#RPGaday Topic 8: Favourite character

[quarkstomper]

From a monster-hunting campaign our CHAMPIONS group ran when I lived in Darkest Iowa, I had a werewolf character named Fenster Payne, who was frequently the sane member of the party. Or at least he thought he was.

Later on, our GM ran a prequel campaign set in the Victorian Era, in which I played a pompus skeptic named J. Hamish Broadstead who was devoted to debunking the supernatural. My good buddy Fredd played a con man named Samuel Ford, who was essentially Peter Venkman with a steam-powered proton pack; so naturally the GM put us together as much as possible.

Much later, after we had moved to the Enchanted Land-O-Cheese, my wife and I played in a D&D campaign run by our landlord, in which I played a surly young dwarf named Dent and she was a high-spirited figher named Fala. I've told some of the Fala and Dent stories before, but never mind telling them again:

Fala and Dent
The Rape of the Lock
The Girl in the Dragonskin Bikini
Stripping for Kobolds

[derendel]

At one point it would have been Derendel multiclassed Sorcerer/Rogue who began as a happy go lucky explorer but ended up bitter and resentful after the people turned to a false savior (who he then needed to kill to save them).

Currently I think it was Spector, a post apocalyptic inventor with psychic talents carrying a lot of guilt for things that are not her fault. Through her adventures she went from being a tool for others to making her own decisions and flirting with turning to the dark side. Ultimately she decided to improve the world for everyone. Too bad they hung her for it. :(

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by quarkstomper

... who was frequently the sane member of the party. Or at least he thought he was.

I call this "neo-sensibleist".

[Michael Cule]

My very favourite character is probably Leela but I'm saving her story for the Best Death thread.

My other favourite character would be Guthran who was a Ghoul who worked for an Evil Overlord as one of his chief agents. He was a basically nice chap: loved his family and protected his tribe as best he could but as a ghoul he had a very short list of potential employers.

He eventually got to eat the brain of an angel (he was a GURPS Ghoul: the brain is the good bit) and got religion as a result. He took his tribe off on a sacred journey after sending the Evil Overlord a very polite message of resignation and exhortation to repent.

[Rocket Man]

Mine would be from a friend's In Nomine campaign, a Mercurian of Destiny known on Earth as Kevin Ryder and in Heaven as Gareth. (For the unfamiliar, Mercurians are angels with the classic fluffy-wing appearance in their true forms.)

Kevin's Role was as an author of beginner's how-to books, to give people some of the basic tools to discover their interests, their abilities and ultimately their futures. Since Mercurians aren't allowed to act violently against humans and Destiny angels aren't allowed to push people toward their dark Fates, he often worked very subtly and indirectly, frequently slipping into the dream world to gain intelligence or guide a soul. After a while, one of the other PCs began to refer to him as the Chessmaster -- he was usually the one that would suss out the hidden angles of a problem and how to approach it by some means other than the front door.

Meanwhile, his powers were perfectly designed for learning NPCs in detail and the GM obliged on a grand scale -- Mercurians have a feel for human relationships and Destiny angels for human futures, and I was lucky enough to have a GM who could rapidly spin both on the fly. There was one soul he even visited in Purgatory several times (an added realm by the GM, described in Dante style) to see how her spiritual journey was progressing.

He was also the first PC that I've ever had develop a romantic relationship with an NPC in-game, rather than already have it as part of the background. His courtship of Tamar/Dani, a Cherub of Protection with the Role of a security guard, developed slowly and sweetly, culminating in a rare angel-angel wedding, and provided a wonderful backdrop to the grander dramas going on.

The day that Archangel Yves decided Kevin had earned his Rite of Passage -- the ability to use any repository of knowledge as a connection to Heaven's grand Library -- was a proud one indeed.

[Rye0077r]

I really only have 2 characters I've played, and I enjoyed both for different reasons.

The first was a Human Paladin named Guðric, who was my go-to character for most of my roleplaying career (until he became undead shortly before the campaign's abrupt end...but that's a story for another thread).

He was a good guy, fairly powerful I guess, and generally a fun character to play, though after a while I felt too limited by the strict Lawful Good alignment. Which brings me to my other character...

Krúnk (pronounced Krah'nk) a Half-Orc Cleric... Oh, and did I mention he was Lawful-Evil? I specifically created this character to join our campaign as a sort of comic relief. Because of his drastic difference in alignment, Guðric HATED going on adventures with Krúnk, but the other adventurers didn't mind. Though it could get a bit unruly having to resolve conflicts for 2 characters near-simultaneously, I had a lot of fun playing the two off of each other.

[johndallman]

Nope, still can't decide. The choice easily reduces to three D&D characters and one GURPS character, but after that it becomes impossible.

The D&D characters are from the same meta-campaign and are the ones I played most during the eighties, the nineties, and since 2000 respectively; the GURPS character is from Roger BW's Weird War II campaign.

[LemmingLord]

You know... these are like kids... each of them is my favorite in their way. I'm thinking most of them were GURPS characters though...

I loved my space smuggler character with compulsive lying and truthfulness.... quite fun... not unlike Garek from Deep Space Nine.

I loved Rhino Dundee, who had bolas and had a crocodile hunter accent. He made a miraculous critical success in using his bolas to shoot an arrow out of the air that was meant for his friend.

[Hans Rancke-Madsen]

My favorite character was Antane bad-Fallon, the half-elf (Named after a character from a de Camp story). He started as a level 3/3 F/MU who was supposed to be a one-shot in a big intrigue scenario a friend of mine ran with his regular players and four or five visiting firemen. I had so much fun playing him that my friend offerend me a spot in his campaign.

Antane was a top purchase agent for the Antiques Dealers' Guild in Greyhawk's Aredy. He was used by the guild to investigate rumors of great treasures and artifacts and to lead expeditions to recover them. Eventually he advanced to Chief Agent as occasionally initiated projects of his own, such as an expedition to get ingredients for a Vest of Many Pockets (basically a lot of small bags of holding individually only having the capacity for a couple of pounds, but combined into a very useful item; Antane used to carry around a crapload of assorted equipment such as marbles, collapsible grapnel & rope, and a bottle of extra fine wine). He had a lot of great adventures.

I converted him for Traveller for the first article I wrote for JTAS Online.


Hans