So, how famous do PCs in your game get? Do they become knights, barons, dukes, kings? Rub shoulders with the nobility? Marry eligible, rich sons and daughters? Or are they just those adventurer guys you go to when you need a dragon killed? Anything in-between?
I've ran the gamut on PC popularity. Sure there have been kings and barons (most fondly I recall one PC courting Countess Bellisica of Urnst), but the most fun I had with PC popularity that I can remember was when the PCs became wealthy oligarchs of Greyhawk City. The fame then became a source of adventure and intrigue that resulted in all of them cashing out and living in remote retirement. Tsk!
Most of my PCs have carved out small sections of remote wilderness in the Flanaess to rule over and protect the goodly populations. Sir Xaris (Paladin 16th) is a minor lord with land on the Jewel River in the easternmost portion of the Principality of Ulek, pre-Greyhawk Wars.
My players, who have achieved sufficient level, have ruled an island, built a tower in the City of Greyhawk in which to become a reclusive scholar, built a grand temple in the same city, and similar forms of retirement. Or, they simply continue to adventure without a permanent home. By that time, the PC has enough wealth and power to do as s/he likes.
My first GH group became rulers of Hommlet and nobles of the Viscounty of Verbobonc.
I also had a roguish PC once who gathered a mercenary army in the Free City of Greyhawk and then marched to Narwell to conquer it. He also made an enemy of the first PCs by killing the then-Baron of Hommlet's wife by beheading her and keeping her head so that she could not be raised.
The most powerful any of my character became was owning a reasonably sized area of the Vesve (pre Wars). Ruling it was a 21st level paladin with various other high leveled characters offering service as different council members or officials.
Things were going well until otherr players greed got involved and then started a game of thronesque series of adventures with assination attempts, discreditations and false accusations. Some of the best roleplaying I have ever done.. but that was many moons ago.
As a DM I have let the players have as much or little publicity as they want. The most players have had whilst I've been DMing is lesser nobility in Celene and a dance with the princess of Celene (sparked off a near all out war with elven price who was courting her)
Like others, I have seen a fair share of PCs embrace and avoid the ascension of fame and glory.
Within the length of my own campaign, which by most calendars is lengthy (nearly 21 years now), I have had many "generations" (as my players refer to them) of PCs through the years.
Through two of the a fore mentioned generations, those players managed a sizable fortress community on the wild coast. With treaties established with Ulk, Celene, and many of the prominent cities along the Wild Coast. (Narwell, Safeton, etc), one would think they would be content... but alas power, and the hunger for it, only grows.... They ever expanded outward and this was not without its problems... as they were accomplished with solving problems from outside sources.. it is often the cancers within that finally consume. Such became the case of their citadel "Decagon".
As all rising forms of political "powers" discover. Power and fame can be easily obtained, but control becomes slippery. It was not long that some upstart in the Pomarj by the name of "Turrosh" something with the aid of a certain Dark Lord became their undoing.
My newest group of PCs (a group that is closing in on their one year anniversary) have continued in the lands we all know and love as Greyhawk, though they enter post war.
They not only have inherited those post war events, but they have inherited the legacy left behind from previous generations of players. By building the campaign in this way I (with the help of numerous others past deeds) have a rich and torrid back-history from which to dip from.
smillan_31 wrote:
This is my attempt at a Lanthorn-style thread .
I think you have displayed the very essence of Lanthorn-ism I for one am surprised he hasn't chimed in... though he may be "researching" the details!
As a DM I think it is always important to give the player the opportunity to attain their goals.. ie princess, king, superhero, etc... its is also the DM's duty to make them earn it and then challenge them even after ascending to those goals....
As the ole saying goes" having is not always as good as wanting".
Aw, shucks, man, yer makin' me blush!
Thanks for the flattery.
DLG wrote:
I think you have displayed the very essence of Lanthorn-ism I for one am surprised he hasn't chimed in... though he may be "researching" the details!
Actually, I am completely overshadowed as both DM and player on this account with respect to the high levels of your aforementioned characters. The highest level any PC I currently run is my 7th level half-elven ranger, an aspiring windrider (technically an elf kit...DM plot device for a half-elf to join the elevated ranks!), and my high elven bladesinger ("Lanthorn" is his nickname!), a 6th/7th lvl fighter-mage PC. This is after years (nearly two decades?) of playing, but I have soooo many different irons in the fire that it is difficult to play just one PC at a time. I've also got a recent favorite, a cleric-fighter of Trithereon whom I really like to play (gets out my vigilante justice streak, and the reason why my Avatar is the Rune of Pursuit). He's young, but a 'rising star' of sorts, with some promising future campaigns (if he survives) to stir the pot and influence the Wild Coast and surrounding lands. Nevertheless, these double digits you are all mentioning utterly jolts my brain b/c I cannot fathom the 'power' or rapid rise in experience. However, a guy can hope...just gonna take A LOT more time!
As a DM, my player (and counter-DM, long time buddy from high school and great role-player) PCs a few characters who are just now beginning to achieve some modicum of 'power' or influence. One is his 7th lvl Heironean paladin, perhaps one of his greatest characters, NOT because of martial ability (quite the contrary, he's eclipsed by other PCs in that area), but because of his 'human-ness' and 3D aspect as a mortal character. The paladin is making some great contacts throughout the City of Greyhawk, southern Furyondy, and his homeland of Veluna. I hope this growth continues as we are entering the Greyhawk Wars era. Even now, he is being 'courted' as a potential candidate for the Knights of the Hart (Veluna Order)!
After that, my player has a 7th lvl Heironean crusader (read about him in my Campaign Journal story, 'Curse of the Cairn Hills') based out of the City of Greyhawk who is also showing some potential promise.
Sooooo....given more time, I have high hopes that all my PCs, and those of my player will eventually rise to the levels you are all citing in your own games.
Envious,
-Lanthorn of the "Middling" PCs
Last edited by Lanthorn on Sat Nov 17, 2012 3:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
We have had quite few knights/elders/masters in our campaigns, and a few lords (one appointed, a few self-made). The upside is that those characters travel in powerful circles and so have more power/influence. The downside is that your enemies know where you live/how to get to you. Everything balances out in the end. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
I'm always open to my PCs gaining fame and prestige if that's what they want but they have to work for it. If the player's are willing to work for that goal then I like to reward them for their initiative!
After concluding the Queen of Spiders my party had well deserved their rewards. The party's druid and most stalwart member achieved guardianship of her native Dim Forest, the bard received enough money and influence to buy the inn in Greyhawk he had always coveted, the elven wizard became the advisor to an elven princess in the Sheldomar, the noble-born witch and devotee of Ralishaz managed to engineer a series of unfortunate events that landed her in control of the Valley of the Mage.
As a player my only Greyhawk character (I played the same character for about 4 or so years and then DMd) managed to survive the Temple of Elemental Evil, the Tomb of Martek and a large part of the way through the Queen of Spiders before they retired having been granted land and title by the King of Furyondy for services rendered and founded a small village that welcomed fellow half-elves tired of prejudice and the many refugees fleeing west from Verbobonc (we kind of botched the ToEE and the baddies won.. shhhh) and spent the rest of her days helping her villagers and pottering about her cottage in the woods by her grove.
Since 1986, start of the Greyhawk Campaign which endures to this very day, different PCs have reached the following positions:
21Lvl Human Wizard male, Member of the Circle of the Eight
19Lvl Half elf male, Grand master of the Knights of the Hart
19Lvl Elf Male, Duke of a portion of the Conquered Horned Society
17Lvl Half elf Druid Female, Lord Mayor of Highfolk City
12Lvl Human Ranger Male, Seneschal of Highfolk City
12lvl Human Fighter Male, Consort of Jelleneth of Kalinstren (Furyondy)
14Lvl Elf Fighter Male, Knight of the High Forest
15 Lvl Elf Female Rogue Wizard, Duchess by birth (see above) but still adventuring
12 lvl Bakluni male Rogue, Proprietor of a ranch in Highfolk
All levels of fame. One of my first group of players had a PC fighter 1st edition named Cash Vancolt. Sorry he liked the movie Tango and Cash.
Anyhow, he decided to start a fight in a humanoid drinking establishment. By taking a lantern and spitting liquor on the flame trying to burn a troll. (Note Trolls IMC are completely different from the greenskin ones popular in most D&D campaigns for more info see my Trolls of Oerth submission http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=402) Ok so its a plug sue me!
Well the Troll responded by placing his axe into the characters head. Now I used helms as protective armor and Cash was not wearing a helm. So the party cleric prevented Cash from dying. However he permanently lost sight in one eye and was so afraid of getting hit in the head again that he took a piss bucket rinsed it with mead and poked two eyes hole in it and placed it on his head.
He refused to take it off until he got to a city with an armorer so they could fashion him a helm. It took several sessions before he got his helm. He was forever known as Sir Buckethead ever since.
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