What is your favorite character and why?

Behind the BarEvery Friday we’re going to open up the comments and our forums to asking you, the reader, questions. Then the next Friday we’ll highlight the best comments from the previous week’s discussion. Got a question you would like to pose to us or the public at large? Let us know!

What  is your favorite character and why?

My favorite character was a Shadowrun character by the name of Ed. He took the uncouth, and computer illiterate hindrances and didn’t speak English exceptionally well. So I role played this by consistently referring to myself in the third person. Of course, when he spoke in his native Japanese he was polite and was an exceptionally good speaker. The problem was most people didn’t speak Japanese. I loved him not only because he was a fucking damage machine with pistols but the role playing opportunities he rewarded me with. I could be a complete ass hole and it’d be “OK” because it entertained everyone at the table. Jeff (the GM for the game) had to start coming up with reasons to not give me karma points every game session because of my whacky antics, as I was beginning to overshadow some of the other players.

  • Paul Meerscheidt

    Welcome to my hell. I almost never get bonus XP or Karma, because I’m expected to constantly come up with good stuff. What a heavy cross we the great truly bear. In the same campaign Ed was in I was constantly using advanced tactics to overcome ridiculous obstacles given to us by the gm, but rarely got anything for it, as it was expected.

  • Paul Meerscheidt

    Welcome to my hell. I almost never get bonus XP or Karma, because I’m expected to constantly come up with good stuff. What a heavy cross we the great truly bear. In the same campaign Ed was in I was constantly using advanced tactics to overcome ridiculous obstacles given to us by the gm, but rarely got anything for it, as it was expected.

  • Hillary Crenshaw

    The problem with your characters (and I use the word ‘problem’ in the loosest sense) is that you’ve set the bar rather high for yourself. Those of us who have played in your campaigns are used to your fully fleshed-out NPCs with conflicting motives and creative alternatives to simple conflicts, so when you create a ruthless, psychotic, hyper-paranoid character that’s a former Olympic athlete with a secret identity, living a double life, and leading a group of shadow runners, well, that’s pretty much par for the course.

    But yes, you should have gotten more points for sheer psychosis.

  • Hillary Crenshaw

    The problem with your characters (and I use the word ‘problem’ in the loosest sense) is that you’ve set the bar rather high for yourself. Those of us who have played in your campaigns are used to your fully fleshed-out NPCs with conflicting motives and creative alternatives to simple conflicts, so when you create a ruthless, psychotic, hyper-paranoid character that’s a former Olympic athlete with a secret identity, living a double life, and leading a group of shadow runners, well, that’s pretty much par for the course.

    But yes, you should have gotten more points for sheer psychosis.

  • http://spyderzt.blogspot.com/ Spyder Z

    I’ve never, until very recently, spent very much time Player Side. So I can’t really say that I’ve got a “Favorite Character”, as my current character is pretty much the only character I’ve ever played more than a few consecutive games with. And while that does kind of give him a “Shoe In” for that role, I’m not sure what it means that my “Favorite Character” would then be This Guy:

    http://spyderzt.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-d-character.html

    (I’d have Hyperlinked the words if I was sure how that worked in WordPress’s Comments. :? )

  • http://spyderzt.blogspot.com/ Spyder Z

    I’ve never, until very recently, spent very much time Player Side. So I can’t really say that I’ve got a “Favorite Character”, as my current character is pretty much the only character I’ve ever played more than a few consecutive games with. And while that does kind of give him a “Shoe In” for that role, I’m not sure what it means that my “Favorite Character” would then be This Guy:

    http://spyderzt.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-d-character.html

    (I’d have Hyperlinked the words if I was sure how that worked in WordPress’s Comments. :? )

  • River

    I have two favorite characters at the moment.

    I am immensely fond of my current dnd character, Miranda, an evil religious zealot who is bent on carrying out the literal wrath of her god. She tortured her (adopted) daughter to death because her mentor told her to.

    My other favorite character was a journalist named Katya. She was mostly deaf and didn’t understand spoken English very well, though she could read and write it. Half the fun of playing her was navigating communication without getting in the way of game flow or bogging down other players.

  • River

    I have two favorite characters at the moment.

    I am immensely fond of my current dnd character, Miranda, an evil religious zealot who is bent on carrying out the literal wrath of her god. She tortured her (adopted) daughter to death because her mentor told her to.

    My other favorite character was a journalist named Katya. She was mostly deaf and didn’t understand spoken English very well, though she could read and write it. Half the fun of playing her was navigating communication without getting in the way of game flow or bogging down other players.

  • http://www.ApathyGames.com/ Jeff Carlsen

    Aloysius brings up one of the challenges with giving out experience awards for roleplaying. In the case Ed, his antics would amuse me (the game master), and my laughter would trigger the idea of giving out a karma point. Whereas I’m too busy paying attention to the brilliant planning that Solara was known for to remember to reward it, even though it was completely deserving.

    Of course, there was the silent karma penalty for making me work harder…

  • http://www.ApathyGames.com Jeff Carlsen

    Aloysius brings up one of the challenges with giving out experience awards for roleplaying. In the case Ed, his antics would amuse me (the game master), and my laughter would trigger the idea of giving out a karma point. Whereas I’m too busy paying attention to the brilliant planning that Solara was known for to remember to reward it, even though it was completely deserving.

    Of course, there was the silent karma penalty for making me work harder…