RPG Challenge: Favorite Character I've Played (Patreon)

A lot of people ask me questions about my gaming preferences... which is weird in one way (how would that impact other people?), but makes sense on another (if you hate everything I like, chances are you won't like a lot of the game material I create).

So, I sometimes do things like reply to "RPG Challgne" Meme, and answer sets of 10, or 20, or 30 RPG-related questions.

I haven't done that in a while so I thought I would... but rather than hit any specific set in a specific timeline, I'm picking the questions I find most interesting and sprinkling them into my other content.

This time, the question is "What's the Favorite Character You Have Played"

So, hey! Let me tell you about my character!

Buuut... just one of them.

And THAT makes this a tough one. I have had many characters I loved to death, in many game systems, in many genres. Lord Brevic Falkavian. Kyr Avaan. Gideon Kane. El Grande. Gibraltar. Kjorn. Gray Lensman. Kilroy. Orion. Lieutenant Penrose. Professor Power. Rowen. Jessica Steele. Troubleshooter. Whitewolf. Valravn.

But if I have to pick just 1, all-time favorite character, it’s oddly not one that fits my favorite race (human), favorite concept (heavy armor), or favorite ttRPG (Pathfinder 1e). Because it’s Solnira -a Czechoslovakian (when that nation existed, and then adopted Polish) Supergirl pastiche I played in a friends very-long-running Champions/HERO game, the International League of Heroes (ILH).'

There are lots of reasons she shouldn’t be my favorite. First, I love spotlight time and special status, and there was already Stalin, a Russian Superman pastiche who was stronger, faster, smarter, and more dangerous than my character. Indeed, I carefully made sure Solnira was under his benchmarks when I made her, because Stalin was the older character I and I didn’t want to steal his thunder. Her one advantage over him was that she only grew somewhat weaker in the presence of their Kryptonite analogue, rather than be disabled, and even that I loved because it only came up once (which let it have real impact when it did).

Oh.. and she flew a little faster.

Of course Stalin later died saving the universe (in a scenario I like much better than The Death of Superman, which also predated it by years), and in a game based on 350 points she got 178 xp out of roughly a decade of play (sorry, but that’ll make sense to people who play Hero), so I am sure she grew to be more effective eventually…

And while I can't pretend I didn't love being one of the heavy-hitters of the campaign world, it’s her growth that made me love her so much. She was originally a back-up character, a Beta Flight, Justice League Europe, or West Coast Avenger, who got thrust forward when the #1 person in her slot died. She became a staple of the ILH, and I believe a leader trusted by other players. She tried her best to live up to an ideal, and tried harder when Stalin, who was her hero, died. She was present for nearly every major world-ending crossover game, became known worldwide, and helped define being a hero for a world. The GM, other players, and circumstances helped her evolved into something more than I ever could have made her on my own.I haven’t played her in more than 20 years.

But I still have her character sheet…