Character Creation Discussions (OOC)

Why would the turb hate her? She is fun, she is strong, she takes care of them, she is a good leader... The fact that a certain albino has problems with her is not a problem, is a story. =9

(I thought you were talking about the werewolf. Just realized there is another idea for turb captain. =P)

But if I'm understanding right these are not companion ideas exactly, these are covenfolk. Some of them would need to be companions if they were stated but , just like Julia said, it is best to not stat some of them. A few don't need anything except for "Craft: glass 5, Touched by Faerie" or "Medicine 7, Lesser Purifying Touch (common flu), Delusional".

Oh, write yours, I have plenty of ideas.

I think I'm going to reread Montaillou one more time (That's a book on an intensive social study conducted by the Churchinquisition in a French village with the aim to figure out whom to kill). I wish we could achieve that level of interconnectedness, with marriages and love affairs, and rivalries, and alliances.

The covenfolk have been living together for many years now, weirdos with nowhere else to go. There must have been marriages, and the place must be crawling with kids. So it may be a good idea if we knew how many adults we need, and then build families, rather than individuals.

That happens in faster paced sagas, and it's one of the aspects of the game I greatly enjoy. Dealing with the generations and the intermingling of families is a lot of fun.

I'm under the impression that the covenant was quite sparsely populated up until now, since there was just the one magus and he wasn't even there full time. So we're starting the growth of the "web" ourselves.

Ideas for simple people with complicated problems

Fighters

Timotheus, the Pisser: He's a competent grog, but when the situation gets emotional (e.g. battles, weddings), he pisses himself. Uses the Specialist stats (replace stammer with social Handicap: incontinent).

Florian, the Old Soldier: He used to be the grizzled veteran. Now, he's so old that he's rather incompetent (half-deaf, slow, etc). But he won't hear any of it and insists on serving in dangerous missions. Assigning him elsewhere would devastate a man who served the order loyally for all his life.

Paul, the spy: Everyone knows this oily bastard is spying for [insert here], but he doesn't know you know, so he can be fed fake news. Of course, he must be kept from witnessing important information. Use the Hunter Template and replace pessimistic with Dutybound or Higher purpose: Betray us.

Astrid and Inge, the Lesbian couple: Two Norse women who have fled here from the intolerance of society. Use the Berserker template and replace short attention span with social handicap (Lesbian warriors)

Civilians

Alis and Marie, the kitchen-maids: Came to the covenant as orphans. Want to live somewhere "normal", where they can find normal husbands and have normal kids, preferably a town with a market for shopping.
Isabeau, the blind tailor: Someone normal (by the standards of the time) for a change, could be married and have children.
Igraine, maid: Not particularly bright, has no sense of direction, which means she gets constantly lost. They've tied a bell around her neck, so she can be found easily without magic. Could be married and have children.
Big Eyes, the veterinarian: Ayoung woman that survived in the forest, she's unused to civilisation. She can talk to animals and has a knack for looking after them. She is now pregnant and no one knows who the father is.

I like some of the ideas (Jean and Paul, Alina, Timotheus, Astrid & Inge, Alis and Marie, Isabeau). These are easy to integrate. Big Eye is a bit borderline, but she might work (the villagers of Chastellion might be the ones who call on her services).

Others sound more like companion ideas than grogs or covenfolk, because they have story potential but would need a player to want to play them (Spyro, Linda, Claude, Andrea).

There are several that just don't fit well into the background of the covenant. This isn't a place that was really a covenant until now, which would mean Florian wouldn't fit. The Doctor couldn't act as if he's a magus, because this wasn't a covenant before.

We also aren't looking to add story hooks for the covenant (see the covenant's Boons and Hooks), so a number of the ideas would need to be toned down (the heretics, Andrea the turb captain, Paul the spy).

And Wilhelm couldn't possibly be alive, since Leonardus himself was well over a hundred years old when he succumbed to Twilight. The idea (and that of Florian) could be modified for any former trusted mundane (purser, scribe, cook or maybe the glassworker) who is now too old or crippled physically (arthritic, blind, lame).

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So, to summarize, I'm looking for colorful background characters, not story-generating ones. How do they not fit into normal mundane society?

  • Physical disabilities (such as hunchback, blind, mute, dwarf, with an evil-looking appearance)
  • Socially-isolated people (such low-key heretics or atheists, hermits, reformed but branded criminals, escaped slaves, defrocked monk who no longer believes in God, former prostitute of either gender)
  • People who did not get respect from mundane society (female stone worker)
  • People touched by the supernatural in visible or disturbing ways (cursed with hare ears by a faerie, horns due to faerie or magical heritage, sees ghosts, has Magical Air, blue-skinned)

Most of the children who did not inherit their parents' social difficulties probably left, or want to leave some day when they are old enough. A few may remain, and some may reconsider due to the arrival of the magi (or may become even more eager to leave depending on how they are treated).

One of the Boon for the covenant is Veteran Fighters, so the small turb of grogs (about 6 or 8) are probably well-trained and disciplined. But there must be a reason aside from loyalty as to why they have not to have left the valley after 7 years since the last visit by Leonardus.

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Josiah Levavi

Josiah is a rabbi, who was thrown out of the German city he had lived in over a doctrinal technicality. Being literate, he found work at the proto covenant as a scribe and archivist. He enjoys the relative safety from persecution that a Magus patron offered.

He has become more heretical since living with a magus, but in such a technical way only other Jewish theologians would be sure.

If we have heretics, they are more likely to be Waldensian than Cathars. That would get us a whole community of peace-loving weirdos: And their refusal to do oaths would nicely conflict with our swearing tree.

A few more ideas for covenfolk:

Levi. Too proud of being a carpenter (did you knew the Lord was a carpenter?!), father Luc has tried (until now without success) to make him a bit more humble. Not very dexterous. Good father.

Timeo. A gentle giant. Coward, Animal Ken.

Astro. An old magical horse (Might 1). No vis. Delusional (thinks he is a dog). Good watcher. Barks sometimes.

Emma. Fled from the nunnery. Literally glows when praying (gets really scared from this, but to not pray is a sin).

Sarah. Married to Nikolas. Her youngest son is the bastard of a minor noble.

Nikolas. Branded criminal. Knows he isn't the father of Elijah. Doesn't care, love his wife and children.

Dorian and Elijah. Sons of Sarah and Nikolas. Dorian has a way to find lost things (dowsing?). Elijah has a way to get into trouble.

Giovanni. Always drunk. Swears to God he sees fairies. Maybe he tells the truth.

Laura. Has a green thumb (literally).

Asim. Egyptian. Got lost from a caravan one day, slept in the desert, awoke in the middle of a forest in Rhine. Barely speaks the language.

Renard. Everyone knows he has killed someone. He has the look of a murderer. (Has the Magical Air flaw, but yes, he also killed someone.)

Natalie. Appeared in the church door on christmas eve, twenty years ago. Still looks ten.

Guida. 40 year old. Born holding an apple, was never able to let go of the fruit. As far as anyone with magic senses can tell, it's really a fruit, not magical. To all practical purposes has the Missing Hand flaw.

Lucille. Washerwoman. Curses like a drunken sailor. One eye is blue, one is green. (A normal person.)

Gabriel. Baker. Sleepwalks. The bread he makes at night tastes horribly.

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I have a pitch for a companion:

Jacob: A wandering scholar

Jacob was born in the famous ghetto of Cologne to an influential and wealthy family of moneylenders. As a young man, he was sent to Cairo to study in the rabbinical colleges under the great Maimonides. There he learned a great deal but also took after the teachings of Abraham, Maimonides' son. These were a mix of Jewish and Sufi thought, emphasizing the mystic unity of being.

On return to Europe, these ideas which were mainstream in Egypt were thought to be entirely heretical. He was thrown out of Cologne and took up the life of a merchant and wanderer. He is trying to see all of creation, so he can experience the mystical "one".

He sounds cool but not sure why he'd settle in a covenant.

I was thinking he settles down because

  1. they are a community of scholars, and he has been looking for one of those since he left Egypt
  2. he wants somewhere less persecuted than all of Europe for his family
  3. he thinks magi might have some useful insight on the unity of being
  4. they will value his knowledge and literacy

I still like him, and I still doesn't know how I'd run stories for him. XD

Are you thinking of a purely academic scholar, or would he have a couple of Methods and Powers? Do you have ideas for his story and personality flaws? What kind of stories do you see him in?

More important, what stories which also involve a magus would he take part in? IMHO, companions should be there to support the magi, help them accomplish something that they can't do using just magic.

Having companions which generate their own stories, apart from the magi, is kind of counter-productive from a saga perspective.

Well, he was designed to be a useful person to bring along for adventures. The version I have of him sketched out speaks about 5 languages, has the well travelled and educated virtues and would be an asset for taking on missions for social and knowledge based non magical things.

Basically he has been around a large part of the world (with several area lores to back it up), speaks the language and knows the customs, making him a valuable companion on adventures.

If we want to make sure we have companions suited to magi, maybe we should figure out what kinds of companions our magi might look for or include on adventures? Otherwise, we might spend a lot of time generating concepts that nobody will use or run stories for.

That makes sense to me. If we are going on the companions as assistants to magi, then we should be saying what our Magus would value

I don't see much problem with a more proactive companion, who drags magi into suitable stories instead of being dragged by them, as long as the magus has a "legitimate" reason to participate... I'd only be wary of making an ultra-specialized companion that will only be functional when paired with a specific magus, or that has reasons to work with one magus only.

About Jacob, I like him, and I can think of a couple of things to throw at him.

But I'm not sure I would do a good job incorporating his Jewish side into stories (I've little knowledge of Judaism, except for golems), or where his quest for the divine would take him (and why/how would the magi be involved).

Same for me.