Under a Geas

Irish spell or Italian basketball?

+Tim Shorts (Gothridge Manor) has run a few sessions in his homebrew setting. Session 2 was last Monday. At the end of Session 1, my character, Hyroth, came close to dying but was restored to health by a creepy death-loving cleric. The cost? A geas placed on Hyroth. 

From Hyroth's perspective, the geas has an uncertain purpose and an even more uncertain origin. Rather than just tell me what I am supposed to do (or find, in this case), Tim has been telling me that I feel compelled to go in a certain direction and complete certain activities. I really like this approach.

It is fun to play a character with a set of external motivations and compulsions. While I wouldn't want to do it all the time, it makes for an interesting and challenging approach to playing a character. Rather than rebel against it, I have tried to run with it. 

One side effect of this is that the usual player character interest in treasure or other personal advantage has taken a back seat to completing an unpleasant task and ridding myself of a horrible compulsion.

Another side effect--and a fun one from my perspective--is that my character is viewed as wildly unstable and dangerous by the other player characters. Some of that predates the casting of the geas on me. We did have a nasty three way fight between player characters in the middle of Session 1 that led to my near death experience. My subsequent appearance as both living and even more unstable has given the rest of the PCs something to think about.

To me, this has the best of both worlds as I have to respond to an external compulsion yet this compulsion was something experienced by me in game. My of my characters tend to be party guys--but it is fun to play a character who could potentially be an enemy of the rest of the PCs.

All My Characters

No Frilly Elven Characters on this List

Not much of a post. Just a list of characters that I have played in the last five years or so. You'll notice that there are no elves on this list. I have been an elf-free zone going all the way back to 1977. I have played humans, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes, but I cannot bring myself to play an elf:

• Syrivald: Human Magic User (Mage of Thoth) in +Rob Conley's Majestic Wilderlands setting, using Swords & Wizardry Core (retired).
• Chael: Human Fighter in a short-lived Castles & Crusades campaign (retired).
• Corum: Human Cleric in a campaign run by +Tim Shorts, using AD&D 1e (retired).
• Delvin: Dwarf Warrior in +Rob Conley's Majestic Wilderlands setting, using GURPS (retired).
• Belafore: A Human Viking Priest in a GURPS one shot (retired).
• Ampersand: Human Burglar in a playtest of +Rob Conley's Fudge-based rules for the Majestic Wilderlands (in limbo).
• Hyroth: Human Battle-Mage in +Tim Shorts' homebrew game and setting (active, but currently creeped out).
• Darius: Human Magic-User in +Chris C.'s Ephemera setting, using Swords & Wizardry Core (active). 

This list doesn't include a few characters that I have created but never played, including one for Dresden RPG* and one for Supernatural RPG.

*It is a shame that the Dresden RPG campaign was never played as my wife had coolest character ever--a teenage Amish mage. Not many spellcasters sport a head covering and a cape dress.