I've been playing a weekly game for the past four months or so. I have an admittedly short attention span, and before this I'd ever only played one-shots or short-term games (three to four sessions max). Lately, I've been feeling kinda bored with my character. There's nothing wrong with him really, I just really like coming up with characters and think a new one would be fun. We took a break and did a one-shot recently, but I'm just not feeling that enthused about returning to my regular character.
What should I do? Should I talk with the GM about creating a new character? What do you do when you tire of a character in a long-term game?
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If you don't enjoy playing, I would speak to the GM about your issue.
Personally, when I get bored with a character it is usually because the mechanics outweigh the personality. A strong background, or at least a strong sense of character motivation, often helps.
2cp
I tend to like to take a character long-term, and see it to the end (althought I am liking my character). I know another that switches each month or so. I'd honestly be more likely to simply quit the game than make a new character, since I largely play with random folks.
Yeah, talk to your GM.
There was a fellow player in one campaign I was in that either got tired of their characters on a very quick and regular basis or completely lost all copies of their character sheet for the character. Eventually the rest of us voted him out of the campaign because of the hassle of constantly introducing new characters whenever the whim of a new concept hit him.
Now I'm not saying that it is the exact same thing you're experiencing. Eventually players may well tire of their character for one reason or another. Maybe they are feeling ineffective or left out because the rest of the party is more optimized for the campaign, I don't know the specifics.
My advice would be to try and find something interesting and specific about whatever character you choose to play. Something about their personality that you'd like to expand on and role play that will keep them interesting and growing as a character. For example, you may be playing a bard that likes to get into the melee and make witty remarks and puns while he fights, so you can try to keep yourself on your toes coming up with those puns as you fight. If you keep the character interesting for yourself, the character will likely be interesting and memorable for the rest of the group and everyone will have more fun as a result.
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Talk to your GM, but make it a conversation, not a thing where you go and try to persuade him to let you make a new character and he listens. If you need advice and...(checks name of forum), you do, GMs are pretty good at that stuff.
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Work with your GM on 'retirement' for your character. Instead of abandoning them mid adventure, work on a reason for the character to bow-out gracefully.
A character that I was growing bored of decided he wanted to reconcile with his (ex)wife.
Then have your replacement character have a hook with the established party/campaign so it doesn't require heavy machinery to disbelieve.
This is easier on all concerned. It doesn't make your existing character suddenly have a death wish, you don't 'suddenly' lose your characters, and it won't require the DM to make some manner of 'you find a prisoner' or 'you meet a guy, you trust him, let's keep adventuring'.
Very Respectfully,
--Bacon
I think the first step is to identify why are are bored with the character. Generally this would come down to one of a few things; repetitive mechanics in actions, bland or uninteresting personality, or as you seem to indicate, the character is 'fine' but you want to focus on a different aspect of the game for a while.
The first two are fixable, if you provide more details I'm sure you will get plenty of advice. The last one is more difficult to solve with an existing character, but sometimes a prestige class, alternate tactics or even retraining can get you where you want to be without disrupting story continuity.
Basically the group as a whole is trying to tell a collective story, and hopefully everyone, especially the GM, are taking the characters of that story into account as you tell it. Unilaterally changing a main character and introducing a new one is at best disruptive.
Long-term, try to build characters that can respond in multiple ways during a fight. A generalist druid comes to mind. They can melee, summon, cast spells, and have an animal companion. If you're using different mechanics in every fight, then every fight stops feeling the same. Also, create characters with interesting personalities that don't depend heavily on their class or mechanics. I have a sorcerer who spams a narrow list of spells in battle. At the lower levels, that amounted to 1 big spell and 1 buff spell per battle. If that's all I did with him, I'd bore of him quickly. However, he also has this wacky personality and is incredibly fun to role play. If you can find a character who is mechanically versatile and also has a really fun personality then I don't think you'll get bored.
Short-term, talk to your GM. Don't approach him with "I want to play a new character." Approach him with "I'm getting bored of my current character. Do you have any ideas on how to fix that?" Also, instead of just suddenly swapping characters, it might be more fun for the group if you guys worked on story related death scene. Moments like this are the perfect time to introduce a shapeshifter or doppleganger. You can "kill" your character and have him replaced, then play the bad guy for a few sessions. During that time, the GM can introduce the character you want to play at an NPC in a way that's appropriate to the story. Eventually, the bad guy is revealed, the group gets to face an interesting enemy, you've switched characters, and everyone has a cool story they can share for years.
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it seems like there is a lot of solid advice here already... my guess is (since you've mostly been playing one shots and very short campaigns) that you're not accustomed to making characters with any kind of significant background or established goals/motivation. those are the kind of things that will keep a character more interesting in a long game. if you're guy doesn't have those sorts of things make some up and see if that helps. and if it doesn't, ask those questions and integrate the answers into the next guy (otherwise you'll just get bored with him too).
i do have a tendency to switch characters more often than others as well though. IMO, if you're not having fun with a character then its not worth playing, you should switch; but remember that you're not playing alone- you do also have a responsibility to your GM and fellow players to put in some work to try to make sure that you have a character that will be fun/interesting to play longterm (and not just a set of numbers/abilities that you'll tire of as soon as some new feat combo piques your interest), and to be respectful of their fun (which constant character swaps can endanger/damage).
One time I thought I was done with a character and sent my GM a text saying basically "I can't play my character any more. I understand this might not be a good time to introduce a new character so I may be out some sessions but I'm just done with him. He's been forced into a position to play that's nowhere near close to how he was built and he no longer conceptually makes sense."
He was cool with that.
I had a similar thought recently but concluded that D&D karma states that the new guy I bring in must instantly die.
I ended up keeping my character as well. But, it was because he was just about to level and restarting at level XP is dumb when you're just a couple hundred away from the next level.
Or just do something really stupid and get killed.
Oh, that doesnt always work... the player I mentionned earlier that likes switching tried really hard to kill himself , and we (the rest of the group & I) just kept his char alive to mess with him. We enventually worked out a way for him to switch, but it was funny to string him along for a few games seeing him try to kill his character...
That was so wrong.
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I second what nate lange said. In my experience, the players that want to frequently create new characters are not spending enough time thinking of the character's background, motivation for adventuring, etc. They often just play the character as them self - their same personality, their same mannerisms, etc.
If this sounds like you, then I suggest talking to your GM, explaining the lack of desire to play the current character, and then assuming the GM lets you make a new character, spend a lot of time developing that new character's personality, likes, dislikes, etc.
If your only enjoyment of the game is mechanics, its bound to get old quickly.
Thanks for the advice, everybody!
I don't think my character lacks personality or is boring. I'm a big ham and like to entertain my fellow players with unique and funny characters. This character is no exception.
I definitely do not want to be disruptive and agree that a discussion with the GM would be best. My current character could be phased out and replaced, or maybe he just needs tweaking. Part of the problem is he doesn't have much of a connection to the other characters or setting. Though he's fully-realized, it's unclear to me why he would choose to stay with the party when he's clearly on his own path.
I'm not at all bored with the mechanics of my character. He's a druid and can do lots of cool stuff. I have felt a little pressure to fill the role of the party healer, which I didn't anticipate and am not interested in. It kinda makes me want to switch to an oracle. That way I won't feel forced into the role of healer because my class will actually be designed to do what is expected of me. Having a high charisma will also enable to better participate in social encounters, which I've missed.
Also, I would be pretty pissed as a GM if a player began actively trying to get his character killed, so I definitely won't be doing that.
Part of the problem is he doesn't have much of a connection to the other characters or setting. Though he's fully-realized, it's unclear to me why he would choose to stay with the party when he's clearly on his own path.
This really stands out to me, and you have the power to change it. Stop thinking about the reasons you should not stay with the party, and instead think about the reasons you should. The only impediments to this are the ones you create. Your character, your choices.
This really stands out to me, and you have the power to change it. Stop thinking about the reasons you should not stay with the party, and instead think about the reasons you should. The only impediments to this are the ones you create. Your character, your choices.
Part of the problem is he doesn't have much of a connection to the other characters or setting. Though he's fully-realized, it's unclear to me why he would choose to stay with the party when he's clearly on his own path.
You're absolutely right, Ciaran Barnes, and I'm a little embarrassed that you've caught me doing something that really annoys me when other players do it. Our characters are not independent, autonomous beings outside of our control. I decide what my character does, what motivates him and what he's drawn to. It bugs me when a player does something that messes up the game for everyone else and defensively says "I was only playing my alignment" or "but it's what my character would do!"
In short, point taken.
But if the passion for the character is gone for good, then talk to the GM like others mentioned. The point is to have fun, right?