LN Monk needs personality & tradition [Archive] - Wizards Community

LN Monk needs personality & tradition [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Thurilien Lindoriad
12-16-05, 01:47 PM Hi all-

I'm DMing a game for a bunch of newbie players. One of the women is playing a LN monk. She is a fun, team-oriented player, but she recently told me that she feels like her character lacks personality. Role-playing is largely a learned skill, but one needs to have a set of personality traits in mind when attempting to play a role. She chose the monk class because she was reading a book with a (male) fighting monk as the main character and thought it was interesting. Unfortunately, the character in the book lacked personality, so that doesn't offer her any hints.

Normally, if I haven't already come up with my character's personality, I use the character's alignment as a starting point in doing so. This player's monk is LN, but she really plays her closer to LG. She hasn't selected a deity, and she hasn't come up with a description of her monastery or their doctrines/beliefs/traditions. I didn't want to force a set of beliefs on her, so I just stood back and gave her time and space to develop those ideas. But she is a busy mother, wife, and teacher, and she, like most of my players, doesn't spend any time on game-related things except when we're actually gaming.

So now we're several months into the campaign and the group is 3rd level, and the monk needs a personality! I was considering writing up a few sample monastic systems and seeing if one of them grabbed her interest, thinking that having a significant part of her background story in place would guide her in developing her personality. But then I realized I could solicit such ideas from the boards and possibly save myself a lot of time. So, anybody want to offer up some LN/LG monastic systems? Some guidelines: remote mountain monastery; not Asian-flavored; human-dominated; both genders represented; probably not dedicated to a deity, but that is not absolute.

I don't need book-length stuff here; any level of contribution is appreciated.

Thanks, and happy gaming!

-Thurilien
Uberwoot
12-16-05, 02:20 PM Personally, in your situation, I would hijack a few monastic orders from the Forgotten Realms setting. Almost no work is required, and you get some fairly well-documented orders to play with. However, if the flavor doesn't seem right, I can still offer a suggestion or three.

The first idea that pops to head is to pick a primary virtue or two and have the monastic order focus on those. I like this idea for a good- or lawful-aligned monastic order, so I'll fly with it for now.

Some virtues (I just did a quick Google search and copy and pasted some results) are faith, hope, charity, fortitude (perseverence), justice, temperance, prudence. On the particular website I found, they also listed "contrary" virtues (meant to defend against the main sins), including humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, liberality, diligence. I like the idea of picking a main virtue and then a couple lesser ones to back it up, so to pick a few that seem to go well together (and don't lean too far towards good alignment), I'll go with fortitude, with a side of humility and patience.

One possible way to look at what I've picked as attributes for this order is a particular penchant for purity of mind and emotional stability. The monastic order teaches the belief that pride is the bane of all dignified creatures, leading inevitably to their downfall through corruption of character (leaning towards good, but not too far) or- especially for fighting monks- arrogant underestimation of a foe. Anger is also a failure of the mind, leading those in its grasp to rash action that could sever sound relationships or lead a warrior to overreach oneself unnecessarily. To avoid pride, monks of the order are required to make and memorize a list of their own failures, repeating it (verbally in the presence of an elder, for initiates) each morning when they wake up and again before they go to bed, when they add any failures of that day to the list. The monks are taught to tirelessly work to correct their failures, but still remember old faults long fixed. In addition, while in the monastery, monks also spend several hours daily meditating with an empty mind to develop their patience. Fighting monks use this patience to their benefit, frequently adopting a very defensive fighting style that emphasizes exploiting their opponent's mistakes to great benefit.

I think I'll call it the Order of the Void. It sounds a little on the evil side, but understanding them is a little more than skin-deep.

As a side note, this is interesting enough that I'll probably include it in the campaign world I'm developing. Feel free to use it, but if you don't like what I've specifically designed, you could potentially use the same method to make your own.

Good hunting.
Thurilien Lindoriad
12-16-05, 05:18 PM Hail, Uberwoot!

Any idea whether I can find those FR orders free online?

Your notion of starting with a core set of virtues is appealing. I believe I'll present a list of virtues to the player and allow her to select them. Then I'll generate a few sample orders based on her selections and let her pick the one that most appeals to her.

Thanks for the input.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Thurilien Lindoriad 12-16-05, 01:47 PM	Hi all- I'm DMing a game for a bunch of newbie players. One of the women is playing a LN monk. She is a fun, team-oriented player, but she recently told me that she feels like her character lacks personality. Role-playing is largely a learned skill, but one needs to have a set of personality traits in mind when attempting to play a role. She chose the monk class because she was reading a book with a (male) fighting monk as the main character and thought it was interesting. Unfortunately, the character in the book lacked personality, so that doesn't offer her any hints. Normally, if I haven't already come up with my character's personality, I use the character's alignment as a starting point in doing so. This player's monk is LN, but she really plays her closer to LG. She hasn't selected a deity, and she hasn't come up with a description of her monastery or their doctrines/beliefs/traditions. I didn't want to force a set of beliefs on her, so I just stood back and gave her time and space to develop those ideas. But she is a busy mother, wife, and teacher, and she, like most of my players, doesn't spend any time on game-related things except when we're actually gaming. So now we're several months into the campaign and the group is 3rd level, and the monk needs a personality! I was considering writing up a few sample monastic systems and seeing if one of them grabbed her interest, thinking that having a significant part of her background story in place would guide her in developing her personality. But then I realized I could solicit such ideas from the boards and possibly save myself a lot of time. So, anybody want to offer up some LN/LG monastic systems? Some guidelines: remote mountain monastery; not Asian-flavored; human-dominated; both genders represented; probably not dedicated to a deity, but that is not absolute. I don't need book-length stuff here; any level of contribution is appreciated. Thanks, and happy gaming! -Thurilien
Uberwoot 12-16-05, 02:20 PM	Personally, in your situation, I would hijack a few monastic orders from the Forgotten Realms setting. Almost no work is required, and you get some fairly well-documented orders to play with. However, if the flavor doesn't seem right, I can still offer a suggestion or three. The first idea that pops to head is to pick a primary virtue or two and have the monastic order focus on those. I like this idea for a good- or lawful-aligned monastic order, so I'll fly with it for now. Some virtues (I just did a quick Google search and copy and pasted some results) are faith, hope, charity, fortitude (perseverence), justice, temperance, prudence. On the particular website I found, they also listed "contrary" virtues (meant to defend against the main sins), including humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, liberality, diligence. I like the idea of picking a main virtue and then a couple lesser ones to back it up, so to pick a few that seem to go well together (and don't lean too far towards good alignment), I'll go with fortitude, with a side of humility and patience. One possible way to look at what I've picked as attributes for this order is a particular penchant for purity of mind and emotional stability. The monastic order teaches the belief that pride is the bane of all dignified creatures, leading inevitably to their downfall through corruption of character (leaning towards good, but not too far) or- especially for fighting monks- arrogant underestimation of a foe. Anger is also a failure of the mind, leading those in its grasp to rash action that could sever sound relationships or lead a warrior to overreach oneself unnecessarily. To avoid pride, monks of the order are required to make and memorize a list of their own failures, repeating it (verbally in the presence of an elder, for initiates) each morning when they wake up and again before they go to bed, when they add any failures of that day to the list. The monks are taught to tirelessly work to correct their failures, but still remember old faults long fixed. In addition, while in the monastery, monks also spend several hours daily meditating with an empty mind to develop their patience. Fighting monks use this patience to their benefit, frequently adopting a very defensive fighting style that emphasizes exploiting their opponent's mistakes to great benefit. I think I'll call it the Order of the Void. It sounds a little on the evil side, but understanding them is a little more than skin-deep. As a side note, this is interesting enough that I'll probably include it in the campaign world I'm developing. Feel free to use it, but if you don't like what I've specifically designed, you could potentially use the same method to make your own. Good hunting.
Thurilien Lindoriad 12-16-05, 05:18 PM	Hail, Uberwoot! Any idea whether I can find those FR orders free online? Your notion of starting with a core set of virtues is appealing. I believe I'll present a list of virtues to the player and allow her to select them. Then I'll generate a few sample orders based on her selections and let her pick the one that most appeals to her. Thanks for the input.