Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 apocalypse_incognito Oct 08, 2009 2:30:14	I'm DMing a new campaign tonight with six players. Four of them and I finished a campaign with a different set of characters two weeks ago. Two players joined our group for the new campaign. Players are starting with first-level characters. As such, the adventuring group is recently assembled in the game world. I'm taking advice I found in the DMG2 about PCs establishing a link to one other PC, a contrast to one other PC, and an NPC from each character's past they might encounter in the future. I want to take the "fleshing out" of characters a step further. I'd like to add an element of secrecy to each character in the group: something each character "hides" from other characters in the group. It might be a fear of heights, an extreme distaste for all things dwarven, or a shameful, drastic event uncharacteristic but unavoidable by the character. The idea behind this homebrew is that it will give each PC something to discover about other PCs. My last campaign was a great learning experience, but there was very little players didn't know about each PC in the group. The element will work like this: There will be more secrets than there are players, and the secrets will be put into a bag. The bag is passed around. Each player draws one secret from the bag. If a player doesn't believe the secret fits his/her character and wants to pick again, they're absolutely allowed to do so. Players are not required to use the secret they draw. In fact, the player can use the idea of a secret as a jumping-off point to create their own. I thought I'd tap the users of this forum for some secret ideas. What would you find interesting in discovering about your fellow adventurers?
#2 Damon_Tor Oct 08, 2009 3:21:41	I'm DMing a new campaign tonight with six players. Four of them and I finished a campaign with a different set of characters two weeks ago. Two players joined our group for the new campaign. Players are starting with first-level characters. As such, the adventuring group is recently assembled in the game world. I'm taking advice I found in the DMG2 about PCs establishing a link to one other PC, a contrast to one other PC, and an NPC from each character's past they might encounter in the future. I want to take the "fleshing out" of characters a step further. I'd like to add an element of secrecy to each character in the group: something each character "hides" from other characters in the group. It might be a fear of heights, an extreme distaste for all things dwarven, or a shameful, drastic event uncharacteristic but unavoidable by the character. The idea behind this homebrew is that it will give each PC something to discover about other PCs. My last campaign was a great learning experience, but there was very little players didn't know about each PC in the group. The element will work like this: There will be more secrets than there are players, and the secrets will be put into a bag. The bag is passed around. Each player draws one secret from the bag. If a player doesn't believe the secret fits his/her character and wants to pick again, they're absolutely allowed to do so. Players are not required to use the secret they draw. In fact, the player can use the idea of a secret as a jumping-off point to create their own. I thought I'd tap the users of this forum for some secret ideas. What would you find interesting in discovering about your fellow adventurers?
#3 chanter_hound Oct 08, 2009 13:52:31	All my characters hate dwarves. Course that isn't much of a secret as they are told this every time we meet a dwarf.
#4 the_chaotic23 Oct 09, 2009 9:30:51	I once played a character that was exsesively paranoid and untrustful; he ran a running tally for each character in his head on how much he liked or disliked them; he tended to gravitate and assist those he liked more; he'd only help those whom he barely trusted if they where in a life or death situation.
#5 jetzine Oct 09, 2009 10:17:39	A Warlock's pact, and who their patron is, can be his or her biggest secret. Rogues more often than not have something to hide, whether it's an unsavory deed, an artifact they never should have stolen, let alone touched, or a bounty on their head or similar vendetta.  Bounties are sweet.  It's a hell of a surprise when an extremely powerful hunter or group of hunters comes after the party with the aims of catching an international felon in their midst, especially one they thought was completely harmless. Everybody's got their skeletons.  I applaud you for incorporating them into your game.  One word of advice though.  Don't make it a random grab bag.  Make your PCs come up with their own secrets, or work with them to do so.  Something as personal as a secret should always pertain to the character.  It could even be as pivotal as defining why they've taken the path they've taken up to the point of being a 1st level character.  A secret could even influence class and power choice.  Just stuff to play around with.
#6 Nibelung_ajr Oct 10, 2009 9:37:03	Myself, every time i DM, i love to get personal talks with each player. Alone. Only us two. It's the time where i discuss about the character future, wishes, expectations, and everything else. Almost every single one of they have a little secret from the rest of the group, and when that little secret slip out, i talk with he again to get a "new secret" that the story could bring up. The hardest part of this all is avoid protagonism. It's very easy to get an inventive player who create twist after twist, and you like so much his ideas, and you forget about the other player's secrets. Take notes of how much spotlight every player had, and you can avoid this earlier.
#7 tomcardin Oct 12, 2009 11:52:42	I have a character who was originally an NPC that I liked the background of so much I worked it into a character. He is a very good leader type. He inspires others to follow him through his honesty and stalwart nature. However he has a deep dark secret - he used to be murderously evil.  The exact opposite of how he is now. Yes, you guessed it...He put on a helm of opposite alignment. Well actually it was put upon him by a great dragon who wanted to put a stop to him and as an added curse he is fully aware of everything evil he had done before. Now his every action is one of atonement. Years later he was visited by the great dragon again who removed the helmet but his spirit had indeed permanently changed and he is good through and through. The big secret really is that he dare not tell his companions just who he used to be and what he used to do, he is torn by his drive to be truthful and his drive not to cause pain and suffering.
#8 felgoroth Oct 13, 2009 11:55:30	This is actually a really good idea.  I played in a straight Rokugan Oriental Adventures game once, which means we could only play races/classes with the L5R seal but, our DM was cool about feats.  Anyways, we were limited to playing a Human or a Nezumi and I was the only one to play a Nezumi.  So I was already playing an Assassinish Rogue (loosly based off of Altair from Assassins Creed and the Prince from Prince of Persia).  So my DM pulls me aside and says that a tribe of Nezumi hired me to infiltrate this meeting of Samurai and the DM said I could think up a story and tell him.  So I said that I followed the Crab Clan Samurai and ended up killing him in his sleep, I took his orders to go to this thing and took his swords to show I could be trusted.  I get to the place and say the Crab Clan sent me and a Samurai but we were attacked on the way there.  So after the begining I spend the entire game spying on people by jumping/climbing up to window sills and then listening to people/reading there lips (because I always seemed to fail listen checks).  Then what was great was I'd always have to cover stuff up, like a group of Ninja attacked us but, my characters name wasn't on the list and everyone got super suspicious.