My personal favorite is Raistlin from Dragon Lance. hence my avatar.

How about a Champion that will betray you once you help him level up and he gives into his all burning ambition or later in his life sacrifices himself to stop a greater evil from happening.

What about hero's with a troubled past even so far as evil champion looking for redemption or vs a good man sliding into evil.

Grungee Rathammer, my dwarven fighter from my D&D days, has been my go-to character in any fantasy game that allows me to create a dwarf. Grungee came from a long line of proud tunnel-fighting pest exterminators in the Deeping Delve. While his family's charge was mostly the setting and maintenance of various rat or spider traps, the designation of "cave pests" sometimes included such monstrous entities as orc, goblin, and troll. Having gotten quite experienced at fighting all manner of beast in the endless caves, and being curiously unsatified with his lot, Grungee set out on his own to explore and make his name.

The name of this character is by now lost to history, but he was an NPC in a Runequest Glorantha game I ran some 15ish years ago. He was a Hero in the Gloranthan sense, meaning a favoured of a deity with supernatural powers. In his case, those powers were mainly those of the shapeshifting variety. He was a spy extraordinaire, causing my players no end of problems when he'd take their shape and use it to infiltrate their organisations, undo their plans and generally wreak havoc and mistrust. Oh, they got him in the end, but it took a good, long while for that to happen and resulted in a great deal of intrigue before they did.

I'm not quite sure how someone like him could be represented in the game since I'm not fully aware of what the engine can do. I could seem him as either a spy for hire or a quest/mission/thing were you had to find some way to bring him out in the open so he could be slain.

My Most recent PnP character and his lackeys... I mean team-mates

Ernst von Straß

A human noble, from a aristocratic society. Master Fencer, fled after one of his machiavellian schemes went awry, ended up forming an adventuring troop, named much to his dismay the "Windriders" with a dwarven warrior-strategist named Helmut. Von Strauß gave frequently to the homeless, was gracious to the Cleric overlords of their Base City and always was willing to smooth over a situation with a smile: In short, Von Strauß was a very evil man. Using manipulation to try to regain power, he maintain a network of informants through bribery. He operated in fear, keeping those he had working for him in line with threats of death-- threats he entirely meant on following through on, should they betray him. But von Strauß too had a soft..er side. After dividing the loot from adventures, he'd send always a portion of his winnings to support his sister, whom he took with him on fleeing, in the manner she was accoustemed to... in a degree of secrecy, moving her periodically from cottage to cottage. This meant he had to divide his time between the Necromancer's undead horde and hitmen hired by his former rivals. But Ernst didn't mind, he'd repay his debt with their lives.

Helmut

A dwarves Warrior-strategist (code for 4th edition "Warlord"), also of Noble origin. A justice minded fellow which sought to make a name for himself in the shadow of his father, and official leader and spokesman of the "Windriders". He'd often stand in the rear rank and shout "useful" orders like "hit him". All in all a clever man with a good head for tactics.

Torgan

A sociopathic halfling (why is it always the halflings!?) thief with a short fuse and no capacity for forgiveness. That is to say that being the bigger man was lost on him. Caused more trouble than he solved. Had the habit of starting fights against people who had small personal armies. Easily manipulated by Ernst to do his bidding.

Elemee

Elven... Party girl? A ranger by training, but spent most of her time and money trying to get a better buzz on.  Often swayed by Torgan's revenge fantasies, or anything else of the female persuasion with an opinion, under the view that girls must stick together.

Pelgor

Human Paladin, goody two-shoes, did what was right and punished evil, except for Torgan. For Ernst, I supposed he assumed putting up with Torgan was punishment enough. Acted aggressively as the moral compass for the group until he got promoted into higher church service (har har har) (No, I did no kill him. He actually got a promotion, because his player moved away)

I chose to comment on currnecy and it brought me to the RPG stuff ?

My favorite D&D session involved a hero named "Tony."  He was devilishly handsome, and a harem of beautiful women followed him wherever he went.  As you might imagine, this caused all kinds of trouble in certain towns, as housewives would follow him like rats to the pied piper!

(Well, alright, so maybe I just made that up...but I wanted to be in the game too! )

I play mostly turn-based 4x, not adventure or role-playing.  My favorite hero is whoever can level up and get good equipment enough to singlehandedly cream dragons and anything else around.  In MOM that would be a "champion" like Warrax or Elana with misc items that give flight & magic immunity, plus a staff with bonuses to attack, chance-to-hit & spell points.  In AOW-SM it would be almost anybody with a sword with life-stealing/vampirism & double-strike. 

Just give me an affordable way to make items, let me stick them on the hero of my choice, and I'm happy.

  My first character made it to 6th level as an Elven thief.  Don't remember his name it was so long ago.  He died fighting some hellhounds inside a semi-active volcano.

  Another character made it up 12th level as a Druid.  He had just come from an expedition in which the group he was with had been annhilated.  Exhausted he camped out under some trees in the wilds; when a hungry Giant weasel came and killed the Druid who had next to nothing left from exhaustion and fatigue of previous battles.  It had been a randomly rolled encounter and was not some vengeful DM's fantasy.  The weasel ate the Druid.  One of many characters to not make it back to the land of the living.

  Some had standard 'funny names' like Gimme Lots a halfling thief.  Other more serious or in character like Zon Falway(human cleric who eventual made his own temple and had followers)or Easlind Ehlone(Elven fighter/magic-user/thief who enjoyed an adventerous life). 

  The best adventures were created pretty much on the spot; a mixture of DM imagination and player interaction/reaction to the DMs guidance.  Some DM's created trade organizations, religions, cults, all new worlds etc.  Many of our first adventures had Tolkien inspired characters, magic items(like Gandalph's sword that he got from the trolls in the Hobbit). 

   When the premade modules came out; many of them played like a great story.  The ones that had the greatest enjoyment factor were The Giants series, White Plume Mountain, Tomb of Horrors.  Also many of the Judges Guild Modules were very engaging.

  If our 'Champions' in Elemental are half as entertaining as the heros in rpg's, then questing will be a very fun and flavorable alternate win scenario.  It would be nice if we could pay some sort of respects to DnD in game.   "Giants who are marauding the countryside have a fortress somewhere.." should be one of those quests.

  Many of our RPG heroes have passed on in the last few years.  Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Bob Bledsaw..I'm not sure how many others.  These guys though helped make this whole(pc gaming) industry takeoff in a big way.  So maybe we could add a quest or some heros or something as a token of our affection.  Maybe something from David A. Hargrave's fumble or critical hit charts?  Anyways, this is just a thought.

   PS Sometimes I played in character and with a theme, sometimes MontyHaul style, powergamer style, min-max stat hound, but at the beginning, it was all new and you rolled your first character, created a name and tried to act out a living fantasy.

  RPG's I have played(though many just briefly)DnD, Runequest, Tunnels and Trolls, Arduin Grimoire(we used the fumble/crit hit charts in several different DnD campaigns), Boothill, Gamma World, Top Secret, GURPs.  Traveller was big but I just skimmed that(whew).  The last time I seriously played any real(live) rpg was around 1984.

Well, I  think it is not a bad idea for quest:

Start: angry husbands complain to you

you can:

1) ignore them (slight decrease in happiness for some time and slight decrease in the population)

2) promise to track him down in XX turns (increase the happiness for some time after killing the hero)

3) bribe Tony to move to another empire (increase the happiness for some time in your empire, decrease in the target empire / the quest ist offered to this empire)

4) hire Tony (a hero joins your armies, he shall have some charisma bonusses, if they are useful for heroes. The result is the decrease in happiness for as long as the hero is in your army)

Audane, Adarya and Myrianna: three female mages, who, while being good souls, eager adventurers and more than willing to mix it up if needed in order to come to the aid of friends, never quite managed to understand proper timing, or choice when it came to casting one of their available spells. Any of the three would be as likely as not to cast a poison gas cloud in a small chamber, fireball at point blank range or lightning bolts while standing ankle deep in water.
It was all their exasperated traveling companion Arboris the Druid could do to try to keep them all from fatal mishaps and heal them in the aftermath of the (inevitably) grievously injurious.

It was Arboris who remembered to cast resist fire on the group when Audane proudly attempted to levitate them over lava.
It was Arboris again who whisked the group away when Adarya began to cast magic missile at a sleeping ice dragon.
And it was Arboris that quickly rooted a cyclops so the group could escape after Myrianna cast dispel magic as the group was trying to sneak by invisibly.

The campaigns I like best is where your actions or inactions have a major impact on the world around you.

Example 1. The PC hears a tale of a few giant spiders in a forest. If the PCs fail to deal with the threat they multiply in number and eventually attack the nearest village. If left unchecked they continue to multiply in number and expand their domain. I would like to see something along these lines in Elemental. The PCs hears news of spiders and if they fail to take action the spiders rapidly expand in number. The longer they are ignored the more they multiply until they sally forth from their forest to ravage the surrounding lands for food.

Example 2. Another kingdom requests assistance to resist an approaching humanoid army. If you fail to send assistance within a specified time aid and his kingdom repulses the threat their king remembers your failure to aid him and vows revenge against you and yours. He hires assasins to slay your adventurers, he aids those that threaten your realm, and as he grows he faciliates the actions of third parties that target your kingdom.

@ Edwin, I don't think that such events need to always spiral out of control, but I would certainly love it if such things took place about 50% of the time.

Of course, a band of Trolls or Giants could wander the forests of Example 1 and eat many of the spiders (if not all) but then become at least a temporary problem (much more dangerous woods until they migrate somewhere else, or even they attack your city next).

In Example 2, the invading army could even offer you to aid in their efforts, so its a decision. If you remain neutral, they both see you as a coward, although 75% of the time they merely leave you alone at -1 relations (however the winner has a 25% chance to hold a grudge against you). If however, you help them, if they win, perhaps they become better allies, and if you help A, but B wins, then its an 80% chance for the winner to hold a grudge.

Naog of Verditius, an Earth Mage enchanter.  Dwarven blooded, his talents lie in the creation of items which aid the mundane population.  Frequently shunned due to his pupil-less eyes, he seeks to strike bargains of protection from prejudiced strangers in exchange for his services.  Increasing the productivity of local farmers, efficiency of smiths and smoothing trade, he can be an invaluable aid to a city - provided they can see past his disturbing appearance.

Contributed by my brother and niece:

Dr. Hamilton and Nurse Gilletta

Dr. Hamilton is a mischievous, energetic, egocentric, playful fellow with supreme self-confidence and quite poor medical skills. He will take on any task or mission enthusiastically with an assurance that all will go well and that the goals will be achieved. (However, the results, especially in the medical field, quite often fall far short of expectations.) Dr. Hamilton has a special fondness for money, and any task involving treasure-seeking is particularly up his alley.

Dr. Hamilton is very friendly, but he disobeys commands and is often annoying in offering advice (frequently bad advice) and trespassing on people’s personal space.

Nurse Gilletta is also playful and energetic, but has a good deal more common sense and kindness than Dr. Hamilton. She is more cautious than Dr. Hamilton about getting into wild hare-brained schemes.

Dr. Hamilton’s deficient medical training prepared him well in one field – amputations. He can whip off a damaged (or undamaged) arm or leg with the best of them. However, for any other health-related complaints, the patient would do much better to seek advice from his companion, Nurse Gilletta. One of Dr. Hamilton’s mischievous (or perhaps appalling would be a better word) tendencies is that he likes to do what he does best, so he’s likely to blithely suggest that an amputation is the proper treatment for most medical conditions.

Both Hamilton and Gilletta have especially high amounts of energy and enthusiasm on Saturdays, and their ability to travel, to annoy, and to cause mirth and destruction doubles on that day of the week.

My daughter sees Dr. Hamilton as a somewhat elflike creature, with “short brown hair (kind of sticky-uppy in the back), green shirt, green tights, brown boots, and grey eyes.

In Everquest I had an Ogre Shaman, Dunwut Speeritnyt.  He was the only "evil" raced individual in our good aligned RP guild, The Knights of the Holy Storm.  He was a kind hearted but, like most ogres, short tempered.  He was thrown out of Oggok for showing kindness to his fellow shaman apprentices.  But he found a home in the Knights for him and his spirit companion Woof.

He grew to be a powerful shaman, but met his end at the hands of Rallos Zek, when he could not bring himself to defend himself from the very god he had been raised to worship and fear.

Here's a tale about a semi-suicidal Ninja named Jamski, in a play-by-post campaign where the GM updated via Adobe Illustrator pictures.

Anyway, dear Jamski has a semi-fatal encounter with a giant spider where he falls victim to its deadly poison, and instead of just dying, has his life sustained by a Goode Evil Evil Finnish Cleric using a combination of Slow Poison prayers and Extend Spell scrolls, as the priest could only heal one party member per day.

As he lay there, dying, hearing endless Evil Evil Finnish Chanting, and suffering from spider venom, he had a strange experience.  The actual words are lost to time, but the pictures speak for themselves...

And that was how Jamski was returned to health, and found his new weapon, which he had to refer to by full name and colour.

He would die not long after from an encounter with some Hypnotoads which was entirely his fault, of course.

ALL HAIL HYPNOTOAD!!!!!!

But seriously.  I just laughed my ass off.  Awesome.

I'll see if I can get the Hypnotoad pictures.