It did lead to swapping characters, at level 6! I went from Warforged Artificer to Gnome “Inventor” (she’s a wizard, but I reskin all of the spells as tinkered inventions)
(These two tokens are what I used for the nimblewright)
(This is the key art for the gnome inventor)
As for the “main character-y” stuff… I basically hid the entire backstory from the group for 6 months of play, my character was worried that agents of her captors might track her down and put an end to her one shot at a rescue, and since their an organization with active spies all over the place, she was hiding everything until she was sure she could trust the group.
Over time, I told different characters part of the story, in confidence, which lead to (at one point) every other PC in the group having a completely contrasting explanation of what my “deal” was, under instructions to not tell anyone else.
Once I actually came clean and explained the situation to them, they organized a rescue op and saved her in 3 sessions. Less of a “main character” result and more of a “character side-plot” outcome - everyone else has their own personal side stories, and some of them are pretty involved…
My GM brain also instantly thought the swap would be great at around level 6. It’s the sweet spot of experiencing the first character pretty well while also not putting the swap so late that it becomes difficult.
Also I think hiding the backstory for a bit seems like a great move. Because as it happened on your game as well, that’s the type of backstory that once the group knows it basically becomes a high priority. But sounds like it all worked out amazingly. Your group appears to be a great fit for each other with your styles of play.
![Characters I've been banned from playing [OC]](https://ttrpg.network/pictrs/image/5256e418-cddd-41cb-954d-3a93ada2e64e.jpeg){kind=link}
It did lead to swapping characters, at level 6! I went from Warforged Artificer to Gnome “Inventor” (she’s a wizard, but I reskin all of the spells as tinkered inventions)
(These two tokens are what I used for the nimblewright)
(This is the key art for the gnome inventor)
As for the “main character-y” stuff… I basically hid the entire backstory from the group for 6 months of play, my character was worried that agents of her captors might track her down and put an end to her one shot at a rescue, and since their an organization with active spies all over the place, she was hiding everything until she was sure she could trust the group.
Over time, I told different characters part of the story, in confidence, which lead to (at one point) every other PC in the group having a completely contrasting explanation of what my “deal” was, under instructions to not tell anyone else.
Once I actually came clean and explained the situation to them, they organized a rescue op and saved her in 3 sessions. Less of a “main character” result and more of a “character side-plot” outcome - everyone else has their own personal side stories, and some of them are pretty involved…
My GM brain also instantly thought the swap would be great at around level 6. It’s the sweet spot of experiencing the first character pretty well while also not putting the swap so late that it becomes difficult.
Also I think hiding the backstory for a bit seems like a great move. Because as it happened on your game as well, that’s the type of backstory that once the group knows it basically becomes a high priority. But sounds like it all worked out amazingly. Your group appears to be a great fit for each other with your styles of play.