Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Fithero 11-27-05, 10:36 AM	This is a character that im playing (played 1 game already) in an Iron Heroes/D&D game. I couldnt find and Iron heroes board so i figured id post him here (plus since its a blend of rules, it *sorta* fits here) Tabias Dai'mere. Tabias was born in a small, isolated farming community where months would often pass between passers by. His family was no poorer than the rest of the village, they struggled and worked as hard as the other families. Tabias had one older brother and the two were inseperatable, they did everything together. Since his brother was a few years older than he was, Tabias was often dragged into situations that required a certain amount of maturity, so he grew up extrememly quickly. One day when he was eight, his brother took him out into the fields and showed him a dead cow, one that had been partially eaten by some great beast. As his brother walked around and poked the corpse with a stick, Tabias stood there and looked into the creatures eyes. The creature seemed to look back at him and Tabias became lost in its hollow stare. Even after his brother dragged him off back to the farm, even in the many sleepless nights that followed, Tabias remembered the cows eyes. The lives of his entire family changed for the worst one day, four years later when Tabias and his brother were out playing in the forest one evening after a day of work. The two brothers had climbed a great tree and were sitting near its peek talking of the past. His brother pointed out into the field and reminded Tabias of the dead cow they had found years before. Laughing so hard that he lost his balance, Tabias's brother barely managed to catch a lower branch as he fell from his perch. Tabias climbed down to his brother and looked down apon him as his brother looked back up at him. In his brothers eyes he saw that same look that he saw in the cow all those years before. He calmly reached down and took a hold of his brothers fingers and peeled them off the branch. Then watched as his brother fell to the ground below, being thrown about like a rag doll as he struck the many branches along his decent. Tabias climbed down to the forest floor and sat by the broken form of his brother and stared into his eyes. It was the same as the cow, but at the same time so much more. His brother seemed so empty now as he lay there on his stomach, head facing upward. Tabias sat there long into the night, until his parents found him, he never looked away from his brothers eyes, not for a moment. His family suffered greatly from this tragic event, without their eldest son, his parents were hard pressed to work the farm. Also, Tabias seemed to stop caring about work altogether, instead he spent his days in the woods killing small animals and staring into their eyes. Two years passed and his father finally became fed up with his son that refused to work. Without knowning the truth, his father blamed Tabias for the death of his brother and had him sent to prison. Tabias spent three years in prison where he was regularly beaten and raped for no reason at all. In all truth he was beaten so regularly because the other prisoners were scared of him. Tabias would never run away in fear when the other prisoners cornered him, would never scream when they assaulted him. Instead he would stare intently into their eyes, which would unnerve the others which inturn led to more beatings. It was a vicious cycle that continued until one of the prisoners saw potential in Tabias and incorperated him into his gang. He was given a make-shift knife and told to use it to protect himself. Instead of this, Tabias killed a guard one night and killed every prisoner who had wronged him, staring into their eyes after they passed. While his gang had been planning on an escape attempt, Tabias's killing spree spurred them into action and after he freed the rest of his gang, they led a revolt. Many guards were killed that night and Tabias stared into the eyes of every last one of them. After their escape, Tabias and the gang made their way to the closest city then parted ways. Not knowing where else to turn, Tabias went the town square in time to witness the execution's of several prisoners. Tabias was entralled by the spectacle and awestruck that such blatant killing was allowed in the cities. Afterwards he approached the headsman and asked to become an apprentice, the executioner agreed. Tabias spent the next three years under the close tutelage of the executioner, learning the various ways of torture and execution. His tutor was somewhat perplexed at times when his student didnt flinch at sights that made even him pause, but overall was thrilled with his talented student. One night for reasons unknown, the cities guardsmen arrested Tabias's tutor and the next day Tabias found himself torturing his old mentor. As always, Tabias took to the task without flinching, while always looking into his eyes. Before he passed away from blood loss, the old executioner screamed out in horror at the heartless monster that he had created. :waits: Ok, thats it, its finally over. Sorry it was so long, but i acutally cut a fair bit out. So basically this character is of the executioner class (again, its Iron heros) which is basically the rogue class... kinda. Anyway, he has the traits: Brave (immune to fear effects) and Eidict Memory (Remembers everything). Basically im playing this guy as a sort of sociopath who is enthralled with death and pain. He looks into the eyes of all that he has killed (his brothers death kinda broke him, making him immune to fear) and he has a pictographic memory for all his kills. He is very polite, neat and well mannered with a pleasant demeanor, until it comes time for pain, which is when he becomes cold and remorseless. He isnt evil, he doesnt enjoy killing or kill for no reason, but as you may have guessed, he sure as hell isnt good. He is just one messed up puppy :P Anyway, as a role playing note with this character im going to be keeping a record of all those that he kills. Again, sorry for the length of this post, ive just been dying to get some feedback on this guy. Hope you liked him. Later
WVgamer 11-27-05, 11:00 AM	I like it. I like it a lot. The only thing I might, and that's a big might, switch is that the killing small animals come before the death of the brother, but that's just from some experiences with kids I know.
Sang-Drax 11-27-05, 06:47 PM	What do you mean, he's not evil?? He killed little animals and his brother, tortures people without flinching and all, and he's NOT evil? I pity your brother, dude :P Now, it's really good, even though I've got no idea of what Iron Heroes is.
nihility 11-27-05, 09:28 PM	What do you mean, he's not evil?? He killed little animals and his brother, tortures people without flinching and all, and he's NOT evil? I pity your brother, dude :P Now, it's really good, even though I've got no idea of what Iron Heroes is. It's a variant player's handbook published by Monte Cook's company; as the name implies, it's a very low magic setting that focuses on physical prowess over magical enhancement. The executioner is one of the core classes. You can read about it here (http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?iron-lore). I had a chance to spend some time with it at a local gaming store, and it seems quite good. I plan to get it myself soon. If memory serves, Iron Heroes follows the tradition of Arcana Evolved (http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?arcanaevolved) by doing away with the alignment system entirely. Thus, the character is not evil because there is no sense of absolute good or evil in the setting. One could make a case for the character being non-evil in core DnD, though it would not be easy, but it's a moot point in Iron Heroes. I think the OP is using "evil" in the popular sense. A sniper in the special forces might enjoy his job very much, but so long as he kills only those that he is ordered to and serves honorably, our society calls him a hero rather than a villain. If said person joined the military after a stint in prison, our society would probably call it a success story. In any case, I'm curious what the character's relationship is with his weapons. Does he have a particular weapon that he takes care of, polishing it daily and such? Or does the character keep a "toolbox" handy, simply grabbing whatever he deems useful for the job at hand?
nihility 11-27-05, 09:52 PM	I like it. I like it a lot. The only thing I might, and that's a big might, switch is that the killing small animals come before the death of the brother, but that's just from some experiences with kids I know. Personally, I favor the order that the OP has now. I like the idea that, rather than being a sadist, the character simply failed to internalize that death and pain are taboo. To flesh out this aspect of the character, you might find it helpful to do more research into sociopathy to get more ideas about the psychology of such a person.
Harrow Blade 11-28-05, 12:39 AM	That is one truly messed up character, but a great concept. I love and am afraid of it all at the same time :confused: I agree with WVgamer in that I think the killing of small animals would happen before the thing with his brother but other than that it is very cool. Something you might want to look at having your character do is search for the thing that makes the eyes look empty (search for the soul) be facinated by catatonic people (people who are empty yet still alive) of have him wait until the group is asleep then pry thier eyes open to see if they have the same empty look. Can you imagine waking up to see a stone cold killer staring into your eyes? that would freak alot of people out.
Fithero 11-28-05, 12:54 AM	Thanks for the ideas guys, good stuff. Im rather fond of the whole "opening the eye lids of sleeping party members" :P very nice... very spooky. He doesnt really have an attachment to any of his weapons, but he does have a torturers kit (did have a great axe but the dm took it for party balance :( not happy!) In his first game he actually did very well in full on combat, mostly it was because of luck of the dice, but he will kicking some serious butt. I think he actually killed as many people as the rest of the party combined :P Hard core, very hard core. Later
Sang-Drax 11-28-05, 03:55 AM	I think the OP is using "evil" in the popular sense. A sniper in the special forces might enjoy his job very much, but so long as he kills only those that he is ordered to and serves honorably, our society calls him a hero rather than a villain. If said person joined the military after a stint in prison, our society would probably call it a success story. *off-topic* Come on, you can't compare one thing with another. He killed his brother and he tortures people. Torturing is an evil act, no matter the circumstances. Killing someone that trusts you just because you had the opportunity *is* evil. If that doesn't mean this guy has an evil alignment, who does? I mean, rulers who steal from their people could even be good, if you think that way... it's not as bad as being a torturer/murderer. Under this system, nothing short of demons and maybe soul collectors would be really evil. Unless, of course, the alignment is defined according to what gives pleasure to a character, in which case not even illithids would be evil (just take a look into Lord of Madness - they don't feel pleasure at anything).
Fithero 11-28-05, 07:18 AM	Well, he didnt actually kill his brother out of spite, hate or anything like that, it was more when he saw that fearfull look of near death in his eyes that lured him into making him drop. It wouldnt have mattered if it was his brother, mother or some stranger, he still would have made them drop, that look in their eyes is like an obsession for him. Im thinking that he is looking for an answer to the soul or something like that. When i say he isnt evil, i mean he isnt "stupid evil" ie, going round killing willy nilly for no reason whatso ever, which is why i say that he is more neutral. But i can definetly see how you could say he is evil, ill probably just say he is evil to stop any arguments erupting :P Anyway, apart from when he is torturing (which he only does when he has a definate reason to do so) or executing somebody, youd never even know how much of a freak this guy is. He is kinda like those brain washed, sleeper assassians that they have in movies, all is fine and dandy until the password is said, then they bust out all sorts of ass-kickery :D Any more comments on this guy? So far its all been very helpfull. Later
Sang-Drax 11-28-05, 08:24 AM	When i say he isnt evil, i mean he isnt "stupid evil" ie, going round killing willy nilly for no reason whatso ever, which is why i say that he is more neutral. But i can definetly see how you could say he is evil, ill probably just say he is evil to stop any arguments erupting :P Yeah, I didn't want to make a big deal of that either. But- He is kinda like those brain washed, sleeper assassians that they have in movies, all is fine and dandy until the password is said, then they bust out all sorts of ass-kickery :D Wouldn't that be the case of, say, nazi executioners? I could not possibly say a nazi criminal isn't evil. There is, however, a big moral issue in the Ethics Philosophy, which also includes Anthropologists all around the world, on the subject, so, of course, I don't have the final word. But do consider this parallelism. Any more comments on this guy? So far its all been very helpfull. Later I personally love evil characters, specially the ones that are more real, rather than the Disciples of Darkness out there. I also gave a look into nihility's link, and this Iron Heroes resembles a lot a campaign I've ran a few months ago... I really like the low-magic concept; is the book any good?
nihility 11-28-05, 09:29 AM	...I also gave a look into nihility's link, and this Iron Heroes resembles a lot a campaign I've ran a few months ago... I really like the low-magic concept; is the book any good? Well, they've certainly done a good job in making low-magic characters balanced against normal encounters. The feats in particular are stronger in general - virtually all feats scale in some way, and the variety of combat styles that you can achieve is much wider. There's also a system that lets you accumulate points for doing certain things in combat; you can then spend those points to accomplish special actions, sort of like "hero points light." If your local game store carries it, I would certainly recommend giving it a look.
nihility 11-28-05, 09:34 AM	*off-topic* Come on, you can't compare one thing with another... Yeah, like I said, it wouldn't be an easy case to make with regards to the core alignment system; outright sophistry might be required. Nowadays, though, I'm sure some spin doctor or marketing specialist out there could put enough shine on it to make a movie of the week out of his story.
nihility 11-28-05, 09:41 AM	...youd never even know how much of a freak this guy is. He is kinda like those brain washed, sleeper assassians that they have in movies, all is fine and dandy until the password is said, then they bust out all sorts of ass-kickery :D Any more comments on this guy? So far its all been very helpfull. If you want him to appear normal in most situations, or approximately normal, it would probably be a good idea to flesh out his more mundane interests and hobbies. Maybe he likes reading mysteries, or enjoys going to the theater on his nights off. Maybe he likes to bake muffins. If you find a few perfectly normal and non-creepy things for him to do on a regular basis, his sudden change into Dr. Demento seems all the more surprising. PC: Anyone want a muffin? Party-member 1: Thanks! *eats muffin* Party-member 2: An orc! *points* PC: *draws weapon, dives at orc, and stabs it in the face many times* Rest of party: ... PC: Anyone else want a muffin?
Fithero 11-28-05, 10:06 AM	Im just a bit hesitant to call him evil in that only a very small part of his life is actually evil (despite how evil it is). I mean, at times, he could go weeks without having to torture somebody (since execution isnt exactly considered evil when its warranted, ill leave it out for simplicity) so how can you really colour somebody on something done so rarely. I mean, yeah, he goes to work, tortures people for information the goes home, plays with the neighbours kids, feeds his dog, goes to the tavern then goes to bed. On his day off he goes and does stuff that any normal person would do, he doesnt bug out and slash necks and rip out eye balls, in his own spare time he is quite normal. Now warranted he may need to train or hone his torture/execution skills with training, but that in itself cant really be called evil, its just training. Basically its just this guys job. As i said, its such a small part of his life, just a profession really, he doesnt gain any enjoyment out of it (he is interested, ie: looking at their eyes, but he doesnt laugh mainically as he works) so, how can he be truly evil. So this is my basic argument, what he does is evil, but i dont think he is. Just because somebody does something good, doesnt make them a good person. Ill now wait for the barrage of bullets to shoot through my argument :P Later
nihility 11-28-05, 12:26 PM	The question of this character's morality is obviously a sticky one, and I'd like to consider it in a bit more detail. For starters, let's assume that the core alignment system is being used, if at all, as a guideline. With this in mind, there are several aspects to consider. 1) Historical Views of Torture. Of course, modern society largely denounces torture, even if it is still widely used and in some cases widely condoned (such as in the infamous "ticking bomb" scenario). However, this is not the view that was common throughout history. Remember that most DnD games are set in a pseudo-historical setting based broadly on Medieval Europe. Thus, it would be germane to consider how torture has been viewed historically, and particularly in the Middle Ages. Simply put, torture was usually not considered inherently "wrong." It was often a matter of course that a criminal would be tortured before death. The realization that torture usually fails to extract reliable information is a recent one, and torture was a primary means of interrogation. According to Wikipedia's entry on torture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture), "in the Roman Republic, for example, a slave's testimony was admissible only if it was extracted by torture, on the assumption that slaves could not be trusted to reveal the truth voluntarily." And, of course, the various religious inquisitions during the Middle Ages made wide use of torture. The fact is that torture was a common and accepted practice in many places and in many time periods. Someone's got to do the job, and this character seems to have taken up this particular profession. If that doesn't sit well, consider that there are a great many professions that we consider normal today that a typical French peasant in the 12th century would find abhorrent. 2) Modern and Historical Views on Insanity In contrast to torture, there is a fairly unbroken tradition in the west regarding insanity and crime. Wikipedia's article on the insanity defense (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insanity_defense) mentions that the concept existed in ancient Greece and Rome, and more modern versions of the law date back hundreds of years. The basic standard today in the U.S. is that of being "unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness" of an act. So, even if we impose modern standards on a pseudo-historical setting and consider the character's profession to be evil, we have to consider if the character is capable of understanding the wrongfulness of his actions. It seems clear to me that he is not. There seems to be some sort of mental condition here, perhaps some form of psychosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosis). Fithero has mentioned several times that the character's fascination is nothing that you might easily call sadistic; instead, there seems to be something trancelike about his behavior, a suspension of rational thought. It does not seem as though this character is capable of judging much of anything in these situations, particularly the morality of his own actions. At the least, he has certainly been unable to internalize that death and pain are taboo, instead feeling some sort of impulsive fascination with such things. I don't think it's appropriate to deem this character "evil" in the DnD sense for actions that he seems to have, at best, very little control over. 3) Larger Context "Evil" in DnD cannot be some switch that is thrown the moment an evil act is committed. There are evil acts, yes, but there are also good acts. Most people, even good people, do both good and bad things on a regular basis. The question is that of balance. Since DnD defines good primarily as altruism and evil primarily as selfishness (see the BoED and BoVD), is seems as though even eating food is something of an evil act, since one could have given that food away. In this case, we have a character who took a life without need (his brother's) and committed many violent acts while escaping from unjust imprisonment (note that unjust is not the same as undeserved). Since then, he seems to have become a productive member of society who has a socially accepted profession, though many might consider that profession distasteful. This person would probably be neutral if torture isn't taken to be inherently evil (that is, if you take the historical view), or on the evil side of the evil-neutral border if you taken the modern view of torture. 4) The Specific Campaign All of this is moot if the DM says "not evil" or "evil" when he reads the character's backstory. Rule Zero trumps anything we can say here. 5) The Point Regardless of how you feel about the character's morality, it is still useful to discuss this in as much as it provides insight and context for the character. How does the character think of his own actions and job? Does he think of them at all? What do his party-mates think of it? And so on.
Fithero 11-28-05, 07:16 PM	I tip my hat to you nihility, thats a damn fine argument. :P Anyway, enough talk about the characters alignment (which again, isnt even part of the game) id like some more feedback or role playing ideas on the character himself (if at all possible) Chiers. Later
Sang-Drax 11-29-05, 09:38 AM	Well, they've certainly done a good job in making low-magic characters balanced against normal encounters. The feats in particular are stronger in general - virtually all feats scale in some way, and the variety of combat styles that you can achieve is much wider. There's also a system that lets you accumulate points for doing certain things in combat; you can then spend those points to accomplish special actions, sort of like "hero points light." If your local game store carries it, I would certainly recommend giving it a look. Nice... unfortunately, I live in Rio, which means it's really unlikely I will find it here anywhere. As for the alignment issue, well... I don't see things that way. I don't like this absolute relativism. Just because torture was common among Romans, doesn't mean it wasn't evil. Do you want 2 examples of institutionalized evil deeds? Almost all (if not all) western European civilizations enslaved africans up to 18th-19th century. I've seen books stating that they treated them like animals, and, not having any ecological view of the world, it was explained, even though not justified, why they deed what they've done. However, I once read a letter by some Portuguese officer in late 17th century, and he wrote stuff like how sad was their departure from their families, and how cruel that all seemed. But he kept doing it. Which means, there was, indeed, a conscience of what was going on. But no-one wanted to change. The same can be said about nazi executioners. Were they evil? That's a one big discussion out there, but my guess is yes, they are. And more, is alignment based on our own ethnocentrism, or do we have to relativize (if that verb exists in English) the character's percepetion? I would guess that, unless the players have some degree in medieval history, it would be impossible to see things that way. Alignment should be something more straight-forward, otherwise only demonlords would be considered to be evil. Plus, if he's a psycopath, that's another HUGE discussion. Mental afflictions are not as absolute as physical ones. The definition of what is what is not a psycopath is made through tests, not a DNA exam. Unfortunately, my English is not as good as nihility's, otherwise I'd further expand my point of view. That said, I absolutely LOVED the muffin suggestion! You're right, adding a commonplace flavor the character makes it all the creepier. I guess I'll add something of the like to my evil wizard character.
Artifact 11-29-05, 11:57 AM	What a cool backstory for an assassin. Very well written. Nice work, Fithero. Your writing skills far exceed my own meager efforts. I'd like to ask permission to use this backstory for my own "steely-eyed assassin". I will give you full credit for the great storytelling, since I'd use the story pretty much as written. Please let me know if this is okay. :) Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed the story.
nihility 11-29-05, 02:21 PM	So, more suggestions... 1) More mundane characteristics. You mentioned a dog in passing, for example. Does he actually have a dog? Again, everything normal that you can detail about this guy helps to highlight the abnormal bits. 2) Physical features. I'm imagining a short man with a slim build and trimmed hair who favors simple clothing, but I have no idea if that's what you have in mind. 3) Clothing. See #2 4) Armor. Does he wear any? 5) Triggers. What, exactly, makes Tabias "flip out," as it were? 6) Memory. Does he remember these episodes clearly? 7) Motivations to adventure. Does he want anything besides more experience with death? Maybe he's interested in other cultures, for example, or maybe he prefers to change locations regularly because of his experience of being betrayed. Does he have expensive tastes that need to be financed? 8) Tabias is walking down the road when he suddenly sees a half-orc being attacked by three halfings. What is his first reaction?
nihility 11-29-05, 02:49 PM	Here's another idea along the lines of the muffin-baking hobby: tend a flower garden. I don't just mean to grow a daisy or two, I'm talking blue ribbon roses here. Make sure to have a silly straw hat and oversized gloves to wear when you're in town tending your garden. I mean, seriously, how can a person who grows pretty flowers be bad, right?
Sang-Drax 11-29-05, 06:19 PM	I mean, seriously, how can a person who grows pretty flowers be bad, right? Specially if he can whistle really well. :P Nice work, people.
Fithero 11-29-05, 08:15 PM	I'd like to ask permission to use this backstory for my own "steely-eyed assassin". Go for it man, id love you to use him :) Basically the way i play him is that he is uber polite and cheerfull, calls everybody "sir" or "ma'am" even if they are barbarians/homeless. This guy is affraid of nothing (sociopath) and stands tall in the face of any threat, he's not stupid though. If he sees a red dragon flying at him, he'd turn to the party and say something like "Gentlemen, i believe this situation calls for a tactical retreat, dont you? Oh, good." Youd never suspect that this guy was an assassian until he is called into action, which is when he stops blinking, and stares at you intently... while whipping out his great axe :P Have you seen what a great axe does with sneak damage?.... damn its nasty. Oh yeah, and something he *has* to do, is stare into the eyes of anything that he has killed. Its kinda his thing really. Hope he goes well for you. 1) More mundane characteristics. You mentioned a dog in passing, for example. Does he actually have a dog? Again, everything normal that you can detail about this guy helps to highlight the abnormal bits. He had a dog, but he killed it when he was out of work for a while. For obvious reasons this guy sees animals as expendable. The first game when the party was riding along on horse back, he was looking at the horse next to him and tracing his fingers along the path where he would cut to take out the animal... nasty stuff. 2) Physical features. I'm imagining a short man with a slim build and trimmed hair who favors simple clothing, but I have no idea if that's what you have in mind. Close :P Im trying to get away from the whole Artemis Entreri look. He is about 6ft tall with long blond hair that is tied back into a pony tail, light blue eyes and a cleanly shaven face. He is only 22 so he is quite young and without and serious scars or anything like that. He has a pleasant demeanor about him, until it comes time to work, then he stops blinking..... 3) Clothing. See #2 Well... he wears whatever clothes he has, nothing special. 4) Armor. Does he wear any? The game were playing is about hunting down heritics, so he is wearing his blakc leather armor that he wears when he executes people. (Basically its a suit of black leather, aswell as a cap that more or less has "drappes" hanging all over his body. With long flaps hanging down from his shoulders and waist etc.) 5) Triggers. What, exactly, makes Tabias "flip out," as it were? He never really "flips out" as it were, when he sees death he kinda goes into a trance and watches. The closest thing to flipping out is when he is asked to execute or torture somebody. He looses his pleasant demeanour immediately and goes stone cold killer. He doesnt taunt, doesnt laugh manically, just silently goes about his job, without blinking. 6) Memory. Does he remember these episodes clearly? He actually has eidict (spelling?) memory, which basically means he has a photographic memory, remembers everything. Which is why im writing down every single enemy he kills and how he kills them. This was inspire by blade trinity when the guards has him how many men he has killed. They think its the 50-60 range, and he just throws out this exact number, something like 1357... it just seemed so... wicked :evillaugh 7) Motivations to adventure. Does he want anything besides more experience with death? Maybe he's interested in other cultures, for example, or maybe he prefers to change locations regularly because of his experience of being betrayed. Does he have expensive tastes that need to be financed? Basically he is doing his own personal search for what he believes to be the soul (since he feels somewhat empty form being a sociopath) But apart from that he is just like every other person, that one aspect is just a hobby. Im totally going to make him bake muffins, its just so riduclious that its perfect. And im going to have him pout when the muffins are over cooked :P He still has normal goals, he still likes wealth and power, but he isnt greedy, basically he wants enough to live comfortably. 8) Tabias is walking down the road when he suddenly sees a half-orc being attacked by three halfings. What is his first reaction? Since he is immune to any sort of fear, he will walk up and just watch first of all to see if he can figure out what is going on. Then when he determines what side seems to be the "bad guy(s)", he will go after them... without mercy. Sorry if this doesnt make sense in parts, i was answering more than one question at a time. Thanks for the continued interest. Later
Artifact 11-29-05, 10:03 PM	Thank you, Fithero. You are very gracious. :) I know my gaming buddies will apreciate your story as much as I do.
nihility 11-29-05, 11:07 PM	Close :P Im trying to get away from the whole Artemis Entreri look.That's what Artemis looks like? Huh. I was just going for something unassuming. He actually has eidict...Pretty close, the spelling is "eidetic." My follow-up question would be if he has any emotional content to these memories, or if they are purely images, sounds, smells, and tactile sensations. And im going to have him pout when the muffins are over cooked.I love it! Looking good! Beyond this, I'd keep expanding on his "voice." You've already mentioned a basic style of speech, so I'd focus on that and go from there. Another thing that helps my group and I is music; we try to have about three songs or so that capture various aspects of the character. In this case, I would personally try to get a song that captures the character in combat or while he's "working," another during down time (maybe in the kitchen?), and a last one that relates to his past or something else entirely.
Fithero 11-30-05, 08:31 AM	My follow-up question would be if he has any emotional content to these memories, or if they are purely images, sounds, smells, and tactile sensations. Basically when he is fine, he remembers these things just as easily as any other memory, there is no stigma attatched to them at all. He talks about it quite openly and calmly with anybody who asks him, but generally keeps quite about it (doesnt go blabbing) cos he knows it freaks some people out. Again, his only wierd thing is when he is working, in which case he is like a drone, calmly going about his work without remorse... also when he is cooking... he gets a tad upset when things dont go right in the kitchen. :P Later