September 23, 2011

Linian Linrynor

Our Wednesday night game switched GMs again to Joe and a new campaign so we all rolled up PCs again.  I've been contemplating switching primarily to "support" player characters instead of fighters, which most people prefer to play in HackMaster Basic.  I don't blame them, fighter-types are usually more fun in a game that is heavily combat oriented.


Enter Linian.

I've been unusually blessed in rolling up PCs online.  Balen was rolled using the dice function from MapTools, but Linian came from rolling up stats using an online die roller built into the RPoL website that Joe likes to use.

The picture I found online and I tweaked to give him greying hair.  I wish that I had kept the source file because I'd like to give credit to the artist.  There were hundreds of pics I had to sift through to find one I really liked.

Linian's pertinents:

Class:  Rogue
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Birthday: 3rd Day of Prayers, Month of Frost Thaw age:132

STR: 11/52
INT: 13/77
WIS: 12/08
DEX: 10/13
CON: 10/28
LKS: 17/03
CHA: 20/58

HP: 18

Experience: 534
Honor: 31

Attack: +1
Defense: +1 (+3 with Long Sword& armor)(+9 with Sword armor and shield)
Damage: +0

Speed: Long Sword - 10(8), Club - 10
Reach: Long Sword - 3.5'
Init: +1

BP:


Quirk: Foul-Mouthed
Flaw: Premature grey

Proficiencies:
- Long Sword
- Med Armor
- Shield

Specialization:
- Long Sword, Level 1 (Defense)

Talents
- Parry bonus Long Sword
- less Sleep
- No Accent

Skills:
- Language (Elven): 76% Lit: 15%
- Language (Vardrarian): 25%% Lit: 0
- Language (Gnome): 15% Lit: 0
- Language (Dwarf): 19% Lit: 0
- Language (Barbarian): 21% Lit: 0
35% arcane Lore
21% Acting
16% Administration
12% Animal Husbandry
22% Animal Empathy
15% Appraise Gems & Jewelry
29% Arcane Lore
12% Boating
13% Cartography
10% Climbing/Rappelling
12% Current Affairs
29% Diplomacy
27% Disguise
26% Distraction
10% Escape Artist
64% Fast Talking
12% Fire Buiding
21% Forgery
63% Gambing
36% Glean Information
10% Hiding (+50)
20% Interrogation
15% Intimidation
34% Listening
15% Observation
10% Pick Pockets
13% reading Lips
50% Recruiting
12% Resist persuasion
25% Rope Use
22% Salesmanship
45% Seduction, art of
14% Sneaking (+50)
10% Survival
13% Torture
12% Tracking
17% Urban Survival

I'm in the process of buying back the Foul-Mouthed quirk.  I don't mind swearing and probably do it too often anyway, but since this is an online game I don't have the face-to-face interaction and any swearing I do just seems contrived and out-of-place to me.  It takes a couple of sessions usually for me to get a good feel for a PC and foul-mouthed just doesn't fit in for me.

My initial PC background:
Linian Linrynor is not your average Grey Elf.  His family comes from the “other side” of the forest and isn’t held in very high regard.  Elves tend to have long memories, longer than even their years would suggest and in the eyes of his community, Linian doesn’t come from good stock.  The “patriarch” of the Linrynor clan was a man named Shifan whose greatest claim to fame was dying shortly after poking a giant lizard with a stick.  Unfortunately Shifan had sired children so the lizard didn’t remove the Linrynors from the Elven gene pool.  In more recent times, Linian’s Great-Great Grandfather was exiled from Sylana for worshipping the Harvester of Souls.

Linian’s parents haven’t fared too much better.  Linian’s father, also named Shifan, is a minor crook who has done some time in prison (forced house arrest).  He still traffics in illegal goods, mostly counterfeit coins which he uses as part of a small moneylending operation.  His mother, Seviavena, is a kind hearted soul, but she is a hopeless romantic and a raging hypochondriac.  Fortunately she is content enough to remain at home and raise the children.  From his father, Linian has been able to learn a little bit about appraising gems, jewelry, and coins, and he has some “lowlife” contacts in communities throughout the region.  His mother made him memorize a small book of Elven poetry, in order to “woo” her future daughter-in-law.  Although he had shown some promise as an artist, Seviavena also arranged for Linian to be apprenticed as a healer, but he was quickly dismissed from his apprenticeship after “the incident”.

Linian is devoted to his brothers and sisters.  Unfortunately only two of his siblings remain alive.  As a child Linian spent time in the woods playing with his brothers, which isn’t unusual for Elven children.  On one such occasion they ventured too far into the woods (the family home was on the outskirts of the community) and they were set upon by a small band of orcs.  Cyrn was killed immediately by the ambush.  Devarel and Toratin attempted to hold off the monsters while Linian ran back to get help.  Devarel was slain by the time the guard could respond.  Devarel’s death hit Linian pretty hard since in his mind he sacrificed himself.  Toratin was badly wounded, but recovered and in time joined the very guard unit that rescued the two remaining brothers.  Linian has one surviving sister, Whylee.  He had another sister Jelena, but she died shortly after birth from a hereditary disease.

Linian, or Lin-Lin to his friends and associates, is ready to move on from Sylana and interact a bit more with the outside world.  He has a knack for languages and knows that he is a bit more charming and definitely better looking than most.  He’s not above using his whiles to get ahead.  His father has him convinced that the humans are a bit of an easy mark and he shouldn’t have to work too hard to get a leg up on them.


I like using Kenzer & Company's Kalamar Player's Primer for rolling up PC backgrounds.  I go through the various tables, rolling dice and taking notes, before tying all the results into one big background story.  This has helped me out a bit later in-game.

When one of the players suggests that maybe they could save some coin by staying at my place for the night.  Hell no!  All Linian needs is to bring some Dwarf home for his mom to go on for weeks about having picked up the Dwarven Flu from the visitor.  If we need a place to fence stuff Linian has contacts here in town and in several other communities.

It is fun sometimes to be able to sit back and watch the rest of the group go all gung-ho on fighting the bad guys while I sit back and charm the pants off the local ladies and do most of the non-healing support work.  At least I'm not as likely to suffer a sucking chest wound.

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