My Favorite Players
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I’ve been gaming for about a decade now, and have seen a lot of players at my table. Some have been good, some have been particularly bad, but here’s my list of my favorite players who have graced my table.
Kate's Character, the emotionally torn Jedi Padawan
1. Mike Lehman
This guy was the one to introduce me to roleplaying. A guy with very dry humor, everything was a deadpan joke to him. Once I got Star Wars d20, he joined in my campaign and played a Miralukan Force Adept. His character was a master flute player and had a bad joke for every situation. He was very intent on keeping in character, though, and helped his brother, who wasn’t a very good player, along the way. Mike is now married and living in Seattle, and doesn’t play anymore.
2. Kate Ditton
Kate was in the same Star Wars group as Mike. She played a human Jedi Padawan whose master was killed by the Black Sun Syndicate. Throughout the campaign, she struggled with the desire to kill those responsible at many different turns. I would constantly have Black Sun show up, just to watch her squirm in her seat. It wasn’t until a disturbing vision of all of her friends being killed because of her desire to destroy Black Sun that she finally gave up on her anger. She wavered many times, but always kept herself from falling off the edge. It was great to see her play her character so well.
3. Troy McGuffey
A few years later, when on deployment, I ran another Star Wars game, this time with an all-Jedi cast. My buddy Troy had never played before, and really got into the role. He became one of my best players, really getting into his role, and being a very critical thinker.
4. Bridget Meredith
I’m not just saying this because I’m married to her. She really surprised me the very first time she ever played. Being assigned a pregenerated Eladrin Wizard for the scenario “Into the Shadowhaunt”, she began playing a character who was cocky and arrogant, more interested in flexing her magical muscles than worrying about the other members of the party. If she used an area effect spell, she would put out the warning to move, and if you didn’t, you might end up in the area of effect as well as the enemy. Since then she’s continued to become better and better.
5. Bryan Blair
An occasional writer on this blog, Bryan is very analytical and tactical, studying exactly what he wants to do before doing it, without slowing up the game. He’s been playing as long as I have, and his variety of characters has impressed me. A Bothan Jedi, Cathar smuggler captain, a pair of paladin and cleric dwarves, a pirate, and now your run-of-the-mill human fighter, he’s played them all. He often comes back in to work telling me about going back to Pennsylvania for the weekend and playing in the campaign he’s been in for years, and the crazy adventures they’ve been on. And I don’t mind at all as he tells me about his character.
Who are your favorite players? What do they bring to the table that’s unique?
My favorite players are all from 4E, actually. When I started my 4E game at a local gamestore, I advertised on the store forums and people replied. Once we had five, we all showed up and I GMed. Two of these guys were remarkable – one was an old school player with decades of experience and the other had never really played before.
Old School Player (OSP) played a Genasi swordmage as an elemental spirit only recently given physical form. Everything was new to him. If he ever had extra cash, it would get blown on as much saltwater taffy as the character could buy. OSP suffered from “let’s-try-this-itis” so we roleplayed a scenario in which his Swordmage morphed into a Warlord. OSP is also an actor and he created a random list of accents including “Christopher Walken.” Well, the rest of the group refused to let him roll and insisted he use Christopher Walken’s voice. It was brilliant. The first time OSP used Commander’s Strike, he shouted in character, “Hit it with the axe!” I almost died laughing. He’s since left the group but it was great having him.
New Guy is equally fantastic. He created a dragonborn fighter, Grint, with the idea that he was a gladiatorial slave as a child and teenager. Grint killed his owner and escaped. How he will be put to death summarily if he returns to his homeland. New Guy played him pitch perfectly. Grint is a bit dim but honest and follows orders. He is remarkably loyal to the human cleric (calls him “Chief”) and has provided countless moments of comic relief. One recurring joke was that Grint’s perception was so low that he could not see the rogue if the rogue rolled average on his stealth check.
Lastly, I came across an amazing group of role players while at GenCon ’08. They were a gaming group from Michigan that came down together and were playing LFR. Most of them were in a theater company. Their collective backstory was that they were all related – even though they were two humans, a drow, half-elf and a dwarf. They were the von Falconclaw family. The drow Paladin, played by a man with a red beard, was the great-grandmother of the human wizard, “The Ted,” and was played as an overbearing, chain-smoking matriarch. She referred to her disappointment of a great-grandson as “whelp” and at one point tried hiring him a wench for the night because he needed the help and she wanted a great-great-grandchild before she died. “The Ted,” for his part, was part Kif and part Zap Brannegan all rolled into a hilarious ball of insecurity and over-the-top confidence. The funniest moment of the night actually came from the dwarven cleric. Our LFR module had us looking for stolen heirlooms. The majority of us were being very circumspect about it and checking various fronts for the goods. The cleric, who was rather stupid but well-meaning, decided he had the hang of it and wanted to help. At the next shop he blurted out in a loud, thickly German accented voice, “I am looking for some stolen goods. In particular:” and began listing the items we were looking for. Everyone at the table, DM included, laughed for a minute straight. Apparently we had just arrived at the shop that was fencing the goods and the man behind the counter just stared at us in amazement. It was great. That game really showed me how good a group as a whole can be when everyone has a character they like and are committed to role playing.
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I love it – such a fun picture. Her name was Irulan D’Elaine Vendalion.
[...] This is the longest group I was ever involved in, so I have a lot to say. Sorry if this post is long. Two people are referenced in this story that I previously mentioned. Mike and Kate. You can read previous comments about them here. [...]
I am honored to be considered for this list of your favorites. Some of my fondest memories revolve around hanging out after CYT rehearsals playing the Usagi Yojimbo RPG and d6 Star Wars with you, Mark; or these sessions sitting at your parents’ dining room table running d20 campaigns.
On a side-note… after looking over these blogs and combined thought processes, I want to say that the Miralukan’s name was something Windancer, but there are several character templates running through the back recesses of this aging mind of mine