First, how exciting is it to have the forums back? I didn’t post much in the old forums, but when they went away it affected me profoundly, like losing a friend I didn’t spend as much time with as I should have.
Okay, enough of that, on to business!
I’m starting a new BW story set in a human setting where the characters are all outcasts. I’m allowing non-humans as that fits in my view of gritty fantasy. The restriction is the non-humans have no connection to their homes, at least not at the beginning of the story, their home lands are very far away.
One player is playing a roden who was captured and sold into slavery, subsequently bought by a wealthy human as a pet for his daughter.
Another player is playing an orc who was sold into slavery by his sister, subsequently was sold to a ludis and became a gladiator.
So, I’m looking for a roden lifepath, Raised By Humans As A Pet (ha!) and an orc lifepath, Gladiator Slave to Humans. Or something like that.
Would love any comments or links on either of these ideas.
The alternative would be to start the story soon after the character became an outcast. Like for the roden, it would be fun to start the character right at that moment when he’s given to the daughter as a present, probably in a covered cage in the middle of a big birthday party. That would be fun, but linking the PC’s together could feel forced. Sure, it could be done, but I prefer the idea that the characters have been living as outcasts for a while, with hardly any resources but with a couple of outcast-appropriate circles, a meager life scraped together, and each other as friends in this shitty situation.
Would there be any problem using Human Outcast or Servitude lifepaths? At that point they are living in human culture, so given sufficient years they may pick up a couple human traits and skills relevant to those lifepaths. They would certainly be more apt at dealing with human societies than their kin, and if they are the only members of their kind among human gladiators and servants, then it would be appropriate to have those human circles, wouldn’t it?
My first try would be simply to add leads to the Mannish Servitude Setting to an appropriate Orc or Roden lifepath.
The appropriateness of this approach of course depends on how adaptable/malleable your setting views the minds of these non-human beings.
The circles stuff can be handled via trait, something like:
Does Not Belong (Dt, 2pts)
The character has been lost from their own kind, and is not welcome anywhere. This grants circles with outcasts or servitude settings from any stock. However, all Circles test are made at a +1 Ob disadvantage.
LunaticPathos: I think you’re right, that this exploration begins with tweaking an existing human LP.
Stormsweeper: I’m not sure they should get the Ob penalty on ALL circles tests, but I like the idea of the Does Not Belong trait recording the fact that the character is “lost from their own kind, and is not welcome anywhere.” That’s cool.
As the orc in question, I am kind of interested in stormsweeper’s trait idea. It fits with my character idea as an orc in human society clearly wanted ONLY for his entertainment value in the arena but not having a way back to his orc clan.
+1 Ob is harsh, but I think it may be fairly balanced with the “free” circles with any outcast or servitude setting… can Sharku build a better life for himself in higher society or will he settle in with the rest of the vermin… can’t wait to find out
