What Concepts Don't Work?

[Ourla]

Half-giant burglar, pickpocket, or merchant who makes a living with their main guild. 

... I still -really- want to get marked by a well-played HG burglar, though.  It would be majorly kudosworthy.

[Wasteland Raider]

That's not a bad thing. PCs as filler characters that develop into full-blown awesome PCs are... well, awesome.

[Manhattan]

A big one:

PC's that cannot socialize or have an IC reason not to interact with other PC's.
Unless you love solo RP, you might end up storing/suiciding/doing something ridiculous.
This game is all about interaction. Lack of it will suck the fun out.

However, I understand that interaction includes beyond just sitting at the bar talking to people. You can interact for example by throwing out antisocial emotes (em glances around with shifty eyes, hugging his knees), or watching somebody from another table with a creeper smile on your face, or doing handstands on a busy street, etc and people would respond accordingly...but I still think that these are gimmicks that would wear themselves out pretty quickly.

[Zoltan]

Autobots and Decepticons.   

[musashi]

Autobots and Decepticons.   

lulz

[Xeran Van Houten]

Malikon supierior - Amosbot inferior.

[spawnloser]

I mean, you can do it, but subguild crafting frequently sucks.

I must disagree.  Subguild crafting just starts off crappy.  I have never played a subguild crafter that wasn't eventually able to make profit off those subguild crafting skills.

I've found that concepts for middle-aged+ PCs don't really work if you plan on doing many types of coded jobs. The stat penalties applied to PCs past a certain age threshold are very severe. It's codedly possible, but the bottom-rung stats will make it a painful process if you plan to play a fighter or sneaky type.

I think there's a reason why most of the geezer PCs we see are mages.

I disagree with this.  I played a fairly long-lived (I think he was over twenty-something days) character back in 2002-2003 (I think) by the name of Ivor Tome.  He was an old man. Warrior/lumberjack.  He became bad-ass enough to take on two halflings at once (without ever sparring or having clan training).

Aging code didn't work in 2002/2003.

Half-giant burglar, pickpocket, or merchant who makes a living with their main guild. 

... I still -really- want to get marked by a well-played HG burglar, though.  It would be majorly kudosworthy.

I've done HG merchant twice, and both times, quickly made money.  In fact, the HG merchant has some advantages that make it not too bad at all.

[Manhattan]

Just thought of another one.

Writing ex-anything into your background. Like ex-militia, ex-Byn, ex-Salarr, etc. I don't think this flies well with the other clanned PC's that are already established in-world.

[BuNutzCola]

The above her can be a problem. I had an older pc start out, having done a short tour in the legions when he was younger (to justify the warrior guild). Anyhow, the first time I ever mentioned that in game, I had some old legionaire pc jump down my pc's throat about how he'd been around for decades and my character was nothing but a dirty liar.

'cause, y'know, that pc knew every single one of the 10,000 tuluki soldiers by name and face.

[Manhattan]

'tis true. By design, some concepts just won't work in this game.

I've always wanted to play a retired executioner haunted by his past and the souls he's taken...but can't think of a way to justify that kind of background.

[Erythil]

A big one:

PC's that cannot socialize or have an IC reason not to interact with other PC's.
Unless you love solo RP, you might end up storing/suiciding/doing something ridiculous.
This game is all about interaction. Lack of it will suck the fun out.

This.  THIS.  In particular, though I've not seen this too much on ARM, get so tired of the character that's either too cool or too emotionally unstable to talk to people.

Also, people who try to play some kind of variation on Guts from Berserk.  I'm sick of that.

[Aaron Goulet]

I mean, you can do it, but subguild crafting frequently sucks.

I must disagree.  Subguild crafting just starts off crappy.  I have never played a subguild crafter that wasn't eventually able to make profit off those subguild crafting skills.

Especially with the addition of tools.  Does anyone remember back when we didn't have tools?

[Cutthroat]

Also, people who try to play some kind of variation on Guts from Berserk.  I'm sick of that.

I like how I didn't know what you were talking about, so I searched for it in google, to find that Guts is described as "a tall, muscular male". Wyn. (Do kids still say wyn?)

Anyway, about this:

Writing ex-anything into your background. Like ex-militia, ex-Byn, ex-Salarr, etc. I don't think this flies well with the other clanned PC's that are already established in-world.

So long as you don't overextend yourself, I think this is perfectly okay. What I mean is, don't make your previous rank and choice of clan impossible for your character. Kinda hard to be an ex-AoD sergeant, for example, without dying. If your PCs are just spending their virtual time as runners/recruits, you shouldn't get any trouble at all.

[Gimfalisette]

So long as you don't overextend yourself, I think this is perfectly okay. What I mean is, don't make your previous rank and choice of clan impossible for your character. Kinda hard to be an ex-AoD sergeant, for example, without dying. If your PCs are just spending their virtual time as runners/recruits, you shouldn't get any trouble at all.

Yeah. You're not going to be ex-AoD unless you're quite old, or extremely crippled, because it's a life-oath job for anyone of Private or higher rank.

Ex-Byn or ex-Salarr or ex-anything-not-life-sworn would work, though.

[Ghost]

ex gemmers are kick ass

[Reiloth]

ex gemmers are kick ass

especially when sacrificed

[Malken]

Like 10+ years ago, I knew an ex southern Templar playing in Tuluk, but at some point he was promptly "teleported" back by I think Nessalin, and beheaded in Allanak.

I don't know why I remember that, but I'm pretty sure the Templar's name was Nathaniel.

[hyzhenhok]

Just thought of another one.

Writing ex-anything into your background. Like ex-militia, ex-Byn, ex-Salarr, etc. I don't think this flies well with the other clanned PC's that are already established in-world.

If the ex-whatever part of the concept is a key thing, I'd get it cleared with the staff first.

If it's just some flavor in your background, who cares? If people can't handle the idea that there is a vNPC population, and that population is where our PCs are drawn from, just file a player complaint.

[FantasyWriter]

Just thought of another one.

Writing ex-anything into your background. Like ex-militia, ex-Byn, ex-Salarr, etc. I don't think this flies well with the other clanned PC's that are already established in-world.

If the ex-whatever part of the concept is a key thing, I'd get it cleared with the staff first.

If it's just some flavor in your background, who cares? If people can't handle the idea that there is a vNPC population, and that population is where our PCs are drawn from, just file a player complaint.

Also, I don't think you should have ever gotten past the absolutely bottom rung of any clan at all: ie. runner/recruit/etc.

[Good Gortok]

Ex-anything will be rejected unless you get clearance from that clan's staff. Even something as inconsequential as "he had a brief stint in the Byn" essentially takes a sepcial app.

[BuNutzCola]

The above isn't true, either that or I slipped by. Used ex-legionaire as the specific reason for having the combat skills my character did.

[Gimfalisette]

The above isn't true, either that or I slipped by. Used ex-legionaire as the specific reason for having the combat skills my character did.

If you used the Legions for the background, and yet the Legions are a life-sworn clan, and PCs are not ever allowed to leave it--then you can't really blame the players or the game world for your PC's failure to conform to the documentation    It would be no surprise for PCs to react realistically to your PC by disbelieving the story. It's a concept that "doesn't work" because it doesn't follow the docs, much like a metal-skinned PC would not follow the docs.

I am not sure whether the Legions are a life-sworn clan, but if they are, the above is true. The Allanaki militia is a life-sworn clan, and PCs at Private rank or above would only ever be granted dismissal in very, very rare and special circumstances.

[Intrepid]

An average human from 20th century Earth, who plays muds and mmos,  being dropped into Zalanthas.

There would be a betting pool as to how many seconds that one lasts.

[Reiloth]

The above isn't true, either that or I slipped by. Used ex-legionaire as the specific reason for having the combat skills my character did.

If you used the Legions for the background, and yet the Legions are a life-sworn clan, and PCs are not ever allowed to leave it--then you can't really blame the players or the game world for your PC's failure to conform to the documentation    It would be no surprise for PCs to react realistically to your PC by disbelieving the story. It's a concept that "doesn't work" because it doesn't follow the docs, much like a metal-skinned PC would not follow the docs.

I am not sure whether the Legions are a life-sworn clan, but if they are, the above is true. The Allanaki militia is a life-sworn clan, and PCs at Private rank or above would only ever be granted dismissal in very, very rare and special circumstances.

As far as my experience with the Legions goes, a Private can be dismissed or discharged if they weren't privvy to some f-ed up shit. If they were, eh. They kind of get disappeared instead.

[Gimfalisette]

Female on male stalker, in the style of The Donnas song "I Don't Want To Know (If You Don't Want Me)." I can't conceive of this working in ARM, even if I was playing a filthy 'gicker. Or a 'rinthi. Or a horrendous mutant. Because it doesn't work if the stalkee likes it.