Ptolus mini-campaign : Player characters

[Eminence_Grise]

So we started a mini-campaign set in Ptolus using 13th Age. We played 1 session so far and had a great time.


I asked them to have a connection in their background with a former delving group (The Commpany of the Ten Pilgrims). The story will revolve around a famous vault they discovered and filled with awesome artefacts and other macguffins. Some made direct links (either in their OUT or their background), some made indirect links.


The characters are :


Melchior
Race: Halfling
Class: Rogue
Icons: Balacazar crime famile (++), Commissar and his men (+)
One unique thing: He once had to deliver an ancient relic that cursed him. He's now as tall as a human, but with halfling facial features. Quite unsettling.
Background of notes (or that I can remember): Diplomat and negociator of the Imperial 13th Legion, Spy


Sethimus
Race: Dwarf of the Grailwarden clan
Class: Rogue
Icons: Longfingers thief guild (++), Commissar and his men (+)
One unique thing: For some reason he doesn't know, the 2 biggest crime organizations thinks he's a double agent for the commissar.
Background of notes (or that I can remember): Week-end hobo, illegal transcations middleman, coal miner, highway banditry




Dorn
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
Icons: Keepers of the Veil (++), Commissar and his men (+)
One unique thing: Last surviving founding member of the Company of the Ten Pilgrims (a delving team at the center of the mini-campaign)
Background of notes (or that I can remember): Member of the Company of the Ten Pilgrims
Note: He's going to rearrange his background points, now that he understand what they are for.




Faeryl
Race: Harrow elf (which uses the drow stats)
Class: Sorcerer
Icons: Chaos Cult (technically 1 positive, but we'll need to chat about it), Iron Mage (++)
One unique thing: She's the reincarnation of Parnaith, famous maker of the jewels or Parnaith, and wife to Danar, who made the banewarrens
Background of notes (or that I can remember): Chaos cult member
Note: She's also going to rearrange his background points, now that he understand what they are for.


Ambrosius
Race: Human
Class: Wizard
Icons: Inverted Pyramid (++), Commissar and his men (+)
One unique thing: Only one who remembers the existance of his wife, a member of the Company of the Ten Pilgrims
Background of notes (or that I can remember): Goldshield mage, Bookseller/scribe

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Good stuff.

I've been running a Ptolus campaign since early 2006, and it's a great setting. It'll be interesting to see how those motivations influence your campaign; it certainly seems like there's a real chance they'll turn on each other very quickly, other than the wizard and fighter.

 

[Eminence_Grise]

Clearly, the players want a campaign that focuses on law/criminality. I'm happy to oblige.

 

[Balesir]

Are the Icon relationships really all positive, or is that not what the '+' signs mean? If they are all positive, it seems a bit... unbalanced?

As an aside, that led me to wonder what a good "shorthand" would be for 'conflicted' relationships. 'x', maybe? So positive = '+', negative = '-' and conflicted = 'x'?

Edit: by "unbalanced", I don't mean in a rules/game sense, but in a dramatic/story sense, just to be clear.

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[Eminence_Grise]

Yes, they're all positives.


I think it's a lot more clear what you can get out of a positive relationship than a negative one. Since we used organizations as icons, they didn't know which ones were enemies / rivals. So they don't know who can help them if they have a negative relationship to the Inverted Pyramid, for example.


A better symbol for conflicted could be "/".

 

[Imaro]

Hey Eminence_Grise, cool start to your campaign.

I'm unfamiliar with the details of Ptolus as a setting but was a little unclear as to whether the main focus of this mini-campaign will be the retrieval of the artefacts from the vault, ie a dungeoncrawl, the retrieval of the artefacts from elsewhere or if that is just the backdrop to bring the characters together and the campaign will be centered around something different?

 

[Eminence_Grise]

The focus of the mini-campaign is to find and open the Vault of the Company of the Ten Pilgrims. Most characters have reasons to want it open. I didn't include it, since some of them are somewhat secret from other players.

 

[TarionzCousin]

The focus of the mini-campaign is to find and open the Vault of the Company of the Ten Pilgrims. Most characters have reasons to want it open. I didn't include it, since some of them are somewhat secret from other players.

I predict that they find and open the vault, then unexpected things happen.

Thank you. I am available for parties and local events.

Good luck, Eminence_Grise. Please let us know how it works out.

 

[Balesir]

Yes, they're all positives.

I think it's a lot more clear what you can get out of a positive relationship than a negative one. Since we used organizations as icons, they didn't know which ones were enemies / rivals. So they don't know who can help them if they have a negative relationship to the Inverted Pyramid, for example.

Ah, OK - that's a useful bit of experience to incorporate into Icon design for any setting, maybe - thanks for that!

A better symbol for conflicted could be "/".

I thought of "/", but it is often used for either/or indication, which I thought might make it potentially confusing. For example, does +/- mean "one positive, one conflicted and one negative" or does it mean "one positive or one negative"?

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[JMCampbell82]

I can't remember where I saw but someone was using a tilde ~ for conflicted relationships. I think that's a good symbol.