4Game

I saw a recent post asking how people chose character names and it got me thinking about how I approach playing. Does anybody else do this kind of solo-roleplaying kind of thing?

context: I have a personally admin'd dedicated server (an old laptop) hooked up for my brother and I to play on, but it often ends up being a solo play-through. Each character gets 10 deaths before they are perma-dead, and we've found this had the unintended side effect of creating a little world history.

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For example, our characters are part of a lineage. I generally go with something vaguely Nordic, Slavic or Celtic sounding and give them surnames based on Icelandic conventions. We also play so that each character is allowed 10 deaths and each new character is descended from that previous one. We name islands and mark trails on our map more than resources and have only beat the first 3 bosses on this playthrough (we've both finished Yagluth on our 1st go around before Hearth and Home).

1st character: Algrym (Started construction the ring fort on a hill top now known as Algrymshold that has slowly become a castle once Bedvyr discovered iron. His hammer is studded with bone shards from the hordes of undead he turned to grisly mush.)

2nd character: Tor Algrymson (Discovered a grouping of copper deposits and began his mining operation in a nearby region called Torscamp Mines responsible for most of our stone and copper production. His mighty bow rained fearsome volleys on troll and greydwarf alike.)

3rd character: Edda Torsdottir (A bold explorer who mapped the entire starting continent, sailed her karve around each of the nearby islands and the central lake, built a lovely bridge to a nearby one and even found exposed silver on a daring run through the mountains on her quest to uncover the map, even slaying a wounded stone golem after it had been harried by drakes.)

4th character: Bedvyr Eddason (Set out to mine Edda's discovery (successfully), slayed many drakes and even tamed wolves before falling to the denizens of the swamp after a storm and serpent forced his boat ashore in unknown lands.)

5th character (current): Olaf Bedvyrson (A disgrace to his forebears, largely prefers farming to adventuring but frequent assaults from trolls on Algrymshold often require him to take up the axe and shield he is so wary of.)

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We also have a graveyard near the spawn circle where the newly Valkyrie-delivered character builds a stone pile (as a cairn over the "body") and grave marker for their recently deceased with their personal gear (Hammer, shield, weapon of choice) made into a display, with plaques marking their great deeds and what finally felled them.

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All of this to say, you can create a sense of history for your world if you want to, and it makes it a lot more fun to log back in and see how far you've come. If anyone wants to see pictures of what we've got, I'll post a few screen grabs later.

Edit: Fixed misspelling