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Old 05-30-2013, 11:41 PM   #11
jason taylor
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: [SE] Player Characters *versus* and *as* Authority Figures

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Originally Posted by CoyoteGestalt View Post
A number of years ago, I briefly played a Bertie-esque character in a 1920s Call of Cthulhu game (the campaign ended after only a few sessions for outside reasons related to the academic calendar). He was actually quite a lot of fun to play, though I don't know how he would have worked out over the long term.

He wasn't entirely inept, as he was fairly physically fit and always ready to whap evildoers over the head with a tennis racket or cricket bat (this this is not actually a particularly useful trait in CoC), but had no great skill at much of anything. Otherwise, his primary value to the group was his resources and social connections, and his ability to get them entree into areas where more conventional investigators would cause a raised eyebrow unescorted. He was accompanied by his Gentleman's Gentleman, another PC and significantly more conventionally competent, and his loyal basset hound whom he always claimed was a highly trained hunting dog, just not for whatever they happened to be hunting at the time.

Despite my silly description, he wasn't really a comic relief character; in CoC, where the foes often are ultimately overwhelming even to the most competent, his weaknesses in a lot of conventional adventuring areas wasn't a major problem, and he brought useful, if unusual, abilities to the game. Often his biggest value, both within the adventure and on a metagame level, was providing the other PCs opportunities to shine, with him in a supporting role.

Not my usual character type, but I quite enjoyed him, and he did manage to contribute to the game for as long as it lasted.

He really only worked out well, though, because of the kind of campaign it was, centered on investigation and social interaction at least as much as more classical adventuring, and it was taking place within his originating milieu or in contact with it (I think the most remote we got was on the Orient Express). In other sorts of games (dungeon crawl, action-adventure, etc.), or even just taken out of the environment where his social traits were relevant, he'd have been problematic.

That's actually one of the biggest barriers to this kind of character in a lot of games, I think: unlike a more physically or mentally-focused character, their traits are almost entirely dependent on the setting; if the campaign simply travels too far, they're rendered useless. A wealthy and connected upper-class English dandy simply becomes little more than comic relief on a two-month camping and spelunking trip in Peru, unless he proves to have some other hidden talent.
Or not. Two month camping and spelunking trips in Peru are the sort of thing that wealthy and connected upper-class English dandies are often the only ones willing to waste time and money on and the first ones to be interested in that sort of thing were wealthy and connected upper-class English dandies. You are after all talking about people that thought conquering and ruling the world was to boring and wanted to look for something interesting to do.

Now a wealthy and connected English dandy who does nothing but hang around court, never had any naval or military service, never was a district officer in India, and never even went pigsticking might find a two month camping and spelunking trip in Peru a bit of a difficulty.
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Old 05-31-2013, 04:46 AM   #12
CoyoteGestalt
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Default Re: [SE] Player Characters *versus* and *as* Authority Figures

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Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Or not. Two month camping and spelunking trips in Peru are the sort of thing that wealthy and connected upper-class English dandies are often the only ones willing to waste time and money on and the first ones to be interested in that sort of thing were wealthy and connected upper-class English dandies. You are after all talking about people that thought conquering and ruling the world was to boring and wanted to look for something interesting to do.

Now a wealthy and connected English dandy who does nothing but hang around court, never had any naval or military service, never was a district officer in India, and never even went pigsticking might find a two month camping and spelunking trip in Peru a bit of a difficulty.
Sorry, I should have clarified, I specifically meant the kind I was playing in that particular campaign: one with few or no useful skills outside of gentlemen's clubs and house parties. You're quite right, reasonably competent characters who are also aristocrats are another matter entirely, and quite a lot of fun. :)
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Old 06-01-2013, 03:27 PM   #13
DangerousThing
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Default Re: [SE] Player Characters *versus* and *as* Authority Figures

I've never played a character of the last type, mainly because I have no interest in high status.

However, in my first AD&D campaign I set the heir to the throne of the largest and most influential kingdom to be a 2nd level fighter with 2 hit points. However, he was extremely good at statesmanship, strategy, and tactics. He just couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag. His friends (not the player characters) acted as bodyguards and protectors.

Some of the players met him a few times to advise him of the status of the war. The players were all convinced he must be 10th level or high because he was the heir and his aid to their strategy was one of the things that led to victory in the war.

I promptly quit running DnD after that and switched to Traveller, and then many other non-leveled systems, including GURPS.
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