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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5667018" data-attributes="member: 92305">PLAYERS AND CHARACTERS   I started the game with two players. I think the optimal group, due to schedules, game speed, and every day life, is three players plus one DM. But, two players is just fine. From time to time, I'll allow them to run NPCs as henchmen along with their main characters--when that type of thing is called for in the game. But, for most of the stories told in this campaign, two characters is just right. Most Conan stories feature Conan and a traveling companion or two. My two players replicates that. And, one of the differences in a Conan game as compared to a typical D&D campaign, is that D&D will typically require the talents of different classes: A cleric for healing; a thief for the traps and locks; a mage for sorcery support; and fighters to do the blood work. With the Conan RPG, it's easy--and many times desireable--to run the game using one, two, or three characters max. Conan stories lend themselves to small groups (but is flexible enough, like D&D, to fit any combintation of classes and players). We added another player just after we started, and then one of my original players had to quit the game. Now, we're back to two players (but a couple of people have asked to join the game, and, as a group, we're considering letting another play with us). The original two PCs are Caelis and Thrallan. Both (all three) are about the same age. Both are brothers. When Lyme gave birth just over a decade ago, the clansmen had no way of telling that she was carrying triplets. They all thought she would give birth to one, big, hulking, Cimmerian warrior. But, when the first child came, they discovered that there were more in her womb. Branoc, the NPC, was born first. The birthing experience was rough on Lyme. Finn asked his wife to name their first blood child (remember, Finn had already adopted Drachena). Lyme named him after her father, Brannard. Today, the character is called Branoc Trueborn. Caelis came next, followed by Pandran, who was stillborn. It is said that Caelis killed his own brother in a battle to be birthed next. Some think Caelis is tainted because of his birth experience, and today, the character is known as Caelis Redbirth. The second PC, Thrallan, was found as a babe, near the village, on the very same night that Branoc and Caelis were born. He was propped up next to a rock, wrapped in a blanket. Today, the character is known as Thrallan Stone, or simply just "Stone". It is the player of the Thrallan character that left our group, so that PC has become an NPC. The character we added, when the new player joined, is named Silaigne. This one's background is shrouded in mystery. Even Cimmerians have orphans, and Silaigne was one of them. There are lots of questions with this one. Why didn't anyone adopt him, as is the tradition among the clan? (Usually, there's something "wrong" with a child if he doesn't get adopted by another Cimmerian family. For example, his family could have died of the pox, and other Cimmerians are wary of catching the disease.) Why was his father outcast? Why has he not be allowed to train as a warrior with the other clansmen his age? All of these questions I've decided to answer as the game continues.  The point I'm making here is to develop a rich, engrossing backdrop on which you will serve your stories. Always keep the players interested. Leave mysteries to be solved later. And, keep an ear and eye open as to what the players want. Try to give them the game that they want to play. But...that's not to say that you must give them everything that they want. When I started this game, I limited the choice of class to one: Barbarian. I told them that they would probably be related. They would all be Cimmerians and members of the same clan. I even gave them their names, citing that, in real life, we don't pick our own names unless we change it later. My players accepted that, are now addicted to the game, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/320184-tale-hyborian-age.html#post5861778" target="_blank">and the story continues.</a></blockquote>

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