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Friday, August 12, 2005

Character of the Week: Mung

One of my favorite hobbies is playing role-playing games, especially when using the Hero System. I don't get much opportunity to play face-to-face games anymore, but I do get to play games by e-mail now and then. It's usually not too hard to find a few minutes here and there to post a turn or describe your character's actions. The games move at a much slower pace than face-to-face games (an adventure that might take four hours to resolve sitting around a table with a few other players, some dice, and a pizza might take months to resolve via e-mail), but players also can take the time to use more characterization, to play off each other a bit more, and to think through puzzles or tactical situations. It helps to indulge my writing bug.

At any rate, I end up creating a number of characters--both player characters, or PCs (characters that I plan to run as a player) and non-player characters (background, supporting, or antagonistic characters run by the gamemaster, a role I also fill fairly often). Some of them get shared with others, but a number of them end up languishing on my disk drive for one reason or another.

I thought that it might be fun to share some of these characters on this site from time to time, to see what people think of them, or to give people the opportunity to use them in their own campaigns. Let me know what you think.

I'll start with an old favorite of mine, Mung. You can read about him here.

Here's an excerpt from his background to whet your appetites...

"Gray-skinned Tarmyk Firebristle was reputed to be the most taciturn and stoic of Khazak minstrels, if not the most skilled, yet even he was known to lift a calloused hand to his leathery cheek and brush away an unashamed tear when he related the tale of the fall of the Harralind Mines. The story sat heavy on Dwarven hearts, and was generally reserved for the gravest of occasions—funerals, visits of states, times of war, and nights when the listeners were all already very, very drunk."

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was in a PBEM once... years ago. Probably around 96 or so. It was fun, but 2 players dropped out that were key, so it sort of died. Haven't tried it again since... you put a lot of work into your character's backstory. I'm impressed!

Rob Rogers said...

Thanks, Andy. Players dropping out present a common problem for PBEMs, but there are some stable games out there.

I went on a bit of a tear with Mung. The player of Peril the Finder is a very good writer, so I went to extra efforts not to "bring him down" with a half-assed character. Besides, I think I just kind of got into a zone and kept writing with him. Not all my characters of the week will be so detailed.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rob,

Nice character write-up. I did some of the Taranche culture write-ups for Jack a while back, so it's a bit sad to hear that the game died.

I just noticed your sig a few weeks back, but didn't take a look until now. I'll check in now and then.

Neil

Rob Rogers said...

Neil, thanks for dropping by. I'm not 100% sure all the Taranche campaigns died, but the main web site for them is down and I seem to remember them dying out in the Yahoo lists a while back. If I hear that they're still active, I'll post an appropriate update.

Anonymous said...

Hey Rob,

Fun character. I've certainly done my fair share of fantasy gaming and recently joined up a Fantasy Hero game. It was my first try at the fantasy genre with the Hero System. I ended up playing a cleric-weapon master (morningstar).

I've also considered starting my own blog but haven't taken the plunge yet.

Cheers,
Marty

Rob Rogers said...

Marty, thanks for dropping by. If you do start a blog, shoot me the URL and I'll return the favor.

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