>be forever DM
>I have a list of characters I want to play, but no one in my group ever DMs
>almost all are too edgy or weird to play with strangers
>they don't fit the setting of my current campaign, so I can't even rework them as NPCs
What to do?
>What to do?
Play solo.
I'm starting to think that eventually this will be the only viable course of action. Players got entitled as frick and GM only run the same shit over and over ad libidum (current year d&d for the most part), when i was young, at my LGS, you had to just pitch whatever moronic shit you imagined to have players piling up for applying to your games, there was a "sure why not lets do this" mindframe that was gradually lost in time.
Seriously it's better.
Now that I mostly play solo I reflect back and realize how little most players ever contributed to the campaign. By yourself you are free to tell the story without compromise but keep the uncertainty of randomization.
Solo RP, to me, misses the point of games as a social activity. (Then again, so does playing RPGs with randos over the internet.) The fun of GMing is coming up with situations to see how your friends will tackle them. If I'm not playing with my friends I might aswell not play at all. If I'm playing solo, there is no point to exploration or puzzle solving, since I already know what is where. At best I know what to do exactly up until a dice roll decides I get or don't get the goody that I know is there. So what that leaves me with is mostly combat. And if there is an aspect of RPGs that can be done better by other media, it is combat.
Unless you are really into social roleplaying, I cannot imagine solo RPGs to be any fun.
Any solo system recommendations?
Make.
I've been meaning to get into this for a while. Is Ironsworn any good?
It's a good start. Once you figure out the basic mechanics you can homebrew it into anything you want it to be.
The Scifi one is pretty good too I'm in the middle of a campaign of it right now.
Just don't be so weird and edgy, really. It's actually tremendous fun playing wisely and well. But since you made this thread, you have to share these concepts that are too off-putting to play.
>so I can't even rework them as NPCs
Do you know what reworking means, bro?
It's more that they wouldn't fit what our current adventure is going for. It wouldn't really help the story. I can rewrite then to the point of changing their goals and placement, but that would kind of defeat the purpose
Hey, OP, describe some of your characters you want to play. Maybe they aren't too edgy, after all.
OP here, took me long enough, here's the ones on top of my head:
>A pompous prick that has a fairly powerful sword that can only be used if he deems the adversary worth it. He never uses it, because he's too arrogant to consider anyone worthy, so he just beats people with his sheathed sword.
>An ogre child soldier
>A half-elf that sold his soul to become an adventurer and get money and search for a cleric. He wants to revive his domineering sister who he had an abusive incestuous relationship with. He's the one who actually killed her because of her abuse, and then he realized than that he can't live without her.
>A dwarf that wants to resolve the dwarven population decline problem by cloning. He has been cast out because of his experiments. I want to play with another person that's also playing the same character, and no one knows who the clone is.
>A depressed bard who threw everything away to find and marry a mermaid, only to get depressed as he realized that real mermaids aren't actually hot (setting dependent)
>A farmer that was tired of his wife and ran away from home to become and adventurer. He has no class features, and attacks with a pitchfork
The dwarf is a funny concept. Aside from the elf and, depending on the setting, the ogre these seem pretty tame all things considered. The farmer is literally just a standard adventurer.
What does the arrogant sword dude do if he is clearly losing a fight though? The problem with arrogant characters in RPGs is that their competence is always to a degree outside of your control, so his gimmick might not last long.
Yeah, I made him for a one shot that didn't end up happening. It was supposed to last only one session.
>sword dude
Either a massive liability to the party or gets over his gimmick pretty soon. Not much to play out.
>ogre child soldier
Now ogre child adventurer. Their gimmick ran out when the game started.
>half elf
Actually has a goal that neatly translates to GETTING GOLD. Very workable.
>dwarf clone
Wants gold and someone doesn't have to figure out his character. Great concept.
>bard
Perk up it's time to go into a dungeon lol
>farmer
His gimmick ends once he kills a goblin and gains a level.
The half elf and the dwarf are decent characters (for OSR), the rest are just filler party members that better players must order around. That you don't get to play your characters is one third of a very lame tragedy, you can get over it.
I'll be your dwarf brother/son/clone. I'll agree with all your opinions except one maybe, and for that one we'll obviously have to fight to the death. Let's not tell the GM though. I'll just tell him I have a mysteriousn unknown past and copy the character description you have word for word. If the GM doesn't catch it then that's his problem.
The rest mostly sound like they'll get killed in my campaigns. Especially the incest one.
>just wanted to play as a fairy
>no DMs willing to let me
>5e fairy comes out
>size small with shit flavor
>Pf1 has wood faeries
>size small with shit flavor
>PF2E has a good fairy race
>no one runs it
>actually no one I know runs anything but 5e
>only option left is to DM myself
I'll be joining you soon, but for different reasons.
>>Pf1 has wood faeries
>>size small with shit flavor
I don't get why nobody would let you play a gnome/halfling statblock with permanent reduce person
I imagine past experiences and having to deal with players that play more for builds then roleplay led to fear of abuse. I was willing to finagle things like having broken wings until lv7 or 10 in exchange for a feat. Wizards get fly at lv5 and Aasimar can fly at lv10. DMs still wouldn't compromise or bother trying to meet halfway, then complain when I said I didn't want to play when my character was shot down. I can easily just make a DmPc, but it still won't be the same.
4e's been regaining a little popularity and that has tiny faries
If I can find a 4e game, I'd be happy to give it a try. Honestly, I don't understand why people have been so adverse to trying other systems. There are so many out there I want to try but my friends only really seem to like PF1 and 5E.
Some DMs might not allow it either due to Instinctive Flight being borked in 4e.
seconding this. Pixies are hillarious in 4e and id applaud anyone playing one in my campaign.
Tho thered be some slight refluffing,
Theres no classical fairies in my campaign as i try to keep the race selection small so everyone has a role in the world.
but i guess "Very small flying humanoid insect person that is very mischievous and not afraid of death" fits the bill of a fairy.
In PF2e I played a fairy druid that believed she was a circus star who traveled with a young gorilla companion named Bobo.
Can confirm it was fun.
>What to do?
If you don't want to be a forever DM, just rewrite yourself not being one.
If nobody in your group ever DMs, just rewrite one of them being one.
If your characters are too edgy or weird to play with strangers, just rewrite your characters, or rewrite the strangers being okay with those things.
If your characters don't fit the setting of your current campaign as NPCs, just rewrite your characters or rewrite your campaign.
D&Dgays are constantly saying rewrite what you don't like to solve D&D problems, so solve your D&D problems by rewriting what you don't like.
>too weird, too edgy
>cute anime girl pic
I wanna hear about these characters. How bad could it be? He didn't lead in with a furry pic.
I wanna know about OP's OC. Scare us man.
Online play
Find new group
This, online games are full of weirdos but it sounds like OP is one.
Make friends online, get to know them for real. Start up a group for a curated handful of friends.
Post these concepts. I need some edgy bandit characters for my next campaign and could use some inspiration.
>having a list of characters you want to play
>without knowing literally anything about the campaigns in which they’d be played
This would be a red flag to me as a GM, and I’d probably be hesitant about including you in one of my games. Characters need to fit with the rest of the party, the overall setting, and the specifics of the campaign itself. A concept that exists devoid of any of those factors is going to feel shoehorned in and is going to cause one kind of a headache or another.
I mean, OP seems to be aware enough of this concept to not randomly throw them in as NPCs, so chances are he is looking for a game where one of them could fit in. In the best case, the GM and players together work out beforehand what kind of game they want with what kind of characters. (This is impossible with randos, but shouldn't be much of a problem if you play with friends.)
THAT BEING SAID, the OP has yet to post these edgy character concepts for us to judge them.
Talk about your edgy characters, OP!
idk anon. But ive got it worse
>be forever DM
>Only want to play one character
>my friends only want to do one shots
>itd be weird to play the same character in every one shot
And no, this is not "Ive written a novel as a backstory"
Its just an Archetype. I just want to play that one Archetype and i want a story to unfold from gameplay.
But i never will because all i get to play is One shots where people make wacky funny characters.
the longer you GM the more you will save your characters for a "good" game with standards that people will not meet and will feel bitter or robbed if you settle for a game you think is passable. you need to suck it up or rip off the bandaid and find a group to play with
Maybe tone down the edge abit and rework the characters to fit in your setting/other campaign.
It's time for you to stop being an autist.