Setting has an ancient giant lighthouse on a lonely island which serves as mage HQ

>setting has an ancient giant lighthouse on a lonely island which serves as mage HQ
>this dude in my group: "I'm from there"
>"oh you wanna be a mage?"
>"nah, I'm a fighter, but I'm from there"

>next campaign setting has a floating city in the ocean
>dude: "I'm from there"

>short side campaign has a town built on the top of an enormous pyramid
>"I'm from there"

That Guy general, I guess.

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what's wrong with this?

I don't understand why this is bad

That's not stupid enough to be That Guy.
He's more like The Guy Who.

>The Guy Who never spends any XP and gets killed midway through the campaign

You should be happy he put any thought into his background at all.

I guess I should have elaborated further. He always picks the most exotic possible origin for his characters, who are then invariably supposed to be the most exceptional individuals from that place. If the setting has an Atlantis analogue, his character is the sole survivor and still around because they are either ageless, or because the other Atlanteans invented a stasis pod for him because he's the chosen one. If there is a spectacular town on the top of a pyramid, he automatically chooses that for his birthplace and then ignores the fact that the culture there is not!Aztec because his character is an Arthurian knight.

I'm now picturing a guy who just happen to have some link to pretty much any place.
I could see a very simple, low class guy that you would expect to have never left his valley but he always have a cousin/aunt/brother-in-law he used to see at whatever time of the year.

Yes, I suppose. I just wanted to vent about this and thought I might as well dedicate the thread space to something more.

I require from my players that they at least choose a birthplace and a reason for why they're all together in a party. Thing is, he's not a half-bad roleplayer when it comes down to it, he just can't play anything other than Gary Stus who keep trying to overshadow the rest of the party (and most of the world).

Call him out on his bullshit when a culture clash happens. Ask him to explain how his character from a Mezoamerican culture is now European. Maybe he'll back off, maybe he'll give you a fucking awesome background story.

All I'm hearing here is you're spineless and can't raise so much as a single objection to this behaviour

I always end up working out a backstory together with him, because what irks me about the entire thing is the disregard for established setting, more so than his desire to always be spectacular. The pyramid knight ended up having been sired on a local woman by a knight-errant who eventually died there and left his shiny plate armor behind for his illegitimate mixed-race child, who was a knight in spirit if not in actual title.
I keep holding out hope that one day, he will arrive at the table with such a backstory thought out for himself and I will be very proud of him.

I don't raise direct objections, no. What I do is try to show him what is expected, in the hope that he'll learn by doing.

>What I do is try to show him what is expected, in the hope that he'll learn by doing.
Hate to spoil the party, but you need to call him out. Better now than never.

>Hey, here's a bunch of cool shit in my setting
>No, you character isn't allowed to interact with it at all

Think I found That Guy.

Don't make yourself stupider than you are. My gripe isn't that he's playing with the cool toys I put on the table, but that he always goes straight for the shiniest toy without taking the time to learn how it works or what it's about, because his characters can only ever originate from the most badass possible places.

This, to be quite honest.

>He's not playing with the toys the right way!

You're only digging yourself deeper.

Listen, you've got two options here. If you're really that assblasted about it, then kick him from the group. Don't be a spineless passive aggressive bitch, just get rid of him.

OR you could pick the option that doesn't make you look like a complete and total dick. Which is to let him. I mean, is he really hurting anything by wanting to be from a cool place? Why is it such a bad thing that he wants his character to be a big dick cool guy?

Lighten up you fucking nerd.

>Unrestricted player agency
>"Hell is canon in this? Yeah, I'm from there, durr hurr."

kys faggot-kun

If I'm going to spend hours upon hours planning and running sessions in a setting, I feel like the least I can expect is setting-appropriate PCs. He's my friend, I'm not going to fucking kick him from the group, but I do feel like venting a bit after I've just spent time helping him through character creation for the fifth time.

> What, you have small gripes about your friends annoying habits, that don't outright ruin games, but do get a but annoying as he does then all the time? Man fuck you, retard, either kick him out or get over it you passive aggressive bitch, hurt hurr

And maybe if the players are spending hours and hours running through a restricting setting with a GM who is more concerned about his "canon" than their good time, they might want to mix it up a little?

Seriously. Either pry the stick out of your ass and see that it's a non-issue, or fish your nuts out of your man bag and kick him because your autism can't handle someone even going slightly against the norm.

Well, this thread didn't start out as it, but I think we've found That Guy

The guy is just venting, drop the torches.

Maybe next time you set up a campaign, if you see a place that would fit his exotic tastes, either design it so he can't be the sole survivor, the best person ever from there, or he just can't be from there, maybe literally everyone there is gone, no survivors, or there's some curse that is attached to any survivors, not as a punishment., but if he chooses to be from there, he will have to carry the weight of that places history, and he can't leave it unscathed.

>they might want to mix it up a little?

Except he doesn't seem to be mixing it up at all. Reading the OP, he's just skimming through the list of places like they were vacation brochures and picking the one with the coolest cover.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to make a character from somewhere cool, but from the first example it's clear he only cares about the surface level elements.

It's like someone always playing a half-dragon just for the rarity factor but not even altering his backstory to account for the fact he's half monster with a dragon parent.

I disagree with you.

>I hate fun and interesting character choices.

Okay .

It's a softer equivalent to someone playing a half demon half angel character. Or having a neko character in a realistic setting, or trying to play a medieval knight in a cyberpunk setting. It's not going to ruin the game, but there's no real substantial reason behind the choice, beyond 'I wanna be the MOST special' regardless of have appropriate it is to the setting or party dynamic. It's like the whole party being themed on playing a ragtag group of dirty mercs, and one player choosing to be a rich nobleman whose with the party just because, and leaves it to the DM to sort the details

I feel like the better answer would be to make a world full of tons of fantastical places where people live and ancient societies people are from.

Who cares if he's one of the few survivors from the ancient cloud tribe if there's a bustling cloud metropolis right next door?

> I dislike that this one player only makes special snowflake chosen one characters without any context beyond "I'm the best"
Ftfy

>Lazily writing 'special snowflake land' as your birthplace every game
>Interesting

From how this player sounds, he'd probably just have his character be the best from the best place out of all these super fantastical locales, or he'll be from some small, generic home so he can push that " I'm just an average normal guy, but I'm so good at everything I can overcome all these other special people." route

>your character is what?
>Bob, younger brother of Jesus.
>dude, you just can't do that!
>someone needed to watch after mom! And dad's carpentry business! You see Mr. Lamb of God doing that? Fuck no, its all fishing trips and party fuel!
>okay... Why do you have the spear of Longinus?
>I beat the crap out of that guy for shanking my older brother. Don't worry, I washed the blood off.

OP, just pull a bait and switch on him.
Like, introduce your ancient kingdom built upon the corpse of a giant crystal dragon, wait until he's established that his character is from there, then casually drop at a later point that everyone from there is a eunuch.

...

> What I do is try to show him what is expected, in the hope that he'll learn by doing.

If that works, I'll give you a fucking internet medal.

I have found that players very rarely improve much past their initial ability when it comes to role-playing unless they were a literal child when they started. This is doubly true when the issues they have with RP stem from things like an inflated ego and not just lack of RP experience.

> Egypt? Yeah, I worked there for a while.
> Don't tell me... you built the pyramids as a slave right?
> What? No! I told you I took over dad's carpentry business, I don't do stone work. I just helped with the scaffolding and the building site. And trust me, you need a professional for that!

Sure, technically that kid who took the action figure and is smacking it across his forehead isn't "playing with it wrong."

He's still a fucking retard, though.

Mary sues get out

Id much rather be a common person who does some pretty neat things and retires with my riches Bilbo Baggins style than some destined Chosen One who always has to have a snowflake background and be the center of attention for the whole campaign

>Babylon? I know a guy there
>how?
>well, I was travelling to discover new techniques, and I kinda sold some furniture there... He really likes it though, said the rope tie points really enhanced his love life.
>you sold BDSM furniture in Babylon?!
>kinky people are everywhere man.

Doubt this would work. He'd just say that he's the only non-eunuch from there. That's the entire problem, he makes characters from places that he thinks are "cool," but then makes zero effort to make the character actually fit into those settings as described to him.

You can be a chosen one and not be a shitty player, user.
They are not one and the same.

Oh, so he's a jew. Got it.

>>Bob, younger brother of Jesus.

Jesus actually did have several brothers: James, Joseph, Jude, and Simon (as well as several sisters, but they were all but completely wiped from the record).

They were written out most of the bible largely because it was inconvenient to the narrative and because, for the most part; they did not believe Jesus was the son of god.
For obvious reasons.

"Chosen One" by its very definition requires that one is the center of attention. You're the subject of a prophecy, you're opposed by an ancient evil that nobody else can deal with, all the women are hopping on your dick for being special (etc.) and if that's not the case, why call yourself the Chosen One?

Some of us expect our players to have graduated past young adult literature levels of character depth.

Confusing OP, OP

Are you claiming you're That Guy?

OP has a setting with SuperAwesome™ locations, but doesn't want his PCs to pic them as birthplaces.

I got that, but then he said "That Guy general I guess" and now I'm wondering who starts a That Guy thread with themselves.

>this setting a sanctuary just for mages
>cool my fighter is from there
>that doesn't make any sense, user
>WHY DO YOU HATE FUN

>Here are my setting notes guys
>Pick a location for your backstory
>WAIT! Not that one!
>Or that one!
>Not that one either!
>Fuck my players are such assholes...

>pick a location for your backstory
>user did you read the notes? it says only mages live there
>buttblasted by that gm again bawwwwww

>my character was born there, but lacked the magical aptitude to advance past adolescence, so he left and is now a fighter.

>desperately needing to be this special

>Hey guys, here's some locations that your characters could come from.
>Cool, I want to be a non-magical class from a place that's purely based around magic.
>Why would your non-magical character be from a place that purely based around magic?
>I dunno, it sounded cool and that's what I want to do!

>My next character will be the illegitimate, half-elf daughter of the local king, seeking to fulfill my birthright.
>Fight me nerd.

Should've made him the janitor of the mage HQ

What's so special about that?

Always wanting to be the exception to a rule is, by definition, wanting to be special.

But the character in question is so incompetent that they couldn't become a mage. Doesn't that mean that they're not special?

A non-magic user expelled from a mages-only town isn't unlikely. It also makes a more interesting backstory than former farmer.

He means a person, playing a game of make believe, shouldn't want a unique backstory because that would mean the person wants to be special.

>"nah, I'm a fighter, but I'm from there"
It can't be JUST mages, right?
Maybe he's a former guardsman, or the son of a servant.

>It can't be JUST mages, right?
That's for the GM to decide, now isn't it?

I'm just saying, someone is going to have to take out the trash at Secrit Magic HQ, and it sure as fuck isn't going to be Archmagister Philomus the Wise or Grand Imperial Wizard David Duke.

>I'm just saying, someone is going to have to take out the trash at Secrit Magic HQ,
Or they just do it with magic.

At some point, hiring some staff has got to be easier than coming up with magical solutions to everything.

What's the point in being a wizard without normies around to be a wizard at?

This is my favorite response all thread. Thank you

>being born special and then going out to be special even more, is more interesting than a farmer who had to train hard and claw his way to the top to be the best

So, I'm guessing mommy and daddy are rich.

It's like you've never even MET a wizard, user.

isn't going to be Archmagister Philomus the Wise or Grand Imperial Wizard David Duke.

It's not like (presumably) the rest of the world isn't full of non-mages. If you want to go be superior for a while, you leave the only fucking place in your plane of existence that is populated entirely by mages. It's not that hard.

This is literally the only reason apprentices are tolerated

The origin of the practice for citation comes from European monks "citing" passages of the Bible as proof of their claims and statements in regard to it.

Aka: where are proof?

Have you tried googling?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James,_brother_of_Jesus

In fact: lmgtfy.com/?q=brothers of jesus

The giant lighthouse wasn't populated entirely by mages, no. They had servants, hired guards, sailors for supply runs and such. Thing is, he didn't want his fighter to be one of the guardsmen or armed escort for the ships, he wanted him to have grown up in the lighthouse, groomed from childhood to be an elite soldier and part of the nobility. Nevermind the fact that Wizard HQ didn't have a nobility save for the upper echelons of the mages. Because "young man raised to be an elite warrior baron" was the character concept he knew he wanted before he looked at the world map.

He didn't leave, he wanted to be part of the upper social tiers of the wizard tower, and his character would have joined an adventuring party because he was on a secret mission from his "king".

Would you please read the thread before you post?

Ehh, it's tempting, but I don't like starting campaigns off by tricking my players in meta. Besides, he'd just say that the goddess of love restored his genitals so she could bang him or something.

>setting has an ancient giant lighthouse on a lonely island which serves as mage HQ
>this dude in my group: "I'm from there"
>"oh you wanna be a mage?"
>"nah, I'm a fighter, but I'm from there"
He's the janitor. Mages' mistakes sometimes need nonmagical persuasion.

>next campaign setting has a floating city in the ocean
>implied atlantis, nobody survived
>dude: "I'm from there"
His parents are islanders from another island that settled in the remnant islets that are actually the tops of buildings. He lived there as a janitor.

>short side campaign has a town built on the top of an enormous mesoamerican pyramid
>is a western knight
>"I'm from there"
He washed up on the nearest beach with amnesia, he worked as a janitor while slowly recovering, and ended up being best employee at a local businessplace.

OP can't into creative and fun.

see
>I don't like starting campaigns off by tricking my players in meta
Being a passive aggressive twat is never the right answer, but cowards (like you) think it is, and pat yourselves on the back for your "cleverness".

Did trolls hijack this thread or something

Being annoyed at that player isn't unreasonable

How am I being passive aggressive? I am actively trying to help him improve by telling him his characters don't work and sitting down with him to hammer out the dents.

If you are OP, I'm not referring to you, I'm referring to 's method of taking the player's idea and turning the character into a schlump.
I know if the GM took my character background and changed it to something as banal as "he was a janitor hurr", I'd take that as an insult.
It is neither creative nor fun, but the GM taking the piss out on me in a manner that is unwarranted. Just say "hey, that isn't gonna work", but turning a pc into a joke because they don't like the player's idea is passive aggressive shit I expect from 15 year olds.

This guy confirmed as janitor.

Nah I'm just kidding. But really, just excise the janitor part, and you can still find ways to fit the backstory without much fuss. Just be creative enough, and not as autistic enough to fuss over it.

I had a player like that.

I finally had enough of him when one time I had a female-only cult of healers that took in girls with magic potential at a young age and trained them in their secret arts. The setting was fairly low-magic and I was keeping magic out of the hands of players (the party was informed of this before we even had session 0 and agreed to it). He said he wanted to be a healer from that cult, so I asked him if he was okay playing a woman, but he said that he wanted to play a man. I then informed him that the cult had a small private army and he could be from there, but he insisted he wanted to be from the inner circle and know of their secrets, despite being male. At this point I had to put my foot down and plainly tell him that that wasn't possible. He grudgingly agreed and we had a decent game. He's still annoying, but now I have no problem putting my foot down when his ideas go against the canon too much.

My point is that eventually you'll have to deal with it. Either you'll do it on your own or he'll finally make a character thats so special and snowflakey that you'll have no choice but to do so. After than he'll either leave and you'll be free of him or he'll know your limits and accept them.

Ok you can fulfil your birthright to be married to a prince from another kingdom for an alliance and fucked daily.

Just kidding, you'd like that you transhomo, instead the prince goes for the courteasans and you're left knitting/weaving all day in your room. Get fucked.

...

>Not manipulating my husband into tense relations with allied kingdom
>Not brokering deal with oppressed elven states, in my mother's name, and promising an equal divide in the assets of neighboring kingdom
>Not poisoning my husband's bastards at the earliest opportunity

It's almost as if you don't like fun, user.

All of you anons saying this isn't bad are idiots who I hope don't dm because your story telling ability is shit.

The whole point of crazy exotic places is to explore them, not to be from them.

I would totally play a janitor. I mean, space quest, all those shows where the janitor is the best character, Simon brother of Jesus (hey! Do you know how many times I had to clean up after his fucking parties?! Oy gevalt, I wanted to punch him.)

I have a good friend who always makes That Guy characters.

For example, a friend of mine ran a game set in the Elder Scrolls setting, and so he created a Breton character who was the schooma addicted, daedra-summoning, amoral son of a lower-noble. In the course of about 10 sessions he managed to kill a random Nord in a trial by combat (where he wasn't allowed to use spells) after he stole from him whilst he was letting us stay in his house for free. Had his brother hunt him, and consequently the rest of the group, down, and once we had defeated him, he impersonated him and had the rest of the group chased down by the authorities. Almost enslave a man. Got infected by a strange undead power which allowed him to control a spectral hand that he used to crush the hearts of his enemies, kill a horse and get himself and another player arrested, and destroy large parts of a town. This was then all topped off with him siding with the GM's BB in order to attain more power.

He's lucky that we were all good friends beforehand, so we were able to play around his antics. Any other group of people would have kicked him out.