Help with two characters... =X [Archive] - Wizards Community

Help with two characters... =X [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Olik
01-14-08, 10:01 PM I don't know where to start really, so ill just jump right in. I have two characters in need of some decent backgrounds, but they don't need to be epic length or detailed. i want some sort of reference to use when it comes down to "would my character do this?" and other such questions that come up during questionable activities.

1) Character name: Vexitron, "Vex" for short.
level 5 swashbuckler/rogue Tiefling. started out Chaotic Neutral but shifted to Neutral Evil.

Brief history of what the character has done so far in the campaign:
(a lot has happened but i don't know if everyone wants to read a ton, so ill try to bullet-point this for brevity.)

Took a job for a transporting company with another PC and some NPCs which led us to a large city. one NPC was killed en route. the other NPC, "Lock", was suspected of murder, so myself and PC tried to turn him in. guards were killed in a manor that would make us look bad, so we fled the city.

At our next stop, (us being myself and the other PC) we took up a job as personal guards at a Noble's residence (night shift). on our first night, we decided to rob him and murder him. we framed "Lock" for the murder. The Noble's brother came to clean up the mess. During a tavern conversation between me and the noble, he was killed by "Lock" via arrow through the throat. i stole the Noble's signet ring and have been posing as a lord of the Noble's family.

Left that second city for a third one, in search of more of the noble family (the Aironeus Family). Our plan is to kill off the nobles, claim the family name and take their wealth as our own. we found the Aironeus estate at this third city and staged a break in, but "Lock was there, and had killed the noble already. my PC cohort was killed but i escaped with the loot. on my way out, i decided to, for no good apparent reason, give all of the murdered guards "Columbian Neckties". (alignment shift) I posed as Lord Aironeus and showed up the next morning to "see my uncle", only to find him killed the night before.
the Noble's brother will be in town shortly to clean things up. i plan to kill him as well.

The character is very good at bluffing his way through most any interaction with people, and can bribe those he cant lie to, using the 200k+ gp stolen from the Aironeus family. This character doesn't kill everyone. he killed guards who got in the way, and framed those who he knew were threats to him. he would die for any one of his party members though, and would never cheat, lie, or steal from them.

Does anyone have an idea for this characters background? what would make him kill like this, but not harm or deceive his party members? why would this character be trying to kill off all of the Aironeus family and claim their wealth and name for himself?

2) Character Name: Undecided. He will be a human, using THIS (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=358801&highlight=Pirate) as his class.

He is the captain of a ship named "The Devil's Cutlass" (im not solid on this name, but it sounds good enough to me anyway). His crew will consist of 3 PCs and maybe some NPC crew as well.

The way he fights, is pretty simple. he has a thick leather belt full of loaded pistols, and just pulls them out and fires them one at a time untill the enemy(s) get close to him. at that point he drops the pistol and pulls out his Cutlass / Rapier and goes to town "Classic" Pirate style. if i cant finesse a Cutlass, it will be a rapier.

This is an agile character, not a muscle-bound hulk of a man. very grizzly looking and rough on the edges. he appears to always be drunk, swaying about and cussing, knocking things over, and that sort of thing. this is all a ploy though that is used in hopes of his enemies underestimating him. He keeps a 3-5 day stubble on his face, and usually smells like salt and rum (very pungent). Lots of scars riddle his body, but no deformations or missing limbs. every digit and appendage is accounted for.

He is firm but fair. treating his crew as he might treat his children... if he were to have any. anyone else is fair game. everyone has a designated importance determined solely by the size of their wallets. which is to say, if they have a lot of money, they probably wont be surviving an encounter with this Pirate captain. if they are poor or have nothing of value, this character would care less if they live or die, but wouldn't feel inclined to kill them unless they did something stupid, like attack him or his crew.

This character admires bravery, and it is always rewarded amongst his crew. If this character is impressed (which is no easy feat) by an enemy, he might offer to spare their lives if they serve in his crew. Hes always looking for another deck hand that can carry their own weight.

This is much much broader, but im not expecting for people to write the background for me. then it wouldn't be "mine" per-se. im just looking for some good starting points to push me in the right direction.

What do you think made this character decide to act drunk all the time? why did he name the ship "The Devil's Cutlass"? (or anything for that matter. if you have a better name and a decent reason it might be named such, feel free to share). What drove him to piracy?

Thanks for taking your time to read through and post some ideas. I really do appreciate any and all assistance. Im not bad at role playing on the fly with my characters, but when it comes to hashing out some backgrounds for them, they are all cliche and "old hat". even though it frustrates me, its the only things i can think of.
I_roll_ones
01-15-08, 01:43 PM Killing people just to be sure is pretty close to evil, but not always. The tief is trying to kill people for cash. The NE is justified, through I think that morality is always iffy and depends on the person.

And your tiefling? The entire mortal realm is out to get him. From birth, he has been abused, ignored and treated badly when he has done nothing. He is simply getting what the world owes him for his mistreatment. This is justice! Let those with plenty die since they did nothing as he starved and was beaten like an animal!

Perhaps he was raised in an orphanage and fell with a child gang, or a gang of beggars when younger. He was stronger and was able to fight, but not everyone was. The guards would frequently harass the poor, wishing them off the street for aesthetic reasons, since their presence was assumed to be bad for trade.

Or, a fire broke out(Or both) and the guards of the city rushed to help the rich, leaving the poor to burn. Confused and scared(possibly young), the tiefling could only run out, and could not rescue others. In a moment, the guard allowed his only family and his only friends to perish in fire.

Since that day, he has vowed to get what the world owes him, but takes pity on the poor, seeking to gut and loot the rich for their arrogance and selfishness.

Or, instead of liking the poor, he doesn't wish to turn on his fellows, and simply wants to be able to live in comfort like any other human. He desires the company, trust and loyalty of others. He however, wishes for friends(perhaps he had some when he was younger?) and doesn't back stab his buddies, through his trust might be hard to earn.

As for Mr. Pirate...Where does he come from? Is he from a large port city? A smaller village? A tribe of some sort? What social class?

He feels a strong bond to his fellows, right? Why does he have a need to be loyal to others? Has he been loyal to a group of people before? What happened to them?

Maybe he wasn't always a pirate or salty sea-dog. Maybe he was a law enforcement officer who got framed, took a bribe, or tried to defend a buddy rather then doing his job. Enraged over the loss of his job, he turns to the sea, making his own law

And you don't name your boat "The Prancing Flowery Pixie" if there are Pirates in the water. Maybe he(Or the previous owner) did it to scare off people.
Olik
01-15-08, 05:13 PM Wow lots of good ideas here. thanks a ton! definately got my wheels turning, which is what i was hoping might happen.

The tiefling: im thinking this character was probably adopted into a wealthy family as part of a "save the innocent" type organization. when he was still young, he was pushed out of the nest, as it were. this was probably because the host family was tired of dealing with a tiefling child after there was no more public eye watching their "good deeds". this pretty much solidified in his mind that the rich are just out to get richer. in essence, there are no "good" rich people, and since the rest of the world seems to be blinded by their upbringing, he takes it upon himself to give those considered rich, what they deserve; a nice long blade with a fine sharp point.

As for the pirate, i dont really know where hes from or where hes going. its a new campaign that starts on this comming saturday. I think i like the "Ex-cop" route, and him having dealt with some heavy corruption on the inside, which drove him to the sea, where he was free to make and enforce his own law. Having servd for quite some time, he naturally has a bad disposition towards cowardace, and feels that killing a brave man would be a waste of a life. i dont believe he calls any city "home". all he needs is rum, wind, and women. If all three are strong enough, they can carry him wherever he needs to go.

what do you think of these backgrounds so far? i, myself, am pleased.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Olik 01-14-08, 10:01 PM	I don't know where to start really, so ill just jump right in. I have two characters in need of some decent backgrounds, but they don't need to be epic length or detailed. i want some sort of reference to use when it comes down to "would my character do this?" and other such questions that come up during questionable activities. 1) Character name: Vexitron, "Vex" for short. level 5 swashbuckler/rogue Tiefling. started out Chaotic Neutral but shifted to Neutral Evil. Brief history of what the character has done so far in the campaign: (a lot has happened but i don't know if everyone wants to read a ton, so ill try to bullet-point this for brevity.) Took a job for a transporting company with another PC and some NPCs which led us to a large city. one NPC was killed en route. the other NPC, "Lock", was suspected of murder, so myself and PC tried to turn him in. guards were killed in a manor that would make us look bad, so we fled the city. At our next stop, (us being myself and the other PC) we took up a job as personal guards at a Noble's residence (night shift). on our first night, we decided to rob him and murder him. we framed "Lock" for the murder. The Noble's brother came to clean up the mess. During a tavern conversation between me and the noble, he was killed by "Lock" via arrow through the throat. i stole the Noble's signet ring and have been posing as a lord of the Noble's family. Left that second city for a third one, in search of more of the noble family (the Aironeus Family). Our plan is to kill off the nobles, claim the family name and take their wealth as our own. we found the Aironeus estate at this third city and staged a break in, but "Lock was there, and had killed the noble already. my PC cohort was killed but i escaped with the loot. on my way out, i decided to, for no good apparent reason, give all of the murdered guards "Columbian Neckties". (alignment shift) I posed as Lord Aironeus and showed up the next morning to "see my uncle", only to find him killed the night before. the Noble's brother will be in town shortly to clean things up. i plan to kill him as well. The character is very good at bluffing his way through most any interaction with people, and can bribe those he cant lie to, using the 200k+ gp stolen from the Aironeus family. This character doesn't kill everyone. he killed guards who got in the way, and framed those who he knew were threats to him. he would die for any one of his party members though, and would never cheat, lie, or steal from them. Does anyone have an idea for this characters background? what would make him kill like this, but not harm or deceive his party members? why would this character be trying to kill off all of the Aironeus family and claim their wealth and name for himself? 2) Character Name: Undecided. He will be a human, using THIS (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=358801&highlight=Pirate) as his class. He is the captain of a ship named "The Devil's Cutlass" (im not solid on this name, but it sounds good enough to me anyway). His crew will consist of 3 PCs and maybe some NPC crew as well. The way he fights, is pretty simple. he has a thick leather belt full of loaded pistols, and just pulls them out and fires them one at a time untill the enemy(s) get close to him. at that point he drops the pistol and pulls out his Cutlass / Rapier and goes to town "Classic" Pirate style. if i cant finesse a Cutlass, it will be a rapier. This is an agile character, not a muscle-bound hulk of a man. very grizzly looking and rough on the edges. he appears to always be drunk, swaying about and cussing, knocking things over, and that sort of thing. this is all a ploy though that is used in hopes of his enemies underestimating him. He keeps a 3-5 day stubble on his face, and usually smells like salt and rum (very pungent). Lots of scars riddle his body, but no deformations or missing limbs. every digit and appendage is accounted for. He is firm but fair. treating his crew as he might treat his children... if he were to have any. anyone else is fair game. everyone has a designated importance determined solely by the size of their wallets. which is to say, if they have a lot of money, they probably wont be surviving an encounter with this Pirate captain. if they are poor or have nothing of value, this character would care less if they live or die, but wouldn't feel inclined to kill them unless they did something stupid, like attack him or his crew. This character admires bravery, and it is always rewarded amongst his crew. If this character is impressed (which is no easy feat) by an enemy, he might offer to spare their lives if they serve in his crew. Hes always looking for another deck hand that can carry their own weight. This is much much broader, but im not expecting for people to write the background for me. then it wouldn't be "mine" per-se. im just looking for some good starting points to push me in the right direction. What do you think made this character decide to act drunk all the time? why did he name the ship "The Devil's Cutlass"? (or anything for that matter. if you have a better name and a decent reason it might be named such, feel free to share). What drove him to piracy? Thanks for taking your time to read through and post some ideas. I really do appreciate any and all assistance. Im not bad at role playing on the fly with my characters, but when it comes to hashing out some backgrounds for them, they are all cliche and "old hat". even though it frustrates me, its the only things i can think of.
I_roll_ones 01-15-08, 01:43 PM	Killing people just to be sure is pretty close to evil, but not always. The tief is trying to kill people for cash. The NE is justified, through I think that morality is always iffy and depends on the person. And your tiefling? The entire mortal realm is out to get him. From birth, he has been abused, ignored and treated badly when he has done nothing. He is simply getting what the world owes him for his mistreatment. This is justice! Let those with plenty die since they did nothing as he starved and was beaten like an animal! Perhaps he was raised in an orphanage and fell with a child gang, or a gang of beggars when younger. He was stronger and was able to fight, but not everyone was. The guards would frequently harass the poor, wishing them off the street for aesthetic reasons, since their presence was assumed to be bad for trade. Or, a fire broke out(Or both) and the guards of the city rushed to help the rich, leaving the poor to burn. Confused and scared(possibly young), the tiefling could only run out, and could not rescue others. In a moment, the guard allowed his only family and his only friends to perish in fire. Since that day, he has vowed to get what the world owes him, but takes pity on the poor, seeking to gut and loot the rich for their arrogance and selfishness. Or, instead of liking the poor, he doesn't wish to turn on his fellows, and simply wants to be able to live in comfort like any other human. He desires the company, trust and loyalty of others. He however, wishes for friends(perhaps he had some when he was younger?) and doesn't back stab his buddies, through his trust might be hard to earn. As for Mr. Pirate...Where does he come from? Is he from a large port city? A smaller village? A tribe of some sort? What social class? He feels a strong bond to his fellows, right? Why does he have a need to be loyal to others? Has he been loyal to a group of people before? What happened to them? Maybe he wasn't always a pirate or salty sea-dog. Maybe he was a law enforcement officer who got framed, took a bribe, or tried to defend a buddy rather then doing his job. Enraged over the loss of his job, he turns to the sea, making his own law And you don't name your boat "The Prancing Flowery Pixie" if there are Pirates in the water. Maybe he(Or the previous owner) did it to scare off people.
Olik 01-15-08, 05:13 PM	Wow lots of good ideas here. thanks a ton! definately got my wheels turning, which is what i was hoping might happen. The tiefling: im thinking this character was probably adopted into a wealthy family as part of a "save the innocent" type organization. when he was still young, he was pushed out of the nest, as it were. this was probably because the host family was tired of dealing with a tiefling child after there was no more public eye watching their "good deeds". this pretty much solidified in his mind that the rich are just out to get richer. in essence, there are no "good" rich people, and since the rest of the world seems to be blinded by their upbringing, he takes it upon himself to give those considered rich, what they deserve; a nice long blade with a fine sharp point. As for the pirate, i dont really know where hes from or where hes going. its a new campaign that starts on this comming saturday. I think i like the "Ex-cop" route, and him having dealt with some heavy corruption on the inside, which drove him to the sea, where he was free to make and enforce his own law. Having servd for quite some time, he naturally has a bad disposition towards cowardace, and feels that killing a brave man would be a waste of a life. i dont believe he calls any city "home". all he needs is rum, wind, and women. If all three are strong enough, they can carry him wherever he needs to go. what do you think of these backgrounds so far? i, myself, am pleased.