What's a dwarven rogue want? (help)

[Elodan]

First, in a previous topic I've asked for help picking a character for a pre-wars Dyvers campaign and I wanted to thank those who took the time to help.

Now to the issue at hand, I've been trying to come up with a background for my character, a mountain dwarf rogue from the Principality of Ulek. Every time I start one it feels too cliched. What I'm looking for is either some ideas why a dwarven rogue is out adventuring or for someone to point me to one of those background questionaires.

Thanks.

 

[Dungannon]

Off the top of my head, maybe he's searching for a lost clan artifact? Or maybe he's looking to prove that there isn't a lock or trap in the world that he can't disarm or disable? Are those too cliche'd?

 

[Elodan]

Off the top of my head, maybe he's searching for a lost clan artifact? Or maybe he's looking to prove that there isn't a lock or trap in the world that he can't disarm or disable? Are those too cliche'd?

I've been going with the black sheep, clan wiped out or the out to prove himself stuff. I like the clan artifact angle.

 

[Nifft]

Do all Dwarves come from hewn-stone halls in the mountains? Or did he grow up in a dock-side city, watching the ships come & go, dreaming of lands he'd never seen, rich with unique spiced ale?

Was his father a blacksmith, a jeweler, a locksmith, a weapons-master, a wandering mercenary, a cleric of the god of truth, a pirate, or a ninja?

Did he grow up living in a stable of war-goats, or on the deck of a war ship, or in the back of a merchant wagon, or climbing up the rope-ladders of the holy cliff-side city of Sweetwater?

-- N

 

[Guilberwood]

maybe he lived for a long time in caves and dungeons and became very good at surviving in this kind of place

that makes him :
1- a very good company for adventures
2- very good at adventuring himself and now he can be looking for other sorts of places or he just discovered that he can be rich by adventuring using his abilities


these are lame, I know, but can be a start for something better

 

[Pants]

The dwarven rogue in my campaign started out with the goal of running a mercantile company and now he is, the rich bastard.

 

[SteelDraco]

It kind of depends on how he fit into dwarven soceity. Dwarves, IMO, are going to be particularly harsh to thieves - anyone caught stealing is going to be in serious trouble in a dwarven community. Exile is probably about the best you can hope for.

If he was actually a thief in the dwarven community, then he might have been kicked out, or on the run from some kind of law enforcement. IMC, the punishment for theft in a dwarven town is maiming (loss of your pinkie fingers, in particular) and exile from any dwarven soceity. Dwarves just pretend you don't exist.

If he wasn't a thief, then you need to figure out how he came by his rogue skills. A scout? An explorer? A tunnel-delver? Any of these would suggest a background you could use to develop your PC.

What kind of rogue skills does he have, anyway? That can mean quite a few different things, really.

 

[MQP]

In the last game I played in, my dwarven rogue wasn't a thief, but a locksmith... well, a locksmith's apprentice, actually, who was madly in love with the daughter of a Clan Elder, and to prove his worth to the community (i.e., her), went to go seek fame and fortune in the hopes of coming back a hero and winning her heart.

MQP

 

[MrFilthyIke]

Do all Dwarves come from hewn-stone halls in the mountains? Or did he grow up in a dock-side city, watching the ships come & go, dreaming of lands he'd never seen, rich with unique spiced ale?

In the PoU there is Gyrax (sp?) a large port city. Maybe a dock worker and small time criminal? Maybe he was getting in too deep in the "underworld", and decided to get outta Dodge before it was too late? Maybe his conscious was getting to him, and he wanted to turn his skills to good, or to recovered/restore what banished him from his clan?

In the PoU the dwarves come from the mountain halls, but run a kingdom with plains and forests, so many would not be "mountain dwellers".

Don't worry about cliches and stereotypes, they're there for good reason.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well, the naming quest, or the walk-about. It is time for the dwarf to learn his coming of age name and that means he/she has go out into the world and find it!

The shame, family supported the wrong side in a fight and while this is honorable it came to light that the group they sided with really were non-drinking orc loving hell spawn. Now the dwarf hunts them down one by one.

The beer! Long ago the perfect beer was made by a dwarf, who was know far and wide, he became rich from it, his clan hold overflowing from the gold. Then one day raiders came and the beer stopped flowing, the secret of its making gone, until now. The dwarf has found an old lore and in its pages the recipe but those ingredients are no so common and how to do more than you know, and some of the names have changed. The adventure is to see vats in the old hold, to find the seeds of the mountian white hops, to taste the spring waters from snows 1000 years old.