The Trinket Game (5e)


5th Edition (And Beyond)


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The purpose of this game is to build a character around a trinket.

Roll on the trinket table, then describe your character - how did they come to possess the trinket? How has the trinket altered their life decisions? What background, race, class, and any relevant stats would you pick for a character based around the trinket?

Example:

Roll: 37 - A small weightless stone block

Character 1: Torem is a Male human Outlander. Who's mother was an adventurer. At one point in her adventures she came across a floating "mountain" and found her way up to it. She described the scene as one of true beauty. And said never again in her travels was she able to find it again. But this stone is the one piece of it she was able to return with.
Toren took to the teachings of the Rangers hoping to travel the lands and one day find the flying land his mother once described to him.

Character 2: Boron is a dwarf sage investigating the mysteries of this weightless stone that he found as a child - it's been his lifelong obsession. But since researching it didn't pay, he had to get a job, and as such worked a job that didn't require thought so he could still ponder the stone while he was earning money. Hence, he was also a town guard and a trained combatant. He's a Fighter with the Sage background, high strength and Int, low wisdom.

To note - I just gave two examples for a single trinket. However, you don't have to build an entire party off of one trinket. Each character should have its own trinket, per the normal rules - just roll the trinket before anything else with the character, and build the character around that.

Then post a description of the character here! :)

For those two examples the first was my friend's first thoughts, the second was my own.

Go ahead and roll on the table right now and see what you get, then give it a few moments thought and post your ideas here.


So... Any takers?

Sovereign Court

Sorry, buried in obligations, but I might try my hand in the next two days. I love the idea. It makes me think of character creation by tarot, or how Ogre Battle asks you all those questions when you start the game to determine your statistics.

Let me ponder it and I'll chime in.


13 - A small bone from an unknown creature.

1st character idea: Halfling "zoologist" travels the lands looking for unique creatures and recording them for libraries and scholars. Carries a bone from a skeleton he found of a creature he's never seen before or since. Warlock. Fey patron. Was tracking tracking unique stag when he came across it it chastised him for chasing it so deep into the forest and revealed itself as a spirit of the forest. Humored by his quest to find this illustrious creature it grants him powers until such time as he manages to find the creature and return its corpse to the forest. The halfling believes he'll have the curse forever since he never wishes to kill the creatures.

2nd character idea: Totem barbarian. The bone is a sacred relic of the tribe from an animal they only know by legend. No one alive even remembers someone alive who ever saw it. He was sent by the tribe to find it and request it's help to save them all.


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I recently started a new game, but I wasn't sure what to play. No idea. So I decided to go back to the Trinket Game! It's always a great way to get a character idea. Of corse, I ended up rolling something that didn't have an obvious race, class, or background set into it. But, with the help of a friend (who also plays this game), here's what I came up with:

73 - Silver teardrop earring made from a real tear.

They say our people came from a union of merman named Eadro and a human woman named Selune. It was a forbidden love as the people of the land and the people of the sea were not meant to mix. We were born of their love and we lived on the coastlines and tended the waters on the shores. We looked human enough from a distance, but the bluish-green tint of our skin exposed their love, so we often hid in the shallows, only going on land to hunt. But we are a folly people, as changeable as the waters we lived in, and in our folly we grew reckless and brave. We spent more and more time on land. And the more time we spent on land, the more we loved it. And it was with this mistake that we were caught.

When Umberlee, the God of the Sea, discovered our people, she became enraged. She threatened Eadro and Sulune and forbade them from ever seeing each other again. In her wrath, she brought forth a tidal wave to eradicate us. Eadro and Selune stood against her, hand in hand, to protect their children. Our people were saved from the waters, but our village was destroyed. Umberlee did not like this. She banished Selune to the moon where she could never walk upon the land again, and Eadro to the bottom of the oceans, where he could never to see the surface again. Selune was distraught. She cried; and as her tears touched the moon they became silver. They rained down upon the ocean and sank all the way to Eadro so he would never forget her. Eadro collected them all and left some in the shallows for us to find. To this day we keep them with us. They protect us from the wrath of Umberlee and have allowed our people to survive.

Those of us who tend the shores wear the silver teardrop, made from the tears of our mother.

(In Forgotten Realms, Selune is the CG Goddess of the Moon, Eadro the N God of Merfolk, and Umberlee the CE Goddess of Sea and Storm).

This character ended up being a water Genasi Land Druid (coastal) with the entertainer background (storyteller).

Grand Lodge

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Percentile: 1d100 ⇒ 67

Golden monocle missing a lens.

Gnome bard (College of Lore): Concept is an archaeologist, but nobody takes a gnome seriously. He finds the trinket and feels like the monocle gives him an air of intelligence. He initially tried wearing it with the lens, but got bad headaches, so he popped it out and has it attached by a silver chain to his vest.


Ok, I'm getting a collection of these from various people.

an old divination card bearing your likeness:

This is a background someone used for their players to build upon

Scene: a group of rather superstitious sailors go for a reading at a shoddy old fake card reader. The first couple are normal fortunes - she clearly is just putting the same cards back on top of the deck and using a memorized script. PC's reading is ... different. And horrifying. Fill in the details, but now he isn't welcome to return to his ship.

glass jar containing a weird bit of flesh floating in a pickling fluid:

Race: Ghostwise Halfling

Class: Knowledge Cleric. With permission, taking proficiency in Expertise in cooking tools instead of a knowledge.

Background: Acolyte of Cyrrollalee, with Survival instead of Insight.

Skills: Survival, Religion, Medicine, History, Nature (Expertise), cooking tools (Expertise).

Since he was young, Emeril was fascinated by food, and he had a gift for it as well. At an early age, he began studying with the priests of the hospitality goddess Cyrrollalee and strove to create the perfect food worthy of the goddess he adored.

One day, he stumbled upon a rare sight: a solar locked in deadly battle with a host of demons. Though the angel won, he was wounded and a large chunk of his flesh was torn from his body that remained when the angel disappeared. Curious, the halfling took the flesh back to his solitary abode a cooked just a bit of it (halflings never being one to shy away from cannibalism ), and he found it more delicious than any meat he had ever tasted!

Determined that this was a sign from Cyrrollalee, Emeril embarked on an adventure to find the perfect spices, the perfect vegetables, and the perfect wine to accompany the perfect meat.

An egg shell with a painting of human misery in exquisite detail:

Paladin. Family were chicken ranchers. They gave home and supper to an old crone who was travelling the road. She said an ancient prophecy would come to fruition and part of it involved the boy. One day their fattest chicken died giving an egg. It had that imagery on it. The boy took it and left. Taking up the mantle of paladin to be able to fight off whatever the prophecy meant.

Eggshell with a painting of human misery in exquisite detail:
Human Warlock. Made a deal with a devil. The devil presented the egg to the man to remind him how fragile humanity was and what his fate would be when his soul would finally come to the rightful owner at the moment of his death.

a piece of crystal that faintly grows in the moonlight:

Evendur was a half-elf, raised by his elven mother. Like all half-elves raised among elves, he grew up shockingly fast. One day, he was wandering in the woods and found the crystal. He's convinced it was a sign from the elf goddess of the moon, Sehanine Moonbow, calling him to her service. Now he's a Knowledge cleric who adventures to find out what the crystal is and what Sehanine wants of him. He uses the crystal as his holy symbol

blank book whose pages refuse to hold ink, chalk, graphite or any other substance or marking:

Ivellios was an elven cleric devoted to his god, Boccob. He was a standard priest, wandering around furthering his god's cause, then one day, he came across this book. His temple is convinced it is an unholy object, since Boccob is a Knowledge god. They tried to figure to destroy it, but couldn't, so they sent him on a quest to destroy the book. He has the Acoltye background, high Wisdom and Strength (this is why he was selected to go on the quest) and high Intelligence (since his deity is Boccob, god of magic). His bond is "I will not return to my temple until I destroy this unholy book."

pair of old socks:

Guyver MacGnomen is an adventurer and repairman. He prides himself on being able to fix just about anything with just about anything - effectively being able to jury-rig even a steam engine with nothing but a toothpick, a pair of old socks, and some shoelace. To this day, he still carries around a pair of old socks, just to be able to prove he can do it. Rock Gnome, Swashbuckler Rogue, Sage/Soldier background mix.

pair of knucklebone dice, each with a skull symbol on the side that would normally show six pips:

Jako is Monster Hunter fighter with the hermit feature (but not an actual hermit, more a soldier). He discovered that he's fated to become the greatest warrior of all time. During the war, he got caught in an ambush and was about to die when the time stopped and Asmodeus appeared. Knowing of Jako's fate, he offered to make sure he would never truely die so he could become the greatest warrior of all time. But for each interventions, he'll be under Asmodeus' command, body and soul for a full year, whenever He decides it. Jako took the offer, Asmodeus disapeared and time started again for him to die. A few day later, he woke up, baddly wounded but alive with one dice in his pocket. Since that time, he died another time and earned a 2nd dice.

-The discovery enabled the deal with Asmodeus ( kinda copied from V's deal in OoTS). Whenever he dies, within 6 days, at the most danger free time, Asmodeus will cast "revivify" on him and lend him another dice. (if he ever tries to lose the dice or they get stolen, they return shortly)

-The "greatest warrior" fate is a self-fullfilling prophecy. He becomes the greatest because he'll never die and will keep getting better and better. But he'll never die (through Asmodeus) because he's supposed to become the greatest warrior.

-Went with the UA variant (http://dnd.wizards.com/sites/default...Characters.pdf) cause it seems cool fluff-wise and Asmodeus will eventually use him to kill some "monster" (some champions of good like celestials and good dragons)

A bronze pentacle with an etching of a rat's head in the center:

Gladdius was raised to be a good hearted young man. Unfortunately for his parents, his estranged grandparents were meeting with him secretly, teach him the ways of a God of Vengeance. That pentacle was its profane holy symbol. As Gladdius grew up, he became a devout worshiper; he's now a Vengeance Paladin, and his Vengeance is for hire.


I started this PC wanting to play an ancients paladin, but I didn't know anything else about him.

So I asked my D&D buddies to pick a race and background for me. Those jerks chose goblin criminal. Alright, let's work with that. In keeping with the Trinket Game, I rolled on the trinket table and generated a backstory from that. I rolled, "tiny portrait of a goblin." How fitting.

Then I saw the DM's "Reason for Bring Here" and saw The Mystery of the Magic Trees. Oh my is that perfect for this PC. This Reason is that there's a local tribe of goblins who trade with the local town twice a year; they trade these magic apples which can cure any disease. The locals have tried to cultivate the seeds, but as soon as the sapling gets about two feet tall, the sapling disappears. The locals suspect the goblins steal them back.

Anyways, so here we have our little criminal goblin. He found himself in prison after a life of thievery, doing hard labor on a local farm. He has a son, but he hasn't seen him since he was captured a year ago. All he has is a small portrait of him. He keeps it close to his heart. He writes letters when he can, and when the caravans show up to bring in goods or haul off product, he tries to convince one of the caravanners to deliver it. He has never learned whether they arrive.

While working the farm, the ground beneath him collapsed and he found himself in an old abandoned chamber underneath the farmland. It seemed to be a temple of some sort, dedicated to some old forgotten hero. He explored a bit, and found an odd orb, which when touched, imparted visions into his head. After the first vision, he quickly scampered out to resume his labors, praying he wasn't caught; he didn't know how long he was gone. He wasn't missed, his absence wasn't even noticed. It turned out, the farm owner couldn't tell one goblin from the next. So with a combination of safety in obscurity and a bit of curiosity, he snuck back in to experience it more. And he continued to do so every day he could. Not every day, mind you, sometimes not for weeks at a time, but when he could slip away, he did.

Over time, he learned that goblins weren't always the nasty little creatures everyone considers them - him - to be, but were actually one of the great races, respected by all others. They were the heroes of the land, the warriors of justice and light, protectors of the natural world. But this was a long time ago, so long it's been forgotten by everyone, even his own people, even the elven historians. This place, this Temple, was the home to one of those ancient and respected warriors.

Seasons passed, and then came the day he heard word of his son. A strange illness had befallen him; his son was dying and no one could cure him. He knew he had to escape. He knew he had to make his way to the fabled apples of the Goblins of the Ravine to save his son. But he couldn't go as himself. He would have to adopt a disguise, change his name, be someone he was not.

So he rushed to his secret place and grabbed the weapons and armor from the ancient heroic warrior. He would become that ancient warrior; mimick the ways of the the Goblin's anceint ancestors who once served the Light. And he would go by their old forgotten name for such great heroes: the Ngko Bei Len.

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