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<blockquote data-quote="humble minion" data-source="post: 8004164" data-attributes="member: 5948"><p>Some possibilities for PC backgrounds:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">PCs might have been born and raised slaves in Tyr. The probably haven't been out in the city much, they have very few resources or allies of their own because, well, they're slaves.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">PCs might have been Tyr residents but who somehow fell foul of Kalak (who is a profoundly petty and grasping tyrant). All their possessions were confiscated, perhaps in the service of building Kalak's ziggurat, and the fact that they were Out Of Favour became widely known and now most of their acquaintances avoid them because they don't want to be tainted by association in the eyes of the sorceror-king.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">PCs might have been from a small village outside Tyr. Perhaps they're in the city on one of their occasional trading journeys, perhaps the village was destroyed by monsters or sandstorms or something, and they've got nowhere else to go other than go to the city for whatever work they can find</li> </ul><p></p><p>But to be honest - make the players do the work. Lay out some rough guidelines, then say "find a reason why your PCs know and trust one another" or "find a reason why your PCs will be in place X at time Y"</p><p></p><p>Re general knowledge, i'd put together an 'info pack' cribbed from (for example) the old DS boxed set and bits of the tyr sourcebook, and dump it in front of the players, and say 'this is what you know about Athas' just to give them the basics of city-states, sorceror-kings, templars, athas is dry and horrible, slavery and gladiator fights are big deals, arcane magic eats life, if a halfling and a kreen ask you to dinner don't go, and so on and so on. Handle the rest on the fly. Tyr is a big place, you'll inevitably need to make stuff up anyway. If anyone comes up with really well-informed PC concepts (lots of knowledges etc) then make the info pack bigger for them and them only. Also, give this to them BEFORE they come up with character concepts, and if you're using house rules, tell your players nice and early. Athasian characters are inevitably different, and the restrictions on them are what makes the setting feel unique. You don't want them turning up to session 1 with a half-orc wild magic sorceror, a jolly gnome bard, a tiefling spellsword, and a noble knightly paladin in shiny steel full plate armour and then have to cheese them all off by knocking back their character concepts first thing.</p><p></p><p>As for clerics - yeah, just go with it. Elemental clerics are pretty well known on athas, and in the cities they're frowned upon (if not actively persecuted) cos they are a way around the templars' monopoly on divine spellcasting. Seeing a cleric in the arena isn't going to surprise anyone. And in the pits, earth and air should be easy to come by. Fire and water are a bit harder, but perhaps some guards with torches etc? </p><p></p><p>Preservers are a tougher prospect, and that's deliberate. It's a bit easier to be a spellbook-less wizard in 5e because you only need your spellbook to change prepared spells rather than prepare them at all. So you can certainly feel ok in taking your PCs spellbook away for decent lengths of time. Hiding the fact he's a wizard will be much harder - I'd suggest if you have a PC who wants to be a preserver, you talk about this in advance so the player can plan and (at the very least) take Deception or Sleight Of Hand to help disguise spellcasting. Perhaps the PC might have a cover already prepared, as a But really it's mostly the really unnatural stuff that'll give your PC away as a wizard (plus all the plants etc dying if he/she lapses and does a bit of defiling in extremis...). A wizard who focuses mostly on enchantments (and who disguises the chanting, gestures etc) can pass for a psionicist, one who mostly casts fire spells can probably pretend to be an elemental cleric for short periods of time at least. But it won't be easy and it SHOULDN'T be easy. Athas is a hard place to be a wizard. But the flip side of that is - most NPCs will simply have no idea of what a wizard is capable of, they might be terrified of him out of proportion to his actual power, they might not even realise that (for example) illusion spells were a real thing so they're more likely to get fooled by relatively simple minor images etc. Athas can be hostile to wizards, but remembering this sort of thing once in a while can even things up a bit and make the wizard PCs player feel less picked-on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="humble minion, post: 8004164, member: 5948"] Some possibilities for PC backgrounds: [LIST] [*]PCs might have been born and raised slaves in Tyr. The probably haven't been out in the city much, they have very few resources or allies of their own because, well, they're slaves. [*]PCs might have been Tyr residents but who somehow fell foul of Kalak (who is a profoundly petty and grasping tyrant). All their possessions were confiscated, perhaps in the service of building Kalak's ziggurat, and the fact that they were Out Of Favour became widely known and now most of their acquaintances avoid them because they don't want to be tainted by association in the eyes of the sorceror-king. [*]PCs might have been from a small village outside Tyr. Perhaps they're in the city on one of their occasional trading journeys, perhaps the village was destroyed by monsters or sandstorms or something, and they've got nowhere else to go other than go to the city for whatever work they can find [/LIST] But to be honest - make the players do the work. Lay out some rough guidelines, then say "find a reason why your PCs know and trust one another" or "find a reason why your PCs will be in place X at time Y" Re general knowledge, i'd put together an 'info pack' cribbed from (for example) the old DS boxed set and bits of the tyr sourcebook, and dump it in front of the players, and say 'this is what you know about Athas' just to give them the basics of city-states, sorceror-kings, templars, athas is dry and horrible, slavery and gladiator fights are big deals, arcane magic eats life, if a halfling and a kreen ask you to dinner don't go, and so on and so on. Handle the rest on the fly. Tyr is a big place, you'll inevitably need to make stuff up anyway. If anyone comes up with really well-informed PC concepts (lots of knowledges etc) then make the info pack bigger for them and them only. Also, give this to them BEFORE they come up with character concepts, and if you're using house rules, tell your players nice and early. Athasian characters are inevitably different, and the restrictions on them are what makes the setting feel unique. You don't want them turning up to session 1 with a half-orc wild magic sorceror, a jolly gnome bard, a tiefling spellsword, and a noble knightly paladin in shiny steel full plate armour and then have to cheese them all off by knocking back their character concepts first thing. As for clerics - yeah, just go with it. Elemental clerics are pretty well known on athas, and in the cities they're frowned upon (if not actively persecuted) cos they are a way around the templars' monopoly on divine spellcasting. Seeing a cleric in the arena isn't going to surprise anyone. And in the pits, earth and air should be easy to come by. Fire and water are a bit harder, but perhaps some guards with torches etc? Preservers are a tougher prospect, and that's deliberate. It's a bit easier to be a spellbook-less wizard in 5e because you only need your spellbook to change prepared spells rather than prepare them at all. So you can certainly feel ok in taking your PCs spellbook away for decent lengths of time. Hiding the fact he's a wizard will be much harder - I'd suggest if you have a PC who wants to be a preserver, you talk about this in advance so the player can plan and (at the very least) take Deception or Sleight Of Hand to help disguise spellcasting. Perhaps the PC might have a cover already prepared, as a But really it's mostly the really unnatural stuff that'll give your PC away as a wizard (plus all the plants etc dying if he/she lapses and does a bit of defiling in extremis...). A wizard who focuses mostly on enchantments (and who disguises the chanting, gestures etc) can pass for a psionicist, one who mostly casts fire spells can probably pretend to be an elemental cleric for short periods of time at least. But it won't be easy and it SHOULDN'T be easy. Athas is a hard place to be a wizard. But the flip side of that is - most NPCs will simply have no idea of what a wizard is capable of, they might be terrified of him out of proportion to his actual power, they might not even realise that (for example) illusion spells were a real thing so they're more likely to get fooled by relatively simple minor images etc. Athas can be hostile to wizards, but remembering this sort of thing once in a while can even things up a bit and make the wizard PCs player feel less picked-on. [/QUOTE]
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