|
Hello, I am a flavor of the month player. My DM tells me that I am a good player, however, I burn through characters quickly. I really hate doing that because it tears me away from the story that is being told.
For those who don't know what flavor of the month syndrome is, let me enlighten you and let you know. With my experience, I will get into one thing, let's say Star Wars. Then afterwards, I will gain asudden interest in pirates and forget about Star Wars. Hence, listing interest, though this can be fun in your spare time, it makes things difficult if you are trying to stay with the story itself.
Naturally, I'm a goof, so I have only har a couple long lasting characters, but none have ever made it past sixth level. Please help, this is the difference for me being a good player, and a great player.
I think if you found the right kind of playing group, you would be just fine. By this I mean a group that is more action driven and less so story driven, that tends to play one-shots instead of campaigns. Otherwise, if you need to stick with this group, then you're just going to have to suck it up and fight it. Is it GAMES you switch out, or just characters? If it's just characters you can always try to find characters that do more than one thing well. If it's games, well, I'm not sure what to tell you, lol.
Focus on your characters, it sounds like you have a ton of creative energy. Focus on their personalities, their backgrounds, make them come alive, and you will become more invested and interested in them. I wish you luck in your efforts!
try DMing one shots or holiday games for your group this could do a few things for you and your group.
1. in that month you could burn out you flavor craze with the amout of prep for a good one shot
2. give your DM a break every once in a wile which i am sure he would like
3. holidays are harder to get the group together for the campaign so you could so it could be some thing for those of your group who don't leave for family and such
4. most importunately it will separate your characters and their store from the flavor of the month syndrome
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
What you need is an investment in these characters as people. Write up a back story for them, where they're from, their family, childhood, significant events that drove them to become adventurers, etc. If you know your DM is doing a certain story, tie your characters TO that story in their background somehow, it will make your DM happy as well as make things come more alive for both of you. Accents are great, to differentiate between talking in character and out of character, but asking yourself "what would my character do?" before taking an in-game action is probably the best way to start. Once you have answered that question, then ask yourself "And why would he do it?" and you start fleshing out a character's personality. Referring to your character by name will help too. Instead of saying "I will attack the orc." Saying "Havendred attacks the orc." will automatically bring to mind an image of your character attacking the orc. That's another small step in making the character become more than just numbers on paper for you. I know that since I've started taking these steps with my Cleric, my enjoyment has doubled at least. I wrote up a two paragraph back story for him, tied it to the campaign we're running, and gave him some quirks and some future hooks and unresolved issues the DM can choose to work into his campaign if he wants (most DMs love doing that kind of thing if it's not terribly distracting from the main story). He woke up after being the slave of a trio of nereids for months along with his friend / mentor, surrounded by bodies of goblins and his friend along with the nereids. And he cannot remember anything from those three months. And now my DM has that story to work with and tie into the campaign if he chooses, and I have a greater sense of who the personality is I'm portraying, why he feels and acts the way he does, and what his goals are. Once you start doing that you might just find yourself growing attached to these collections of numbers on paper and wanting to see how their stories turn out.
in addition to what nuclear was suggesting, I would suggest interconnections. Not only figure out what motivates your character to a life of adventure, but what motivates your character to travel with his companions and what motivates them to be willing to lay their lives down for you.
Right now your characters are solitary constructs of your imagination, but in a story they are agents of a shared narrative. Create a character that focuses more on a group narrative than on a self-focused design.
See if you can incorporate one or more fellow players in a linked background and shared motivations, make your character's continues success important for more than just achieving the next batch of level up cookies.
How often do you guys play? If there are long pauses beetween your session, I fully understand losing interest in certain charcters. In such a case I'd rather run one shots too.
Otherwise just follow, what the others say: You need to involve your character in the campaign. Have him become friends with some NPCs, discuss with the GM how to tie to the story. Maybe some NPCs could be his realtives, his mentor could be the leader of a certain situation usw.
Try playing a character that can fill multiple roles. Something you can mix it up when you bored. A Switch Hitter Ranger, or a Druid would be good. You can focus on spell casting and then on melee.
If its not the mechanics that get you bored but the story... I played an assassin once with a Hat of Disguise. He never went anywhere as the same person. He has max ranks in Disguise and used makeup plus the hat to give himself a different persona in each town he traveled to. He was litterally never the same. He wore a silver medalion in his hat/beard/whatever that let his party know it was him.
That would let you "Act Out" different people but keep the same character. If you dont want to be an Assassin... work with your DM... maybe your a Bard who is a Royal Spy going from place to place.
|
Get factotum approved.
Play a character who really can't stay focused on any individual pursuit and shifts their focus around constantly.
Yeah, you beat me to it. That is the perfect class for someone with short attention span that pertains to characters. You want to change your character, Factotum can do it and still be the same dude, just different features. FYI Factotum was a 3.5 D&D class that may need some tweaks to convert over to Pathfinder...shouldn't be difficult though.