Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 skrapsan Dec 03, 2013 21:28:08	One of my players have no interest in building a background. She lives mostly for combat and killing stuff. She has told me, and I'm OK with it, to each her own, and I provide plenty of combat so there is no issue there. Now to encurage a bit of random and perhaps RP I have introduced plott twist cards. and they work great. So last session my combat oriented character right before a big boss fight/the cliffhanger we left of at, the player played the card of "tell me something about my past." Cindly enough doing it at the end so I would get time to think, and so here I am.   About the player: She's a human female monk, from Cyre. And here is what I'm thinking. She used to be in one of Cyres strike teams, the team was caught comitting some pretty awfull acts of warcrimes. Not quite sure what yet. And later she was convicted of hight treason and colaborating with Thrane in taking out a important Cyrean strategic location.   And if I'm feeling generous She will have commited the crimes fighting of a Daelkyr invasion, same as reason she helped Thrane sack the fort of "I don't know!"   anyways, does anyone have any inputt, or cool angles to add?
#2 Beoric Dec 03, 2013 22:23:58	She was convicted of treason in Cyre?  So her unit may be infamous, but there isn't much chance that any record remains of her individual transgressions?  Unless word got around that she was, say, involved in the massacre of a village (of lycanthropes or otherwise), and then maybe that will jog somebody's memory.   On second thought, hack and slash players often get annoyed if there are consequences to killing people.  If she is like that, you might not want a background that will cause problems if you use it in the most logical fashion.  I would be inclined to make her innocent of the crimes.  Maybe she was a convenient dupe in the treason, framed to protect the actual spy.  Maybe she will find that a Thranish knightly order with which she has recently become acquainted was involved in both that action, and in faking Cyran atrocities for which her unit was blamed.  Best to give a player like that a legal target to go killing, or you constantly have to find reasons to keep them out of prison.
#3 Syltorian Dec 04, 2013 12:44:52	I agree with Beoric that forcing her into a situation where she has to consider the consequences of her hack-and-slash playing could be potentially damaging your group as a whole.   If she is not interested in roleplaying or the story, it might be possible to work with that by making her character the same. She could be Mourntouched: there was an article by Keith Baker in the printed Dragon Magazines which said that some people survived the Mourning, and were changed physically (this may not be necessary) and mentally. They are not random killers, but lack morals, empathy, social awareness and scruples. Combined with previous combat experience as a Cyran elite soldier, this would make her an excellent killing machine, still able to think strategically, but not bothered by emotions such as fear, pity, or mercy. The same might be the result of an emerging or developped aberrant mark (unless in your Eberron, the stories about the aberrants are exaggerated propaganda spread by the Twelve), or part of a Cyran training program, over which they lost control (not the most original of ideas, but it works). Or simply an extreme case of PTSD; shell-shock would be common after the Last War.   As far as war crimes are concerned, it may also matter who the victims were. If they were goblinoids, most Thronehold Nations will not care (and the goblins apparently don't really understand the concept of war crimes, according to Forge of War IIRC); though Eberron lacks racism generally, it does exist with regards to "monsters" (citizens of Droaam) and goblinoids. Though it's a topic I'd prefer to tackle with a person who knows how to roleplay her way to redemption. The story here should show how wrong this is, not provide a convenient excuse for killing things.    The Daelkyr invasion might be a way to allow her to justify the war crimes angle, but in the case of a hack-and-slasher who doesn't want to think about backgrounds, I'd keep it simple. With a roleplayer, there could be twists (the Daelkyr invasion was a front for a Karrnathi plot to undermine confidence in the Cyran military by having the commit warcrimes against allies and their own population; for instance). For her, if you take this route, it really was a Daelkyr invasion. This might tie in with what I wrote about first: some psychic backlash may have turned her into the action-oriented person she is, without interest for consequences beyond the merely strategic. Give her a symbiont or an aberrant mark. If she likes killing stuff, she'll probably like doing it in a fun way; the Daelkyr and the Mourning could justify it to those players who are interested in the story.    As for her betraying Cyre to Thrane, perhaps she got religion, and wanted to atone for warcrimes - or she was just mercenary, and Thrane made the better offer. Either way, Thrane could provide her asylum and a new identity (it helps that the nation which could challenge this has been wiped off the map, and finding trial records in the Suppreme Court of Metrol will be a bit difficult). If she wanted to atone, the Cyran location she betrayed may have been the base of her own unit, who committed those same crimes. She may have been a Thrane sleeper agent all along, committing war crimes in the name of Cyre to justify Thrane intervention, but that would again require an elaborate roleplaying background.     Also, you'll have to take into consideration the other players. Will their characters tag along with a loner who only comes alive when there is a fight? How will they get emotionally attached to her, which they will have to be to cover her when things get dangerous, and when her past catches up with her (if it ever does, since she might not want to roleplay that).
#4 skrapsan Dec 05, 2013 11:58:16	I see some exelent points here. And to clarify a bit. The group leader is the ever talkative Lyrandar bard. They had just found a crashed airship and decided to side with a bunch of Silver flame knights who were a bit on the fanatic side and whipe out a local city. For the reasoning, if we do this the knights will leave and we will be alone with our newfound treasure. For more info see my other thread. The other party members is a human barbarian who had to flee Darguun, due to being accused of killing one of the Lesh Haruck's best friends. There is the Kalashtar sorcerer who focuses and studies dreams. And lastly the Gnome rouge who's parrents got bankrupted while he was in university, so he had to steal his way through the education.   So no, the party does not have a problem with genocide, or killing machines. And I know the Monk player quite well, she's my wife. She don't mind a bit of RP, as long as she gets to kill stuff from time to time as well. Shes just a bit lazy when it comes to comming up with background stories etc etc. So she has requested something cool. And she did enjoy the moral dilemma they had about what part to side with in the whole Lycan  city vs Knights of silver flame. (Well untill they found the airship).
#5 StrikerGreen Dec 06, 2013 10:16:20	I have a similar situation in my group. One of my players, the half-orc barbarian (surprise, 'slayer' style players are alike!) also was not interested in creating his own background. He said, "you make it up" and I couldn't have been happier. It's like a gift. I wouldn't want all my players to ask me to come up with their backgrounds, but once in a while, it's nice.   So yes, amnesia is the go to trope of course. With amnesia the player gets to discover their past slowly (or not at all) and, for me, the less I gave out, the more interested the player(s) were. I won't bore you with the details of the background, suffice to say it did not come to light until recently, as the now level eleven characters disovered a deck of many things. Low and behold, the Barbarian pulls the Throne card which confers an 18 Charisma and a Small Keep upon the one who pulled it.   I worked this revelation directly into the characters secret background as once his amnesia lifted and he remembered his origins, he realized he was someone with an 18 Cha and a Small Keep!   I could not have planned this better and, because I left his background so ill defined for so long, once a situation arose that fit the revealing of that background so perfectly, I couldn't pass it up.   Anyway, long story short (too late), I encourage you to come up with very vague background elements and then see how in-game situations and feelings might tie back to and indeed influence the background. If the background is only known to you, the DM, who's to say you can't change it at any time to fit the narrative and so give the background more dramatic weight than it would otherwise would have had if everyone already knew it!   Does that even make sense?
#6 skrapsan Dec 06, 2013 10:55:42	It makes perfect sense. Actually its what I already do with a lot of things. I know they will meet 13 cults with a name tied to morning. So I have made 13 crazy sounding cult names spun around morning. Two with almost identical names. This is after all Eberron and 12+1 is an important trope. I have begun putting out the phrase "tomorrow comes today" as a foreshadowing effect, but I have no idea as to what it foreshadows. I have dreams written down for the Kalashtar because they don't dream and getting one freaks him out. And many many other things like that.   All I really plan out is "at some point I will introduce element X" and then when the opportunity presents itself I do just that. Like with the crashed airship I just gave them. Funny bit was that about 30 minutes before finding it they were discussing how slim the chances was of the Lyrandar bard actually owning an airship at level four.
#7 StrikerGreen Dec 11, 2013 8:15:32	That *is* a funny coincidence!   I would encourage you to start with a few details about the 'secret origin' and then actually tack down what it is, specificallly, so when the time comes, you can reveal it to your PC.
#8 skrapsan Dec 13, 2013 7:28:08	What I intend to do with her secret is to create a few newspaper clippings with text aluding to what she has done. But nothing solid. You know, text like:   Myagi ir'Lyriam the by now well known  was banned from the royal society today as more facts about her actions during the Sontaren raids surfaced. She was released earlier this week on bail but has remained in the Metrol in waiting for her Trial that is said to commence next week. The cyre branch of Medani is working tightly with local law enforcers to obtain facts about the whole insident. For more info see page 4.   Add in a picture and viola!! Something bad happened to her. I don't have to decide what, who or when quite yet. And we can all go about our buisness for a couple of sessions more.
#9 Syltorian Dec 13, 2013 11:16:06	Sounds good. It would also be interesting to know where she finds that clipping. Does someone have an interest in finding out what happened at the Sontaren raids now Cyre, Metrol, and the Cyre branch of Medani along with local law inforcements have gone the way of the dodo?