Secret Backstories and Mysterious Characters

A well-developed backstory is often a critical part of creating a role-playing character. By no means necessary, a backstory can provide a foundation, some core tenets, for your character and allows you to ground yourself in his/her motives and behaviour. It allows you to understand how that character may make decisions and evolve as the story unfolds.

We have discussed character-making before, but today I'd like to discuss a specific type of character backstory, the secret one.

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Transition to Paragon

Kalgar, Tong, and Alvyn had just been told about The Long Game; its rules and its players. They had

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been asked to work with Mercury in order to act as arbiter of the rules, to ensure the game does not get out of hand. Marked by Mercury, she waited to see if the three had any questions.

(We’re backtracking a little as we wanted to make sure the players understood the rules and content before moving forward)

Kalgar's Vision of Paragon

Hello all, I wrote this piece as an aside, as a way of explaining to myself, and anyone interested, in

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the emotional and spiritual transition my character Kalgar had in The Long Game to paragon. I felt that a lot of ground needed to be covered so that Kalgar could take on a new path and so I could better understand the character better. The entire thing is a vision, created by the god Kord, and used to introduce Kalgar into bigger and better things. I hope you enjoy!

The Fall of Baelfire and the Rise of the Arbiters

High above the clouds, Kalgar set a course for Ruber; Alvyn, Tong, and Kalgar had a fight to pick.

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The Inscrutable Conundrum of Religiosity (Religion Tips For PCs)

Alex Adams

Religion is one of the most powerful organizing forces on earth, and one of the most contentious as well.  Religious institutions have built empires, and cannibalized them.  Religious feeling has led to the most powerful and evocative works of art of this planet.  Religious fervor has also led to some of the most appalling atrocities. 

            Similarly so, Religion in D&D can provide a massive font of creativity, combat depth, and character growth.  Sadly, in many campaigns, this resource is left untapped; PC faith resigned to mundane box-checker personality info akin to eye color.  More often, blood ties and the desire for treasure take the motivation main-stage, with religious inclination just inviting something cool to say when you smite a skeleton.  Even amidst a swath of textual guidance, new players still struggle to incorporate and inhabit religiosity into a well rounded PC.  Cast aside trepidation and unfamiliarity, fellow dice-believers.  Religion-done-well in a campaign is a Godsend, and this message has been sent from above to show you how!

           

The ship hits the fan...

Resting up in Chalybs, we find our adventurers getting ready for bigger challenges. The world is about to plunge into total war, and with threats on all sides, will they be prepared for what awaits? Let’s find out...

When Storms Collide...

Last time we left off, we had secreted away on a 5-masted Hyacintho ship known as the Rayden,

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traveling to Aes to give a demonstration of Rayden's power.

The Student Becomes the Master: Canitia and Hyacintho's Krakken

And we're back! After almost a month off, dodging appointments, and rescheduling work, we finally were able to meet up for another exciting adventure in The Long Game. As we started, we realized we needed one hell of a "last time" recap, not only because it had been so long, but so much had happened. If you find yourself needing a refresher, check out our last adventure here.

Now, the adventure continues...

Dungeons & Dialogue: Advanced Wordplay Edition

Alex Adams

If combat and exploration is the heart of D&D, dialogue is the soul.  Communication and exposition are the myriad paints by which players streak across the textured canvas of the DM’s phantasy.  A word can change a siege into surrender, a murderer into martyr, or victory into villainy.  It’s key that players learn how to communicate effectively and excitingly and elevate inter-party and world dialogue to its rightful position beside knoll-stomping and jewel-snatching.

For your consideration:

Dealing with the Curse of Power...

Just to let you know, this was one of the most amazing sessions we've had so far. Others have been exciting, and suspenseful, and revealed much, but as awesome and fun as the others have been, none compare to the events of this session. I will not over-hype it anymore, but suffice it to say, the events of this session will radically change the world of Cyfandir and the lives of the characters we play within it.

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Viridi and Corellon's Blessed Sword

One item on the demon-turned-dragon lord of Ruber's wishlist had been procured, the holy weapon of

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an ancient paladin. Now, our characters travel to Viridi, the land of nature and magic, to acquire the next weapon.

Enter the Demon (devil!): Creating Tong zi Gong

Throughout the campaigns I've been involved in, my two biggest in-party philosophies continue to be:

Alex Adams

     1)  Have a reason to be where you are, but also have a reason to keep                                                                                  moving.
    2)  Always create character chemistry. Rub your personality against other player characters and see what happens (gross).

     This removes two major roleplaying bugaboos that face a lot of new players (myself included).  Firstly, their characters grow stronger on paper but don't evolve and grow as people, becoming flat and sterile.  Tied to this, PCs often run out of motivation in the world of the story, or forget what they have learned through character interactions and don’t know, on a personal level, why they are doing what they are doing beyond mechanically chomping on story hooks.

A Paladin's Sword and then off to Viridi

Our quest had taken an odd turn when last you looked. Thinking they were going to end Tong's

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turmoil by destroying the devil Votharxis and his Edge of Sanity, the party was instead surprised to find out that Baelfire, the lord of Ruber, was in fact a red dragon! They were defeated in combat and assigned to collect holy relics to help Baelfire in his schemes. Accompanied by tiefling guards, including now Guard Captain Verius, the party had made their way to Chalybs to collect the first relic.

A Look Back at Kalgar: Pushing Character Development

It takes me quite a while to like a character I've made, most likely because I am so critical of my own

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work. It often takes many sessions and levels of gameplay before I come to enjoy a D&D character I've worked up. While we've been tracking the adventures of our players in The Long Game, I would like to take this opportunity to update you on my own feelings toward my character and the game we've been playing.

The Sorrows

Last time, our adventurers made it back to the Doomguard's headquarters only to find it had been

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looted. Making their way to Ruber, they passed through the old Nerathian city, The Sorrows, to see if reports of an old teleportation circle were true.

Break-in at the Doomguard Headquarters!

Big things are starting to happen here in The Long Game! A prophecy was foretold which vaguely

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indicated serious change and conflict for the characters; a character's back-story was fully revealed, along with the dangers which come with it; and we had picked up a companion along the way. In this session, the characters make their way across the continent, back to base and onward!

Canitia: The Hunt

When last we left our heroic adventurers, Alvyn, Tong, and Kalgar had made their way out of Aes

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(Kalgar's homeland), after finding out that the Doomguard might be compromised, and were making their way through Canitia (Tong's homeland). Much was revealed in this session, so let's get right into it, shall we?

An Adventure in Aes

Welcome back! In my last post, we had looked into my work developing Kalgar's motivations, and

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added a lot of flavourful content. This time, we'll recount the session which followed. In this session, we journeyed back to Aes, Kalgar's homeland, to discover why some of the Doomguard's agents had not reported in some time.

Developing Kalgar's motivations...

In our last post, our party of 3 had traveled to the Doomguard's Headquarters, learned about the

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structure of this secret society, and set off to Aes to find out more about their development of superweapons.

I also expressed personal concern over the lack of depth to my character Kalgar. Last week's session was great, but because I was still finding the character, I felt lost, or at best, unsure. Before we get to what happened this week, I want to share how I overcame this feeling.

The Doomguard's Headquarters

And the adventure continues! Last week's session was kind of a bottle episode, although I think after

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a week of fighting a dragon, anything else would feel a little slow. After 7 weeks of traveling, getting to know each other, and bonding as characters, we made it back to Chalybs, the city-state which is also the home of the Doomguard.