Things you've always wanted to do in a game, but never have for whatever reason

I'm glad the current game I'm running is around an evil illithilich that wants to rule the world straight up. It's so relaxing and allows for the game to focus more on the characters and their stories, rather than "how am I going to subvert their expectations this time?"

>Start a cult and play a game around building up said cult
>Start/lead a crusade, preferably against one of the fiendish planes (nope, never played Wrath of the Righteous)
>Heroically sacrifice myself to save the party or others (I've never actually had a character die, period. It's weird)

Had all three of these things happen in this order. My players did, anyways.

I never wanted to play big movers like that, desu.
I haven't missed any specifics. I just kinda want certain themes/systems I don't always get, but eh.

>>Start a cult and play a game around building up said cult
I had a LG paladin that spared the last few guys in every fight, or the weakest enemies who stood no chance, and converted them to my sun-goddess worshiping religion. At first it was just made up of reformed goblins and bandits and such, but it gained enough momentum that I had a pretty decent following. I didn't make them fight for me though. I didn't want them to fight. I wanted them to lead peaceful lives.

>>Heroically sacrifice myself to save the party or others
I had a fighter die this way. The BBG's lieutenant was an over-leveled vampire that wrecked most of the party. I managed to grapple him and had the last party member standing blow up the building with me in it and drag the unconscious to safety. The vampire couldn't escape my grasp even as the flames consumed us.

>>Have a last stand like previous post, but survive and surprise party by returning, heavily wounded but alive
I've seen a player make a last stand, survive after the party thought he died, but then he died for real right before he reunited with the party.

>>Rescue a princess, or any type of nobility really
Not a princess, but I've rescued plenty of duchesses and counts.

>>Have a romance subplot
I always strive to marry a simple farm girl. Lower your standards, it's easy to pick up villagers.

>>Find a legendary weapon
Got killed by one. Does that count?

>>Ride a dragon
Me and the party managed to drop onto and grapple a flying dragon and pin its wings, so we technically rode it for 6 or so seconds before crashing into the earth. Our barbarian got a nat 20 on a death save and he pounded the dragon's skull in with a big rock.

>>Have a nemesis or a rival
The vampire that I sacrificed myself to kill was kind of a rival, since he survived a couple fights due to GM fuckery. I've had players form rivalries between each other, but it usually ends up with them getting each other killed.

I've always wanted the heroic last stand.

In my current campaign, I can even picture it. We're currently in a corrupted temple trying to get an artifact out so we can use it against the Four Horsemen.

In my head, the enemies never stop coming. The party grabs the artifact and my character sees the approaching horde, looks back at the party and steps back through the doors. The party shouts at him, asking what he's doing.

He tells them that it is not his place to take down the Horsemen, but theirs. He calls up his weapons and stands against the closing doors, fighting as hard as he can until, eventually, he is overrun.

Then the party ruins it by going to get his soul back from the Nine Hells.

Murder the party.

>Heroically sacrifice myself to save the party or others (I've never actually had a character die, period. It's weird)
I came close once, but they ended up coming back and saving my ass. All good though, was attached to that character.
>Rescue a princess, or any type of nobility really
So far the only people I've "rescued" are a nervous and ambiguously villainous warlock and a bara half-orc who became a recurring npc
>Have a romance subplot
the character secretly has a monstergirl fetish. no one knows
>Ride a dragon
I've surfed a shark once. It died shortly after

>Become a Lich
>Found my own Evil Empire
>Play in an Evil Campaign

Yeah, I have shit tastes apparently.

>Things you've always wanted to do in a game, but never have for whatever reason.

I've always wanted to have fun playing one

I'd like to play a 'serious' evil character, like a mob assassin or a slaver or something. I usually play nice, good-hearted characters and I think the change could be interesting.

>Ascending to godhood

I know it's powergame-y, but you hear about campaigns where PCs do it or villains try to do it, but I've never seen it come up in a game I was in. Also, in a similar vein:

>Romance a goddess
I dunno, I just always liked the idea of playing a paladin who does this. But it's incredibly rare to interact with gods directly in a game at all, and asking the GM for a plotline like that would probably seem weird even if it -was- a campaign where the party interacts with gods directly.

Oh! Actually, I just reminded myself;

>Directly interacting with gods

Also something that would be really fun with a paladin or cleric character.

>Romance an NPC
I allow that to my players all the time, like there is always NPC there character might fancy.
>Save a noble
We my players have saved a dragonborn who came from a big lizardfolk tribe from a dracolich...she could be chiefness daughter....

oh man, my group has romance subplots out the ass
even between players.
It's usually suffering.

>Heroically sacrifice myself to save the party or others (I've never actually had a character die, period. It's weird)

Saaame. I always try, but nobody will ever let me. Damn party is always saving me and shit and won't let me die heroically, even with my gladiator character, whose ENTIRE MOTIVATION was to die heroically and go to Valhalla (campaign setting had a ton of culture clashing like that, don't flame me pls).

>underwater exploration and combat
just gimme dat gillyweed familam

I've always wanted to run a low magic, dark fantasy setting with the characters being in a mercenary company a'la The Black Company.

You had a cool GM.

You could turn this into some real cool shit with adventures afterwards like onionbro from dark souls
The more the character gets saved and helped, the more desperate and depressed he becomes (never stopping to try)
Very dark, yes, but very interesting as well

>All these people talking about how they want a heroic last stand

I'm now just imagining a party of people who just keep consistently offering to sacrifice themselves over the smallest thing, and they all keep arguing with each other over who's going to stay behind

The monsters are incredibly weirded out by this, and don't even feel like killing them afterwards. Then one of them ends up staying behind and shouting for them to do their worst, and they just start getting really uncomfortable by how excited he seems to be about this.

>I-is that a dagger in your pants?

I more or less did everything on the list except for the romance part. My usual group of friends would make it weird and anyway I usually play inhuman concepts or people too freaky/fucked up/autistic to be into romance.

>Heroically sacrifice myself to save the party or others (I've never actually had a character die, period. It's weird)
>Have a last stand like previous post, but survive and surprise party by returning, heavily wounded but alive
it's my wish to do these things ;_;

oh and i REALLY want to have hot-blooded shouting in a mecha game
but >mecha games

> Establishing a Greed cult

>"I swear, by my life, and by my love of it..."

>Not be the only one who wants to experience character progression in a "learn from mistakes, gain new perspective and grow as a person" sense
>Actually get to have some of these moments for my characters since it's not just some fringe bullshit nobody else wants to do

So playing a Slayer Cult party?

youtube.com/watch?v=pC-xissxK_o

Not him. The closest I came to this was hooking up with a NPC "nurse" in a Dark Heresy campaign. We ended up moving together and she helped me raise a kid I rescued on an inquisitorial mission on another planet. We named the kid after my Inquisitor.

It's not really a romance because my PC was using her for his own ends.

how do they play out? why is it usually suffering? and when is it not suffering (usually implies exceptions)?

>Start a cult and play a game around building up said cult
Several of my players are doing this in my homebrew setting now.
>Heroically sacrifice myself to save the party or others (I've never actually had a character die, period. It's weird)
I'll get to do this in a couple weeks, it's all part of a plot where another of our groups DMs and I are going to merge campaigns.
>Have a last stand like previous post, but survive and surprise party by returning, heavily wounded but alive.
My group did a split for a large battle, one of the two groups held the line, although one of them is dead now
>Start/lead a crusade, preferably against one of the fiendish planes (nope, never played Wrath of the Righteous)
Haven't had this happen yet, but it's likely to occur in the near future, as one of my players wants to go full deus vult on a dragon cult that controls an entire continent.
>Rescue a princess, or any type of nobility really
Oddly i haven't had this happen in any of my games so far.
>Have a romance subplot
Two of my players have those going on st the moment
>Find a legendary weapon
Haven't done this yet, but soon.
>Ride a dragon
Haven't done this either, nor does it make much sense in the setting
>Have a nemesis or a rival
One of my players has a ranger that's constantly at odds with the local fletcher in the groups home town. He tried to break into the shop once and got caught. The fletcher us a retired adventurer himself, and is a much better archer than the ranger.

Pretty much this.

>No it's my doom! Back off!
>Fuck off! I'm the oldest, i get first pick on any doom, beardling!