| Types of Player Characters | transcribed by Master Archivist |
Fighting is all this guy wants to do. He rarely cares for plots and/or subplots if it doesn't have a lot of Conan style hack-n-slash. To keep these big babies happy you must include a fight sequence in each scenario.
This cat wants to run someone he has seen in a movie or read about in a book. He'll expect to be just as powerful and knowledgeable as the original person. With some common sense and a heart-to-heart talk you can convince him that his expectations can not be met. They are usually willing to work out a viable "copy" of there character just to be able to have it.
This person the world renown expert on roleplaying. He has been to every convention, knows all the updated errata and is usually a good source of useless trivia. They are good to have around, for, their knowledge of the game system is fairly accurate. Yeah, you guessed it a walking rulebook. You will have to tolerate their whining though, if you make rulings on-the-fly like I do.
Okay, everyone knows someone like this character here. They spend a grueling 40+ hours a week at work, and when they come to the game all they do is vent their frustrations out by killing. When something or someone pisses them off they kill them. If an enemy has a hostage, they kill the hostage to get to the enemy. The only advice I can give about these nuts are: do not allow them in your campaign.
I sort of like this type of gamer. They try their hardest to outthink you by outthinking the adversaries. They are always thinking and offering viable solution to the party when in an analytical jam. These gamers will keep you on your toes at every game session as you watch him try and unravel your plots. Let the players have their fun with the scenario, though. If they happen to deduce a solution to that trap you spent three weeks designing, give them a pat on the back and some extra legend points. I know GMs and their traps, the player probably deserves the kudos.
The girl will spend more time on her background and personality than any part of the campaign. She will spend a majority of her time delving into personal relationship with NPCs and PCs. Always offer the occasional moral dilemma or emotional tear-jerkers for this one. The are one of your better roleplayers so keep them around at all cost.
"Be all you can be" is this players motto. If he is a warrior, he must be the strongest. If he is a spellcaster, he has to be the most intelligent. They try to be the expert in their field no matter what discipline they choose. The are somewhat Showoffs for they must prove their dominance of their discipline to others.
This player has a mix of The Personality Junky in them that they must seek romantic interludes with every pretty specimen of the opposite sex. They are the love'em and leave'em type of players. They become very involved in their romantic counterparts and quite explicit in their sexual rendezvous. Some gamers may find this offensive but I allow it because this is their form of creative expression. Who am I to squash a good roleplaying hook? You would be surprised at some of the NPCs I have and their sexual encounters with PCs and/or other NPCs.
This girl is your relative number crusher. She will try to squeeze every last ounce of points out of her character. She analyzes every skill she has to get every advantage she can possibly offer. Also, she will probably rewrite her character no less then three times during the course of the campaign. They are usually deadweight when it comes to roleplaying -- better to not have them at all. It only means extra effort on your part.
This person always seems to take the T'skrang swordmaster for some reason. The spotlight and adoration of his peers is all that concerns him. He doesn't care about his character background or his abilities; just how much attention he gets during a scenario. Either you let him dominate the campaign with his flamboyant exploits or clip his wings, giving the other players equal stand up time. Eventually he will grow out of it. If not, smack him on the damn head.
This player is a masochist, plain and simple! He wants to have a tragic character story: lost love ones to catastrophic disasters that will hunt him for a lifetime. If he never feels like he has been betrayed in a game more than likely he will not play again. They are a bit morose at times but create interesting character backgrounds. They are usually a gamemaster outlet for deviousness!
This player is only involved in the game because his friends are. He
would rather be at the movies or watching WCW All-Stars on the tube. But
if the game sessions go well he will inevitably be drawn into the mix of
things. But be forewarned--within every buddy lurks another character type
waiting to get out!
Earthdawn is a Registered Trademark of FASA Corporation. Original Earthdawn material Copyright 1994 by FASA Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission. Any use of FASA Corporation's copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.Except where otherwise noted, all other original material is Copyright 1997-99 by L.A. Pride, Bill Hayden, Josh Young, and Chris Brumley.