Hello, everyone.
Have you ever played Dungeons & Dragons before?
It’s a tabletop roleplaying game by Wizards of the Coast that has been around for over 40 years.
It would be surprising if you haven’t heard of it by now!
With that said, there came an opening spot at my cousin’s D&D table.
With the permission of everyone in his party, I’ve been invited to join.
I’m writing this blog in excited preparation for what’s to come.
I’m completely new to the world of Dungeon’s & Dragons and the people I’m playing with.
I don’t know what to expect.
As I wait in eager anticipation to meet my new party members, allow me to write a bit about the character I’ll be playing and my inspirations behind it.
MY CLASS & ROLE
If you’ve been following my gaming blog or social media for awhile, it may come to a surprise as to what character race, class, and role I’ve decided to play.
Normally, you would see me playing a young, human, male Fighter, donning a sword in one hand and a shield in the other.
I’d have access to basic magical spells such as healing and elemental casting on a novice level as I improve my experience.
I would carry a secondary ranged weapon, as Link would, such as the bow and arrows — or a crossbow.
But this time, this isn’t the case.
You see…I was told that the party could really use another backline DPS.
I’m familiar with how MMORPGs and other team-based roleplaying games work, so I understood that he wanted me to roll an archer or mage of some capacity.
While an archer would make the most sense, with my favorite video game character of all time being a secondary bow-user — I gave it some time to stir.
With me joining someone else’s party mid-way through a campaign, I wanted to make a character that could help the others.
I was even willing to be a Tank or Healer if necessary.
I wanted to be useful to them. I’ve never met these people in real life, and I wanted to make a good first impression…
When I was on lunch break at work, I was scrolling Twitter and saw a picture of the concept art for Sanji from One Piece.
That’s when it dawned on me…
I asked my cousin if I could be a Gunslinger.
My cousin ended up being completely fine with it, as he’s watched all of Critical Role on YouTube and is very familiar with the class.
He basically encouraged it.
We spent the next day or so creating my character…
MEET CLYDE HARVEY
Originally, I had planned to make my D&D character more of a swashbuckling rogue with a gun.
But as we discussed the rulesets of the game and the class, he was later changed to a Fighter, Gunslinger subclass — as introduced by Matt Mercer of Critical Role.
Being fine with this, my first thought was to make him your atypical western cowboy-type gunfighter. With a revolver on the side, a rifle on the back, and a name that sounds like it came from the wild, wild west… I created Mr. Clyde Harvey.
However, the western idea didn’t last too long. I am not super big into cowboy gunslingers or spaghetti westerns.
I like them, sure, but I wanted something else for my character.
Eventually, I decided on making him more of a noir character. Despite having western roots and a western name, I wanted to put a twist on things…
There are many inspirations for Clyde, so let’s go over them.
MY INSPIRATIONS
The very first thing I did after seeing the photo for the concept art of Sanji was immediately think of this pirate-like swashbuckling rogue-esque-like character…
Imagine if Sanji really did end up like that. How would he act? How would he fight?
I knew that I wanted my character to be a sassy, smartass.
All the great swashbuckling-types from Nathan Drake to Robin Hood have that sarcastic and witty personality.
I wanted my D&D character to be charming, witty, cunning, funny, and charismatic to the core… whether I was willing to roleplay that in-front of new people I just met or not.
I knew that my character would get some one-liners in there.
But underneath that charasmatic, cunning gunfighter was a charming gentlemen.
A lot of my favorite swordfighter characters are from media like The Princess Bride and Zoro.
Han Solo was another great example of the character I used to represent mine as well.
Other characters like Dante from Devil May Cry, Sonic the Hedgehog, and even Spiderman all came to mind as I formed my initial ideas. I knew I wanted my character to take no shit and be a smug smartass to his enemies.
As I began to change the character’s core design features, I decided to lose a lot of the western gunslinger tropes like the long trench coat, cowboy hat, scarf, and spur boots.
Instead, I went with some of my favorite designs, inspired by 1930’s gangsters and mafia men.
Noir.
I really, really love the charming design of a noir detective or cop.
Leon S Kennedy from Resident Evil 2 immediately came to mind.
As did Midas from Fortnite
In my honest opinion, these character designs are clean.
As I watched more Critical Role, I even saw that Percy, the gunslinger character in Matt Mercer’s campaign — The Legend of Vox Machina, even wore a similar collared shirt and vest.
It wasn’t my intention at all to copy that exactly, I just love that it’s a funny coincidence.
All in all, my character’s design is relatively simple yet effective.
Obviously, in-game I’ll be wearing armor and improving my stats with equipment, but my core design stems straight from the concept art of Sanji all the way to L.A. Noire
ORIGINS & ABILITIES
My character’s backstory is briefly summarized from the fact that he comes from a small western town.
His mother was of elvish descent and was banned from her village for using gunpowder and firearms. The village elders forbade her for using explosive firepower and she was forced to flee.
Later in the western sandlands, she met John Harvey, a local general store manager, and fell in love with him. They had Clyde together.
The father passed away when Clyde was 14, and his mother taught him everything she knew about making and using guns.
Guns are a homebrew, made up type of weaponry in Dungeons & Dragons.
Due to this, shops don’t sell guns or bullets, so they have to be crafted using a special gunslinger ability called Tinker’s Tools.
This is what I’ll be using to improve my current weapons, craft new weapons, and make new bullets.
I also have access to status-effect bullets that can inflict damage over time. This is something I discussed with my cousin and he allowed as a DM for our group.
[This isn’t something to be expected for all playgroups, so be sure to ask your DM for permission!]
Clyde starts off with a pistol (which I’ve named Holliday) and a rifle (which I’ve named Cassidy), but my ultimate goal by end-game is to craft “Hancock”… a 7-shooter Hand Cannon.
I want to blast the skull off — blow a hole through — most enemies. I want to replace my pistol and rifle with an overpowered monster.
My cousin said that will take a long time, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it.
SETTING & FINAL THOUGHTS
As I stated, I’m excited and eager to meet my new party members.
I’m joining mid-campaign at level 3.
The story is set in Icewind Dale in the Forgotten Realms of Baldur’s Gate fame.
An evil witch has casted a spell on the sun, causing complete blackout.
Our party will be quested with putting an end to the eternal night once and for all. And since the setting is complete darkness, everyone in our party has Darkvision to see in the dark.
It sounds like a pretty interesting campaign and I’m excited to join some new friends in some fun at the table.
I’ve been told that my character is going to get potentially very powerful and very bad ass, so I couldn’t be more ready to start POPPIN’ CAPS!
