So I'm running a modern-ish Pathfinder game at my college--the basic premise is that they're using their fantasy character classes as super powers to fight monsters--and one of my players decided he wanted to play his monk as having amnesia. And he's allowing me to come up with the character's history which he has forgot.
Yeah. He'll probably regret this.
I've got some vague ideas, but nothing concrete, and I'm hoping there might be something one of you guys might toss out that sparks my brain to work better.
What we know about the monk is this: that he killed someone and felt guilty about it (which led to the amnesia), that he's a devout Catholic, and that he was working at a taco stand when the other PCs encountered him.
Maybe those facts are what he was programmed to know? ;) He's a clone or an android with some nascent AI installed...
:D
GNOME
Could you specify your setting? Present time modern world with monsters? What kind of monsters, what kind of important background organisations? (CIA, Acolytes of Nyarlathotep, Evil Space Nazi Spies from Mars...)
Could you specify your setting? Present time modern world with monsters? What kind of monsters, what kind of important background organisations? (CIA, Acolytes of Nyarlathotep, Evil Space Nazi Spies from Mars...)
Present time modern word.
The campaign background is that about twenty years ago, Baba Yaga's door to Earth was discovered in the wilds of Irrisen and a bunch of Evil creatures who hadn't been able to amass enough territory for themselves on Golarion (due to Evil overcrowding) went through, because hey, new world to conquer.
A small group of Celestials noticed this eventually (by which I mean after about four or five years) and decided to chase after them. However, when the Celestials got here, they realized that more baddies than they'd thought had come through and they were all spread out all over earth and they were powerful enough by now that the Celestials couldn't take the weakest one-on-one. And taking each on as a group meant they'd be spending a LONG time taking them down.
And then the leader of the Celestials, after reading some comics (and okay, watching some Sailor Moon too), came up with an idea: recruit native Earthlings to help. They worked out how to empower said Earthlings in order to take down magical beings--because guns don't work on goblins or dragons--and then each of the Celestials picked a location with a bad guy (or group of bad guys) to raise their team in. Lather, rinse, reapeat.
At the start of our campaign, the Celestial who now calls himself Gary has just shown up in Corpus Christi, Texas, and is busy recruiting his fourth such team of heroes: the PCs.
ANYWAY, while there is a normal CIA, there aren't Evil Space Nazi--though there might be Elder God Cultists. There is a Pathfinder Society on Earth, sort of, because the leader of the Celestials was a big fan of the Society and decided that their hero teams would be named "Pathfinders" in their honor.
So - if he killed someone, why is he not in jail? That's the best starting hook.
Was it self-defense? If so, how did he learn to defend himself well enough to kill someone while unarmed (since he is a monk)? Was it an accident? If so, who was the victim, and who might be seeking revenge that the courts won't provide? Was it deliberate? If so, why, and how did he get away with it?
Just expand by answering questions from there.
Also, I really like the campaign idea.
He's obviously an assassin trained to kill where weapons cannot be brought. His amnesia was self induced to allow him to escape pursuit. His new identity will have nothing to expose him as a notorious political killer.
Also, I really like the campaign idea.
I am having SO MUCH FUN running this campaign. It's seriously ridiculous. And so is everyone else as far as I can tell. Although the campaign is crazy full now. I started off with four players I had to cajole into joining (and one "maybe" that didn't show up the day of the first game) and I'm now at seven. Yes, SEVEN. We had one guy join to play his first game while the original four were meeting to finish their rolling together, then the games club secretary decided he wanted in while everyone else was fighting the goblin constructs and rolled up a monk by the end of combat (which would be the amnesiac one), and then the guy who'd been a "maybe" decided he still wanted to play and since he's one of my two best friends I let him.
So yeah. Our motley crew of Pathfinders/superheros is such:
SAM -- Ten-year-old Pokemon summoner. No, really. His eidolon is Bulbasaur. His other summons have pokemon fluff over their Summon Monster I stats. Which basically means that at one point we had Pidgey kill a zombie.
SISTER MARINA -- Flying nun, which translates to cleric of GOD. Her player is the only other girl in this group group besides me (the DM), which is weird because I'm actually used to gaming groups which are roughly equal in the distribution of the sexes. It's her first D20 game, but she's doing pretty good!
DAMIEN (AND TORA) -- Druid and leopard companion. Accidentally set an orchard on fire due to bad rolling. Ooops.
FRITZ -- Rogue. Resents the ten-year-old because he doesn't like being forced to "babysit." Very acrobatic, believes himself to be awesome. Makes Gary facepalm a lot.
JENSEN -- Fighter. The guy who joined while the others were rolling. Wanted to have a polearm so we gave him a halberd. Is only just starting to get the hang of this.
TACO -- The amnesiac monk. Was working at a country taco stand called Tacos Goliath when he got recruited. Gary suggested we call him Goliath. The other PCs decided he was named Taco.
FRANK -- Draconic bloodline sorceror. Also a file clerk, although I've been calling him a file cleric because his player misspelled it on the character sheet. (This would be the good friend I let join in on the second session.)
Maybe he has a standing kill order on him. He has amnesia because his "best friend" tried to kill him and thought he succeeded. Your monk barely escaped (jumped off a roof, had a burning building fall on him, trapped in a cave in).
-He's in retirement, as his organization is moving on to newer more modern ways of destroying people... like trashing their credit ratings. He was always mean to Bob, the male secretary. So when Taco put in his retirement, Bob set him up with the worst possible one.
-Taco is undercover. He's waiting for a very important ring to be found on a finger that went into a meat grinder last month. The organizations diviners have narrowed the ring being found to 4 locations. (insert vauge riddles that might indicate town)
-Taco struck his head during a mission and washed up on shore. Everyone in the organization knows who he is and where he is, but thinks his lame story (found with amnesia.. really?) is part of an assignment that some other part of the organization is keeping track of.
-Taco is an alien probe, sent to gather information about the planet.
-Taco is the clone of somoene famous, done as a nature/nurture experiment. They found out that fact, and had to be "Reset" so the experiment could continue.
-Last thursdayism is true. The entire world, with all of everyone's memories, were created last thursday. God skipped Taco's memories.