My previous post on the Grand Campaign had me thinking about player backgrounds. Most of Terry’s campaign narratives found in his writings: Sea Drake, Grand Campaign and the Loremaster Legacy all include pre-gen PC’s with specific backgrounds needed to advance the narrative, access certain abilities, or utilize key items. That’s not unusual in fantasy fiction, less common in RPG modules, but very common in Terry’s work. Again, Terry was more a story teller and world builder than a nut and bolts GM/DM so the “railroady” bits didn’t seem to be an issue.
Matt and I also embrace extensive player backgrounds in our Shadow World campaigns. There so much material in the timeline and cultural backgrounds that you sort of need to include that for the players! But detailed backgrounds come with their own challenges since they direct PC goals and behaviors. Let’s discuss a challenge I have with one of my new players, Iyrdrut. Iyrdrut is of the Udahir and has the opportunity to become one of the Thyfuriak. In my SW campaign, a young Udahir warrior will spend the first few levels building skills and preparing for their Vision Quest which will allow them to bond with a Thyfur. I’m excited for the player but this background creates to challenges for me, one general and one specific.
- General Challenge. There is always an implied tension when players are members of a special, private or elite organization also need to go out and adventure. Why would any organization allow privileged members to wander off arbitrarily to find fame and fortune? The easy answer is that they are pursuing their organizations agenda, but that becomes a burden upon the whole party. Terry dealt with this very problem with the Changramai and the Navigators by making them a commercial endeavor. You pay them for services. An easy solution. For Iyrdrut, the problem arises once he officially becomes a Thyfuriak. Is he really going to have his freedom to hang with the group and chase adventures? Isn’t he needed to guard and defend Uda Tyygk? I have an answer for this of course, but given that the players read this blog I’ll leave it there.
- Specific Challenge. What do you do with a Thyfur? I’ve blogged about some of the cool mounts in Shadow World and it could be argued that having a flying mount gives a huge and perhaps unfair advantage to the player and/or the group. But my GM philosophy is that there is a trade off for everything (also an underlying principal to Rolemaster). Sure, having a powerful flying mount creates all sorts of opportunities, but it comes with it’s own considerable draw backs. A simple solution would be to just require Iyrdrut to leave his Thyfur with the Udahir–but that’s not very interesting. Instead I’ll take a cue from the “Unhewn Throne” books and lean into the Thyrfuriak and it’s enhancement to the player group.
I’m curious about other GM’s decisions on player backgrounds, unique heritages or even legacy benefits like artifacts, familiars or memberships to unique organizations.