Quick question guys. I have decided that the character that I have been working on is going to have picked up a kid while adventuring.
Basically, this kid was a street kid, he had no home, no parents, no family. He was starving, filthy, freezing and all alone.
When he ran into my character he was being chased by the town gaurds for stealing food to survive. He wasn't looking where he was going and ran right into my character, who immediately saw this filthy urchin holding fresh fruit that there was no way he could afford and the town gaurds pounding round the corner.
My character pulled the kid down an alley and hid him and then misdirected the gaurds so that he wasn't caught.
Afterwards my character gave the kid a lecture about being honest and taking pride in yourself and so on then gave him some money to buy food with and shooed him away.
This was like the first person who had shown this kid any kindness at all and instead of running off he followed my character while trying to remain hidden. He wasnt very good at it though and my character knew he was there but let him follow anyway.
Eventually the kid disappeared and night fell, so my character - now having given his money away, found an alley and settied down for the night out of sight of the town gaurds.
The night was freezing and my character wasn't really able to properly go to sleep, which is why he noticed the kid return sometime just after dark.
This kid had been and used the money my character had given him to buy food and now he was going to share it with my character. So they shared the food and the kid fell asleep next to him (he was used to the cold since he had been a street kid most of his life).
Still not really able to sleep my character kind of watched over the kid that night and then let him follow him the next morning when he left the town to go hunt some breakfast.
So now he has basically become a surrogate parent to this kid who is about 12 or 13 maybe and is following him on his adventure.
My question is, do you think this kind of thing would work, like having a your kid along with you (my character has basically become this kids surrogate parent I am thinking)
The kid obviously has hardyness and some basic survival.skills since he has survived on the streets for all these years but there is so much my character could teach him and he could possibly help out at times too.
As far as the kid is concerned - this guy has shown him kindness and he can tell that my character could teach him more about the world and how better to survive in it and by following him, he might even find a way to become more than a filthy street kid.
Besides, this life isn't any worse than the one he had and if he stayed in that town, it would only be a matter of time before the guards found him again and then he's going to be in teouble and he's getting close to the age now when the being a child isn't going to protect him from punishments anymore.
So he has reason to skip town and reason to follow my character.
I'm just not sure if this is a good idea or not. What do you all think, is it possible for this kind of this to work out or is it just a terrible idea and I shouldn't do it?
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Just apply henchman rules and let the kid have lower attributes to account for his lack of life experience/development. Rest is roleplay to make it work and could lead to interesting ways of dealing with situations and what not.
If he's going into battle, make sure everyone is aware that he could die. I've run into two situations with a child NPC. The first, we sent him away so he'd be out of combat. The second...my (evil) players want to use the kid and don't care if he dies (or so they tell me). Since they showed interest in taking the kid along, I decided to make him a level 1 character. I made the stats somewhat low (he has a +2 in one stat, everything else is lower) and rolled a percentile dice to determine his starting class. As he gains levels, I plan to multiclass him depending on interactions from my players--the NPC isn't meant to be a strong addition to the party, but a reflection of their actions as the campaign goes on.
I think the important part is that the NPC is still that: an NPC. He shouldn't steal the spotlight from the PCs and his development should be slow and appropriate for his background (he doesn't have the years of training a PC would have). Bottom line: does it sound fun and is everyone okay with it? Then do it!
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Quick question guys. I have decided that the character that I have been working on is going to have picked up a kid while adventuring.
Basically, this kid was a street kid, he had no home, no parents, no family. He was starving, filthy, freezing and all alone.
When he ran into my character he was being chased by the town gaurds for stealing food to survive. He wasn't looking where he was going and ran right into my character, who immediately saw this filthy urchin holding fresh fruit that there was no way he could afford and the town gaurds pounding round the corner.
My character pulled the kid down an alley and hid him and then misdirected the gaurds so that he wasn't caught.
Afterwards my character gave the kid a lecture about being honest and taking pride in yourself and so on then gave him some money to buy food with and shooed him away.
This was like the first person who had shown this kid any kindness at all and instead of running off he followed my character while trying to remain hidden. He wasnt very good at it though and my character knew he was there but let him follow anyway.
Eventually the kid disappeared and night fell, so my character - now having given his money away, found an alley and settied down for the night out of sight of the town gaurds.
The night was freezing and my character wasn't really able to properly go to sleep, which is why he noticed the kid return sometime just after dark.
This kid had been and used the money my character had given him to buy food and now he was going to share it with my character. So they shared the food and the kid fell asleep next to him (he was used to the cold since he had been a street kid most of his life).
Still not really able to sleep my character kind of watched over the kid that night and then let him follow him the next morning when he left the town to go hunt some breakfast.
So now he has basically become a surrogate parent to this kid who is about 12 or 13 maybe and is following him on his adventure.
My question is, do you think this kind of thing would work, like having a your kid along with you (my character has basically become this kids surrogate parent I am thinking)
The kid obviously has hardyness and some basic survival.skills since he has survived on the streets for all these years but there is so much my character could teach him and he could possibly help out at times too.
As far as the kid is concerned - this guy has shown him kindness and he can tell that my character could teach him more about the world and how better to survive in it and by following him, he might even find a way to become more than a filthy street kid.
Besides, this life isn't any worse than the one he had and if he stayed in that town, it would only be a matter of time before the guards found him again and then he's going to be in teouble and he's getting close to the age now when the being a child isn't going to protect him from punishments anymore.
So he has reason to skip town and reason to follow my character.
I'm just not sure if this is a good idea or not. What do you all think, is it possible for this kind of this to work out or is it just a terrible idea and I shouldn't do it?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Just apply henchman rules and let the kid have lower attributes to account for his lack of life experience/development. Rest is roleplay to make it work and could lead to interesting ways of dealing with situations and what not.
If he's going into battle, make sure everyone is aware that he could die. I've run into two situations with a child NPC. The first, we sent him away so he'd be out of combat. The second...my (evil) players want to use the kid and don't care if he dies (or so they tell me). Since they showed interest in taking the kid along, I decided to make him a level 1 character. I made the stats somewhat low (he has a +2 in one stat, everything else is lower) and rolled a percentile dice to determine his starting class. As he gains levels, I plan to multiclass him depending on interactions from my players--the NPC isn't meant to be a strong addition to the party, but a reflection of their actions as the campaign goes on.
I think the important part is that the NPC is still that: an NPC. He shouldn't steal the spotlight from the PCs and his development should be slow and appropriate for his background (he doesn't have the years of training a PC would have). Bottom line: does it sound fun and is everyone okay with it? Then do it!