I just started running Runelords. My party has several half-elves in it and I wish to use some of their backstories in the AP.
The Half-Elf Sorcerer has the Arcane bloodline. His dad is/was a Wizard and his mom a Sorcerer. I want that to be a lie. Or that that's what he's been raised to believe. I'd like for Justice Ironbriar to be his real father. I'll have Ironbriar visiting the town for the Swallowtail Festival. We only just started with the AP and the first two encounters. He could be away from Magnimar to attend the festival due to it's cultural significance for the region, even though the Justice lives in Magnimar. Sandpoint is a Magnimarian holding however.
The other is a Half-Varisian half-elf. Looks archetypally Varisian. She's a rogue with a penchant for stealing books. Knowledge is power. This could potentially tie in with Ironbriar, as he's a devotee of Norgorber... I was also going to have her be the target of Aldern, seeing as she is a woman AND part Varisian. He'd see something of his former wife in her and become obsessed.
What are your thoughts about making Ironbriar both their dad? Different mothers of course. But it is it too much?
don't forget about T'suto too.....
lot's of half-elf goodness there
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I feel that it's a bit much, also, if I was the first player I might feel a bit upset if the GM changed my backstory. I would have him be father of the second one, and come up with a different NPC for the firs player to be related to. I'm not a fan of tying too much into one plot point.
The whole "half-elf problem" is an idea thread I've had since before starting the campaign.
There are several half-elves of roughly the same age in town:
Nisk Tander
Rynshinn Povalli
Tsuto Kaijitsu
I added a couple myself with a similar thought - that Ironbriar is the father of all of them. The townsfolk have a general distrust of male elves as a result (and generally encourage them to move along as quickly as possible).
If one of my players had decided to make a half-elf, I would have lumped that character in as well.
I'm not sure that this is a plot point that will even come up in my game, but it's a thread of the story waiting for someone to pull on it.
Be careful about messing too much with player's own self-concepts -- if someone is invested into "my father was a happy wizard" then having it change into "my father is a serial killer" may not be fun for them. Some players can handle stuff like that, some can't.
Of course, Ironbriar could be lying, too...
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Ironbriar: ...<chuckle>...and then I gave him that old line 'I AM your father' <cue dramatic music>, and the idiot bought it! It was priceless, haven't laughed so hard in years.
Do you know how hard is was keeping a straight face while he broke down in tears in front of me? I was glad I was wearing that mask. Like I'm personally responsible for every half-elf in the world. Newb.
Actually tonyz is right - some players react poorly to even minor editing or suprise reveals in their background. If someone HAS created a detailed background it may not be the best plan to rewrite the background behind their back.
You could always be vague about the secret and talk with the player:
"I have an idea of working your character background story into the campaign, how do you feel about there being a secret involving your background that your character is unaware of that I intend to tie into the greater story?"
That's the trouble is that that moment is so cliche now. The player has a vague backstory and only has a list of possible names(it sounds like) of fathers. His mom is dead. And there a ton of threads of "tsuto is actually Ironbriars son" which I don't care for.
The dad could be of the cultists? He's an accomplished Wizard who's identity is secret to the PC. His mom is tight lipped about him. Could be that she didn't know much about him, since he was leading a double life. PC is from Magnimar, as is dad but dad spent some time in Sandpoint. Maybe a Diviner grooming people for "something to come" or working more directly for the Skinsaw cult?
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Maybe Ironbriar does not know that he had a kid with this lady. And the mother gave a pendant to her son that was actually a gift from Ironbriar (and which he will recognize, likely avoiding to kill the bearer so that he can have answers).
There are ways to make the moment great for RPG as long as it deviates somewhat from the Luke scene.
I'll echo the warning about even minor changes in backstory for players with an example:
Recently started this campaign, and one player is smitten with a Xena-like character. Her character came to Sandpoint to look for an old fling named Gabrielle, and the backstory was short: if I paraphrase it's "Old Friends-maybe-with-benefits named Gabrielle. She got kidnapped (because that happens a lot to Gabrielle in Xena). I'm searching for her".
So I said to myself- Ameiko was an adventurer and she sort of gets kidnapped. I'll have Ameiko be the friend and Gabrielle was her adventuring name.
Well, finding the friend right off the bat, alive and well, apparently NOT kidnapped (although she was, and escaped cuz she's an adventurer), and losing the plothook she expected to be there for ages was quite a shock. It's since turned into a neat and complex relationship, with jealousy over Aldern's interest in said character, attempting to mend the hurt of what the player thought was Ameiko lying and skipping out on her, etc. But I had to have several discussions with the player over what her expectations were vs what happened. She made proverbial lemonade out of lemons, but in the wrong player's hands, that could have been disastrous.
I seem to be in a minority on the board, as I find Ironbriar way less interesting than most and I suspect GM's find him far more interesting than most players given how often he shows up in discussions about changing or adding to the plot line. But even discounting for that, I find the suggestions for weaving him into multiple pc backstories more than a trifle overwrought.
Unless the player has specifically asked for or indicated interest in a secret twist in their backstory or some other angst, making one or more pc's father secretly be an awful piece of work like Ironbriar seems likely to produce player frustration or unhappiness.
I wouldn't do things like changing a PC backstory (such as, your father isn't your father and your mother is actually cheating) unless I'm pretty sure my players would like that.
Well he's barely given me any information. He's a wizard and his mom was an elf and a sorceress is pretty much it. I asked him if he wants me to take this and run with it, or if he envisioned something specific. He has yet to get back to me.
As of right now, I'm thinking of just making him one of the members of the cult at the Mill. We'll see.
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When my group started, I talked to my players about their back stories, and we came up with something that worked in context together. We all thought this is better than them telling me a back story, and me needing to work it into the story.
For instance, one of my players wanted his PC to come from a family that was murdered, so I told him that one of them had a 7 point star carved in his chest. His character was researching ancient Thassilon to understand what it meant, which led him to Sandpoint to see the Old Light. Obviously, this ended up tying in to the Skinsaw Cult.
Not all of them had strong connections to the main story, though I made sure they all had a reason to be in Sandpoint. For instance, one is just an anti-social ranger who likes hunting and came to the area because he'd heard about the Sandpoint Devil and wanted to track it down and kill it.