Mod Storyboard

[nurgles_herald]

My two cents-

 

I always felt that, aside from Yoshi's betrayal, that he was more representative of a Chaotic Good alignment. Redemption/Alignment change path?

 

And I could never give up on the concept of a Yoshi/Jaheira relationship/romance. That conversation where Yoshi ends it with basically propositioning Jaheira sticks out in my mind. But maybe this is work for a different mod.

[Icendoan]

Sure, I will code that up for you now. (v0.5 shall have an extra component, now )

 

The relationship... I will play a few games with Jaheira/Yoshimo and see what happens, and see if we should expand it.

 

Icen

[Lemernis]

Yeah, alignment is interesting for Yoshi, especially in light of the fact that (in the vanilla game) his dying request is for his heart be taken to a temple of Ilmater.

 

Here's what the game says about his True Neutral alignment. I have bolded an important aspect for Yoshi as a devout worshipper of Ilmater:

 

True Neutral

 

True Neutral characters believe in the ultimate balance of forces, and they refuse to see actions as good or evil. Since the majority of people in the world make judgements, True Neutral characters are extremely rare. True Neutrals do their best to avoid siding with the forces of either good or evil, law or chaos. It is their duty to see that all of these forces remain in balanced contention. True Neutral characters sometimes find themselves forced into rather peculiar alliances. To a great extent, they are compelled to side with the underdog in any given situation, sometimes even changing sides, as the previous loser becomes the winner. A True Neutral druid might join the local barony to put down a tribe of evil gnolls, only to drop out or switch sides when the gnolls were brought to the brink of destruction. He would seek to prevent either side from becoming too powerful. Clearly, there are very few True Neutral characters in the world.

 

And here are some snippets from what the 2nd ed. source book Faiths and Avatars says about Ilmater and his followers; the bolded text emphasizes a shared trait with TN alignment:

 

Ilmater (Ihl-MAY-ter) offers succor and calming words to those who are in pain, oppressed, or in great need. He is the willing sufferer, the one who takes the place of another to heft the other's burden, to take the other's pain. He is the god of the oppressed and unjustly treated.

 

The followers of Ilmater are often perceived as being intentional sufferers, but in reality they concentrate a lot of effort on providing proper treatment and healing to those who have been hurt. They put others ahead of themselves, are sharing, and emphasize the spiritual nature of life over the gross material body.

 

Ilmater is quiet, kind, good-spirited, and slow to anger. He appreciates a humorous story and has a rather rustic humor himself... Over time, [the] constant tugging at [the] heartstrings [of the suffering of those in need] wears at [ilmater's faithful], and they then tend toward a cynical view of life in Faerûn.

 

Dogma: The Ilmatari are taught to help all who hurt, no matter who they are, and that the truly holy take on the suffering of others. Ilmater tells them that if they suffer in his name, he will be there to support them. They should stick to their cause if it is right, whatever the pain and peril. They are to stand up to all tyrants, resisting in ways both great and small, and to allow no injustice to go by unchallenged. They believe that there is no shame in a meaningful death. Some followers of Ilmater take a negative or darkly humorous view of the world, and the church accepts them as well. "Today is the first day in what's left of your life" fits very snugly into Ilmater's dogma, but most Ilmatari would add, "So live it well."

 

Novices in the faith are charged to: "Persevere in the face of pain. Heal the sick, the wounded, and the diseased. Comfort the dying, the griefstricken, and the heartsick. Take on the burdens and the pain of others. Champion the causes of the oppressed and unjustly treated, and give shelter and kind counsel to the lonely, the lost, and the ruined. Pursue the service of Ilmater, and he will provide--leave gross riches and the acquisition of all but medicines to others. Take up the tasks no others dare.

 

Notwithanding that the alignment system is a poor idea in the view of many players because it tends to make characters one-dimensional, it is part of the game, so we will not ignore it. I think the only way the alignment system can truly live and breathe in this roleplaying game is for it to be understood as a set of tendencies or predilections; but that the character may be complex, have internal conflicts, etc., and not always behave predictably according to alignment alone.

 

The way we are developing Yoshi in this mod is consistent with his TN alignment and faith. I see him as drawn to the Imaterian faith as a means of working out personal unresolved issues. He is genuinely drawn to help the underdog. But his inclination to 'balance the scales' by helping the weak serves a deeper psychological function for him personally. The self-sacrifice of his faith acts as a counterweight to his own tendencies toward greed and personal self-interest.

[lac]

Why did Yoshi decide to become a Bounty Hunter in the first place?

[Icendoan]

A very interesting question, and from the dogma which was posted, a follow of Illmater who is also a BH seems like a paradox, to me.

 

Maybe it is because he *was* the underdog in many situations, and I get this sort of idea from his Biography.

 

When asked about his past, YOSHIMO seems disheartened that you are not already acquainted with his reputation. By his own account, he is apparently well known among people in the know, both as a daring rogue and as a dashing man about town. While the story sounds impressive, he seems ungainly for such exploits, possibly a bit more hapless than debonair. He wears it well, however, and perhaps even capitalizes on it. He seems to know that his kind of good-natured humor is well appreciated by most everyone he meets.

 

Perhaps having him as an 'illegal' Cleric might turn up, somewhere in the future.

 

Icen

[Lemernis]

Yeah, I did not have time to finish what I started above this morning, but I wanted to add that a third piece to Yoshi's character that is very intruiging is his chosen profession as a bounty hunter. In lands with corrupt governments such as Amn, especially. Tracking down and bringing to "justice" someone like Valygar (clearly the underdog), for example, is very hard to reconcile with a TN alignment and worship of Ilmater!

 

It's true that Yoshi could be very selective about which contracts he takes. He might only go after very bad people who clearly deserve to be killed or brought in. But that still doesn't mesh well with the TN striving to balance the scales in a power struggle. (I.e., authorities who post bounties are usually, by definition, the far more powerful than the fugutive.) Also, where would the profit be in that? Yoshi indicates that he is very much an opportunist. As he says, "Ah, the city. With all its people and their accumulated wealth, yes?" So it seems there is clearly a greed and selfishness at work inside him. And I'm thinking that an uncomfortability--or outright guilt--within him at being a bounty hunter and thief is what gives rise to TN tendencies and a devotion to Ilmater.

 

***

 

Edit:

 

Psychological conflicts like this typically operate unconsciously, and most people would be rather out of touch with something like that. With Wisdom 10 he probably lacks insight. But with even average wisdom it wouldn't be totally farfetched for him to at least have a kernel of insight into, either.

 

Also, given that he is from Kara-Tur he would have grown up surrounded by that land's gods and religions. So he's evidently had a conversion to a western deity, Ilmater, which is a story in itself. But discussion about that is best undertaken in the thread on Yoshi's past in Kara-Tur.

[lac]

One thing I have considered is that Yoshi may have come from a culture that is

deeply involved in Blood Feud. Think 'Law of Lek' and Albania. If those are the norms that you grow up with, then the profession of bounty hunter, as a first step in along the road towards State monopoly on violence seems an entirely positive step in the right direction.

 

However, once justice becomes a state matter, and not a matter for private vengeances, the profession of Bounty Hunter tends to support 'justice as whatever the rich can get away with'. This isn't a lot better than 'justice as whatever the violent and powerful can get away with'.

 

Could it be that Yoshi's concept of 'what is justice' has had to travel an enormous distance since he was a boy?

 

Laura

[Lemernis]

IIRC, Yoshi states that he's from Kara-Tur. There's a AD&D Forgotten Realms source book, Kara-Tur, which is transparently derived directly from ancient China. (Edit: it's actually the entire far east, not just China.) The setting is replete with secret political societies and tongs that are ever vying to achieve their various goals, which often have them feuding.

 

TSR , the company that owned (A)D&D and the Forgotten Realms at the time, did this sort of thing a lot, i.e., using real world inspirations for FR's subsettings. Kara-Tur is a total ripoff of ancient China, but it is rich material.

 

I started a thread for discussion of how much we might want to develop Yoshi's more distant past. Those interested in roleplaying and character development will likely welcome it. I guess we could write conversations so that players who don't want to be bothered have the option to skip that material.

[Icendoan]

Heh.

++ ~Get to the point Yoshimo!~ + "#!12"

 

Icen

[Icendoan]

Hmmm. On Yoshimo and Kesalo (or whatever his name is now, a more robust dairy product I would hope), I found this line, which is interesting, in Yoshimo's banter file:

SAY #20269 /* ~Ahh, memories of the fallen are the sweetest, are they not? I will intrude no more.~ */

 

It was to Jaheira, and regarding Kesalo it would be a nice twisting of words and meaning.

 

Icen

[Lemernis]

Yeah, that's for sure. Nice find.