D&D Cartoon Edition: Eric As Archetype

Let's talk about Eric, the whiny cavalier who doesn't want to go along with the rest of the party.

According to Mark Evanier, Eric was included at the request of parents' groups. He was there to teach the moral lesson of groupthink. The majority was always right. The minority was always wrong. A dishonest message, but somewhat appropriate when applied to D&D and role-playing games in general. Tabletop role-playing is a group experience, and consensus among the party is necessary to keep the session from getting bogged and the party together.

But there are two ways to interpret Eric. One, he's the player with the incredibly powerful magic item who resents being in the game if he can't control it entirely. But as Mr. Bile pointed out, Eric never gets his own way on the cartoon, thanks to the network mandate. Because of that, Eric reminds me more of a player who has good ideas but can't get the group to go along with them.

For example, on the cartoon the kids' goal is to get home. Early on, they open a magic portal back to Earth, but turn back to rescue the unicorn or something. Eric is the only one who hesitates. The goal of the story is for them to get back home to their families and corndogs. To not go through the portal is to lose. But the rest of the group wants to go save My Little Pony, so he sighs, pulls out his magic shield, and goes back to help.

Given how true this example is to role-playing games, I can't help but feel the subversive message was intentionally written in. The majority is usually wrong, but if you don't do what they say, you can't participate in whatever they're doing. Of course, what they're doing is probably stupid, so you should think carefully about whether you want to participate or not.

Eric isn't the bastard that kills the game, he's the player who wants to do something different. Maybe he wants to go out to the movies. Maybe he wanted to play Call of C'thulhu instead. Maybe he likes playing Dungeons & Dragons, but would prefer to play it smarter, dumber, or faster.

If you've ever played an RPG, you've been Eric. Either that or Bobby, the passive player who's too inexperienced to do anything but charge at a monsters with a club, unaware of the futility of your actions or the fact the DM will condescendingly never make you pay for them. After all, you're a noob.

Unless, of course, you're in one of my games, because I pwn n00bs.