Who in history would you like to be?

[Vitruviansquid]

After listening to Into the Electric Castle (a sort of rock opera about a bunch of random people from throughout time and space who must cooperate to escape from a strange dungeon) for the billionth time, I got to wondering why I've never run a horror RPG with the same premise - the players are people from throughout time and space who have to solve some big problem together, but first they have to learn to deal with each other and get over their own problems.

So, now I'm left with the problem of what characters I should have. I already decided to give my players pre-generated characters since I want a diverse cast among them, but I wonder what the playground thinks would make compelling characters, especially characters that are not male or white.

To give a couple examples, I have...

The Confederate Cavalryman - He's dashing, courteous, likeable, and the very model of an American Southern gentleman at war. However, he has seen the writing on the wall and believes that the North will ultimately win the war, extinguishing the Southern way of life (though to be fair, he is unsure whether or not this is a good or bad thing, having experienced the brutality of slavery since a young age). Unknown to the other characters, the Cavalryman deserted after his first battle, in which he witnessed the work of a Gatling gun.

The Roman Gladiator - A towering, ugly, brutish man who bears scars from numerous gladiator matches and is an expert at many forms of hand to hand combat, the gladiator is someone you can depend on in a fight. Outwardly, the gladiator is full of bravado, reckless bravery, and the competitive spirit, but inwardly, he is terrified of dying insignificant and unknown like all the other plebeians in the slums he grew up in. That was why he originally sold himself into slavery to become a gladiator.

The Briton Monk - The Monk is a small, humble man with a gentle voice and calm demeanor. As a youth, his father, a powerful lord, forced him to join the clergy in order to disinherit him and allow his younger brother to become heir. On his part, the Monk did not protest and, in fact, relished the opportunity to become a man of God and peace and learning. The Monk's frail build belies the incredible strength of his mind.

The Modern Banker - Elite, professional, clean-cut, and powerful, the Banker represents everything that we love and hate about corporate America. He's intensely competitive, cutthroat, even callous, and at one point thrived in the high stakes world of modern business. The Banker has a controlling, domineering attitude, exacerbated by a past experience when he was fired for opposing a company policy that he believed would bankrupt the company, shortly before the company went bankrupt.

The German Hideaway - A German girl grew up in a family that took its fatherland very seriously. She had two uncles who died fighting against the British and French in the trenches and her father always maintained that there would be another war that the national spirit would allow them to win. When that other war came with the ascent of the National Socialist party, however, the girl's family found that their government had turned it back on them. Instead of calling on their service, the government shot the girl's father and forced his family into hiding for their religion. Since then, the girl, now a Hideaway, grew to hate government and authority, and became determined to be strong, free, and independent by herself.

[Calen]

Since these are only a few examples you said this might be irrelevant.

Why are all these people from Europe or America?

Asia - Ninja? Mongol?
Australia/Pacific Islands - British Convict? Tribal Warrior?
Africa - Zulu Warrior? Egyptian Slave?

I think you get the picture.

[Berenger]

Eugene Bullard, first afro-american fighter pilot.

George Herbert, 5. Earl of Carnarvon, adventurer and archaeologist.

Eleonore Prochaska, soldier in the Lützow Free corps during the Napoleonic Wars.

[Slipperychicken]

Before I casually toss in my two cents, here's a question: How are these people going to communicate?


You could throw in a variation of pirate (i.e. Caribbean, Mediterranean, Somali, and so on) or privateer. Those guys don't have to be white, and can be (un)romanticized to taste. It's been done to death, so I don't think I need to mention much here.

There are also various sorts of native American peoples, like the great plains nomads and central-Americans (i.e. Aztecs, Mayans, Inca). You could probably get a shaman or warrior from those. Depending on what part of history they're from, they might have beef against white people coming in, killing them and taking all the land. [Happy Thanksgiving btw]. The Aztecs IIRC had developed some math and science before they collapsed, so this guy could potentially have intellectual talents instead of just being a brainless heart-eating stereotype.

You could have a traveling middle-eastern philosopher. Trying to learn more about the nature of the universe through study/meditation/travel, possibly a pious follower of [insert middle-eastern religion here] too. Maybe a rich kid who shed his wealth and started looking for enlightenment?

There were also a few super-badasses who fought in the Boer War and WWI. There was one who fought in a bunch of wars and taught an american president (teddy roosevelt, I think?) rifle lessons. His name eludes me however.

[SimonMoon6]

Sounds like the premise to Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series (more or less).

And when I was asked to play in a Riverworld RPG, I chose to be Archimedes.

[Honest Tiefling]

Since these are only a few examples you said this might be irrelevant.

Why are all these people from Europe or America?

Asia - Ninja? Mongol?
Australia/Pacific Islands - British Convict? Tribal Warrior?
Africa - Zulu Warrior? Egyptian Slave?

I think you get the picture.

I was thinking the same thing. Personally, Mongols and Aztecs would be high up on my list in terms of bad***ery. The mongols have an advantage in that I believe they had female warriors thus solving the male issue (and without crossdressing).

I have to ask, how familiar are your players with these cultures? Presenting multiculturalism is fine and dandy, but if your players have no idea about said cultures it might end up poorly. You might want to tailor the PCs to things the players are both interested in, and they have some idea about.

[angry_bear]

Why only the past? It'd be interesting to see a character from the future tossed into this...

[Kitten Champion]

How about taking people from alternate timelines, perhaps created from the ripples of the initial temporal meddling?

[EugeneVoid]

Amelia Earhart
I want to know what happened :smallfrown:

[SowZ]

I think your characters will end up being less developed because some people will put a lot less investment in something they didn't create. Maybe this not the case with your group, though. I'd let the players have the option of creating their own if they really don't want to go with any of your suggested archetypes. I assume you are letting the players choose who gets what?

As for the question...

Maybe someone Persian should be thrown in. Persian's have some cool history. An Irish immigrant to the US working in the minds of West Virginia or the Railroads is neat.

[veti]

I don't want to cavil, but I've always wondered, on these occasions, how it happens that everyone comes to speak fluent English. And how they all came to be in the same place...

Actually, I can think of at least two old RPGs that set up this sort of party. In 'Man, Myth & Magic', the PCs reincarnate and "remember" (http://grognardia.blogspot.co.nz/2010/03/retrospective-man-myth-magic.html) their old incarnations. In 'Torg', half a dozen or more alternate pseudo-time periods coexist on Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torg) at the same time, and PCs can come from any of them.

For characters:
- You'll need someone with technical skills. I'd play a 19th-century British gentleman-scientist (think Phineas Fogg), the sort of person who invented the lightbulb (among many other things) well before Edison, but it just never occurred to him to exploit it because he didn't need the money. Owing to background he'd have some level of poise and charm, but most of his skills are in tinkering and making things work.
- Pirates (as in Of The Caribbean) are always a good bet. They were also equal-opportunity employers, so it's an excellent opportunity to improve your racial and sex balance.
- I'd probably replace the Briton monk with someone much older. I'm thinking: a Greek born to a merchant family in 1st-century Judaea, who narrowly missed out on meeting Jesus personally, and was adopted as a protege by one (or more) of the Apostles (probably John). Pacifistic, persuasive, penetrating, with an air of authority that makes even the banker pay attention.
- Speaking of the banker: another option to broaden your racial and sex portfolio would be to replace him with a Chinese matriarch of the Three Kingdoms era. She'd bring much the same combination of ruthlessness, deception and cunning, plus an overwhelmingly forceful personality (capable of throwing her weight around even in a sternly patriarchal society), but with more of a strategic/military rather than financial slant.

[Vitruviansquid]

Whew. So real life has been pretty hectic lately, but I'm glad to see a lot of good ideas in this thread as I finally find time to reply.

On the topic of Asia, I did indeed have an Asian character half-formed in my mind. He was supposed to be a Samurai from the Sengoku era whose character is dualistic in many ways - he is a seasoned warrior but he hates war and holds warriors in contempt, he espouses noble ideals but has also committed horrible brutalities, he is poet and philosopher while being a backstabber and pillager. I have always thought the character concept to be too difficult to communicate, and thus unfit to give as a pre-generated character.

On the topic of characters from the future, I had originally intended to put in a Transhumanist as a possible player character. He/she would hail from a time when humans can change their sex, age, and form at will and regularly do so for entertainment. I have not yet decided what he/she would be like psychologically. As for the lack of future characters in general, I think it might be easier for people to relate to historical characters than futuristic ones, but I'm definitely still looking for a compelling futuristic character to include.

Other non-European, non-American ideas I've toyed with are an Arabic alchemist, a Mayan astronomer/priest, an Ottoman Janissary, and a Chinese railroad worker. I've either stalled on writing them or decided not to include them for various reasons.

I don't want to use characters based on specific real people because it would seem a lot more difficult to roleplay them, especially if a player receives a character he/she doesn't know very well.

[Deffers]

My only suggestions as of right now:

Your Asian character? Instead of a samurai-- an Onna-bugeisha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onna-bugeisha). BAM! THAT is going to surprise your players. I learned about them on these forums, incidentally-- that real world weapons and armor thread is worth watching when you got these kinds of things.

And for another character-- a Viking or Varangian, back when they traveled down rivers and set up trade routes. They weren't all pillage and plunder, after all-- I believe they helped set up the Volga trade route that was so crucial to getting Wootz steel to Europe. A man who is more focused on adventure and exploration than he is on being the mightiest warrior, who's seen many things and enjoys learning from experience.

[Slipperychicken]

We could totally throw in serial killers and spree-murderers. Like the stereotype of the quiet, unassuming psychopath who functions just fine in society, but kills people in his spare time because he doesn't have the mental inhibitions which make murder repulsive. Or the screaming, repulsive murderer who kills out of pure hatred. To get the point across, this would probably be the kind of person who would put a bullet in someone's head in broad daylight. These can be from any time period, racial, or cultural background (a simple wikipedia search reveals numerous examples from many cultures and time periods).

Organized criminals like prohibition-era mafia enforcers and more modern drug traffickers (who can be pretty much any race or sex; white, black, hispanic, asian, eastern european, etc) are also possibilities.

Another idea which flows from the examples I mentioned is a convict (most likely guilty of extreme violent crime) who was transported to the dungeon from prison. Totally hardened by a both a society which abused him and turned him to crime, and a brutal prison system which further dehumanized and degraded him, he has long since lost any idea of what life outside prison is like, and thinks nothing of destroying lesser men to survive. Since the conditions which would create such a person are seemingly universal, this can be of basically any race or sex.

[Honest Tiefling]

I think I'd stay away from serial killers. Do you REALLY want a PC based on Albert Fish? Personally, I think that would be book throwing time.

In the vein of criminals, a pirate would also help with gender and race. Perhaps female pirates were not THAT common, but I think one could argue it happened frequently enough to allow some flexibility. As for a convict, why not a slave? They would likely be just as embittered and there are more then a few cases of slave revolts across history.

[Eric Mac]

Tesla (the inventor, not the rock band)

Teddy Roosevelt (that guy was a beast, one of the first mixed martial artists)

An early Brazilian slave, and master of capoeira

Nineteen-thirties American gangster

Any of these would be fun.