A Player who gets bored of all his chars. [Archive] - Wizards Community

A Player who gets bored of all his chars. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Lelldorianx
05-04-07, 11:55 PM Hey,

I have been playing D&D for awhile now with a group of friends. Most of us are pretty good at sticking with character, except one kid. Now, before I DMd so much, our DM (has been DMing since release) found that my friend Evan (bored one) kills off or gets rid of characters once every level, or in most cases, 2 sessions (6 hours each).

Now I am DMing, we just played a very fun and interesting Drow campaign, where he has become friends with moon elves and Grotts (Creature guide) and his character really has a definitive personality. What happens? The 15 minutes we waited for his ride to show up he decided he wants a new character.

Now his reason for this is always the fact that he gets new books and wants to try those out. Races are more the problem than classes. Some of this may be the fact that he is about 13 or 14, while the rest of us are 16. Now to the question:

Can somebody help me create, or point me to a *player* created (on this forum) race? We need something completely original, and as he is not a huge WoTC community reader he will not have seen it before. That should prompt for at least a few good levels as the new character. It is sad though, when a truly original character goes down the drain.

Please give me your input, and I will certainly post more info later. My bed is calling after 6 hours of DMing... night!

Steve.
CipherTheory
05-05-07, 12:06 AM About half of the thread in the 'Races' forum of this board are player-made creations. Check that out first. If you want something custom, please give some parameters. I'll try my best to make something for you if you give me an idea of what you want. Just know that player-made creations often have unforseen balance issues. Then again, if he'll be ditching it after a session or two that shouldn't really be an issue. :)
SkippyDawg
05-05-07, 12:36 AM Eventually the player will settle on his favorite character. I had a player like that, now settles with his favorite and has settled for about...5 months. ^_^ Awesome character!
Dragoloth
05-05-07, 01:02 AM What class does he usually play? If it's melee try a Dark Sun half-giant.
chava
05-05-07, 01:52 AM Or he just may be a person who want to keep trying new ideas - I have two.

One is normally the DM for our group and he just enjoys making characters - I got him to build NPC for me and that seems to get it out of his system (i tweak the NPC after he's done with them so that he can still be surprised).

The other is a 30-year-old who just gets bored with his character ideas every three months (note this has nothing to do with new books, it's just who he is).
loaba
05-05-07, 01:56 AM I'd say that if everyone in the group is cool with his revolving-door character issues than it's probably not that big a deal. As other folks have said, some players just have a hard time settling into one role. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

And hey, here's a thought, keep his old character sheets and reintroduce his old characters as random NPCs throughout the course of the campaign.
Adamaro23
05-05-07, 03:03 AM when i first started with my friends, i was stuck DMing them....they went through around 180 characters each in 1 year....yeah it was horrible.
There was 4 of them.

I feel your pain.
sabrewolf
05-05-07, 03:29 AM I guess i underestand him.. a little... My own mind is full of ideas, with new ones spawning every couple weeks (and sometimes days)...

Talk to him and find what´s more "evershifting" on his ideas: Races or Classes.
- If classes it needs some tweaking and a help from the DM (you, it seems..:P ), something that´s mentioned in the PHB II: Locations and/or quests taht allows one to "change his path in life", that is, change some or all his classes... He can make this hsi character, an undecided about life taht wants to "see and try everything" before really comiting himself to something.

- If races, the solution above also works, but i have an idea that might be more of use: He can dedicate some levels (meaning HDs) into no-race-at-all, and make his base race a changeling - something akin to a doppleganger and/or the shifter PrCs - or be cursed.. anyway, he could be able to change his race every X days, limited only by HD and some minor LA on top of that.

- If both, then as amuzing as it may sound, you two could do both and have him be a lost and undecided changeling critter who is eager to really try everything in life....

My guess on the matter is that he´ll continue being a "revolving door" kind of person (as loaba called) untill he run out of ideas (unlikely) or start feeling an urge to try something stable / lasting for a change - he may start to miss seeing something he built (his char) grow with time into something better..

Of course, this may continue for a while longer and you and your group wil have to deal with it...

Hope any of this helps.. Good luck for all of thee.. and take care.
loaba
05-05-07, 03:38 AM he may start to miss seeing something he built (his char) grow with time into something better..

I'm of two minds here; in order for the player to see that he is missing out on the growth of his PC, in relation to the others in the party, you would have to penalize him, probably via levels, whenever he wants to introduce a new character into the game.

See, I'm just against that totally, but I do understand that doing so could serve as a tool to 'force' him to stick with a character.

Again, I guess it all depends on whether or not everyone is cool with his constant character shifting.
Lelldorianx
05-05-07, 03:53 AM Thank you all for your many responses! I have some great new ideas, and actually have been working on them since I last posted this, now being 3:45 am. What happened to me was one of those random sparks of brilliance; I could not let it go. So here is what I am going to start planning with a big group:

(Condensed version, as I was just checking before bed. I will post this at some point in full for all to enjoy)
We are going to have a new continent discovered within our game world, and races from all across the land to board boats and ship off. It is similar to that of colonial America, the eager, brave, and witting took off to explore. Well here is what I have done.

The main idea is that the players will be totally constructing a founding town near the shore, from scratch. They will need to focus heavily on actually using crafting (not something we often do in our campaigns, some reason). There are a number of never before seen races (from what I could tell of the compendium I was referred to) that I created earlier. Along with many EverQuest/EverQuest2 races, that I have tweaked rather well for D&D; those are a different topic though. He has many new things to choose from, which yes - is just asking for him to change once each session for the next 5 or 6. However, I am hoping that being a founder of a new town on a new continent, which draws all but the most evil (drow have no access, from what I have planned thus far) will attract him to the idea of becoming actually very famous. He will play an important roll with the other PCs as founders, they can construct the first city watch, heck - they can correctly corrupt it for once too. :P. I hope that something like this will work, and that is just the shortbread. I will be talking with another DM about it tomorrow, we are creating a map that is relatively small, Sword Coast size (may pass more as an island). It will contain major areas that all worlds have. Swamps, plains, hills, etc.

Any thoughts on my burnt-out inspiration?

I thank you a lot for referring me to the Races area, I had the impression it was all strictly D&D FAQs.

Thanks!

~Steve.
AtmaWeapon
05-05-07, 04:32 AM Also, if it's just a matter of him wanting to try out things he sees in new books, perhaps you should consider making the retraining rules from the PHB2 available in your campaign. That way, it's still the same character, but he can swap in that cool new feat/idea he wants to use.
kelvinaw273
05-05-07, 04:44 AM You could always rule that every other character he creates has to be human ... this means he has to burn through two characters before he gets one of the 'new race'. That may be enough to pursuade him that the grass is not actually greener in the next field.
Lelldorianx
05-05-07, 10:17 AM You could always rule that every other character he creates has to be human ... this means he has to burn through two characters before he gets one of the 'new race'. That may be enough to pursuade him that the grass is not actually greener in the next field.

Now this idea I think is really doable and would work, without being to unfair on my part. It would work, now of course taking into consideration he may kill the human ASAP; I think that I could prolong it's life at least a session. Very good input, I like that.

What class does he usually play?

He actually does not have a normal class, but his longest lasting character was a paladin. I think he would not mind going back to them. The only thing he cannot stand about pallys is their code of conduct stuff.

You could also use the retraining rules in the PHB2

I definitely will be using the retraining rules from here on out. That will allow me to keep his characters about 2x longer, a lot of the time he simply does not like a route he has taken.

Good to see that some of you guys have the same problem as me though. I suppose it is normal, I get bored of classes/characters on games like neverwinter nights 2 (for those who haven't heard of it, it is a forgotten realms based video game) and replace one every few days. Now of course, in that I am restricted to the classes the producers provided, so I normally can last a bit longer.

Thanks for all the help! Keep it coming, please.

~Steve
wtftastic
05-05-07, 10:21 AM As a player in my first ever campaign (which was only last semester!!) I got bored of my originally cool neutral evil halfling druid. (Oh boy that was a dumb idea to make, but wutevs.)

After I killed her off, which I agreed on with the DMs, both of them met with me, and looked at my favorite aspects of the game. Did I like fighting or magic? Or a bit of both? What races did I like? That sort of thing. They made a list of good matches for me, I picked one out and stuck with it. This list thing might be good for him.

Or, if he doesn't mind a level adjustment of 4, a Sand Giant fighter is godly.
CantripN
05-05-07, 10:31 AM Or he can try something like a Binder/Factotum/Chameleon. Those can do ANYTHING and be ANYONE.
Pick Changeling as a race so he can change appearance and even gender at will.
aikimiller
05-05-07, 01:10 PM I've had an idea I've wanted to try for a while now, is have a player like this actually play what would otherwise be a NPCs or DMPCs. Say a tribe of barbarians wants you to take out a dragon that's been bothering them, have him play a young member of the tribe who joins them on this quest, but will not continue adventuring with them afterwards. Build the characters in mind with them not being around for more than one or two sessions. Eventually, if he finds a character he wants to stick with, he can have it join the party permanently.

For the player, this has the appeal of being able to role play a lot of different types of character personalities (assuming he's a decent enough roleplayer to do this), and it gives him a chance to explore the mechanics of different characters (assuming he is good enough at building characters quickly enough to do so, and does so without taking time from the rest of the group).

Give him a skeleton outline of a background, something like "your character is a member of a tribe of nomads who have been having trouble X", or "your character is a member of the royal family, who need to find relic X" or "Your character is a guardsmen for Random Evil Guy-X, and has been having second thoughts about his choice of occupation", or "your character is a prisoner of war, who has been in captivity for 3 months".

Why try to fix something that isn't necessarily broken? If he wants to play a bunch of different characters, let him, and use it to advance the plot in interesting ways.
taradusis
05-05-07, 01:49 PM Could be a lot worse,one of my players wanted to play a "new"game on a regular basis.He would come up with a way for the party to die"gloriously"and draw up new characters for each week.This happened twice before a uninaminous party decision to eject him from game!
Lelldorianx
05-05-07, 02:03 PM I've had an idea I've wanted to try for a while now, is have a player like this actually play what would otherwise be a NPCs or DMPCs. Say a tribe of barbarians wants you to take out a dragon that's been bothering them, have him play a young member of the tribe who joins them on this quest, but will not continue adventuring with them afterwards. Build the characters in mind with them not being around for more than one or two sessions. Eventually, if he finds a character he wants to stick with, he can have it join the party permanently.

For the player, this has the appeal of being able to role play a lot of different types of character personalities (assuming he's a decent enough roleplayer to do this), and it gives him a chance to explore the mechanics of different characters (assuming he is good enough at building characters quickly enough to do so, and does so without taking time from the rest of the group).

Give him a skeleton outline of a background, something like "your character is a member of a tribe of nomads who have been having trouble X", or "your character is a member of the royal family, who need to find relic X" or "Your character is a guardsmen for Random Evil Guy-X, and has been having second thoughts about his choice of occupation", or "your character is a prisoner of war, who has been in captivity for 3 months".

Why try to fix something that isn't necessarily broken? If he wants to play a bunch of different characters, let him, and use it to advance the plot in interesting ways.

I have never thought of that, actually. That is an excellent idea and this is a perfect time to try it out! Thanks, so far I think you have had the best input, what a great idea. Meet up to do a quest, and he is sent along as a simple nomad to guide them, or bring back the head of a minotaur with their help, etc. Then he simply goes on his way with his tribe. My friend could then move on to another character fairly easily, and I would let him switch to an older one (if we were near it) anytime if he decides he liked it most. And heck, if he explores enough of the race/class combos (which I will be sure to dot all over the place, not a barbarian or whatever every time) perhaps he will make his own character that lasts a good long while.

Thanks very much! I have at least one player who would willingly do this, while another would appreciate it as well.

I will be trying this in the next week or so, and will get back to you guys!

Thanks.

~Steve.
Zax_Silverstrike
05-05-07, 04:35 PM Excellent idea, Steve. I think i will like this... its much better than being random people with no background.

~Evan~
daggeroflath
05-05-07, 05:15 PM Well, I'm like this myself, so maybe I can shed some light on his motivations.

I last 10 sessions (our groups play for 12-15 hour sessions though, so probably more in a shorter game) before wanting to make a new character, I've timed it. Some people love to play a character for years at a time. I don't. This isn't a matter of "finding the right character", I love most of my characters but that doesn't mean I want to play them forever.

If I wanted to experience just one life, I already have the perfect medium for this. My own body, moving through the real world. I want to experience many characters, that's why I took up roleplaying. Every character that I create is an experiment in understanding that person, as soon as I understand the character, they've lost their mystery.

Of course, I'm tempted to try out the new material that new books present and since I like making new characters it's a good option to try them out. This isn't the main motivation though, just an unexpected side-benefit.

I don't get to play very often, so this isn't a big deal. Most of the time I DM and get to play with thousands of characters, like I prefer.

Though after saying all this, there's also the very real possibility that I have ADHD, I do fit most of the diagnostic criteria.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lelldorianx 05-04-07, 11:55 PM	Hey, I have been playing D&D for awhile now with a group of friends. Most of us are pretty good at sticking with character, except one kid. Now, before I DMd so much, our DM (has been DMing since release) found that my friend Evan (bored one) kills off or gets rid of characters once every level, or in most cases, 2 sessions (6 hours each). Now I am DMing, we just played a very fun and interesting Drow campaign, where he has become friends with moon elves and Grotts (Creature guide) and his character really has a definitive personality. What happens? The 15 minutes we waited for his ride to show up he decided he wants a new character. Now his reason for this is always the fact that he gets new books and wants to try those out. Races are more the problem than classes. Some of this may be the fact that he is about 13 or 14, while the rest of us are 16. Now to the question: Can somebody help me create, or point me to a player created (on this forum) race? We need something completely original, and as he is not a huge WoTC community reader he will not have seen it before. That should prompt for at least a few good levels as the new character. It is sad though, when a truly original character goes down the drain. Please give me your input, and I will certainly post more info later. My bed is calling after 6 hours of DMing... night! Steve.
CipherTheory 05-05-07, 12:06 AM	About half of the thread in the 'Races' forum of this board are player-made creations. Check that out first. If you want something custom, please give some parameters. I'll try my best to make something for you if you give me an idea of what you want. Just know that player-made creations often have unforseen balance issues. Then again, if he'll be ditching it after a session or two that shouldn't really be an issue. :)
SkippyDawg 05-05-07, 12:36 AM	Eventually the player will settle on his favorite character. I had a player like that, now settles with his favorite and has settled for about...5 months. ^_^ Awesome character!
Dragoloth 05-05-07, 01:02 AM	What class does he usually play? If it's melee try a Dark Sun half-giant.
chava 05-05-07, 01:52 AM	Or he just may be a person who want to keep trying new ideas - I have two. One is normally the DM for our group and he just enjoys making characters - I got him to build NPC for me and that seems to get it out of his system (i tweak the NPC after he's done with them so that he can still be surprised). The other is a 30-year-old who just gets bored with his character ideas every three months (note this has nothing to do with new books, it's just who he is).
loaba 05-05-07, 01:56 AM	I'd say that if everyone in the group is cool with his revolving-door character issues than it's probably not that big a deal. As other folks have said, some players just have a hard time settling into one role. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. And hey, here's a thought, keep his old character sheets and reintroduce his old characters as random NPCs throughout the course of the campaign.
Adamaro23 05-05-07, 03:03 AM	when i first started with my friends, i was stuck DMing them....they went through around 180 characters each in 1 year....yeah it was horrible. There was 4 of them. I feel your pain.
sabrewolf 05-05-07, 03:29 AM	I guess i underestand him.. a little... My own mind is full of ideas, with new ones spawning every couple weeks (and sometimes days)... Talk to him and find what´s more "evershifting" on his ideas: Races or Classes. - If classes it needs some tweaking and a help from the DM (you, it seems..:P ), something that´s mentioned in the PHB II: Locations and/or quests taht allows one to "change his path in life", that is, change some or all his classes... He can make this hsi character, an undecided about life taht wants to "see and try everything" before really comiting himself to something. - If races, the solution above also works, but i have an idea that might be more of use: He can dedicate some levels (meaning HDs) into no-race-at-all, and make his base race a changeling - something akin to a doppleganger and/or the shifter PrCs - or be cursed.. anyway, he could be able to change his race every X days, limited only by HD and some minor LA on top of that. - If both, then as amuzing as it may sound, you two could do both and have him be a lost and undecided changeling critter who is eager to really try everything in life.... My guess on the matter is that he´ll continue being a "revolving door" kind of person (as loaba called) untill he run out of ideas (unlikely) or start feeling an urge to try something stable / lasting for a change - he may start to miss seeing something he built (his char) grow with time into something better.. Of course, this may continue for a while longer and you and your group wil have to deal with it... Hope any of this helps.. Good luck for all of thee.. and take care.
loaba 05-05-07, 03:38 AM	he may start to miss seeing something he built (his char) grow with time into something better.. I'm of two minds here; in order for the player to see that he is missing out on the growth of his PC, in relation to the others in the party, you would have to penalize him, probably via levels, whenever he wants to introduce a new character into the game. See, I'm just against that totally, but I do understand that doing so could serve as a tool to 'force' him to stick with a character. Again, I guess it all depends on whether or not everyone is cool with his constant character shifting.
Lelldorianx 05-05-07, 03:53 AM	Thank you all for your many responses! I have some great new ideas, and actually have been working on them since I last posted this, now being 3:45 am. What happened to me was one of those random sparks of brilliance; I could not let it go. So here is what I am going to start planning with a big group: (Condensed version, as I was just checking before bed. I will post this at some point in full for all to enjoy) We are going to have a new continent discovered within our game world, and races from all across the land to board boats and ship off. It is similar to that of colonial America, the eager, brave, and witting took off to explore. Well here is what I have done. The main idea is that the players will be totally constructing a founding town near the shore, from scratch. They will need to focus heavily on actually using crafting (not something we often do in our campaigns, some reason). There are a number of never before seen races (from what I could tell of the compendium I was referred to) that I created earlier. Along with many EverQuest/EverQuest2 races, that I have tweaked rather well for D&D; those are a different topic though. He has many new things to choose from, which yes - is just asking for him to change once each session for the next 5 or 6. However, I am hoping that being a founder of a new town on a new continent, which draws all but the most evil (drow have no access, from what I have planned thus far) will attract him to the idea of becoming actually very famous. He will play an important roll with the other PCs as founders, they can construct the first city watch, heck - they can correctly corrupt it for once too. :P. I hope that something like this will work, and that is just the shortbread. I will be talking with another DM about it tomorrow, we are creating a map that is relatively small, Sword Coast size (may pass more as an island). It will contain major areas that all worlds have. Swamps, plains, hills, etc. Any thoughts on my burnt-out inspiration? I thank you a lot for referring me to the Races area, I had the impression it was all strictly D&D FAQs. Thanks! ~Steve.
AtmaWeapon 05-05-07, 04:32 AM	Also, if it's just a matter of him wanting to try out things he sees in new books, perhaps you should consider making the retraining rules from the PHB2 available in your campaign. That way, it's still the same character, but he can swap in that cool new feat/idea he wants to use.
kelvinaw273 05-05-07, 04:44 AM	You could always rule that every other character he creates has to be human ... this means he has to burn through two characters before he gets one of the 'new race'. That may be enough to pursuade him that the grass is not actually greener in the next field.
Lelldorianx 05-05-07, 10:17 AM	You could always rule that every other character he creates has to be human ... this means he has to burn through two characters before he gets one of the 'new race'. That may be enough to pursuade him that the grass is not actually greener in the next field. Now this idea I think is really doable and would work, without being to unfair on my part. It would work, now of course taking into consideration he may kill the human ASAP; I think that I could prolong it's life at least a session. Very good input, I like that. What class does he usually play? He actually does not have a normal class, but his longest lasting character was a paladin. I think he would not mind going back to them. The only thing he cannot stand about pallys is their code of conduct stuff. You could also use the retraining rules in the PHB2 I definitely will be using the retraining rules from here on out. That will allow me to keep his characters about 2x longer, a lot of the time he simply does not like a route he has taken. Good to see that some of you guys have the same problem as me though. I suppose it is normal, I get bored of classes/characters on games like neverwinter nights 2 (for those who haven't heard of it, it is a forgotten realms based video game) and replace one every few days. Now of course, in that I am restricted to the classes the producers provided, so I normally can last a bit longer. Thanks for all the help! Keep it coming, please. ~Steve
wtftastic 05-05-07, 10:21 AM	As a player in my first ever campaign (which was only last semester!!) I got bored of my originally cool neutral evil halfling druid. (Oh boy that was a dumb idea to make, but wutevs.) After I killed her off, which I agreed on with the DMs, both of them met with me, and looked at my favorite aspects of the game. Did I like fighting or magic? Or a bit of both? What races did I like? That sort of thing. They made a list of good matches for me, I picked one out and stuck with it. This list thing might be good for him. Or, if he doesn't mind a level adjustment of 4, a Sand Giant fighter is godly.
CantripN 05-05-07, 10:31 AM	Or he can try something like a Binder/Factotum/Chameleon. Those can do ANYTHING and be ANYONE. Pick Changeling as a race so he can change appearance and even gender at will.
aikimiller 05-05-07, 01:10 PM	I've had an idea I've wanted to try for a while now, is have a player like this actually play what would otherwise be a NPCs or DMPCs. Say a tribe of barbarians wants you to take out a dragon that's been bothering them, have him play a young member of the tribe who joins them on this quest, but will not continue adventuring with them afterwards. Build the characters in mind with them not being around for more than one or two sessions. Eventually, if he finds a character he wants to stick with, he can have it join the party permanently. For the player, this has the appeal of being able to role play a lot of different types of character personalities (assuming he's a decent enough roleplayer to do this), and it gives him a chance to explore the mechanics of different characters (assuming he is good enough at building characters quickly enough to do so, and does so without taking time from the rest of the group). Give him a skeleton outline of a background, something like "your character is a member of a tribe of nomads who have been having trouble X", or "your character is a member of the royal family, who need to find relic X" or "Your character is a guardsmen for Random Evil Guy-X, and has been having second thoughts about his choice of occupation", or "your character is a prisoner of war, who has been in captivity for 3 months". Why try to fix something that isn't necessarily broken? If he wants to play a bunch of different characters, let him, and use it to advance the plot in interesting ways.
taradusis 05-05-07, 01:49 PM	Could be a lot worse,one of my players wanted to play a "new"game on a regular basis.He would come up with a way for the party to die"gloriously"and draw up new characters for each week.This happened twice before a uninaminous party decision to eject him from game!
Lelldorianx 05-05-07, 02:03 PM	I've had an idea I've wanted to try for a while now, is have a player like this actually play what would otherwise be a NPCs or DMPCs. Say a tribe of barbarians wants you to take out a dragon that's been bothering them, have him play a young member of the tribe who joins them on this quest, but will not continue adventuring with them afterwards. Build the characters in mind with them not being around for more than one or two sessions. Eventually, if he finds a character he wants to stick with, he can have it join the party permanently. For the player, this has the appeal of being able to role play a lot of different types of character personalities (assuming he's a decent enough roleplayer to do this), and it gives him a chance to explore the mechanics of different characters (assuming he is good enough at building characters quickly enough to do so, and does so without taking time from the rest of the group). Give him a skeleton outline of a background, something like "your character is a member of a tribe of nomads who have been having trouble X", or "your character is a member of the royal family, who need to find relic X" or "Your character is a guardsmen for Random Evil Guy-X, and has been having second thoughts about his choice of occupation", or "your character is a prisoner of war, who has been in captivity for 3 months". Why try to fix something that isn't necessarily broken? If he wants to play a bunch of different characters, let him, and use it to advance the plot in interesting ways. I have never thought of that, actually. That is an excellent idea and this is a perfect time to try it out! Thanks, so far I think you have had the best input, what a great idea. Meet up to do a quest, and he is sent along as a simple nomad to guide them, or bring back the head of a minotaur with their help, etc. Then he simply goes on his way with his tribe. My friend could then move on to another character fairly easily, and I would let him switch to an older one (if we were near it) anytime if he decides he liked it most. And heck, if he explores enough of the race/class combos (which I will be sure to dot all over the place, not a barbarian or whatever every time) perhaps he will make his own character that lasts a good long while. Thanks very much! I have at least one player who would willingly do this, while another would appreciate it as well. I will be trying this in the next week or so, and will get back to you guys! Thanks. ~Steve.
Zax_Silverstrike 05-05-07, 04:35 PM	Excellent idea, Steve. I think i will like this... its much better than being random people with no background. ~Evan~
daggeroflath 05-05-07, 05:15 PM	Well, I'm like this myself, so maybe I can shed some light on his motivations. I last 10 sessions (our groups play for 12-15 hour sessions though, so probably more in a shorter game) before wanting to make a new character, I've timed it. Some people love to play a character for years at a time. I don't. This isn't a matter of "finding the right character", I love most of my characters but that doesn't mean I want to play them forever. If I wanted to experience just one life, I already have the perfect medium for this. My own body, moving through the real world. I want to experience many characters, that's why I took up roleplaying. Every character that I create is an experiment in understanding that person, as soon as I understand the character, they've lost their mystery. Of course, I'm tempted to try out the new material that new books present and since I like making new characters it's a good option to try them out. This isn't the main motivation though, just an unexpected side-benefit. I don't get to play very often, so this isn't a big deal. Most of the time I DM and get to play with thousands of characters, like I prefer. Though after saying all this, there's also the very real possibility that I have ADHD, I do fit most of the diagnostic criteria.