Once Were Minions

[Steve]

Re: Once Were Minions

 

I didn't come up with the term 'special snowflakes' myself, that goes to the website tvtropes.org for the honor. Go there and type in that phrase for a search, and you'll see lots of examples from different media. A certain dark elf from the Forgotten Realms is mentioned as one prominent example. I used to have one player that only wanted to play the special snowflake role.

 

The important thing in your campaign idea is that players buy into being together, no matter how different they are from each other.

[Orion]

Re: Once Were Minions

 

In all fairness, Celestial Fire-Sea Elves with Force powers are vanishingly rare. I was exaggerating a little there.

 

But if you ever decide to expand your knowledge of non-humans, hybrids and strange groups of protagonists in fiction then here are some suggestions.

 

Of course they are rare - if they were common, no one would want to play them. :-) Of the books you mention, I've heard of none of them. Wolfe was the only author I had heard about, but I haven't read any of his stuff. High fantasy is not usually my thing, and I stay far from it unless it is recommended highly by others.

[The Engineer]

Re: Once Were Minions

 

When putting together a party like this, you might want to think about limiting the background options to a certain subset of the Footsoldiers of Evil.

 

A party made up only of humanoids like orcs and trolls has a different feel from one made up only of undead like ghouls, wights, and vampire spawn, and a party consisting only of non-humanoid critters like wargs and nightmares would also have a certain dynamic. You could combine them all into a single group, but it might feel a little mishmashy.

 

The GM in me usually doesn't like to limit the players options too much. Give them a fence to run around in, not a cardboard box. The mishmashy-ness (is that even a word?) is what gives you a rag-tag band of misfits. Also it gives the PCs conservation of Schtick, encouraging them to approach the situation with an entirely different perspective and set of tools than the guy next to them.

[The Engineer]

Re: Once Were Minions

 

After that it would be up to the players to form bonds of mutual respect or simple expediency between their characters.

 

AKA: Character development.