Timuscor's desire to become a Paladin has to deal with the fact that Tim wished that he could have played as a Paladin when he created the character, but was forced by the more Jerkass players of the game to roll up a generic fighter.
The number of times a "Critical Failure" occurs — on many d20s, the 1 is near numbers like 14, 15, 17, and 19, which, depending upon Modifiers and Proficiency Bonuses, are almost guaranteed successes. But, just a nudge further, and you get a 1, which can mean a Failure in many cases.
Cheri telling her summoned panther to dissipate after it lead the enemy sentry away in Siege Tactics, as she had learned that the NPCs were real people. Even if she wasn't sure if the panther was also as real, she still didn't want it to deal with any undue suffering.
Eric learning how to use a crossbow to make up for his group's lack of ranged capabilities. In Real Life, it is easier to master the use of a crossbow, and one can get reasonably good with it within a month, unlike a longbow, which requires a certain amount of strength, and can take a year if not longer to get good with.
Discovering the world that you live in is actually some game for beings from another world.
Discovering that the game that you like playing, is actually set in a real world with real people.
Depending upon one's play style, the Horror Factor could be taken up to eleven if your group just murdered and killed their way across the world before discovering the truth.
Conversely, the Horror Factor could be downplayed if your group had tried to do good and act like decent folk, or as heroes even, before finding out the truth.
Finding out that you were little more than some puppet created by a being from another world to live out their own fantasies.
Added Horror if you don't know if you were Good or Evil, a Hero or a Murderer.
Imagine playing a game, only for your character to take some minor injury, like a cut on their arm, and you end up getting an identical injury as said character at the same time.
From the opposite end, imagine defending yourself from an aggressive attacker, giving them a minor flesh would, only to find out that you'd injured some youth from another world, who had only thought that this was just a game.
Even scarier, being a Paladin when you injured said youth. Possibly up to eleven if said injury had lead to the youth's death.
Imagine playing an RPG, only for your GM to get possessed by some NPC, and now you, and your party, need to negotiate with that character in order to free your real-life friend from their control.
Best hope that the NPC is also one of the Good Guys and not the BBEG. Trying to convince a Hero that you don't mean any harm is one thing, but dealing with a Villain, that might make things extra difficult.
Given that Timuscor, Timanuel, and the initial, and dead, paladin from the first book, were all created by Tim, does this make them siblings, with Tim being their Father? What about other Player Characters that share the same Creator?
