[DFRPG] Help with character Aspects

[Kiero]

We've made a start on the City Generation for City on the River (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?585649-DFRPG-Our-upcoming-game-City-on-the-River). It was planned to be one session to get it all done, but discussing Aspects and such took a lot longer than expected. All useful stuff, and helped us get on the same page, but it means we'll need another session to finish it all off. We've agreed that the Aspect stuff in particular we'd like to discuss collectively.

We got halfway through the character side of things, discussing High Concept, Trouble, Background and Rising Conflict. What we'd gone away to think about with those is the precise wording of the Aspects, which is what I'm after some ideas for here.


High Concept: Repentant Scion of Vlad Drakul

Obviously your High Concept has to tie into your template (Scion - a spin on Changeling) and the various things your character can do. What I'm not entirely decided on is whether I need a simpler one that isn't such a mouthful. Sure it covers all the important things - he's a Scion, his sire is Vlad Drakul and he's on a redemption mission. But I wonder if something like "Half Demon" might be snappier than "Scion of Vlad Drakul". Primarily because I don't know that his sire is really all that important, even if it's a link to the canon of the Dresdenverse. "Reformed Half-Demon"?

Compels here are probably around his nature complicating matters if people realise what he is, and those demonic urges. His sire is not a nice person, not at all.


Trouble: History is Written in Blood

My trouble Aspect is all about the sins of the past and the way they have stained my character and still have an impact on his present. An alternative spin on it is "The Beast of Novgorod"; where Kincaid was the Hellhound, Faris was the Beast, nothing more than a brutal killer. The one I'm going with at the moment neatly ties to one of the campaign Aspects, "Blood Money", and seems more generically applicable than a call-out to a notorious incident in the past.

I'm imagining a lot of Compels from this around not repeating his past mistakes and modes of behaviour, proving to himself that he's grown beyond them. Also things from his long past (he's almost four centuries old) turning up and complicating matters. Maybe the odd righteous holy avenger wanting to bring him to justice for his crimes.


Background: Former Mamluk Slave-Soldier

The intent of this one is multi-fold. Firstly, it links him to a fairly ancient regime that has been gone a long time, so there's history. It's the call-back to the things he's lived through in his long life and events he may have been a part of. Secondly, it calls out his training as a warrior-fanatic following the code of Furusiyya. Lastly, it's a reminder that slavery (which is a major founding part of Bristol's economy) has a personal resonance. It's not just something he could have read about, it's something he lived.

What I'm not so clear on here is whether this is a good formulation of it. It's a lot of words and possibly trying to squeeze too many things in at once.


Rising Conflict: Hope something-something

My Aspects so far have been pretty laden with gloom, ancient evils, demons and such. That's a lot of his past that he's reformed away from, and I wanted something distinctly positive to represent the break with that past. This Aspect is all about his encounter with Esperacchius and the power of Hope that broke the chains of his heritage and gave him a chance to become a different person.

There's some cliched ideas, "Hope Springs Eternal" or "Where There's Life There's Hope" or "Through Hope I Was Reborn". Maybe something to do with mercy too or Esperacchius specifically.

Compels are around helping seemingly hopeless causes, not giving in to the inevitable and generally behaving like a superhero. Sanya is an example of that. It's to keep this character positive, not some angsty, brooding loner.


Any of that sparking off ideas for people?

[Xefas]

They look fine to me. You repeatedly seem worried about length, but it's seriously not a problem. The name of the Aspect can be short and catchy, but it doesn't necessarily have to be - it just needs to convey its message well.

(Tangent: I tend to prefer writing my characters' Aspects as a first-person sentence. Like, "I am a repentant scion of Vlad Drakul", "My history is written in innocent blood that I can not easily erase", "The mercy of Esperacchius taught me that everyone deserves a second chance", etc. Just write whatever is evocative to you.)

As for the "Repentant Scion of Vlad Drakul" vs "Repentant Half-Demon", I would go with the former if you actually want Vlad Drakul and his whole legacy and mythos and whatever to be intertwined with your story. By putting his name in your high concept, you're saying that you want him to be important, and there are many possible Declarations and Compels that could spring from that.

If you want him to be a background note only, then you should definitely go with the latter.

[Kiero]

What I'm thinking is that snappier Aspects are easier to use in the game. Rather than having to repeat them at regular intervals, or refer to them by the phase they come from, you can quote them verbatim without too much trouble.

Don't get me wrong, I do like IC sentences as Aspects, but they're less accessible because of their length. I might be forced to use one for the Rising Conflict, though, because I don't think I can really do it justice in 3-5 words.

I'm not strongly for removing the reference to his sire, but I would kind of like to de-emphasise it. That said, I think my GM is keen to bring Drakul specifically into the game at some point, rather than leaving it a more generic Scion/demonic thing.