So there's this character of mine, who was literally my first character in D&D. A teenage human fighter who still has to improve his social skills and discover more world.
(Long post, short version at the end)
Context, he was raised in an orc arena as a gladiator and fought during his entire childhood, shaping him up to be this monster of a guy in combat, but being sort of socially ankward because the only thing he was actually good at was at fighting.
Expanding on his backstory after the first session ever (the one-shot in which i played as him), i made him explore more world, allowing him to grow up and learning from his mistakes, basically.
Enough context, there's this campaign we're currently at, in which i'm playing as one of his close ones, his crush specifically. She's an outlaw (a Magus), my DM already knows my intentions, basically that if she ends up in jail, i don't want the group to be sent to jail as well so i came up with the next idea:
The fighter would take her place temporarily, helping the group break her out and so to give some depth to the relationship between my characters. You see, 9 years have passed (in-game story), and i want to show how my fighter has come a long way, growing up into an adult, and letting him have closure by achieving what he wants (which is seeing the outlaw again and confess his feelings).
Thing is, i want to roleplay him as someone who is really brave, willing to receive any injury if it means he'll get to his destination. Not an overly-macho guy, just someone who has gone and done enough to demonstrate he means business, mainly through his actions.
He's someone who instead of lamenting on his tragedies, he accepts them soon enough and sees them as stepping stones to get stronger. He does think about them sometimes, but it's not something that torments him.
Not meant to be edgy either, i mean he's gone through shit but not to make him the stereotypical overly complex silent edgelord. As i said, his tragedies are just stepping stones and obstacles that allowed him to grow up. He in fact is willing to talk and interact with the party, mainly to discuss their connections with the outlaw and why he's there in the first place.
How can i make him work in order for my friends to enjoy him as a character, without being intrusive or annoying?
-Too Long: Old character of mine returning as a grown-up adult (from 16 to 27), want to roleplay him as a more mature version of him, as a scarred yet brave badass that can show he means business mainly with his actions and willing to be hurt if it means he'll get what he wants. NOT EDGY.
I think it would be hard to become a well rounded, fully socialised adult if the things he was praised for when young were to do with fighting in an orc-run arena.
I suspect that this character would be deeply haunted by the things that he experienced, even if he believes that he accepts them and uses them to grow stronger. I think that the most effective way to play any character tends to be to show the character displaying themself in one way, whilst the subtext tells the real story. I once played a character who acted as the most arrogant, self-aggrandising showman, but the subtext that came through was that he actually despised himself; his attempts to show a strong face to the world was him convincing himself as much as anyone else.
I would keep the 'poorly socialised' aspect but update it for the older character. Perhaps he never developed the same feelings or understanding of social custom that others do. But he wants to be normali, and sociable, and so he acts as though he is - think of the way a Kenku mimics sounds it has heard. He can do a good impression of these things, but sometimes will act inappropriately without knowing what he's doing is wrong. That's the difference between young fighter and old fighter: young fighter didn't understand that he didn't fit in, older fighter sees that he doesn't and tries to disguise it through learned routines. Maybe this makes him overly specific when it comes to routine: he won't eat without both a knife and a fork, because he knows that's what he's meant to do, even when there's no fork to hand. He insists on opening doors for other people, even when it means running across a room to do so because he thinks it's what he should do.
A question - what is the relationship between the fighter and the “crush”? How did they meet, is it one way or two way? How much interaction has there been and how much are you considering going forward? Sanvael’s idea is pretty good, maybe not crossing rooms to open doors, but perhaps overly polite right up to the point where he stops being polite and starts bashing heads - rather like the character in the movie Roadhouse.
Thank you both for answering! I like the idea of him trying his best to be polite as a measure for holding back his more primitive side. True, it's more impactful when a patient or calm individual loses his/her temper and lashes out, so i'll definetly write this down.
About Wi1dBi11's question, i'll try to keep it as short as i can: (Let's call the crush "Outlaw" to make it easier. Both are Chaotic Good, and Outlaw is a half-elf)
When Fighter was 17, he found Outlaw surrounded by 4 bounty hunters. Fighter thought she was getting ganged on by bandits due to their looks, so he charged in and helped her in the fighting. Since that moment, they became friends, alas Fighter didn't know Outlaw was a criminal. They spent months travelling together and becoming a lot closer. About him not realising her status the entire time, he's a little dense and she did whatever she could to hide any proof. Her intention was to do so until she saw the moment to tell him because she ended up caring about him a lot, and wanted to avoid what unfortunately ended up happening.
One day, Fighter discovered the truth and the situation didn't go well. Neither of them handled the situation well enough and eventually drew their weapons. Once they realised that mistake, they stopped, but felt so ashamed of their actions that they decided to part ways. Tragic for Fighter, since he already had a crush on her, but didn't understand what romantic feelings were at the time.
Outlaw is slowly developing feelings for Fighter in her campaign, such development was triggered by an interaction with a party member, about how Fighter would look like in that moment since he'd be an adult by that time (since 9 years have passed). I want to make it so that when she meets Fighter again and both see how much they still care for each other (Outlaw by holding her memories with him dearly, and Fighter by being willing to risk his neck to protect her), they'll deeply fall for each other. Basically a happy ending for them if Outlaw doesn't die in her campaign.
There's gonna be a lot going on, but that's the general idea.
Sounds like he has accepted what he discovered About her and is willing to overlook it - or does he want her to change in somewhat the way he has changed from being a gladiator to being an adventurer? Lots of role play either way.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So there's this character of mine, who was literally my first character in D&D. A teenage human fighter who still has to improve his social skills and discover more world.
(Long post, short version at the end)
Context, he was raised in an orc arena as a gladiator and fought during his entire childhood, shaping him up to be this monster of a guy in combat, but being sort of socially ankward because the only thing he was actually good at was at fighting.
Expanding on his backstory after the first session ever (the one-shot in which i played as him), i made him explore more world, allowing him to grow up and learning from his mistakes, basically.
Enough context, there's this campaign we're currently at, in which i'm playing as one of his close ones, his crush specifically. She's an outlaw (a Magus), my DM already knows my intentions, basically that if she ends up in jail, i don't want the group to be sent to jail as well so i came up with the next idea:
The fighter would take her place temporarily, helping the group break her out and so to give some depth to the relationship between my characters. You see, 9 years have passed (in-game story), and i want to show how my fighter has come a long way, growing up into an adult, and letting him have closure by achieving what he wants (which is seeing the outlaw again and confess his feelings).
Thing is, i want to roleplay him as someone who is really brave, willing to receive any injury if it means he'll get to his destination. Not an overly-macho guy, just someone who has gone and done enough to demonstrate he means business, mainly through his actions.
He's someone who instead of lamenting on his tragedies, he accepts them soon enough and sees them as stepping stones to get stronger. He does think about them sometimes, but it's not something that torments him.
Not meant to be edgy either, i mean he's gone through shit but not to make him the stereotypical overly complex silent edgelord. As i said, his tragedies are just stepping stones and obstacles that allowed him to grow up. He in fact is willing to talk and interact with the party, mainly to discuss their connections with the outlaw and why he's there in the first place.
How can i make him work in order for my friends to enjoy him as a character, without being intrusive or annoying?
-Too Long: Old character of mine returning as a grown-up adult (from 16 to 27), want to roleplay him as a more mature version of him, as a scarred yet brave badass that can show he means business mainly with his actions and willing to be hurt if it means he'll get what he wants. NOT EDGY.
I think it would be hard to become a well rounded, fully socialised adult if the things he was praised for when young were to do with fighting in an orc-run arena.
I suspect that this character would be deeply haunted by the things that he experienced, even if he believes that he accepts them and uses them to grow stronger. I think that the most effective way to play any character tends to be to show the character displaying themself in one way, whilst the subtext tells the real story. I once played a character who acted as the most arrogant, self-aggrandising showman, but the subtext that came through was that he actually despised himself; his attempts to show a strong face to the world was him convincing himself as much as anyone else.
I would keep the 'poorly socialised' aspect but update it for the older character. Perhaps he never developed the same feelings or understanding of social custom that others do. But he wants to be normali, and sociable, and so he acts as though he is - think of the way a Kenku mimics sounds it has heard. He can do a good impression of these things, but sometimes will act inappropriately without knowing what he's doing is wrong. That's the difference between young fighter and old fighter: young fighter didn't understand that he didn't fit in, older fighter sees that he doesn't and tries to disguise it through learned routines. Maybe this makes him overly specific when it comes to routine: he won't eat without both a knife and a fork, because he knows that's what he's meant to do, even when there's no fork to hand. He insists on opening doors for other people, even when it means running across a room to do so because he thinks it's what he should do.
A question - what is the relationship between the fighter and the “crush”? How did they meet, is it one way or two way? How much interaction has there been and how much are you considering going forward? Sanvael’s idea is pretty good, maybe not crossing rooms to open doors, but perhaps overly polite right up to the point where he stops being polite and starts bashing heads - rather like the character in the movie Roadhouse.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Thank you both for answering! I like the idea of him trying his best to be polite as a measure for holding back his more primitive side. True, it's more impactful when a patient or calm individual loses his/her temper and lashes out, so i'll definetly write this down.
About Wi1dBi11's question, i'll try to keep it as short as i can: (Let's call the crush "Outlaw" to make it easier. Both are Chaotic Good, and Outlaw is a half-elf)
When Fighter was 17, he found Outlaw surrounded by 4 bounty hunters. Fighter thought she was getting ganged on by bandits due to their looks, so he charged in and helped her in the fighting. Since that moment, they became friends, alas Fighter didn't know Outlaw was a criminal. They spent months travelling together and becoming a lot closer. About him not realising her status the entire time, he's a little dense and she did whatever she could to hide any proof. Her intention was to do so until she saw the moment to tell him because she ended up caring about him a lot, and wanted to avoid what unfortunately ended up happening.
One day, Fighter discovered the truth and the situation didn't go well. Neither of them handled the situation well enough and eventually drew their weapons. Once they realised that mistake, they stopped, but felt so ashamed of their actions that they decided to part ways. Tragic for Fighter, since he already had a crush on her, but didn't understand what romantic feelings were at the time.
Outlaw is slowly developing feelings for Fighter in her campaign, such development was triggered by an interaction with a party member, about how Fighter would look like in that moment since he'd be an adult by that time (since 9 years have passed). I want to make it so that when she meets Fighter again and both see how much they still care for each other (Outlaw by holding her memories with him dearly, and Fighter by being willing to risk his neck to protect her), they'll deeply fall for each other. Basically a happy ending for them if Outlaw doesn't die in her campaign.
There's gonna be a lot going on, but that's the general idea.
Sounds like he has accepted what he discovered About her and is willing to overlook it - or does he want her to change in somewhat the way he has changed from being a gladiator to being an adventurer? Lots of role play either way.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.