I have a mini of my character that costs me $10 and a favor. Several players in my group paid $50-ish bucks to have their mini designed and printed in color at Hero Forge. That's pretty invested.
However, beyond the real money, I have pages and pages of stuff about my character. I have drawings of him. I have a business ledger tracking his company. I have a character diary. I have session notes. I get pretty obsessive about my D&D character.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
I think I do want to be more attached to my characters. Not in a way that would emotionally destroy me if they died, but in a way that allows me to better understand them and enjoy the game.
That’s easy. Get to know them as a person. What are their hopes, fears, and dreams? Why? “What do they carry in their pockets?” When they become a person, however fictional, it’s a lot easier to get attached to them.
I have a mini of my character that costs me $10 and a favor. Several players in my group paid $50-ish bucks to have their mini designed and printed in color at Hero Forge. That's pretty invested.
However, beyond the real money, I have pages and pages of stuff about my character. I have drawings of him. I have a business ledger tracking his company. I have a character diary. I have session notes. I get pretty obsessive about my D&D character.
Have you considered 3D printing? For the cost of outfitting a party once with minis, you could set yourself (as a party) up with a printer and do it yourselves. After that, it's dirt cheap in comparison. A tangent I know, just thought about it as you mentioned the $50 per mini costs. Judging from the picture I saw from the Heroforge pictures they give as a demonstration, doing it yourself gives a significantly better result too.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Back to topic of talking about how to get more invested, beyond what Sposta said (none of these are judgements on the OP, they're just generic stuff that I'm spitting out, hoping that something sticks):
- Think about and ponder the character outside of your session. If he's just someone you pick up for a session then drop and forget about, then your attachments won't form as well.
- Make sure their background is well developed. Not necessarily for the DM to see (he may or may not appreciate it), but to make a full fleshed out character firm in your mind.
- Come up with plans for her future. What would you like to see her become? What would be some good plot hooks that the DM could use to develop her story? Involve the DM.
- Think about who in the party would be their friend, and start developing that relationship.
- See about making a mini. Even if it's theatre of mind games that you're playing, I find that designing and giving physical form to a character helps make them a little bit more real to me. If doing minis isn't your thing for whatever reason, do sketches, or you can use Heroforge to get pictures. Just make the character a little less theory and a bit more real.
The main thing they all have in common is investment. Not emotional, that'll come, but in effort and energy. As you do that, as you put your energy and effort into developing the character, making them more real, more fleshed out and 3D, the emotional attachment will come.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I'm usually the DM, so there are relatively few characters to get in invested in for me.
In the rare cases, I participate as a player, there is a large variety depending the style of the characters I create depending on it. If the tone of the setting is on the more serious side, with a heavy focus on the story and the intention to play for a long time, I tend to take my characters rather serious with a large investment of time and effort.
If the story is not that important or if character deaths are common, in the worst case, with no plot armor as a result of bad rolls, I don't invest much effort into my characters either and I certainly don't take the campaign as a whole that serious.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
+ Instaboot to murderhobos + I don't watch Critical Role, and no, I really shouldn't either +
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I have a mini of my character that costs me $10 and a favor. Several players in my group paid $50-ish bucks to have their mini designed and printed in color at Hero Forge. That's pretty invested.
However, beyond the real money, I have pages and pages of stuff about my character. I have drawings of him. I have a business ledger tracking his company. I have a character diary. I have session notes. I get pretty obsessive about my D&D character.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
That’s easy. Get to know them as a person. What are their hopes, fears, and dreams? Why? “What do they carry in their pockets?” When they become a person, however fictional, it’s a lot easier to get attached to them.
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Have you considered 3D printing? For the cost of outfitting a party once with minis, you could set yourself (as a party) up with a printer and do it yourselves. After that, it's dirt cheap in comparison. A tangent I know, just thought about it as you mentioned the $50 per mini costs. Judging from the picture I saw from the Heroforge pictures they give as a demonstration, doing it yourself gives a significantly better result too.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Back to topic of talking about how to get more invested, beyond what Sposta said (none of these are judgements on the OP, they're just generic stuff that I'm spitting out, hoping that something sticks):
- Think about and ponder the character outside of your session. If he's just someone you pick up for a session then drop and forget about, then your attachments won't form as well.
- Make sure their background is well developed. Not necessarily for the DM to see (he may or may not appreciate it), but to make a full fleshed out character firm in your mind.
- Come up with plans for her future. What would you like to see her become? What would be some good plot hooks that the DM could use to develop her story? Involve the DM.
- Think about who in the party would be their friend, and start developing that relationship.
- See about making a mini. Even if it's theatre of mind games that you're playing, I find that designing and giving physical form to a character helps make them a little bit more real to me. If doing minis isn't your thing for whatever reason, do sketches, or you can use Heroforge to get pictures. Just make the character a little less theory and a bit more real.
The main thing they all have in common is investment. Not emotional, that'll come, but in effort and energy. As you do that, as you put your energy and effort into developing the character, making them more real, more fleshed out and 3D, the emotional attachment will come.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I'm usually the DM, so there are relatively few characters to get in invested in for me.
In the rare cases, I participate as a player, there is a large variety depending the style of the characters I create depending on it. If the tone of the setting is on the more serious side, with a heavy focus on the story and the intention to play for a long time, I tend to take my characters rather serious with a large investment of time and effort.
If the story is not that important or if character deaths are common, in the worst case, with no plot armor as a result of bad rolls, I don't invest much effort into my characters either and I certainly don't take the campaign as a whole that serious.
+ Instaboot to murderhobos + I don't watch Critical Role, and no, I really shouldn't either +