Post/Author/DateTime	Post
ldcnuke 03-26-07, 03:29 PM	One of my characters is a vengeance-obsessed ranger looking for the man who killed his mother and sister, and I emphasised it in my background, and even in play I inquire about him in every town we go to. I even took human as a favored enemy just for him. However, my DM has not given my character a glimpse of this guy or any leads since level one, and he is level 8 now. Any suggestions on what I should do?
Shalaska 03-26-07, 03:43 PM	My suggestion would to be to either talk to the DM out of game and mention it, or a more drastic approach have your character finally explode in camp one night saying that he refuses to go on any more pointless errands until he finds this guy, and then force the DM to react to you. Begin asking more forceful questions, even torturing people to find answers, trust me if you keep that up long enough the DM will get the message and will come up with some answers. If neither of those work then I must say your DM is not that good and you should either just live with that or try and find a new group/DM who will actually listen to what his players want.
Rhuxley 03-26-07, 05:20 PM	DUDE........ thats horrible I second the above ideas, both of them.
Daxen 03-26-07, 09:47 PM	I agree with the first part of the above selection. In the second part I would change it a bit. The next time you enter a town or anything announce to the group that you strayed too far from your original goals and that though you may meet again the time has come to find this man. If the DM does not respond in some way in that session. Retire the character and insist on drawing a new character up. I make this suggestion because I know that it is difficult to find new DM's. The new character should be a flat dimensionless mathematical Algorythm designed to take every advantage of the DM's gaming system. Absolutely refuse to provide it any backstory sighting that it doesn't seem to matter. That should snap him to.
Shalaska 03-26-07, 10:13 PM	I like the idea of the dimensionless character, call him number 8 and you got his name by rolling a 1d12 and named him what you got, and then make a list of possible roll playing sollutions and roll 2 1d10's to pick from the list, even if it makes no sense lol.
Terjon of the Blue Rose 03-27-07, 04:03 AM	A dimensionless character sounds just a wee bit petty (less so if talking out of game doesn't work). Talking out of game may be the solution but the prob may be a simple as the DM simply doesn't know how to include your background. You may need to do just a little more work and create a few of the NPCs who are responsible for your tragedy. Few DMs will pass up a free, well-written NPC. Try asking about a way you can help him fit it into the story (hopefully without giving up any major plot points). You're already doing the right thing with questionings in town and your favored enemy. Unfortunately it's also true you may have a DM who doesn't want to be bothered. If that's the case I can think of only two solutions. Go find another group or take on DMing yourself and talk to the existing group about an alternating game.
Rhuxley 03-27-07, 12:11 PM	You dont happen to live in chicago do you? cuz if so i would love to add you to my group, wherein i have players who actually refuse to write backstories.
Rathmun 03-27-07, 03:51 PM	The new character should be a flat dimensionless mathematical Algorythm designed to take every advantage of the DM's gaming system. Absolutely refuse to provide it any backstory sighting that it doesn't seem to matter. That should snap him to. I like the idea of the dimensionless character, call him number 8 and you got his name by rolling a 1d12 and named him what you got, and then make a list of possible roll playing sollutions and roll 2 1d10's to pick from the list, even if it makes no sense lol. make a warforged, then you even have an excuse for no backstory, he is newly forged and actually has no backstory. It even explains the flat personality and the name "number 8" (maybe the 8th unit of whatever model he is.)
Prom 03-28-07, 05:04 PM	Hi Idcnuke, Can I suggest something else, too consider. Background stories for characters are vital, but your background is a common stereotype. Your DM my have come across the vengeance motive too many times, and be sick of it. Something else to consider is that your DM has to create a whole story and adventure around you too fill your characters goal, unless you want the DM to have the guy just show up out of the blue. The party I am with also has a ranger seeking revenge and he may never find the guy responsible, we just do not know. Prom
DocSpartan 03-28-07, 05:19 PM	There is also the possibility that he either doesn't realize just how important this subplot is to you or that he thinks that you are happy with how things are going and never really expect to encounter your nemesis. The last possibility is that he he has an overarching plot and a man-hunt subplot just doesn't fit into the story he's telling. One mistake I made in the last game I ran was creating this epic storyline that didn't allow room for the individual characters to have messy background stuff like that. The best and most respectful solution (for both of you) is to talk to your DM about your frustration and your expectations of play. See if you can come to a compromise. If he's a decent person and friend he'll listen to you.
David Argall 03-28-07, 08:26 PM	Unfortunately it's also true you may have a DM who doesn't want to be bothered. If that's the case I can think of only two solutions. Go find another group or take on DMing yourself and talk to the existing group about an alternating game. Well, there is always the simple choice. Live with it. You don't get everything in this life, so just accept that you are not going to get this particular plot and play with what you do get.
Ayra 03-29-07, 09:31 AM	Perhaps your DM sees your vengeance as your driving factor. Without vengeance, you wouldn't even be adventuring. If this is the case though, I would at least throw some hints here and there to keep you motivated and still give you a reason to stick with the party. The best part of being a DM, in my eyes, is that even though you craft the storyline, the influence the players have on it (both directly with game play, and indirectly with their storylines) offers enough surprise and intrigue for the DM himself. On a further sidenote: What do your other players get regarding to their background storyline? Perhaps your DM simply doesn't want to spend any "extra" attention to you, being afraid he'd neglect the rest of the group? I once played in a campaign where one of the players turned out to be a (lost) prince of a country that was of vital importance to the campaign. This instantly made the storyline orbit around him, leaving him to make important decisions that normally the whole group would make. Of course my situation is quite different from yours, but the initial feeling of spending too much attention to just one player might be there! Last but not least: How is the progression of your group going? From experience with groups in the past, I have noticed that sometimes the interests of the DM and the players may conflict. The DM would love a fast progression in the storyline, while the players just take it slowly and basically force the sessions into another direction, away from the main campaign, making progression significantly slower. If something like this might be the case, the DM may just want his storyline to progress to a certain point before allowing the PCs to stray off the main storyline with their own background stories. It could really be anything, but I would definitely talk to the DM out of the game about this. If that leads to nothing and you still insist on playing out your storyline, I'm afraid you'd have to find a new group. Best of luck!
CrimsonDeath 03-30-07, 03:09 AM	Well, if the DM doesn't mind a touch of deus-ex-machina, the guy you're hunting could conveniently be employed by a (the?) major villain. There's a good chance someone more-or-less fitting your foe's description is already part of the challenges that will eventually be set before you, so all it would take would be to attach this particular personality to him. If your DM is open to suggestions, you could mention the possibility to him.
GAMBLE_d13 04-18-07, 09:02 AM	Dude, atleast you get to WRITE your own background, my group is turning away from that (though I am fighting it as much as I can) altogether, with the DM handing out one paragraph backstories that are shallow and bland, and that take NOTHING about the character you want to play into account :mad: Oh well, atleast I get a little storytelling when I DM...
seedjar 04-18-07, 01:51 PM	I don't at all mean to sound condescending with this, but are you the star of this game? If you only meet once a week or so, it's not always easy to focus on more than one plot at a time. Your DM's plot probably keeps the party together; maintaining a group dynamic while at the same time engaging your character's personal (and possibly somewhat tangental) motivations might be a stretch for your DM's design abilities. Definitely do as the others have said above. Either do a good job of roleplaying, take the lead role of the party and move the story in your direction, or politely (but explicitly) explain to your DM out-of-game that you'd like him/her to support you in exploring your character more thoroughly through in-game encounters. Ayra makes a good point; your DM might not want to resolve your backstory for now as a reason to keep you adventuring. He might not want to give you an encounter with this guy you're after because he's got a use for that character later. Ask if you could at least get some leads or something to give your character a solid justification for staying with the party. I'm almost certain that you'll be able to come to a civil solution this way. If diplomacy fails, it could be a number of things. Your DM may simply not have the ability to give you what you want. I think the nice thing to do would be to go find another group that you'll have more fun with; if this DM and the rest of the group like to play a hack 'n slash game with little thought to character developement, then let them enjoy their game and find something that you can enjoy for yourself. Or, it could be the case that your DM is just lazy and/or playing favorites; if these people are your friends and you feel that you can make a point with them in good humor, I feel that powergaming is called for. Make yourself a Warforged Planar Shepard and spend your whole 14th level granting wishes in the form of an Efreeti that's immune to critical hits. Finally, you can't discount the possibility that your DM has considered your character and, for reasons of personal taste or time, has chosen not to make your motivations a focus of the party. I think this is extraordrinarily unlikely, but it could be. My group has a 'main character' of sorts - he was the only person that started the game with a thoughtfully developed character that hasn't left the game so far, so naturally the first adventures were designed to work with hooks in his backstory. Our party is always getting themselves in trouble with the villains and the story continues to focus on that one character, even as my character has subsumed the role of party leader since my introduction (our hero has a tendancy to break down and cry when being interrogated - uncanny knack for rolling 1s on bluff checks.) Besides for myself, the hero's player, and players that have since left the group (stupid jobs and real lives) our players had no prior roleplaying experience, and so our DM has kind of relied on the flatness of characters to hook them in easily. "Oh, you're a warforged living in Sharn after the war? OK, you're now working as a cop, and you're assigned to investigate the same crime that Mr. Hero is here to look into." "You're with Cannith? The guys that hired on the party offer to take a research delegation from your house - the house nobles 'offer' you this rare opportunity. Get on the boat." And that's about the extent that was put into it for most every player that joined the game thereafter. When I came to our DM with a backstory and character goals, he was thrilled, but we've run through almost five levels over the course of seven or eight months and he's just started bringing my design into the game. That's a really long time, but he really has made an earnest effort - this is the first game he's run on his own and it takes a lot of time for him to put together encounters and stories each week. I'm not counting on him to make my character's background a highlight of the game. It's primarily there for me, to guide how I play and give me something to focus on in conveying my character to the other players. My character does have a past, and I'm willing to put my foot down about that; the characters didn't just spring into being when our DM first said, "You walk into the local tavern..." But I don't make it a stretch to be accomodated. Like some folks said above, I'll make NPCs if I want to call them into the game, or at least give the DM a design to follow, enough that he can fake an encounter without having to thumb through the books for stats. It's not always easy to give everyone exactly what they want, and putting together a D&D game is a lot of work. The more complex you make your storylines and encounters, the more work it takes to bring everything together. Your DM probably puts a lot of time and thought into running the game; remember that the game is supposed to be fun for them, too. ~Joe
Priest_of_Doom 04-18-07, 05:10 PM	As a DM that's run a lot of games over the years, my advice is similar to some above: take you DM aside after the game, tell him you really enjoy the game, and ask them if they plan on incorporating your back story into the adventure. Tell them it's a really important part of the game to you. Perhaps suggest some ways this character could be incorporated, or work on the details and background of the villain with your DM. Let him know that even a few minutes of play time devoted to it would be very rewarding to you. From experience, I know how much work it can be to run a game. Coming up with material tailored to individual players can be a real challenge, regardless of how motivated you are to do it. Another challenge is that, as DM, you're sensitive to one player ending up in the spotlight for long periods of time. The rest of the players end up bored and impatient if they can't be included in the plot somehow. Again, try to be reasonable, and hopefully your DM is open to talking about this with you. -Good luck!
THETUNNELRAT 04-26-07, 04:22 PM	Find a out if you don't like what is going down....Your PC is fed up with the parties lack of concern or what ever and one morn is nowhere to be found. He went off on his own to hunt his target down. Roll a new PC with a different background and this time get it cleared by your DM. Some DMs don't want to go off their path, so work with him and all wil be good.:D