Characters (Prismatic Planet)

Most of the planet's inhabitants live in small enclaves, villages, and isolated settlements, separated from one another by vast stretches of hostile terrain. Great cities and powerful factions exist, but they are the exception. Because the demands of survival are largely the same everywhere, certain skills appear in virtually every community; warriors, survivalists, psionics, and scavengers among them. Sorcerers and scholars are rarer. The “known world” is, for most people, a small place.

The player characters are usually something rarer still: the ones who walked away from their communities. Whether driven out, drawn away, or simply unable to stay, they now belong to a wandering class that exists between settlements. Most will have come from one of the small communities described above, though some may have broken from a larger organization.

Player characters can most often begin free from any overly restrictive obligations to factions, groups, cities, or specific tribes. They may also belong to a small community independent of the great empires and organizations. The purpose of this is to allow them freedom to act and to gradually come into contact with the world. This arrangement lets the characters discover the world at the same time as the players themselves.

For the same reason, and because the vast majority of the planet's inhabitants have very limited knowledge, the players begin without major details about history (usually limited to one or two generations before the character at most, plus a few scattered legends). Their grasp of geography should not extend beyond the land they have crossed on foot (roughly a hundred kilometers at most), though even the most sheltered character will know the mountains on the horizon and the direction of the nearest great body of water, if one exists within sight or legend. Their understanding of technology is minimal; they know of the existence of artifacts from the progenitors, but except for some specific skill, they can barely distinguish technology from simple sorcery.

Likewise, the power of the great empires and groups is mostly unknown to them, unless they live near one, in which case they will have heard of its influence, generally negative or at best dubious. Even those who are part of a great faction or organization rarely see beyond their immediate role within it.

It is also possible to run a campaign in which the players are part of a powerful empire or group, where their movements are restricted and they must carry out missions and follow orders until they decide to desert or rebel, etc. This kind of restrictive campaign, however, is not the standard I prefer.

Therefore, here follows a list of possibilities that explain why the players are wandering more or less alone, or in a very small group, throughout the world. Roll 1d6, than 1d8, and check the table below (or choose your own story!).

Mixed groups, made of characters of different origins, colors and even species are permitted.

Clyde Caldwell

 

1. Your settlement/tribe was destroyed by...

1.1. Dangerous beasts.

1.2. A large faction.

1.3. Famine or plague.

1.4. A progenitor or titan.

1.5. An enemy clan.

1.6. An ancient machine.

1.7. A criminal horde.

1.8. Something unknown. You came back from the fields to find ruin.

2. You were once a slave, but...

2.1. You escaped during a crisis.

2.2. You deserted as soon as they trusted you.

2.3. You bought your freedom.

2.4. An owner let you go quietly.

2.5. A rival faction freed you as a political gesture.

2.6. You outlasted or killed your owner.

2.7. You were set free to be hunted for sport.

2.8. You participated in a rebellion.

3. You were expelled from your group, because you...

3.1. Were a thief or tax evader.

3.2. Committed assault, justified or not.

3.3. Blaspheme against authorities or deities.

3.4. Show mercy when you shouldn’t.

3.5. Refused to follow orders.

3.6. Accidentally offended powerful people.

3.7. Became the target of an envious rival.

3.8. Were cursed or persecuted by outside forces.

4. You were cast out or abandoned, because...

4.1. There was not enough to feed you.

4.2. You were orphaned and had no kin.

4.3. You found out some inconvenient truth.

4.4. Lost during a crisis and never found by again.

4.5. You lost a public dispute.

4.6. You were physically different.

4.7. Your group disbanded after a loss.

4.8. Your mind was just too different.

5. You simply woke up...

5.1. In a vat in a ruin, fully grown, with no memory of before.

5.2. Alone in the wastes, days from anywhere, with no idea how you got there.

5.3. In a stranger's home, after they rescued you from a disaster.

5.4. After a fever that left you like dead for days.

5.5. In a cell, with no memory of being put there.

5.6. Half-buried after an earthquake.

5.7. After being left for dead by a rival. Buried, dumped, or simply abandoned to die.

5.8. Surrounded by other victims of a man-eating monster.

6. You escaped abduction, just before being...

6.1. Sold at a slave market.

6.2. Sacrificed by a cult.

6.3. Conscripted into an army.

6.4. Robbed and killed on a trade road.

6.5. Used as a test subject by the Progenitors.

6.6. Eaten by cannibals.

6.7. Branded as cattle.

6.8. Aware of their motives.

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