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Blandalf
Acolyte
United Kingdom
1 Posts |
Posted - 09 Jun 2021 : 12:32:02
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Hey,
So about 3 years ago my friends and I got the lost mines of phandelver box set and were going to learn 5e, after playing on and off with pathfinder 1 for about 2 years.
The way our DM set it up was to have players pick a random character sheet from the pre gens whilst we learnt the game. My friend pulled the elf wizard and was not overly thrilled, so he called him Bumblebore and played him as a dull scribe.
Sometime later after a pause I attempted to run a mini campaign and this player being a last minute prepper just turned up with this character he hated. So to try and make him a bit more of the roleplaying star for the session I had him receive a surprise visit from him twin brother Blandalf(who I made up at the table), who was a sorcerer and just slightly better at magic than his brother Bumblebore. He was also presented as very outgoing and likeable and a rivalry was born that had our group become fans of both characters.
Sometime later I got the chance to play in a game with my group and Rolled up Blandalf. As the party were already familiar with his schtick I had a blast playing the character.
Blandalf has become my all time favourite character and it was made purely out of a joke to try and get one of my players involved.
Do you guys have any similar tales of characters that went from background NPC to beloved superstar?
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11841 Posts |
Posted - 09 Jun 2021 : 14:22:31
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I'll give you some props for the name.... Blandalf the Grey.... bland elf Sorcerer Standard... one day he will be Sorcerer Supreme |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36809 Posts |
Posted - 09 Jun 2021 : 16:42:20
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Well, he wasn't an NPC, but one of my fave characters wasn't exactly planned... It was back in the days of 2E, and we were getting ready to play a new campaign, and rolling up characters. I rolled mine and then just stared -- I had no idea what to do with the stats I'd just rolled. It was something like 17, 15, 11, 11, 9, 9 -- two great stats and the rest were solidly average (okay, 11 is technically above average, but for a character, after rolling 4d6? Meh).
I'm staring at the stats, trying to figure out what I could do with them, when the DM says "You could play a minotaur."
I jump up, run into my friend's room, grab his copy of The Complete Book of Humanoids, and went to town.
I wound up rolling extremely well for starting gold, but it wasn't enough to buy armor better than his natural AC, and I figured he'd be too big for a horse... So I grabbed my Aurora's Whole Realms Catalog and started flipping through it, stopping when I got to the section on ales.
And thus my character was born. Takkus Gal-Zon, minotaur fighter, somewhat blunt and straight-forward, aficionado of fine ales.
He was smarter than what people would expect, but given his size and strength, he preferred simple approaches. The rogue can't pick the lock on the door? Kick it down. An NPC is being unhelpful? Pick him up with one hand and bring him eye-to-eye with the dude standing over 7 feet tall -- that NPC will suddenly get really cooperative.
And being specialized with a bastard sword and using it two-handed, with a 19 Strength, he was quite effective in combat, too.
I've not played him in a long time -- that particular DM had a really bad habit of getting bored and setting up TPKs. Instead, I've imported him into the Realms, built a new adventuring group around them, and had them buy an inn -- and one of these days, I'll get back to my on-again, off-again project of populating that inn. |
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I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
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TheIriaeban
Master of Realmslore
USA
1289 Posts |
Posted - 09 Jun 2021 : 18:52:47
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One of my favorites is actually a duo. The more powerful of the two is the great-granddaughter of Kanchelsis. She is a tiefling (great-granddaddy doesn't allow any of his children to be demi-gods so they are tieflings instead) who is quite beautiful and mostly human looking (her canines are a bit larger than a normal human's). She has joined the local wizard's guild but she didn't say anything about her thieving skills. She ended up running into a halfling thief, and member of the local thieves' guild, named Noggarrin who goes by Noggins. They are low to middlin' in level (3-4) and can be found hanging out in various taprooms around town running some small time scams or simple pick pocketting. The thieves' guild doesn't know about her yet so Noggins is the one giving her pointers (training) on her thieving abilities. Of course, if the wizard's guild finds out about her "side projects", they won't be too happy, either. |
"Iriaebor is a fine city. So what if you can have violence between merchant groups break out at any moment. Not every city can offer dinner AND a show."
My FR writeups - http://www.mediafire.com/folder/um3liz6tqsf5n/Documents
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sleyvas
Skilled Spell Strategist
USA
11841 Posts |
Posted - 09 Jun 2021 : 22:17:38
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Not a "character" per se, but I have had a recurring familiar that passed between NPC's (as in he was a little demon for one wizard...killed by the party... later he was a little demon for another evil wizard and he recognized the party and ratted them out... they killed the wizard... later he was a little demon for ANOTHER wizard... yeah, I turned it into a gag with the demon going "These a$$holes again, Master, you should kill them". |
Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
Phillip aka Sleyvas |
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Dalor Darden
Great Reader
USA
4211 Posts |
Posted - 11 Jun 2021 : 05:17:44
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Man, triggered a memory when I saw accidental...not for that reason though.
Once upon a time in 2e I was playing a Ranger that dual classed and became a Wizard. Long story short on THAT character was that the DM turned him into an evil character (alignment wise) because I was Improved Invisible and killing enemy soldiers in a tower...
That campaign fizzled out, but some time later that character (in the same world) had become very very old...and had mostly forgotten his past after serving a very long time in a prison.
I started him again as a Wizard...but he couldn't remember his name so he became known as Alzheimer at the table; and he liked the name so he kept it.
I had a great deal more fun playing ol' "Heimer" than I ever did the previous character. |
The Old Grey Box and AD&D for me! |
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Delnyn
Senior Scribe
USA
961 Posts |
Posted - 12 Jun 2021 : 19:28:29
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For accidental characters, we had a dawrven fighter/cleric join our party in a random encounter. Context: The players were going through AD&D module D3-Vault of the Crow and were hunted by House Eilservs in the heart of Erelhei-Cinlu. The dwarf was hiding from grow himself and joined the party for safety-in-numbers reasons. The dwarf stayed on through module Q1, and then through the stay in Faerun. He died in battle during Myrkul's minions attacking Waterdeep. His soul now resides in Gorm Gulthryn's domain. |
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