I'm one of those players who just can't sit still when it comes to character creation. I make countless different PCs every time some idea for one pops into my head. Some follow a set pattern, others are completely out of the blue. Some I create with the serious intent of putting them through a campaign, others I create solely for amusement. But ultimately, the moment I settle into a campaign with one PC, I get the urge to start playing a new one. I've never seen a character through to the peak of their abilities because I'm constantly creating new characters to play, and then discarding them when I get the urge to try a new concept. I float around the character development and optimization boards for new character concepts and builds. It's like a disease!
Does anyone else have this problem? Does anyone have advice on how to deal with it and see one character through to the end of a campaign?
It should be noted that NPCs opften have more substance then the PCs. Simply because the NPCs are often a part of something and have organizations, locations etc backing them.
ie a "son of a noble" as a PC is in name only in his background, and a few reflective skills. Whereas as an NPC he is recognized as a noblle by the populace, and lives in that castle, etc. So there can be alot more depth and potential to creating NPCs then PCs who ultimately never achieve your goals as you don't play them long enough.
Really though nothing wrong with making a large host of characters...make a little file and keep them on the side...
You can sit there and maybe DM one day and you have a whole host of NPCs to choose from...and if your PC dies...you can look through and decide which one you like the best...
I also think it would do you good to really consider development. It seems like maybe the characters you make are for mechanical purposes...or because you think playing "this" certain race would be cool...or "this" certain class.
Try to make a character that is deeper. Fears...dreams...faults...something real that you can honestly see yourself playing through the characters development.
Do you go in deep with personality, motivation, etc? or do you get it in your head that they should be this way or that and it is rather general?
Really you are missing out on really building something that really sticks with you. It is cool to watch your character progress from being a slave...or a farmer's son...or some other form of background...and grow...maybe building your own keep...being a hero among your country...or perhaps a villain?
How to deal with the desire to constantly create characters, yes.
DM.
Seriously.
You get to make all the characters (monsters) you want (especially easy in 4th edition), and your players kill them so you don't have to hang on to them and keep them around. You just create some new ones.
Or at least, that's how I've handled the situation. hehe.:D
I currently have six full notebooks of 1st-level characters that I made up simply because the characters popped into my head.
And I've never played a single one of them.
Just off the top of my head, I can remember the names, background, and even some of the stats/gear for probably about 100 characters of various levels that I've made up, and only about half of them have seen more than five or six levels of adventuring.
Mostly, that's due to not having any of the games lasting longer than that, but I can understand where you're coming from.
Part of it's just that our brains are character factories that never stop churning out ideas for backgrounds, personalities, builds, etc.
The other part of it, if my impression of you is right, is that we both tend to get very focused/obsessed with whatever idea is currently blinking the loudest like a neon sign in our heads, and whatever we were doing before that tends to be pushed back on our list of priorities, am I right?
It's not so much that we lose interest, but that other things become more interesting at the moment.
One of the things I try to do when I find myself distracted by other ideas is to go back and study my character from the beginning of his career up to where he is at the moment, and to try to find the inspirations that created him in the first place. And then I look for new perspectives on them, new directions to take them in, ways to expand on the original ideas.
Sometimes while re-examining the character some previously minor detail jumps out at me as something that I really want to explore, or I come up with an alternate way of thinking about it. It's often enough to respark my interest in the character.
Admittedly some of the ideas I've thought up were pretty bizzare. My most recent one is a flirty Infernalock with a weight problem.
What I've seen as a good outlet for people like you, is become friends with a DM. It can be a campaign you're playing in, or one you're not. The DM will give you NPC's (the king's brave son, who wants to assemble an army and prove himself to his father; the halfling inn keeper who is more than he appears to be; the goblin in the camp the PC's attack, who doesn't really want to fight, and surrender, and would like to help the PC's in any way he can, since he is fed up with the evil ways of his clan; you get the idea).
They give you their NPC's, and you flesh them out. Maybe give them more background, more motivations, and most importantly: stats and powers.
I would personally love to have a little assistant who made NPC's for me, so feel free to PM me if this is something you'd like to do! ;)
The other cool thing about designing NPC's, is you can break rules. I, for example, have a cleric who is very weak and scared of everything, and I gave him the Wizard power "Thunderwave" as an at-will to push anyone back if they get close to him. I made it based off wisdom, though, so he can actually hit and push them back. That is his instinctive "panic" move. Stuff like that can certainly be fun.
I don't think I'm quite a Chronic Character Creator, but I do have moments where I get an idea I like so much that I can't not do it. Like my Minotaur Barbarian wielding an Executioner's axe. Since it was just the only overpowered combo I could think of, I got really excited and made it. I'm probably never gonna use it. But I made it.
I am a Chronic Character Creator. Anonymous, of course. ;)
I have two pieces of advice for you:
1) Write. Constantly. I write stories about the characters I'd love to play, getting it out that way. A lot of the characters are less interesting once you've actually explored them a bit and others become fond memories of a character that was never to be.
2) DMing. I know it's already been mentioned, but it helps. The 3.5e term was (I believe) "snuggywug" (or DMPC in more serious circles), but as long as you're fair about the whole thing, that won't be a problem.
The PCs will either love the character and be amazed at how good you are at (apparently) creating a unique, compelling personality when they are well aware they went off the chartered maps of your campaign.
So what if the person they met wasn't a random person, but a warlock character you never had a chance to play? Or your favourite character from a certain book, whose name you quickly changed and decided that he'd use "Human Guard" stats on the fly?
---
I used to have a folder on my harddrive with backup characters (though I did play in a heavy-casualty campaign at the time*) though I've deleted it since.
Now with 4E I have a new folder. It's called "pre-gens" at they are continually updated to follow the level advancement of my player group, so that if someone dies they can simply be handed a replacement and the game can move on.
(they get a choice of whether to use a pregen or to create their own, obviously)
* We had a rule in that group. When you died, you were to go warm a snack for the group in the microwave staying with the microwave until it was finished and then when you'd brought back the snacks and everyone had ate their share, your new character was introduced. Made for a bunch of laughs in- and out-of-game.
I've tried DMing. I'm too lazy and I haven't read the books cover to cover yet.
4th edition is the first edition I every read the books for. I have played all the way back to the Red Box and started when I was 6 years old. Every edition prior to this one I would just wing it and pick it up as a I went along, and never had a problem. That includes as a DM, in which I started doing that with 2nd edition. Reading the rules is good, but not critical. If you know how to play as a player then you know how to DM minus a few things.
I have a friend that is a lot like you. Starts a character, gets bored with him and starts plotting out his back up character. I think the best way to stay focused on the one character is to find ways to develop him more outside the numbers. The numbers are cool, I love them and started to become a power gamer with 3.5 (which was way outside the box for me prior to that). However, there is more to a character than the crunch. I am sure you know that, but have you really looked to see how much development you were doing in the parts that don't involve the crunch? That is my suggestion, develop the rest of the character and provide him goals, aspirations, emotions, make him feel real. Provide open ended objectives so you can watch him grow and develop and hopefully the motivation to keep him instead of switching to a new character will grow from that.
They give you their NPC's, and you flesh them out. Maybe give them more background, more motivations, and most importantly: stats and powers.
I would personally love to have a little assistant who made NPC's for me, so feel free to PM me if this is something you'd like to do! ;)
I agree completely and would be happy to take PM's of NPC's as well.
People like you and I and MadJack perhaps would make a great combination. You would get a load of one-shot adventures, or ones that last three sessions before the BBEG gets stabbed. ;)
-When I think up an interesting concept for a character, I put the idea onto paper, and make a character sheet up. Then, I make up a backstory and such. Then, I put it in my binder of character sheets, and I have an NPC for my setting. Bada bing, bada boom.
How to see a character through to the end of a campaign, no.
How to deal with the desire to constantly create characters, yes.
DM.
Seriously.
You get to make all the characters (monsters) you want (especially easy in 4th edition), and your players kill them so you don't have to hang on to them and keep them around. You just create some new ones.
Or at least, that's how I've handled the situation. hehe.:D
That's my solution for the same problem. I do play in campaigns as well, but I find more reward in DMing.
I've tried DMing. I'm too lazy and I haven't read the books cover to cover yet.
Well that depends entirely. I ran an impromptu 4th ed game with nothing but the monster manual (granted any D&D is srs business or rules lawyers prolly woulda had a fit, but we had fun so it's all good (Incidentally, one of my players got a death note last session :D)).