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Pen & Paper Roleplaying Central => Pen and Paper Roleplaying Games (RPGs) Discussion => Topic started by: AteTheHeckUp on August 03, 2014, 09:10:07 AM

Title: Solve Yourself: Your Character as Mystery
Post by: AteTheHeckUp on August 03, 2014, 09:10:07 AM
Ever done this?  Left a big hole in your character sheet or in your background, and said to your GM, "Surprise me"?  It means at the least a journey of self-discovery paralleling whatever else is going on in a campaign.

I like it, and am soliciting your best stories.  What did you find out about your character that only your GM once knew?
Title: Solve Yourself: Your Character as Mystery
Post by: Ravenswing on August 03, 2014, 01:02:29 PM
GURPS has a Secret Enemy disadvantage, which I did up for my most recent character.

The GM used it to suck the character back into his clan's world of privilege and politics ... which he deliberately ditched at age 17, and he'd lived his adult life as a gangbanger-turned-detective.

I hated it.  Part of the reason for the characterization is that it was playing against type; I tend to get typecast (especially in LARPs) in leadership and aristocratic roles, and I was trying hard to stay away from that.  In particular, my character had no applicable skills in finance, politics or diplomacy.  Nonetheless, even though the GM quickly got the message I wasn't buying into it, the last few months of the campaign -- as well as the agendas for all the other PCs -- got swallowed up by it.  Of course a GM is entitled to use backstories and such things in plots, but ... bleh.
Title: Solve Yourself: Your Character as Mystery
Post by: Black Vulmea on August 03, 2014, 01:55:08 PM
Quote from: AteTheHeckUp;775122Ever done this?  Left a big hole in your character sheet or in your background, and said to your GM, "Surprise me"?
Fuck no. That sounds about as entertaining as a battery-acid enema.
Title: Solve Yourself: Your Character as Mystery
Post by: Lynn on August 03, 2014, 01:58:55 PM
I had a GM that did that with Champions years back in one campaign. Enemies of all kinds were just factoring the values, and then they appeared as the campaign unfolded.
Title: Solve Yourself: Your Character as Mystery
Post by: Simlasa on August 03, 2014, 02:21:06 PM
My Pathfinder GM is doing that with my new character.
I asked to make a wax golem warrior PC with a spirit made up of bees. I didn't give it much backstory except to say it had once been human, but was under a curse.
The GM surprised me last session, saying that he's written a history/identity that I'll have to uncover eventually to deal with the curse... at this point I don't even know its true name, instead the character sheet just has the dismissive term its employer uses.
So unknown name, unknown sex, unknown alignment (at the moment neutral). The GM assured me these are all open for me to choose along the way... with alignment being first... but there complications/consequences with each choice.  

I doubt the GM would have dropped such a thing with the other players but he knows I'm always up for fun stuff like this.

It's also the basic setup for Noumenon.