Backgrounds in the SoW Campaign - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Backgrounds in the SoW Campaign

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
mercuryv
Apr 27, 2010 6:16:59 I've been running the SoW for the past year now, and my player's are mid-way through the Mottled Tower module. We've had a great deal of fun with a balanced mix of roleplay and combat, and my players seem rather engrossed in the ongoing plot as a whole.

Being a generic campaign meant for any cast of characters, the adventures overall are very event-based - the heroes are caught in the middle of battles, ambushes, attacks, explosions and so on. This is not a bad thing per se, but it doesn't leave much room for characters to further their own development or tie in the characters backgrounds strongly to the plot. I was hoping at some point that the adventures might refer to the SoW backgrounds and give options to the DM to link these in, but as yet this has not happened.

As we've now hit paragon tier and I'm much more confident in my DMing skills again, I figured that it would be good to start looking into the characters backgrounds a little and introducing elements that I can introduce. Has anyone here running SoW done this successfully, and how did you do it?
#2
blackivarr
Apr 27, 2010 11:03:16 The Short answer is no. The AP does not refer back to the backrounds of the PC's.
That bieng said, our Eladrin Swordmage's backround (Born under a bad sign) led me to re-write parts of Throne of the Stone Skin King. It worked out really well, and the bargain he made with the SkyShaper also ties into his Epic Destiny. (we just finished Tyranny of Souls) So it worked out really well.

-Blackivarr
#3
exiton
Apr 27, 2010 13:23:48 I think if you want the backgrounds included in the story you will have to write it in yourself. I have all my players write up a page of text for their character before the very first game. 3 paragraphs takes about 30 min to do. Paragraph one is thephysical description of their character, paragraph 2 is a description of their personality and paragraph 3 is their back story. I periodicly re-read their back story and see how i can incorperate events into the campaign this tends to work.

I guess this does not address your point directly but now that you are this far into the campaign you could have your players take their background and write some details about it and how they see it fitting into the campaign world. The know about locations, people and organiztaions so it should not be to hard to do. That will give you a lot more information to work with and it may be a bit more engauging for the players rather than you telling them, hey you are a gladiator so you used to work here.
#4
gargs454
Apr 27, 2010 15:26:44 For me, my players are writing their own backgrounds (in addition to taking one of the background benefits). Obviously this will require me to work a little harder to work them in, but it shouldn't be too hard. For instance, one character was found near the Hammerfist holds and taken in and raised by the Hammerfist Dwarves. There is already in the campaign a suggestion of tension between the Hammerfists and the Ironfells. I added to this by having the "ancient" dwarven kingdom be a little more recent, as well as the last major civilization in the region, and wrote in that the kingdom collapsed over an internal struggle over the line of succession after the last king died without an heir. It then became a simple thing to make the primary actors in the dispute over the succession be the Ironfells and the Hammerfists. This should hopefully make things more interesting during the Lost Mines and even the Temple Between (haven't started reading the paragon tier adventures yet).

Another character grew up in the Witchwood and was largely an outcast who was raised by an uncle. The character eventually left the Witchwood after he found his uncle (to whom he was never really close) dead. I plan to make Gilgathorn be from the Witchwood and somebody that the character recognizes as a royal hunter for the elves. I'll have the story develop that the character is suspected of killing said uncle and that Thorn was tasked with finding him, and then resigned in disgrace when he couldn't. Now Thorn sees his chance at redemption.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 mercuryv Apr 27, 2010 6:16:59	I've been running the SoW for the past year now, and my player's are mid-way through the Mottled Tower module. We've had a great deal of fun with a balanced mix of roleplay and combat, and my players seem rather engrossed in the ongoing plot as a whole. Being a generic campaign meant for any cast of characters, the adventures overall are very event-based - the heroes are caught in the middle of battles, ambushes, attacks, explosions and so on. This is not a bad thing per se, but it doesn't leave much room for characters to further their own development or tie in the characters backgrounds strongly to the plot. I was hoping at some point that the adventures might refer to the SoW backgrounds and give options to the DM to link these in, but as yet this has not happened. As we've now hit paragon tier and I'm much more confident in my DMing skills again, I figured that it would be good to start looking into the characters backgrounds a little and introducing elements that I can introduce. Has anyone here running SoW done this successfully, and how did you do it?
#2 blackivarr Apr 27, 2010 11:03:16	The Short answer is no. The AP does not refer back to the backrounds of the PC's. That bieng said, our Eladrin Swordmage's backround (Born under a bad sign) led me to re-write parts of Throne of the Stone Skin King. It worked out really well, and the bargain he made with the SkyShaper also ties into his Epic Destiny. (we just finished Tyranny of Souls) So it worked out really well. -Blackivarr
#3 exiton Apr 27, 2010 13:23:48	I think if you want the backgrounds included in the story you will have to write it in yourself. I have all my players write up a page of text for their character before the very first game. 3 paragraphs takes about 30 min to do. Paragraph one is thephysical description of their character, paragraph 2 is a description of their personality and paragraph 3 is their back story. I periodicly re-read their back story and see how i can incorperate events into the campaign this tends to work. I guess this does not address your point directly but now that you are this far into the campaign you could have your players take their background and write some details about it and how they see it fitting into the campaign world. The know about locations, people and organiztaions so it should not be to hard to do. That will give you a lot more information to work with and it may be a bit more engauging for the players rather than you telling them, hey you are a gladiator so you used to work here.
#4 gargs454 Apr 27, 2010 15:26:44	For me, my players are writing their own backgrounds (in addition to taking one of the background benefits). Obviously this will require me to work a little harder to work them in, but it shouldn't be too hard. For instance, one character was found near the Hammerfist holds and taken in and raised by the Hammerfist Dwarves. There is already in the campaign a suggestion of tension between the Hammerfists and the Ironfells. I added to this by having the "ancient" dwarven kingdom be a little more recent, as well as the last major civilization in the region, and wrote in that the kingdom collapsed over an internal struggle over the line of succession after the last king died without an heir. It then became a simple thing to make the primary actors in the dispute over the succession be the Ironfells and the Hammerfists. This should hopefully make things more interesting during the Lost Mines and even the Temple Between (haven't started reading the paragon tier adventures yet). Another character grew up in the Witchwood and was largely an outcast who was raised by an uncle. The character eventually left the Witchwood after he found his uncle (to whom he was never really close) dead. I plan to make Gilgathorn be from the Witchwood and somebody that the character recognizes as a royal hunter for the elves. I'll have the story develop that the character is suspected of killing said uncle and that Thorn was tasked with finding him, and then resigned in disgrace when he couldn't. Now Thorn sees his chance at redemption.