Players on a Stage [Archive] - Wizards Community

Players on a Stage [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Uberwoot
10-06-07, 09:27 PM I'm working at the moment on the deeper plot interactions of a one-player game that I have just started DMing. It's set in a middle-eastern flavored coastal city, one of several loosely-associated city-states that form the relatively peaceful foil to a turbulent northland. It's a zero-magic campaign, and the player and I are focusing heavily on role playing, and this has both of us very excited.

I have run into a few problems. I fully intend, as my plot, to draw the player gradually into a thieves' guild power struggle, but I am having difficulties with characters. I have a few romanticized concepts for various characters in the campaign; the Merchant, the Lovers, the Architect, and the Maniac will all be players in my story, but at this time I know very little about many of them. I'll be posting a few backstories; the first is ready now, but others will be posted as they're finished. If, on the other hand, you want to invent another Player and supply me with a backstory, go right ahead! The more the merrier, as they say.

Edit: Also, another highly useful form of feedback would be an evaluation of the character of each of the players presented. Just seeing how your perception of a character differs from mine after reading their backstory provides an excellent way to tune up a story.

Another issue I have is with names. I have a passing acquaintance with Arabic naming conventions, which at the moment seems the best direction to go; however, I would very much like to distance my naming structure slightly from that because I worry too much. If you can help me develop an alternative structure, I'll be tempted to have your babies.

So, without further ado, the tale of the first player on my stage.

The son of a brickmaker from the Underbridge slum, he struggled in his early life to find a job that fit his strong intellect, failing time and time again to take interest in positions involving mere manual labor. Finally disowned by his family, he fell in with the Guild as a lookout, moving up to become a successful middle coordinator after a relatively small number of jobs. His loyalty paid off in his mid forties, when the Guild made him captain and part owner of a ship involved in trade with northlander ports.

His newfound freedom proved superficial, as the Guild continued to exert its influence over his activities. One Guildsman in particular, the northlander assigned to oversee the ship's home warehouse, served as the Guild's representative in applying pressure towards its various ends. Against his wishes, he was required to traffic slaves, fugitives, and contraband. In an attempt to free himself from the Guild's influence, he is slowly purchasing more and more of his ship- at an exhaustive cost.

Still, he endures comfortably on the money he obtains from his trade, living alone with his manservant in a home suitable for a moderate-sized extended family. He is involved in an illicit affair with the wife of a nobleman of the city, a young woman he has loved since long before her marriage, and still uses his contacts within the Guild to arrange discreet meetings. He hopes to become an accepted member of the upper class, but cannot do so until he marries and settles his debts- a seemingly impossible task that is the source of occasional gloomy contemplation on the long voyages.

Keeping his spirits up, however, is not a difficult task, as he takes pleasure in varied intellectual pursuits. He often finds an excuse to trade in books, always taking the time to read all traded tomes during the long voyages. He has become fluent in a number of languages, particularly those of the northland nations with which he trades, but also attempts to learn what he can of tongues from more distant lands. Above all, he is always eager for any opportunity to hear a new story, even going so far as to frequently offer passage- at the price of a tale.

Before his most recent voyage, he received unusual instructions from an unusual source, but still undoubtedly within the Guild: he was to travel to a distant foreign port- one he did not frequent due to poor trading opportunities- and remain there, making contact with a northlander, who he would befriend as much as possible and assist in leaving the city. Despite his concerns over rumors of the violent collapse of an unrelated thieves' guild in that port, he did as he was told- only once in that distant northern port hearing stories of a man who had single-handedly destroyed that guild. Believing his passenger to be that man, he dutifully returned to his home port, beginning to devise his own schemes how to use this resourceful agent for his own benefit.

The city rests atop a long series of limestone cliffs and astride a river running nearly dry; Underbridge is the name given to the slums that have grown up underneath the elaborate bridge structure that dominates the middle of the city.

/woot
Terjon of the Blue Rose
10-06-07, 11:37 PM Very nice so far.

But you're missing so many archetypes that I have to add to your plans. The Merchant, the Lovers, the Architect, and the Maniac are a great start but where is the Mother? The Founder? The Artist? Where is the Turncoat or the Profesional? Also missing are the Old Man and the Eager Child. Oh I can see I'm going to have fun with this thread.

Reesu was born in underbridge to a *****. His mother turned left him behind at the mid-wife's home and never looked back. He spent his youth in an orphanage that didn't have enough for all and where noone noticed when he would slip away for days at a time. He quickly found a home amongst the gangs of city where he learned his quick wits worked for him far better than his hands. He would arrange fights between the various bullies and thugs and collect fees from other urchins and even occasional adults. He also learned to make sure the champion always knew him as a good friend and supporter... right up til his first loss. He would take full advantage of the losers too though. They simply made sure that they knew the champ was on his side and then used them as protection against the other children.

It was inevitable that such a child would eventually fall in with the guild. He took to the job with an ease that surprised even seasoned veterans. Unfortunately it didn't surprise them enough and he has been knocked back down several times when trying to move himself up in the guild. Where he had become accustomed to dealing with weaker individuals he now faced people who were easily his equal in wits. People who had held long standing alliances and the resources to handle someone like him.

Reesu spends most of his time now on the lookout for people who have no ties to the heads of the guild. People who are indebted or loosely attached to the guild but not loyal. He plans to build a small empire of his own within the guild and then use it to move himself to the head.
Terjon of the Blue Rose
10-06-07, 11:40 PM Oh and as far as your naming structure goes I'd vary wildly in it. Your city may be part of some middle-eastern country but it sits on the sea at a river mouth. You should have had so many foreigners move in that after reaching even the level of small city there are names here that won't be heard elsewhere in the nation.
Uberwoot
10-07-07, 07:55 PM I had a feeling you might be the first one to reply to the post. The Schemer is an excellent Player, and does not disappoint for quality. Thanks very much!

I would like to point out that the four Players I mentioned are not the only ones I have in mind; at present I have such fanciful titles for a number of other characters (others include the Surgeon, the Worm, the Chained Man, The Entertainer, and the Sage) even though I still have only vague ideas about most of them.

As for the naming conventions of the city... I had already begun to introduce characters from other regions- particularly the northlands- into the city, and certainly their naming conventions will be represented, but accounting for the strongly conservative upper class of the cities (as well as the closely related nomadic tribes living in the desert to the west) is difficult without a unique naming convention. I have already determined that the culture does not yet wholly approve of intermarriage with foreigners, so occurrence of this is low- it allows me to actually show a unique culture for this area.

To emphasize what I edited into my old post, if you want to provide feedback but don't want to suggest a new Player or critique an existing one, feel free to simply evaluate the personality of a character; comparing these evaluations with my own intentions can be a great help in improving these stories.

Anywho. Number two is ready, but it is somewhat longer.

He was born the third son of a lesser noble family, a house trapped firmly in the web of political machinations of the greater houses. His mother took particular liking to him over his older brothers and allowed him far too often to avoid the formal education of his brothers in favor of her stories. He saw a strange contrast between the passionate love of the heroes in her tales and the restrained relationship between his parents. She died the sleeping death shortly before his passage to adulthood, severing his closest link with his family.

Eventually, to escape the political intrigue intrinsic to the nobility, he joined the guard company of a well-to-do merchant. There he was immersed in an environment of chauvinism, surrounded by men who had little respect for women, treating them as objects and frequenting brothels. He gradually grew desensitized to their behavior, and when he met a scholar espousing celibacy as a means to a fuller appreciation of life, he apprenticed himself readily to the doctrine. Eventually he moved on to become the personal bodyguard of a high-ranking magistrate, who he befriended over many years of faithful service which lasted until the magistrate's natural death.

And then he met her.

It was at the magistrate's funeral, at which he served as chief member of the honor guard, that his eyes were finally opened. As she approached his post he was transfixed by her gaze, unable to break eye contact even during the mourning bow they shared before she passed into the catacombs. In her eyes he saw curiosity, cleverness, and mischief- a woman unlike any other he had met, whose mere look seemed to promise a love he never thought to exist. In that moment, he abandoned his dedication to celibacy, resolving to find out if a romance like those in his mother's stories could be truly possible.

* * *

In the interests of protecting her and building the best life he could for her, her uncle had exercized tyrannical control over nearly every aspect of her life for many years, first educating her in the arts of being a noble wife and then passing her into the service of a high priest at the Temple, and she resented him with a supreme passion. The glimpses she caught into the outside world, of things to learn besides being a good wife, seemed to taunt her at every waking moment for her entire young life. She comforted herself by storing up her passion and telling herself that, when he finally died, everything would get better.

As it turned out, she was right- but not in the way she expected. She came to her uncle's funeral, prepared to deliver to his corpse the most seething curse the priests could teach her never to utter, but she lost focus when she accidentally caught the startlingly intense gaze of the honor guard's captain outside the catacombs. His eyes spoke of wonder and of passion, and when she finally approached the corpse, she found her hatred of the deceased had been mitigated by a craving to know more of the man she had met.

He sought her out at the Temple that night, and they began meeting in secret after the priests and her family forbade their startlingly unrestrained relationship. She delighted in evading the increasingly thuggish men sent by her family to stop them, and in all the new experiences they had together, but before long, her life at the Temple became unbearably difficult thanks to her family's interference. Finally, the pair conspired to steal a number of precious objects from the Temple and start a new life in another part of the city, and their dealings with a fence entangled them in short order with the Guild.

The pair took to their position in the Guild with a will, making temporary homes of inns and moving around the city frequently, spending the few weeks between jobs as they saw fit. After a few successes, their confidence inspired them to take unnecessary risks for thrills, until one daring escape turned bad- they split up and he was captured by a merchant's guards. She killed two of the men in a scuffle in the dark to free him, and since that night they have chosen to take more care about the risks they take.

One of the honors of a family is bestowed upon a member performing the duty of an ashan- sleeping over the threshhold of the home's main entrance. Tradition requires that one male family member performs this duty, and many families (particularly wealthier ones) adopt an ashan from outside the family, who will also perform the duties of a manservant.

/woot

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Uberwoot 10-06-07, 09:27 PM	I'm working at the moment on the deeper plot interactions of a one-player game that I have just started DMing. It's set in a middle-eastern flavored coastal city, one of several loosely-associated city-states that form the relatively peaceful foil to a turbulent northland. It's a zero-magic campaign, and the player and I are focusing heavily on role playing, and this has both of us very excited. I have run into a few problems. I fully intend, as my plot, to draw the player gradually into a thieves' guild power struggle, but I am having difficulties with characters. I have a few romanticized concepts for various characters in the campaign; the Merchant, the Lovers, the Architect, and the Maniac will all be players in my story, but at this time I know very little about many of them. I'll be posting a few backstories; the first is ready now, but others will be posted as they're finished. If, on the other hand, you want to invent another Player and supply me with a backstory, go right ahead! The more the merrier, as they say. Edit: Also, another highly useful form of feedback would be an evaluation of the character of each of the players presented. Just seeing how your perception of a character differs from mine after reading their backstory provides an excellent way to tune up a story. Another issue I have is with names. I have a passing acquaintance with Arabic naming conventions, which at the moment seems the best direction to go; however, I would very much like to distance my naming structure slightly from that because I worry too much. If you can help me develop an alternative structure, I'll be tempted to have your babies. So, without further ado, the tale of the first player on my stage. The son of a brickmaker from the Underbridge slum, he struggled in his early life to find a job that fit his strong intellect, failing time and time again to take interest in positions involving mere manual labor. Finally disowned by his family, he fell in with the Guild as a lookout, moving up to become a successful middle coordinator after a relatively small number of jobs. His loyalty paid off in his mid forties, when the Guild made him captain and part owner of a ship involved in trade with northlander ports. His newfound freedom proved superficial, as the Guild continued to exert its influence over his activities. One Guildsman in particular, the northlander assigned to oversee the ship's home warehouse, served as the Guild's representative in applying pressure towards its various ends. Against his wishes, he was required to traffic slaves, fugitives, and contraband. In an attempt to free himself from the Guild's influence, he is slowly purchasing more and more of his ship- at an exhaustive cost. Still, he endures comfortably on the money he obtains from his trade, living alone with his manservant in a home suitable for a moderate-sized extended family. He is involved in an illicit affair with the wife of a nobleman of the city, a young woman he has loved since long before her marriage, and still uses his contacts within the Guild to arrange discreet meetings. He hopes to become an accepted member of the upper class, but cannot do so until he marries and settles his debts- a seemingly impossible task that is the source of occasional gloomy contemplation on the long voyages. Keeping his spirits up, however, is not a difficult task, as he takes pleasure in varied intellectual pursuits. He often finds an excuse to trade in books, always taking the time to read all traded tomes during the long voyages. He has become fluent in a number of languages, particularly those of the northland nations with which he trades, but also attempts to learn what he can of tongues from more distant lands. Above all, he is always eager for any opportunity to hear a new story, even going so far as to frequently offer passage- at the price of a tale. Before his most recent voyage, he received unusual instructions from an unusual source, but still undoubtedly within the Guild: he was to travel to a distant foreign port- one he did not frequent due to poor trading opportunities- and remain there, making contact with a northlander, who he would befriend as much as possible and assist in leaving the city. Despite his concerns over rumors of the violent collapse of an unrelated thieves' guild in that port, he did as he was told- only once in that distant northern port hearing stories of a man who had single-handedly destroyed that guild. Believing his passenger to be that man, he dutifully returned to his home port, beginning to devise his own schemes how to use this resourceful agent for his own benefit. The city rests atop a long series of limestone cliffs and astride a river running nearly dry; Underbridge is the name given to the slums that have grown up underneath the elaborate bridge structure that dominates the middle of the city. /woot
Terjon of the Blue Rose 10-06-07, 11:37 PM	Very nice so far. But you're missing so many archetypes that I have to add to your plans. The Merchant, the Lovers, the Architect, and the Maniac are a great start but where is the Mother? The Founder? The Artist? Where is the Turncoat or the Profesional? Also missing are the Old Man and the Eager Child. Oh I can see I'm going to have fun with this thread. Reesu was born in underbridge to a *****. His mother turned left him behind at the mid-wife's home and never looked back. He spent his youth in an orphanage that didn't have enough for all and where noone noticed when he would slip away for days at a time. He quickly found a home amongst the gangs of city where he learned his quick wits worked for him far better than his hands. He would arrange fights between the various bullies and thugs and collect fees from other urchins and even occasional adults. He also learned to make sure the champion always knew him as a good friend and supporter... right up til his first loss. He would take full advantage of the losers too though. They simply made sure that they knew the champ was on his side and then used them as protection against the other children. It was inevitable that such a child would eventually fall in with the guild. He took to the job with an ease that surprised even seasoned veterans. Unfortunately it didn't surprise them enough and he has been knocked back down several times when trying to move himself up in the guild. Where he had become accustomed to dealing with weaker individuals he now faced people who were easily his equal in wits. People who had held long standing alliances and the resources to handle someone like him. Reesu spends most of his time now on the lookout for people who have no ties to the heads of the guild. People who are indebted or loosely attached to the guild but not loyal. He plans to build a small empire of his own within the guild and then use it to move himself to the head.
Terjon of the Blue Rose 10-06-07, 11:40 PM	Oh and as far as your naming structure goes I'd vary wildly in it. Your city may be part of some middle-eastern country but it sits on the sea at a river mouth. You should have had so many foreigners move in that after reaching even the level of small city there are names here that won't be heard elsewhere in the nation.
Uberwoot 10-07-07, 07:55 PM	I had a feeling you might be the first one to reply to the post. The Schemer is an excellent Player, and does not disappoint for quality. Thanks very much! I would like to point out that the four Players I mentioned are not the only ones I have in mind; at present I have such fanciful titles for a number of other characters (others include the Surgeon, the Worm, the Chained Man, The Entertainer, and the Sage) even though I still have only vague ideas about most of them. As for the naming conventions of the city... I had already begun to introduce characters from other regions- particularly the northlands- into the city, and certainly their naming conventions will be represented, but accounting for the strongly conservative upper class of the cities (as well as the closely related nomadic tribes living in the desert to the west) is difficult without a unique naming convention. I have already determined that the culture does not yet wholly approve of intermarriage with foreigners, so occurrence of this is low- it allows me to actually show a unique culture for this area. To emphasize what I edited into my old post, if you want to provide feedback but don't want to suggest a new Player or critique an existing one, feel free to simply evaluate the personality of a character; comparing these evaluations with my own intentions can be a great help in improving these stories. Anywho. Number two is ready, but it is somewhat longer. He was born the third son of a lesser noble family, a house trapped firmly in the web of political machinations of the greater houses. His mother took particular liking to him over his older brothers and allowed him far too often to avoid the formal education of his brothers in favor of her stories. He saw a strange contrast between the passionate love of the heroes in her tales and the restrained relationship between his parents. She died the sleeping death shortly before his passage to adulthood, severing his closest link with his family. Eventually, to escape the political intrigue intrinsic to the nobility, he joined the guard company of a well-to-do merchant. There he was immersed in an environment of chauvinism, surrounded by men who had little respect for women, treating them as objects and frequenting brothels. He gradually grew desensitized to their behavior, and when he met a scholar espousing celibacy as a means to a fuller appreciation of life, he apprenticed himself readily to the doctrine. Eventually he moved on to become the personal bodyguard of a high-ranking magistrate, who he befriended over many years of faithful service which lasted until the magistrate's natural death. And then he met her. It was at the magistrate's funeral, at which he served as chief member of the honor guard, that his eyes were finally opened. As she approached his post he was transfixed by her gaze, unable to break eye contact even during the mourning bow they shared before she passed into the catacombs. In her eyes he saw curiosity, cleverness, and mischief- a woman unlike any other he had met, whose mere look seemed to promise a love he never thought to exist. In that moment, he abandoned his dedication to celibacy, resolving to find out if a romance like those in his mother's stories could be truly possible. * * * In the interests of protecting her and building the best life he could for her, her uncle had exercized tyrannical control over nearly every aspect of her life for many years, first educating her in the arts of being a noble wife and then passing her into the service of a high priest at the Temple, and she resented him with a supreme passion. The glimpses she caught into the outside world, of things to learn besides being a good wife, seemed to taunt her at every waking moment for her entire young life. She comforted herself by storing up her passion and telling herself that, when he finally died, everything would get better. As it turned out, she was right- but not in the way she expected. She came to her uncle's funeral, prepared to deliver to his corpse the most seething curse the priests could teach her never to utter, but she lost focus when she accidentally caught the startlingly intense gaze of the honor guard's captain outside the catacombs. His eyes spoke of wonder and of passion, and when she finally approached the corpse, she found her hatred of the deceased had been mitigated by a craving to know more of the man she had met. He sought her out at the Temple that night, and they began meeting in secret after the priests and her family forbade their startlingly unrestrained relationship. She delighted in evading the increasingly thuggish men sent by her family to stop them, and in all the new experiences they had together, but before long, her life at the Temple became unbearably difficult thanks to her family's interference. Finally, the pair conspired to steal a number of precious objects from the Temple and start a new life in another part of the city, and their dealings with a fence entangled them in short order with the Guild. The pair took to their position in the Guild with a will, making temporary homes of inns and moving around the city frequently, spending the few weeks between jobs as they saw fit. After a few successes, their confidence inspired them to take unnecessary risks for thrills, until one daring escape turned bad- they split up and he was captured by a merchant's guards. She killed two of the men in a scuffle in the dark to free him, and since that night they have chosen to take more care about the risks they take. One of the honors of a family is bestowed upon a member performing the duty of an ashan- sleeping over the threshhold of the home's main entrance. Tradition requires that one male family member performs this duty, and many families (particularly wealthier ones) adopt an ashan from outside the family, who will also perform the duties of a manservant. /woot