Attachment to Characters (Roleplayers)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Kind of inspired by this thread.

How many of you roleplayers have been really attached to your characters? I mean really attached to the point where when they died or the game ended you felt like you lost a part of yourself? I’m kind of curious but also interested in hearing about them.

Who was your favourite character? Why? Share some of the highlights of their ‘lives’ and ‘deaths’ with the rest of us role players. Remember them with joy!

Mine would have been Chibi Blackmoor who started out as chibi_moon. It was in Lycos chat where I often rped in the freeform. (When I created her I was trying to escape the clutches of rp as it was slowly taking over my life, that and the internet in general. I was just general chatting when I ended up in an RP room and just… created her.)

Chibi was just 6 years old, a young girl who had been reborn numerous times. Oh she was a normal seeming child but she would get these instances where she seemed so much older than her age. She had some magic which she used to toss sparkles around the taverns and at people and she knew so many of the people there.

Eventually she was kidnapped and turned into a vampire. Her sire was originally Silver Jester of the Malkavians but we did this weird ritual thing and Mezron Blackmoor turned her Gangrel (yah I know not part of V:tM but it’s free form! Lots of stuff that aren’t ‘in the rules’ went on)

I played her for about 2-3 years, she was kidnapped numerous times and was always rescued by those of the ‘House’, basically the only group of vampires in the city. She managed to acquire a lot of friends and capture a lot of hearts. Along the way she also acquired a wolf cub whom she dubbed Melvin.

So many things happened to her I can’t recall them all, but I remember having tons of fun playing her. She was slowly growing up… trapped in a childs body. But eventually all things must end, and so did she. With a botched kidnapping attempt by two people one of her friends was fighting them off… and another person approached her. Unsuspecting and still naive she thought the other was here to help. Unfortunately that was not the case. The person who approached her was Avehnor, a slayer who slaughtered her mercilessly with this evil black sludge that seeped into her and destroyed her from the inside out. It was a terrible agonizing death.

Immediately after the final death scene I got offline and cried. I never meant to get so attached to her but she grew on me. I still miss her every so often, she was like my inner child let loose. The one I couldn’t let loose irl because I was forced to grow up fast. Many characters have come and gone since then, most by my choice. Only a few have died… some given willingly to further a plot… others because it was their time. I have never had another like her, and never will. Though some may come close.

I could go on further… but there is so much I could say about her I could probably write a novel or at least a novella (Which I have considered doing. With a name change of course.) I never lost touch with reality, instead she allowed me to be the child that I hadn’t let out in years and augmented me. She was very much a part of me.

So who were your favourite characters?

2

Robyn of Locksley

Thera Anitakis of Atlantis

Portia Saverline-Teberiz

They’re all Amber characters. They’re the only ones I get to play long enough to grow that attached too.

3

Never in an RPG like D&D, but several years ago I retired one of my LARP characters and found it to be horribly difficult. I really liked playing Biscut the Black.

Biscut was the epitome of thieves, liars, and self centered monsters. He would work for anyone, doing anything, for almost any price. In one key battle during a war (the side who hired him was defending the capitol and castle) he switched sides in the middle of the battle, killed the king who originally hired him, and took out most of the opposing side from behind, all for the staggering sum of an orange.

Another time I negotiated the sale of a princess to a group of Drow. Granted, she wasn’t for sale, but the terms of the agreement didn’t stipulate delivery, just sale. I told the Drow they’d need to wander up to her camp in order to pick her up. They were slaughtered.

I ransomed kings, stole relics, and generally created havoc as best I could. It was often said that if you had Biscut on your side you should forget about the enemy and watch Biscut instead.

In time it became more difficult to play the character, because everyone was constantly waiting for me to sell them out. So I retired the character and now play the complete opposite: Joybringer, High Priest of Llira, ProfitProphet of Waukeen, a (very) chaotic good priest who is scrupulously honest, forthright, and out to make a buck. All for the church, of course. :smiley:

4

sniffs

You rock!

5

Yes, her name was Pandora, she was a 6th-level fighter (D&D, 2nd edition). She was eaten by a green dragon, along with most of her party. I cried a bit, and didn’t feel like playing for a while.

After that, I’ve felt a bit of grief over the loss of some characters, but I no longer really grieve them. The last character I lost, just a few weeks ago, in fact, I said, “Oh, well, I’ll roll up a new one since this is the second time she’s died.” One of our players was really, really upset over her character’s death. Terribly upset. It was her first character ever.

6

In an age long past and forgotten by most men there was a cleric named Feynn.

He was not content to stay at the temple and utter prayers and make offerings to his goddess as many of his brothers did. Rather, he decided to strike out and see the world and let his devotion to his goddess be demonstrated as much through his actions as his words.

Over time Feynn joined with many others who shared his thirst for adventure and many adventures were had. Although many of his compatriots fell in battle Feynn was blessed by his goddess and survived them all, in doing so he became adept at both the magic arts and at waging war on any who would oppress the weak or the helpless. His friends often questioned if the good cleric was descended from barbarians as he swung a mace as well as he could utter a prayer and was totally fearless in battle.

This is not to suggest that he was foolhardy, his knowledge of the sacred lore was such that he knew that when you encountered fluffy bunnies in a passage or cave the only option was to run for your very life. There was once a dwarven warrior who’s last words were almost, “it’s just a rabbit…”

It came to pass that even giants feared and respected him.

In demonstrating mercy to his enemies he earned their respect and many Orcish and Troll mothers told tales of Feynn the Merciful. Few understood his motives and could not understand why he cared for creatures that were no better then animals in their eyes, but even they would not harm those placed under his protection. His wrath for those who contravened his decrees was astonishing in it’s brutality.

Time passes and all men age, even clerics who carry the blessing of their goddess. The cleric now travels alone and still continues to care for the outcast and those who society shuns, there are even days when he does a little troll hunting and remembers days long past when giants still roamed the earth.

7

Arden, isn’t that pic you used for Robyn actually Arwen from the CrossGen universe?

And I do have characters that are/were very important to me, and I was just thinking about this last night, oddly.

There are several from many different game systems, but what I really get out of them is incredible experiences that I can’t personally have and perspectives on issues that don’t always agree with my own.

One character in Vampire: The Masquerade was very religious, and I so looked into this aspect of the character that I, a former athiest, re-thought my views on the existance of God.

I could go on and on, but it would get too hard to read.

8

Yes, Gorgon Heap, the image on the splash page is Arwen (and credit where credit is due on the Errata page).

And, Woeg, you bastard. I see where you’ve been hanging out. :p. Alas, poor Robyn. Abandoned.

9

These are so cool. I’ll take a closer look at the pages later Arden is at school

Actually in a way Chibi is still alive… she is now someone else (reborn again) and at present is going insane… I’ll post up her site in a bit it’s got a little more detail to her background there along with a pic.

I too have no longer felt that attached to my characters. I take it much more in stride now, and my first LARP character when she died I was kinda sad but I moved on.

If anyone has any others put them up and let us know of their travels.

10

So who is going to link to the Jack Chick tract where the girl commits suicide after her D&D character dies?

11

I used to have several links to stuff like that. Always get a good laugh from them (though if you really lose that much hold on reality when playing that can happen. Which is why my ST for two games has refused players before) with some of these things stating that Wicca/Role Play/Vampires etc etc are all looped in together…

12

Old characters never die, they just get updated to the latest rules edition.

13

Had me a character once, who was so successful I stopped running him, because I was sick of him. (And so was the rest of our gaming group.)

AD&D 1st/2nd edition rules (Miller’s got me pegged)
Grey Elven Fighter/Mage

I could not have a bad session with this guy. Natural 20s to hit? At least four times a night. Maximum damage dice rolls? So often I was accused of cheating twice by (two different) new, to our game, players. They were, fortunately, heckled into silence by the regulars who knew the whole story. When I rolled up the character’s stats, in front of witnesses, I didn’t get a single result below 15. And I wasted a 93 (%dice) for extraordinary strength.

It was a little embarassing after a while. We started referring to the character as Collateral, as in damage. Y’see, this incredible luck with the dice extended strictly to my own welfare. I lost so many travelling companions that it was almost always a death sentence to travel with this guy. And I generally got off light, even with a DM who was out to get me (but fairly, and aboveboard) all through Against the Giants.

[sub]I think that was the name of it, anyway. Been years, now.[/sub]

Didn’t matter whose dice I used, or even (on one memorable occasion) if the DM did all my rolling for me. Unkillable, and unstoppable.

Every other character I ran had the same averaged type of dice rolls as everyone else. I don’t think any of my other characters lasted more than six or seven gaming sessions. (I was particularly hard on Thieves.

[sub]Lesson, what lesson? He looks loaded, and I wanna pick his pockets. Yes, again![/sub]