Is Your Hero Ready?

I think that experiencing your character’s growth and development is one of the coolest aspects about playing TTRPGs. Creating a fantastic, fun, and quirky character to use for a one-shot can be a great time. But creating an interesting character and sticking with it over a longer campaign or episodic season, watching it grow and evolve, can be both surprising and deeply satisfying.

As a character gains new skills, abilities, and talents, it becomes rounded out by its experiences and insights during the adventures. And it becomes informed by the relationships that it forms with other characters on the team and even the NPCs that it meets. Somewhere along the way, there is a magical moment when the character transcends a collection of stats held together by rules and a schematic background, and becomes something more than its creation. At that point, the character becomes more than a persona through which I play my game or tell my story: they take on a life of their own and then are kind enough to bring me along on their adventure.

When characters, whether in fiction or a game, take on their own identity and agency, my relationship to the character changes. Instead of manipulating them like a puppet, I follow along like a caddie. I carry all the equipment they might need and, when asked, I offer my perspective and advice. Other times, when a character really becomes eccentric, I feel more like Sancho Panza hurrying along to keep up with his Don Quixote. But no matter what kind of character they are, I accompany them on their journey and witness them develop through trials, triumphs, and tribulations. And I really come to care about them.

But enough about me. How are your E.G.O. characters coming along? With six Assignments, three Plots, and one Scheme already published, and three more Assignments coming out in July, there’s more than enough material for your own characters to develop, level up, and take on a life of their own. But there’s not much time between now and Gen Con, where Evil Genius Games will sponsor a Multi-table Special Event, Stained Glass, by Bryan C.P. Steele. This adventure will be awesome and your E.G.O. character won’t want to miss it if you’re there. You owe it to them to get them in the best shape you can before they explore REDEMPTION’s greatest challenge, which sets the stage for Season Two. And here’s a couple of ways to do that:

• If you already have an E.G.O. character—get them leveled up and fully fit by playing through Season One! There’s still time.
• If you don’t have a character, there’s a quick and easy way to get started: just choose from any of our Level 1 pre-generated heroes that appeal to you, change the name, and register in Dispatch the character when you first play. Even if you change nothing else, that hero is going to become their own unique character as they level up through gameplay.

Now, there will be E.G.O. adventures run at Gen Con before Saturday afternoon, so there will be a chance for all E.G.O. heroes to level up and acquire some excellent gear for the big game. Stained Glass accepts E.G.O. characters from levels 1-6, scaled accordingly, so no matter what level your character, grab a seat at the table. There will be something very cool for EVERY player that joins the Special Event, and unique E.G.O. rewards for the heroes!

And Season One doesn’t end your character’s achievements: everything your character has accomplished is going to be completely applicable and usable for the interim E.G.O. adventures coming out after Gen Con, and E.G.O. Season Two, coming your way in 2025.

So, tell your E.G.O. character to gear up and get going. The game’s afoot! We have lots of adventures being scheduled now, so whether you are playing online or at your local game store, there are more chances than ever to get in the game. E.G.O. games are advertised on Dispatch, Warhorn, and Discord, and you can let folks know that you are looking for a game on Discord on the E.G.O. Program > looking-for-game and (for online play) > virtual-ego-find-and-arrange-games channels.

And if you haven’t yet joined E.G.O. there’s still time to get on the bandwagon and reap the rewards of Season One and the E.G.O. multi-table event at Gen Con. So join E.G.O. today, get your character up on Dispatch, and get in the game!