If a player becomes dissatisfied with a PC after playing for some time, we do sometimes change the PC. For example, in my first Arcana Unearthed campaign, one PC had all sorts of language skills, when called upon to actually translate, the player just froze up (she is learning disabled). She couldn’t even deal with just handwaving, saying “ok, I translate everything” and then holding the conversation in the clear with all players present. After that, we re-tooled her PC and got rid of the language skills (and since then, have steered her characters away from things she isn’t going to want to play).

Another solution is to retire the PC and start a new one. These days, where the “start at 1st level” scheme of old is pretty well burried, there’s no reason to force a player to continue with a dissatisfying PC. On the other hand, there should be some downside, or something that encourages players to not bring in a new PC every few sessions.

The most important thing – if a player is dissatisfied, address the issue.

Frank

This route has been an interesting learning experience for me.

In the movie Kurt Russel’s character was “Jack O’Neil” while in the series RDA’s character is “Jack O’Neill.” The other changes were at the insistence of RDA who thought that O’Neil in the movie was “too serious.”

So even actors and writers feel the plight of your average RPG gamer.

Had you come to me in epsidoe #8 of S1 and said, “I really don’t like my character” I would have been totally fine re-doing him right then and there. It’s D20 point-buy, so it’s not like we can’t reverse-engineer them.

The largest disconnect for me is that the problems with the character didn’t seem to be (mostly) mechanical…they were background-related. That’s so easy to fix that I don’t see it as a problem. When the problem is “I don’t have (a good) background” then the answer — to me — is “make one.”

It’s all about having fun!

When I saw the topic, I figured you were inspired by the rebuilding your character option in the back of the PHB2. I like your version– it should make a lot of sense between major story arcs. It reminds me of both PTA, in that your issue can change during/after your spotlight episode, if you resolve your old issue and FATE, where skills can shift up and down the pyramid when you gain a new Aspect.

Back when I GM:ed longer traditional campaigns I used to set aside the first session for each character as a test session for the player. If the player didn’t like the character after testing it in play it’s was ok to completely rewrite it and run another test session with the new character next time. You usually don’t know when you build the guy how it will feel in play, so rebuilding it shouldn’t be strange.

Some games even have this built in. Sorcerer, for example, lets you rewrite the character’s stat descriptors and price at the end of each story when the kicker is concluded.

He was a boxer, and I liked that element enough to keep it in the new version. But it was a sidelight the first time around, not really supported by feats. This time, I made it a focus, and it looks like it’s going to be a lot more fun.

Cassandra: Neat! I’ve never heard of a setup like that, but it’s a great idea — particularly with new players, or players new to the setting. Very cool.

I would have loved to do this with an old DND character though, one who had an intelligence of 9 (2nd Ed.), and a wisdom of 15. The DM made me play him super stupid no matter what. I would have retconned that guy in an instant if I was allowed. The concept was a backwoods woodsman, with little idea of civilization, but a good grasp of how the world worked, physics wise. He wasn’t even that much of a combat haus. In that case it was more the GM’s style, than the actual character though.

On a similiar theme, I’ve got one person who is playing a reocurring character, a True Orc named Bixby. The character was cursed when he pissed off the elemental lords, yes all the elemental lords, and none of them wanted to provide him an elemental attunement. He couldn’t live without one, so every 12 to 15 years they switch off, his element changes, he loses his memories, his appearance modifies based on his element and he redesigns a character. It never happens in game, but it does happen between campaigns when people are rolling up new characters. It’s kind of fun to see a brand new itineration of an old character, and seeing bixby the sailor, bixby the ganster, bixby the general, bixby the homeless guy, bixby the etc…

That provision allows people to try something and discover they don’t like it at all, without tying them into it for long-term play. By the time the players have gamed enough for the characters to advance to fourth level, they usually have a good handle on the uniquenesses of the system and setting and can tailor characters with which they will be happy. A couple people in our group have used the system to craft characters that fit very closely the concepts they had in mind, and are quite pleased with their characters.

We just made the switch from D&D to Savage Worlds for systems, but kept the game in the Scarred Lands.

My character was a Druid 9/Barbarian 1. He had an amazing repetoire of spells. But he was all about the violence and berserking and the system always made me feel like I was wasting one part or the other of his strengths.

In Savage Worlds, the magic system works a lot different. Without getting into boring details, I kept his Druidic abilities comparable for this system while maximizing his potential to go nuts and hit things!

The result is a character MUCH closer to my original concept. Instant renewed enthusiasm!

I’m even making a new custom miniature to commemorate the change. But that’s getting a little too much into talking about my character. (He’s a Virgo!) Maybe some other time…