Character Concepts that got shot down

[ZeroGear]

This is not "things my DM told me not to do", this is specifically about character concepts that the DM/GM either shot down before they hit play or told you you were never allowed to play again.
Let me start:

I asked my Shadowrin GM if I could play an AI, and he agreed. While we were discussing what my character could use as a body, I asked if I could use an anamatronic figure from a family restaurant. He told me no.
I am not allowed to play a character based on "Five Nights at Freddie's".

[Honest Tiefling]

"So I see you have the new Star Wars RPG. And yet, there don't seem to be many rules regarding cyborgs. See, I want to make a character like General Grievous..."

And that was about as far as I got before being booted from the game entirely.

[Karl Aegis]

Mary Sue Elven Furry. I shot that one down.

[Hawkstar]

Mary Sue Elven Furry. I shot that one down.

You're a monster.

[Feddlefew]

In no particular order:

The Campaign: Eberon, save the world from deamons who seek to enslave humanity type plot.
The idea: Eldrich abomination/nature spirit trying (and failing) to pass as a human; changeling druid.
The reason for rejection: 4 out of 5 players said they'd kill my character if I didn't also play as a human, like they were. 5th player and DM didn't really care, but wouldn't stop them. I decided not to play.

The Campaign: A friend told me they needed a cleric for an upcoming campaign.
The idea: Cleric re-fluffed as a wandering witch/voodoo priestess.
The reason for rejection: Didn't fit the campaign setting.

The Campaign: Standard Ravenloft horror.
The Idea: The All Bard Party meets The Princess Bride
Reason for rejection: REALLY didn't fit the setting.

[ZeroGear]

In no particular order:

The Campaign: Eberon, save the world from deamons who seek to enslave humanity type plot.
The idea: Eldrich abomination/nature spirit trying (and failing) to pass as a human; changeling druid.
The reason for rejection: 4 out of 5 players said they'd kill my character if I didn't also play as a human, like they were. 5th player and DM didn't really care, but wouldn't stop them. I decided not to play.

Wow, I applaud your decision. That seemed like a very jerk-like move on the group's part.

[Honest Tiefling]

The Campaign: Standard Ravenloft horror.
The Idea: The All Bard Party meets The Princess Bride
Reason for rejection: REALLY didn't fit the setting.

Okay, I have to ask, were you (and any cohorts also making bards) know it was Ravenloft beforhand, because I think wisecracking, witty remarks and random rhymes when the DM is trying to do horror is probably a pretty good reason for rejection. It can be hard to break down players, sometimes you just cause them to giggle.

[AvatarVecna]

My original DM says I'm never allowed to play a non-Good nihilist again. I was a fairly high-level, high-op Mystic Theurge in a party of similar, and I got ahold of a rather powerful, but limited-use Artifact. Because I was fairly certain our world was just some sort of illusion being maintained by beings beyond our understanding, and I wanted to see what would happen if I forced the simulation to end, I researched Apocalyse from the Sky, purchased some metamagic rods, rebuilt my character under the rebuilding rules (focusing on Mailman-level metamagic abuse), and then basically blew up the planet.

I've asked since then if I can play another nihilist, but I get shot down every time, even in worlds like Shadowrun and Serenity, where that kind of mystical cow poo literally isn't possible.

[TheThan]

Two goblins in a trench coat.
I named them Mugs and Gus.
They were a Gestalt character, (obviously) I still have no idea why the Dm wouldn’t let me play them.

[TheCountAlucard]

My original DM says I'm never allowed to play a non-Good nihilist again.

So you can play a Good nihilist?

Also "feel that existence is meaningless and useless" is not "blow up the planet." The problem wasn't that you played a nihilist, it's that you blew up the planet.

[ZeroGear]

Two goblins in a trench coat.
I named them Mugs and Gus.
They were a Gestalt character, (obviously) I still have no idea why the Dm wouldn’t let me play them.

Please tell me that they weren't a 3.5 Dragonfire Adept and a Rogue. I played with a character like that before (two kobolds in a trench coat riding a pig), and it ended with an entire town on fire, my character almost dying, and the DfA dead at the bottom of the sea.

Unless each person plays two characters it usually comes down to balance in the game.

[TheThan]

Please tell me that they weren't a 3.5 Dragonfire Adept and a Rogue. I played with a character like that before (two kobolds in a trench coat riding a pig), and it ended with an entire town on fire, my character almost dying, and the DfA dead at the bottom of the sea.

Unless each person plays two characters it usually comes down to balance in the game.

No, they wern't dragonfire adept//rogue.

However one side was a rogue. the other was.... what was it now...oh a can't recall. but it wasn't a dragonfire adept I know that much.

[Feddlefew]

Wow, I applaud your decision. That seemed like a very jerk-like move on the group's part.

I suspect the DM was trying to use me (a lover of strange character concepts) to break up the monotony of an all human party, since the campaign was two sessions in when I was invited to join.

Okay, I have to ask, were you (and any cohorts also making bards) know it was Ravenloft beforhand, because I think wisecracking, witty remarks and random rhymes when the DM is trying to do horror is probably a pretty good reason for rejection. It can be hard to break down players, sometimes you just cause them to giggle.

No. We all wanted to play bards and liked The Princes Bride, so while we waited for the DM to arrive we hatched a crazy plan, eventually arriving on the idea of being a troupe of traveling actors and musicians, each of us based of off different characters (I picked Fezzik). The DM was probably trying to pull a surprise Ravenloft campaign*, because he kind of panicked when we told him we wanted to be an All Bard Party, said it wasn't appropriate, but wouldn't tell us what the campaign was about so that we could come up with appropriate characters. Eventually he told us that he wanted to run a Ravenloft game, and since none of us players really wanted to be in a Ravenloft game, we played Call of Cthulhu instead.

Those of you who've read my post in the worst DM thread know what happens next.

I still haven't been in (or even DMed for) an all-bard party.


*Why do people do this? There are very few occasions where a surprise genera change works, and I don't think table top games are one of them.

Edit: Found the post.

[ZeroGear]

If it's any consolidation Feddlefew, I would love to run a game where the characters are all part of a performance group. Granted, I'm beginning to picture a medieval fantasy version of the Jose and the Pussycats cartoon, but I digress.
(Heck, a game idea that actually got shot down by the players was one where everyone was part of a traveling circus. Kinda wanted to run something like that at some point)

[JAL_1138]

So you can play a Good nihilist?

In D&D they're called the Bleak Cabal ("Bleakers," "Madmen") and run the hospitals and insane asylum in Sigil, among other things. Their viewpoint boils down to "The multiverse doesn't make sense and it isn't supposed to, there's no meaning to any of it--so why not be nice to people?"

IRL, several varieties of nihilism deny any grand meaning but don't imply one immediately becomes an ***hole. Many/most forms of atheism carry varying amounts of existential nihilism. E.g., "Morality may not be objectively true and may only be a human construct in an uncaring and pointless universe, but that's no reason to be a jerk."

[TheCountAlucard]

I'm not saying there's no such thing as a Good nihilist; I'm saying it seems odd that specifically Neutral and Evil, but not Good, nihilists got banned just because a character who got ahold of some artifacts destroyed the world for the sake of disproving its reality.

[JAL_1138]

I'm not saying there's no such thing as a Good nihilist; I'm saying it seems odd that specifically Neutral and Evil, but not Good, nihilists got banned just because a character who got ahold of some artifacts destroyed the world for the sake of disproving its reality.

...well, a good nihilist probably wouldn't make the world go foom if given the chance?

[TheCountAlucard]

...well, a good nihilist probably wouldn't make the world go foom if given the chance?

Why in hell would a DM specifically go out of his way give his players a chance to deliberately make the world go foom, and why do people not see this as the behavior in need of correction?!? What was that DM expecting when he put a dangerous artifact in the hands of an adventuring party? Did he not notice the PC researching a spell called Apocalypse from the Sky and buying metamagic rods like crazy? Why am I in a Starfleet uniform?!?

[chainer1216]

Awakened house cat frenzied berserker.

[Feddlefew]

Awakened house cat frenzied berserker.

I'd allow it.

[DigoDragon]

I've once shot down a player's idea of a T-1000 admiral of Starfleet character. Who is also an alcoholic.

[Demidos]

Half Fey Half Minotaur Monk who liked to try to use his at will charm ability (12 cha) on enemy guards, and would wake up sleeping guards for that purpose.

....On the other hand, I did have a great movespeed XD

[xroads]

Eventually he told us that he wanted to run a Ravenloft game, and since none of us players really wanted to be in a Ravenloft game, we played Call of Cthulhu instead.

Huh. Didn't see that one coming. What made you guys choose CoC? Especially when you were already in the mood to play a troupe of bards in a more lighthearted setting?

[DireSickFish]

I wanted to play a warlock in a 3.5 game that shot his eldrich blasts from his eyes. That was it, nothing to make it more powerful, no crazy race/class combination. He'd allow me to play the warlock if I shot them from my hands like a "normal" warlock. So I called his bluff and started printing of a character sheet to make a bland fighter. He caved and -did- let me play it, but it still counts as a shut down.

[TheThan]

Awakened house cat frenzied berserker.

always wanted to play an awakened house cat rogue. never got around to playing Mr. Fluffy though.

Alternatively an awakened house cat sword sage focusing on desert wind. Beware my flaming claws.

[DigoDragon]

always wanted to play an awakened house cat rogue.

I was a player in a game once that had an awakened house cat rogue. I kept some catnip handy for those times that darn cat's paws got grabby.

[Feddlefew]

Huh. Didn't see that one coming. What made you guys choose CoC? Especially when you were already in the mood to play a troupe of bards in a more lighthearted setting?

He wanted to run a "squishy mortals against unspeakable monsters" campaign. D&D 3.5 doesn't do THAT flavor of horror for me. Most of us (sans DM) saw D&D as a lighter-hearted or an epic fantasy system, which could have horror elements, but overall the system tilts so heavily in the favor of PCs that existential horror doesn't usually work. Since the DM wanted to do that kind of horror gaming, we agreed that Call of Cthulhu d20 would be a good system, since both the DM and one player were familiar with it and could help the rest of us.

[JAL_1138]

He wanted to run a "squishy mortals against unspeakable monsters" campaign. D&D 3.5 doesn't do THAT flavor of horror for me. Most of us (sans DM) saw D&D as a lighter-hearted or an epic fantasy system, which could have horror elements, but overall the system tilts so heavily in the favor of PCs that existential horror doesn't usually work. Since the DM wanted to do that kind of horror gaming, we agreed that Call of Cthulhu d20 would be a good system, since both the DM and one player were familiar with it and could help the rest of us.

Could've used AD&D, either edition. First-level characters are fragile enough that basically anything that rolls pretty well (wins initiative, actually hits, rolls fair-to-middlin' damage) will probably kill you in 1-2 rounds. I've died to cats, goats, a couple-three squirrels, swans, horses (including but not limited to failed ride checks), lone kobold archers, lone goblins, pretty much anything in the Monstrous Compendium. And tripping on the stairs at the inn while drunk, and all manner of basic traps...

[Dimers]

Dwarf were-dire-badger psychic warrior / Warshaper, appropriately named "Badger".

I was joining a game that had been running for years, and the party badly needed a frontliner who could soak damage. Problems: first, I'd be 10th level when some of the others were as much as 15th, and second, I'd have NPC WBL instead of PC. Riiiiight. Make an underleveled, underequipped tank. Still, I knew what kind of fights to expect, and they were the kind where DR 15/silver would help a hell of a lot.

So I came up with the toughest design I could that didn't violate the GM's or players' ideas of what classes should be frontliners. And then the GM shot it down anyway because the idea of a were-dire-badger struck him as silly. Even though the idea of an underleveled, underequipped, nonmagic-class-only tank didn't strike him as silly.

[Mr.Sandman]

Eberron by way of Mutants and Masterminds over PBP, I pitched an Awakened Gorilla Druid. A prototype for a Gatekeeper experiment of some kind. His name? Don Ke'Kong, ancient orcish of King of Apes. I knew it was too ridiculous, but figured it was worth a shot. GM agreed it was too ridiculous, so next I piched Tinkerbelle, Half Elven Atomi Artificer whoes Elven father wrote the book on magic item creation, literally. She liked to tinker with magic items as well, hence the nickname. She didn't get it either, but I think that was more there being much better characters pitched by everyone else than her being to ridiculous.