What are the quirkiest character choices you have ever played with or DM'ed for in 1st or 2nd edition that you came to really enjoy and turned out to be quite viable?
Larry of St. Cuthbert...a Cleric who, when he died, had these stats... Str 21 (Belt of Giant Str), Con 18, Dex 7, Int 3, Wis 20, Chr 13 he was 6'7" & weighed 375 pounds used the Player's Option rules from 2nd ed; Larry couldn't turn undead, fought as a Fighter w/ 2 clubs, was wise enough to know he was stupid, & never in 11 levels cast a single healing spell in combat...he considered himself the fist of St. Cuthbert..."Larry turn undead with clubs!"; he never referred to himself in the 1st person... despite having Int 3 & being illiterate, he could write his first name; through game play, his Int went to 4, at which point he could write his last name as well (Bittlestiffender)...he later lost his added point of Int & forgot how to write his last name... when introducing himself, he made an L (Larry) with his thumb & forefinger & placed them on his forehead... Larry was a brutish fighter who dealt loads of damage & could take a pounding (d10 hp)...his co-adventurers had the greatest respect for his strength, honour, & constancy (LN alignment); on the rare occurrences he chose to speak up, everyone listened...
had a party member not set off a huge burst of Positive Energy whilst we trekked through the Negative Material Plane....
Is that with 2 handed clubs? Or 2 clubs at the same time? You could just exchange out your turn undead to get fighter thac0 with a cleric weapon in second edition? How did I never aknowledge that....? Makes 1st & 3rd edtion cleric options seem puny. Good find.
@Figrut 2 clubs @ the same time... Player's Option rules used a point-buy system...your Cleric started out w/ no spells, no Turning, no nothing; everything had to be paid for @ character creation...I chose to purchase Fighter's THAC0 instead of Turn ability; each class had different options/point-buy systems Player's Option is a radical enough departure to be considered 2.5 ed. AD&D by some; I've met/talked w/ ppl who hate & refuse to use the Player's Option stuff... Player's Option: Spells & Magic had Priests & M-U's Player's Option: Skills & Powers had the other classes IMHO, great books if you get a chance to use them
The Player's Option books also introduced new mage schools- Song, Geometer, Alchemy and Artificer. Alchemy is pretty much what you think. Artificing is making stuff (magic items and so on), Song magic (spells with mostly or only verbal components), while geometers use complicated diagrams to cast their magic (like wizards in medieval manuscripts summoning demons in the circles painted/chalked onto the floor).
Spells and Magic introduced new concepts for Priests, too. They added Monks as a sort of priest, and gave us Shamans, whose magic was sort of like the Sha'ir from Al-Quadim. Instead of getting spells from Genies, you could be given spells by spirits you could call (extra spells, that is). But first you had to call up the spirit to ask for it, and that took time, a ceremony and dancing.
They also added prices for material components, something introduced in Dragon Magazine #80, and something I thought unnecessarily complicated gameplay. I think it's something only the ultra OCD obsessive completist got into. You know, if a spell required something special, then yeah, you have to go out and buy or commission that something. But buying rose petals or wool for a sleep spell? Get real. (this was an actual example used in the Dragon Magazine article.) Thankfully, 2e did away with the describing spell components needed to cast the actual spell)- and Spells and Magic brought it back >:P
@LadyRhian Tell me of some of your personal sillyness that, in retrospect, turned out fitting, brilliant, or memorable. Something after the fact felt the material was craving for you to do with it the whole time? Also, thanks for the info. OFF TOPIC: Do you know anybody selling "birthright" material right now? EDIT: I love the thought and flavor put into spell component description in both 1st and 3.5.
My first OD&D character, I was still playing when AD&D came out. I was carrying (don't ask how, this was OD&D) tons of gold (1,300,000+ gp), and I wanted to get rid of it, so the DM was running us through the realms of the Gods, and we were in the domain of the God of Gambling. I was 14th level or something, and there were these Godly one-armed bandits. I threw all my gold in one and pulled the lever. Now, in the back of the 1e DMG were rules for these things. The DM had me roll 3d8, and it came up 8 3 times in a row. Imagine my shock and horror when I got 100x my money back, making me 25th level immediately, and I ascended to godhood (because anything over 20th level was Godly in my DM's campaign). I had to roll up a new character immediately, and the look on my face was 8-0. I never expected it to end like that. On the other hand, my old character, despite her immense wealth, ended up becoming, not goddess of wealth, but the Goddess of Fighters. ::teeth ting.:: Damn old school D&D and its 1gp=1xp rule...
I was always of the opinion that the exp value for a magic item was for constructing it, not just finding it. I find it a little hard to swallow that finding a wand of fire at first level and now, suddenly, you are third level. Bwuh? I was only persuaded about gold until that little Godly One Armed Bandit incident. In my home campaign, I don't give experience for gold or magic items. It just seems... stupid.
@LadyRhian I did have a "FOUNTAIN OF ALL KNOWLEDGE" in a campaign once. Drinking caused you to immediately gain enough exp to train to gain a level, but could go over that amount. With each drink you had to make 2 saves. The first was against death, the second was against being required to take another drink.
@LadyRhian I use it for thieves as far as exp for stealing, barbarians destroying them, effectively ransoming an heirloom or relic ect. Edit: Also as a guide line for reward for sacrifice and donations.
@Figrut Sounds like the Deck of Many Things. I also have the Dragon Magazine where they introduced the Tarot Deck of Many Things... so many ways to die! The Court Cards (King, Queen, Knight and Page) summon various characters to assist you, if the card is drawn face up, or fight you (if the card is drawn reversed). I did like the Fountain in one of the EX modules, I think it was EX1, Dungeonland. There's a fountain that has these really weird (but based on the magic item list) Potions. Philtre of Loaf, rather than love, made you want to sit around and do nothing for a while. My party called it the Potion of the Fishing Boat- Sit back and drink beer and do nothing!
@LadyRhian You could not jump levels, so yeah, no sense was made. Did it go away? When, how? What if it was used, lent, broke, lost, drank, dispelled, expended?
@Figrut Actually, you could only go up 2 levels at once, everything over that was lost, so... I think that may have been in the DMG. I will have to go look.
@LadyRhian Eventually the fountain was found to be quest relevant. It was the sum total of the knowledge of 2 famous sages and everyone who succumbed to it over the years less the knowledge successfully drank from it. Eventually the players figured out some important information was once in it, found out who drank that knowledge, forced them to die from the fountain, then immediately drink themselves to gain it. They did get a mildly psionic mule out of the deal (not mul) to scout for brain moles.
@LadyRhian I think it settled around 1 exp short of gaining the second level eventually. In 1st edition, guide lines are heavily implied in the Monk's and Druid sections, specifically with restricting level growth and trials of advancement. Multiple suggestions are given in the part with discussing if you want your players to train to gain their full level advance or not. EDIT: If you are not busy, more stories!
I do not do horror any more. I always had casualties in mixed groups of strangers, and I can't scare friends easily. There is a girl somewhere right now having to take meds in order not to wee herself when she hears a bike bell ring.
Well, speaking of Wee... I mentioned this on another thread. I played in a campaign where there was an agoraphobic, acrophobic dwarf. He'd gotten a magic item that he felt was useless, so he decided to trade it with an NPC for this magic ring the NPC had. The guy told him the command word was "We". So the dwarf put on the ring, and said the magic word, and "We" Turned into "wiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!", because it was a ring of flight. Poor Dwarf turned absolutely white...
Played a cannibalistic, sadist halfling thief in an evil campaign set in the City-State of the Invincible Overlord. Character lasted several years, until being killed by the partys Barbarian, who was grossed out after I purchased a few halfling slaves and began making sausage.
Actually, once I ran a campaign in college for some friends of mine. New girl joined us, she was Italian and had been living in Mexico for a while. Anyhow, one male player was entranced with her (and her character, who had rolled a 16 or 17 Charisma (CN female mage). His character also began hitting on her and would NOT take "No" for an answer. During one of our breaks, she asked me if I allowed players to attack other players, and I said, sure, Go for it. So she appeared to agree to his proposals, knocked him out with a sleep spell one night, and tied him up before "liberating" the parts of his anatomy that were causing the problems for her and her character.
And worse than that, she went to the next town and had them bronzed and wore them around her neck. Any time his character tried to start trouble after that, she swung it in his face, and told him, "Do you really want to p*ss me off again?" The player never got her to agree to go out with him, either.
I know a few stories from other games as well. Mainly Star Wars the Roleplaying game.
@GygaxianProse In one campaign I had it so halflings were born nearly full sized from pods in a tree every few years. During their first seasons of life, they were savagely feral and bloodthirsty. It was not considered right to hunt them though as halflings were a good part of the society and held office frequently once their "season of madness" was over.
@LadyRhian Eh, talk about "Wounds/Vitality" systems. I'll put down 5$ that the whole exchange still turned him on. At least it did not become a war of escalation. Soverign glue is the great equalizer.
@Figrut I had a GM (since this was a Star Wars game) who threatened to have my character raped by a stormtrooper. So, when the trooper jumped out at me. My female bounty hunter character, who was from a heavy-gravity world with a high strength (6 dice of strength), my character gives him the knee through his armor. So the GM is all dismissive and tells me to roll my damage. And out of 6d6, I rolled a 32. Literally, the men at the table crossed their legs in unison while looking horrified, which I found somewhat amusing. The GM told me that this trooper would never have children again, and the hit was so bad "his ancestors felt it", which made ma laugh pretty hard. Never, never threaten to rape a woman's character in a game. Really, guys. I think I needed to hang out with a better class of people....
@LadyRhian In some of the "world of darkness" games, once in a while it can be good to play it more like "Sin City" and less like vampire commandos of 'merica! Only bits here and there though. Establish character but do not make it the game. I have seen chicks oddly get feverishly turned on (too overwhelmed to make eye contact without face muscles seizing) by their vampire avatar's blood warmed corpse being sexually abused by another vampire. Her tastes regarding the kind of vampire in question, the player that controlled it, and the narration involved probably were all factors. The way her eyes lit up when I told her that "Your whole body ignores low level damage, so no. I do not think vampires get sore. And to answer your other question, just spend a blood point..." stuck with me and effected the way I wrote for and handled female pc's and npc's for that style of game. Everything is pretty much a metaphor for something in vampire games. 2/3 of it is the wages of drug abuse, lust driven rape (rather anger), or cruelty driven psychological control senarios (often involving the previous two things on the list).
Comments
Str 21 (Belt of Giant Str), Con 18, Dex 7, Int 3, Wis 20, Chr 13
he was 6'7" & weighed 375 pounds
used the Player's Option rules from 2nd ed; Larry couldn't turn undead, fought as a Fighter w/ 2 clubs, was wise enough to know he was stupid, & never in 11 levels cast a single healing spell in combat...he considered himself the fist of St. Cuthbert..."Larry turn undead with clubs!"; he never referred to himself in the 1st person...
despite having Int 3 & being illiterate, he could write his first name; through game play, his Int went to 4, at which point he could write his last name as well (Bittlestiffender)...he later lost his added point of Int & forgot how to write his last name...
when introducing himself, he made an L (Larry) with his thumb & forefinger & placed them on his forehead...
Larry was a brutish fighter who dealt loads of damage & could take a pounding (d10 hp)...his co-adventurers had the greatest respect for his strength, honour, & constancy (LN alignment); on the rare occurrences he chose to speak up, everyone listened...
had a party member not set off a huge burst of Positive Energy whilst we trekked through the Negative Material Plane....
Player's Option rules used a point-buy system...your Cleric started out w/ no spells, no Turning, no nothing; everything had to be paid for @ character creation...I chose to purchase Fighter's THAC0 instead of Turn ability; each class had different options/point-buy systems
Player's Option is a radical enough departure to be considered 2.5 ed. AD&D by some; I've met/talked w/ ppl who hate & refuse to use the Player's Option stuff...
Player's Option: Spells & Magic had Priests & M-U's
Player's Option: Skills & Powers had the other classes
IMHO, great books if you get a chance to use them
Spells and Magic introduced new concepts for Priests, too. They added Monks as a sort of priest, and gave us Shamans, whose magic was sort of like the Sha'ir from Al-Quadim. Instead of getting spells from Genies, you could be given spells by spirits you could call (extra spells, that is). But first you had to call up the spirit to ask for it, and that took time, a ceremony and dancing.
They also added prices for material components, something introduced in Dragon Magazine #80, and something I thought unnecessarily complicated gameplay. I think it's something only the ultra OCD obsessive completist got into. You know, if a spell required something special, then yeah, you have to go out and buy or commission that something. But buying rose petals or wool for a sleep spell? Get real. (this was an actual example used in the Dragon Magazine article.) Thankfully, 2e did away with the describing spell components needed to cast the actual spell)- and Spells and Magic brought it back >:P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Sttik0u3z_8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=Ws1xE1JuVJw
And worse than that, she went to the next town and had them bronzed and wore them around her neck. Any time his character tried to start trouble after that, she swung it in his face, and told him, "Do you really want to p*ss me off again?" The player never got her to agree to go out with him, either.
I know a few stories from other games as well. Mainly Star Wars the Roleplaying game.