Introducing Summer

 I'm a day late, sorry!

 I haven't written about my games in ages, and I feel bad about that. I love sharing the stories we create, and showing off the depth of effort my usual GM puts in. I know it's partly for himself, but I feel honoured and flattered by the amount of thought and care he puts into the worlds the stories are built from - the NPC's feel like real people, the places feel so detailed and the depth of lore. I'm grateful to have that and want to boast about it.

So here is Summer. She's a Scion in the same world as Ragna, and we've been playing this for about a year (now swapped back into Exalted).

Summer Safia Reed

Summer is the daughter of two Archaeologists, Yusef and Safia Reed. They are an older couple who didn't think they would be able to have children, both British-born with Egyptian ancestry. Summer was a surprise arrival while they were on an excavation in Egypt. (During the game, Summer will learn that they are not her biological parents, but she was gifted to them and placed in their care by her actual parent, Thoth. I like the image that she was in a large egg he had created, but this hasn't been confirmed.) She has long dark hair and grey eyes, a mediterranean hue to her skin. She's tall for her gender, broad shouldered - as the game progresses and she builds more muscle, she moves into an Amazonian physique.

Her childhood was spent travelling the world, as different digs called on her parents' multiple expertises. This has given her a great knowledge of a wide range of cultures, and a good knowledge of history and mythology. (She will later learn the reason they moved so much was to keep her safe, that the digs were sponsored by the same group, the Watchers of Thoth, a group loyal to her father so sworn to protect her.) She learnt first aid helping after site accidents (which she will later realise were attacks she'd been sheltered from; they'd always move on after). She's always picked up certain items that have called to her, given her a sense of something else, almost synaesthetic. A bowl that feels like it's filled with water even empty, a rock that warms her as though sat by a fire. She also collects things that she just likes, but these items are particularly special.

They eventually settle in Salisbury. She finishes school, initially struggling with the very different experience but obtaining high marks and securing a place at Oxford to study English Literature. She's a Tolkien fangirl, a little obsessive, so she wants to specialise in the areas he taught. Completes her degree and comes back to Salisbury. She doesn't have friends in the area, stays in touch with those she made at uni via social media. She played and ran Pathfinder while at uni, and continues intermittently online but it isn't consistent. She has an active Twitter life and enjoys WoW. She has a part time job as a shop assistant in a little new age place run by a non-binary person who doesn't give her any strange sensation but she likes anyway. They run the store in a relaxed manner, opening it when omens feel good and leaving it shut when they seem bad - Summer suspects it has more to do with when they want a lie in. Very few of the items set of her spidey-sense, but occasionally one will and she will usually try to collect it.

 Her most precious items are a pen with a feathered end, and a reusable coffee cup with Tolkien-elven writing on it.

The game begins the day she notices the river is a bit weird, and she runs into someone else who's noticed the same - Adel Walker, played by my usual co-conspirator.

Amaryllis "Blazing Shield of the Sun" (Exalted First Age Solar)

As well as the Second Age Exalted game featuring Taji which I'm slowly writing up, Rich has been running a First Age game for Bells (Kito)  and Ash, another of their friends. I was invited in, as Ash is going to join our Aberrant game (which starts next week 😀).

Game Background
Bells and Ash are playing teenagers, brand new Solar Exalts attending Meru High. They've both inherited cities and vast fortunes from their previous incarnations and are learning about what it means to be Exalts. It's an alternate history of the Second Age game, so there's a few familiar names and faces, which is fun. 

As with the Second Age game, various liberties have been taken with the official setting.

Character Background
I've joined as an older Exalt, a Zenith by the name of "Blazing Shield of the Sun" who also still goes by her mortal name of Amaryllis. She Exalted maybe 100 years ago, so is still young in Solar terms. Her Lunar mate (Nevalia or Nevaris, depending if they're in female or male form) is older again (several points in the Ally background). They're close, friends and lovers, currently with an adopted daughter Mara (a few points of the Ward or Dependent flaw, forget the name), though they have raised other children that one or other has birthed (need to double check that about Nevalia, but I assume they've both carried babies). Amaryllis is also the ruler of Ondar-Shambal (inherited from her previous incarnation), and is a devoted follower of the Unconquered Sun. She has a following within Ondar-Shambal (Cult) that she finds embarrassing and does her best to reflect the praise to Ignis Divine.

Personality
Amaryllis's overriding trait, the one that gives her the form of her Great Curse, is Compassion. She can't stand by if she sees innocents suffering ("greater curse" flaw means her trigger track is shorter than normal). This is how Mara came to be in her custody: she arrived too late to stop the destruction of a town caught between two warring factions. The only survivor was a young girl, whom she immediately took in.

At the opposite end, her Temperance is very low, meaning she acts compulsively and, when not actively engaged in praying to the Unconquered Sun, is restless and finds it hard to sit still. Her Deliberative paperwork is vastly out of date, she rarely shows up for non-religious official events she's expected to attend, and she's easily distracted. Fortunately for her health, she overindulges as much in healthy things as unhealthy: she's always eating fruit, trains rigorously in martial arts for the pleasure of movement, enjoys sex and parties, drinks too much, reads romance and adventure (but nothing non-fiction unless she has to)...

She's a loyal friend, fiercely protective and hates letting people down. She worries that her lack of temperance makes her unworthy to lead Ondar-Shambal but trusts Lytek knew what he was doing when he chose her.

Attributes and Abilities
She's quick-witted, sharp-eyed, smart, charismatic, tough and resilient. She loves martial arts and is an effective fighter - though she's rarely been called on to use her skills for real, and even when she has, it's been to defend an innocent (or innocent group) from someone significantly less powerful than herself. Her love of movement extends to high acrobatics. She's got a good stage presence that helps her lead group worship, and prayer is a big focus for her. 

While she never had the patience or commitment to learn sorcery, Nevalia/Nevaris is an accomplished sorceror and some of the knowledge has rubbed off on Amaryllis.

As well as being a religious centre, Ondar-Shambal is an active trading partner and, despite the tedium of it, she has become fairly skilled in bureaucracy as a result

Most of her charms relate to resilience, acrobatics and martial arts. Her hearthstones focus on memory and reading (to help her complete necessary tasks she finds dull as quickly as possible), and healing.

The Game...
May or may not get written up at some point.

Sasha 'Retribution' Blake

Sasha Blake was always smart and hardworking, with a passion for science and social justice. To the pride of her parents and with the help and support of her impressed teachers, she had her pick of universities, opting to focus on meteorology and climate change. Her interest in meteorology stemmed from a childhood fancy that the weather tended to reflect her mood and desires. She knew was ridiculous and unscientific to consider this anything more than a coincidence (the law of large numbers showing someone must experience this), but the fascination remained.

It was at university her powers really began to manifest. Political awareness was widely encouraged among the student body, and her charisma and intelligence made her an obvious leader, so people would come to her with their problems - not always a desirable situation to be in, as she had to deal with her own insecurities. Still, she ended up with a group of younger students under her wings. Coming back from a night out, she saw the youngest of these, Dana, being verbally assaulted by a bunch of drunk yobs. As she got closer, they began shoving the frightened girl, who had nowhere to run. As bad as this was, other passers by kept their heads down and hurried by, turning Sasha's fear to fury. With a yell, a fierce gale blew from around her and threw the yobs against the other wall. Dana ran to her friend, and the two fled to Sasha's houseshare.

After that, she began to experiment with her powers, realising she could manipulate the temperature and moisture content of the air to genuinely control the weather, eventually developing enough control to be able to mimic flight. More curiously, she could apply similar manipulation to people, enabling her to pull strength from them into herself - or the opposite. As superheroes and metahumans began to make the news, she understood what was happening with her, and discovered she could 'borrow' powers from others in a similar manner to her ability to transfer strength/stamina from normal humans.

She finished her course, top of the class: enhanced intelligence and perception had come as she'd developed her other powers. As Sasha, she works as a weather and climate research scientist, and presents the weather on her local news station. It was Dana who gave her the name 'Retribution', and it's under this name she defends the weak, rescues the trapped, and fights for justice.

~~~

Model: Misha B. Photos used with kind permission.

Shout Out for Selfies

I know they're considered uncool by many, but I have a bit of a soft spot for selfies. I used to buy into the whole shallow egocentricity myth, but then read an article talking about the fact they're just modern portraits, and another about the way they allow especially teenage girls to control the way they're presented. After that, I went back to taking them again, with renewed pleasure.

I enjoyed using a selfie to illustrate my new Mage character, Ragna. It's something I've wanted to do for characters in the past. Reckon I could end up spending a fortune on costume stuff to help with that! I keep meaning to talk to friends who're good at photography and costumery/make up/hair to help me out, but going a bit shy about it.

There's a fancy dress shop in town that sell some decent wigs for not too much (though I don't have much of a frame of reference), and I have just about enough photoshop skill to adjust eye colour, but that only works for my characters that have my basic skin colour, body type and face shape. Svetlana is the character who looks most like me, just with grey eyes rather than blue, honey-gold hair with a perfect wave (controlled by prestidigitation), and, you know, being a half-elf and all. Ragna works quite well, and I could probably manage Chrissie with a wig (or pair of wigs, for superhero mode vs mortal mode), and there's a load of characters I've either not played in a very long time or not played at all that I could probably manage. 

There's also a load I can't. I don't mind gender-bending, and I don't mind changing my skin colour to be something non-human, but I'm not comfortable with the idea of trying to pretend to be a different race (weirdly enough), and there's some who're the wrong body shape for me. And this is where (I'm hoping!) you guys will come in! If you read through the character concepts (also linked above) and spot one you'd like to help me out with, or if I create one in the future that catches your eye, I'd love it if you'd share a selfie I could use to illustrate the character. I'm not sure if you can add images to comments, in which case you may need to tag me on G+ (I think most of you use G+).

I have no idea if this is a weird thing to ask for or not, but I really like the idea of illustrating my characters with photos, and I'd rather use photos willingly offered! Also, if you go through the list there's several where I haven't given a physical description, or only a really vague one, so even if there's no one described in the way you think of yourself, if you want to join in feel free to use one of those characters - or tell me what you're thinking, if you'd like to collaborate on something.

(I drafted this the other day and forgot to hit 'publish', then Misha B of Black Girl Gameworks shared a stunning selfie I wanted to turn into a superhero and was about to write that up when I realised this hadn't gone live. Feels serendipitous. I'll write up Retribution now, for her to go live later.)

(Just remembered I didn't publish it because I hadn't brushed my hair and was going to illustrate with a selfie. Haven't brushed my hair yet today, either, so here's a random circus photo.)

It's me, sitting sideways in a very low hoop, smiling, showing off my burgeoning bump

 

Meet My Character - Dawn's Dancing Butterfly, Cathak Taji

First, a quick apology for how quite I've been of late! Still settling into the new place, have been extremely tired, and then Husbit accidentally poured orange juice on my laptop which seems to have killed it, which has all combined to slow down my post rate (I'm currently borrowing his tablet, which has its own little keyboard and isn't bad, but is smaller than I like to use for this).

Today's post is in response to a challenge Mark Knights of RPG Knights put up in the G+ Tabletop Roleplaying Games community, asking us to write a short piece about one of our favourite characters. I thought I'd talk about my Exalted character, Taji.

Where to start with Cathak Taji? She's the youngest of 6 children (7, with the half-brother she's recently learnt about), and lived as a peasant in rural Creation until the night before her 8th birthday, when her home was destroyed and she and her twin brother, Cathak Kito, escaped and fled to Thorns. From there, they discovered they were actually the youngest descendants of the head of House Cathak, and spent the next several years raised as young Dynasts. Instead of becoming good little Dragonbloods, though, they became Solar Exalts, Kito Dawn caste and Taji Eclipse. If you want to learn more about their adventures, check out the story index.

The characters I normally enjoy playing are compassionate and gregarious. With Taji, I wanted to challenge myself so wrote someone who is only averagely compassionate, who isn't afraid to take charge (something that I find frightening), and who can talk her way out of (or into) most situations (something I find hard in games, because I mentally freeze). Playing with a sympathetic group means I've grown in confidence and started to overcome those difficulties. I find her lower compassionate difficult at times, but her confidence makes her an absolute joy to play. I particularly enjoy those moments when something knocks that confidence - experiencing her struggle to come to terms with it and the rebuild to extreme cockiness is engaging. I love a bit of emotional bleed!

I think part of why I enjoy playing her so much is that I have played her from the days leading up to her 8th birthday to where she is now, in her early 20's. That was a lot of time to get into the head of the character, and really see how she became who she is. I know it isn't for everyone, but I (and I think Kito's player) have got a real kick out of it.

I love the contrast between her and her brother. Kito sees the best in others, but is a much tougher fighter. Taji is more cynical (her ability to manipulate people means she's inclinded to believe everyone's at it), but she has utter faith in her indestructibility, which often leads to Kito nearly getting killed - because her faith comes from the fact that her brother has always stepped in to save her. She doesn't realise the danger she puts herself in and doesn't notice how much he does for her. She's quite selfish, really. They've surrounded themselves with powerful friends, and Kito's recently realised that some of them, at least, are using the twins for their own purposes. Taji was shocked he didn't already know this; in her mind she's using them right back, and believes she isn't beyond discarding friendships that no longer benefit her (I think she'll find she's wrong about that).

And this is it. Because Taji is so different to the characters I normally love to play, and so far from my ideal image of myself, I don't mind when things don't go her way, and can enjoy the process of her learning from that. I hope to take that experience with me when I go back to other beloved characters where I take it more personally.

Angela Stannon - "The Angel Mariah"

Martin Stannon loved his wife. She knew he did, because he'd looked after her all their wedded years - she'd never had to work, had raised their two lovely children, had a nice house to keep. But now Lizzy and Peter had moved out - Peter to university, and Lizzy was starting a family of her own, at different ends of the country, and the beautiful house had become a prison, yet every time Angela talked to Martin about the possibility of her getting a part-time job, he'd take her hands in his, look into her eyes, and remind her of his promise when they were 19 that no wife of his would ever need to work. He'd kiss the top of her head, cup her face with his hand, and that would be the end of that conversation. He would go to his chair, flick open a magazine or pick up his tablet, and she would scurry into the kitchen to make him a drink.

Scurry. The words to describe her were the ones you'd associate with a small rodent or a bird. Slight and fine-boned, with a sharp, beak-like nose, she looked like the wind would carry her away. Fair skin, grey eyes, straight, dark hair in a shoulder-length bob, dyed to hide the streaks of grey. Years of shrinking into the background had made her short, maybe 5' 3", maybe 5' 4". She tended to wear plain, flat shoes and slightly oversized clothes.

And she could never admit it, but she was bored.

And then, somehow, she fell through, faded through into the other world. And somehow, she survived - more than survived. She thrived. She made friends, friends who struggled to pronounce her unfamiliar name, and Angela Marie became Angel Marie and eventually, remembering a childhood friend and hero, the Angel Mariah.

The words you'd use to describe her changed: strong, sinewy. She'd never be tall, but she stood to her full height. Her hair had grown out, long and silver-white. Her armour was made for her, and when she wielded her sword, her eyes flashed with steel.

She was a hero, a healer, a defender of the weak and unrepresented.

She still thought of home, often, and hoped to find her way back... but if she ever did, could she survive there?

~~~

I've still got a lot to work through with her, mostly relating to the world she's fallen into. I need to figure out how she ended up there, and why; how she survived initially, who she met to help her; had she been there before, and if so when? What warning did she get before fading through? I feel like maybe she faded through a few times as a child, or someone from there faded to here and became her ('imaginary') friend, but I don't know who they are (I think a tall, slender man of indeterminate age dressed in green - not Drop Dead Fred in anyway, but fey, amused and dangerous nonetheless). Did they drag her through this time? I think she maybe faded through a couple of times and recognised what was happened ("Oh God no, I thought it was a fantasy"), so had time to prepare a bag for when she faded through and became trapped. I'm not especially interested in the family left behind, except in a distant way, but I like the idea of the confusion as the police and husband try to understand why she took the items she did - a couple of kitchen knives, for sure, but no significant amounts of money, and nothing that couldn't be kept in her coat or handbag.

Guest Post - Creating Characters by Bells

Following my recent post about connecting your character to the world and our GM's subsequent guest post, I also asked Bells to write something. He's someone I adore playing alongside, building close relationships between the characters by necessity or background. He plays (or has played) Adam to my Chrissie, Kito to my Taji, Sanrin Pavi to my Kally Hopebringer, Howard to my Ragna, Aaron to my Svetlana, Tesla to my Solomon, Tanna to my Jvala. 

One of the things I really like here is that you get to see some of the recent Exalted events from Kito's point of view - I'm telling the story from Taji's, which means I can't always show this.

Here's what he has to say.

~~~

Ok, Creating characters.. Definitely a topic I have a love/hate relationship with. When it comes to creating a character I find it breaks down into the following tasks or steps that need to be decided or overcome, before a character is ready to play.

·         Come up with a primary trait/defining feature for the character to exhibit.

·         Come up with some interesting but realistic negative traits or weaknesses.

·         Stat the character, focusing on the primary, tweaking for the negative.

·         Tweak the character in mind, based on stats.

·         Finalise the stats

·         Come up with the name, description

I am not saying this is the correct way to go about creating a character of course, but this is the way I most feel comfortable. We have all heard stories of mary sue characters who can handle any situation or characters who are some sort of stat or ability with a character tacked on. While often in games it is very easy to do, after a few character I have created myself I find it is simply not fun. (Such as Stronghammer, my hammer throwing solar, or whateverhisnamewas, my warstrider pilot)

I also find having weaknesses is a great opportunity in game for some really interesting scenes. For example with Fern’s recent post about the attack on the self-liberated slave camp where we met Undying Fury for the first time, I found the whole thing exciting and interesting in the way I played Kito. Stat wise he has reasonable compassion and high conviction, meaning he holds his intimacies close. On the flip side, his valor is not huge, and this is why he’s usually the voice of attempted reason. “Maybe we should not go to the poor quarter looking for people kidnapping people” or “Maybe we should not approach a place designed for defence out in the open”.

After the fighting got underway and we found ourselves fighting against ex slaves, farmers, people trying to defend their livelihood and new found freedom, his resolve was shaken as compassion kicked in. After taking a fair bit of damage the lack of valor kicked in and he retreated a little way out of the fight. However hearing Taji in danger prompted him to put aside his fears to step in and protect her, despite being inches from collapse himself. This is something I keep in mind in most major battles, the character is not brave, he is terrified, forcing himself through each battle with conviction and willpower to protect those he cares for. This is also highlighted in other situations where, if caught in a fight alone, he will often run away. (And to be honest now I think about it, I think part of the reason he stood up against Undying Fury was not for bravery, and a touch more selfish than to defend the others. His inner conflict about being Anathema and guilt for the harm inflicted upon innocents likely gave him a touch of a deathwish.)

Tangent aside, this is why I like to start with traits and negatives. While it is fun to be able to handle situations, I enjoy being unable to handle other situations. It's great to see other players being able to shine, and the character interactions and developments that can occur in times of weakness.

Creating the character stats is my least favorite part, even more so when character creation starts without warning so without me having time to come up with a concept. As our primary GM is aware, ‘Character Creation!’ tends to result in a groan from me. It is difficult and time consuming at times to translate a concept into stats and skills. This gets more complicated in some groups where it is important to have a spread of skills among the group or certain concepts are turned down due to being too similar to another. Not unreasonable or insurmountable of course but still not something I overly enjoy. Once the stats are done and relief kicks in, I do enjoy tweaking the concept I have in mind for the character based on the stats. (Most recent example is in mage where my 5 int character ended up with 2 wits. The result? Haaaaates thinking on his feet. And often results in lots of cursing if forced)

Finalising and coming up with names and descriptions I am not great at, mostly I think because I have trouble remembering such when it comes to people in the real world. I have a tendency to just go for ‘average’ for most looks and pull something from a name generator. (Also highlighted by mage where in the first session I think every single time my character had to introduce themself I had to look at my character sheet to remember their name, something the rest of the group picked up on! Thankfully taken in good humor though.)

Of course one part I did not cover above is how the character properly integrates with the world. Backgrounds and connections is something I often come up with almost subconsciously between creation and the first few sessions, and it is something I do enjoy just sitting and thinking about. Often I meet up with our primary GM away from sessions due to our mutual love of food (And I think partly so I actually leave the house sometimes) and during these I tend to toss about ideas. This more often than not ends up with some interesting quirks to the character not immediately apparent, but always fun when they come up in game.

And just because I can, here’s an incomplete list of characters and the main traits or quirks that come to mind, just to give a few examples on the sorts of traits I come up with.

·         Adam - Forced into crime due to weakness, used his strength and charisma to try to better the world. (Somewhat missguided lately, though!)

·         Kito - Compassionate, strong willed but aware of his weaknesses. Finds valor and hope by following his sister’s.

·         Tesla - Driven by delusions of the impossible and the fact each step brings the impossible closer to reality. (Imagine running through fire to reach something that will make you fireproof)

·         Aaron - Guided by a higher calling and purpose behind his actions with little time for others, partly due to others having little time for him in his past.

·         Tanna - Ex slave turned druid, values freedom above all. Clings to and mothers the party after the loss of her closest companion as a coping mechanism. (The latter came up from the first session then loss of the party tank)

·         Howard - Methodical mage with an overinflated ego and a weakening grip of his non-academic life. Believes everything wrong will be fixed by being the best in his specialty.
·         Quiver of Arrows Tipped with the Sun - Insecure young Solar fropped into power and responsibility. Hides from the world both literally and in their portrayal of themself.

 

Guest Post - Creating Characters by Rich

I recently wrote about connecting your character to the world, and muttered at the end that I'd like to see if I could get my friends to do guest posts. Two of them were very pleased to - here's the first, from someone who more often GM's for me than plays, and he's written from that point of view: making NPC's real. (I didn't play in his GURPS game, but know Noleski and Sam Spade from Pathfinder, and Alastair from Aberrant. Once you've read what he has to say about Alastair, I'd love you to read this post here, because it talks about how I dealt with the emotions a scene he mentions conjured up).

Over to Rich!

~~~

Characters… Christ, where do you start?

From a Storyteller/DM/GM/Ref point of view what can start as a gimmick, has frequently, developed into a staple character of the story. Anyone who has run a game, they have certainly been in the moment where you are put on the spot, the players look at you for what’s next and… the character has a lisp, they’re 5’4”, dresses colourfully, and has eyes that take in too much, a smile never moves past their mouth… Oh you want to know what they’re about… Ermm they’re a warlock, down on their luck and are one disaster from homelessness. From that you know they owe all sorts of cash to all the wrong types of people. So, they’re desperate, hey they just might be willing to help the players out… as for what they want in return depends on who they are… Are they smart, devious, manipulative, straightforward, blunt, several bulbs short of a full metric Blackpool Illumination? Are you starting to see the problem?

Where do you start?

There’s a few characters in my games that have stuck out to me, likely for entirely different reasons than they might for the players. (or one hopes they do anyway)

GURPS, it was my first game, and the short campaign (technically my second campaign using the system), was a pretty big deal for me in formulating how I’d run games in future. The premise of the game was a couple of people were hired by a Ford exec to drive one of the first four door model T Fords to California. The car, however was sentient, and a magnet for the supernatural… From dragging the group into a hair-raising adventure in a town dragged into hell for all of a day, culminating in a rather civilised cup of tea with a demon… Anyway, this was years ago, point was they didn’t find out the car was supernatural, or the reason they were kept alive through a series of convenient happenstances. Point is, my feeling over the game has informed how I tell a story; I like to leave a trail of breadcrumbs that the players only realise was a trail when they look back on it.

Pathfinder. There’s a couple of characters here that really stand out to me. As a “brief” bit of background, the campaign began as the Kingmaker adventure path which was quickly discarded in favour of my own spin on Golarion and its goings on. The advantage of an established world is that you have less work to do, and for a dungeon master with enough to do as it is, having a list of already created characters is a godsend. Noleski Surtova, Regent of New Stetven, was originally written as a cruel and hard person. When I approached the campaign, I knew I wanted him to be present in the story, so I deconstructed the character and started from the ground up. His childhood teacher, Sylvester Malliard, who is an old Wizard who seemed ancient in even his childhood and served as the previous king’s teacher. Then I moved on to how he became regent, the previous king and childhood friend, disappeared mysteriously (still not unveiled in the story, so… as I’m writing this for one of my player’s blogs… You’ll appreciate my reticence) naturally this disappearance tears him apart. Then how does he feel about the Stolen Lands? Noleski sees himself as a caretaker for Brevoy, and her people, therefore reclaiming it from bandits was an exercise in bringing strength to the country in a time of depression. He also is an aging man, old for a bachelor ruler, and his sister (who was supposed to be a Machiavellian manipulator) had attempted to set him up with other prominent members of the court. How does this inform his character? My conclusion was that he was married to his country, to his job, he hadn’t even considered taking the throne until the Stolen Lands had been reclaimed. Those were my thoughts going in. So, who is Noleski? He’s someone that has been influenced by his teacher to show kindness and wisdom in dealing with his people, though he won’t hesitate to make the “right” decision, even if it seems harsh. He knows how to get the most out of people, and will delegate when necessary, and is not afraid of picking up the sword when necessary. That should be enough to work with, right? Yes, and no. Progression makes up everything else. Whether it’s a marriage to one of the players, or the occasional letter, reminding the players of their obligation as rulers of a vassal state.

In truth, many of Noleski’s traits were designed to make him a useful ally to the players… Though with limits…

Sam Spade, yes, I probably stole the name somewhere, don’t look at me like that. He started out as a gag character to help the players in an investigation when they hit a wall. Sam Spade is a gumshoe, he talks the walk, and walks the talk. When Sam is around, the world is Noir, fading to greyscale. The music is audible, the players and other NPCs around appear in appropriate attire, think those silly long cigarettes and fedoras. Sam is bound to a sentient artefact detective agency that appears “when it is needed”, and he is dragged with it when he is done. Oh, and he narrates everything. So yes, it’s another trope, but the character who has a comical overlay, the somewhat darker side of the coin is the few hints I’ve dropped, hinting that his bound status is less than voluntary. He largely speaks for himself, and everyone else.

Annnnd now for the hard part… Alastair Benedict St John. He’s one of the NPCs from my Aberrant campaign. So, Alastair is the product of two NPCs, the enigmatic Benedict, and the equally mysterious Jennifer St John. He’s a Nova, and for those in the know, a second-generation Nova. His childhood was… brief, due to his nature, both full mental and physical development took a matter of a year or so. Through various circumstances, Benedict died in the line of duty, which prompted Alastair to start considering revealing himself to the world, which would have meant subjecting himself and the team that had been built up over years of effort to extreme danger… I should probably elaborate, in my version of the Aberrant world Novas (evolved humans with super powers, about 6000~ worldwide) the relationship between baselines (humans) and Novas is strained at best. However, with Benedict’s death it meant the shadowy organisation, think of a mix between the X-Men and James Bond, operating under London had suddenly lost much of its protection. This means that the organisation, the Nova Initiative, was very vulnerable, which lead to the kidnapping of one Jennifer St John when things started going wrong. I won’t go into the circumstances, they’re largely irrelevant, times were indeed dire. At his lowest point, when the character was having a crisis of faith and near giving up, the players who had never given up hope that Benedict was indeed alive, (and were very vocal about it in his presence) he stated, “If he’s alive, then where is he?”

It was a protest, imagine if you had mere years to get to know your father, had to deal with the grief of losing them too soon, imagine if you had such a huge burden of responsibility placed upon you (Benedict was a pretty big deal). Imagine the world you’re fighting to protect is resisting your every attempt to help, now imagine two trusted friends fighting the reality you were desperately grappling with. How would that make you feel? Angry? Hurt? Yeah, probably. If you want connections to a world, there you go.

In summary, characters aren’t just a mask you put on for a couple of hours. They’re people, they have lives, they have families and they’re usually complicated, what family isn’t? (for god’s sake don’t do the whole, “I’m an orphan” thing, it’s grossly overdone) I suppose it’s the same with any form of storytelling, for a few hours as a DM you present your players a window to another world. That world has its own history which shapes it and the characters in it, like Noleski. That world has mysteries all over it for players to find, like ol’ Sam. That world has a part of you, which makes it sometimes a little scary. Truth is, of all the characters I’ve written, Alastair has the biggest part of me in him. I’ve felt the loss and frustrations he has. Ok, sure, it’s acting… or drawing on personal experience, you write what you know, all that sort of thing. Ultimately, I don’t think where you start is terribly important, you can write their history to inform the character or have the character inform their history, but humans are the sum of their parts… Take that how you will.

For me it boils down to this, if you can know the shape of your story and commit to it, let the character guide your choices, rather than you guide theirs… Then your character is in the world, rather than just your puppet.

Rich