Character Workshop Thread

Post concepts for characters you want to play in future campaigns and we can give critiques and criticism to help flesh them out more.

Gonna be playing a dwarf warrior with a spear in an upcoming game I know next to nothing about. All I know is I'm fat and have a breastplate and a spear cause that's all I could afford (is savage worlds). GM said in a former militia captain but I don't know what else to give him RP wise cause I know nothing about the setting. But I'm pretty sure it's gonna be standard fantasy.

Wanting to play a character that is determined to become the entity of death as a concept. he believes if you can personify the idea of death enough, you can become it (promoted to the job of the 'reaper' that visits the dying in their final moments. mostly by trying to be as true neutral as possible, only killing those that were inevitably going to die anyways, etc. is this a retarded edgelord concept or could i run with this until he achieves the goal of being made the official supernatural taker of life by whatever god or whatever decides that?

Ultimately this is the kind of thing I would *really* ask your GM about because that sort of thing is the sort of thing you really have to specifically write for and write into a campaign. It'd also be really hard to pull off in certain systems because how TF are you gonna determine "was going to die"? Additionally, how do you stay neutral but also be an engaging PC? That'd be the real tough part, because being neutral usually requires not picking a side, whereas most plots require picking a side. "I don't wanna get involved directly, I just wanna kill people fated to die" is a bit... wonky, at best.

>concepts for characters you want to play in future campaigns

I don't know about you, but I never come up with character concepts until I hear a pitch about the game theme, tone, and setting from my GM.

I want to play bard/idol, she wants to be world famous and have everyone sing her songs.

I want to play a familiar, a sentient but weak race like a fairy or ghost or sprite. Obviously, it'll need more than what most games technically allow for a familiar to have, but that shouldn't be a big deal to handwave since it's also a PC. I feel like this might prove both mechanically interesting and also interesting to roleplay, the former because it requires keen teamwork and the latter because a relationship that can be both close and oppositional is built right into the concept.

Spear belongs to your dead comrade, that's why you stepped down, maybe. Do you have a wife? A family? What is your favorite thing to see? What convictions do you hold, if any? Are you courageous, or craven? Trustworthy? Do you know how to write? have you written a book or journal? Are you compassionate?

BTW this is just so that you can think about things you might not have thought about. You don't need an answer to any of these, and maybe the answer is trivial and unimportant. You just need to think a bit.

It sounds sort of edgelordy, but more importantly, it's hard for me to see how you would mean with any sort of party on any sort of mission in any sort of story. Unless youyour GM is running some weird as shit game.

I like minimal character concepts, but that usually means a personality. Just owning a spear is a bit vague. You may want to come up with something more informative.

Playing really weak or really codependent characters can be a lot of fun if you do it with a friend. One of the best characters I ever had was just a sidekick.

Same. I had a lot of fun playing a servant robot, especially bouncing it off his master

i usually have a couple general ideas that I can workshop into games depending on what kind it is

I'd like to play some sort of paranormal investigator sent backwards in time to a fantasy world.

Like he's been sent to look for a missing girl who was kidnapped by a time travelling necromancer, and him and his brass knuckles will find a way to do it

An elf with an affinity for spirits and spellslinging, but develops a knack for infiltration and being sneaky.

Shadowrun system, btw.

I mean, I never finalize an idea before knowing about the setting and game, but I have a lot of vague ideas I'm willing to alter and adapt to fit.

I'm thinking of building a very inventive sorcerer.
Being born in a war setting, he was raised by the local militia. From that background he learned a lot of improvised weapon building, which he could use to support his sorcery abilities, which were not trained well in the past.
Basically a sorcerer that uses guerilla tactics to fight, makes molotovs with a clay pot and different oils (lighting the wick by snapping his fingers and casting prestidigitation). Eventually I want him to build a primitive musket that works only when combined with magic.
In terms of personality I want him to alternate heavily between happy and childlike and very serious and calculating, as befits a person who was forced to mature before his time and might be finding a childhood he never had.

I love that idea, Teamwork would be so entertaining

After seeing the 5e monster race thing, I wanna be part of a Tiefling-Tanarukk duo. The pampered cunning dandy daddies boy and his "too old for this" demon-orc bodyguard

>Half-elf paladin
>High CHA- forceful and intense personality
>Conquest oath
>Unsure how to act
>Justice is a contract. Once broken, it can never be mended. You sacrificed so much to preserve the innocent, but to the guilty, you offered no mercy
>or "The lord judges, I act" "Mercy belongs to the Lord"

Good things to think on user. Thanks. I figure I'm retired / barely active militia and that's why I'm fat but the backstory stuff would be nice to put in.

Effectively, they're supposed to be a child soldier that comes from a tribe of pyromancer assassins enslaved by the regional magetocracy. The thing is though is that they're a half-dragon that can't use fire, which makes them highly resistant to physical damage, but leaves them culturally shunned due to the importance they place in weilding the fire. They're deployed into another war without completing their training like the rest of their group, and serves two years before escaping. The society is supposed to be modeled after Sparta and how they trained their soldiers, so physical, emotional, and mental abuse would typically be commonplace in order to form a great soldier.

I've wanted to play this guy for a while:
>Human hermit, possibly a hired to serve a lord or village
>Researches mostly anthropology and superstition
>Tests superstitions to see if they do affect things
>If they do, he incorporates them into his magic
>writes a big ole codex, like the almagest
Do you guys think I should go with a regular, forest hermit, or a hired hermit who acts as a sage? Also, what should be my modus operandi for superstitions? Any other suggestions?

My main thing I think you should think about is what he acts like on a daily basis. Backstory stuff is good, but sometimes its hard to apply

What where you hired for? Hermits, so-called sages and wise men are a tenpenny breed. What curious depth of insight did you offer that compelled the Lord to seek you out?

Mostly it's the fact that he's one of the only "vanilla" human superstition sages who haven't gone off the magical deep end. There are other human subraces you can hire, but gypsies will lie to you for fun times and barbarians are barbarians. Most other sages will just go straight into already discovered magic and ignore the other races superstitions. I just figure he's one of the only ones who focuses on it.

I got this guy I'm working on, just a rough backstory, not even sure what class I want him to be. (our DM only runs 5e but he's good at making it interesting).

The basic concept goes that he was a traveler and dungeoneer of decent experience who's adventuring days were cut short when he fell for a maiden he met in his travels. So he settled down, had a family, became a carpenter, lead an honest life in a relatively average town, etc. Fast forward to the present, his children are grown and gone off god knows where, his wife succumbed to illness a few months back, and the town is slowly dying due to the nearby mines having given up the last of their ore some years back. Having nothing tying him down to this place and wanting to find new purpose in life, or perhaps just unconsciously seeking to leave the world behind, he gets his old but we'll maintained gear together and sets off on a journey once again.

Again, I don't really know what I want him to be yet, but I do know the kind of person I want him to be at least. A good-hearted if slightly grumpy older man, worn by years but still fully physically capable due to his trade, bringing sage advice, common sense wisdom, and at times inspiration to the younger party members. Maybe a bit of a cliche and tired type but I kind of want to hang back and let the other PCs be the primary heroes, since our last campaign I would up in the "main character" role. I want to avoid casters since that kind of goes against his background as a physical laborer and craftsman but outside of that I've no idea what to do with him.