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Player Characters of Sulerin
A great many characters have wended their way through-out the World of Sulerin. Having run
campaigns in the World of Sulerin for nearly twenty years I have the advantage of having seen
more than 100 different characters pass by, of which 133 are presented here. Listed to
the right are many of the names of both players and characters that have played here. Alas my
record keeping wasn't always so good as it is now and the present list is an incomplete record.
Since, indeed, I have seen so many characters pass through Sulerin, perhaps you might find
some statistics about those characters to be interesting
Average Character Level: 7.87
Highest Class Level: 30th level Druid
The average character level is that of all characters class levels divided by the number of
characters. The highest level is the highest single class level. Some characters have multiple
classes, perhaps making them higher level characters, but this number represents the character
with the most dedication to a particular class. Since some characters listed here are tradional
D&D, 1st edition, or 2nd edition characters with multiple classes it doesn't make sense to
display the highest overall character level.
Alignment
By and large, our heros have prefered to be good, but obviously the allure of playing an evil
| Good: | 49.62% |
| Neutral: | 27.82% |
| Evil: | 18.05% |
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character hasn't been entirely neglected either. Admittedly, there were a larger purportion of
evil characters in my earlier roleplaying days, but I think this is still rather representative
of players preferences. In my experience, it seems that the older players get the more they
prefer to play good characters.
As regards the law and player characters,
25.56% prefered to, or at
least intended to follow and uphold the law. The most popular alignment amoung player characters
was Chaotic Good at 20.30%.
The least popular alignment was Chaotic Evil at 3.01%.
| LG: 10.53% | NG 18.80% | CG 20.30% |
| LN: 8.27% | TN 15.04% | CN 4.51% |
| LE: 6.77% | NE 8.27% | CE 3.01% |
Personally, I'm not a big fan of neutral characters, despite their popularity. I like more dynamic
personalities for my own characters. From a my own dungeon master's point of view, while alignment
is a useful medium for helping players define what their character is like, it can't accurately
represent the complexities of a character with a real, developed personality.
Race
You would think that given the opportunity to try out another race and play something
| Aasimar Human | 0.75% | | Daernarthor Dwarf | 6.77% | | Drakher Elf | 2.26% | | Elan | 0.75% | | Fir-Bolg | 0.75% | | Galiadre Elf | 2.26% | | Goblin | 0.75% | | Half-elf | 7.52% | | Halfling | 3.01% | | Haruninki | 1.50% | | Heimrohar | 0.75% | | Human | 43.61% | | Kender | 1.50% | | Lerether Elf | 13.53% | | Lupinal | 1.50% | | Minotaur | 0.75% | | Ogre | 0.75% | | Oruli | 1.50% | | Selere Elf | 1.50% | | Silothreni | 5.26% | | Silothreni / Tenerthor | 0.75% | | Skarn | 0.75% | | Tenerthor Elf | 1.50% |
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different than who you are in real life, that you would take that opportunity. And yet
here, it's pretty darn obvious that most people prefer to play human characters. Considerably more
than even elfin characters. I always thought that there would be more elves and humans would take
either second or third place. Elven characters just stick out in my head, even though I myself
prefer a hearty dwarven or wily Halfling. Alas, my favorites don't even account for 15% of those
races chosen by other players. As you can see, there are some odd ball characters. Many,
many years ago we had a couple people want to play Kender (taken from the ever popular
Dragonlance novels by Margret Wise and Tracy Hickman). I've always tried to be flexible
and so they were let into the game. At one point there was a centaur character played by
a friend of mine a long time ago, but I can't find any record of it.
Class Profession
| Anointed Knight | 0.75% | | Barbarian | 3.01% | | Bard | 6.02% | | Cleric | 2.26% | | Cleric of Acerak | 0.75% | | Cleric of Arden | 1.50% | | Cleric of Baeast | 0.75% | | Cleric of Daer-Koch | 2.26% | | Cleric of Kulanor | 0.75% | | Cleric of Lathidus | 0.75% | | Cleric of Shistar | 1.50% | | Dragon Descendant | 0.75% | | Dread Necromancer | 0.75% | | Druid | 4.51% | | Fighter | 34.59% | | Frenzied Berserker | 0.75% | | Knight | 0.75% | | Marshal | 0.75% | | Monk | 1.50% | | Near Channeler | 1.50% | | One Channeler | 0.75% | | Paladin | 2.26% | | Paladin of Arden | 0.75% | | Paladin of Daer-Koch | 0.75% | | Paladin of Lathidus | 1.50% | | Prestige - Deep Watcher | 0.75% | | Prestige - Dream Seeker | 0.75% | | Prestige - Knight of the Middle Circle | 0.75% | | Prestige - Legendary Dreadnought | 0.75% | | Prestige - Planar Champion | 0.75% | | Prestige - Plane Shifter | 0.75% | | Prestige - Sacred Exorcist | 0.75% | | Psion | 3.01% | | Psionic Warrior | 0.75% | | Ranger | 2.26% | | Risen Martyr | 0.75% | | Rogue | 20.30% | | Scout | 0.75% | | Sorcerer | 2.26% | | Soulborn | 0.75% | | Swashbuckler | 0.75% | | Sword of Righteousness | 0.75% | | Urban Druid | 0.75% | | Warlock | 1.50% | | Wizard | 14.29% | | Wizard (Chronomancer) | 0.75% | | Wizard (Conjurer) | 0.75% | | Wizard (Greater Path) | 3.01% | | Wizard (Transmuter) | 0.75% | | Wizard (Wild Mage) | 1.50% |
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This table shows what percentage of player characters spent at least one level on a given
character class. In addition to those character classes presented here, there were
33 multiclass characters (24.81%).
Many of these multi-class characters were fighter/wizards or rogue/wizards.
By far, fighter characters were the most popular. Adding
paladins, fighters, and rangers together and they make over 40% of those professions
chosen. Why the fighter class? I'm guessing that many of the fighters accounted for here
ended their careers at a low level because their players were new to the game
and they needed a simple character class to get themselves started. Now with
the 3rd edition, none of the classes are quite so simple as they use to be. Not that
it's a bad thing to add a little variation and complexity to the game. It use
to be that few people played multi-classed characters, but lately I've seen
more and more of them and it shows here in the percentiles. There is even one character
here who has five classes, including prestige classes. I'm sure that we'll see many more
heavily multi-classed characters in the future since it is so easy to multiclass
in third edition games.
Gender
Of the 133 characters who have played in the World of Sulerin, 19 of them
were female characters (14.29%). There is an incredible,
| Male | 85.71% |
| Female | 14.29% |
| Androgenus | 0.00% |
| None | 0.00% |
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yet not too surprising, disperity in the number of female players to male players. With only
0.95% of Sulerin's players being female, that means there have been a fair number of men
playing female characters. I don't think there's anything wrong with men playing female
characters, but I sure would like to see more ladies gathered around the gaming table.
This is somewhat at odds with my experience in online gaming. I would say that at least
one-third of the characters whom I have met online at various muds or online games are played
by a woman.
Ability Scores
For as long as I can remember I have used a system of ability score generation as follows:
role two sets of ability scores using 4d6 drop the lowest method, choose the set you prefer,
| Average Scores |
| Strength | 13.87 |
| Dexterity | 15.11 |
| Constitution | 14.33 |
| Intelligence | 14.30 |
| Wisdom | 13.59 |
| Charisma | 13.21 |
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arrange as you like. This method allows players to play characters with heroic stats, but not
unbelievably high stats. Naturally, with the event of third edition characters being able to
advance one ability score every four levels, scores will get somewhat higher. The following
statistics take into account racial modifiers and other natural advancements to ability scores.
Artificial enhancements, such as a Belt of Giant Strength had no effect on these
statistics. Since I don't have the ability scores for all players who have ever played, the
following numbers are based on a sample of 116 characters for whom I have ability
scores. Given the sample size, the average overall ability score using my above system has
yielded, after racial and character level progression adjustments, an average ability score
of 14.07.
I had expected Strength and Constitution to be the the highest
scores on this table, but as you can see, Dexterity was highest even though about 40% of
characters have one or (frequently) more fighter levels.
Don't be surprised that all of the scores are above average. This
is because this is the average ability score taken across all heroic characters. What you are
really looking at here is a chart of which ability scores players consider to be the most useful;
ability scores in which having a high score is desireable in preference to others. Not surprisingly,
Charisma was the lowest priority for many roleplayers. Though Charisma has been becoming more important
over the last few years since there are more abilities, character classes and skills which emphasize
Charisma.
Hit Points
Since we're talking about ability scores, let's talk for a moment about hit points - the life
and measure of a characters present health. Alas, as with ability scores, my record of
hit points for every character is incomplete and spans a sample size of 112
characters. While the statistical outliers of these hit point expressions are numerous I think
it is still interesting to know that characters possess, on average,
57.5 hit points. The lowest (no surpise) was
1 and the highest number of hit points earned by a character thus far has been
635; an envious quantity as possessed by Al-Rathis,
a Barbarian 22/Fighter 2/Prestige - Legendary Dreadnought 6 character.
Status
It's where all characters stand or find their end. An adventurers life is full of danger. While
| Active | 5 (3.76%) |
| Dead | 48 (36.09%) |
| Retired | 80 (60.15%) |
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the cause of death is always an element within the game, the greatest cause of retirement status
is due to out-of-game circumstances. People move away, join in as a visiting player and play only
a couple of times, and there is the occasional short game that only lasts for several weeks.
Characters whose status is marked as active are characters who are in presently running
campaigns.
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