The player creates a white male human fighter

>"Backstory is what happens to a character before level 5, that's what Gygax said"

he's kinda right, you know. isn't he some 1st level nobody? army -> mercenary is a fitting backstory, IMO.

what you want to do is incentive him to put some personality on his character. you guys don't use 5e's personality/ideal/flaw/bond stuff? could be a way to "enforce" some personality, if nothing else

It sounds like he made a self insert and he's trying to keep it alive. Try to put up with it for as long as you can, then talk to him about retiring the character and making one that is a little bit more willing to take risks. I'd suggest making the character part of the local town guard or perhaps a blacksmith who gives a discount to adventurers, perhaps have him role-play any interactions between said character and the party

>that's what Gygax said

Just because he made the game doesn't mean that he was good for it.

Avoiding challenges is can be fun if avoiding the challenge is itself a challenge.

If he's doing the equivalent of "I don't go adventuring and just stay in town all day" then let the others leave him behind I guess. Make sure nothing fun happens to him, no bullshit assassin attacks or anything. Just boring town shit.

Basically. Different strokes for different folks, but all the same; Level 1's are already way more skilled than most peers they encounter in the wide world, they are by definition of having a class level, more than run of the mill redshirts.

You can be level 1 nobody without being boring as fuck, though. Even leaving the same carcass and being a soldiery and then deserting can be interesting, if it's done in an interesting way. If OP is to be believed, it was not.

The player is just a fucking pussy. I got a player like that as well. Minmaxes like a motherfucker, but if he ever feels insecure about his own chances he'll pussy out and start stalling (ironically his co-players are suicidal maxminners who go for concept>strength and then don't give a shit about dying)

If he really thought backstory is what happens before level 5, he should have been a squire or someone training to be a merc rather than a full-fledged merc.
Of course he's not a hero, in that case: You've got to earn that shit.

D&D is not a good system, low level characters are ridiculously incapable.

tfw your fear of failure bleeds over into the make believe land of RPGs
what a terrible fate

I don't see how that contradicts anything I've said.
Besides, why should low level characters be more competent than their level implies, in that case?
If you want a higher-power start, start at level 3 or 5.
Not too terribly a fan of D&D myself, but if you're not even going to try and pull a jury-rig but play it knowingly anyways, you get none of my pity.

>a white male
Fuck off tumblr.

>low level characters are ridiculously incapable
Not really. If built have competently Level 1 characters can do most things with a reasonable chance of success..

You aren't a hardened vet or giant slayer by any means, but that doesn't stop you from say participating in a few skirmishes here or there. That's not even to mention having hopes,dreams, aspirations, likes and dislikes etc.

Not really. Speaking in 3.5 terms, compare a 1st-level Warrior to a 1st-level Fighter and see who comes out on top, or a 1st-level Wizard and a 1st-level Adept, or a 1st-level Expert and a 1st-level Rogue, etc.

I think the idea is to emphasize how mind-bogglingly, bog-standard such a character is. White human male fighter is just the epitome of average.

>It's a "milennial hipster who bought the anti-d&d meme turns his nose at the father of p&p" episode

>It's three sentences long and can be summed up as "He lived in a village, then he joined the army and fought somewhere, I don't really know or care where, but then he decided to desert and become a mercenary again"
That's acceptable, if pretty boring.

>Nope, he just kinda hangs around the party and never really says anything.
Some players are like this. They're content being along for the ride or providing a supporting role. Having just one of these types in a group is fine as long as you have other people who are roleplaying and participating more actively.

>Because he constantly complains that encounters are too hard, and "We don't feel like heroes".
>Also tries to talk the party out of trying to fight dangerous monsters and go into difficult dungeons.
>He does it out of character, naturally.
Alright, this dude is a fucking wet blanket. I'd try talking to him one more time to see if I could figure out what his deal is but if we can't work something out I'd just tell him to find another group if all he's gonna do is show up and complain.

> compare a 1st-level Warrior to a 1st-level Fighter and see who comes out on top
That's a toss up.

Sometimes a player just doesn't work within your game. Have you tried talking to him about his lack of roleplay, or asking him why he isn't engaged in his character or the game?

It may be time to remove him.

What? Dude, no, I love D&D. 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Editions all.

But Gary Gygax had some...strange notions regarding things like alignment and encounter balance. And writing.

Let's not forget that a typical Gygaxian encounter between player and DM goes like this:

DM: [reading the adventure module] "You're all sitting at a tavern. A cat comes up to you and rubs against your leg."
Player: "I pet the cat."
DM: [still just reading what Gygax wrote] "The cat explodes and you all take 13d8 damage, no save."

Compare a first level wizard to a house cat

>Warrior has +2 BAB, +2/0/0 Fort/Ref/Will
>Fighter has +2 BAB, +2/0/0 Fort/Ref/Will, and 1 bonus feat
That's pretty funny. All the fighter seems to have over a warrior is 1 bonus feat every 2 levels.

The adept differs from the wizard a lot more, but the adept can seemingly endlessly spit out d8 elemental ranged touch attacks.

Not really. A typical human warrior has:
- Str 10, Dex 10, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
- d8 HD + CON mod (rolled, average 4 hp)
- +1 attack bonus
- +2 Fortitude save, +0 other saves
- Weapon that deals dice + STR modifier (let's say longsword, so just d8)

A typical human fighter has:
- Str 15, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
- d10 HD plus CON mod (maximum, so 12 hp)
- +3 attack bonus
- +4 Fort, +1 Ref, +1 Will
- Weapon that deals dice + STR modifier (again, let's say longsword, so 1d8+2)

In every way, the Fighter is statistically superior.

>That's pretty funny. All the fighter seems to have over a warrior is 1 bonus feat every 2 levels.
Yes, that's why the fighter is shit. It's a glrorified NPC class.

Now compare a WARBLADE to a Level 1 Warrior.

Not really, NPC stat arrays still allow for above average stats.

Yeah, it's pretty sad. The funniest bit is that he also likes complaining about me making combat too easy (as if I don't do that intentionally so he'll get his power fantasy fuel).

But he's overall a person that's not very self-aware about his own habits.

It's really just a technicality, but the adept is a divine caster. I think the NPC arcane class is just an Ebberon thing

Hmm, perhaps I should be a bit more fair and build the NPC according to the NPC array rather than just straight 10s.

- Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 8
- d8 HD + CON mod (rolled, average 5 hp)
- +2 attack bonus
- +3 Fort, +0 other saves
- Weapon that deals dice + STR modifier (longsword, 1d8+1)

The Fighter is still statistically superior in every way.

Why do the writers of D&D actively hate physical fighters while wildly masturbating to the very idea of magic?

SEE An NPC warrior is not built according to the Elite Array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8), which is reserved for PCs or NPC with PC class levels.

Cause they're Wizards of the Coast, not Fighters of the Coast.

>mfw my mind is blown

YOU'RE A WHITE MALE!

Because jocks beat us up when we were young, so we have to make a game where the smart are able to reasonably defeat the strong.

>> The player creates a white male human fighter.

A FUCKING WHITE MALE!

>Well, we're not really friends
Yet.

fucking white males amirite

>the OP creates a bait thread
>this is ok, maybe it'll be a fun new pasta
>Read his post
>it's 12 lines of greentext
>Jesus Christ, it's like he didn't care at all

Not going to bother with the rest, suffice to say you're a faggot

>5e bond stuff
Could be perfect for this situation, especially if you dangle an inspiration point as a Scooby snack for displaying the traits in roleplay.
Allow players to come up with their own backgrounds of course, and use them to build their own custom bond/trait etc which fills the slot.
Just to keep it fair to all.
It may be enough to tempt him in to trying.

Of course, he could roll laconic, disinterested and poor judgement.
Then it'd be square one again, but I say give it a go.

>white male human
I have never ever specified my characters skin colour.

And not out of any self made ideal. I just never see the point to it and never think it is an actual character trait.

...I want to know where that's from.

I'm okay with level 1 mercenary PCs who recently started out. As long as you're not trying to sell him as particularly experienced or better at fighting than he actually is.

>white male human
wow, it is the year of our lord 2016, how come cis scum haven't realized they are going to not exist in 20 years yet?

>triggered

It really is reverse tumblr in here, huh? He was using "white male" to emphasize how boring and cookie cutter the fighter was. Stop shitting bricks at the slightest sign of the SJW boogeyman.

Hi OP

Nice try, but you just got told. :^)

Anyone can make up shit and post it on the internet, but it takes legit skill to riff off that and serve the other guy. Your response tells me you don't have that skill. You probably spent about 45 mins coming up with your post, and then when you were challenged within minutes, you fell apart. Your cover was blown, you had to fall back on a simple variation of "u mad". You choked bro. You choked hard.

Oh no! Nobody's falling for it! What are you going to do? Let's see you wriggle on my hook a bit more, kid. Dance up a merry jig and maybe I'll give you a few pointers on how to b8 properly when you're done.

Depends on the setting. In my world even the most useless grunts in the military are first level fighters. Commoner is reserved only for those who have no combat, musical, magical, roguish, or clerical experience to speak of.

...

You make this board worse for the fact that you exist in it. This is why moot left us for the Jews.

It's a very old joke. Not sure how old, but I'd hazard a guess at early 2000s because that's around the time 3rd edition came out.

Glad to see it's aged well though.

I never got the whole jocks beating up nerds and brains over brawn thing. Personal experience has shown me that winners are both tough and clever.

>white males are boring
only if your setting is shit tumbkr-kun

And looking at empire building and combat prowess, also the epitome and apex of success.

It's 'common' because it worked, user.

Yeah no. It has to be made clear that tumblr and its bullshit isn't welcome here. Give them an inch and they try to take over. Look at what happened to MTG.

Reading comprehension goes out of the window when the tumblr boogyman crops its head

The main body of your creative fiction is a tad dull and contradictory, but the subtle racebaiting seems to be working fairly well. I give it a 6/10

But there nothing especially cookie cutter about a white male fighter, so obviously what you really mean is that white males a boring in general.

*there is

>White human male fighter is just the epitome of average.
#notallwhitehumanmalefighters

>*are
I thinks it's time to stop posting in bait threads and get some sleep. goodnight all

Lol this

>Conan the Barbarian is portrayed as a muscular, sword-wielding Adnois, but at the same time, he's got a genius-level intellect that's been near impossible to rival
>Tarzan, King of the Jungle; does most of his fighting with his brain, as well as his perfectly honed body
>Literally any "modern" hero in our current atmosphere is always a mix of good brawn and great brains

Even IRL, Chads always end up becoming either doctors or politicians. IRL, there's no arbitrary number set that limits how smart, or fast, or strong you can be.

I graduated with a 3.75GPA and placed 5th in state for shotput last year; and the captain of the football team ended up going to Yale or Harvard or one of those other Ivy league places.

It's...It's almost like DnD's character creation was invented by clueless idiots who didn't understand the scope of human potential within a real world setting...

Nah, that would just be impossible!

How many times have you posted this now?

Fuck you, you motherfucking bitch bitch

At the risk of sounding like a GURPs fag, DnD is so flawed it triggers me.

He's not wrong you know. The stereotype of a typical rpg nerd is a basement dwelling NEET who lacks social skills, contancts, and charisma to advance in life (unlike Chads who have been popular since high school).

Hey at least it's fun.

What happened to MTG?

Feminists and SJWs have ruined the MTG community

sounds like a shitty player, or your campaings are bland and he dose not fell like putting the work in. It's always one or the other

You're playing D&D. This is what you should expect out of your players, as they only expect murderhobo out of the game.

Nothing, he made that up.

I agree that backstory is generally overstated in importance. The point of rpgs is what happens in game, not some "backstory" that was never actually played. Backgrounds should be short, simple, and have good hooks for actual play.

I'm running an OSR game (with LL) where i've explicitly forbidden players from having a proper background laud out in advance, as an experiment. Over time, "backstories" naturally popped up, but as a result of in-character chatter and comments and actions (the warrior started complaining about the heat and implying he's from some distant cold northern place, for example).

Of course, a very story-based game could have characters with a modicum of backstory, but i believe it should always be minimal. Write me anything longer than a paragraph and i'll tell you to get to the point already.

theres nothing inherently wrong with a male human fighter, any more than there can be something wrong with an elven ranger, orcish barbarian, or so on, and it wouldnt be very sporting to force another player to do something else because he seems boring, if nothing else than celebrate how simple his character is, as it makes him a tabula rasa

> He was using "white male" to emphasize how boring and cookie cutter the fighter was
> SJW boogeyman

Basic Cuckposting 101 right here

...

> Original post has nothing to do with social justice
> Tumblr and /pol/ use the thread as another battlefield

A lot of people view D&D as more of a game than a social activity. I don't think there's anything strictly wrong with this unless they're ruining the other players' fun. This sounds like he's also a huge coward. That's a bad combination.

This is nothing, back in 2009 every thread devolved into sniveling atheists and rabid christfags arguing about alignment and the dark ages. Cunts arguing with assholes. The eternal cycle of Veeky Forums.

At least it didn't happen to a good thread. Just wait for the election year to be over so that we can get back to whatever passes for normal in neo-Veeky Forums.

Considering you that everyone shouldn't play a white human male. I think that make him unique

I don't know OP, I like simple characters that "grows" into epic characters.

>Just wait for the election year to be over
>implying the end of the election will end the pain

My friends don't roleplay at all. As the dm I'm sort of annoyed but we're also like super super close so it doesn't ever become an issue. They play from.their character's mindset but they don't actually get into it. It's sort of a non-committal role playing. I really thought after a few sessions they'd come out of their shells but nothing has changed and they still just act SUPER awkward and uncomfortable any time they have to pretend to be their character.

How would you guys handle this?

I was correcting my own spelling you mongoloid

What a wonderfully intelligent response, you must have an INT of 8 sir

>white males are boring

Oh tumblr, this is your downfall.

>> Original post has nothing to do with social justice

It uses white male in a derogation manner despite the fact that most people who would read it are white males.

It still has nothing to do with social justice. Its just a descriptor of the character. No one said the character is boring BECAUSE its a white male fighter, but that the white male fighter was boring.

He wouldn't have included the character's skin color or sex if he didn't think it was relevant to the character's boringness.

Damn dude, you must be pretty strong to shove everything through the tiny filter that is your world view. The funny thing is that this is the same sort of twisting and reaching the those SJW's you're so worried about do. You're just doing it from the opposite direction. More to the point why the fuck do you care so much? One dude somewhere might possibly have used the term "white male" in a derogatory manner. The horror.

Given the distinct lack of magic and nonhuman races in the real world, I don't think we can say that the real world can accurately chart a fantasy world.

I think it was less "boring" and more "generic". Would you feel less butt hurt if he had said, "White male with brown hair, brown eyes, and perpetual stubble"?

>man walks into forest holding a raw steak
>another man is surprised by this
>third guy says he should have known better
>fourth/second guy call guy 3 a bear and a jerk
>fifth guy mocks 4 and speaks in the third person

Yeah, I do have 8 INT

In Shadowrun.

oh shit bitch, you just got #triggerowned
>>>/tumblr/