Heathen72
Explorer
So there you are, you have an hour to come up with an interesting game for your players, and you want an cool NPC for the story to revolve around. What do you do? Well you could create a character with 18 Int and loads of powerful spells. Chuck in a few spells the party haven't seen before. That would be interesting, right?
Wrong.
Try this - define a character by what they can't do - by what they wished they could. It is fascinating what people do to work around their inabilities, or how their failure to overcome those inabilities can warp them.
Here's an example from a 1st level game I ran the other day.
Devon Elderberry always wanted to be a magician. He was apprenticed to a wizard when he was young because he was fairly good at reading, but the truth of it was that he just didn't have whatever it is that one needs to become a mage. He had a very hard time grasping the concepts his master tried to teach him, and had trouble casting even a simple cantrip. In fact he only ever managed to cast one spell, once - and this was only because his teacher was helping him. That spell was Read Magic, and to Devon the experience was truly mystical. The words and symbols swam on the page before him; the letters reached out to him like tendrils and gently caressed his cheek. Unfortunately the experience was too much for his fragile mind. Something snapped in there, and Devon was never the same again. The Wizard realizing this, gently tried to tell Devon that he wasn't cut out to be a mage. This was not to Devon's liking, however, and a week later the wizard was found dead, apparently having passed away in his sleep.
Many years passed. Devon never found another teacher, and became the owner of a bookshop (He had a lot of money; being the sole beneficiary in the will of the wizard he had killed.) He accumulated a vast collection of books, but anyone who looked closely enough would find that every book had at least one page missing...
This is because Devon had removed them. Underneath the bookstop (in a hidden cellar) Devon has a bizarre shrine dedicated to words. For years he has cut words from his thousands of books and pasted them all over his cellar wall. They form one long rambling sentence with each word somehow relating to magic. There is hardly a patch of wall uncovered - he is now starting on the roof. And at the end of the cellar is a small altar (complete with candles and incense) dedicated to that one page from his 'spellbook' - Read Magic
And where is the adventure I hear you ask?
Well, Devon prizes the words from spellbooks above all others. If he hears that a wizard has come to town, he will do anything to get a copy of the spellbook (to cut those most beautiful words from it.) Because mages are so very careful with their spellbooks, however, that means hiring hefty thugs to mug them. Most people imagine these attacks to be the acts of a vigilante group that hates magicians, and as the town constabulary also hate magicians, a blind eye has been turned to the assaults).
It shouldn't be clear to the players that the attacks are motivated by theft, until their investigation turns up stories of attacks on sages, and young children(reading the book of fairy tale with the beautiful writing.)
A possible red herring: The thugs attack Devon because this time he hasn't paid them (his inheritance is running out, and the shop isn't doing too well). Given that Devon was once a mage, this would more evidence to suggest the attacks were hate motivated...
The adventure should end with the players investigating Devon's creepy cellar. It really is very weird - think of the home of the murderer in 'Seven'. Ideally, Devon should attack them while they are in there - for defiling his shrine. Although he appears quite a frail man, Devon is quite insane. When dressed as his alter ego (wearing a paper mache mask made out of - you guessed it - the words from books) he seems almost supernaturally strong, and he wields a razor sharp bookbinder's scalpel.
Eke it out right, you've got a simple mystery, and a good psycho villain, but it wasn't too hard to come up with. All it took was looking for a weakness instead of a strength, and a little preparedness to break the routine.
Anyone else out there with ideas for basing characters on their weaknesses? You don't have to tell the whole story. Just give us the the seed.
Wrong.
Try this - define a character by what they can't do - by what they wished they could. It is fascinating what people do to work around their inabilities, or how their failure to overcome those inabilities can warp them.
Here's an example from a 1st level game I ran the other day.
Devon Elderberry always wanted to be a magician. He was apprenticed to a wizard when he was young because he was fairly good at reading, but the truth of it was that he just didn't have whatever it is that one needs to become a mage. He had a very hard time grasping the concepts his master tried to teach him, and had trouble casting even a simple cantrip. In fact he only ever managed to cast one spell, once - and this was only because his teacher was helping him. That spell was Read Magic, and to Devon the experience was truly mystical. The words and symbols swam on the page before him; the letters reached out to him like tendrils and gently caressed his cheek. Unfortunately the experience was too much for his fragile mind. Something snapped in there, and Devon was never the same again. The Wizard realizing this, gently tried to tell Devon that he wasn't cut out to be a mage. This was not to Devon's liking, however, and a week later the wizard was found dead, apparently having passed away in his sleep.
Many years passed. Devon never found another teacher, and became the owner of a bookshop (He had a lot of money; being the sole beneficiary in the will of the wizard he had killed.) He accumulated a vast collection of books, but anyone who looked closely enough would find that every book had at least one page missing...
This is because Devon had removed them. Underneath the bookstop (in a hidden cellar) Devon has a bizarre shrine dedicated to words. For years he has cut words from his thousands of books and pasted them all over his cellar wall. They form one long rambling sentence with each word somehow relating to magic. There is hardly a patch of wall uncovered - he is now starting on the roof. And at the end of the cellar is a small altar (complete with candles and incense) dedicated to that one page from his 'spellbook' - Read Magic
And where is the adventure I hear you ask?
Well, Devon prizes the words from spellbooks above all others. If he hears that a wizard has come to town, he will do anything to get a copy of the spellbook (to cut those most beautiful words from it.) Because mages are so very careful with their spellbooks, however, that means hiring hefty thugs to mug them. Most people imagine these attacks to be the acts of a vigilante group that hates magicians, and as the town constabulary also hate magicians, a blind eye has been turned to the assaults).
It shouldn't be clear to the players that the attacks are motivated by theft, until their investigation turns up stories of attacks on sages, and young children(reading the book of fairy tale with the beautiful writing.)
A possible red herring: The thugs attack Devon because this time he hasn't paid them (his inheritance is running out, and the shop isn't doing too well). Given that Devon was once a mage, this would more evidence to suggest the attacks were hate motivated...
The adventure should end with the players investigating Devon's creepy cellar. It really is very weird - think of the home of the murderer in 'Seven'. Ideally, Devon should attack them while they are in there - for defiling his shrine. Although he appears quite a frail man, Devon is quite insane. When dressed as his alter ego (wearing a paper mache mask made out of - you guessed it - the words from books) he seems almost supernaturally strong, and he wields a razor sharp bookbinder's scalpel.
Eke it out right, you've got a simple mystery, and a good psycho villain, but it wasn't too hard to come up with. All it took was looking for a weakness instead of a strength, and a little preparedness to break the routine.
Anyone else out there with ideas for basing characters on their weaknesses? You don't have to tell the whole story. Just give us the the seed.
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