character – Dungeon's Master

Friday Favourite: Playing Someone Else’s Character

On Friday we comb through our extensive archives to find an older article that we feel deserves another look. From October 11, 2011, Dungeon’s Master once again presents: Playing Someone Else’s Character.

In my experience there are two things that gamers like to talk about more than anything else: their own character and ways to improve everyone else’s character. Everyone always thinks that they have the very best character and most gamers want to tell you all about it. Yet no matter how awesome someone else believes their character is, someone always thinks they have a way to improve it.

As a DM I often ask the players to provide me with copies of their character sheets before I start a new campaign. By looking over their defenses, feats, powers, and items I can get a better idea of their power level relative to the other PCs and relative to my monsters. It also gives me a chance to suggest improvements and changes to their characters. In some cases the players will be grateful for pointing out better options (especially when they have two feats that don’t stack), but most times the player gracefully accepts the feedback and does nothing. After all they know that their character is already awesome so what business do I have telling them to make changes?

I realized that people become very attached to their characters. They see the PC as an extension of themselves and take great pride knowing that they’ve built this PC exactly the way they want to. Unfortunately this often blinds some players to the fact that their PC really isn’t as awesome as they think. If only there was a way to show those players just how much better their PC would be if they tweaked a few little details? And then it hit me – there is a way.

What if everyone had an opportunity to play someone else’s character? You think you know my character better than I do, well here’s your chance to prove it.

All Men Are Created Equal… Except the Revenant

Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling. Since the first edition of D&D players have had a wide variety of fantasy races to choose from when creating their characters. With 4e D&D the list of races is quite extensive and it continues to expand with every new version of the Players Handbook and with every monthly update of the character builder. The worlds of D&D are full of tolerant people willing to accept everyone based on deeds rather than their race. No matter what race your PC happens to be, he’s usually accepted as a hero and welcomed into villages, towns and cities. An adventuring party that consists of a Dragonborn, a Drow, a Half-Elf, a Tiefling, a Half-Orc and a Gnome doesn’t draw attention, ridicule or suspicion as they enter a tavern for the first time. We don’t question it; we just accept that this is how things work when you’re playing D&D.