I don’t know if its taboo to ask questions about your personal characters and not over-arching game rules but here it goes. We got the game Mouse Guard a few weeks ago. It is our first RPG. I had almost no knowledge of what the game was when I bought it, but I love it. I love the idea of each person developing a character and watching them interact with each other. Everyone was making characters, and I made three separate characters, and they all just seemed bland and uninteresting. So I decided to invest a lot of time into a character. I wrote a poem about a mouse. I am not a poet nor do I have the slightest clue about making poetry but I thought it would make the whole experience funner. I really like the story I created but then came the task of placing onto the character sheet and the skills and such were easy, but I ran into trouble when I tried to give him a belief and an instinct.
He’s not in the end going to be named Siegfried and the other guy is not necessarily going to be Cervantes (which are actually names of characters in a video game). I’ll think of their names over time. Wolfpointe, I admit I don’t know if it is actually as I describe it but I’m kinda making a guess. More importantly I’m wondering whether this soulless, revenge-driven character will actually be any fun to play and if it is a decent character then what should be his belief/instinct. I mean he could change to start caring for the lives of others, etc.
The idea was that, being in the guard would allow him access to the supplies he needed to hunt down his enemy and the constant travelling of the patrol would be a nice start to finding his enemy. Is that stupid?
I think you’ve got a really strong idea there. Well done.
In describing the character as you have, not to mention writing an epic poem about him, you’ve hinted strongly at beliefs and instincts.
Belief: “The Guard is a means to an end for me. I will have my revenge, even if my oath forbids such action.” Or something like that.
Instinct: “Every time I am in a town, I will ask about Cervantes.” or “If I see a mouse that looks like Cervantes, I clean my fingernails… With the tip of my blade.”
Make sure you work with your GM on this!
Lol, I am going to be the GM for this character… I like him… Welp, It helps to know the character for designing the missions. I’ll keep all this in mind.
I feel it may be too hard to challenge your players belief… Even if I put what would be a tough choice for most up to the plate of this character, he will always follow his obsession. We shall see. You did a good job though.
It doesn’t look that hard to challenge. Id like to see just what price he’s really willing to pay to pursue his revenge. Will he risk the lives of his companions? Even after they’ve stood beside him, steadfast in battle? Will he risk the reputation of the guard and the safety of its patrols by violating the guard’s principles for his own ends? Or is there some spark of the hero buried inside?
Isn’t your Instinct just like repeating your Belief. Maybe it’s fine, but maybe it should have something to do with his personality and not about his revenge. Even if it is about the revenge maybe you can be more specific… Up to you. Maybe I’m wrong.