Thoughts on this Character Backstory Twist.

By RebelDave, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

So... as some might be aware after some panic posts last week... I have a new player joining my group.

His stats aside for the moment, his backstory is such:

He was a Young Padawan, who was taken to be trained along with his sister when he was around the age of 12, after an incident that resulted in the death of of village (or similar), during a Jedi diplomatic village. Only he and his sister survived after defeating the beast that decimated their home due to an outburst of Dark Side Force use he did not know he had.

The visiting Jedi, hoping to prevent the development of a Dark Side user, takes them to the Jedi Council, where they reluctantly allow them to be trained, so that they may understand and control their abilities. (Specifically, the Character, not his sister).

When the Clone Wars begin, they are now 16-17 years old, and are sent on a mission with two masters that goes drastically wrong. The masters are killed, and the Dark Side emerges again (as it did when he was discovered), terrifying the character, and instiling in him a deep shame at his abilities.

A Hutt captures him in the aftermath, and freezes his sister in Carbonite as leverage. Taking the character into servitude for 15 years. Claiming that after the end of his service, he and his sister can go free.

For 15 years the Character does the Hutts dirty work, and burying his abilities, only occasionally do they emerge in fits of anger, further making him ashamed of his abilities.

At the end of his servitude, expecting to be freed with his sister, the Hutt does free Him, but says he now has to buy back his sister from her Carbonite prison.

He spends the next couple of years looking for work to save money to buy his sister freedom. Which is why he signs on with the crew of a freighter (The established group).

NOW.

Unbeknownst to the player, I am thinking of the sister, actually being unfrozen by the Hutt, trained and brainwashed, and then sent on a mission to kill her own brother.

How and where and when I will drip this into the story I have no idea... but I wondered what you all thought?

RD

Going to be brutally honest so brace for impact.....

.....you had me hooked. Always a good start. Very strong character with very strong obligation. Great work on that front.

Classic "rescue the damsel in distress" theme is always a winner.

My only criticism is the brainwashing sister to kill him part. Didn't like that, but as it sinks in I feel you can make that work.

My advice would be to work out why a sister would go after her brother. Perhaps the "he left you to die" could be a start.

Does allow for interesting interactions between the two when they first meet. Unless she is a hidden assassin, striking from a distance, or wearing a mask.

Just my point of view though.

Thats what I was thinking....

The player came up with the backstory.

I came up (He has no idea) the rest... I was going to have some mysterious stranger try and kill him, but always seem to get away.

He believe she is still frozen, but she could have spent the last 15 years being brainwashed by the Hutt, who has lied to her all this time, so he will not even recognize her at first. And if he inadvertantly kills her.... ohhhh... the Morality stuff I could play with...

Right now, I have no plans, its more "background story" I can use to spice up slow moments (Ive been pushing all my group for more background details for just this reason).

I just wondered what others thought about it, and if they have suggestions of things I can do.

You get two thumbs up from me!

Sounds cool

He was a Young Padawan, who was taken to be trained along with his sister when he was around the age of 12

That's a bit old for a new trainee at the Jedi Temple. Anakin was nine, and was considered too old.

I'm afraid not. Had he been born in the Republic, we would have identified him early, and he would have become Jedi, no doubt...he has the way. But it's too late for him now, he's too old.

"The boy will not pass the Council's tests, Master, and you know it. He is far too old."

"He is too old. There is already too much anger in him."

"I'm with Qui-Gon...but...they're not going to let me be a Jedi. I'm too old."

But otherwise, pretty awesome stuff.

Edited by Simon Retold

I know it sounds cliche, but I didnt come up with that bit, the player did.

Originally (Not sure now, he is rebuilding), he was a Gank from a distant colony, which is why he might not have been noticed, and he showed no obvious signs of being a FS prior to the event.

If that remains, I dont know. After lots of conversation he might switch species. Either way, its not a huge issue for me if he wants to stick to it. Its not what I was looking for feedback on anyway :)

Maybe the Hutt double-crosses him and sells her to the Empire, who then train her to go and kill her brother.

Well, the Hutt could simply have unfrozen her recently and trained her as an assassin for a few years. Due to the time difference, it's likely that she wouldn't recognize her brother immediately since he'd be, relatively, 20 or 30 years older than he was when she last saw him. This way she could be unleashed on him as a final control. As for raising her this way, make the Hutt a sympathetic figure in her eyes. He's the father/mother figure she lost in the battle so long ago. You'd need to find a good reason to have the Hutt send his sister after him, though. Perhaps he and the party find a trail of bodies and it leads to the Hutt.... So he sends his sister in to kill him in order to stop them from finding out that the Hutt is the BBEG behind everything...

He was a Young Padawan, who was taken to be trained along with his sister when he was around the age of 12

That's a bit old for a new trainee at the Jedi Temple. Anakin was nine, and was considered too old.

It doesn’t have to be the Jedi. There are other Force-using organizations that could have trained him.

Or, if it was a Jedi, it could have been a rogue Jedi Master who had fallen out with the Order, perhaps because he was training people he felt needed to be trained, and not paying so much heed to what the Order thought about who was too old to train.

That's a bit old for a new trainee at the Jedi Temple. Anakin was nine, and was considered too old

You could argue that "Either we train him to at least control his abilities, or we clean up the mess in five years when he loses control of his already apparent powers and turns to the dark side".

It doesnt sound like the order was thinking of a Full On, Brown Robed Knight, but enough training to do damage control.

Edited by Desslok

Maybe the Hutt double-crosses him and sells her to the Empire, who then train her to go and kill her brother.

Now that's a good plot twist as an option!

Sounds really good. Had me hooked. How will you pull off the big reveal though? It has to happen sooner or later, you know

I am not sure how I am I going to enact this plan, it will really depend on what they do in their 'general lives'

As for the Hutt selling his sister to the Empire... I dont see why that is any diffrerent to the Hutt using her to attack him.

Although, I dont know why the Hutt would do that, but I could see why the Emperor would want another force user dead, and using his sister to do so would be clever.... but would the Empire even buy an unknown force sensitive from a Hutt?

Love the idea, and so many ways this could go.

1) Jabba was angry enough with Han that he put a bounty on his head even though he was one of the best smugglers he had, and eventually became a matter of pride rather than money. Too many jobs gone wrong and it is often better to cut your losses and deal with the problem. Here, you have someone that can either deal with the problem without having to pay them that much or it would send a message if the assassin is killed.

2) The Hutts have power and influence, but I doubt many would want to call down the fury of the Empire on their head if the Empire wanted something they had. If the party has been hitting the Empire enough, they will look into the group's past and discover a Hutt is connected to them. One ISB agent, Commander, or Inquisitor later and they now know that the character has a sister and she's frozen at the moment. Now the Hutt has something the Empire wants and is possibly willing to pay for, or at least get him/her out of trouble with them.

3) The former jedi is a good agent, but he/she won't get to keep him forever. The Hutt knows this. Turns out, he/she has someone else that could replace him with a little time and training. Best of all, only a few people knows about this secret asset. The thing about secret assets... they're only really good if no one knows you have them for awhile. Clean the slate as were, and it serves as a good test of your new agent's skill in the process.

The truth is he is possessed by the spirit of an ancient Sith. She, the sister, is possessed by the spirit of an ancient Jedi. They were mortal enemies then... and still are!

The Sith spirit is in a weakened state and the host is not only in control, but is completely unaware that his command over the Force is not his own. (As the player spends XP on his skills and Force powers, it is the spirit becoming stronger. Cue moments of strange visions and flashbacks of memories that are not his own. This will also lead to scenes of internal conflict as the spirit wants to do things the host does not; and vice versa.)

The Jedi spirit within the sister was also weakened, but the host's time frozen in carbonite allowed the Jedi spirit to strengthen and plan. Once freed of the carbonite, the spirit is in full control of the body and wants to hunt down and end its battle with its mortal enemy once and for all.

I liked it until the "I'll send his sister to kill him" bit.

Murder should be a last resort, unless the hutt has a very good reason.

You could have a lot more fun building up a mysterious, masked, dark sider nemesis.

Maybe the hutt brainwashed her years ago, by telling her it was her brother's fault her people were wiped out, and had her training up her dark side powers.

What crime Lord wouldn't want his own personal Jedi?

The only thing better than one Jedi is two, which is why he froze a similar looking girl (who'd know the difference under all that carbonite?) So he could control the brother by extorting cash and favours.

The brother, as a known dark sider, would make a good patsy.

The hutt could "ask" a favour and send him to do a simple job in a particular location.

The sister could then unleash her dark side rage at the true target and suspicion (and inquisitors) would be directed at the brother, he may catch a glimpse a dark robed masked figure escaping.

I like that mulletcheese. I'd like more on that idea!

I like that mulletcheese. I'd like more on that idea!

Be careful what you wish for, my ideas tend to go towards the epic dark side.

If a hutt in one of my games had a male and female Jedi for 15 years, he'd have made lots of baby Jedi.

Not the old fashioned way, a bit too creepy, but by taking samples and using surrogates (technology available today) he could have 100+ young Jedi by now although only a handful would be of fighting age. The brother wouldn't even know it had happened.

In an age where cloning is outlawed its a slow but proven way to build the super army he needs to fulfill his nefarious scheme.

A few may be born with 6 toes and no chin but that's a small price to pay.

The problem with keeping the children hidden is that they need to develop anger and hatred to fuel their dark side powers, so the hutt decides to let the brother go free so he can turn the children against him with tales of abandonment.

That works for a while but the children are still not strong enough so he eventually decides to send the sister to kill the brother (knowing that she isn't strong enough) hoping that she is slain and the children will be consumed by hatred at their father killing their mother.

Being the focal point of their anger means the brother is the only one who could redeem the children and save them from the dark side, or he could take the easy way out and kill them and be consumed by the dark side himself.