Hi Dark, Well, I sometimes like playing a cannon character in tabletop RPG, and other times I like striking out on my own and creating my own unique character. That is perhaps one of the best features of roll playing games. You have the freedom to use an existing character or you can totally create your own from scratch. You have the freedom to be whoever and whatever you want to be during the game.
That said, I think a lot of people prefer playing an existing cannon character because they either identify with that character in some way, or they simply aren't interested in creating their own unique character for reason x. As you know creating a custom character from scratch with his or her own personality, morality, stats, and back story is a pretty involved task. Therefore someone new to roll playing might want to just pick a character they know and begin playing rather than spend the time creating their own. Either that or there is some existing character they really like. For example, back in college for our weekly Star Wars roll playing games I decided I wanted to play the roll of Mara Jade. There were two reasons I decided to pick that particular character. First, she was trained as an Imperial assassin by the Emperor, and comes with a lot of useful combat skills with hand blasters, blaster rifles, explosives,starfighter pilot, etc. Second, although Mara was initially introduced into the Star Wars universe as a villain she actually is a very moral character with a very strong sense of right and wrong, a code of ethics, and will always do what she thinks is right according to her own moral code. Finally, in the books, games, etc Mara doesn't have many close friends but those she does have she is very loyal to. She's the kind of person you want watching your back if she's an ally, but don't turn your back on her if she's your enemy. Just the kind of person who comes in handy in any party of New Republic Star Wars heroes. Unfortunately, I left college before the New Jedi Order campaigns etc were released and she now has a completely updated skill set compared to the New Republic era campaigns so I never got to play her character in any New Jedi Order campaigns. Besides the fact she is now married to Luke Skywalker she is a full fledged Jedi Master with all the skills and advantages that implies. Perhaps more so because she obviously retains normal non-Jedi skills too from her years as an Imperial assassin. One of the new skills that would come in handy in a New Jedi Order campaign is Mara's force bubble. So far as I know she is the only Jedi Master known to have this particular force skill and its a pretty useful one. Throughout the books Mara has used it a few times to good effect. In book four of the New Jedi Order Mara and Jaina are chasing Nom Anor through some underground tunnels trying to capture him. He ends up escaping by collapsing the tunnel on Mara and Jaina. However, before they are crushed Mara casts a force bubble around herself and Jaina and manage to keep the tunnel from collapsing until help arrives. In the Legacy of the Force saga the authors expand the capabilities of Mara's force bubble. Not only can she use the force bubble to protect herself from harm she can use it to hover or airwalk several feet off the ground. She can use it to keep body heat inside to fool heat sensors. She can use it to create a bubble of air so she can spacewalk without a spacesuit or swim under water for a limited amount of time. In other words its a darn useful skill for any RPG adventure and may help explain why she holds the rank of Jedi Master second only to Luke Skywalker. The other skill of note is because she is married to Luke they have a special relationship that allows them to battle meld through the force. Several times in the New Jedi Order books when Luke and Mara are flying in their X-Wings the author mentions that Luke and Mara are able to double team a Yuuzhan Vong ship through their force bond. One will fire at one part of the ship and the other will fire at the ship somewhere else overwhelming the ships defenses because Yuuzhan Vong bio technology can't defend against shots from two different places at the exact same time. Therefore force battle melding is one way of timing attacks so that more than one Jedi can attack the same target and overwhelm its defenses. Anyway, to get back to the point, there are certain existing characters I like that I'd enjoy roll playing as just for the experience of pretending to be that person. I have read lots of the Star Wars books and am familiar with many of the aspects of the cannon and expanded universe characters so could probably be true to his or her roll in the game.However, that might only apply to certain eras or time periods of the Star Wars universe and not others. What I mean by that is over the last few years Lucas Arts, Wizards of the Coast, and of course various authors now have been focusing on the Old Republic era about 3500 years before the Clone Wars etc. I'm only marginally familiar with the Old Republic era characters and history because its so new and haven't been able to read everything on that topic since most of the history is in the comics rather than books. In a situation like that I would probably strike out on my own, create my own unique Jedi character, and have fun defining his/her powers, feats, and back story rather than use an existing character like Master Shan who is cool but I don't really know her well enough to accurately play her in a campaign. Plus in the later books she is head of the Jedi Council so is not likely to be running around the galaxy fighting Sith Lords and Sith troopers in any case. As Grand Master she would assign those activities to Jedi Knights and their learners rather than do them herself. Cheers! On 6/17/12, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi tom. > > That is a good example of what I mean, and indeed often in our mutants game > > the gm has great fun taking advantage of our mistakes, and indeed has > enemies who incorporate this into their tactics. > > For example, on one occasion we were fighting the main villain of the > campaigne, an evil person in magically powered armor called Lord tyranus, > while on a plane. In one turn, he grabbed one of our group who can't fly > (the one person who can't), and chucked ihim out of the plane. Sinse my > character has powered jets on his suit that instantly activate, (and also > sinse he has that sort of personality), I dived out of the window after him. > > However, Tyranus took another action and fired a ray at my character he > prepared which temporarily disabled my suit. Another of our party who is the > > avatar of an ancient sungod was able to create a platform of light for us to > > land on, but this left tyranus the time to make an escape. > > It's actually odd. Superheroes generally aren't at the top of my preferd > genre list, I don't know why, but spiderman, justice league, the avengers > etc have never really appealed to me in their style or plot. But I have > really enjoyed the superhero tabletop game, precisely because! of the > freedom involved in what our characters do and how they advance. I also > appreciate the fact that our gm also takes us to various alternative > dimentions, for instance right at the moment we're in the fairy realm of > arcadia trying to retrieve the holy graillle, so that cammalot can maintain > > balance betwene the summer and winter courts, sinse if it loses balance all > > hell will break loose on earth. > > I don't think I'd fancy playing a preexisting character such as captain > America, ---- even in settingI'm very familiar with such as middle earth or > > doctor who, sinse I think I'd probably want to design my characters' history > > myself, as well as their abilities, powers, plot etc, and pick something I > could play successfully, though this is of course a personal choice thing. > > Beware the Grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. 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