Penelomeeg
2017-09-26, 02:20 PM
My friend got interested enough to join our D&D group for the first time and we decided I'd make a new character to come in with hers to help her integrate i to the party better and give her someone she can play off of. It turned out great and we ended up making a pair of half elves who are a bit of a joke towards our own friendship (two people from very different backgrounds and personalities who somehow still work as friends.) The only issue is I gave my character a rather interesting backstory that has me questioning how I should play her worldview and morality. I wanted to seek some outside insight based on certain parts of her background and how they may typically affect someone, and maybe some insight for an appropriate alignment?
My friend is playing the cheerful eager to help and exolore the world half wood elf daughter of an adventurer who settled down and built a leather shop and is trying to find a cure to save her fathers life (was cursed by a hag). My character is a half drow who was raised in the Underdark in the house of a relatively prominent matron and conceived with the matrons favorite human slave.
The character (Val) was desperate for her mother's approval over her pureblooded half sisters and as such did spend the first 19 years of her life as part of the status quo in the Underdark. However, she was secretly a bit hesitant. Her human father acted as her personal servant and behind clpsed doors was actually kind and loving to her. He was her only escape from the rest of her awful family. Eventually she did make it out (not before unintentionally blaming her father for a mistake she made and getting him executed as a result) but was sort of forced to and taken in by a group of smugglers and thieves who are mostly former slaves and use knowledge and connections of the Underdark to strike at the matrons and free other slaves. Her time on the surface has been helping this group as a messenger and smuggler and her only "friend" or contact outside of this group being my friends wood elf who is a sort of new entry into her life.
The character has definitely acted selfishly in the past and probably done terrible things in the Underdark which she lived in for the first 19 years of her life , but I feel does have some regret and sees it as doing what she had to in order to survive. She also definitely has a cynical mentality towards people and their motivations outside of her new friend and has been living as a "criminal" ever since leaving the Underdark. I don't see her flippantly murdering or ruining lives for convenience sake, but stealing from, lying, and mnipulating people to further her goals? Definitely. Violence isn't even out of the question if she feels justified probably.
At the same time I have her traveling with and being fond of a rather naive and selfless person and even dedicating herself to helping the girl's father who she's never met because she cares about her and being a loyal member of a group whose main goal is ultimately to free slaves and bring down tyranny.
I'm not sure if I'm rambling or this makes any sense, but I'd really like some points, things to consider to help me get into thos characters head properly for game day and thoughts on alignments to write down. Please and thank you!
My friend is playing the cheerful eager to help and exolore the world half wood elf daughter of an adventurer who settled down and built a leather shop and is trying to find a cure to save her fathers life (was cursed by a hag). My character is a half drow who was raised in the Underdark in the house of a relatively prominent matron and conceived with the matrons favorite human slave.
The character (Val) was desperate for her mother's approval over her pureblooded half sisters and as such did spend the first 19 years of her life as part of the status quo in the Underdark. However, she was secretly a bit hesitant. Her human father acted as her personal servant and behind clpsed doors was actually kind and loving to her. He was her only escape from the rest of her awful family. Eventually she did make it out (not before unintentionally blaming her father for a mistake she made and getting him executed as a result) but was sort of forced to and taken in by a group of smugglers and thieves who are mostly former slaves and use knowledge and connections of the Underdark to strike at the matrons and free other slaves. Her time on the surface has been helping this group as a messenger and smuggler and her only "friend" or contact outside of this group being my friends wood elf who is a sort of new entry into her life.
The character has definitely acted selfishly in the past and probably done terrible things in the Underdark which she lived in for the first 19 years of her life , but I feel does have some regret and sees it as doing what she had to in order to survive. She also definitely has a cynical mentality towards people and their motivations outside of her new friend and has been living as a "criminal" ever since leaving the Underdark. I don't see her flippantly murdering or ruining lives for convenience sake, but stealing from, lying, and mnipulating people to further her goals? Definitely. Violence isn't even out of the question if she feels justified probably.
At the same time I have her traveling with and being fond of a rather naive and selfless person and even dedicating herself to helping the girl's father who she's never met because she cares about her and being a loyal member of a group whose main goal is ultimately to free slaves and bring down tyranny.
I'm not sure if I'm rambling or this makes any sense, but I'd really like some points, things to consider to help me get into thos characters head properly for game day and thoughts on alignments to write down. Please and thank you!