Would you let a player write a powerful NPC into their backstory as an oppositional force?
I want to make a noble who fucked off from his noble responsibilities for a life of adventure, and is constantly moving in fear for his life because his mother, a high level combat monster that is basically kool-aid man, is coming after him to get him back in line.
My goal for this is to have situations where he's like "Mate, screw the dragon, if we stay any longer my mum's going to get here then we're all DEAD!"
Usually, yes, it gives the GM more to work with. In the example given, however, it could become disruptive to planned adventures. Maybe just tone back the urgency a bit.
Tyler Clark
Well, hopefully it will be as urgent as the GM wants it to be. since she could, theoretically, bust through the wall at any time.
Connor Perry
FUCK no
Kayden Nelson
Fuck yes, these are the kind of players I live for as a GM.
You've given me your entire character arc in one character. You have someone you're terrified of fighting who can exert their will over you at will, and throughout the course of your adventure you're probably going to stumble ass-backwards into being that same sort of terrifying monster, probably culminating in a one on one fight where you get to tell mommy to her face: "No."
I'd not only let you do it, I'd be telling other party members that that's how you do backstory right.
Pic related. She's exactly the sort of mother you described.
Evan Bell
>Would you let a player write a powerful NPC into their backstory as an oppositional force?
Unless it's something utterly stupid, then yes.
Aiden Brooks
Yep. You should look up more sophisticated systems to play with. Like gurps. What you described was...a -30 point enemy in gurps? Not impossible to work into the game.
Kayden Sullivan
Of course. I had a player do something similar in 7th Sea, he was a noble that was arranged to be married to a (in his opinion) a screaming harridan and buggered out, using the teleportation magic of his noble bloodine to facilitate his escape. I let it sit and he eventually got cocky and ended up causing a big stink in front of a cousin to his fiance, who then using that same magic called in a wedding posse to drag him back home.
This led to an exciting chase over the rooftops of not!Amsterdam and then to that PC constantly looking over his shoulder for awhile. Eventually he (and the group) did get caught and when the party was introduced to said harridan, half of them waifu-ed hard on her and were pissed at the noble PC for running out on her. This in turn led to a hilarious shotgun wedding attended by a half dozen ghosts that prevented him teleporting away at the last second when he was unshackled to keep up the appearance of him freely entering the marriage. She insisted on accompanying her husband on all his business and essentially became purser for their privateer.
Shit Was Guilder
Kayden Wilson
I had planned for him to just get sneakier and sneakier, but getting beefier also works.
Parker Wood
That sounds like a fine backstory to me, OP.
Jason Moore
Have you played FFXIV, OP? This setup reminds me of a truly hilarious scene from a sidequest. youtube.com/watch?v=VbEan62z8RA
Jason Wilson
Either he's going to get so sneaky he can escape at will, or he's going to get so beefy she can't force him to do what she says.
Either way, he wins unless he dies and gets forgotten somewhere along the line. Hell, if he does die, I may have found the campaign's BBEG in a wrathful mother bent on revenge against the party specifically for letting her precious little child die.
Matthew Wright
Absolutely. Nothing makes me more enthusiastic as a GM than players who want to make the story more personable.
I'd rather have a villain i know the party cares about than roll the dice on one they might not give two shits about.
Henry Cox
Would you let a player write a backstory that requires a small area of your world to have a ceirtain culture and geography? To be more precise, a monster village next to a closed demon portal and a few human villages. All in mostly friendly terms.
David Perry
that's fucking great
Adam Martin
I would. It's already my policy to encourage players to make their home town.
Plus, I always like monstro town. Though I usually make it relatively hidden, for tradition's sake.
Luis Baker
Of course I would.
I give players the setting, the system, and the tone of the game. In turn I expect the players to hand me all the elements of the game's story in their various backgrounds.
The Rogue's background as a low-level thug for the Vitelli family bites him in the ass and serves as the party's first and second adventure as they get him out of trouble. The Wizard's time as an apprentice to a more experienced mage sees her with a letter begging for aid, leading to the third adventure. The Barbarian is summoned back home for a trial by combat with the heir to a rival tribe, leading to the fourth and fifth adventure. Etc, etc.
If my players have done their job right, I'm just picking which plot hooks they've built into their characters I feel like running, not trying to dream up plot hooks the players feel like pursuing.
Wyatt Nguyen
Ok, would you tell me if this concept is too much or if there is anything i should tone down?
>A long time ago demons invaded through portal, because why not >The humans from that area banded together to fight the threat >They decide to ask the local monsters for help >Only the ogres agree >After the demons are sealed again, the ogres decide it is in their best interest to remain allies with the humans >They hunt dangerous monsters for their hides and magic components and trade them for food and medicine >With time, most of the world forgets about the demon portal and invasion >In the present year problems start arising >The ogres, due to a booming population, are having problems feeding their own >Many separate from the village and go raid human caravan and settlements
>The character, a young shaman apprentice ogre, decided to embark on a journey to learn more about the rest of the world and to bring back any lore and knowledge he can find that could help his people solve their problems >Mostly so their current allies don't decide they are more trouble than they are worth and opt to force them back into barbarism
I think there are at least two plot threads there. Defusing a possible confrontation between his people and the human villages, and the demon portal opening once again. One being more end game than the other, but i digress.
Jaxon Peterson
It depends on if ogres are a huge pain in said system.
Andrew Sanchez
As your GM, I'd first shake your hand and offer you a beer. 10/10 craftsmenship on your PC's background, especially because it provides a solid through-line for your character's arc and gives me plenty of plot hooks. The only reason I'd have to reject any of it is if I was running a specific setting with a background which would disallow any elements of this background, but you strike me as the sort of player who'd have taken that into account already.
Specific quests related to this character I see:
>Shaman Apprenctice getting word from his mentor about a specific spell/magic item which would benefit his people and the location of said item >Shaman Apprentice returning home after getting word that there's tension. Set up a murder mystery whereby a human and an ogre killed one another the Apprentice has to resolve otherwise the town will tear itself apart. >Old Ogre leader starts to grow more bigoted, and Shaman Apprentice has to fight him for leadership
That's not touching the portal.
James Williams
It is not actually an ogre, but i might present this concept to my group and one of them might be lurking around
Hey, thank you.
>the sort of player who'd have taken that into account already. I'd probably come up with another character. It might sound silly, but i am rather attached to the big lug. I'd only play him if i can keep most of his character and motivation intact. But yes, i try to create as much background for each one as i can.
Those quest ideas are pretty good, except maybe for the third one, but the reason for that would take me a few posts to explain. Don't feel like bloating the thread.
>That's not touching the portal. Yeah, the old thing might be completely non functional for all he cares. It's only there to remain the people why they are together after all these years. His people oath is that they are, and always were, the first line of defense.
