Loner
If you haven’t read this awesome “The Loniest Wolf” article, take a minute and give it a once-over. That’s pretty much everything you’ll need to know about lone wolf characters. So rather than rehash my esteemed colleagues over at the TPK blog, I’d like to come at the loner character from another angle.
I think that there’s a moment that comes in the development of every RPG player. One day you’re plugging along with your super-cool badass of a character, decapitating ogres and smiting demons like it ain’t no thang. You know your guy’s backstory, you’ve got a pretty good personality built for him, and you’re pulling your weight in combat. Everything is going great until you look across the table at your buddy the rogue. She’s been struggling the past few encounters, and hasn’t had much of a chance to scout ahead or pick any pockets. So you call a halt.
“They’ll expect a frontal assault,” says your super-cool badass PC. “Friend thief! Do you think you can find us a back way in?”
The others look around in surprise. A stealth approach? And coming from Sir. Kick The Door no less? But the rogue’s face splits into a grin, and you’re all treated to an elaborate plan involving summoned eagles, flash grenades, and an apparatus of the crab.
RPGs aren’t just about being a cool character in your own right. They’re about enabling all your buddies at the table to share the spotlight as well. It’s a real aha moment when you can bring yourself up out of your character, look around the table, and say, How can I set up the cool moment for the other guy? What I’m suggesting is this. Being part of a team is about more than stepping out of the brooding queue. It’s also about letting your pals get the killing blow or the cool one-liner every once in a while. It’s about being an ensemble, and making the game cooler by enabling your pals around the table.
Any of you guys ever have a moment like that?
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Reducing the eyestalk tyrants AC by 9 points sure helped!
Void Wizard: He has gazed into the spaces between stars, and he knows the names of the Things that lurk there. Great teamwork skills. Can-do attitude. Proficient in Microsoft applications, Photoshop, and debuffing.
I also take dictation
Current adventure is a 2 player game that the DM has described as being ‘like a buddy cop movie.’ NG Undine Bolt Ace, LE Human Conjurer (soon to be Arcane Savant so we can get a CLW now and then), we fight crime!
As the man who Solves Practical Problems, it’s easy to accidentally think of methods that involve me and me alone, but that leaves the Undine out to dry and that’s not healthy. Over the months, we’ve developed a couple of tactics that require both of our input to be extra effective, and now we have a tiny ballista that can be loaded with cantrips to further cement our cohesion.
And sometimes, you try to include the other person and it doesn’t work out, and that’s okay. We were invading a derelict manor stuffed to the gills full of Butcherworms. Undine is the sneakiest sneak that ever snuck a snack, and I fall promptly into the water when she tries to bring me over. I set up a device that would collapse a bridge full of pursuing butcherworms, and decided suddenly that there should be a brick that she had to shoot to make it collapse. DM gave it a miss chance, she accidentally shot a worm rather than the brick and some got across. Both of these events were far more interesting to do wrong jointly than they would have been to do right, solo.
That’s a great story and all, but I have one major problem with it. I’m not in a 2-player buddy cop game at the moment, and suddenly my life feels incomplete.
I had a great moment saved up for a fellow group member, although I had to use it early because the campaign ended unexpectedly.
My DM had the terrible idea of giving me a wand that could create any liquid, albeit at varying rates depending on the liquid ranging from a few drops per second to a decent kitchen sink kind of flow. Potions were the former, so every long rest I would make another potion and mark it down on my character sheet, slowly accumulating them from session to session.
The plan was to have the group force-feed our Champion Fighter a bazillion potions on the first round against the BBEG, making him go super saiyan. I had a potion of cloud giant strength, heroism, fly, speed, bless, and a bunch of others all ready to go.
The poor trash mobs this got wasted on never saw it coming.
The goblins have a legend. They tell it in hushed voices around their campfires at night, scaring young goblins with the story of The Heroic Flying Very-Fast Very Strong Holy Guy. Because goblins suck at titles.
It had… never occurred to me to play a lone wolf. Interesting.
The closest I’ve ever come was Doctor Asklepio, who would have loved to have been a lone wolf if he wasn’t entirely dependant on his nurse cohort. And if he hadn’t instantly made best friends with the magic-user he was supposed to despise. And if he hadn’t gone around to said magic-user’s house for a oneshot roleplay encounter out-of-campaign. And then if he hadn’t accidentally socialed up awesome swords for the whole party. And THEN if he hadn’t befriended the demonspawn they were supposed to be fighting.
All while grumpily scowling at just about everything in existence. He tries so hard, bless’im.
“Cranky old man” is far more lovable than “Darkshadow Nightbringer.” The first guy brings fun RP to the table. The second guys stands in the corner and scowls at the RP from across the room.
Aha! Everyone ALWAYS assumes that he’s old. He’s 39, and does not wear it well.
So you’re gonna tell me you “messed with the aging rules,” but this guy is only 39? Shenanigans! 😛
Just barely Middle-Aged in category, because if I made him older then he’d become fully incapable of lifting his rapier. He already needs a Half-Giant to carry his medical gear… Plus I wanted him to be older than his age, if you see what I mean; appearing older because of life experience and not keeping the best of health, ironically. His misspent youth with the alchemy and such probably didn’t help.
In my latest game, I was playing a Vizier Mesmerist with Cunning Caster. She’s a Lashunta, so she’s got that sweet racial telepathy. She doesn’t wear armor, just fancy clothes. This whole character is built around seemingly being a bystander, helping the party while the enemies don’t notice. Setting up the other players is my bread and butter, though occasionally I’ve had to jump in with some Charm Person and Mental Block when things got hairy. She’s super fun to play, and I’m honestly looking forward to more of her.
Nice! Any chance of her getting transported forward in time to Starfinder?
I think the ‘enable others’ approach to RPGs is an amazing concept that I have no end of admiration for. Unfortunately, I’m too anxious about my own performance roleplaying and fighting that I don’t often get around to actively encouraging others to do things in character. I want to get better at it, and hopefully I’ll be able to do it in my current campaign.
I’m playing a simultaneously self-centered and party-oriented Oath of Glory Paladin, which is an interesting dichotomy.