I hope to start RotRL off after the PRPG book comes out. So I still have some prep time.
I had been wracking my brain for a way to give the players a way of being locals and a reason for them to work together.
I thought that I might start my characters off as orphans of the recent unpleasantness, raised at the Academy.
I was wondering if you had any suggestions.
I hope to start RotRL off after the PRPG book comes out. So I still have some prep time.
I had been wracking my brain for a way to give the players a way of being locals and a reason for them to work together.
I thought that I might start my characters off as orphans of the recent unpleasantness, raised at the Academy.
I was wondering if you had any suggestions.
Hi 8th D.
I had my players write up a loose backstory for thier characters (after they had read the Players' Guide - free download). Then I tied thier stories together.I chose to have the players be freinds (that worked well with thier individual ideas). They all had the habit of hanging out at the Rusty Dragon and being good friends of Ameiko.
The Monk -
brother to Ameiko (and half brother to Tsuto). lives in the House of Blue Stones. Like his siblings he is not on the the best of terms with thier father.
The half elven Druid -
Twin sister to Rynshinn and old friend of Ameiko.
The fighter -
A former member of The Black Arrows. moved to Sandpoint two years ago.
The Bard -
grew up in the orphanage along with Tsuto and Nualia. later got Nualia with Child and ran off to Magnimar, where he lived as a con man. five years later he's back in Sandpoint...
he lied to the rest of the group about his relationship with Nualia.
during the fight at Thistletop was attacked by his and Nualia's son (my version here), a horrible tentacled monstrosity - "dhaady! dhaaaaadyy!"
It has been easy to make them interested in the plot and really feel for Sandpoint.
we are now between Burnt Offerings and Skinsaw and we're having a blast!
Have fun!
GRU
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I did that, i had them all part of the farming community to the east of Sandpoint. I added a small village out their where they was all from originally from. So they knew each other to one degree or another and all dreamed of becoming great adventures like in the pathfinder chronicals(I added in the equive of dime store novels about the Pathfinder adventures).
With their shared interest as they got older they hung out more and more until one day they decided to take a chance.
They had all been to sandpoint now and again over their lives. It was the big town that once or twice a year they got to go to. It worked out pretty well.
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Yeah, I’d put the onus back on the players. Give them an overview of Sandpoint (perhaps using the write up in the back of Burnt Offerings as a starting point, censored for spoilers) and say ‘create a character who grew up in or lives in Sandpoint. Talk amongst yourself to create a shared background or link with at least one other character in the group. Think about your motivation for becoming an adventurer.’
Take things from there. If any of your players don’t want to think that much about their character’s background and history, then your idea as an Academy orphan can be the fall-back.
I second Mothman.
Tell your players what you are looking for, and let them decide how to address those wants.
But have a couple of fall back options if your players just aren't feeling it.
That works much better than letting players make characters completely independent of each other, and slightly better than forcing backgrounds on them.
I give my players options. In this case, for instance, you could have them vote on several choices such as "all raised in the Academy", "all from Sandpoint with different backgrounds", "all from a community East of Sandpoint", "all former members of the Black Arrows", "all weirdos working as garbage collectors", "all members of the Birdcruncher goblin band", or whatever else you come up with. That way the players feel they have some ownership of their backgrounds.