I haven't pre-ordered yet but can you include one or 2 from the Harpell family. They're an eccentric clan of mages who are encountered by Drizzt in (I think) the Hafling's Gem, by R.A. Salvatore.

Basically, they're all prettty much nuts and hurt themselves almost as much as they hurt their enemies. Handy spellcasters in a fight but since they tend to work with magics just beyond their control it does get interesting for both sides lol

Great idea from Stardock! Here some immortal characters with their names from our D&D campaigns - may these heroes live forever in the halls of fame! 

Adriel Dragonpaw (or “Adriel Draktass” if you prefer the original, Swedish version). This was a thief and trickster with such good looks that he could get out of almost any situation, even when caught stealing under the most embarrassing circumstances … The only thing he was after with an even hotter passion than he had for gold was: women. Well, he almost got more than he asked for when he was lured into a cave in the forest by the sweetest voice, to discover that it was a nymph inviting him in (lay your eyes on her and you roll d100 to see if you survive or if you are literally struck dead by her beauty). Well, of course he made his roll, and that night was never to be forgotten and probably one of his greater exploits! 

Mycontilus the Mystic: a priest, serving the God of mysticism: Amystrill. He was an old and frail man, completely clad in grey, and speaking with a husky, drawling voice that threatened to drive every other party member to the brink of tears. But at least he always possessed knowledge on the most coveted secrets, so people just had to listen.  Another thing was that people always thought he knew much more than he actually did … One of his particular attributes was that he had the divine gift of being able to transform himself into an owl once a day (of normal animal size). One particularly panic episode ensued when the group was about to be wiped out by a group of hobgoblins or the like, and he was the only one standing (flying actually!) The poor owl was definitely up against higher odds with his small beak and claws against these steroid little devils. But lo and behold, he made not one but I think three “perfect attacks” (rolling 20 on d20) and by dealing both double and triple damage he managed to save the whole party.    

Gillnir: a real champion, a warrior in armour and equipped with sword and shield. The sword was magical and he also wore a magical ring of protection. However, what stood out was the other magical item of protection that he found and couldn’t resist wearing due to its very useful magical nature: a pair of suspenders, normally worn by the opposite sex … At least they were not visible under the manly armour, and his valor was never questioned anyway.         

Averil Goldenpool (”Averil Gyllendamm”): a good, classical wizard, clad in white, rivaling Gandalf in style. He researched his own spells, the most famous of them being his frost bolt: a small ball of nastily low temperature that always increased the body count drastically in any adventure. Unfortunately he met his demise in the most inglorious way. Walking down from his room one morning at an inn, he found out that the innkeeper was in fact a green dragon that had appeared in human form the night before. She was now cleaning the lobby with some small help of her most chloride breath. Averil didn’t make his saving throw, and he still hasn’t forgiven the Dungeon Master for this try at a more humorous scene.

Tarak Tistleaxe (“Tarak Tistelyxa”): a dwarf that could take a lot of damage in battle and still stand straight (if not that high over the ground). What made this course fighter special and memorable was his deep love for literature and poetry. Every night at the campfire he would shift between keeping the watch and writing down his feelings and impressions in his travel diary. Or a flowery little poem or two.              

A quest for champions, unleashing a small problem on the kingdom:

Don’t touch that sewer hatch:

As a further development of the “rat-infested cellar” quest, the adventurers open a blocked entrance to the city sewers and go down to kill off some more rats, find some gold or save someone who has been captured and his held hostage in this most unhealthy environment. But the entrance was blocked for a good reason. Despite the fact that the party kills off a number of first rats, then wererats, these soon flow up into the city streets in ever increasing numbers, a river of rodent mayhem. The channeler will have to intervene or see the city in question go rodent. Were-rodent!

The best RPG campaign I ever played was in RoleMaster, we had a campaign that lasted about 2 years. This was back in the early 90's I think.

Party was Ter-kahn, a paladin, None too bright but a master of arms and armor. He is a devout follower of the god Tyr. Although a natural leader, his leadership is not appreciated by the independent minded Jasmine or the reclusive Denryu. Ter-kahn presents himself as a simple man who simply holds to his beliefs, but his surface appearance of simplicity masks a deceptively sharp and calculating mind. Also exceedingly charismatic, he is able to rally people to his cause, and occasionally even turn a foe into an ally.

Delenin, an exotic dancer/thief, she also has a love/hate/romantic/competitive relationship with Ter-kahn. She thinks of Jasmine as a prude, and often flirts with the men more to irk Jasmine than anything. Also the volatile member of the group, she can be playful one minute and in a rage the next. Also the least bright of the group. 

Jasmine, a thief that is NOT an exotic dancer, and tends to look with disapproval at the flirtatious antics of Delenin. She is also a skilled archer. A bit of a loner, Jasmine seeks to neither take or give orders, and tends to hold no allegiance other than the quickest path to coin in her purse. Jasmine is highly intelligent, and is the only one of the group able to match wits with Denryu and win.

And Denryu the mage. Denryu is consumed by magical research and tends to stay aloof from the group. The only distraction that he allows to interfere with his magical research is tracking down those responsible for killing his father. (interestingly in regards to Elemental, there were three primary schools of magic in Rolemaster; Elementalists, Psionicists, and lol, I don't remember the third, but Denryu was an elementalist.) He also has an unbreakable onyx bladed dagger that he can summon to him once per hour if they are separated. The blade also occasionally critically strikes with a vampiric effect of draining HP from the target and transferring half of the damage to Denryu. Denryu is not only highly intelligent, but occasionally is able to make intuitive leaps with very few pieces of information.

The Rogue Valentine Vhallei of the Explorer's Guild: "No time like the apocalypse if you want to get the good loot" My rogue focused on speed, hitting many times really fast, and then running away. Our guild was contacted to kill a necromancer by the Imperium. Later a god conscripted us to serve the goblins in the cleansing of ancient sites of power. When we possessed the artifacts one of the necromancers lackeys managed to steal them (I might of liked the money, but how was I supposed to know necromancers like zombie apocalypses?) We fought dragons, goblins, undead, and machined creatures on our travels. My only character to survive my DMs games (somehow he can spin a story just the way where the party turns on itself without them realizing it. Scary!)

Warlock Sul: "Madness is of the gods" I made Sul obssessed with obtainig any power that could make him godlike. He obtained immortality, made pacts with the stars for knowledge and the Fey for natural magic (Faeries are very tricky and ultimatly led me to my doom) I possed shape-shifting powers to make myself look like anyone or anything. My party taught me the various languages of the land, so my character could speak anywhere (Better for preaching my own religion) The DM had the faeries trick my character with promises of power was wisked away to the Fey world where My character became a all-powerful/mindless servent to the Fey.

Warrior/Warlord Olam Giant-slayer: "Cleric heal my foe for honor is in the battle of equals! If there can be an equal to my blade and axe." Olam intentions in his quest was to prove himself against any foe. If he found a strong oponent it became 1v1 while both were in top condition. His life was lost when he solo'd a very powerful litch.

ok, My own great RPG experience as below

Maple Story - for the only 1 thing --- the job advancement I like a lot. You choose the basic class and get more specialize and specialize later. This keep the excitement on going. But I really hate its repeating gameplay / enormously huge level up experience and game updates that only know how to add up new maps. I have a hero there is called NinjaCarrot, lol ya is childish but i suit the graphic / the art style of the game

Battles of tiles - The heroes have no names, the graphic is not great but very function. However, for 1 thing i like is it true simplicity and uniqueness, even job advancement at level up is random...

i was a cleric first game of dnd had an epic battle with a lich Everyone else was knocked out and i was the one to do the killing blow on the lich i got to keep his head he was still able to talk.

Lady Myst.

None could tell of the origins of the Lady Myst save herself. All that is known are the stories, an interwoven tapestry of inseparable fact and fiction. Some say she has lived since before the coming of the Titans. Some say she is a kind of Fallen, though her human appearance makes this unlikely. All that the tales agree on is her near unmatched skill at arms, and her mysterious demeanour. It is said that her name comes from mystery, and that she took the name after a renowned bard, his name now forgotten, gave it to her, but none know when or why. All that is known for sure is her habit of appearing when things, in her words, "get interesting". And when things start to quieten down, when the merchant is safe, a daughter found or bandits slain, she always disappears without so much as a goodbye, no matter those who would find her.

I once decided (as a game master) we can try other things than low-medium experienced characters doing good things. So I created a world, where players were important persons. Level 16 (out of 20). The nicest player was "neutral evil".  And so was the story:

There were three of them. A cleric of a spider deity, one ruthless warrior, and a sorceress. Their homeland was an isle. For many years this land fought against other isle, where the cult of wasp was in charge. They were evil! They sacrificed people to the giant wasp! This is not right.  How bad they were! This was a blasphemy! People should be sacrified to the giant spiders!

The cult of wasps transfered several tarasques to the Isle of the Spiders. The tarasque is the huge monster you really don't want to meet. It is about 30 feet high, nearly immune to magic, immune to nonmagical weapons and regenerates itself as hell. It is hard to hit, but very strong.

The party recruited an army to fight this monster. Who can be so stupid to fight such monster? Well. It is easy. Take enough swords with you and visit a village. Turn all the people into skeletons and give them the swords. Now you have an army, that won't hesitate to fight the tarasque for you.

Unfortunately, the army was not strong enough. It was crashed. The heroes were not killed, because they used flying equipment and were out of reach of the tarasque all the time. Howeve, they were not able to hit hard enough. They decided to regroup in the nearest castle. As they reached the castle, they realized the castle had been visited  by the tarasque. The defenders had been killed and eaten. Most of the walls had fallen down. However in the cellar was a burried cook. He was still alive!

The party freed him from his "prison" and started to discuss, what should they do. They decided to punish the cook and torture him. It was "logical". He was a fellow soldier. He was supposed to defend the castle or die trying. Being burried in the cellar was not the part of the contract. It was a treason!.

"Will we burn him alive by spells, or do we let the warrior to use his knife?"
.....
---------------------------------------------
We had a new neighbour and in the room we played we had opened window. She heard the last discussion. I still remember the horror in her face....

Mortemeer: A lawful evil Necromancer NPC from our merchant campaign.  He honored his pacts and word, but had no moral aversions.

He was captured by the party of PC's by order of the Milanese Merchant Vanguard and then secretly released by one of the characters, as he might be useful later.  Mortemeer sent the party on a series of seemingly innocent side quests over the course of many years to retrieve the bones of all seven of his ancestoral line (he was too high profile to do so safely, himself.)   

When they had retrieved all but 2 bodies, the armies of Acacia marched upon Milan.  Mortemeer asked the party what they were willing to do for the glory of their House and city state.  Had their answer been something other than "anything," he would have watched them fight their losing war.  But "anything" was their answer, and they retrieved the last two bodies.

Unaware of what they had done, the Necromancer reversed the spell of "Mortemeer."  As it turns out, the party had not retrieved the body of the necromancer's ancestors.  In fact, they were shattered parts of the necromancer's soul, the result of a failed "spell" known as the "Mortemeer": a bid at immortality by splitting one's body into different selves which can be hidden away.  Combining the bodies of his other selves (not his ancestors), he ascending to his former power, 6 fold his former self.

True to his word, he struck at the armies of Acacia and inspired such horror, they would withdraw, planning with ever greater hatred an invasion for another day.  Mortemeer would vanish to the East once his pact had been complete, planning a reconquest of his former throne.

One of my favorite D&D characters was from way back, but it was for his ignominious death. The party was just starting out and I had them crawling through a narrow tunnel. My friend, a ranger whose name has been lost to time, was in the lead when they hear a snuffling sound coming towards them.

My friend pulls out his long sword, but he's got a horrible attack penalty due to the confined space. The noise gets closer and they see it's a badger, which stops to eye them warily. And then my friend tries to poke it with his sword. The badger, he had no attack penalties and the ranger... I wasn't too cruel since it was the start of the game and since Elminster happened to be in the cave they finally emerged into, so the ranger was revived.

To later jump in front of a fireball throwing skeleton and thrust his hand into a pool of acid after a sparkly bit.

I also fondly remember a Brujah from Vampire: The Masquerade that I played. He was the "tough on the block that was looking out for his turf", totally trying to hold onto his humanity (or at least use his beast for good). And then he got ahold of some blood from a powerful patron and later some werewolf blood and went to town on a werewolf shaman. Scared the crap out of our Assimite assassin

I remember one of my first D&D game. We were 2 players. The main character was a paladin. He made various deeds and he eventually built it's kingdom in the mountains. I was a Ninja that joined later inthe game. In fact I was a experiment, some sort of flesh golem of a wizard that lived in my friends castle.

One thing that I remember, that I would like to see in elemental, is the day where my friend, me and the NPC gathered together in a meeting to discuss who is going to manage what. For example, me and the thief NPC, we decided to share the lead of the ministry of Espionage.

So the idea is that heroes who starts as your friend can eventually have a function in your kingdom later.

TauTau (pronounced TieTie, as in knotting a shoelace twice).  

                Tau is a healer, a very good one.  His sharp mind stays in focus on is job of keeping his party members healthy and alive.  Trained as a professor, his motivation is like that of Don Quioxte, to make the world a better place despite the fact that most of humanity is thoroughly evil.  He knows that he cannot win the battle, the world will remain evil, but that is no reason not to strive on his impossible quest.  Of average height, brown hair and eyes, not muscular, in fact there is nothing particularly distinctive about him.  While he is well above average in intelligence, he does not attract attention and prefers to stay in the background.  However, he can be extremely persuasive when he cares about the subject under discussion.  His passion for helping others sometimes is very attractive to ladies of a romantic nature, including…

ParisFling

                Paris makes heads turn.  She is French with short blond hair and a delightful accent, but it isn’t her accent that makes every male look at her and perhaps it isn’t her attractive face that they tend to stare at.  In the small village where she grew up, her first love was unfaithful to her.  When Paris vigorously cursed him in the village square, the whole town came to listen and saw her passionately slap, punch and kick the much larger man into a disgraceful whimpering little huddle. 

She is quick to temper, quick to pull her knife, quick to stand up against injustice.  She loves Tau and he occasionally loves her back.  Sometimes they travel together, but more often she spends her time managing her small restaurant and club.  Well, she tells her mother it is a restaurant, but her mother doesn’t visit the disreputable part of the city where she would find that almost all of Paris’s employees are beautiful young ladies of limited virtue but great enthusiasm for their jobs of bringing brief happiness to rich men.  Besides the fact that they enjoy their work, Paris’ various ladies are happy because they are safe with her, the riff-raff doesn’t come to Paris’ boutique because there are two guys who work for Paris as, shall we say, ‘Protectors of the Ladies?’  They are…

Gutfat and Avendeh

                Gut and Ave, brothers of the same size.  That means that they both need to turn slightly sideways to get through a normal door.  For all practical purposes they are made of rock.  Poke your finger into their arms and you might bust your nail.  Their eyes watch everything in the room and they are devoted to Paris, both are becoming rich working for her (did I mention that Paris’s house is very profitable?)  Gut likes to buy and sell and is good at making the profit, he watches the market price of almost everything.  Ave makes gadgets, weapons, armor.  He isn’t famous for making the best, but he makes high quality gear that is sought out by professionals who don’t need flashy and fancy items, just blades that will hold their edge.  Gut carries a blunt weapon called a Yaksa Mace while Ave wields a two handed Ghoul’s Staff, so called because of the ghoulish eyes near the end.  Both weapons glow slightly from the magic infused in them when Ave forged them patiently.  But the best weapon Ave ever made was the rare Elysian, a double bladed hand axe which he gave to his little sister….

BobberCat

                She goes by the name ‘Peaches’.  The story is that an old boyfriend used to look at her and hum the song ‘Really like your peaches, wanna shake your tree.’  With bright red hair pulled into a polytail over her right ear, she also inherited much of her brothers’ rock-like constituency.  She doesn’t make things like Ave, she collects things instead.  She has boxes of orc teeth, broken blades, odd looking shiny pebbles, animal skins, broken lamps, helmet visors, frog bladders and Lord knows what else.  Sometimes Ave spots the traces of magic in items she finds then he uses them in what he crafts. 

One of Peaches goals is to climb every mountain on the continent.  Like a kitten, she is so curious that she has to investigate each cave opening, abandoned house, opened grave and troll corpse she comes across.  She is particularly happy when she finds an old tooth with a gold filling to add to her collection and this is why you better not flash your best smile at her, she might spot that glitter in your tooth!

I'm not sure I like where this is going. I think you guys are working too hard on what will amount to a 'random events' system that has little to do with the player's choices. From what I have seen, Elemental still has not found it's core focus and decided what kind of game it wants to be, and this kind of mechanic can only ever be an embellishment. We shouldn't be talking so much about frosting when cake hasn't even been invented yet.

So far in the beta, I'm not seeing alot of strategic choices. There's lots of stuff to do, but right now it's just a matter of learning what to do to make a functional kingdom. Once you can do that, you're basically done with the game. There should be more ways to win and/or thrive. Let's talk about player choices and player creativity, and not about stuff that can happen to the player. This is a fantasy empire building game. I want to build many very different kinds of fantasy empires, so that when I finish a game I want to keep playing.

I played an adventure once where my group of guys were basically just questing around this sleepy town that tried to make it big by building a bridge to nowhere but never finished it.  We did things like take on giants (and then as proof we had killed said giants, bowled their heads into the courtyard), disrupted slave mining, dug up long lost treasure, and in general rid the countryside of evil.  Problem though was, we uncovered so much loot here there and everywhere that we flooded the local economy with gold, platinum and magic items.  Our DM looked at how much stuff we were bringing in and decided that because we had introduced massive amounts of money into a system where silver coins were a rare commodity, we ended up causing massive inflation.  Suddenly, everything we tried to buy in the village was like 10 times more expensive.

Good times.

@ cephalo ... I think the point of this personalization is to add a "Soul" to the game. For without a soul, the game will not make it very far.

Now, mechanically, there has not been a significant strategical element in place ... however I can see the barebones present of  what they will attempt to do. Some of the pieces have already been placed together, in an element of synergy that appears to be fun.

Now, realizing that its probably only 25% done in terms of content, and only 50% done in terms of UI, the fact that some of it is integrated with atleast an "anticipation" of fun is something to be said.

Lone Champions and Wandering Parties of adventurers add to the soul of the game, and will usually be non deterministic in some way. Whether you agree with Deterministic style games or Non Deterministic style games, the inclusion of wandering Champions adds to the soul and style of the game.

With Sovereign and Race cusomization, it seems we can add something of our own style to the game as well. And, of course, for me if I could make a race of flying half-dragons it would be quite awesome ... However the point is customization in ways that are more meaninful and less (another stat or art asset). Although I think everyone could agree that stats and art assets have their merit.

In short, while this might not *immediately* be seen as adding to the *game* in terms of pure 4x number crunching ... this game is "perhaps" steering away from soulless 4x number crunching ... and I think what we see here is a part of that.

I really loved my half-orc paladin. Playing a stupid character with strong beliefs in good is pretty funny He would charge in each time he saw what he thought was evil. Think he was named Graam or something.

There was also my friend who played the crazy mage who like to miniaturize stuff and put into bottles or just turn everything into pie

I’ve pre-ordered. The most un-fun I’ve spent money on ever

(Btw how do you add hidden spoiler text in these forums?)

Nixio (human/male/soldier) - "Nixio is an upper class noble and a loyal military officer of his undisclosed homeland. He is charged with leading a party of mercenaries in search of an undisclosed location for undisclosed purposes."

Tongue (orc/male/warrior) - "The nickname of 'Tongue' was given to him by the men in his party due to his lack of one. He is an unusually, but not surprising, quiet orc that always carries with him an enormous two handed axe that does most of the talking for him. It is not clear why he left his homeland to fight with a group of men, and Tongue won't say."

Manno (human/male/rogue) - "All that is known of Manno’s past is that his hometown was destroyed and he was one of a handful of survivors. He fled to a nearby "big city" and acquired an interesting group of friends that taught him an equally interesting set of skills. Within the party, he is the ‘go-to guy’ for odd jobs that need to be dealt with quietly."

Cyvil (elf/female/ranger) - "Cyvil would like for nothing more than to go back to her home in a distant forest. Unfortunately, she is not sure where that is. Nixio and his party rescued her from near death. After Cyvil recovered from her injuries, she had no recollection on how to get back, the name and location of her home or how she got where she is in the first place. Cyvil clings to vague memories of her past, hoping to find something that will trigger it all back. Until then, she assists Nixio and his party with her skills as a tracker in order to repay the debt she feels is owed."

Ilrahan: An elven wizard that has a fimiliar weasel called Wipxepitl. The weasel familiar has a very strong will of it's own, and rumor has it that Wipxepitl is actually the leader rather than the familiar, and that Irlahan is actually the enthralled slave of the evil weasel...

Azrael is a halfling thief who is quite simply mad. He has one goal: to fill his pockets with gold. Nothing motivates him more than the prospect of getting more gold, and giving things away is a horror to him.

Gomreth is a tiefling paladin who worships the godess of fate and death. He has blind faith in the fact that anything that is supposed to happen will happen, and that no harm will ever come to him as long as his faith is pure. Danger means nothing to him because he feels that if it his time to die, then it is also his duty to die.

Bonk is a barbarian of an unspecified race, but he towers above anyone else and is fearless. He has a heart of gold and is abused by Ilrahan and Azrael for it, but he is too naive and kind to mind. He cannot stand injustice and will walk through castle walls to end it.

Tor'in Irewrath - Dwarf Cleric

The party Tor'in was adventuring with was compose of a stalwart figher, a coercive warlock, an agile ranger, and a tactical sword-mage. They were referred to as "Dragon Slayers United" or 'DSU'.

On this adventure the members of DSU started off in a town and were soon tasked with a quest to recover a bauble that had been stolen by goblins. It seemed this bauble was the key to a summoning ritual that would release a great evil on the land. With the location of the goblin cave fresh in their minds, DSU set off from town.

Upon entering the mouth of the cave, the floor crumbled into the the room beneath it. All of DSU fell through into a lower chamber except Tor'in, who could see into the room from the hole above. DSU scrambled to their feet to find they were now surrounded by goblins who were none too happy for having their ceiling  "Cool-aid Man'ed" by an adventuring party.

With a rallying cry of "OH, YEAAAAAAH!!!" from DSU, the fight began. Tor'in busily spammed heals onto the members of DSU from above, but the goblins kept coming. Finally with no single target heals left and the members of DSU bloodied, Tor'in did the only thing he could. He lept through the hole in the ceiling, frog splashing onto a goblin below; killing it instantly(thx DM). Then he staggered to his feet(minor), summoned all his strength(action point) and cast an AoE heal. This brazen action saved the members of DSU from certain death.

DSU was then able to venture through the cave, find the bauble and bring it back to town. Unfortunately the quest giver was misinformed, the goblins didn't actually need the bauble to perform their summoning ritual and the great evil was released anyway. (DM always wins!)

My character "Leonon" is pretty much always an explorer(sometimes even tourist) type of build. Fast, large sight range, lock picking (always), teleportation magic (if it's available), stealth skill/magic, with combat abilities added as an afterthought.

Leonon's philosophy is "I wonder what's over that hill" or "I wonder what's at the bottom of that dungeon". The goal of an adventure is to see the world, loot is a bonus. He's not very likely to go out on a normal quest for you, but he may sell you (or even give you) a map. He has a good sence of direction and always knows north and south but will occasionally get east and west backwards. If there's camera technology/magic (hey, why not?) he'll be happy to take on a quest involving taking pictures, even if it's eldrich abomonations that render normal people mad at their very sight.

I've pretty much just added backstory (most of it actually happening in game)as I've played him in different games over the past (I think) 10 years. I tend to take lots of screenshots in games (where the picture thing comes from) and you could possibly emulate that by having adventurers bring back pictures of their escapades.

EDIT:Eerily most of this happened before I even started reading Diskworld.

Here is some interesting public domain material:

The Encyclopedia Frobozzica

Braddock Tharmwell - He has adventured both on the Table Top and Web based email. He even has a cousin (twice removed)

Basically, the OP is asking asking what sort of stuff should happen to the player, and everyone is giving random experiences from D&D. Quest writing is labor intensive. We're talking about making an interesting quest system, but for the computer instead of the player! To me that seems like working hard instead of working smart. I would expect very little miliage out of this discussion. It's really just noise.