A PCs background. Help me be nasty!

[Inconsequenti-AL]

One of my players has given me a rather open ended background for his character:

He was a poor city boy.
His sister was brutally murdered - method unspecified...
He found out who the murderer was - the only son of a moderately wealthy trader.
He tortured and killed said son.
Then went on the run and ended up working as a mercenary.
Unfortunately, he was wrong about the identity of the murderer. He has killed an innocent (albeit unpleasant) young man.
At the start of the campaign, he's a pretty well rounded guy but feels guilty for what he did.

I've got the players permission to do what I want with this one... What would you do?

 

[Hand of Evil]

It was not his sister, it was his someone who looked like his sister that his sister found and murdered to escape the city because she knew/saw/was involved with. Yep, his sister is still alive and EVIL!

 

[Ravellion]

The wealthy merchant has his son raised.
The son finds out who the true murderer was (why did that kid kill me?).
Son then hunts PC down, dangling the real information in front of his nose - but only wiling to give it if he turns himself in.

Rav

 

[diaglo]

Poor city child could mean many things....

lets say street urchin. and his sister was older. and not really his sister but his mother. she was only 11 years his senior though. and never told him.

and the person who killed her was.. the father of the PC.

the young man grew up wanting to kill his father.

everyone said what an uncanny resemblence they had.

the one the PC actually slew was the wrong son of the rich family. he slew the younger son.

the older one.. his father... had gone off adventuring or to school. he is a wizard now. and much, much older... he was 38 when the PC was born... and is now... 38 + PC age

 

[diaglo]

how nasty can we be? how grim & gritty? how detailed?

 

[alsih2o]

Has your player been reading my storyhour?

Constantly, and I mean constantly, make it seem as if he is being hunted. But never actually.

Have things happen that hint at someone hunting him down despite the fact that noone does. He has gotten away with it but you as DM can keep him quite on edge wiht subtleness, hints and faux intrigue.

 

[LeapingShark]

Sister returns as an irritable ghost, hounding her brother until he avenges her rightfully, always nagging him about mistakenly killing the wrong man. She follows him everywhere, always lurking somewhere just out of sight. She constantly reminds him of her presence by causing little annoyances; such scaring away farm animals, causing sudden winds to blow out candles, wilting flowers, untying shoelaces, bending spoons, etc, and will continue to do so until her brother punishes her killer. She always tries to keep her existance hidden from the rest of the world, so that people will think her brother is cursed, or crazy.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

alsih2o - I wonder if that inspired him... I did get chatting about story hours at the last gaming session, certainly mentioned that one. Ah well, plagarism is definitely a virtue in fantasy games.


diaglo - feel free to be grim and gritty as you like. My last few campaigns have been 'shiney heroes against evil' kind of stuff. This time I felt a rather amoral gritty feel would make a nice change. Not my usual sort of DnD game, but I think it could be fun.

As far as the setting goes, I'm aiming to rip off Warhammer - a number of 'good guy' nations, who spent a lot of time and effort squabbling with each other. Surrounding and underneath them are all kinds of horrors, who'd love to enslave, kill or corrupt them. Cultists all over the place. Magic scares normal people. Gunpowder is a recent discovery...


Definitely some interesting ideas here!

Evil and still alive sister... that's a tempting thought.

The son still kicking around in some manner... possibly reanimated rather than raised?

The murderer being his father, his sister his mom. That's great! For some reason, I can visualise a series of Darth Vader/Luke face offs... multiple 'I am your father.' 'I am your mother.' 'I'm your pet cat.' reveals - It'd confuse the heck out him.

 

[alsih2o]

alsih2o - I wonder if that inspired him... I did get chatting about story hours at the last gaming session, certainly mentioned that one. Ah well, plagarism is definitely a virtue in fantasy games.

Ummm, I wouldn't know.

*Whistles innocently*

Oooh! Have him have won a minor proze in the lottery. Shadowy characters kep showing up looking ofr him to give him notice of the prize. Of course, if they look like bounty hunters and get kileld that isn't your problem, right?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Poor kid in the city may equals child sex trade, parents 'sell' chidren into sex serfdom, sister was part of it, and wanted out. Sister now is running sex/slave trade, providing young kids for the rich and famous...Party get involved in the clean up, sister becomes foe, player finds out he has other brothers and sisters, some dead, some still alive.