The best Characters I have played in a RPG (so far!).

Fenwick 

System:  TORG (Aysle)

Gender / Species / Occupation:  Male Dwarf Mage (& Financial Adviser).

General:  OK, Fenwick was no great shakes as a magician.  First and foremost, he was a con artist - but one with definite ethics (or professional pride, depending on how you looked at it).  Widows, orphans or the 'none too bright' who entrusted valuables to him ALWAYS got a good return (after a modest commission, of course).  Fellow party members were seen as being in dire need of his financial acumen, regardless of what they said.  Anybody else who could afford it was often seen as fair game.

  After kicking around Core Earth and various cosms, Fenwick heard things about Kanawa that upset him greatly.  Firstly, they were planning a takeover of Aysle / Britain.  Not nice.  Secondly, they had put together an extremely unflattering (even insulting) intelligence dossier about him.  He returned to Aysle / Britain and, with the aid of certain highly placed individuals there, master-minded a scheme that derailed Kanawa's plans, cost it dearly in the process - and incidentally yielded a very nice profit for both Fenwick and HM Government.

  After that, Fenwick semi-retired.  He keeps busy running his business organization - a combination of think tank and magic / security / intelligence / investment consultants.  He does (profitable) work for the British / Ayslish governments, and for various Storm Knight groups.

Schtick: 'Fenwick's Delusion' - A spell designed via TORG's magic rules; with direct inspiration from Terry Pratchett, 'Erik The Viking', and the 'Jedi Mind Trick'.  It only works on humanoids, and requires eye contact between the caster and the victim.

  The latter is then stuck with one mental delusion for an hour or so.  He could be utterly convinced that he has been turned into a frog (or that he is a frog), that he is now the greatest swordsman in all of France, that he is invisible, that "those are not the droids you are looking for", or whatever else the caster of the spell decides beforehand.

  Note that the spell does not provide any special abilities, just belief.  Nor does it alter the victim's personality so that they would automatically do something against their nature.  For instance, somebody subjected to Fenwick's Delusion could not be induced to attack a friend, unless perhaps the spell made that person 'see' the friend as a monster (in which case additional saving rolls would probably be in order).  Fenwick never tried anything so crude, usually going for optimal entertainment value.

  The spell was extremely useful on several occasions during play.

Memorable Quote:  From another PC at the very start of the campaign: "I've only met Fenwick five minutes ago .... and he's already gotten me arrested!"

Status:  Retired 

Kelly Giantsbane

System:  AD&D

Gender / Species / Occupation:  Male Half-Elf Ranger-Thief

General:  OK, Ranger-Thief is NOT a legal Class mix, I know that now.  But the Ref and I didn't know at the time - it just seemed like an extremely cool combo.  Apart from a high DEX, his stats were very average (just enough to make the grade in both classes), but he did well in the noble vocation of dungeon-bashing.  Despite being the nominal front-line fighter of the group, he was often the voice of restraint and reason.  Of course, his regular companions included a multiple-classed Ubergamer and a Druid whose proudest achievment was reincarnating a Barbarian - as a Pixie.

  The group went through the original 'Ravenloft' AD&D adventure module.  When our group finally settled Strahd's hash, we realized that there was this really cool castle just sitting there unattended.  So we moved in and it became our base of operations for the rest of the campaign.  Lord knows what the local peasantry thought of that.  

Schtick:  'A Big-Ass Sword'.  +1 Bastard Sword that was eventually upgraded to a +2/+4 'Frost Brand' via a Wish.  This, combined with his Specialization in Bastard Sword and other abilities, meant that Kelly was meleeing at + 8 to hit and +12 damage by Level 6.  Against Fire Giants, he reached about +12 to hit and +24 damage, and his Backstab attacks were best described as Molecular Dispersal.

Status:  Retired.

Backlash

System:  Champions (extreme variant)

Gender / Species / Occupation:  Male Human Superhero

Schtick:  Energy Absorber and Projector.  Can transform into electricity to "possess" electronics, or to "transport" himself along power lines.

Personal:  Probably the most 'straight arrow' guy in his team (be that as it may).  Also a very tricky tactician and ideas man.  

Status:  Retired

Archer

System:  Cyberpunk 2020 (standard rules, non-standard background)

Gender / Species / Occupation:  Male Human, Private Investigator

Schtick:  'Humphrey Bogart' poser.  Basic (inobvious) cyberware.  Preference for large calibre handguns and API ammo.

Status:  Inactive

Captain Dreadnought

System:  GURPS Supers (Campaign set in present day)

Gender / Species / Occupation:  Male Human Sailor (and occasional Superhero)

Schtick:  Strength and toughness well above human norm.  Can breath underwater.  VERY fast swimmer.  Experienced Boxer and Wrestler.  Limited communications ability with dolphins and cetaceans.  Loads of skills (fully-qualified mariner).  Age about one hundred, looks fortyish.

Personal:  Patriotic Aussie superhero (Captain, Royal Australian Navy Reserve - and proud of it!).  Habitual pipe-smoker.  Old-fashioned values, but fairly open-minded.  Deep distrust of USAF (subjected to 'friendly fire' from them in three wars!).  Sometimes copes with objectionable people by physically cramming them into small spaces (such as filing cabinets) - this is the major reason why he has never made Admiral.  Has the distinction of being the ONLY person in WW2 to ever shoot down an enemy aircraft with a bunch of bananas.

Status:  Inactive

Sir Geoffrey Grendelsmere

System:  GURPS Traveller.  Non-canon background - a human-dominated Imperium which factionalizes after the assassination of the Emperor and his immediate family.  Civil war has begun to break out in various regions, and things are going to get worse.

Gender / Species / Occupation:  Male / Human (native of Rhiannon) / Upper-class prat, adventurer, starship owner-captain. 

Inspiration:  

Schtick:  Imagine all the trappings of a stereotypical Third World dictator - the medals, the outsized epaulettes, the gold braid, the large hat, etc..  Now superimpose that on a 70s-era disco suit.  That is Sir Geoffrey's "Captain's Uniform", routinely worn when on ship's business or when just wandering around.  The old-style sabre and the matching twin pearl-handled gauss pistols complete the ensemble.

 By the way, his starship  (a mid-sized freighter, comparitively well-armed and fast) is called 'Banana Republic'.

Quotes:

General:  Sir Geoffrey is a moderately good-looking young man from a wealthy and influential merchant family.  He was given a starfreighter and told by his grandfather to go out and "make his fortune", which he has been carefully doing ever since.  His reputation as a drunken skirt-chasing prat was carefully and deliberately cultivated for several years beforehand, and means that GG (a) is consistently underestimated by the rest of the galaxy, and (b) gets invited to very very good parties.

 The rest of the party knows that Sir Geoffrey is no fool, but they help to maintain the illusion (and get their boss out of any fixes he may get into in the process).

 In reality, Sir Geoffrey is very shrewd (INT 13 - certainly enough to know most of his limitations!), and at least passably competent in a large number of areas - including Acting, Carousing, Savoir-faire, Starship Piloting, Gunnery, Interstellar trade, Fencing, Guns (& Quickdraw!), Leadership, Fast Talk, and Gambling.  Hobby-type skills include Cooking, Music (Scottish bagpipes!), and 20th Century Earth movies.

 So far, he has carefully avoided political affiliation with any one faction within the Imperium, the better to make more profit so he says.  When trading, he prefers direct bartering over cash - it's only a matter of time before the Imperial currency crashes or fragments, and he doesn't want to get caught.  Interestingly, despite an avowed interest in profiteering above all else, Sir Geoffrey has been known to support humanitarian endeavours, and specifically avoids activities such as gun-running and piracy.

Status:  Inactive 

Torquemada

System:  FASA's Star Trek RPG (Klingon supplement).

Gender / Species / Occupation:  Uncertain (believed capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction) / Uncertain (believed to originate from the Rigel star system) / Ship's Mascot & Resident Enigma.

General:  Torquemada was that gem of role-playing campaigns - a minor NPC that ultimately became a lynchpin of the group.

  It began when one player asked that his newly-created Klingon character have a pet of some kind.  Having seen the Klingon "dog" (Targ) in ST:III, we decided between us that his beast would be a sort of scaly, spiky, vaguely badger-like thingie (with outsized teeth, claws, and attitude!) that the character had acquired in a neutral port somewhere.  My friend, being that sort of person, then decided that the critter was named after a Terran historical figure that his character greatly admired.  The rest is history, kind of.

  The group was the crew of a Klingon 'Bird of Prey' (pre-ST:VI), with Torquemada proving his usefulness on many occasions.  Generally, he served as a combination of entertainment, pest-control, and security.  T also served to keep the ambitious Cadet character in his place, which he did by savaging that worthy at every oppurtunity.  An order that the Cadet seemed to get a lot (and absolutely hated) was "Feed Him!".

  As the game progressed, it became clear that T was smarter than was first thought (maybe not up to button-pushing, but close), and the group even went as far as trying to locate his origin world.

  A few anecdotes come to mind...

  Possibly his single greatest contribution was saving the ship from a tribble infestation.  He ate the lot, but was belching up furballs and producing excessively foul odours for weeks afterwards.

  The group had several run-ins with a very unlikable senior officer at one base.  Said NPC doted on a large vicious Targ that about matched his social skills.  Said beast soon ate something that didn't agree with him, literally - the alleged meal clawed its way out through the Targ's ribcage.  Just before the group's departure, T boarded - looking somewhat battered but still sassy.  It was about the same time that the Targ owner found what was left of his pet, and let the world know it.  The group left quietly and quickly.  'Don't ask, don't tell' was their motto for the day.

  Then there was the customs incident.  The ship was subject to a contraband search at another base.  The customs inspector found the party's Saurian Barndy / Romulan Ale stash in a wall cavity, and was looking properly smug as he stuck his arm in to recover the evidence.  There was a growl and a loud 'CRUNCH', and the inspector quickly changed expression.  In fact, he started screaming and trying to pull his arm out.  However, T was disinclined to let go, and was making dedicated efforts to pull the intruder into his lair.

 A very noisy tug-of-war ensued, with witnesses either helpless with laughter or half-heartedly trying to prevent the inspector's complete disappearance.  It only ended when T's 'owner' stomped into the room and roared at the inspector, "What are you doing to my pet???".  T let go, the inspector withdrew for medical treatment (minus a finger or two) and, in all the hoo-ha, the stash was overlooked.

  After a rough covert mission involving a bar-fight, a swim through a sewer, and a firefight in a toxic waste dump, one Character had to report to the bridge "immediately".  Everybody else carefully ignored her condition as best they could.  T was the exception - upon sighting (and smelling) this Character, he immediately rolled on his back and feebly kicked his legs in the air.  As the Player put it afterwards, "...You know you have reached a low point when even the Ship's Mascot gives you sarcasm...".

Status:  Retired With Honours.

 

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