Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Hangfire 10-05-06, 03:22 PM	Okay, I need some advice with a situation in my current gaming group. To start, these are a great group of guys, and we've been playing together for almost two years now. This is, however, the first time I've gotten to play as a player rather than the DM. So, we're playing in a Dragonlance campaign. I decide to play a Kender (Bucky) rogue. We play for a few sessions and then one of the guys that had been away on holidays returned, and decided to play a kender rogue too. Sort of took away my thunder, but hey, it's a game. He rolls up his character and kicks my butt in every area of the game. The other players start calling me Backup Bucky. I'm not too happy about this, so I change to a Black rope wizard - evil and a necromancer that prays to Chemosh the god of undeath, etc. This is great until the guys playing the other kender decides he's not having any fun and needs a new character - enter the evil cleric that worships Chemosh. I'm like "what the heck?" I'm trying to play characters that are a little different, with a thought out background, etc. but I'm just tired of being 'followed' around. Am I making too much out of this? Should I just suck it up. If not, what do you do about something like this? Has it happened to anyone else? The DM's take on this is simple - just play your character and don't worry about it. Still, everyone wants to be an individual when they play, wants to have something special they can contribute to the party. Anyway, any suggestions would be great.
AZNsupermarket 10-05-06, 03:28 PM	Imitation in the most sincere form of flattery ;) If it really bothers you, you can talk to him about it. Maybe each one of you can become more specialized so you aren't stepping on each others toes. Is the player new to the game? A lot of the time, I find that beginers will imitate characters of the more experienced members because they are so well built that they seem very powerful compared to their character.
J.Augustus Rose II 10-05-06, 03:38 PM	There's a guy in my group who does this too. Drives me nuts because it's usually me he's ripping off. What I normally do is point out what a copy-cat rip-off artist he is. Quite often at that. Then again, I'm kind of confrontational so that might not be the best advice.
flipoflak92 10-05-06, 03:44 PM	yea this happened to me too, but not with my character, with more then 2/3 of my items
Balseraph 10-05-06, 04:14 PM	I feel your annoyance. The first time I tried to play a paladin, a friend came up with the identical concept while I was talking about rolling one up and then min-maxed it and refused to accept that he'd copied me (despite being at the same table listening when I made my pally -sigh-). In the end it turned out alright, I played something else and had a great deal more fun. Still, it may account for my instinctive dislike of paladins :P
RecycledDM 10-05-06, 04:18 PM	On your next level up, pretend to become a lawful good vow of poverty / vow of non-violence healer. After he attempts to copy you by laying down arms and giving away all his worldly goods, sleight of hand that dagger of venom you had hidden in your loincloth and kill him.
DarkNick 10-05-06, 04:19 PM	Bring back bucky! Talk to the DM about it. Maybe he could suggest that player play a different character to you.
KirkBb 10-05-06, 04:21 PM	Switch back to your old character if possible, then if he switches back too, youv'e got him by the balls, tell him to stop and that its annoying.
Mrloki 10-05-06, 04:34 PM	Its simple, kill him in his sleep, show chemsh who the real champion of your group is and then animate him as a brainless weak zombie, build a nice little pit for him to live in, and then bury him! Then laugh at him as he waits in a burial mound for all eternity!
trapspringer 10-05-06, 04:59 PM	Switch back to your old character if possible, then if he switches back too, youv'e got him by the balls, tell him to stop and that its annoying. It'll look a little contrived as far as the story line goes, but ****, it's what you were after anyway.
Artector 10-05-06, 05:16 PM	Switch back to your old character if possible, then if he switches back too, youv'e got him by the balls, tell him to stop and that its annoying. Actually that's a good suggestion.
Fatalis_902 10-05-06, 05:26 PM	I'm curious, flip, that wouldn't be my new list of gear you're talking about, would it?:P Anyway, to Hangfire, I must admit that I suggest either talking to him about it, or trying to trick him, and then force him to tell you why he's imitating you, and ask him to stop because it's annoying. (It is annoying you, right? I mean, that is why you came to us in the first place, right?)
Thubby 10-05-06, 05:42 PM	just tell him calmly, that he is cramping your style, or stepping on your towes, however you say it, and suggest a different character class/idea. most people dont realize what their doing, even if it seems obvious to everyone else
Kethka 10-05-06, 06:24 PM	Make Pun-Pun and become all powerful. That way, if he tries to copy you again, you can crush him before he can start powering up :P
Kitfox 10-06-06, 09:33 AM	If he is copying/duplicating you then why not use that to your and the group advantage. Think about real life stuff. Some people like football, some like basketball sone dont like neither and just play DND alot :) hehe Point is when footballers play together the support each other to overcome the oposition. Why not just become the best of mates with his character (even try OOC friendship) and instead of you both fighting as separate individuals trying to outshine each other covertly, you can communicate and tandem crush the oposition. IC and OOC communications is the key to all solutions. You were 2 rogues in the past right? You could have set each other's sneak attacks by feinting the oposition and setting up the other for the kill. He must like something about your builds and wants to tweak them to show you he can do better. Dont allow him the pleasure of seeing you angried. Just ignore that aspect of the 'attack', work together and eventually he will give up copying you. or so one can hope. Try working together first. Imagine you could control 2 characters ingame and you made 2 GREAT copies. Same thing here, just gotta put it words and convey it to him :)
Hangfire 10-06-06, 06:55 PM	Try working together first. Imagine you could control 2 characters ingame and you made 2 GREAT copies. Same thing here, just gotta put it words and convey it to him :) That's some good advice. I'll give it a try. Thanks everyone for the responses. I've talked to the other player to let him know that I'm not cool with him always copying my characters. He's a good guy, so I don't think there will anymore problems - at least there had better not be!
MSW 10-06-06, 07:01 PM	Okay, I need some advice with a situation in my current gaming group. To start, these are a great group of guys, and we've been playing together for almost two years now. This is, however, the first time I've gotten to play as a player rather than the DM. So, we're playing in a Dragonlance campaign. I decide to play a Kender (Bucky) rogue. We play for a few sessions and then one of the guys that had been away on holidays returned, and decided to play a kender rogue too. Sort of took away my thunder, but hey, it's a game. He rolls up his character and kicks my butt in every area of the game. The other players start calling me Backup Bucky. I'm not too happy about this, so I change to a Black rope wizard - evil and a necromancer that prays to Chemosh the god of undeath, etc. This is great until the guys playing the other kender decides he's not having any fun and needs a new character - enter the evil cleric that worships Chemosh. I'm like "what the heck?" I'm trying to play characters that are a little different, with a thought out background, etc. but I'm just tired of being 'followed' around. Am I making too much out of this? Should I just suck it up. If not, what do you do about something like this? Has it happened to anyone else? The DM's take on this is simple - just play your character and don't worry about it. Still, everyone wants to be an individual when they play, wants to have something special they can contribute to the party. Anyway, any suggestions would be great. Did you DM for this guy before? Can you remember if, in your games, he used to do this copy-cat thing with the other pcs? Maybe it's just a habbit of his that needs breaking? Or maybe he's copying you *because* you used to be DM? So it's the first chance he's had to be on-par with you as a player, and that has this sort of competition thing going. So then, don't out character build him, out role play him! I mean shoot, if he's duplicating your character concepts, what better revenge then to make your character a more interesting, memorable *person* then his flat, cardboard copy?
not Yoda 10-06-06, 08:36 PM	:schemes: Name your character after his.:rofl: Then continually refer to yourself in the third person and wear a hat of disguise to make yourself look like him. He might get the hint. OR... Take the SWF thing to the next level kill his character and take his place. Take that you doppleganger.
Hangfire 10-06-06, 09:26 PM	Did you DM for this guy before? I DMed the group for about a year and a half. Can you remember if, in your games, he used to do this copy-cat thing with the other pcs? Maybe it's just a habbit of his that needs breaking? Actually, now that you mention it, this player was playing a paladin and one of the other characters created a character who's concept was basically - I'm a monk from your church sent to make sure you're doing a good job. When he rolled up the character I thought the two of them had talked about this, but they hadn't, and the guy that's copying me was ****** about being told how to play his character. It's not the same thing as is happening here, but it's the kind of thing that really pisses off another player. Or maybe he's copying you *because* you used to be DM? So it's the first chance he's had to be on-par with you as a player, and that has this sort of competition thing going. So then, don't out character build him, out role play him! I mean shoot, if he's duplicating your character concepts, what better revenge then to make your character a more interesting, memorable *person* then his flat, cardboard copy? You know I tried that, but our group doesn't go too much for role playing - it's more fun for them to kill and maim stuff. It might have been okay if I had been rewarded for playing my character in character (always tried with Bucky), but since all the XP was rewarded for doing 'crunchy' stuff it got tiring watching the other kender do everything better than me. I might have to take Bucky out for another spin....
Torp 10-06-06, 10:37 PM	The question I ask myself, and that can change the answer on what to do quite a lot, is "why is he copying you?" I suggest talking to him out of game, alone, and try to get an answer to that question, or at least a feel of the answer. If he hasn't copied players before, it's a pretty safe bet it's not a bad habit. Maybe he's trying to get back at you in a way, for some perceived fault you did him as a DM? Maybe he feels competetive against you, like somebody suggested earlier? Or maybe, and this one is probably the one with the best possibilities for a good outcome, he's looking up to you? If the latter, I at least would see it as a great opportunity. I would have to agree with Kitfox in this case. Take it as a compliment. Agree to make the characters IC friends, and work to make your characters complement each other.
Sircav 10-08-06, 07:54 PM	I despise mimics in a group...especially a standard group of about 6 players. What worse yet is when they not only mimic your character in class, deity, attributes, etc. But when they also mimic behavior. Some people will do it just because they are "**** orifices."(Hope that's not to graphic). The people I see do it more often are those who have ZERO creativity and ZERO ingenuity, and you wonder how they managed to role play in these groups for so long. I agree with a few people here. Make a display, albeit a false one, of doing something with your character (I believe turning to a good aligned deity or some such was the suggestion), then when he does likewise, kill him or find some other way of punishing him. It helps if you can sway the GM to agree with your side of the arguement, but that is not always possible. Playing AD&D "way back when",I've had the same thing happen and I did something similar. Put on a false front concerning all my numbers, actions, skills, and even die rolls. (In cahoots with the GM, in stead of searching for traps, I would set them. And my skill was high enough I could set them AND disguise them. I would then lie about my die rolls. With a dejected face I would mutter, "I rolled a 99." (For those who don't know, thief skills were percentages you had to roll UNDER) Despite the fact that I had a 128% chance to disarm the trap, I would claim I only had 95. 99 being over 95 means I failed my check. When I invited the "mimic thief" to try, he always managed to disarm even the most complex traps (should have been impossible for his level), but at the same time, he never saw mine and since he never performed a SEARCH FOR TRAPS, assuming I had searched, he would set my trap off in the process of disarming the original one. After weeks of putting him through hell, I decided to off him with a GM created poison that kills instantaneously and with NO save. Revenge was so sweet.