Clichéd character concepts for World of Darkness MUSHes

I used to play/live a lot on various MUSHs (multi-user shared hallucinations). They were a cross between a text-based game and a text community. Despite the occasional stray into a Wheel of Time game, I tended to stay in World of Darkness MUSHes.

To play on some of these games, you had to pitch a character concept to a wizard – a game moderator. This was especially important if you aspired to play something more powerful than the average human.

By 2002 I had a user-generated list of “clichéd character concepts for WOD MUSHes” up and running on GameWyrd. In very little time, the site had about 100 suggestions. Okay, many seemed to ignore the World of Darkness aspects and got angsty over yet another Scottish dwarf (I don’t think there were any dwarves in WoD then…), but I kept those in.

Here’s the full list as it stood when I retired this feature from the site (spelling errors and all!). As was the case throughout the site, Wyrdlings could vote for the ones they ‘liked’ the most. At the top of the list are the clichés with the most votes.

1. The lone mystery man out for revenge or personal gain.
2. Green-Eyed Lesbian Asian School Girl who hangs out in adult bars, while wearing a Catholic uniform ala’ ‘The Craft’ style.
3. One word: Ninja.
4. The irritating Malkavian that has appears to have no classifiable derangement known to psychology but fakes it with random senseless actions.
5. The “rare” good Drow who has managed to escape from the Underdark and is met with racial prejudice on the surface but is taken in by a kindly person who becomes their mentor.
6. A dark hero with too many guns to imagine under his black trenchcoat who doesn’t tell anyone his name (Mostly because the player can only say: Neo, but the GM won’t allow it.)
7. Anyone in a black trench coat.
8. An “Amanda”- Any character who wears tight leather or skimpy garments but still manages to conceal scads of weapons, like swords and rifles.
9. An up and coming artist who just happens to be drop dead gorgeous.
10. Anyone from Ireland with a very unusual but thoroughly ‘celtic’ name who speaks Gaelic.
11. A young vampire who was tragically forced to commit diablerie and inherit a whole range of powers.
12. A rebellious street rat with no interest in finding anywhere to live.
13. Scottish Dwarves…
14. An ex-special forces trooper who has turned private bodyguard.
15. The spoilt son of fabulously rich parents who happens also to be a computer genius but with a penchant for riding around on a large American motorcycle.
16. Entirely innocent and yet both world-wise and street smart.
17. A mysterious loner who is on the run from someone/something because he knows something he shouldn’t
18. Super strong fighter type who’s parent’s were murdered. Strength was gained through pushing the “wheel of pain” and was eventually forced to fight in pits.
19. A gorgeous porn star who is really a 500 year old Toreador who rivals Cain in power.
20. The medical genius, probably with super rich parents, who is already the local hospital’s senior trauma surgeon and is only in his early twenties.
21. The “girl-disguised-as-a-man” who fights better than most guys. (Girls don’t need to look like guys to be better than them…)
22. A super sexy 11 year old street urchin.
23. Lupus, Get of Fenris, Ahroun. With 5s in Drive, Firearms, and Seduction.
24. Fame 5 Rock Star Garou!!!
25. The dumb little teenage goth, that tries to act dark, depressed, and complex but they really have no other problem except for themselves..
26. A Lost Cub that just happens to have so much Pure Breed that the Spirits have already taught her Rank One gifts.
27. The tattooed, pierced, black leather-wearing Brujah with more guns than IQ points.
28. A satyr mattress with legs (or similar character) created solely to hit on another PC whose player she fancies.
29. The Toreador vampire that just happens to be a famous rock musician that everyone loves and wears Crow makeup. This is also an unmentioned rule of LARPing.
30. The beautiful young girl (played by the man that never managed to get a girlfriend in the first place)
31. A Malkavian who knows the Real Truth: he insists that “WE ARE ALL NOTHING MORE THAN IMAGINARY CHARACTERS IN A DERRANGED GAME! YOU’RE ALL GOING TO DIEEE! Don’t let the Evil Storyteller kill you! You’re nothing more than dots on a piece of paper!…”
32. An app 5 Brujah in modern times who inists on wearing a pair of katana’s on his back in public places.
33. A Changeling who just happens to own an art gallery.
34. Lupes who don’t understand words like “city” and “follow”, but can still write intricate love letters.
35. An 8th-generation Tremere who just happens to know Vicsessitude and Quietus.
36. A struggling model-cum-dancer whose parents were tragically killed in a mysterious car crash.
37. One word: Succubus.
38. A well-endowed Cajun rogue with resources 5 and a motorcycle but no discernable education, career, or holdings.
39. Teenage female bastet streetrat/thief who just loves having sex with older men.
40. Anyone who is out to revenge a murdered family, then ends up gathering a loyal band of followers and saving the world.
41. The ex-Navy SEAL who was chosen for the Embrace to be a “Clan Enforcer”.
42. A horror writer who just happens to have taken to exploring every inch of the city’s sewer system for inspiration.
43. Fianna Celtic folk musician
44. A bi-sexual college girl whose best friend and flatmate has been kidnapped by a naughty cult.
45. The fantastically beautiful but bravely mute girl who is either a struggling medical student, a lost kinfolk or mastermind crime lord.
46. “I lost my family, i’m so scares and lonely.. let’s hop in the sack”
47. A struggling model-cum-dancer who just happens to be a Satyr and whose parents were mysteriously killed in a tragic car crash.
48. Human girl turned ‘Supernatural Warrior’ with no memory/lost her family
49. A Glass Walker who owns and runs his own private security firm.
50. Redheaded girl, late teens, early 20’s, wears leather jacket, tight clothing. Street gang member or street gang chic. Lots of attitude, lots of sex appeal. (I should know, I played one of the first – Merciful Angel/Mercy)
51. The supposedly worldly, wise and philosophical Garou/mummy/werewolf/hunter/whateverthehell Who seems to have only one attack, one tone of voice, one expression, no sense of humor, empathy, or any understanding of why this causes others not to interact with him.
52. The innocent and naive, independently wealthy, appearance 5 model.
53. The highly intelligent, drop dead gorgeous but amnesiac man/woman out to find their past.
54. That guy who sits in the shadows and says nothing unless its important.
55. The ‘evil’ PC whose player is secretly plotting to ‘creatively’ roleplay this evil-ness by selling out and/or backstabbing the rest of the party… again.
56. Two words:old mages.
57. seemingly all powerful character with no face.. literally… just a black void… adding to the mystery of it.
58. Drizz’t Do’urdin. ( I actually know someone who only plays drizz’t. His excuse is he has “official permission from bioware.” )
59. The young warrior/mage/rogue whose parents were massacred by orcs or goblins and now wants revenge and money. Usually has pre-enchanted awesome weapon.
60. Brujah chick who is sullen, kinda pretty in a tough way, wears biker clothing, and can kick just about anyone else’s ass b/c she’s twinked out to the end, but hardly ever fights… b/c the staff has let her know that she’d better be careful whom she fights.
61. The gorgeous Pirate Queen, bloodthirsty terror of the seas. Her (male) crew follow her because she is fiercer, braver, and cleverer than them.
62. Cammies/Gaians who spontaneously decide to embrace their dark side, and turn to the Sabbat/Wyrm, because there’s better roleplay there.
63. A vampire who feels faint at the sight/smell of blood.
64. The brainless but insanely powerful fighter who can somehow read, write, and speak four languages…
65. Those players who just HAVE to play godmodes, or cliched canons like Superman.
66. The nausiatingly sweet airy (airheaded) Fay character who consistantly proclaims herself ‘Protector of the Forrest’ while alternately insisting that her character is patheticly weak…right before arguing that her killer attack vines can whoop anyone.
67. Setite Drug Dealers…Or Gun Runners…Or Prostitutes (You get the idea)
68. The Brujah Antitribu who’s tough **** until you point out that using heightened senses to increase your hearing while standing next to an amp would just maybe cause deafness…
69. Granola-crunching Child of Gaia Garou Deadhead who First Changed when s/he dropped acid with Jerry Garcia at Woodstock in 1969. Dad is a Pentex executive
70. Titled Sidhe
71. The guy who always wants to play the Assamine ‘because they’re cool’.
72. The Malkavian in dark trenchcoat, whose insanity be the result of the death of his entire family, all dying at the same time. Although he suffers from Bulimia, he still has visions of Gehenna…
73. the gangster with contacts EVERYWHERE he goes and can get hold of ANYTHING!! (ive had this happen)
74. Anyone who is a fighter, has strange psionic powers, and wears black. Or any stupid warrior who falls in love with a princess and then manages to marry her.
75. The elven archer who never, ever misses.
76. the insanely beautiful and innocent Toreador model with 5 app and a Havard education, who still has enough physical powers to easily bitch-slap 9 ghouls at once and all by herself
77. A good daemon.(See “good drow” entry).
78. The adventurer with no parents raised in an orphanage and trying to find his/her lost mentor.
79. The leather-clad biker with a heart of gold… and a storage locker full of explosives.
80. The homosexual elf bard, we’ve all seen one.
81. A knight who must slay a dragon to save a princess
82. someone who dies in the middle of the game, and comes back with the nicest clothes, but still has an attitude problem
83. a good guy turned ewvil after “delving too deep”
84. The blind Malkavian psychiatrist with a Megalomania issue.
85. The walking tank with Str and Body at 20 and a Intelligence and Charisma of 1
86. As much celerity and firearms as possible, possibly even a really large sword and of course dressed in black and a CAPE!
87. Vampires who are NOT filled with angst and conflict over their revoked status as ‘human’. Instead, they heartily throw themselves into domination of mortals, backstabbing vampiric politics, and begin to feed entirely by diablerie.
88. Thyrsus mages who consistently destroy your chronicle, and if it’s a crossover, make sure nobody ever wants to play a pansy werewolf again.
89. Hunter-in-Darkness Rahu who slaughter anything that even smells like opposition, live in the city and use their ‘law of nature’ philosophy to perpetrate a constant stream of vandalism and murder, and still maintain fantastic relations with other supernaturals.
90. Educated Gangrel who start with three dots of Protean and never remember their clan flaw. If anyone insinuates they’re stupid, they’ll first win a contested Academics + Intelligence roll with a pool of at least eight dice, and then kill everyone around with Claws of the Beast.
91. Nosferatu who are actually gorgeous, but have an aura of creepy, which they never roleplay. They always have enough dots of Vigor to pound the Vitae out of anyone who thinks it’s a weak Discipline, and enough dots of Nightmare to ‘accidentally’ kill any child NPCs they’re introduced to.
92. Uratha who are actually really mellow when they’re not hunting something.
93. Young, beautiful, brilliant mages. I have actually never encountered another kind.
94. The mortal private investigator.
95. The mortal private investigator with Gunslinger, Ambidextrous, and Quickdraw. If you let him have Armory, he’ll buy up Combat Marksmanship as fast as he can.
96. Mortals with four dots each of Occult and Investigation. They always have outstanding Firearms, be they the dreaded PI or priest or grocery store clerk. They carry at least three silver weapons each and improvised flamethrowers.
97. The ex-military mortal with enough Status to quite literally nuke your plotholes, those he doesn’t fill with .50-size holes.
98. A Frankenstein or Tammuz who switches constantly between Stannum and Ferrum.
99. A Galateid or Osiran who uses Cuprum exclusively. Neither seem affected by their humours; if questioned, they say that Cuprum balances their humours for them.
100. Reverse Cliche: The Ulgan. Nobody plays an Ulgan. Ever.