Amy N Kaplan

I was creating a character for a campaign and wanted to play someone different. The DM and I sat down and talked about different races and classes and what might fit in the campaign. I didn’t just create my character, I gave him life. He had a whole story and I couldn’t wait to play him.

Gorlok was a half-orc Bard. He was the son of a Chieftan, Zod, and was trained from birth to take over the clan. Unfortunately, Gorlok’s heart was not in it. He loved music, and dancing, and singing… and flowers! His pet, Kitty (think big panther, not little Siamese) is his best friend. Kitty only liked Gorlok… she growled and hissed at everyone else.

Gorlok’s mother was a sweet natured human who shared his love of the arts and botany. Zod had invaded her village and taken her as his “prize” before slaughtering everyone there. Not long after, Zod became chief and the two were joined.

It was time, eventually, for Gorlok to go out into the world and “become a man” so that he could become chief. Reluctantly, he picked up his drum and he and kitty left the village.

Now comes the part where the DM and I began to work together! We made plans for how Gorlok would fit into the group and how we saw his character moving forward in the campaign.

1. Every time Gorlok introduced himself to someone I would say, “I am Gorlok, son of Zod” while making a fist with my right hand and hitting my chest just below the left shoulder.
2. Every time someone tried to pet Kitty she would growl, hiss and attempt to bite them. Gorlok would ruffle her fur and tell them she was gentle and “just playing”
3. Gorlok never wanted to fight. He would offer to negotiate the party’s way out of a fight… and it sometimes worked. Gorlok was actually being intimidating but he thought he was just charismatic.
4. He would often try to talk the party out of fighting. He would make them all hold hands (and yes, I made the players all hold hands) and then sing a song. Oftentimes it was a song that really had nothing to do with anything… the point was distraction.
5. Gorlok would cause no harm, intentionally, to others. He would help the party, begrudgingly, with buffs or healing spells. He would let Kitty fight (but I did not control Kitty, the DM did)
6. The key here was that at some moment, determined entirely by the DM, Kitty was going to die and it was going to break Gorlok. This beautiful, happy, loving and peaceful orc was going to radically change. This is why it was so important that during all role-play of the character I nearly drive the party mad by NOT fighting. I wanted them to really think I was not useful at all.
7. Once the change happened (and we never got to this part in the campaign before life happened) the DM was going to give me a new character sheet (in the middle of a fight) and Gorlok was going to go full barbarian. All the training he had had growing up would come to play and he was going to slaughter everyone the party was fighting. Of course, he was now in a barbaric rage… and the party would have to deal with that too.

I really loved this guy. He was a fun character to play and I was looking forward to the changes he would go through. At some point he was going to be a multiclass Bard/Barbarian. (Yes, this would involve a third character sheet.)

Perhaps his adventures will continue one day. Perhaps they won’t. Only time will tell.