip
I just started this video but before I forget, physical description is so damn important. One of my players is a changeling witch in Pathfinder and I've always assumed her to be this typical changeling, tall with long dark hair, pale skin, cold and commanding in presence. Her appearance never came much into play since she's not in her body in the campaign, but I was writing her a dream sequence outside of the sessions to drop some plot hints, and it occured me that I never asked her how she envisions her character's initial appearance. Turns out she's short, plump and has messy ginger hair. And warts. This literally destroyed my vision of her character. And just because I forgot to ask her how did she look before her current predicament.
Mavander I ran a game with an evil party where one player had a character with a hatred of shapeshifters because one killed his mother. Another person was playing a changeling... needless to say it did not end well. The changeling offered life using the golden hands stayed blade to reduce the assassin's hp to 1 but not kill him. He stuck to his character and attempted to attack anyways so she killed him.
I liked how it added to the story and that he stuck with the character but the player who had the human assassin became quite upset afterwards and eventually dropped from the game after several attempts with a new character to enact revenge on the whole party for "picking a monster over him". I tried to let it go and thought he might get tired of failing as the entire party was high level so it would've taken a lot to kill them but eventually one of his plans backfired and a bounty was placed on his head by the authorities.
I play online, over roll20, and we don't use webcams (because we don't all have 1). But I still sit like my character, nod, and things like that, doing little things the character would do, even though no-one else can see it. I had a half-orc barabarian, and I'd sit right up, because he was nearly 7 foot, and, whenever he talked, I would stick out my lower jaw, and just talk, because pushing out my lower jaw made me talk in the gruff voice of the Half-Orc, and makes certain letters hard to pronounce, which it would be if you had tusks coming out of your mouth (but it bloody hurts after a couple minutes). When I played an older wizard, I hunched up a bit, squinted a bit, and otherwise just kind of end up embodying stuff my character would be doing, even though, again, no-one can see it. When the Half-Orc was sitting there during a long conversation I zoned out a little, and started looking around my room, because the character doesn't speak common perfectly, so after a few minutes of long discussion and big words, he kind of gave up trying to understand it all, and got bored.
The pushing lower jaw out trick kinda works for me. But is also makes me speak in a very, VERY British accent. So that's cool, I guess.
and that my friends, is what i presume voice actors do in the recording booth.
Okay, now to make my character that is afraid of the word "and."
LOL
and dont forget and and nand are quiet common however nand is rarer than and and things can get quiet wierd and strange when and and nand are unusable
No more "Yes, and..." Only "yes"
I just sat here for thirty minutes trying to make a Monty Python reference, but I couldn't make it fit.
Oh! I said it!
Oh god, I said it again!
Oh-!
And and and and and and and and and and and and and
Pain points have made for some very humorous play in one of the games I played in. My character had an intense hatred of goblins for having killed his mentor. During the second session, we went to a location that happened to be my character's home town, so the party went with him to visit his parents. He discovered that his parents had died, and their ghosts informed him that they were killed by goblins. This sends my character into a blind rage that leads him to the nearby cave where the goblins were hiding, and he kills all of them. Later, the party comes across a portal that leads us 500 years forward in time. We meet with the king in this new time, and he informs the party that my character is hailed as a hero for having cleansed the world of goblins during his life.
That is how far just a simple detail like "hates goblins" can go for making the story and character more interesting.
Goblin Slayer huh... Souka
Heh, that'd be great, my wizard having a fear of horses while my barbarian cohort already has a fear of magic being used on him. "Why can't we just teleport?!" "Last time you nearly turned us into a totem pole with that tree! A horse is good enough!" We'd eventually compromise with me learning Phantom Chariot so I don't have to see the horses. And later I get excited discovering a mystery scroll, and develop a nervous tic when I learn it's Mount.
I have a wizard who is terrified of dragons because he was enslaved by one in his early adulthood. After his escape he developed PTSD, coming with nightmares and flashbacks. One time, our party was walking through a castle and we noticed some large footprints on the ground. After seeing that they looked similar to dragon prints, my wizard had a panic attack and was barely able to move for the next ten minutes. Turns out it was just bears.
Having small mannerisms that your character invokes *constantly* gives you another tool; just once, not invoking it when you should. Maybe the wizard that compulsively twirls his wand snaps to attention and brandishes it unerringly when the villain threatens his family. A characteristically silent warrior bursts into a tirade at an otherwise unremarkable slight. Things like that.
I recently started to play a Gnome Artificer and one of his many weird details was that two of his fingers were replaced with metal prostheses. The problem was: they worked with magic and we started as prisoners in a cell were magic didn't work. So everytime I wanted to move these two fingers I would manually bend them with my other hand. The others at the table were amazed
My Samurai's mannerism is that when ever he said his last name he would do a kind of arm movement and pose. Many NPCs in my GM's world picked up on this and would do this when addressing him when he would start to get a bigger name as a sign of respect towards him.
That's nice
My tabaxi rouge was raised by goblins (she was abandoned as a child and a goblin tribe found and adopted her. They assumed she was some sort of pigmy bugbear) so she refers to all magic as ‘Booyag’ and keeps a pet rat. She knows how to ride wolves as well but that info hasn’t come up yet in the campaign
My dragonborn bard is going to adventure to get money and wealth to start his own bard college to spread the rock and roll through the land!
Totally! Awesome!
Cristiano Esteves sounds like a wizard I'm making who has a magical lute which sounds like a electric guitar. and with every spell he plays heavy metal.
dave mustaine???is that you?
A noble cause, if there ever was one!
He's gonna make his own Bard College, and it's gonna have bone dice, and dancers!
I had a Lawful Good paladin who was the up holder of everything he deemed good, but was very snobby and thought of himself as superior to others because of his "noble blood". Galathon (which was his name) was later saved by a beggar and then that made him think of peasants, as he liked to call everyone, as more important than just bodies. Later in the quest he failed a will save verses the God of Corruption, and became the new anti-paladin Cain. Started slaying everything around him. Just wanting to bring chaos and death in the name of his lord. Except for the beggars, because he remembered that the meager beggars once saved his life. Was one of my favorite characters and everyone enjoyed him watching him grow and become the demon of chaos that he had become
My main problem with this is the fact that I’m too indecisive on my character’s backstory.
"How do you create fear?"
Crows.
describe in Vivid detail a scene where there's a bunch of dead trees infested with crows that are eerily silent.
describe how there's less color the world seems to be muted and mostly Grey
I have a gnome bard who's missing her right eye. Everytime a person says they want to go through the door on the right eye, she always asks where that is.
EPIC!
My favorite character I have played is also the most "lived in" and fleshed out character. He's not outright phobic of water but he gets real edgy and kind of snappy when around fast moving or deep water because he watched his older brother drown when he was a kid. He started out as a light hearted fellow but after some near death experiences and after his sister was kidnapped he kind of became a darker brooding type (lots of 1000 yard stares). But in combat he will risk his own life to save or protect his friends because he'll be damned if something bad is going to happen to those he cares about on his watch.
Victor Lopez pretty cool
My favorite character was a young assassin that used certain alchemical...relaxation and anti anxiety aids. I even had him take a purge when he needed to sober up quickly.
I laughed when the gm had my right arm cut off. I told the party that since I was a ninja my power had only increased through the maiming.
Meanwhile my buddy who is a twink and can't help it was super salty because the dice weren't very kind to him that session. I was so into that character that I didn't care about failure. I didn't notice it when I failed as much as before and enjoyed myself more because of it.
My current favorite character is a Necromancer, but she's like the polar opposite of your stereotypical necromancer. She's shy and bookwormish, wears a big blue sweater and tiny reading glasses. She's studying necromancy because she's fascinated by ghosts after being possessed by one. She's also wholesome and endearing, despite being very antisocial. Easily some of the most fun I've had roleplaying.
This is great advice for fiction character writing in general. I have a 6'4" male character as one of my mains. That would affect his daily life for sure!
Davrainbow I am 6'4. Can confirm.
I actually do art of my characters to have a picture of them.
I think what we have lost is the sense of complete immersion by cutting out those small details you just mentioned. The game felt more real in those older games for a reason.
I think it depends on the group to be honest. There are some groups where I don't get immersion, and others where I do. I know Skype certainly prevents deep immersion by virtue of a screen.
Could you do a video about how to effectively utilize familiars/animal companions in combat and story?
I never describe my experiance.
I slave in 3d modelling software for hours (Sometimes days) to create my character accurately, with all marks, tattoos ad equipment included.
I then rig and animate it also, so my character image can be updated as I progress.
I've always wanted to do that. What program do you use
Probably blender or maya
One of my characters is a rogue who refuses to open doors outside of a town or city because during our first adventure I rolled low to check for traps and almost died. Now he checks for traps and then backs away so someone else can open it. This is regardless of if I roll a one or a 20. When asked why he says one to many doors tried to kill him.
What do you think of that? (I’m fairly new to d&d and such and am trying to find out new ways to play my characters. )
Its nice!
It makes perfect sense
@@matthewdeleon382 thanks. Sadly I haven’t been able to play him in a long while.
My character is a Elven ranger who hates nobles, as she was treated poorly when she was a maid. It makes her fearful and, that gives her a reason to join the rebellion in our story.
My character was made to be the stereotypical mysterious character but because he was so well-liked and everyone had such unique interpretation of him that the DM made it canon that each person sees him differently
I've only experienced pure fear in one game. A roll20 Aliens game where we're locked in a planetary base with a few xenomorphs. We had an actual interactive motion tracker and creepy music and I was generally terrified when that tracked started to show movement coming towards us
I remember in a one shot the fact that my Tabaxi didn’t wear shoes became important
Goals have an end.
Desires are indefinite.
Thank you this was super helpful, those 6 points took my character from a specific backstory into a fully fledged out personality.
The best character I've ever played was a gnome midget.
That wasn't just me being redundant. He was considered by other gnomes to be rather short, since he was 2'1".
Since he was a wizard, the cantrip he most often used was Mage Hand. The spell he ended up using the most was Tenser's Floating Disk, since by standing on it he doubled his height with no real effect on his speed. He also was irrepressibly cheerful, even when he was about to die.
Starting the carrion Crown in a few days and since i had my character have siblings and a living parent in a location within the campaign I had to write up bios for 3 siblings and mother, then threw in my vision of the family tavern including what roles each family member filled. It really helped me get a better understanding of my character! I just have to hope my DM doesn't have an issue with me essentially creating the layout of a building in her campaign
Just got into my first D&D group, my first ever game is happening on a couple of days, and I'm really nervous about roleplaying, but this video has helped me a lot. Thank you so much :')
One of the first things I like to make sure I know is why in the world would my character leave home on adventure, and boy has it been a hard question sometimes! One of mine left home because his teacher is sick and he's looking for a rare herb to cure her, one was born in prison and wants to see all of the natural world, and a pair simply are seeking the ultimate thrill and true glory. It usually really helps me nail down a general personality and goals!
Cool! We got the physical apearance right from the start!
First session: Druid blinding the goblin with his long blond hair in the sun
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I'm really enjoying this video series, because I have been wondering how to be a better player, so this helps a ton
Glad to hear that!
My character is in no way a Druid (she’s a Bard) but she despises when people harm nature. And whenever she might kill a wild animal (probably for necessary food) she will always thank it for its sacrifice. It’s probably good to mention that I haven’t ever played her yet, but I am working very hard on her.
I had a Pain Point be a very good changer for a character who I picked up. He was a side-character made by a current player who was part of a Brother-Sister halfling duet, the sister was made by another player. The GM didn't like the idea of two cheeky halflings doing things so he had the girl uhh... forcefully entered to death by an ogre, this was the point where I picked the character up. He became a raging alcoholic, was intoxicated constantly which made my rolls harder, his primary stats were ridiculous though so it wasn't much of an issue, his party had the other abilities he couldn't use anyway. I stopped playing because I didn't have a way to get there anymore and my character was taken out, to come back as a Witch Hunter (The ogre was a witches pet.). Instead of using alcohol to numb himself he used his anger and heartbreak to fuel a sort of combat rage and went around hunting evil. Was a nice turning point and made it easy to pickup a character and gave me a lot of satisfaction in progressing his story.
That's awesome! A great way to work out a problem and to introduce a character back into the game. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for your video! It's nice to see a youtuber so involved with his community too. I appreciate how much I see your name in your comment section on both of your channels.
I did have a halfling bard who was rather happy go lucky, until his mother got kidnapped by slavers. Just in that short time he went from bard to assassin. That set up some rather interesting opportunities where he would be a bard to infiltrate someplace, and then his daggers came out to play when no one was looking. The first ones to feel the bite of his daggers was the slavers who had his mother.
Really, really scary to see a halfling bard pull a blade and one shot your evil high marshall, then disappear before anyone was the wiser. And he was just the entertainment!
This is the third video I've seen in developing character and your the first to be helpful. So thanks! Much appreciated
Holy shit. Perfect excuse to wear a giant costume beard! Thanks for these wonderful ideas to help channel my character a little better during the game. I didn’t realize this is what I was missing!
Fun fact about roleplaying with middle-europeans... You always have a toast. Toast-speeches included.
A what?
Toast is super European, all of us eat it, when we colonised Australia and New Zealand they made fairy bread. Each country has their own different breads! Even the uk! Bread isn't just limited to bread bread too! Pastries count!
aelin playing sims I think they were talking about toasting drinks.
@@epileum67 I think they were making a joke
Gwynn I know, I was just clarifying that I thought the OP was referring to toasting drinks
The fears bit can be especially interesting for the character. For instance, my first character in a game of Deadlands: Reloaded was a Metal Mage, but, because i limited him to only being able to control metal in a solid state, he had a paralyzing fear of mercury, because it made him feel powerless. When that character died and his soul transferred into my new character (long story), the new character kept that fear of mercury, though it was no longer paralyzing, but he also gained a fear of the demonic trees that killed the first character twice over. Later on, my DM used that fear of the demon trees to hinder my new character's progress while he was travelling through Hell.
Before anyone asks, no, Hell and demon trees are not normal things to find in Deadlands. My DM is just a crazy person.
I loved this, this was extremely helpful. I felt my char was unfinished, now i feel my char is very refine
I absolutely adore the way you are so dedicated
Another great video! I'm really glad you mentioned changing your character over time. In the last session, my wizard attempted to escape the police by creating a distraction and levitating away. He was swiftly disposed of by a squad of police via firing squad. I'm expecting that he'll probably have some fears of being out numbered by people with guys going forward. :)
That's a good example of how the character can evolve and feel more real! Sounds like a fun campaign!
On physical appearances: My party adopted a direwolf NPC, but we can only take him inside a building or room if the place has double doors.
Pain points is a great one. I made a LE character who was a sociopath, but their one main point of empathy was someone losing a loved one. They had lost a loved one in their past, which ended up with them becoming an assassin and losing their regard for human life. They still have the ability to care for others (hence how a LE character works well in a party), but it’s very slow to develop with the one exception of having empathy towards that one specific exception.
The content from this guy is incredible, I've really enjoyed learning more about rpg from watching his videos, as I am new to D&D. He's very knowledgeable and insightful and it has been a great help!
I would however suggest watching at a minimum of 1.5x speed, as his talking rhythm is very slow. I've actually been watching mostly at 2x speed, and even that seems like regular mode.
Pothead druid with love for cannabis cookies it is then
I fucking love that lmfao
Yo bard this edible aint shi- *wildshapes*
I have been exposed to tabletop RPG for most of my life. I've loved them. I'm not good at playing though, and these videos of yours that I just found have helped a lot. Thank you
I just want to say that I only just now found your channel and it is abselutly amasing! really loving this stuff! Thanks!
Real pleasure! As long as it helps you improve your game or have more fun, then I am happy! Welcome to the table!
Brilliant video! Delving deeper than most tips. Thank you.
+The Bloody Murphy Files I just hope it helps you guys have a better experience :)
these videos are helping me create such an amazing character. I hope to watch her grow over our coming campaigns together.
Thank you for all your hard work ♥
Thank you so much! Please let us know more about your character and how she grows.
Is it your Dragonborn Cleric?
Really like this video, helps me improve on my current character.
He started as a lv1 Dwarf Cleric with a great fear of the undead, cuz when he was young, his home was overrun with hordes of undead, but his parents sacrificed themselves to save him and his sister. He then later on wanted to work as a cleric as a way to banish and protect himself and those around him, his fear was still there, which he didn't like, he wanted to go out and experience the world to try to combat this fear, help more people, make the world a better place. Now, he's currently lv5 (lv3 Cleric, lv2Wizard) and he's dabbling into necromancy as a way to overcome his fear and instead use it's power against itself. But to keep him interesting, he's now starting to develop a fear of corrupting himself with the dark arts, he needs to balance the light and darkness, he's getting thoughts about him rising as a lich and a tyrant and ultimately becoming what he once feared the most.
At this point, this is honestly just a drama lesson, and I'm extremely thankful for it!
Everything in this video is awesome, thank you. The tips are pure gold. Btw, you somehow look like you have been professionally painted and animated (no idea why, but it looks SO COOL). Take it as a compliment
:)
You say that we don't see change in roll playing, but I always try to include character development within my characters. One such character was one named Rachel, who was a rogue that became an assassin for the soul purpose of killing those who would harm innocent people, but as time progressed she realized this was still murder, and that there is no way to truly get rid of this dilemma. Because of this she stopped being an assassin and instead ended up becoming a diplomat for a country to use her passionate beliefs within an environment that could gain allies for the people she cared about, changing her entire outlook.
We don't often see change. And when we do it's magical. A lot of players though don't think of change or growth as something part of the game.
Bacon Battalion RPG ah, that makes sense. Personally having a character change throughout the story normally makes it more fun and interesting for me, and usually other people, especially the gm
This is gonna help me so much in the campaign im playing in, when i made my character i didnt know how to do anything really and kinda made them a bit stale, after a few months of playing i felt i a bit more comfortable and now want to ask about changing them a bit not too much, thanks excited even more to play again.
Your videos are really useful when I already have a base concept for a character but want to develop it more
My character loves people, all she wants is to be surrounded. Even so, she's a tiefling, and she doesn't realise that some people will always hate her. She is confident she can overcome her tiefling stereotype, ans so her growth is learning that some people in her world are cruel, and that some people will not like her, and that she must overcome the Naïve perspective that everyone can be good
I particularly appreciate your discussion of worldview. Good video!
I am here because I am in a RP group in a MMORPG. This is helpful. Thank you 😎
What an amazing video. I just found out my character has PTSD, when considering fears. Brand new set of character traits now.
@13:00 comic relief fears...
You mean like your starfinder medic screaming at the SPOILERS: mutated electrovore after trying to play dead?🤣💗 That was gold, pure, solid, 24k gold. Thank you I almost fell off my chair that time
Just try to avoid RPing surprise stuff, talk about it with your DM beforehand.
I tried to RP my character losing control when fighting a skeletal horse because my PC is afraid of them, but ended up ruining the session and everyone getting mad at me (and I deeply regret it)
I doubt you "ruined" the session, why do people think when they play a ROLEPLAYING GAME that everything will go according to some pre determined path? Thats dull. The environment should be flexible enough for characters to express themselves realistically
So you are absolutely correct about the first one. One of the quirks that my party adored was the simple but unique description I gave of my character. Basically the character is a wood elf with an obviously strong build, a warrior build really though still androgynous looking, however they are towering over most other elves at 6’4” (highly unusual but I do make it clear this is supposed to be a family trait of theirs). The other part is that my character is wearing the uniform of their faction in contrast to all the rest of the elves around them. They carried three swords, only one that seemed magical and the mundane ones covered so their designs could not be made out. They also wore a choker with the symbol of their faction and long, bright red tassel earrings. The character has tan skin with the unique type of scars one can get from being struck by lightning running up their hands and up their arms. Their eyes are bright green. One of the features the players have all their characters still mess with is the last one. My character has thick, textured, wavy dark brown hair. It’s joked on often that my character has a lot of hair that is mostly untamable. The cleric, who often hitches a piggy back ride now from my character, will try to smooth and braid it as we travel along which my character allows. I also mentioned that there seems to be the odd ink stain occasionally that my character may not have noticed to clean off (my character is a researcher and artist and like most artists will find they have gotten paint or ink on themself and not remember why or how). Despite the fact that my character seems a bit wild like, I will mention that my character stands with a graceful and proper stance, not stiff but not so casual that it’s improper, often either a stoic expression or faint fond smile on their face. This part isn’t really known yet, and probably not suspected until I got my art commissioned for this character, but this character is also trans, sorta. Kinda nonbinary and using she/they. Still, started male physically and hasn’t really gone through the magical process to full transition and is in no rush since they are more NB than otherwise. This is to explain some aspects of their build which are…notably missing (flat chest, slightly broader shoulders that don’t slope the same way as women’s often do, and the Adam’s apple that is often covered by neck jewelry and high collars). Anyway the party latch on quickly to the bits and pieces of physical description I have provided for them regarding my character and I find it sweet that they are invested. Makes my day!
Seriously though, we love to joke about the height my character has because they are the second tallest of the party which is sorta hilarious at times. Makes them pretty good at playing up being a “bodyguard” which we have done before.
Oh and for 2 the party finds my character sketching or writing whenever they have a spare moment. When asked, the character has said they are writing reports or drawing or writing poetry, which they have. One of the players warned me that their character might steal one to see which I ok’d.
3) my character is friendly and fond but is pessimistic who tries to be optimistic. Their story is they are a parentified eldest child who eventually left home after the toxicity got too much. They are compulsively a protector and caretaker. They also have a past where they lost their fiancé during an incident which further reinforced their fear of losing what means most to them. The ongoing war in the continent does not help.
And that leads into 4. They are, as said, compulsively a protecter and caretaker. They also fully blame themself for the lose of their fiancé and will take on far more responsibility for things than they should. This last one is one of the major character arcs I have planned for said character. I want them to learn to stop that or do so in a more reasonable manner. Also this character is one who’s story is about living with the grief of a loved one having passed on (kinda think of that film “Up” and I think you get the general idea though adapted for dnd).
And desires 5, well that leads back to the grief. And also the parentified eldest child thing. Let’s start with eldest child. To start with, my pc has had little to call their own for a long time, including what interests they take and how they use their time. As such, they developed a desire to have something to call their own. One of the ways they started this is by leaving home and joining the faction they did. The other was having a relationship with their fiancé. And that leads into the next part. Their grief. The life plan that they had finally made for themselves is derailed entirely when their fiancé passes away. My pc cannot return to their toxic family and the incident has also alienated them from their fiancé’s family too. They have few friends, some who have stopped talking to them after they lashed out after the incident. So my character is left to pick themselves up on their own. So what do they do with that unmoored feeling? They throw themselves into their research, something their faction fully supports (scholars after all) and so they do that for 15 years as they try to figure themself out again and what they want. And that is simply, a life plan, with, in particular, a life plan that includes something they can call their own. I plan to have that be the party, what with being the found family thing, but we’ll see how that actually plays out still. It’s on track for now however. So basically my character wants purpose. Oh but there is one flawed desire they also have. Due to their survivor’s guilt they also have a small desire they refuse to acknowledge and that is to be “punished” for failing to protect their fiancé. They want someone or something to reinforce for them that the incident was entirely their fault. Is it? Absolutely not! This is not a healthy desire and that is part of the point. It’s a flaw designed for one of my pc’s biggest antagonist to dig into and manipulate my pc with. Namely, the ex brother-in-law who blames my pc for their sibling’s death. My pc believes them. Simple as that. Reminder that it isn’t supposed to be healthy, which is something of a theme in the campaign, which is to conquer these unhealthy mentalities and senses of guilt that we should not take responsibility on our shoulders for as they aren’t ours to carry or even have.
And for fears, that goes back to the incident. Other than the fear of failure my character has and a fear of a lack of purpose, as well as a fear of loneliness, my character has a phobia of the creature that attacked and killed their fiancé. Simple as that.
So yeah that’s how I made this character and I adore it! I love it so much ☺️ and I’m so glad you made their points because it reinforced for me that I made a character who is very investable for my party to play off of. Always encouraging! Thanks for the video!
Cheers man, thanks for the brilliant videos!
I know this video is a bit old and this might not be seen, but I love this and will use some of it in my character!
This helped so much! I used to focus so much on my characters physical appearance I would pay no attention to the actual personality lmao!
great video, playing my first dnd match today needed a little insight..
So I have spent a good 72 hours with the 6 questions and these fleshing points writing and creating a new character (thank you for making me a lot more passionate about my characters) as my stats were rolled and my skills picked I made a character that I know probably better than myself. I have created an emotional bond with this character and I made it with the GM and we are getting very close to actually beginning. Everything seems fine, I'm excited and I'm thinking about my character's backstory and reliving it over and over again as I see more opportunity to fill holes. The GM is fairly new and he has made a few mistakes in the past but these vids have helped a lot, and I am a very new player as well.
I am excited and ready to play and he wants every character to have a phobia so that he can add to the story. I am having a hard time seeing how my character having a phobia helps him write the story unless if he intends to intentionally put each one of us new players into a position where we have a completely debilitating fear. I ran across a problem as I know he has read my character and I know that he agreed with it before and it left little room to add a phobia without changing a lot of my character already, and he decides that every character has to have a phobia even if it is something really small. He reminds me that it is just roll playing. Although I am already pushing some comfort zones with creating my humble character and a phobia is something that I do not feel I am ready to introduce into this as I am trying to play a character that doesn't bring much attention to themselves as much as them focusing on the needs of others.
Simply she is a protector was raised by slave pirates, although she wasn't really a slave as much as she was a crew member so she has a fear of government authorities which will create conflict at times with the group, plus the slavers she was with well they were the type to sell a, to be discreet, "pleasure" slave and so she has developed a fear of men. The group that she will be running with has 1 female (2 including her) and 4 men that she will be showing a professional attitude around. She also prefers not to be in small spaces but she has been in many in her life which doesn't hit the phobia description. I can't wait till I can actually be playing to emphasize these points that will no doubt be a constant and yet he wants me to add more on top of it? Is this a time where I as a PC need to suck it up and follow my GM and change this characters backstory or stand up to my GM and say that this isn't fair. I honestly would rather keep the character I made the way she is and create an entirely different character for the story that can maybe be based more around a phobia because of a traumatic experience that he/she had.
I figured before making it a big deal with the GM and being a bully to get some professional RP help.
We actually had something come up where my tortle weighed too much for a party member to carry but my legs were broken. It became a huge role play encounter that the group really enjoyed.
Great video! This gave me some pointers for my characters.
Some critique on the content: I would consider renaming "Desires" to "Dreams." I understood your description, but I think dreams is a more fitting term for the lofty aspirations of a character. Sure, it's a but it a well-used and generic term, but that makes it easier to remember the core of the idea you're trying to get across.
12:52 My Skyrim character is actually afraid of horses lmao. Though in reality I only made her that way because I don't like fast travelling (via carriage or using the map) and I want her to be able to interact with her follower.
My current character is a former town guard with a dislike of the upper class, who is the only nonviolent member of an incredibly murderous group (I'm a Neutral Good character in an entirely Chaotic Evil and Chaotic Neutral party). Instead of character progression, he is regressing to become more like them - the people he initially had a "What am I DOING with this lot?" view of. At some point in the future, he's going to realize this is completely against his ideals and retire, and let the adopted Gnoll son he was forcefully given by the party take his place.
Best character I've ever played.
Just now watching this for my first character from 2017, and I realize how much I can improve. Never really thought about fears and phobias, as well as a world view on top of my ideals. But now I realize my Dragonborn monk has a fear of rejection causing tension with his really just and righteous view of the world as he tries to reconcile decisions with chaotic and neutral companions. Thanks!
at one point when i was younger my imagination got so wild i got nightmares from playing a campain, and couldnt sleep well for about two weeks
Ooooo pain points. My blood hunter is like that whenever Bahamut gets brought up. Long story but it's always fun to just think "nope. nope. nope. I'm out." and walk off somewhere
Is it ok for your character to have an odd hair/skin colour (example: white hair+extremely pale skin on a human who is quite young) if you can explain why this is the case?
That's between you and your GM. Just remember the consequences of that though - easily identifiable, marked as different. It's a great role-playing opportunity to be able to have to hide it when being chased, to have angst over the differences etc. It's a potential cool storytelling prop you can add to your character.
Hairdye is very old and many bleach their skin.
There is a genetic trait known as albinism, like if you were to see an albino crocodile. If you have albinism than your body is incapable of producing pigments that make up color so whoever has it is very pale, white hair, and grey eyes. Also a lot of people with albinism don’t have very great eyesight and have to wear glasses. And since i’m pretty sure glasses weren’t invented back then you should just try to make your character’s lowest stat perception
My Goliath has bright blue hair, even though Goliaths aren't supposed to have hair. Even though everyone knows, no one's even mentioned it.
Wouldn't they just be albino then?
For an example of description effecting how i played
i had a human draconic bloodline sorceress, she was being hunted for plot reasons that ill not get into, so i in game got my hair dyed and cut as it was one of the ways i could think of throwing of would be assassins, i also started dressing in bardic style clothes and tried my best to pass off as a nobody bard, which... thanks to a really bad dm resulted in one of the players being force to betray me and then the dm pulling the big bad out of no where so all that work... down the toilet.
Best part about this is, I’m not playing a RPG Nor am I doing a fantasy rp chilling with an online danganronpa role play on a server with an absolute asshole 4’10 childish mess of an oc while everyone is talking about their fantasy ocs and I’m just like- ahAH
On the other hand; while I thought about all of these I never actually put much thought into how to play it into or tie it into his personality along with his situation. Even tho I’m not the targeted audience when it comes to this, this is actually a really epic video and is forcing me to go into depth
I wish I knew someone with the same level of wisdom such as yourself so I could get some direct advice.
I once played a grung pirate which was literally just Kermit from Muppet Treasure Island, size included. This came into play beautifully when he attempted to grapple a fleeing murder suspect and ended up only being able to cling onto her left leg, causing the comical limp typically associated with a small child clinging to a parent.
My character is a half-teifling who is in a stage of grief where she believes that if she believes it enough, she can revive her lost love by finding an artefact that could revive him. So she's in a weird stage of hope and depression where talking about him is hard but she is starting to have hope, however unrealistic. She's shut out to the world, but is starting to open up, and starting to believe again. She's adventuring to find that artifact, and is starting to warm up the the other people that agreed to help her and come with her with their own goals.
My character has a fear of crowds :3 And that's actually a disadvantage picked in the character creation .. In order to get advantages you have to pay them with disadvantages xD
What do you do about players that just dont seem to care whatsoever about their character, not even their class or race? For context I have a player who when i asked what kind of character he was thinking of, he said simply "a knight". So i asked again, well, what kind. Theres always Fighter, tho we have a decent amount of dps as it is. But we do need a tank for the team. Maybe a Fighter, or even a Warpriest, to frontline? And his response was "no i dont want any of that, just make me a knight. medium armor and a greatsword." I have no idea what to say about it. I asked what kind of race, he said he didnt care. All he seems to care about is being able to mercilessly smash with a greatsword, and rp as a gentleman knight. Tried everything i could think of to get him involved. Eventually i literally made him a character and asked what he thought of it and the intended personality (idk if he wants a charismatic knight or a smashy knight), and he just said "sure, itll work" and no notes. Asked him if there was anything hed want to change, or add, or anything. Just got an "eh". I had actually made him a Barbarian Half Orc wth negative mental stats (20 point buy campaign) and really high physical stats who has a stature similar to lenny from Mice and Men. He means well and wishes for greater things and to help others, but he just cant help himself. He gets carried away, his Orcish blood boils a bit too thick. But in the end he has good intentions. This way he can smash, and hes semi tanky since Barbarians arent TOO bad at that. And beyond that RPing is up to him. Well, he decided to randomly throw in his only request: that his character be albino. Wasnt sure why, but ok. He's now albino. Aversion to fire and direct sunlight, as well as a slight bonus to disguise checks to pretend hes a burly, ugly elf. So I told him that as a gift, the town that knew of his good natured soul and his pesky condition decided to make him a patch cloak of pretty decent quality for him, to help with the sunlight. HE DIDNT UNDERSTAND WHY HE GOT A CLOAK, AND EVEN SASSED ME ABOUT IT. He had no intention of RPing the albino bit. He just wanted to say he was. And hes talking with all the info he the player has, and quickly and concisely some how, and has a casual, rolling accent and a self inserted charismatic attitude. And im just sitting here like IF YOU HAD WANTED TO BE A CHARISMATIC KNIGHT YOU SHOULDVE SAID SO INSTEAD OF REPEATEDLY SAYING GIBBERISH, I COULDVE MADE YOU A TACTICIAN FIGHTER SO YOURE MORE ABOUT THE CARE OF THE TEAM AND THE UPSTANDING NATURE OF YOUR LAWFULNESS. INSTEAD OF A CG HALF ORC BARBARIAN WITH NEG MENTALS. So i just dont know what to do. Maybe you can give me some ideas. All my other characters are super into their guys. I got a Human Gunslinger who has dreams of becoming a merchant and mass producing firearms for the country, seeing as how the world is relatively gunless. He wishes to fix that and be a gun toting mogul. I have a Human Bard whos actually female being played by a male character who has actually committed to the RP of being a woman who wishes to make herself and her compatriots world famous and to get as many people as humanly possible to know and respect their names. I have a Human and an Elf (two players) who are both Bladebound Magus who taught under the same master who wish to track down the ancient, lost arcane secrets in the world, albeit for VERY different reasons. The Human is negligent to fight, preferring his studies and his books greatly. He sacrificed his martial training a bit for an extensive array of research and studies and has become a veritable swiss army knife of a man. He wishes to track down the lost arcanes for the potential they posses and for the utilities they could provide. Then the Elf is more combat prowess than book smart. He left the library a bit more than hes proud of to practice with his blade in the yard. Hes a brilliant fighter with a dedicated heart towards his goals. He seeks the lost arcanes for the practical uses it could provide, as well as the raw power is no doubt holds for him. So I have all these interesting characters with players going all in for it, and then this other guy. Literally didnt make his guy because he didnt care enough to even tell me a play style, and is now RPing a completely different being from what i made for him. Any thoughts?
He's a dick ! =D
He must be more interesting in the mechanics than the roleplay. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it is frustrating to have a mechanics gamer in a role playing game or a role player in a mechanics game. Why don't you ask him about it. Without saying that he is playing the game wrong(because he isn't, just a different way), ask him if you can help him with his character and roleplaying. Tell him that this is a roleplaying group and that if you going to not roleplay then you might want an explanation for it. Like what if he's a construct made by the wizard of the party to help them in the journey, that way he doesn't have to roleplay, or maybe he's just very stoic and mysterious. I know that it might be hard to do this after you have already started, but you get the idea. And he's not ok with doing something like that, then don't push it. Unless he is ruining the experience for the other players, he can play however he wants. But if he is running the experience for the other players, then tell him that he does need to do something about it
Boot him out of the group
kick him, sounds like a textbook problem player to me
6) Phobias and Fears:
You're sitting at the table, drinking a Coke. "This Coke
tastes like a Pepsi."
Yes, yes, yes. Thank you very much. These really are covering some amazing territory here. World view is one of my first factors that I work on for a character. I've not specifically played with pain points, but I can see how some of my characters have had them on a certain level. But character goals... and even growth over the course of a game... those are both unbelievably helpful. Some of my favorite players have been ones that have grown and changed over the course of the game. One started out as the comic relief badass (as a point of reference, he was a flaming battlemage named Ruepaul), but by the end, the stress of his goal (which was actually to conquer a new homeland for his nation that had been turned into a magical wasteland) along with everything else that had been going on wound up transforming and developing the character. More recently, I've played a character that had an interesting mix of growth and lack of change. He was a very low wisdom character, but very good at what he did, which was bringing the pain with hellfire, despite being a very innocent young man, who dressed almost more like a priest than the warlock he was. What amused me the most was that he became a veritable Cassanova in the aftermath of saving a city from a cultist driven plague... despite still being very much dedicated to his God and goodness in general.
One of my favorite parts of my (recently deceased) Avariel was her fear of airships. She once lost a wing in battle (now had a prosthetic) and as a result of her struggles to find help and escape from the floating island she lost her wing on, she gained a terrible fear of falling and being unable to fly. Because airships were the main way to travel in that world, she would fly on them, but she refused to go indoors for more than a split second, lest the airship be shot out of the sky and she be unable to make it out and end up falling with it. She even refused to go inside when the party ran into a swarm of sky jellyfish, and the party ended up having to use Suggestion to keep her indoors until the jellyfish passed so they wouldn't kill her.
Talking about character development: just played the second session of a game where one of the characters (an elf wizard) had suffered from amnesia with a personality breakdown and doesn't completely realise when they do things that damage the party or it's mission. Got to the point where they nearly killed a player (because they were trying to defend themselves and didn't quite notice/ care that the other player was there) so they decided to leave for an elvish city we were avoiding because the elves were fearful of outsiders/ non-elves. He ended up getting attacked by a monster, but luckily he hadn't gone far and one of the party members was following him to make sure he didn't get us into more trouble.
He is getting destroyed by the monster and the rest of the party is looking on, but we decide to stop the monster and help him out. He ends up running past the monster as we fight it and towards the elvish city. the druid spots this and decides to heal him as a parting gift and then the druid returns to the fight and the elf runs off to the city. We finish off the monster after a while but the wizard is long gone.
The wizard had taken a broken wand with him which he intends to get repaired and give to my familiar, which loves all things magic. This, he hopes will make up for what he had done to the party when he eventually tracks us down again.
Guys, he doesn't advertise this often but i by chance stumbled on his actual gameplay with friends and it is literally the best on the net if you don't mind that they don't have critical role kind of budget. I cannot recommend watching his Bacon RPG series (which started as pathfinder and ports to 5e) enough! They also play star/futuristic themes as well but thats not my thing. Once you see the chemistry and patience of him and his friends (some perhaps completely new players) you will probably have a completely different impression. You've got to watch them in action! I am completely unaffiliated with anyone on this channel and just want to spread the word. Browse his channel. Most episodes I've watched are 30 minutes or less in duration because i don't often have 2.5 hrs for watching other games. He edits out a lot of the math of calculating damage and (since that takes up most of the time in episodes) it makes the play time be concise and compelling. Highly enjoyable and made me a better DM! Im posting this on his popular videos because of the proverb "let other praise you and not thee thyself"
Physical descriptions are kinda important to remember if you're a Goliath in a tiny town
6) Phobias & Fears:
In Neverwinter Online;
There's a Fire Giant that finds "small folk" off putting, and has issues with a really big bird.
I wonder...
I love warlock flavoring, even with physical. Our DM made us pick a hometown on his country map. Whenever we visited the hometown of my Fiendlock, everyone would be afraid because my horns are bare.
It was hilarious, no I counters whatsoever and everyone ran away. We basically walked in a straight line.
Physical Description
Mannerisms
Pain points
World view
Desires
Fears and phobias