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Eh, you know about mine. Let me tell you about my kids'. These are for Quest, which I picked for them because they wanted to play D&D, Quest is easy to make D&D-flavored, and Quest is remarkably simpler than D&D. Every single check in the game is a flat d20 roll against a single results table: 11-20 is always a success, for example. At the same time, you still get character classes and varied, flavorful abilities.
My daughter (12)'s character was inspired by two things: she really likes cats and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. (Great movie. My mom loved it, and she can't tell a dungeon from a dragon.) So her character is a Naturalist (i.e. Druid) cat-person named Doric who can transform into other animals. Her equipment sheet includes such weapons as "a lute" and "literally Xenk's sword." (The game lets you start with any three nonmagical weapons. I did not add Xenk's sword to my campaign.)
My son (14)'s character is a six-foot snake Doctor with wings. Why a snake? I have no idea, but his lack of hands has become an issue multiple times. Why wings? Probably because they're cool, but a flying character with ranged attacks is A Problem, so we ruled that he could only hover a few inches off the ground.
The best character moment in the campaign so far came from a murder mystery session. A dude named Jean-Pierre owned an owlbear named Albert (get it?) who had been accused of murdering a child in the town, and the rest of the town wanted to put Albert down. The party was able to confirm that the owlbear did indeed maul the kid. Everyone else was ready to call it a wrap, but Doric believed in Albert, and she insisted that they continue investigating. They eventually learned that the kid had been given honey made with the extremely rare moonflower pollen, which drives owlbears into a berserk rage, by Beatrice the beekeeper, who had a grudge against Jean-Pierre and Albert. Doric was vindicated, Albert was spared, and Jean-Pierre learned an important lesson about pet ownership, all because my daughter refused to accept Albert's guilt.
My daughter (12)'s character was inspired by two things: she really likes cats and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. (Great movie. My mom loved it, and she can't tell a dungeon from a dragon.) So her character is a Naturalist (i.e. Druid) cat-person named Doric who can transform into other animals. Her equipment sheet includes such weapons as "a lute" and "literally Xenk's sword." (The game lets you start with any three nonmagical weapons. I did not add Xenk's sword to my campaign.)
My son (14)'s character is a six-foot snake Doctor with wings. Why a snake? I have no idea, but his lack of hands has become an issue multiple times. Why wings? Probably because they're cool, but a flying character with ranged attacks is A Problem, so we ruled that he could only hover a few inches off the ground.
The best character moment in the campaign so far came from a murder mystery session. A dude named Jean-Pierre owned an owlbear named Albert (get it?) who had been accused of murdering a child in the town, and the rest of the town wanted to put Albert down. The party was able to confirm that the owlbear did indeed maul the kid. Everyone else was ready to call it a wrap, but Doric believed in Albert, and she insisted that they continue investigating. They eventually learned that the kid had been given honey made with the extremely rare moonflower pollen, which drives owlbears into a berserk rage, by Beatrice the beekeeper, who had a grudge against Jean-Pierre and Albert. Doric was vindicated, Albert was spared, and Jean-Pierre learned an important lesson about pet ownership, all because my daughter refused to accept Albert's guilt.
I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and play roleplaying games very often, certainly not for any longer campaigns. I did play one fun session of a Pathfinder campaign that unfortunately never got off the ground, in which I created a half-orc bard character. He was fairly idealistic and naive, thinking that bards were noble adventurers who would certainly never embellish their tales of heroism, and being blissfully unaware that any "civilized" humans could harbor prejudices against orcs. He was equally proficient at playing the lute and swinging a large two-handed broadsword. I believe that at one point he ate a bar of soap, being unaware of its proper usage.
Most recently I had the opportunity to play a short Star Wars adventure at a convention, and created a cold-blooded(?) droid bounty hunter with a sniper rifle. Looking back, I think I might have unintentionally made the character a little intimidating for my fellow players, some of which had apparently never played roleplaying games before.
Playing games at conventions usually means that I get some pre-made characters to choose from rather than making my own. In one memorable game I played recently, all the player characters were just different humans bodies used simultaneously by one single alien consciousness, but halfway through the adventure the bodies begin to regain their individuality, and have to figure out who they were before they were possessed.
Most recently I had the opportunity to play a short Star Wars adventure at a convention, and created a cold-blooded(?) droid bounty hunter with a sniper rifle. Looking back, I think I might have unintentionally made the character a little intimidating for my fellow players, some of which had apparently never played roleplaying games before.
Playing games at conventions usually means that I get some pre-made characters to choose from rather than making my own. In one memorable game I played recently, all the player characters were just different humans bodies used simultaneously by one single alien consciousness, but halfway through the adventure the bodies begin to regain their individuality, and have to figure out who they were before they were possessed.
Off the top of my head;
Flapjacks an aracocran bard who accidentally rolled way too high while performing Jimmy Buffet covers and stuck an entire town into Vacation Mode. He then ran away to “get help” (meaning “so nobody could hold him accountable”)
Skeletillionaire: A goblin thief who isn’t able to graduate from Thief school until he completes his graduate thesis of stealing a millionaires skeleton without them noticing
Dogbutt Goodboy a stray dog who was cured when a werewolf bit him in human form; now he’s a person except when the full moon is at its brightest. He friggin’ hates it and wants to go back to Normal Dog
Chrysanthemillenium St. Abattoir a high elf mage who wears heavy armor to hide a disfigurement he was cursed with. Which was actually just a bad haircut that he overcompensated for.
CAP’N SHARKFIST OSHANNASY, a Sharkman pirate who took up the cloth as a holy Paladin, and really only connected to Veggietales for religious studies. He stands under the gaze of the Many Eyes of the Great Tater.
Dan Barrow, a gameshow host who is in trouble with his producers for not making his contest difficult enough and is now tasked with acquiring more and better qualities of prizes because too many people are walking away as winners.
Flapjacks an aracocran bard who accidentally rolled way too high while performing Jimmy Buffet covers and stuck an entire town into Vacation Mode. He then ran away to “get help” (meaning “so nobody could hold him accountable”)
Skeletillionaire: A goblin thief who isn’t able to graduate from Thief school until he completes his graduate thesis of stealing a millionaires skeleton without them noticing
Dogbutt Goodboy a stray dog who was cured when a werewolf bit him in human form; now he’s a person except when the full moon is at its brightest. He friggin’ hates it and wants to go back to Normal Dog
Chrysanthemillenium St. Abattoir a high elf mage who wears heavy armor to hide a disfigurement he was cursed with. Which was actually just a bad haircut that he overcompensated for.
CAP’N SHARKFIST OSHANNASY, a Sharkman pirate who took up the cloth as a holy Paladin, and really only connected to Veggietales for religious studies. He stands under the gaze of the Many Eyes of the Great Tater.
Dan Barrow, a gameshow host who is in trouble with his producers for not making his contest difficult enough and is now tasked with acquiring more and better qualities of prizes because too many people are walking away as winners.
Does freeform count?
They've kinda become fanfic characters now, though.
They've kinda become fanfic characters now, though.
My character for the upcoming D&D game I'm in is a fiery-tempered gnome who got kicked out of her village by the other gnomes after having caused a few too many bloody noses. Or rather, they politely suggested to her to go join the nearby martial arts monk temple to perhaps learn to control her temper. This actually worked, but instead she became fond of playing tricks and pranks on the other monks, so eventually they kicked her out too. Or rather, they politely explained that they had taught her everything they knew, and that the next step in her training was to go out in the world and search for enlightenment. Preferrably very far away from the temple.
Since then, she has wandered from town to town, making money by putting on shows of her acrobatics and martial arts abilities, or challenging local tough guys, who think that it shouldn't be difficult to knock out a tiny gnome girl, but inevatibly end up on the ground themselves instead.
I even did a picture of her in Hero Forge!
Since then, she has wandered from town to town, making money by putting on shows of her acrobatics and martial arts abilities, or challenging local tough guys, who think that it shouldn't be difficult to knock out a tiny gnome girl, but inevatibly end up on the ground themselves instead.
I even did a picture of her in Hero Forge!
Okay, so I joined this game at my local game store. Our DM didn't come to the table with a pitch, but let the group talk about what kinds of fantasy we enjoyed. Of the 6 players, 4 are new to TTRPGs and wanted to stick close to generally normal fantasy, but we decided we liked the idea of a Fey heavy campaign with some darker horror inspired enemies. We determined that the normal world is dominated by humans and is a very low magic world. We determined that dwarves have access to a rune based magic and that humans have learned to use a rudimentary system from leaked dwarven knowledge.
In our party, most were more interested in playing fey connected creatures. Only one person wanted to play a human cleric. So i decided to volunteer to play as a dwarf and represent that culture in this world. My DM asked me to write up along with a bit of backstory, some world building elements for the dwarven civilization.
My character is Thingeroli Stone (Thing for short). I'm playing a Runesmith Inventor, which is a homebrew class and subclass. I liked how it fit the theme of our world. My character is the only Intelligence based character so i can help roll well on those skills. And I liked the idea of playing a little more of a support role by giving boosts to my teammates in combat.
So, I determined that the Dwarves are a civilization in decline. That they have just one city, called Home, but its connected to a vast underground network. The city has ancient technology that includes electricity and battery storage and they have smokeless lanterns (electric lights), but its mostly salvaged and repaired tech. They don't know how to create it. My thought is the ancient runes might look like the patterns on circuit boards. But that's not to say the runes or batteries are completely mundane and just advanced technology. I think its still legitimate magic. My character has access to shocking grasp, burning hands, magic missle, and sanctuary. So far, I've described those spells as more similar to the practical gagets of the mandelorian rather than arcane spells.
Okay, here's where things went crazy. Our party has been exploring the lands of Dreams and Wishes. We found a vault that has dwarven ancient runes on it, but I can't read them. I got some of the meaning and had guessed that it was maybe a prison. After defeating a two headed ogre named TimTom (one head was smart and one head was dumb and the DM played him so well) and a short investigation quest, I got the magic words and was able to open the vault. It contains the knowledge to create and operate the ancient technology, which belonged to the dwarves but was taken from them as punishment for breaking a deal with the fey.
I was so blown away by how much the DM had woven my little idea into this bigger story and lore and given Thingeroli this huge personal quest. I'm still unsure of what to do next. Our DM is only in his early 20s and honestly I thought he wasn't going to be a good DM at first. He just walks in with no notes, no DM screen. He's a bit loose with the rules, which i think confuses our new players. But he is such an amazing story teller. He's creative and makes many of the fey creatures we meet feel really alien and creepy. I've been really impressed.
In our party, most were more interested in playing fey connected creatures. Only one person wanted to play a human cleric. So i decided to volunteer to play as a dwarf and represent that culture in this world. My DM asked me to write up along with a bit of backstory, some world building elements for the dwarven civilization.
My character is Thingeroli Stone (Thing for short). I'm playing a Runesmith Inventor, which is a homebrew class and subclass. I liked how it fit the theme of our world. My character is the only Intelligence based character so i can help roll well on those skills. And I liked the idea of playing a little more of a support role by giving boosts to my teammates in combat.
So, I determined that the Dwarves are a civilization in decline. That they have just one city, called Home, but its connected to a vast underground network. The city has ancient technology that includes electricity and battery storage and they have smokeless lanterns (electric lights), but its mostly salvaged and repaired tech. They don't know how to create it. My thought is the ancient runes might look like the patterns on circuit boards. But that's not to say the runes or batteries are completely mundane and just advanced technology. I think its still legitimate magic. My character has access to shocking grasp, burning hands, magic missle, and sanctuary. So far, I've described those spells as more similar to the practical gagets of the mandelorian rather than arcane spells.
Okay, here's where things went crazy. Our party has been exploring the lands of Dreams and Wishes. We found a vault that has dwarven ancient runes on it, but I can't read them. I got some of the meaning and had guessed that it was maybe a prison. After defeating a two headed ogre named TimTom (one head was smart and one head was dumb and the DM played him so well) and a short investigation quest, I got the magic words and was able to open the vault. It contains the knowledge to create and operate the ancient technology, which belonged to the dwarves but was taken from them as punishment for breaking a deal with the fey.
I was so blown away by how much the DM had woven my little idea into this bigger story and lore and given Thingeroli this huge personal quest. I'm still unsure of what to do next. Our DM is only in his early 20s and honestly I thought he wasn't going to be a good DM at first. He just walks in with no notes, no DM screen. He's a bit loose with the rules, which i think confuses our new players. But he is such an amazing story teller. He's creative and makes many of the fey creatures we meet feel really alien and creepy. I've been really impressed.
What is effectively a ghost-ship Voltron.
Originally a salvage ship for a crew of spider-people which was assembled piece by piece from other salvaged wrecked ships. When it was eventually destroyed it had accumulated enough ghosts from the various ships it had been composed of that it awakened as a sentient being and built a new humanoid body for itself out of the wreckage and signed up with the surviving members of the crew that was on board it before it died.
It’s name is Coppernicodemus (Copp for short) but also answers to every other name its compliments had gone by; such as “The Tinderbox”, “Scuttlebug”, “FEseus” and “The Buxom Toot”
Originally a salvage ship for a crew of spider-people which was assembled piece by piece from other salvaged wrecked ships. When it was eventually destroyed it had accumulated enough ghosts from the various ships it had been composed of that it awakened as a sentient being and built a new humanoid body for itself out of the wreckage and signed up with the surviving members of the crew that was on board it before it died.
It’s name is Coppernicodemus (Copp for short) but also answers to every other name its compliments had gone by; such as “The Tinderbox”, “Scuttlebug”, “FEseus” and “The Buxom Toot”
I realize I'm replying to a weeks-old post, but I just saw it and I'm curious... so are you a Gundam- or even Jaeger-sized sentient robutt in an adventuring party that's otherwise normal size people, or were the spider-pilots actually tiny spider size so you're not that huge, or is your whole party huge? I'm just thinking the logistics of having one giant team member could cause some... interesting storytelling constraints.
Oh, goddess, I wish I still had my character sheet from my Fading Suns campaign...
Roughly the size of a Very Large Man, more of a robot made out of scrap metal from other wrecked ships.
As per the game book, the spiders are more of a sentient bug colony that take on a roughly humanoid form; like Oogie Boogie.
The rest of the party consists of one of the aforesaid spider-nest people (who was on the crew of my previous incarnation and who lost a good chunk of themselves when it sank so they’re a bit scattered brained) a sentient fungus that was also on my previous form but wasn’t awoken then, and a regular ol’ Bug Man who has never been on a boat before and is still figuring things out.