Need a dark secret for a character

honestly I'm stuck on that too, he keeps changing things cause he can't make up his mind, so if i told you what i knew then that might be wrong again.

the only thing i can say is hes a summoner who uses his summons to fight, pokemon style

and normally I'm pretty patient with indecision but the character was due yesterday and its been 3 weeks and changes everything on a daily basis.

He is not the real CHARNAME but someone else who somehow seamlessly took over his life. Could just be a Martin Guerre-like imposter (look it up) or something more fantastic and dependent on the setting: a clone? A doppleganger? A fetch or equivalent? Either way, he did nothing to harm people, but if this came out he would not be seen as legally or morally entitled to... anything. His entire life would go up in the smoke. He may or may not also be widely perceived as inhuman, a non-person, fair game for any crime. Of course, very few people or groups are aware of this, and they would prefer to blackmail rather than ruin him. (If they're smart, they'd ask for small favours at the start, not something he'd be tempted to do something desperate to resist. And then gradually rope him in deeper and deeper...)

he's addicted to something not harmful but super illegal
like baby blood or somethign

Hard to come up with some thing with so little to go on. But try this " The character is the child of a traitor, the traitorous parent was never caught, but confessed to the PC on their deathbed. All advantages and status the character had prior to the adventure were the byproducts of the payments reviewed for selling-out their native homeland".

Kick him, or give him a hard dead line with the threat of a kick.

Pretty much this. Grow a goddamn spine or let someone who has one GM.

>he's illiterate
>deviant sexual tastes
>he's a bear
>he once watched a man drown, and could have saved him but didn't

He's a mod on Veeky Forums

>he's a bear
But who could pass a perception check like that?

or stop being a fucking cunt, go fuck yourself. or better yet, you go grow a spine and kill yourself, bye.

i dunno, threats of violence and force dont really work out positively, you wouldn't be happy if your character were forced, then why the hell are you role playing if you aren't having fun.

>getting this butthurt on a taiwanese comic book website

He has a terminal disease that is superstitiously considered contagious and heavily stigmatized in his society.

So aids?

>tells someone to kill themself
>"gee wiz man I dunno if saying rude things like that is a good idea"

Or something like leprosy.

How about you just go simple with it.
His character simply isn't who he says he is.
What class is he?

What's the rest of the campaign tone and setting like? It's impossible to come up with a secret without knowing that.

He actually has a pact with his summons...like a Faustian bargain?
To cliche....?

He secretly obessed with stories from the east, almost to the point of attempting to leave his own culture.?

That is even better.

OP just tell him he is riddled with magic superaids from fugging his Pokemon and that he will be put to the sword if the authorities find out about his relationship.
Too clichéd?

High fantasy setting, meets gothic horror visuals, meets players free roaming adventurers doing whatever the hell they feel like.

- political, you were part of a convoy that got attacked, the political leader dude died, but you decided you lie and pretend that his dying words were to elect you, and if people found out then you would lose all status. Ahh nevermind, this isnt a political game. maybe a kingship or knight status?

as you can see it didnt work, point proven

>The character hides a dark and horrible secret, something that would mean his ruin and the fall of those who matter most to him if it came out.
Ask him how what he picks fits that statement, if he can't tell him to pick another disadvantage.

>"my secret is im a famous bard"
In light of the above, ask him if he really wants the disadvantage.

He is questing for the nessercary ingredients to transform himself into a Lich.

Jason Humanman

He was instrumental in the evil plan of some evil dude who fucked up an entire country, it doesn't matter if he knew this or if he was tricked or forced into it.
Now pretty much everyone from that country is after his ass, they just don't know what he looks like or his identity yet.

He is actually not who he says he is. He is impersonating some dude who he either killed or died in front of him.

He once stole an artifact. His action brought about the famine and destruction on the country he was in, because he was too greedy and wanted the money for the artifact.

Thousands of people died because of it.

This. Having been instrumental and a willing or unwitting participant in some grand evil design. The victims, who should at least be powerful enough to cause problems, severe problems if not dealt with, are after their ass with maybe just an old moniker to go by.

He fucked up a country because he stole an artifact by impersonating someone in order to infiltrate whatever place the artifact was held in.

Have him be responsible for helping some evil wizard kill some country's beloved princess.
Now he has a horde of angry waifufags ready to tear him apart.

He is actually actually a women pretending to be a man, Mary Reed style.

He's alergic to bronze.

He's a trap

> Dirty
check
> little
qt check
> secret
nah

He shares his body with a malevolent entity that pushes him to indulge in evil pleasures when it isn't trying to take over his body, but the entity is also dependent upon his life for survival and offers help and such and even tries to strike a camaraderie at times.

The entity teases him with implications that it has successfully assumed control of his body for temporary periods of time, like sometimes when he sleeps, leaving the adventurer to wonder if he wasn't implicit in some of the crimes that have been committed around him, like mysterious rapes and murders where the culprit was never found, or if one day the entity will assume complete control and unleash his full evil upon the world once again. He also worries that if the secret got out some extreme do-gooder would kill him and destroy his body in an attempt to prevent that from happening.

No obvious examples of this pop up immediately so you could maybe spin it as not being too cliched (you should also tell him to get the fuck over that, practically everything has been done before), and he technically hasn't hurt or killed anyone, he only has suspicions that the entity used his body to do so.

They're actually a monster that's been polymorphed.

"Secretly a monster" is probably too cliche for this guy.

>"my secret is im a famous bard"
Just tell him that he can't take that disadvantage.

A woman was in love with him and committed suicide after he refused her?
His twin brother was a cannibal axe murderer?

>he once watched a man drown, and could have saved him but didn't

I've seen your face before my friend, but I don't know if you know who I am.
Well I was there and saw what you did, I saw it with my own two eyes.
So you can wipe off that grin, I know where you've been.

chilling, i like it

you can add the famous bard part on to many of the suggestions in this thread.
famous bard who was part of evil plot
famous bard who was caught drinking baby blood
famous bard who's a faggot
as long as he has a serious disadvantage riding on the bard part it'll work.

>"my secret is im a famous bard"
Hm. I can work with this.

He *was* a famous bard until he traded his musical abilities for his loved one's health in a deal with the devil. But then the loved one died anyway because of the phrasing of the pact or something and now he's trying to hunt down the demon to avenge the one he loves.

while this is a cool story point, it would appear the player might not be able to pull it off.

also wheres the secret?

Wouldnt that mean this dude watched him watch someone drown?

The public found out about the deal and resulted in a massive scandal. Now he has to live under an assumed name to avoid overzealous paladins and disgruntled former fans. The whole affair is a secret to the party.

Ok Phil collins

He's an infamous bard. Like you know how there's all those stories about metal musicians being Satanists or having murdered someone or stuff like that? They're all true about him.

maybe your mom became possessed after you tried to show her "see summoning isn't so bad...whoops" and that lead to

A. you having to exorcise her, but you weren't strong enough, so you have to plead with a stronger entity to save her, that leads to this downward spiral

Or B. Rival of your evil possessed monster mom trying to kill you because the thing you summoned was an angry being, and your mother thought you were evil, so those combined have lead it to trying to kill you.

He has a half-orc (or setting equivalent) bastard he abandoned. If it got out the mother might track him down and try to force him to raise it.

> Actually the opposite sex
> Actually an elf in disguise
> Wanted for theft of a princess' virginity the next kingdom over
> Actually an orc in disguise
> Doesn't have a dark secret at all, but likes to pretend he has one
> Rubs genitalia on the other party members while they sleep

>1. the player is too insistent on not being "cliche" and he won't take half the things because "they've been done before"
Drop him. Contrarian hipster neckbeards are the worst players.

Secretly illiterate, has to roll bluff to pretend to read.

Colin McMan

If you can't agree just tell him no.

Sister fucker.

He's actually a member of Her Majesty's secret service.

Don't handhold him. If he can't find a serious secret, he doesn't get the benefit point.
Don't let your players bully you.

He caused financial ruin to an entire city inadvertantly

He volunteers to take watch for the party every night. Late, late in the evening, after he's sure everyone else is sound asleep, he gets to work on his secret pastime - he knits comfy woolen sweaters for his summons.

He is a Nomie.

He had stumbled upon a dead dragon and was sighted by the party afterword.
They all think he is some great hero like them but honestly he has no idea what he is doing.
Only through blind luck has he survived his new companions.
Now he must learn to be the hero everyone thinks he is before he is pushed into a situation that will kill him.

Normie. Fuck me for not spell checking

"Character is secretly a figurative monster," sure. "Character is secretly a a literal monster" I wouldn't think so

Underrated

Just put your fucking foot down op Jesus Christ you sound like you're trying to literal doormat

In this mystical land the game takes place in is the bard perhaps from the far off kingdom of Georgia?

He's a jew with an intact foreskin

He likes hand holding

see
> or stop being a fucking cunt, go fuck yourself. or better yet, you go grow a spine and kill yourself, bye.

Show that kind of spine to your player and you would have no need to make flailing threads like this.

>famous bard
>d-lister, one hit wonder that gets ridiculed whenever the song is mentioned/played
>drunkenly plays the song whenever he is above two drinks at any time
>one random race loves this song (that is included in the setting) and they will be decent to him because of that, to a point
>he hates that race
>due to ridicule, all money from that song are given to charity

:^)

Expand on it. he used it as a cover as an assassin, but it got revealed after he used it to kill a king.

>Claims to have been knighted by his master on his deathbed.
>Accidentally get a Princeling as a squire.
>No one must know that the greatest knight in the realm isnt a knight.

...

>Dark Secret: Not Gay

>Lived the high life as a famous bard
>Known far and wide as a prolific waifu ass-slapper
>No one is safe from having their waifu's ass slapped by this unstoppable bard
>Until one day he ass-slapped the wrong waifu
>Now a dude strong enough to kick his bardly ass is on a quest of eternal vengeance against him
>He lives in fear under an assumed name, knowing some day his past will catch up with him

I have a character almost exactly like this, can confirm it is super fun to play.

>until one day he crit-failed and slapped a dude's ass

Dont let him take the flaw. Hes not abiding the spirit of it, so don't let him take it.

This, probably.

I have a character with a pride flaw, but the mechanics do nothing half the time. So what do I do? I roleplay in a way where his pride sometimes causes trouble for the party. We've had villains come back for revenge just because he rubbed it in their face.

Dark Secret: Thinks He's
And only you, the GM, know what he really is, or when that's going to be relevant.
And of course it won't be something good.