Oh yes, I try first. Skyrim is great example. Trying to get out of this one dungeon. There was a raised bridge. Couldn't get it down. Tried all other doorways out of the room. They all went down stairs, into a chamber, whose doors all led up other stairs back to the exit chamber. Handy. After a half hour of magic, shouts, running at the bridge, and trying to find alternate ways out, I looked up the solution. Sure. A lever RIGHT NEXT TO THE BRIDGE, but very dark, and hard too see. Yup. Not cheating. The goal of the game is to have fun. Feeling useless is no fun.

I'm getting caught up on the latest Aquisitions Inc. series of D&D podcasts. Rothfuss just made an obscure Buffy reference.

I unfortunately just can't get into those podcasts. I've discovered that listening to other people's gaming sessions is like listening to people talking about their character, just longer.

I love listening to people talking about their characters! Wizards once asked Facebook fans to post about their favorite. I must have read that thread for an hour.

I can read about people's characters without a problem (of course it helps that I can just skip the lame ones) but unless someone has a really interesting concept, or I'm actually playing in or running a game involving that character, it starts to grate after about thirty seconds.

On the other hand, listening to someone talk about their character(s) is a good way to determine if they're someone you want to invite to game with you. "So my guy was a Drow vampire that dual-wielded gunblades..." Yeah, next.

I love listening to people talking about their characters! Wizards once asked Facebook fans to post about their favorite. I must have read that thread for an hour.

That sounds like a call to action. Everyone, what's your favourite RPG character? Or at least favourite character write-up.

Okay, I guess the guy who was just griping about it will go first.

My online namesake (a Mage: The Ascension character named Darius Kalshane) is a close second, but my all-time favorite would be Kelric.

Kelric was originally created for 2nd Edition D&D, in a campaign that crashed and burned early on. I brought him back when the DM decided to resurrect the campaign in 3rd edition years later.

Kelric was the great-great grandson of one of my previous characters, a paladin who had done all sorts of heroic stuff, founded an order of knights focused on dragonslaying, was named a lord and given his own keep, and assorted other things.

Kelric wanted no part of that legacy. For one, he wasn't big on the whole honor and duty thing. Two, while not a coward per se, he was really adverse to pain. And sweating one's butt off in full plate while people beat the snot out of you in the name of training was one of the most unfun things he had experienced. Plus, there was that daughter of another noble house that his parents were looking to marry him to. Miriam was a lovely girl and all, but he had no desire to be tied down. So one night he gathered all the belongings he felt he would need that he could carry and sneaked out of the keep, heading off towards the nearest city as fast as his horse could carry him.

A young noble who knew a bit of his way around a sword, but not much else about the world, he found himself broke and far from home in short order. Sheer stubbornness and pride (plus a healthy dose of fear of his father) prevented him from crawling back home. He learned how to survive on the streets, mostly by preying on the money pouches of foolish young nobles like he had been, and quickly learned two things: 1) He was good at it. 2) It was a lot more fun than getting beat on with a training sword.

Over time, he picked up other methods of supplementing his income, particularly gambling (both honestly and tricking the odds into his favor) and currying the favor of bored noblewomen. The latter ended up teaching him a lot about climbing, jumping and running, due to the occasional need to flee an irate husband. He also learned to start using false names (the name "Kelric" actually the first of such) to avoid both those unhappy with his antics and the agents of his father who had been commanded to find him and bring him home; hogtied in the back of a wagon if need be.

Of course, all this running didn't allow Kelric to escape getting wrapped up in the "hero business" he originally wanted to avoid.

In game terms, Kelric was a human Fighter-Rogue (in the 2nd Ed game he was a dual-classed Fighter-Thief) with most of his levels in Rogue with a high Dex and Charisma, decent Strength and Intelligence and low Constitution. He started off mostly fighting by throwing daggers, switching to swords if backed into a corner, though during the course of the campaign he ended up finding his great-great grandfather's holy greatsword and picked up Spring Attack which, combined with Boots of Striding and Springing, allowed him to dash in on the flank, wallop the badguy with a fist full of d6s and then run away before they could retaliate. It was a lot of fun, really.

Nice, I like the Spring Attack combo. Did the GM ever set anything up with Kelric's father's agents actually finding him?

I had a giant wall of text response yesterday, but the board ate it and I didn't have time to re-type it. (Apparently I'll avoid other people talking about their characters, but will happily blab on and on about mine when asked.)

In any case, to sum up:

1. Yes, giant holy sword + sneak attack + spring attack + crazy movement rate + high tumble skill = lots of fun.

2. After multiple close calls with his father's agents, Kelric finally decided to approach his uncle and convinced him to act as a go-between. The compromise with his father involved him having to go through the trials and accept a commission in The Legion of the Dragon, but Kelric was classified as the equivalent of a scout once he was in, so he didn't have to do the whole knight thing. He eventually discovered and joined a secret order inside the Legion that had a more "practical" view on dragon hunting that was right up his alley.

3. Kelric later stumbled into becoming a god (or at least caused the birth of a new one. The DM felt it was better left as a mystery.) and through such, inspiring a bunch of goblinoids to found a non-evil nation of their own.

4. The party sorcerer decided to douse Kelric's signature red scarf with an Oil of Timelessness, leading it to crop up from time to time in later campaigns. (Including being worn by a descendant of Kelric played by said sorcerer's player.)

Not specifically related to Kelric, but my player group are big on legacy characters. Not every character has a tie to previous campaigns, but there's always at least one PC in every party that calls back to a previous character (and not necessarily one of their own). Of course, it helps that myself and the other main DM have each been running games in our individual worlds for over 20 years.

If I ever get my facespace Pathfinder game off the ground, 3 out of the 4 characters created so far are descended from previous characters. (And one of them has ties to two.)

That sounds like a great group.

My favorite character is my first bard, a halfling named Frigan Dezibel Excess or Dezi for short. She was joined by my fifteen year-old nephew's half orc fighter, Armedwall and a rogue created by my nephew's friend. Being blown away by my young nephew's creativity inspired Dezi's songs. I remember in the first five minutes of our first gaming session, Armedwall tripped and tumbled down a hill, just because he thought it seemed like something he would do. Later on while exploring a dungeon, Armedwall poked at a pile of old rags with a spear which was really the only way to release the poisonous spores. I must see if I can find the notebook peppered with songs about our adventures.