I'm starting a new campaign Monday, and I want it very character driven. I'm going hard into backstories and asking my players what makes their character tick.
One player is... less than enthusiastic about their backstory, and after a lot of prodding we've come up with this:
High Elf Wizard, 300 years old. Graduated college 200 years ago. Doesn't believe the gods should have all the power they do.
Common knowledge: Gods cannot influence the world directly. They need a Saint to do that. (Saints are pretty much the heroes or conduits of those gods. Gods either have a Saint or zero Saints.)
Highly Educated knowledge: There is historical evidence that gods can interact directly with the world for one year out of every thousand. Each god has their own timeline. (As in, not all gods visit during the same year.)
His Character knowledge: Each god has left behind a piece of itself on the world in order to return to the mortal plane every thousand years. You imagine these pieces of god would be very powerful spell components.
So the problem is he decided that he wants to gather up these pieces of god and if he doesn't like the god, destroy them. That's step 3 in my Big Bad's Master Plot.
I'm not sure how to divert him without spelling out he'd be messing up my plans, but I really want to. Any ideas?
Hear me out here. This only really works if step 3 isn't the final step, and as long as you're able to find a way for your players to still be able to rise up and have a chance a taking down the big bad then this wouldn't be the worst thing. Imagine the shock of your player and his character when they realise that they've been an unwitting pawn of the big bad this whole time by destroying these artifacts. It could provide for a huge character growth arc.
He's more of the kind of player I'm afraid wouldn't care if he's on the "Bad Guy's" side, especially since one of the themes of the campaign is "morally gray."
I have no real issue with letting him keep his goal; I want him invested in his character and I want it to be HIS character. The big problem for me is keeping the party together.
Out of 4 PCs, one is/will be actively trying to protect one piece of god. Another is looking for a piece of god to save his people. The third isn't really attached to the whole "God bits" yet.
My best case vision for this is the wizard will try to blackmail his way into being a Saint. Because he for sure will be unable to destroy a bit anyway.
Maybe the wizard ends up being the big bad? You could even have it be a multiple personalities thing where touching one of the "God bits" features the personalities into separate beings. Your choice as to whether the player plays the RP aspects of the separated BBEG and you control the mechanical aspects or whether his version is being tainted just enough from your version's thoughts that it "makes sense" to destroy the "God bits". If the latter, you'll have to clue the player in later and find out how the goal would change.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I'm starting a new campaign Monday, and I want it very character driven. I'm going hard into backstories and asking my players what makes their character tick.
One player is... less than enthusiastic about their backstory, and after a lot of prodding we've come up with this:
High Elf Wizard, 300 years old. Graduated college 200 years ago. Doesn't believe the gods should have all the power they do.
Common knowledge: Gods cannot influence the world directly. They need a Saint to do that. (Saints are pretty much the heroes or conduits of those gods. Gods either have a Saint or zero Saints.)
Highly Educated knowledge: There is historical evidence that gods can interact directly with the world for one year out of every thousand. Each god has their own timeline. (As in, not all gods visit during the same year.)
His Character knowledge: Each god has left behind a piece of itself on the world in order to return to the mortal plane every thousand years. You imagine these pieces of god would be very powerful spell components.
So the problem is he decided that he wants to gather up these pieces of god and if he doesn't like the god, destroy them. That's step 3 in my Big Bad's Master Plot.
I'm not sure how to divert him without spelling out he'd be messing up my plans, but I really want to. Any ideas?
You could let him.
Hear me out here. This only really works if step 3 isn't the final step, and as long as you're able to find a way for your players to still be able to rise up and have a chance a taking down the big bad then this wouldn't be the worst thing. Imagine the shock of your player and his character when they realise that they've been an unwitting pawn of the big bad this whole time by destroying these artifacts. It could provide for a huge character growth arc.
He's more of the kind of player I'm afraid wouldn't care if he's on the "Bad Guy's" side, especially since one of the themes of the campaign is "morally gray."
I have no real issue with letting him keep his goal; I want him invested in his character and I want it to be HIS character. The big problem for me is keeping the party together.
Out of 4 PCs, one is/will be actively trying to protect one piece of god. Another is looking for a piece of god to save his people. The third isn't really attached to the whole "God bits" yet.
My best case vision for this is the wizard will try to blackmail his way into being a Saint. Because he for sure will be unable to destroy a bit anyway.
Maybe the wizard ends up being the big bad? You could even have it be a multiple personalities thing where touching one of the "God bits" features the personalities into separate beings. Your choice as to whether the player plays the RP aspects of the separated BBEG and you control the mechanical aspects or whether his version is being tainted just enough from your version's thoughts that it "makes sense" to destroy the "God bits". If the latter, you'll have to clue the player in later and find out how the goal would change.