Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-02-06, 05:58 AM	I'm making a chaotic neutral human 1st level warlock (melee warlock experiment, Str 18 Dex 13 Con 16 Int 11 Wis 12 Cha 12 if it matters) for a custom world, he will be starting the game as a member of the city guard that works the night shift. I rolled up a couple traits randomly, came up with having a tattoo (decided it was a prisoner stamp on the back of his neck) and prejudice (hates folks accused of misdeeds with children, and doesn't give them much chance to prove their innocence, if any). I spent a bit more time coming up with bits of background description, but I'm no writer and really can't tie them together coherently. Help please? - Born to a peasant woman from an unknown father, and was on his own from an early age due to her inability to support him. - Was taken in by a group of hobos who felt sorry for him, and learned the ancient craft of boozemaking from them. - Parted ways with the hobos when his eldritch powers started to appear and they became wary of him. - Made his living as a distiller in Lys (country headed by LG-aligned monarchy), made a bad batch which got out and made several people go blind. Authorities came to talk to him, he panicked and killed one, spent 2 years in prison for the act. - Oversensetive to sunlight from 2 years in darkened cell, sought night job (and became night watchman) due to this. - Continued to make booze while imprisoned, left his still behind when he got out and left for Baton Noir (more relaxed neighboring country, gets a lot of 'shady' immigrants from Lys), plans to buy/build new one when possible. (max ranks in Craft: Distilling) - Primary goal is to become rich since he's never really had much money, and he seeks stability to avoid being consumed by the chaotic powers he wields.
Pandaemoni 01-02-06, 01:11 PM	I'm making a chaotic neutral human 1st level warlock (melee warlock experiment, Str 18 Dex 13 Con 16 Int 11 Wis 12 Cha 12 if it matters) for a custom world, he will be starting the game as a member of the city guard that works the night shift. I rolled up a couple traits randomly, came up with having a tattoo (decided it was a prisoner stamp on the back of his neck) and prejudice (hates folks accused of misdeeds with children, and doesn't give them much chance to prove their innocence, if any). I spent a bit more time coming up with bits of background description, but I'm no writer and really can't tie them together coherently. Help please? I seems to me that you've tied the points together pretty well. Nothing says theyt you need a multipage history of the character, and each point seems to flow from the point before it into the one after it.
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-02-06, 01:33 PM	Thanks for the vote of confidence. I just dislike the bullet point look though, and I can't really get it to flow together into a couple of coherent paragraphs.
Grizzled Gryphon 01-02-06, 02:06 PM	You already have all you need. YOU know the guys background well, just keep that in mind during game play. What you have written down are the key points- which are the only parts people tend to remember, anyway. All you have done is make there job easier. :D However, if you really want a paragraph or two explaining it, make it out like a letter. Here is an example: Hi. My name is Bob. I am a nightwatch man at <insert company/oraganization name here>. I was born in Lyr, in the town of <insert town name here>. I don't know much of my mom, as she really couldn't support me. So, I was on my own very early in life. Thankfully, I met some guys who didn't mind helping me out, even though they were down on there luck. While I stayed with them, they taught me the honered profession of distilling. I have kept that up over the years, as I really enjoy doing it. Unfortunately, in my early teens, I started having... well, problems doesn't even begin to describe it. I could... do things. Dark things. My friends actually started to fear me. I can't blame them; I was scared of me, too. It was like I had this subtle urging to do bad things, like this subliminal desire to do evil... Anyway, I have been able to hold myself together, for the most part. After I left my pals, I actually got a job doing what I do best, making booze. I was so happy, I almost forgot about the darkness in me. Somehow, I accidently made a bad batch. I still don't know how it happened. Maybe I did it on purpose? Maybe the darkness within took over, but only for a moment? I will probably never know. I found out about it the hard way, though. I was working, and suddenly all these cops were there. Asking so many questions. Accusing me!! Like I would ever do something like that on purpose! Then, they started talking about charges... and I paniced. Before I knew what happened, one of the cops lay dead, the victim of the darkness within me! The rest tackled me to the floor, but I barely remember it all. I was so numb. I had killed someone!! I thought at the time I really did need to be locked away... When I got to prison, I had pretty much given up on life. I didn't care anymore. But, I met a guy in there, and he rooted around in my psyche until he found the part still living. He yanked it back to the surface, and I started living again. I made a Still in jail (I know, bad me) started making booze again, even with my fear of doing so. I don't know what I would have done had another bad batch come out of it. But, none did, and I finally got released. After two years in the box, I am not very used to the light of day, so I have a night job, as I said before. Well, there you have it, my soul laid bare. Yours truly, Bob. There is one way, anyway. Feel free to add names for all the "a guy" parts. Hope this helps
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-02-06, 02:19 PM	:thinks: Writing it out from the character perspective rather than an out of game observer's perspective... that had not occurred to me. It's a good idea, thank you.
Grizzled Gryphon 01-02-06, 02:24 PM	No prob. Not too bad, as I thought of that on the fly, huh? However, it may not fit the image you have of the guy, which is completely understandable. If you have any idea of how your going to play him, and what kind of attitude he will have, that would greatly change the back story. For example, is he bitter about being in prison, or does he feel it was justified? Does it bother him that his juice messed up some people, or is it more important to him that he made a mistake? Is he mad at his Mom for kicking him out? All of this stuff would greatly change the background. Just keep that all in mind. Another possibility for a style of background is have it come out like he is talking to his shrink, or talking to a lover, or ... you get the idea.
Jon of the North 01-02-06, 02:41 PM	Well, you got a good story and it works well. Now for the personality. Here's what I get: He likes kids (in a big brother way, as oppose to for breakfast) seems a little dour and aloof. Some questions: How does he like his job? How seriously does he take it? Who are his friends? How much does he regret the past, if at all? What are his hobbies? What's his sense of humor like?
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-02-06, 06:01 PM	Okay, here's what I've got now. It ended up longer than I expected it would be. First things first - it's not Kresselack, it's Kryss. If you're so bold as to speak to me by name, you should get it right. Folks only started calling me Kresselack on the inside, after word got around that I mauled a guardsman with my bare hands. It's supposed to be the name of some old legendary warlord, but I never heard of him. What's an ex-con doing on the guard, huh? Long story. I got off to a pretty rough start and... Yes, I know, everyone's got a sob story, but you asked and I've got nothing better to do, so I'm answering. Anyway... my mother and I were dirt poor. We were just barely scraping by, in this crappy, nameless forgotten little slum in Lys... you know the kind I'm talking about, we have the same kind around here, just more of 'em. And it was my sixth - no, no it was seventh - seventh birthday when she said she'd managed to save just enough extra coppers to get me something special, and wait in the alley while she went to fetch it. I never saw her again. You know, I can't remember what she looked like? Lucky thing I was born in the summer, or I'd have chilled to death that fortnight or so after my birthday that I spent sleeping out in the open in the street. I met some guys. They were missing most of their teeth and they smelled like goats, but they were kind... let me stay with 'em in the places where the buildings made natural wind barriers, fed me and kept the creeps away. I learned a lot from them. Easy Aggie taught me why folks like my mother do what she did, and how to tell if a man's lying to you... she knew, she'd been lied to enough over the years. Old Bill, he was a little touched, but he was a fountain of knowledge on his favorite subject - hooch, and how to make it from about anything in the world. Eh? Yeah, I have some right here. You might as well, it's not like you'll have a hangover to worry about. Now where was I? Things got bad in the autumn after I turned 12. I had these terrible nightmares... oceans of blood... pillars of fire and smoke... dead kids... lewd women locked in carnal embrace with dark things. I'd wake up in a fever sweat and instead of going away, the feeling that all was wrong with the world just got worse. I took to talking in my sleep. When I'd get upset, things around me started to break. Everyone was a little scared, except for me - I was too confused to be afraid - well, I was horrified, but at the same time it felt good... energizing, you could say. It was a rough time. My friends started to talk amongst themselves. Easy Aggie stood by me the longest - she'd been looking at me different lately, I guess it was the broadening shoulders and the muscles just starting to fill out - but in the end, she was the one to beg me to leave, after she swore she saw me floating a few inches off the ground while I slept. Don't look at me like that, she said it, not me. No, I never did anything with her, and if you ask me anything like that again, I'll slip Gorus a few coins to use a new rope... a nice stretchy one. I had to do something to get out of the cold for the winter, so I did the only thing I could think of to do - I collected parts to set up a still like old Bill'd shown me, went into production and sold 'shine. It brought in just enough coin to keep me fed and pay a local landowner for use of a little shack with a leaky roof, but I was alive, and alone with no one to stare at me like some kind of animal after one of those awful, vaguely alluring nightmares. I was like a hermit, but it kept me going through the winter, and the next five after that. I didn't look for trouble, but trouble came looking for me one day. Seems a new recipe I'd run through the still didn't work out quite the way I planned it to - or maybe it did - everyone who'd drunk it went blind. Three guardsmen showed up at my shack and wanted to have a word about that, and this being the first time I'd seen them come out to the slum for anything, I figured they weren't just there to talk. I didn't know what to do, I tried to run. One of 'em got in my way and I punched him to knock him aside. My blood surged with raging joy as my fist exploded with the sickening-sweet energy I'd felt so many mornings when I woke, and he shrieked and just stood there, swaying dizzily. So I hit him again, and his skin bubbled up and discolored like he'd been burned, and he fell. I would've kept running, but it was about that time the other two guards got their act together, busted me over the head with their saps, and I was out like a snuffed candle. I woke up in a dank cell reeking of mildew and rat droppings. I found out soon enough that the man had died from his injuries, and it turned out he was a conniving incompetent and the other guardsmen hated him anyway, so I actually did them a favor. So, they lied to the judge - so much for the incorruptibility of the law. I don't know what exactly I was charged with, and frankly I don't care, but it got me two years in the hole instead of life in the gallows. It took me a month to build a new still just to keep myself occupied, spent most of the time in a stupor, and gave out what I couldn't drink to the other inmates. The good thing was, it kept the other prisoners friendly. The down side was it made them talk. I was in with the most disgusting people you can imagine. The things they'd done to strangers, and lone women, and each other, and in one guy's case even his own daughter, were... no, I'm not going to repeat what I heard. It seemed like the more depraved they were, the more they were drawn to me. When my time was up, I went to the coast - it was only a day away, and I figured any dockside tavern wench had plenty of experience with sailors, and would probably survive me being in my condition after two years inside. ...Yes, and she had to take the rest of the day off as she couldn't walk straight afterward. ANYWAY... I wanted a new start in a new town, and I wanted some time to think without the stone walls weighing on me. I lingered around the port for a few days, with the sun practically burning my dank-accustomed eyes out of my head, until I found a ship I could hire on as temporary crew with in exchange for passage. I didn't even think to ask where the vessel was headed until we'd been at sea for a week and passed up Isla L'Anjou. Turns out we were coming here to Baton Noir... funny how Hispan's actually closer to Lys, but what with the mountain range and the trade winds, Baton Noir's a shorter trip, huh? We were at sea for another fortnight before we landed here. My eyes weren't getting any better, so I knew I was going to need a night job if I was to avoid going blind. And I heard that you Baton Noirians are a superstitious lot... really, salt all over the place to keep the walking dead out, sacrificing chickens in hopes of fair weather? I'd finally gained a measure of control over that surging power inside me... to this day it threatens to tear my mind apart, but it comes forth from my body when I want it to, and stays inside when I don't. So I figured, why not see if the guard had any night watch positions open? Nobody likes the night shift what with the thieves prowling around, and after I had to deal with a few people in my own - unique way -, the rumors would spread among the yokels like wildfire, and everyone would be too afraid to try anything funny with me. At very least, it's a steady source of income I can live on, with enough left over to save, invest, and make grow. Maybe the disciplined job would even help me keep the wonderful, dreadful energies flowing through me from becoming overwhelming. You don't believe me? Look at that mangy cat over there. .....fur stinks when it burns, huh? Why am I telling you all this? A sort of confession, I suppose. I keep to myself mostly, and I don't speak to clergy. And who could you tell? Gorus? Ha. I'm sure he'll eagerly take the wild word of a man about to be hanged, with booze on his breath, over that of his escort. No, the energy in me will be shown how and when I choose to, and my past buried with you. Speaking of which, it's nearly moonpeak, and the gallows is just up ahead... Comments?
Grizzled Gryphon 01-03-06, 09:22 AM	Very nice!! And you said you can't write.
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-03-06, 09:35 AM	Well I only ever passed highschool english by tricking the ditz of a teacher into letting me write all the tests - of course I passed them easily. :angelhide But it's given a fair degree of doubt on actual ability. Thanks though. :)
WhrenKehrsyn 01-03-06, 02:09 PM	Very good! =0) I like the first person thing, it helps me get in character for my own characters and it really helps me get a feel for who they are. How they talk and how they articulate says just as much about who they are as the backround itself does.