The Players And Characters of the Avisarr Campaign
I attribute a great deal of Avisarr's success to the players and their characters. I had never played with such an enthusiastic group and haven't since. The Avisarr campaign would never have been such a success without them.
Ryan Kolter was the typical gamer whom I introduced myself to one day simply because he was wearing a Gen Con T-shirt. It wasn't long before he and I, with the help of Bob, had gathered a small gaming group together, one that would grow into the Avisarr group.
Ryan's character was a human cleric named Kelverin Cheod. An interesting character with many facets - he was a bitter healer racked with regret over forsaking his destiny, a silly practical joker, a concerned party member constantly worrying about his cohorts and a genuinely sincere priest.
Beth was only the second female gamer I'd ever played with. She was pretty new to gaming, but caught on quickly and played with style. Her character was a beautiful female elven thief, a cat burgler to be precise. She had a love/hate professional rivalry going on with Silk, the other thief. But when the two of them put aside their mock distaste for each other, they made quite a team.
Greg Jensen so loved David Eddings books that he mimicked the rogue character Silk. Well, actually, it was a blatant photocopy. Greg's character was named Silk and acted just like the literary figure. So much for originality. But Silk was a fun character and had his moments. He was known for leaping into action without thinking and poor aim with his thrown daggers. It was Greg who gave the group of characters the name "Travelers Elite".
Bob Smith is one of the best role players I know. He really enjoys getting into character. He's run quite a few oddball characters - Elyansius the drow witch that evaded a search by hiding in an bread oven, and another wizard (I can't remember his name) who refused to accept that his familiar was dead, and carried the stuff corpse around with him and talked to it.
For the Avisarr campaign, Bob ran a Krynn minotaur. (Yes, we were doing a little bit of a cross dimensional game mix there). He started off as a slave (the people of my world had never seen an intelligent, literate minotaur before) and so enslaved him. The group rescued him from his shackles and took him on as a member.
David Oeters, a fellow writer and tree hugger, ran a warrior priest from a distant desert land. This priest's name was "Judas" and he was one out of control psycho, but we all loved him. Judas' big thing was fighting oppression. In any form, if he found someone being oppressed, Dave would leap into combat and drag the group in with him. So, of course, I had to toss in a Slaver's Guild into the mix. Just for fun.
Mike Barrett ran a typical ranger. The tall, quiet, gruff type. A loner, a warrior and skilled archer with a fierce love of ale and a social streak.
Mark Price
Although Mark wasn't in the original Avisarr Campaign, he's been a vital contributing member involved from almost the beginning. He's also a very talented artist who has supplied the Avisarr campaign with a lot of original art.