![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Rumble and Rant.
First of all, I had a lovely Christmas. :) I'm in a good mood, all things considered, although a bit bummed about the closing of Brass and Steel. I'll miss the place. And, after reading the metaplot, rather bummed that things never really started to heat up. It was a cool idea. Ah, well.
However, inspired by a rather snarky (but true) rant on fanfic, is one of my pet peeves on RPGs.
People playing the same damn character all the time. This was a real problem in my gaming group back in high-school and college with one or two people. No matter what the genre, they'd essentially play the /same/ character, with a couple of cosmetic changes. Not character templates, but the /same/ /character/, with just the names (and sometimes species) in the background changed.
I hate this. I hate it with the big hatey hate. When I'm GMing, a lot of my fun comes from seeing how the PCs react to the events in the world around them. I like to see the conflicts, the moments of cooperation, the revelations and all of that. When the party remains basically the same, I already know how they're going to react to anything I throw at them. /They/ already know how they're going to react to any given situation. There's no growth, no surprise. It bores me, and I lose the desire to make up cool, interesting NPCs for the PCs to interact with.
I can understand being attached to a character, or just not wanting to go through the fuss of creating a new one, but I just wish that more people would sit down, and try to play something they've never played before. If they usually play heroic characters, try a villain. Play the leader type? Try a loyal servant, or someone with stage fright. It can be much fun, and even if it doesn't enchant them, they might gain some sort of new spin to put on their next archetypical character.
But, eh. I'm weird.
However, inspired by a rather snarky (but true) rant on fanfic, is one of my pet peeves on RPGs.
People playing the same damn character all the time. This was a real problem in my gaming group back in high-school and college with one or two people. No matter what the genre, they'd essentially play the /same/ character, with a couple of cosmetic changes. Not character templates, but the /same/ /character/, with just the names (and sometimes species) in the background changed.
I hate this. I hate it with the big hatey hate. When I'm GMing, a lot of my fun comes from seeing how the PCs react to the events in the world around them. I like to see the conflicts, the moments of cooperation, the revelations and all of that. When the party remains basically the same, I already know how they're going to react to anything I throw at them. /They/ already know how they're going to react to any given situation. There's no growth, no surprise. It bores me, and I lose the desire to make up cool, interesting NPCs for the PCs to interact with.
I can understand being attached to a character, or just not wanting to go through the fuss of creating a new one, but I just wish that more people would sit down, and try to play something they've never played before. If they usually play heroic characters, try a villain. Play the leader type? Try a loyal servant, or someone with stage fright. It can be much fun, and even if it doesn't enchant them, they might gain some sort of new spin to put on their next archetypical character.
But, eh. I'm weird.
no subject
Or make people generate characters for their buddies?
I'm addicted to doing different characters. (The quasi-MPD one was, mmmmmmm, yes, well. Apparently addicted to the same thing...) Character type X? Done that, wanna do something different now.
Now, if a game doesn't quite get off the ground, that's different. I've tweaked a character I really liked and wanted to use and the campaign never quite suited her (and was dead, and a different GM, anyway). And I'll do it again if I ever get the chance -- i.e., a good GM, a campaign that fairly rare psionic powers work for, and me and da spouse playing. Because really she needs to have the interaction there. The street rat and the rich guy and them the only telepaths they really know of who aren't relatives out to murder the rich guy for his money...
Because sometimes a character is just... too under-used in a game. The game was too short-lived, the GM didn't really work out, stuff like that.
I can see getting burned out, though I'd probably start trying to put spins on things -- this one rescued the princess last time... How'd he like to rescue a princess werewolf this time?
Predictable player-characters are an evil GM's toys.
no subject
And until the burn out, I do try to put spin on it. But after a while it just feels like, I don't know, if the players aren't going to bother to try and come up with anything new, why should I? Selfish of me, I know, but character interaction is what really revs my engine in a game. If it's stale, it's just hard to keep being interested.