setting and scene framing

[glandis]

The Hunter clarifications fit just fine - maybe one of his buddies did make the trek to take the oath, and thinks that makes him a more "legit" Hunter. Maybe my guy sometimes believes that, but not so most people would notice.

A middle-powerful noble family could be just based in the city, right? I mean, I'm thinking city-noble (Italy?) not rural-noble (France/England?) as the feel, here. Historically, noble from military service or whatever, maybe now involved (at an appropriate remove) in trade - known for sponsoring traders in (some appropriate trade good - Silks/Jewelry? Grain? Booze? Horses?) He likes to spend his time carousing, womanizing, fighting, figuring that eventually he'll get shuffled into some marriage-alliance or other - unless he decides to cut his ties and go Hunting, like, for real (probably won't happen, but he likes to think it might).

The family tries to involve him in the (whatever trade good) business, maybe a bit in the city social life, and he can't ALWAYS duck those responsibilities. Whoever in the family is involved in the scheming against the Seanchan (perhaps as one of/on the behalf of one of the Kin?) may well have additional motives in where/what/how they ask him to do his part in the family business/etc., and he may well sense there's more going on than he knows (given the takeover, that's about given) - but it's just a sense.

I'm trying to stay vague so that adjustments can happen - like, it could turn out to be a merchant-family rather than a noble-family - depending on the feedback.

[Rafu]

Working exclusively from the information found here within this thread, here's the most interesting (to me) character I could come up with...

I'm a member of the Ebou Dari nobility, a charming and pleasant nobleman. Well-connected and respected, but not one who ever was (or stood a chance to be) "in charge", even before the Seanchan occupation.
I'm also a Darkfriend. No surprise Ebou Dar fell without much of a fight: it's because I (and probably a few others like me) worked behind the scene to make this happen, through bribes, outright sabotage and the like. I see the Seanchan as a mere puppet-state of the Darkfriends, and myself as a secret member in the invitation-only club who're really in power. If anything, I should be thanked, for I helped spare much bloodshed; but, more importantly, I stand to gain much greater actual power as a Darkfriend schemer in a Darkfriend-run Ebou Dar than I ever could as just another Ebou Dari noble.
I hide my ambition and skill beneath a facade of opulent, excessive decadence which makes most other nobles write me off as incompetent, unambitious and nowhere of a threat. I treat my underlings well and possess the social competence to keep them happy and loyal (most of them think I'm funny and ultimately a good guy).

My immediate NPC relationships would be my family (including one or more wives or concubines, according to whatever the local mores are, and presumably a few young children, all of them oblivious to my true alliances) and all of the servants and entourage my station warrants, probably including one trusted right-hand man who knows me more intimately than any family member. Plus several fellow Darkfriend schemers, of course. And what if I had a thing for a female channeler whom I desire to keep as my personal Damane?

[Ron Edwards]

Hey Rafu, let's just have it be one more character for now. So Gordon's guy and mine.

Jared, can you do the "groups with a burr" thought for Gordon's character?

Best, Ron

[Rafu]

Sure.

[Jared Burrell]

Thank you Rafu and Glandis for your contributions.

Glandis.  So, who's going to have a problem with your character existing?  In no particular order:


1.  Other Hunters of the Horn, suspicious the other Hunters may be holding out information on the location of the Horn, will always be a little wary around another Hunter.  Legit Hunters, who are few, those are have actually been searching all over the Westlands looking for the Horn, might be somewhat annoyed at their prestige being co-opted by idiots.  This is more annoyance than real hostility though.

2.  Slum-dwellers of the Rahad hate the upper classes, especially the ones who don't have real responsibilities, don't contribute to society, and come to the Rahad looking for "adventure" without giving up actual comfort and security.

3.  The Ashaman, working for al'Thor, are suspicious of Ebou Dar noble families who are cooperating with the Seanchan, even if those families don't have a real choice.  The Ashaman, brutally unsentimental, won't pull any punches on those who are aiding the enemy, even indirectly.

4.  Other noble families, always plotting, always maneuvering, can always be counted to try to expose your family to the Seanchan as sympathetic to al'Thor, or expose your family to the Ashaman as sympathetic to the Seanchan.

5.  The Seanchan are probably the safest people to deal with, as long you obey ALL the laws and pay ALL the taxes.  Noble families can be expected to bare the brunt of the responsibility of conscripting troops should the need arise.

[Ron Edwards]

Slum-dwellers of the Rahad hate the upper classes, especially the ones who don't have real responsibilities, don't contribute to society, and come to the Rahad looking for "adventure" without giving up actual comfort and security.

But the more enterprising members of the Rahad like their money.

Jared, back to the exercise: the crucial next step is to decide which one of the relevant groups - and who in them - could provide opportunity and/or destabilizing for each of these characters. To clarify: it could be one such group per character, or one group which happens to apply to both characters. But don't strain to make the latter happen.

Best, Ron

[glandis]

(I'm Gordon, by the way - let me change that from personal text to sig and see if it gets seen more easily that way)

Feel free to ignore this if it's unimportant to the next step. That said - I'm not sure I'd put it as problems with my character existing, but any of those seem possible reasons those groups might have conflicts with me or my family. The Ashaman having a problem, say because my families' involvement in trade is supporting the war effort, is especially interesting when (part of, anyway) the family is also trying to conspire against the Seanchan. And rival nobles could be threatening exposure to either side. My character would (initially, at least) experience this mostly as annoying complications to his indulgent lifestyle, but (I figure it's worth mentioning) my expectation is that serious complications are required to make him an interesting figure, anyway.

The fact that the Seanchan are the safest makes me want to have my guy kinda not like 'em, just in general. He blames them for messing up the easy ride he had, and so resents them. Out of petulance, not principle. They're in power, so sure, pay taxes and don't (get caught) breaking laws. But, really - that focus on world-conquest makes them so not fun at parties.

I'm reluctant to add any more without specific requests from you or Ron ...

[Jared Burrell]

Gordon,

While I think about destabilizing characters, I'd like to know what sort of satellite characters you have.  Everything you got sounds great... Don't worry about being too specific.

Also, sorry Rafu.

[glandis]

I missed that Ron, not you, got the NPCs started .... let me try and walk that ideas-not-complete-characters line:

For my guy, it seems there's his buddy the sincere Hunter, for sure. But I'm neither entirely someone elses' hanger-on, nor a guy with his own, um, entourage - somewhere in between. A couple family members, probably Mom or Dad who he counts on to have a soft spot for him despite everything, and other, more ruthless folks who he figures intend to put him to use (again) despite everything. A quick read of the links reveals that these nobles are apparently big on dueling. My guy'd be good at that, and maybe has a rivalry or two. No serious romantic interests (from his side, anyway), but he's had enough success there to potentially create positive and/or negative complications. And whatever family business (commercial or social) he gets trusted with probably involves a sponsor/mentor of some sort, an older, non-family gent/lady, who he's never been sure how much to trust.

[Jared Burrell]

Hi, I just wanted a apologize for letting this thread die, after all the help I got from everybody. My apologies.

[Ron Edwards]

Thanks Jared. I hope it was useful or at least interesting.

[Jared Burrell]

It was fascinating, and I regret not continuing. The issue is that in addition to my day job, I also write music for people on commission (Jared Burrell.com, if I may shill). Role Playing, particularly design, has always been the thing I do on music breaks, when I'm burnt out or between projects, and by February of 2014 I was back in the thick of it. The fundamental issue is that I'm not good at splitting my creative energies between multiple projects.

Which is too bad, because we were just about to get the place where it all comes together, and see how you set up scenes based on all this character info we gathered. Instead I turned off the TV right in the middle of the program, wasting everyone's time.

Recently I got back into Magic: The Gathering and its hilarious to me how a little bit of art, some flavor text, and a few game mechanics evoke this whole world that people inhabit while they play out a physical card game, yet even professional players - who go on and on about strategy - they never mention that no one would play this game without the art and flavor text.

So that got me thinking about my RPG, blah blah blah, and then I realized aI needed to get back here and issue an apology and explanation.