Why isn't your character a straight white male human fighter named Bob Smith with exactly average stats, no distinguishing features or personality quirks whatsoever, and the same equipment as ordinary soldiers?
Do you like being a special snowflake?
No-human setting.
>Not playing within an acceptable standard deviation of the mean
top kek
>>43560981
>Why isn't your character a straight white male human fighter named Bob Smith with exactly average stats, no distinguishing features or personality quirks whatsoever, and the same equipment as ordinary soldiers?
Because such character IS a special snowflake. He's so devoid of interesting traits that it makes him higly unusual.
>Not playing a genderfluid clone with maxed out social skills.
>Not propagating your social justice agenda through literal mind control.
>Not participating in the genocide of humanity.
>Not playing pretend with your genderfluid clone buddies.
You can't label me, shitlord!
>>43560981
>Do you like being a special snowflake?
Yes
>>43560981
You do realize you could still make that guy a fascinating character, right?
"quirky" personality, flashy gear, unusual appearance, those are all crutches used to shore up a boring character. They can work, and they can even be a huge help, but they're not strictly necessary. And if you don't have anything else you wind up with characters like those in the Star Wars prequels, who have nothing going on except what kind of lightsaber they have, or how cool their spaceship looks.
Gully Foyle started out as a nobody, a guy who was practically invisible, who drifted aimlessly through life being ignored and forgotten for how ordinary and unmotivated he was.
Because I do what I want and you can't stop me.
>>43561022
But then... but how.... but.... but I.... I don't.... I'm speci..... I'm.... WHAT AM I!?
I just dunt get it.
>>43561044
Welcome to /tg/, we've heard a lot about you.
>>43560981
>>43560981
Because his name was Tom Smith.
>>43561022
That's inherently wrong. There's plenty of people devoid of interesting traits, it's nothing outside the usual.
>>43561022
This. Every time I've seen someone play as ordinary a character as they can, they push the ordinariness hard and try to hold it above other people. It doesn't even work, because as usual everyone else at the fucking table is producing deviantart-tier shit with deviantart-tier unawareness, so they just see him as a platform to be more special if they pay attention to anyone else at all, but I see what he's doing and he's just as obnoxious and twice as smug.
>>43560981
Because everyone has proclivities and personality quirks even if they are physically and intellectually average and equipped with standardized infantry equipment. Which I might add how a cultural equips its "ordinary" infantry soldier speaks volumes about many facets of a culture. It's tech level, economic strength and social structure. Do they employ mostly unarmored spear wielding conscripted peasants (Middle ages Europe) or do citizens and even the aristocracy compete to serve as in the Greek City states of late Antiquity?
I rather enjoy playing fighters and man at arm types bereft of magical abilities.
>>43560981
>having a name
You can call me rank and file.
>>43560981
Amusingly, if you look at a world census population, those qualities would make the character a special snowflake, really.
>>43560981
Because I refuse to describe or stat my character. Any definition makes my character different, therefore special, therefore snowflake, therefore bad. My logic is undeniable.
>>43561139
But no one has 'no distinguishing features or personality quirks whatsoever'.
It would be like playing a robot, someone who actively resists any change from it's most root programming if they never develop any habits or specific knowledge based on their experiences.
>>43561200
Well, you're half right. I didn't know baths were a personality quirk.
>>43561230
My god! The only way to win WAS not to play!
>Play in Scandinavian setting
>Make a blonde haired, blue eyed warrior type that wants to raid, get rich, and settle down as a landowner
>I'm the only "native" ethnic in the party.
>I'm also the only one giving the DM material, if his emphasis on giving me character moments is any indication.
Your race or sexuality should not be your character, I hate how some websites are pushing this line of thought and we're getting players who buy into it.
>>43560981
Except a perfectly average character would have light olive skin, one breast, one testicle, and one ovary.
>>43561409
Players have ALWAYS done that. It's a trap amateur writers fall into all the time, not something invented by tumblr or anything.
>>43561409
>I'm the only "native" ethnic in the party.
Brah, that's 200% accurate. Your character is a kekold too, right?
>>43560981
>Do you like being a special snowflake?
Yes.
What now?
>>43560981
Because bob smith isn't a normal name in the not-Rome my game takes place in.
>>43561256
Underrated post
>>43561139
But a "normal" person has at least one or two defining characteristics, other than being completely average
>>43561452
Nah, he's trying to court a Valkyrie-esque shield-maiden who will only bed and marry a man that can beat her in combat.
He can totally do it, he just needs to prove himself worthy for the match itself.
>>43561409
>I hate how some websites are pushing this line of thought
What websites, anon?
What I have seen is websites saying "Hey, it is alright to be X if you feel the character is X, and no, other people do not have the right to tell you that you are "wrong" for being X, or have the right to mock you about it".
>>43561614
Oh, you mean our half-Orc? He's aiming to bang the kingdom's queen, who opened the doors to immigration in the first place.
>>43560981
Yes.
>>43561409
>made an ubermensch
>made no one else made stereotypical ubermensch
>>43561442
One of my player's has this issue, always picking the most exotic race and unusual class I'll allow "because humans are boring in fantasy". Somehow this player's characters are the most forgettable and easily overlooked in the entire group. Even more than the character who actively avoids adventure who is made by the player who only shows up to half the sessions every campaign.
>>43561784
>6'2
>bright blue eyes
>platinum blonde
>rolls gave me an equivalent to 52 PB
>lowest stat is 12
>>43561877
>made an ubermensch in a culture where you are as likely to have dark hair and eyes as light
>calls himself "ethnic native" when he is actually a caricature
If the setting was America, you could make a gangbanger, as well.
![20150202[1].png](https://i.imgur.com/9hU0c68.png "20150202[1].png")
>>43561426
Not if you're a statistician!
>>43560981
One of my friends did, he was an exalted night caste named Lee.
>>43561116
I want a plushie of the middle one.
>>43561426
In a similar vein to this, by current gender demographics the average person is female.
>>43561978The stickler is that he's ethnically native to the region, but was actually born in a neighboring kingdom that used to be part of the one we're adventuring in. His grandmother was in fact a member of that kingdom's "native" ethnic group, which traditionally has platinum blonde hair and vividly blue eyes.
He does tough traditional things as a means to fit into the culture he identifies as.
Reminder that a "mundane" character can be just as obnoxious and cringeworthy as the specialist of snowflakes.
>>43562181
>clumsy
The worst fucking 'weakness' any fictional character can have. There's only two ways it ever plays out: Straight up Mr. Magoo, or someone who accidentally bumps into their future love interest, oh what a klutz!
>>43562212
>The worst fucking 'weakness' any fictional character can have.
Actually I'd say it's a close second.
The worst iscaring too much
>>43562212
Clumsy and impulsive are the two worst non-drawbacks and a sign someone's making an insufferable character.
As you said, clumsy always comes out as either endearing or fated, while impulsive translates into either "I occasionally burn shit down, tee hee" or "I'm actually playing an assertive/proactive character but, to me, this feels like I'm being impulsive and not thinking shit through."
>>43562212
Has anyone ever actually played with someone who managed to play a 'clumsy' character properly?
>>43562249
well, no. because then their character wouldn't be ""cute"" they'd just be a buffoon.
>>43562230
Don't forget "refusing to admit when they're wrong" which turns out not to be a weakness since it always turns out that they were right all along.
>>43562282
A buffoon wouldn't be clumsy either, though. Clumsy people in real life aren't buffoons, just clumsy. That would be taking 'clumsy' too far in the other direction.
I'm talking like, a proper clumsy character who occasionally fumbles things that are both important and unimportant, properly roleplays a lack of good coordination but doesn't hog the floor with "OH WOOPS SILLY ME"...
>>43562230
That one is often terrible, but I've seen it be OK. For example, Ed Harris in the cinematic masterpiece The Rock cared too much about his soldiers that their deaths ate him up inside and drove him to commit an act of terror, which killed his remaining men and himself and didn't end up helping anyone.
It helps if the person is good enough to play 'unconditional loyalty' right to the hilt. There's a quote in one of the Dresden books about how he'll let the world burn, he andhis daughterwill roast marshmallows.Then he actually did, which ended up ruining the lives of himself and everyone around him, and is a decision that is still fucking him over
>>43562249
I did it once, but you honestly need a GM who can do it right.
I would occasionally fuck up, but it wouldn't actually affect anyone but myself alone, or just do what the group was already planning to do, like tripping and pushing open a door, or falling on steps.
It could be costly when it was just me, but it only really came out as comedic relief in high tension situations that made the inevitable explosion of action that much more visceral.
>>43562287
Well to be fair, none of these are real weakness at all.
"Clumsy"
>character wasn't watching where she was going and bumped into her love interest. Said love interest will immediatley blush, maybe even spurt blood out of his nose, instead of being confused or mildly irritated some ditz just blundered into him at his locker.
"Cares too much
>character is either the only one with enough moral fiber to not just write off people in distress, or is overbearing and noses into other people's personal lives. Not that the distinction matters, because her ethical intuition is always right.
"Stubborn"
>Character is obnoxiously persistent about forcing others to conform to her goals. Won't matter, because as far as the author is concerned the character's goals conflated with an objective moral high ground even if she isn't aware of it.
>>43562249
Honestly I think Jack Burton from big trouble in little china is pretty clumsy and he pulls it off without being a complete buffoon or cutsey character. One might argue that Ash in Army of Darkness is a bit of a fumbler with how he handles the clone with himself and forgets the words needed to not destroy the world. These feel like pretty respectable ways to do it.
>>43562407
>none of these are real weakness at all.
False.
They are not mechanical penalties, and if the only weaknesses you think of are ones that effect how well you fight, it's no small wonder they fail.
The GM needs to be on board for narrative weaknesses to be of note.
>>43562485
We're talking about narrative weaknesses, you dongus
>>43562420
These. Xander, too, if you don't find an episodeor seasonwhere he's a complete buffoon.
You can be a bit clumsy, uncoordinated, or forgetful and it comes off as a human character trait rather than either a total stereotype or something that is mentioned exactly once, then dropped. 'Less than competent, but not a total failure' is the goal.
>>43560981
>has a gender, sexual orientation, race, class, name and appearance
>implying not special snowflake
lol this phaget
Your setting is now Horatio. There are no level ups. You will be judged by how Horatio you are.
>>43560981
Because if my character was like this, he would be a special snowflake.
>>43561409
In pre industrial settings race, gender and sexuality are paramount parts of identity and social status.
>>43560981
>Do you like being a special snowflake?
Yes.
>>43560981
Why wouldn't I?
>>43562999
I mostly agree with this. Though I'd add on that it has to fit the tone of the game, and not horribly overshadow the other PCs. But those are requirements of any character, special snowflake or not.
>>43562999
Fuck Yeah.
>>43561155
My favourite character I ever played was so aggressively normal it was a magical ability that extended outside his body, forcing normality onto others and even acting as a slight antimagical capability. Things were even more ordered around him - if he threw a deck of cards into the air it'd all land into a stack, ordered by suit and value.
>>43561139
Yes, but there does not exist a "perfectly" average person. Someone who is impeccably average in every way is actually going to stand out a lot.
>>43560981
>Bob Smith
>not John Doe
Pleb
>>43563310
>Human
>In the mutated post-human-post-apocalypse
Wow, talk about special snowflake.
But he is, he is a former city guard sergeant. Lost his wife to highwaymen, they were dealt with. No grand scheme to go avenging. He decided to go adventuring out of... Well having nothing else to do, nothing to return home to. The newfound companionship is much welcome.
>>43563310
Such as straight white males. After adding the numbers up, they're a minority too.
>>43562407
Your greentext only works if it's author writing a book, and not belligerent GM fucking with his players' characters hopes and dreams.
Hell, in GURPS those are straight-up disadvantages, because they limit character's options when he acts.
>>43563310
The thing with average people is that you don't really notice them.
>>43563320
Anyone remember that thread where the OP pic was edgy some snowflake drow OC with a really complicated name but whose human father had the totally innocuous name of "Barry Johnson"? And we determined Barry was just some twenty-something schmuck from our world who got yanked into the Underdark by a portal that opened up while he was walking out of a Gamestop?
>>43563426
If the person is average in the general definition, then yes. If you took every single human trait's average and made it into a living being, you'd get something actually freaky.
>>43560981
>le white ppl baka desu senpai are so boring XDXD
>implying white people are average
>perpetuating black's own negative stereotypes by saying they're somehow inherently different from a cosmic norm
>being this assbackwards in your edginess
This is why no one likes blacks.
>>43561061
Wait, people read The Stars, My Destination?
It's so good, but nobody knows about it
>>43563471
Well, average weight, height and age are not problem, but I can see how it might get a little tricky with things like gender or hair & eye color...
>>43563395
Why aren't you playing Wong Li the Chinaman, /tg/?
>>43563570
Because role playing is western; Asians don't have souls, and are thus lack the empathy needed in RPG's
>>43563636
But a Muslim Chinaman would be more average than a white Christian, anon.
>>43563679
They only count for 2/5 of a person.
>>43560981
Because that would be horribly droll. Gnomish illusionist is clearly the great race/class combo.
Why are you not playing a gnomish illusionist?
>>43563636
RPGs are popular as fuck in Japan, though.
>>43560981
I see nothing in this post about sword and board. You were so close.
>>43561256
my sides
>>43561256
>>43561256
I don't get it
Sometimes my character feels like an average fighter thanks to those nat 1s
>>43564268>rank2 / raNGk / adjective
>...
>(especially of air or water) having a foul or offensive smell.
>>43563309
Did you get to bang that one teleporting chick with the big nose?
>>43560981
>Do you like being a special snowflake?
Yes.
I love being a Paladin, it's a form of wish fulfillment for me.
>>43560981
I played an NPC class once and it was actually pretty fun. I was a Warrior, who got included in the PCs exploration party. All of my stats were 13, and I just did ordinary NPC stuff. Followed orders and cooked the meals at night. Every time the other PCs asked me my name, the GM would have something happen before I could give it, and we would have to deal with it. It got so bad they just stopped asking for it. I also always was wearing a helmet.
My character is a mexican illegal immigrant.
She is female and gone to texas when a kid
she is black and homosexual.
She is a samurai (and use katana only) and her race is a drow
>>43560981
Am I the only one vaguely aroused by how unnaturally smooth his skin is?
>>43561409
The total reverse happened to me once.
I told my group that I was interested in running an African-themed campaign, and they said it would make a great change of pace.
So, I do some research, get the start of the settign written up with the intention of expanding it over the course of the setting, and take a look at the character ideas.
Every single character was basically the great white hunter. Every. Single. One.
With the possible exception of the mage, who had come to the continent to investigate tales of lost civilizations, which was actually a pretty cool idea.
One guy even decided to play a fucking Viking! OK, I can see the appeal of the cool warrior race guy, but why play what you always play in every other game when we've got mother fucking Zulus!
>>43567811
That's depressing, but also hysterical.
>>43567811
>One guy even decided to play a fucking Viking!
Did he get lost on his way to sack Constantinople?
>>43563782
Maybe the Vidya kind.
>>43560981
>Do you like being a special snowflake?
Yes.
>>43563445
>>43568047
He didn't really have much of a reason to be there, other than the player being a massive norse-aboo.
Strayed into That Guy territory a few times over the years I knew him, but that's a story for another thread.
>>43563445
It was wonderful.
>>43563445
I need to go find that thread now. It was entertaining as fuck.
>Magic wielding, sword swinging, teleporting gish in modern setting
>He finds fedorautist culture so funny that he actually uses his powers to deliberately parody the "nothing personnel kid" crowd
>He goes by the name Coldsteel Darkbane
>Flies under the radar via a katana, trenchcoat, and fedora
Nobody suspects a thing.
>>43568719
>Unaware to Coldsteel Darkbane, he is slowly going native.
>Starts to think that maybe his newfround brethren really are downtrodden heroes in a world of chauvinistic philistines
>Meets the dimension-travelling redheaded LadyKnight Wren Montaine
>Instantly smitten.
>Tries to form a power couple team with her.
>Wren is more entranced by the rugged space soldier Jack Mason, who got stuck on modern Earth because of relativity shenanigans
>Coldsteel tries the time-honored courtship rituals of his adoptive brothers, which include constantly buying her bags of hot cheetos, inappropriately personal birthday gifts, and late-night text messages (Wren does not own a phone).
>Despite his best efforst and obvious niceness, Wren is uninterested and has a back and forth fling with Mason who's honestly probably just a jerk only interested in sex
>All the while the they and other displaced heroes must fight hordes of genre monsters in Everyville USA
>>43568950
>Barely aware of all of this is Oscar
>Oscar likes to smoke weed and works at a gas station
>As with a great many stoners, Oscar's roommates cycle in and out of habitation as their legal status, work status, and life situations change
>Oscar is aware that the hot redhead, buff ex-military dude, and fedora tipping guy aren't normal, but he doesn't ask too many questions because he's usually too high to mind
>Occasionally he is called upon to drive the trio to the mall or the grocery store, and every now and then they have an odd request that takes him near all sorts of weird events
>Sometimes stuff gets a little bit trippy
>But at least they chip enough cash in for Oscar to be able to afford an extra quarter a month on rent savings
>>43569170
Not gonna lie, if this were a TV show or a book series I'd be totally into it.
I kinda want to run an urban fantasy/worlds collide kinda game now.
>>43563495
I know right? I certainly wasn't expecting that reference.
>>43560981
In that case, each of his ability scores is 11 and his hit points become the average for his Hit Dice at his level. The character's alignment is lawful neutral, and he is interested in little else other than setting order to the world. He passionlessly travels to wipe out chaos wherever he finds it.
>>43568636
>7 foot tall
jesus christ she's a juggernaught.
>>43560981
Is the guy on that pic real or a cg image?
Fucker doesn't even have any kind of texture in his skin.
>>43562133
>6 of them
>the middle one
>>43570425
It's the averaged faces of a ton of people. Skin texture is smoothed out, in addition to facial features being suspiciously average.
>>43560981
I would do this for one reason and that would be because it'd be fun to round him off and choose something to make him good at.
>>43568210
Anon, the Japanese play Shadowrun and Call of Cthulhu, have several D&D clones and dozens of their own original systems. Heck, plenty of Japanese writers are known for being former roleplayers who drew their first inspirations from their campaigns and homebrews.
>>43560981
because bieng mundane is not appropriate when playing escapist fantasy
>>43572624
It is when your real life is extraordinary and you want to escape from it. Or you already have a massive pile of shit happen in your personal life and just want to play a sword bro that kicks ass with friends.
Last time I had a character called Smith, my players tortured him to death because someone with a name as boring as John Smith had to have something to hide.
>>43562999
>you need a special snowflake tier background in order to make an interesting character
fuck that post
>>43560981
Its a intrigue game, 2 skill points per level to be invested in jump and/or grunt menacingly won't work.
Also Bob is not a apropriate name.
>>43562249
Nobody I've known has ever been willing to dump Dex.
>>43560981
But ehat ifI'm playing in prehistoric Africa. Why would I be a white dude? Special snowflake much. Why can't you be Ng the hunter-gather? Why do you have to be That Guy? Always with the paleface warrior from a distant land shit.
I think the stigma about special-snowflakism is probably one of the more common partners in crime that tends to crop up with those of putting more effort into your backstory than you do for the part that actually matters. Yahtzee had a saying along the lines of, "Is this the most interesting part of this person's life? If not, why aren't we being shown that?"
>>43573688
He's not saying you need to be a special snowflake, he's just saying that being a bit off the wall isn't intrinsically a bad thing. Note he says he accommodates them, or rather, making room for them, rather than feeding them cosmic frost-star fuel.
>>43563310
Don't be so sure.
If you can't make a character interesting without having to make him inhuman, there's probably something wrong with you.
A normal, well-adjusted person is interested in characters who are basically ordinary people but a bit 'better' than average. They see someone like James Bond or Indiana Jones and think that they are good role models, who will inspire them to be better people. They believe that they can improve themselves by emulating heroes who are grounded in reality.
A dysfunctional person doesn't think like that. They don't really understand what makes some humans better than others and can't imagine themselves being competent, brave or strong. They are so incompetent at being human that they can't see 'normal' people as something to aspire to. They hate the idea of heroes as aspirational figures, because they have no aspirations. Their heroes are beings which aren't human, because they hate the idea that a human being can be a hero.
Idolising a strong, brave, intelligent human being means you aspire to be stronger, braver and more intelligent. Rejecting that kind of figure for an elf wizard is what you do when you reject the idea of improving yourself. An inhuman hero comes with no obligation to emulate them.
So long as your favourite characters are impossible and all human characters are grouped together as 'boring' in your mind, you never have to think that some people are better than others. Indiana Jones is just another boring human, just like you. You don't have to improve yourself because you can never be an elf wizard, so there isn't any point.
That's why fantasy bullshit is so popular with losers and that's why everyone who enjoys playing impossible characters should be regarded with suspicion.
>>43573837
>heroes who are grounded in reality.
Survived any nukes in a fridge lately?
>>43573837
>That's why fantasy bullshit is so popular with losers
Yeah, what kind of loser wants to play a fantasy character in a fantasy tabletop game?
>>43573837
Greek heroes were given boons from the gods. King Arthur had Excalibur. Superman has been the most recognizable superhero for decades now.
Western Culture has always loved the idea of being given power, and making the best of it.
>>43560981
Bob Smith would have only 10 in all stats if you went by the average in D&D and would be unable to do the most basic daily tasks without hurting himself.
>>43570585
He wants half of #3 and half of #4
>>43560981
Bob is a name for degenerates.
>>43573837
>if you can't do it it bad
Don't care. I'll play the thing I wanna play, not the thing you want me to play as some kind of writer test.
Also, I resent the implication that anyone who wants to play something other than john average is a bad writer.
>>43573837
>no obligation to emulate inhuman characters that are noble in some way or other
Are you a fucking -robot-? There's just as much obligation to emulate them as to emulate heroic humans.
It's what they are doing that touches you, not that they're a human. It doesn't matter what species they are if they're doing the right stuff.
>>43561242
George Osborne
>>43561256
My side were last seen passing the orbit of Jupiter.
They were still accelerating.
And I read it in their voice.
>>43571631
And they're the worst kind of hack & slashers with crunch heavy rulebooks that make said Shadowrun look like Lasers & Feelings.
>>43561242
Also each person is unique. There'll never be someone else exactly like You anon, not for the lenght of the life of the universe.
So, even admitting a perfectly averange person, he'll still be unique, even if perhaps for boring derivative reasons.
OP Just described a logical impossibility and that's all that it is.
>>43560981
>human
Goddamn, can you PLEASE stop trying to be a special snowflake-counter?
>>43569771
> The character's alignment is lawful neutral, and he is interested in little else other than setting order to the world. He passionlessly travels to wipe out chaos wherever he finds it.
Oh, so you want to play a paladin, but don't want the drawbacks of managing divine powers or the rigorous code of chivalry?
Go shove some glitter down your skirt, you goddamn fairy snowflake princess.
I actually have a character in my game of Hunter: The Vigil that is named Bob Smith. He's also as civilian as it gets. He's also the most distinctive (and useful) out of the whole group so far.
So yeah.
>>43562420
> pretty clumsy
> these reflexes
Dunno, I'd say he putallhis points in them.
>>43561116
Who's the guy at the end supposed to be?
>>43561061
He starts off as a nobody, but by the end of the book he's as snowflake as snowflake gets, and I'm not even talking about being the Messiah who can jaunt to the stars and spreads psychoreactive nukes all over the place. I'm talking about being an ultra-rich cyborg dilettante with wired reflexes who can teleport at will and gets tiger stripes when he's angry. At which point during his development do you honestly think a player would play him in an RPG? The whole Nomad section of the book would be just background written on the character sheet.
>>43573771
Wow, he even looks it.
>>43561022
There's a book called JPod, where a character changes his name to John Doe and obsessively lives the most statistically average life he can, to make up for being raised by a pair of lesbians on a vegan commune.
This reminded me if this, and now I've remembered I leant that book to a friend 8 years ago and never got it back.
>>43560981
Shouldn't it be Mohammed now?
>>43560981
>Bob Smith
>not John Smith
>>43574512
>>43561242
Having no distinguishing features doesn't mean having no features at all, or even not being unique. There are meaningful and meaningless differences. People, like snowflakes, are technically each unique with no two exactly identical to each other, but if you actually treat them as meaningfully different from each other, you're insane. When you go out to shovel the walk you don't have to evaluate each snowflake in your way in case it has some kind of meaningful unique property that you have to take into account before approaching it.
>>43575130
That's my whole point. Like the ENTIRETY of it. See >>43573765
>Yahtzee had a saying along the lines of, "Is this the most interesting part of this person's life? If not, why aren't we being shown that?"
He begins as an average nobody, and THEN shit starts to happen, it's not crammed into backstory.
Snowflake players want to be interesting without having paid the dues of actually doing interesting stuff.
Nobody minds that the Fighter has three arms if they were at the session where he was dragged out of the magical transmogrification soup of the evil wizard, and rolled "three arms" on the table, because they got to see that madness "on-screen," if you will.
If he tried to start the game with three arms, that wouldn't be okay. Especially if it was buried in a twelve page backstory novelette that he expected everyone else to wade through.
>>43573837
That is alot of projecting.
I don't find human heroes boring and I don't find that inhuman heroes are impossible to take as a role model. It doesn't matter what the character is, it matters what they do that is heroic. Judging a character by what they are instead of what they do is the exact opposite of the point of fantasy.
>>43560981
>Do you like being a special snowflake?
Yes. What now, big guy?
>>43576911
This. So much this.
This is part of whyat makes Harry Dresden not a sue. He starts with magic, but it's pretty basic stuff - a bit of bullet resistance, a couple of one shiot schtics, some potionmaking, and a touch of fire - all stuff most wizards he deals with are actually way past.
And then shit happens to him.
>>43577162
Yeah, I picked Gully Foyle as an example, specifically because by the end of all the crazy shit that happens, he's just the kind of weird motherfucker that snowflake players are attracted to, but because Alfred Bester is an amazingly good writer, he doesn't cheat; he shows you all the good parts, and it's riveting.
It's all about "show, don't tell."
>>43574500
Sounds great.
>>43576911
This is why I always got into shit in freeform RP, I'd make some competent but otherwise Average Joe in a campaign of snowflakes and people would get pissy that I got all the attention when the average reward or event seemed to impact Average Joe the most.
Another great example of this in a setting is Isaac Clarke from Dead Space, who starts as an overweight engineer nerd in DS1 to some fine-tuned Necromorph killing machine by the end of DS2.
>>43560981
A character "normal" in everything he is and does is abnormal per se
>>43574902
>its all in the reflexes
to be fair he drank a potion before then though.
>>43560981
There's nothing wrong with being special.
There's everything wrong with being a flaming cunt about it.
Those who have the most incendiary meat curtains also tend to have the hairiest triggers regarding the possibility of others being 'special'.
>>43560981
You have literally made the world's greatest thief, chucklefuck. Why you gotta be a Speshul Snowflake?
I always make the most unique and weird characters that I can in a setting and then play them as much as a person as I can.
It's fun when playing some fucked up thing like "Bugbear Fighter with vampiric heritage and cantrips" and trying to say like Who is this guy? Why does he do what he does?
>>43561061
Funny I just read that book last week.
>>43563471
Especially to trained personnel. If you're being investigated and nothing comes up, no record, no rumors, no quirks and nothing unusual from said your friends and family then their going to get mightily suspicious.
>>43561669
Too on the nose
What if I played as an extremely advanced combat droid who merely THOUGHT he was all that?
>>43574500
But I love crunch? Besides, having learned a few Japanese systems, I call bullshit. Most books are 2/3rds fluff and replays. The actual rules are generally simple and straight-forward.
>>43574500
>hack & slashers
Japanese systems are generally narrative-driven.
>>43563679
We're only talking about actual people, obviously.
>>43561061
>Stars My Destination
my nigga
because if I'm going to play a martial class, in a fantasy setting, there is only one option:
mashy n bashy orc
>>43562230
>caring too much
I'm thorn /tg/.
In our last session one of our party members got itchy trigger and killed good wizard A that was suppresing the townsfolk murderous rage. now the townsfolk,blinded and under control of evil wizard B from the shadows, wants to rip us a new one.
Having rescued the townsfolk children early on, my character is relucant to fight and leave a town full of orphans behind. Should I just say fuck it for the sake of the party and help them kill everything or just roleplay it and refuse to strike seemingly innocent fictional men and run away?
What would you say is worse:
Someone trying to insert a non-human into a purely human setting
OR
Someone trying to insert a human into a purely non-human setting
>>43560981
My first character was named Jerry Seinfeld the druid. He wasn't really interesting but I was new.
>>43587207
Personally I think they'd be equally worrisome, depending on what the proposal is like.
>>43587207
Both people are retarded in the same way.
>>43587222
Does this make Kramer a racist Warlock?
>>43587207
They're exactly the same problem, so, both suck equally.
>>43560981
Yes, we are playing a horror game set in a gated community in the US.
Most of the players only realizd something was queer after they had sacrificed their firstborn to the many-horned god of green lawns.
>>43560981
>fighter named bob smith
>not peasant named chang khan
Fuck off with your mary sure bullshit asshole.
>>43560981
Fuck you and your family you fuckstick
>>43563445
that thread deserves better
>>43562604
I'd play as Horatio.
After all, he IS the perfect form.
>>43561061
>You do realize you could still make that guy a fascinating character, right?
OP here, first time replying.
I never said you couldn't. I was making fun of people who cry "special snowflake" at the sight of a single uncommon trait.
I have seriously seen someone on this very board argue that no one should be allowed to play as a spellcaster unless 90+% of people in the setting can and do cast spells.
>>43588797
>I was making fun of people who cry "special snowflake" at the sight of a single uncommon trait.
I can't believe you thought you needed to post this.
>>43588267
>khan
>Last name implies she has some kind of royal destiny
who you callin' Sue, pal?
