Unexpected Changes

We’ve all been there.   Or, at least, those of us who have had more than one character over the course of our gaming career have been there.   We sit down with some dice, a notebook, our rulebooks, and a pen or pencil and start hammering out our Next Character.   We choose our race, class, skills, and feats.   We come up with something resembling a back-story and develop a personality in our head.   After everything is said and done, we sit down at the table for our first session with the character we have lovingly crafted from strands of imagination.   

Then it happens.

The character you play is nothing like the character you created.  There are dozens if not more of memes dedicated to this very premise.

 

Sometimes, this is a result of interactions with other players, sometimes the DM presents you with a scenario that catches your attention or provokes a reaction you hadn’t expected and everything changes.

Over the years, I have two characters standing out as prime examples of this phenomenon: Arlo and Raven.

Raven was intended to be a briefly played NPC who introduced the players (and their characters) to the setting.   He was, quite literally, insane.   He would attack bushes, thinking they were goblins, orcs, or trolls.   He proved to be pretty popular and my players liked having him around and now he is the longest running and highest level character I have ever had.

My other example is Arlo “I am not a thief, I am a locksmith” Astrollacyll.   He was a gnome Cleric/Thief in 2^nd edition and I had originally developed him while listening to “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie (hence his name).    

There is a section in the song when the singer has reported to the Whitehall Building in NYC for the draft.   Hijinks ensue and he is sent in to talk to the psychiatrist.   And he says “Shrink, I want to kill.  I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill.  Kill! I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth.  Eat dead burnt bodies.  I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL!" And I started jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL!" and he started jumping up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL!" And the Sergeant came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."

Arlo was supposed to be THAT guy.   Instead, when I sat down at the first session what came out of my mouth was entirely different.   Instead of being a kill-crazed gnome god of death, Arlo became a nasal-voiced, wise-cracking gnome who was a lot like the brownies Franjean and Rool from the movie “Willow”.

It

Was

Awesome.

What does all of this mean?  Nothing.   And Everything.

 
You have to be open to change.   Keep in mind that very few things in life turn out as intended.   Enjoy the ride.