Bastard or Trueborn?

[Domi]

Basically, through a long and boring debate with myself (which is too long to quote), I have come to the conclusion that if I allow for a Player 1 in the IWD2 w joinable NPCs, s/he needs a backstory. I wanted something both flexible, and sufficient to create materials with a few conversations with each NPC. As it was already established that one of the NPCs is a leader (at least in the beginning), he is prominenbt in each of the backstories. Please, take a look, and let me know, which one is a more appealing story.

 

 

Bastard, Origins Unknown

 

You were raised in a Temple of Ilmater, in Luskan, one of the orphans without a name or a family. You were just pondering about your life and what to do with it, when a paladin, called Sir Nord, come to the temple and after a short deliberation with the Painbearer Bassilea, the two came to see you. “This man claims that he had sworn to care for you, and would take you away, to show you the world and teach you to fend for yourself,†Bassilea said. From her face, you could conclude that she doubted that the man is a fit teacher, and that the whole enterprise is a folly. Yet, it seemed that Sir Nord had had some right to do so, some connection to your past. So, you have chosen to follow him to the Icewind Dale.

 

(BUT! there will not be a revelation like -You are VERY special! It will pretty much boil down to the PC being a child of an old fighting comrade or something prosaic like that)

 

Bastard, Origins Established

 

You were raised in Luskan, in the household of Sir Rinaldo the Fierce. As you grew up, you have slowly given to understand that you were his natural child. He had brought you back from somewhere in the North as a babe, and bid his wife to rise with his trueborn children. This seems to be the reason why your father had given up his field assignments and had accepted a less glorious position with the Chapter of the Order in Luskan. Once fully grown, you wished to leave the city, and make your fortune in the lands where the circumstances of your birth did not matter. Your father agreed with your choice, and provided you with a purse of gold, a blessing and a letter to his old fighting comrade, Sir Nord, who could be found around the Ten Town in the Icewind Dale.

 

A Trueborn

 

The firstborn child of Sir Rinaldo the Fierce, you have been raised in the dotting household. Perhaps, too dotting, because in the past year your spirited nature manifested itself and you engaged into mischief that was brought to your father’s attention. Not too pleased, Sir Rinaldo had commanded you to his study. Instead of an upbraiding, all he had done is to hand over to you a purse of gold, a blessing and a letter to his old fighting comrade, Sir Nord, who could be found around the Ten Town in the Icewind Dale. “The North,†he had said, “will sort you out.†“Or kill…†your mother finished, weeping. But her tears did not stop your father, and you were sent on your way before the week was out, much to the dismay of your gentle sisters and envy of your two younger brothers.

[BigRob]

The trueborn idea is perhaps the least stereotypical of the three, but it does require that the Player 1 would have to be mischeivous to be sent north and if this is meant to be a character that the player pregenerates o their own taste, they may not like that idea. But for a bastard, the circumstances of your birth might make trouble for you however good your character, and it's a pretty good reason to go out adventuring.

 

Of course, you cuold always alter the trueborn story to accomodate the straight-as-an-arrow type of player.

[Rabain]

I voted trueborn because it is the option with the least baggage. While more baggage would give you more dialog options IWD was good in that you weren't a Bhaalspawn and you could pretend you were just some dude trying to make a buck (while clearing up every den of evil and solving every problem between Neverwinter and Reghed glacier of course).

[Domi]

The trueborn idea is perhaps the least stereotypical of the three, but it does require that the Player 1 would have to be mischeivous to be sent north and if this is meant to be a character that the player pregenerates o their own taste, they may not like that idea. But for a bastard, the circumstances of your birth might make trouble for you however good your character, and it's a pretty good reason to go out adventuring.

 

Basically, I was going to solve the puzzle with the trueborn's mischief by giving him/her a variety of answers as to what mischief exactly it was. An LG-type character in that case can acknowledge that he was either a vicitim of a prank, or took onto him/her-self someone elses' fault (his friend's), while a person who wants to role-play mischevous can go along with the story.

[BigRob]

In that case, the true-born seems the best option. It'd be nice to be not-special for once.

[Pekka]

The trueborn option sounds best to me. I think there's already more than enough heroic orphans in all the fantasy settings... it gets old, you know.

[Domi]

'Tis my feeling also, but I want to see if people are in the "more of the same" vs "something different if not exactly new".

[Domi]

I was writing one of the dialogues, and I thought of the following: to have dialogue options in the conversations with one or two NPCs that will let the Player 1 to confess that s/he assumed the identity of the Luskaner, by either killing or robbing or finding him/her dead. That will theoretically let a player to go back to the "mysterious stranger" background if only cosmetically. Does that sound as an idea worth implementing, or will it just be too contrived and erode the purpose of giving the char a background story?

[cmorgan]

my 2cp... I think that if you avoid the "mysterious stranger" background completely, the player has a better chance of making the character their own without complications. There is no roleplaying reason why a trueborn with the background described can't head in (any) new direction -- keeping the backstory clean and obvious is my vote. The roleplaying "out" for folks who want a fantastic background is that the backstory was all a cover story, and everyone believed it. If someone really wants to play the Stainless Steel Rat in a fantasy setting, that is...

[BigRob]

I think the problem with making the possibility of a cosmetic "Mysterious stranger" background would be that people might get annoyed if they took it and it turned out there was nothing to it beyond the name. Just leaving the character as who they are and letting them develop their own character from there wuold seem to be a good option.