goodmangames wrote:Just curious...out of all the DCC modules you've played, what character is most memorable to you?
To be honest, mine is Sodersund, from Into The Wilds. There isn't a lot of text about him, but
contextually after reading the whole module, he's the only guy who logically should enlist the players to save the baron's life. And yet his alignment is
evil. And yet it makes sense that he would defend the baron, defeat/undermine/kill the baron's sister, aid the PCs, and stop the embezzlement. To me, this makes him immensely interesting -- an evil NPC who will recruit the PCs to do good things, and yet his evilness is still sensible. I think of him as sort of a lawful brute -- he will use legalism to his advantage, sure, but that also keeps order & stability to some degree, and gives him some loyalty. And he's evil, sure, but it manifests mostly as being willing to allow the lawbreakers to endure inordinate punishment. He's the guy who cuts off a hand for petty theft, and then when someone complains, would shrug and say "Don't steal, then." He's the guy who kills an enemy in cold blood, but he's smart and waits his time so that everything is in order when it happens. He'd probably be sure to have a defeated enemy's property claimed as "compensation for the state," with far too many guards to enforce it, just to be sure it went off without a hitch.
When/if the PCs have to fight the baron's sister and the guards come out to help the PCs, I kind of get the feeling that Sodersund is there, quietly noting that things are going according to plan. He would put on a sad face and tell the PCs that it was terrible but necessary to have to put her down. And yet, secretly, I'm not sure he'd think it was terrible. I get the feeling that people die around him a lot, and I wonder how much of it he orchestrates. He'd probably say it was a "necessary evil."
To some degree, he's a classic powerful manipulator behind a leader who really is just a mouthpiece. Loyal but not because he's a bleeding heart, but because he's practical. And if he throws in with the losing side, his goal is not to switch sides but instead to surprise the opposition with secret alliances that bolster his side and overwhelm the enemy.
And I get all that from just very little text which talks about the predicament that he's in with the baron, and how he's willing to fix it.
A runner up would probably be the bard from Dale of the Dead. He is a whiny little brat -- a spoiled rotten narcissist that resembles a number of common bratty types that people have to deal with today --entitled, no moral compass, blaming everyone else. When my players took him down, it was visceral. (I'll be running Dale of the Dead at DunDraCon, but please don't come watch, as my enactment of this character probably won't do him justice, so I'd be embarrassed.)