PC and NPC Secrets - Looking for Suggestions

[jedavis]

Plenty of PC secrets in the Mongoose Traveller game I'm playing in currently. My thief is an accomplice of a pirate organization and was involved in a shipyard heist. Another PC spent several years investigating said heist, but had to quit when death threats from pirates started rolling in. My PC has no idea that the pirates covered for him, nor that the investigator was after him for years, while the investigator has no idea that I'm the guy he's been hunting. Another PC is actually an agent of an alien government who aids us as a means of destabilizing human space, while a fourth PC is secretly a psion (and may have been a bioweapons researcher at one time). Our last PC is just a marine, but nobody's sure why he was discharged from the service just before making General.

The best part is that all of this stuff just kind of followed from Trav chargen.

 

[Rechan]

-My actions caused the death of innocents (collateral damage in an Area of Effect spell, I was too slow and failed to save someone from being sacrificed/eaten, I was drunk on guard duty and the individual I was guarding got assassinated).

-In (a secret room/property my family owns), I have chained up the undead remnant of (family member/beloved/most hated rival), whom I go to see once a month. (Extra points if it's a mindless undead, double points if it's an undead that must be fed, and the individual brings them food)

-I am secretly sympathetic and unable to kill monster x, because my adopted parent/childhood friend was/became that species of monster.

-In my youth, I accidentally released (demon/undead/etc) from a place it was trapped.

-I conceal my extreme feelings of (anarchism/rebellion against the crown/other extreme political ideology) and I minor ties to these types.

-Once I was (possessed/cursed with lycanthropy/thrall to a mindflayer/etc) but was cured. However while under the influence of that horrible condition, I did horrible things.

-I am impotent due to (curse, had it stolen by a spellcaster/succubi, just plain medical issues).

 

[SteelDraco]

Here are PC secrets from the game I'll be running soon.

--I am not the gender I appear to be. (PC is a female, but feared she wouldn't be able to work in law enforcement as a female, so she dresses and acts like a man)

--My family doesn't know where I am. I ran away from them because they were getting between me and my goals. They're still looking for me.

--I work for a secret organization as an undercover law enforcement officer.

--I'm not human, but an alchemical construct designed to look and act human. I don't know who created me or why - one of the other PCs found me in a comatose state before play begins, and woke me up.

--I am not who I claim to be - I was the servant, confidant, and secret heir of a reclusive lord. When he was murdered, I took up his identity and went out into the world to find out who murdered him and why.

 

[Keenberg]

*I and the people of my town were once slaves to a now-extinct evil cult. I watched my friends and even family members drop before me from exhaustion as we toiled, only knowing we had no choice but to aid some horrible ritual. I learned things I wish I hadn't...

*I age incredibly quickly/slowly/randomly/backwards...

*I was forced to flee the territory I was born in when another race engaged in a local genocide. I now live concealing my true racial identity with a disguise/illusion/false credentials/a silver tongue, and harbor sharp hatred for the race who killed my kin.

*Some people think I'm mad. I talk to my doll/painting/other inanimate object each day/night. What they don't know is that it speaks to me too. the soul of my mother/father/brother/sister/son/daughter/wife/husband was bound to it to preserve them from death. I'm trying to find a way to restore them to life. ((or maybe not, and the PC is psychotic/pathological))

 

[steeldragons]

One more...if it hasn't been suggested already...though along the lines of the "secret identity" idea, but the flip side. i.e. "I an NOT Batman."

* I am not who I said I am...I took the name from some hero who passed through town or a distant noble I heard of or even the bartender from my hometown tavern who had something of a reputation before he/she retired. I really hope the rest of the party don't ever discover that I am, in fact, a "nobody" who found this sword and magic <item of choice> by complete accident in my cornfield.

Fun roleplaying shenanigans to ensue...the "borrowed" persona hears about you and comes looking for his/her "imposter", people expecting certain things from you (due to the fake identity's reputation), gods forbid you should ever run into anyone who actually has met or seen the real person you claim to be!...plus the character development side of coming to grips that you have proven yourself time and again and are, in fact, not a "nobody" but a hero in your own right!

 

[Dioltach]

--I am not the gender I appear to be. (PC is a female, but feared she wouldn't be able to work in law enforcement as a female, so she dresses and acts like a man)

I hope that she has more ranks in Disguise than "Bob" Parkhurst: "You are a girl. And you're a girl with as much talent for disguise as a giraffe in dark glasses trying to get into a 'Polar bears only' golf club."

 

[SteelDraco]

I hope that she has more ranks in Disguise than "Bob" Parkhurst: "You are a girl. And you're a girl with as much talent for disguise as a giraffe in dark glasses trying to get into a 'Polar bears only' golf club."

Heh, no, she's actually pretty bad at it. I don't anticipate it'll last too long, though since the people she thinks care won't, they might not say anything for a while. From her description it's mostly just a very slim, boyish figure and a tomboy attitude.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Know and are friends with a King Slayer!

Are related to one of the other characters.

Work for the government / guild or such as an informat.

Have a mutation.

Are not from this plane.

Know a secret way into some place.

Like orcs...

Like to dress up like an elf (you're a dwarf).

 

[SteelDraco]

My current PC has several kids at home he abandoned to go adventuring when his wife died. He left them with family because they reminded him too much of her. He tries not to think about this.

 

[Nytmare]

We don't do secrets, per se, but we borrow very heavily from the Burning Wheel character creation process and use something close to what they use called "beliefs" for all of our characters.

What I have started to describe them as to people are "side quest wish lists." It's a way for my players to let me know how they'd like to showcase their characters fitting into the world. We prefer these over just plain secrets or historical tidbits because it gives us a way to work them into the game.

It's not just that you have a wife and kids, it's that you've have a wife and kids and you want the DM to put them in danger, or use them against you in some way. You and your family moved away from the city because your life as an adventurer was over, the bad guys are holding your children to force you to do something, your father in law blames you for his daughter's death and he's the magistrate in the city you were just arrested in...

For us, it has to be something more than another lost piece of information that doesn't impact the game. If it never matters that you're five foot ten, that you have piercing green eyes, or that your parents were killed and you were raised by bunnies, then why bother writing it down?

It's not so much that your character has a past, it's that you want to come up with ways for your actions and the decisions that you make to reflect that past, or cast a shadow of it.

The Abberation Hunter - I hear a tale about a creature with 100 eyes that stood taller than the trees that attacked a caravan in the Hornsaw Forest.

Adrenaline Junkie "Acquirer of Misplaced Items" - The last time I was in this city, I left owing a particularly unpleasant gambler a significant amount of money. I need to pay particular attention to not being recognized while we're here.

Falling Paladin - The Bishop eventually notices the affair I'm having with the Dutchess...
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