I'm creating a character who is the leader of one of the Singhara prides and it has chucked a few questions at me:
How would you handle a character needing to lead its peoples (tribe, in this case the pride) and needing to go off on adventures as well (this is more a gameplay question but it came out of the character build)?
Is there a way you could set it up that the character has a representative back home and a means of keeping in touch while away? Options for communication could be limited- maybe a carrier roc/other bird? Or something equally creative, although the communications may not always make it!
There are some overlaps that are making some of my choices tricky- I feel the various things could benefit by being some sort of combo (but without giving extra advantage) I see my character's career as being a sort of combo of leader (CRB) and Envoy (ROT), their archetype and species overlapping catfolk/ Singhara (which we only have adversary info for)(ROT) and a bit of aristocrat (CRB) - is there any way you could combine careers and archetype/species info- that way if the specific ones aren't the perfect fit and you're specifically setting up your character as a whole that best represents what it is and its role within society and so on you're effectively creating a specific custom form of species influenced by its archetype (you normally go with either or, but there are times the two can be linked- I realised this with my character- it is a Singhara leader but its lionlike qualities and catfolk connection mean its catfolk nature is worth considering, and its leadership role and skills fit the aristocrat arhetype- so I'm thinking the best character set up would combine some of the elements of the three. The CRB does have a section on creating a species or archetype so any thoughts on this and limiting what this merging leads to (so it's not giving it more than a character would normally get or giving too much advantage- thus keeping the balance similar to that of any other character creation. Page 192-193 of the CRB have some good tips but you may have some other thoughts.
I had two ideas for skills that came from creating my character- what do people think?
1. Unranked skills - This idea is that for no XP cost you can build your character with some (a small number that fit the character's description, background and motivation) unranked skills, the character then does not yet have this skill / these skills and gains no benefit from the zero ranked skill(s). But why have skills at rank zero (0)? It's an idea that it would be useful to both player and GM to have a reminder that the character wishes to gain these skills (you could perhaps list desired and desirable talents in a similar way) - a bit like we might think it would help our career if we gained skill a or skill b. This doesn't mean the player has to obtain these in the course of the game - it just fleshes out their description and is a sort of additional motivation that the GM and player could make use of in the narrative, a GM could even decide that not following this path is a sign of neglecting ones dreams and ambitions, maybe not realising ones potential or objectives, and throw in something that presents a challenge because they didn't pursue this path (a bit like the real world example, you don't gain those new skills so stay stuck in the same old job), or it could lead to interesting outcomes if they decide to change direction and so on.
The example for my character is that facing the dangers of the legacy of Tarakhe the Plague God, which has killed my character's mate and sees some of the pride ill or infected, again some have died from such affliction, so I was thinking of giving the character a zero rank in medicine - they have a strong desire to find those with the knowledge or to learn the knowledge needed to heal such ailments. This zero skill acts as a reminder of that development ambition, it could be satisfied in other ways- another hero who can do what is required, an ally who can or something such as an instructional item, elixir or whatever, but it's there as part of who they are as a reminder of who they might want to be and how they might most want to improve themselves.
Perhaps there could be a cost benefit to these 'most desired' skills- they're slightly easier to develop because they can imply the character's already doing some or has done some groundwork on them? What do people think on this? Is there a way you could implement this? And could it work for talents? Like I say the player doesn't have to go for these in play- they could choose other skills / talents and they are just a guide but it's an idea I quite liked the thought of playing with.
2. Challenging skills - similarly I realised- and this may work with the above- perhaps for each 'desired' zero rank skill you choose one of these to balance things out and it has a higher cost- harder to develop. The concept of challenging skills - ones which it will be harder for the character to develop beyond what they start with (again could perhaps also apply to talents). This is where your knowledge of the character you are creating informs you that while it can pursue any desired path by learning and development, it is likely to have a few areas where it would have a massive learning curve and gaining those skills (again perhaps also talents) would be harder for this character. Again, any thoughts and how you could implement it?
The example for my character is magic- I was going to give my character one base rank in magic- primal which suits their natural world connections (it sat nicely with some of the other character build complementing other aspects well) but I had a strong awareness building the character and thus getting to know what makes them - whilst the likes of a sorcerer may find magics easy, it's not really something that comes naturally to my character- I actually see it as very difficult for them to progress in and very much one of their significantly lesser capabilities- they would be naturally and by virtue of their leadership role much stronger in other areas. I felt it may bring an interesting dynamic to have skill (possibly talent) areas that aren't so easy to develop and improve, the character may do better relying on others for such needs should they arise.Any thoughts on this and how you could make progression in these challenging skills (and maybe talents) harder? If you want another, this time real world, example it's a bit like computing and robotics skills would potentially really help me in my job but if I were to go down that route it would take a lot to climb such a steep learning curve as it's way outside my current key skillset, which is how I see where my character is with magic.
Edited by Watercolour Dragontypos