Help with a character

[azato]

For my fantasy hero campaign i was asking the players about creating a backstory for their characters. One player wants his character to have been involved in some past intrigue.

 

Here is what we know..

1. The character comes from either a merchant or an upper class family.

2. Most, if not all, the family was murdered.

3. He, as a young boy, fled for his life and escaped certain death.

4. He moved away, changed his name and joined the military and is now mustering out.

5. While the character doesn't know this, it is possible that his brother is still alive and may be behind the tragedy in either a direct or indirect way.

 

While I like the premise of this whole thing I need to wrap it around so it makes "sense". Can you help flesh this out so that it is plausible. I do plan to keep portions of this secret from the player, but I need his buy-in on the general idea.

[Burrito Boy]

Re: Help with a character

 

What I did for a character of mine is make him the older brother who would inherit the family's fortune. The younger brother was jealous and had their father murdered in such a way that it implicated the older brother. (Stabbing him with one of the older brother's knives.) The older brother managed to escape and go into hiding while the younger one took control of the family's money and land.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Help with a character

 

How about that fantasy classic, the child who's been secretly fostered to protect him from enemies who want him dead: members of rival noble/royal families who want the power/position/wealth the child is heir to; or powerful people whose doom the child is prophesied to bring about. His foster-brother learns who he really is and betrays him for a reward, or else is approached by someone who bribes him to play spy and Judas on his "brother" without revealing why, or what he intends to do.

 

Part of that reward could have been a position of prominence and authority, perhaps with a new identity. If your PC follows any sort of mercenary lifestyle, he could end up being hired or patronized by his former foster brother with either or both of them not being aware of it, at first. There are lots of ways either one learning about the other could lead, depending on whether your PC knows or suspects his brother's involvement; and whether the brother is still under orders from whoever wanted the PC dead in the first place. It's also worth considering whether the brother feels any guilt over what happened to his family.

 

Beyond the family connection, the PC could start to explore who he really is, and the identity of his enemy(s). This could eventually draw the other player characters into the conflict by association; or perhaps another PC has a previously unknown connection to this one, or to his nemesis.

[Matt Holck]

Re: Help with a character

 

An army marches in from a neighboring country and kills the older leaders.

It's their land now.

[lapsedgamer]

Re: Help with a character

 

For my fantasy hero campaign i was asking the players about creating a backstory for their characters. One player wants his character to have been involved in some past intrigue.

 

Here is what we know..

1. The character comes from either a merchant or an upper class family.

2. Most, if not all, the family was murdered.

3. He, as a young boy, fled for his life and escaped certain death.

4. He moved away, changed his name and joined the military and is now mustering out.

5. While the character doesn't know this, it is possible that his brother is still alive and may be behind the tragedy in either a direct or indirect way.

 

While I like the premise of this whole thing I need to wrap it around so it makes "sense". Can you help flesh this out so that it is plausible. I do plan to keep portions of this secret from the player, but I need his buy-in on the general idea.

 

I just think it's cool that you have characters with backstory in your game. I quit playing fantasy because it was always kill the monsters and take their stuff, and I got tired of it.

[5lippers]

Re: Help with a character

 

Hi azato,

Perhaps you could give it a slight twist: his brother did it, but to protect the PC from his own family? The PCs brother has been in hiding ever since because members of the wider family are now hunting him for vengance?

Perhaps the family has some sort of dark/secret lore that passes from generation to generation and the brother broke the chain?

5.

[azato]

Re: Help with a character

 

That is cool except the PC is the one in hiding. Hmmmm, maybe the PC could be the one that perpetrated the crime?

 

What makes this difficult is the question of why would someone have to go into hiding in a fairly civilized society?

 

One reason may be related to crime.

Another, being wrongly accused.

Another related to espionage.

Another may just be family members are being killed one by one (at first it seemed like accidents) until the PC is the last one left (I thought of this one)..at that point it wasn't hard to do the math. But the question is WHY?. If it is over ineritance it would be quite obvious when Uncle Jack is the last family member left alive after 12 people died under mysterious circumstances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi azato' date='[/size']

Perhaps you could give it a slight twist: his brother did it, but to protect the PC from his own family? The PCs brother has been in hiding ever since because members of the wider family are now hunting him for vengance?

Perhaps the family has some sort of dark/secret lore that passes from generation to generation and the brother broke the chain?

5.

[azato]

Re: Help with a character

 

No magic spells for PCs (sword and sorcery)

Just leather armor to wear.

Keeping the CSLs at a manageable level.

 

Not much in the way of monsters. I will use orcs, goblins and lizard men but there will likely be some twist where it will not be simply kill all orcs because orcs are bad.

 

I just think it's cool that you have characters with backstory in your game. I quit playing fantasy because it was always kill the monsters and take their stuff' date=' and I got tired of it.[/quote']

[5lippers]

Re: Help with a character

 

That is cool except the PC is the one in hiding. Hmmmm, maybe the PC could be the one that perpetrated the crime?

 

What makes this difficult is the question of why would someone have to go into hiding in a fairly civilized society?

 

Aah! My bad for not having enough coffee this morning before reading!

 

A few more ideas - not sure if they're right for you but might help! If the society is fairly civilized, perhaps the killings could be the result of some sort of conspiracy or war amongst a “secret subculture”? Maybe the family belonged to this group of conspirators / cult? They may have left and are now being punished for their disloyalty…

 

Alternatively, perhaps the PC is in possession of some key piece of lore/knowledge (although they don’t realise it: could be a weird birthmark, tattooed family sigil, heirloom, etc). Perhaps the family were killed by people trying to acquire the whereabouts of the knowledge, or perhaps the knowledge is itself dangerous and the aggressors are out to make sure it gets lost / forgotten (permanently)?

 

5.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Help with a character

 

What makes this difficult is the question of why would someone have to go into hiding in a fairly civilized society?

 

I'd be interested in hearing how you define "civilized" in this context. In most civilizations over history, there have been elites with the power and influence to flout laws in many circumstances, and who haven't hesitated to use force to get what they want.

 

Your PC's family was prominent, so they must have had influence in their own right, as well as the resources to protect themselves from common thieves and the like. By the same token, they probably had enemies. Someone, identity perhaps unknown to your PC, was able to murder almost all of them. Under those circumstances, if I was the boy surviving that massacre I'd go into hiding too.

[azato]

Re: Help with a character

 

Well, by civilized I mean such that one cannot openly commit murder against another family and not suffer serious repercussions. I am not saying that assassinations could not take place and they do happen. But even assassination would still imply some subterfuge in dispatching whoever.

 

Lets say my family was murdered and I narrowly escaped certain death? If I was of a prominent family, why wouldn't I go to seek help from someone else that I knew instead of going into hiding? Unless this did happen and that the refuge family also made an attempt....or perhaps the killing attempts continued and he realizes that he was putting others in danger.

 

The other aspect is - why kill an entire family?

 

One reason might be to ensure inheritance would be diverted to somebody who would not otherwise be in line.

Another reason might be a vendetta. Perhaps to the extent that the one who the vendetta was against was left living...thus would have to live the rest of their lives knowing they were in some way responsible for the death of their family members.

[azato]

Re: Help with a character

 

Everybody is generating some good stuff.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Help with a character

 

Lets say my family was murdered and I narrowly escaped certain death? If I was of a prominent family' date=' why wouldn't I go to seek help from someone else that I knew instead of going into hiding? Unless this did happen and that the refuge family also made an attempt....or perhaps the killing attempts continued and he realizes that he was putting others in danger.[/quote']

 

Consider the modern witness protection program. People change locations, names, professions, to avoid retribution from criminals. And this is in a society with a strong rule of law, against criminals whose identities are known to law enforcement. If you don't have that kind of protection, and especially if you don't know the identity of your attacker, who do you trust to protect you? If they can get to you once, they can do it again.