This is Senator Throx.He is a Rodian--that's a Greedo to you (and to me 2 days ago before I looked up "Rodian" on Wookiepedia).
He has some cyborg parts coming out of his face because...because when you're making a Star Wars guy you want to somehow take advantage of the fact it's Star Wars but then if you're like me, on the other hand you don't just want more of the exact same Star Wars.
He represents Barhok, a planet Jez invented where mind-controlling Serpent Queens eternally fuck with each other.
(Jez's best planets are just their own thing, really, no more Star Wars than Dune or any other "Imperial" sci fi. But saying "it's Star Wars" provides a very quick and easy backdrop-download. Even if we never run into anything unique to the movies.)
How you end up as a Senator from a completely nondemocratic planet I don't even know but me and Jez decided he's like playing a double game: pretending to loyally represent the serpent queens to the Empire and vice versa but secretly loyal to neither and working for the Rebellion.
And I haven't played session one yet.
Hell he doesn't even have stats yet.
I have mixed feelings about Senator Throx, he's got a lot of shit going on and he could yet be dead mere hours in. A little wad of wasted plot. Plus he'll be fighting for attention with various hammerheads, walrusmen, murder robos and whatever other cantina of freaks everyone brings to the table. Trying not to get attached. But I like him already.
Such are the risks we take, I suppose. If I didn't care it'd be less fun.
I always do this. Usually on my own, sometimes with the DM. Without some thinking about background, I don't know how my character should react to stuff.
ReplyDeleteThat's not because I'm a story gamer or whatever - this was the way I played Trav in 1983. It's admittedly not how I absolutely started playing, when it was just me and my 10 year old friends: it's a way of thinking I inherited from older guys after I joined a club that played all sorts of non-DnD. And I find a lot of the character-building work I do is irrelevant to the OSR type dungeoncrawling I've been doing this past year, but for me it's not really roleplaying without this layer of thinking how and why the character would do what I would not.
For me, personally. I'm not judging or defining for anyone else, I've just never really got the "character background all happens in play" thing.
I always do this as well. If a character is nothing more than a piece of paper, it doesn't matter what happens to them. But as soon as the character has a story, they have goals and dreams. They probably also have a personality; and if they have a personality, they probably don't want to die. Which will likely mean that you don't want them to die or have to be the one to bury them in the recycle bin or bon fire. That is the way it should be.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity: What system are you planning on using to build Senator Throx?
@MDL780 @richard
ReplyDeleteI don't really get what you're saying. As soon as my PC DOES anything in a game they cease to be "just" a piece of paper and develop a personality. I have to talk and act just to keep myself entertained. The PC gets a background before session 1 is over, inevitably.
When I say I've just never really got the "character background all happens in play" thing - that doesn't mean the characters aren't defined in play - they totally are. And redefined as stuff happens, as I get diverted or something cool comes along or I am frustrated in my schemes for the character and that changes things. But I have to do some design up front to start playing. And there's always design going on in the downtime between sessions because I can't help it, so (eg) Skeree the bonewoman started out as a randomly generated Carcosan using Jeff's tables, I had a bit of background for her before playing the first session (especially hates sorcerers and mi-go due to personal losses), then play revealed things, and since then between sessions she's become a self-appointed paladin/crusader against slavery. And she makes sub-optimal choices all the time because loot isn't her primary goal any more.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm saying is, what happens at the table is a subset of the whole roleplaying experience for me. What I don't want to do (any more) is just run the character like a video game avatar, which I use to solve puzzles but it's basically me. Which I understand some people do, and I understand some of those people mean their characters are completely emergent through in-play circumstances when they say "character background is what happens between levels 1 and 6" (and other people mean other things by that phrase). That purely emergent-in-play thing is not me.
Just curious: What system will y'all be using?
ReplyDeleteno idea
ReplyDeleteusing the old West End Games D6 rules from the late 80's with a few house mods.
ReplyDeleteWEG D6 is a fun system to play.
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ReplyDeleteMeet my special little snowflakes. http://tusenmilbort.blogspot.se/2012/07/retroaktivt-chronopia.html
ReplyDeleteSome of the custom miniatures from my groups last game (undead, lizardfolk, vampires,a Dwarf and also a ciggarette). Just some shameless atentiongrabbing...
As always, nice pic from you sir! Greetings from Sweden.
I spend way to much time on wookiepedia for the various play by post forum games I run for Star Wars.
ReplyDelete