Plot hooks needed!!

[Winds of Nagual]

One of my players (first time player) told me that in her back story, her father (a simple merchant) was murdered. I am left to fill in the gaps on why this happened and how she might take revenge. Any thoughts? They plots could be simple ala Batman whose parents deaths are more or less accidental. Or her father was an important cog in a smuggling ring that is trying to close up loose ends.

Cheers and thank you for inspiring me!!

[Judge_Worm]

A powerful evil (or bored) wizard one day decided to take protection money from a minor smuggling ring... The players father, who upon falling upon hard times joined the smuggling ring as a fence, stood against the wizard. This was a horrible mistake on his part. The local authorities don't have the means to investigate crimes involving magic, or the ability to apprehend the suspects if'n they could. So, the player and her band of merry men fellow adventurers are on their own to bring justice down upon her father's murderer.

[crankykobold]

How about the father was a deeply embedded spy for a rival nation and was killed to retrieve some kind of earth shaking state secret, like the king is a doppelganger imposter. And the proof of it is in some heirloom she carries with her. Every so often you could send assassins at the group and they don't know why. In the process of tracking his killer they uncover the plot.

[Brendanicus]

How about the merchant came across a rare magic item and was killed by a dragon-worshiping group of kobold thieves so they could add the item to their patron's hoard?

There are two big angle I see:

You track down the dragon/thief cultists and kill them.

-or-

The party does a stakeout to catch the group of Kobold thieves in the act, then from there find the dragon. Another slight variation on this would be getting the party (possibly with the help of a friendly noble or temple) to invent stories of a rare item in the house of a noble/temple/your party's possible mansion to attract the kobolds into a trap.

Also, Angry Kobold had a good idea with the spying thing.

[(Un)Inspired]

The character's father was known for being the best weaponsmith in all the land. One day,a noble came to him and ordered a custom sword to fit his particular grip. After toiling on the sword for over a year, the characters father finished.

The sword was a thing of beauty; perfectly balanced and sharp as a razor. When the noble returned however, he offered the noble a tenth of the sword's promised price. The character's father refused to sell so the noble cut him down.

When the character tried to stand up to the noble he was defeated almost immediately and left with two scars across his face for his troubles.

From that day on, the character swore to track the noble, explain who he was, and extract revenge.

[Amon Winterfall]

One of my players (first time player) told me that in her back story, her father (a simple merchant) was murdered. I am left to fill in the gaps on why this happened and how she might take revenge. Any thoughts? They plots could be simple ala Batman whose parents deaths are more or less accidental. Or her father was an important cog in a smuggling ring that is trying to close up loose ends.

Cheers and thank you for inspiring me!!

As a deep believer in Versimilitude, I'm wary of rocking the boat too much by adding things that the player might not want to deal with, IE, that Dad was exceptional / Terrible / more awesome than me. Done wrong, it completely annoys the player, and so I'd just ask what they had and mind and modify it as appropriate.

The most likely case is that PC's Father was indeed a simple merchant, and that he met some robbers who decided they didn't want someone to ID them to the guards, so they took his stuff and killed him. Given how long ago this happened (IE, it wasn't yesterday. Depending on race, this could be a century or longer in history), the perpetrators have attempted many more crimes and it's 50/50 at best they're still alive; perhaps another 50/50 that they're not forced laborers or otherwise being punished as appropriate for other crimes.

Senseless crime is a reality. Taking the "most common answer" approach probably works in a gritty game where issues of poverty, crime, and the have and have nots are important. Even in this situation, the heroic questions of:

"Who did this?"
"Why haven't some of them been brought to justice?"
And: "Can I bring dad back?"

Can be raised, and I think it would be a good question for a low level party to investigate.

-------

It's not that I don't like Byzantine large-scale plots, it's just that adding one here stretches the story very far. This is a PC's father we are talking about; he's not going to be living a gigantic double life that has zero evidence at home. If there were a vast conspiracy, the PC would have been addressed somehow--there is no telling what a man would tell their child--and so I have to think it comes apart because of PC knowledge.

What might be interesting, however, is doing something with the perpetrator:

-Perhaps they have repented for their misdeeds and don't even know the name of the man they killed?
-Perhaps they've succeeded at being Murder-Hobos and managed to emerge as petty nobility, supposedly "retired and above that life"
-Perhaps they had a shared history with PC's Dad and decided to turn on him after he angered them.

What I would not suggest, is having the Perps still in their life as if nothing has changed. Its been a long time, and they must have moved on.

[crankykobold]

The character's father was known for being the best weaponsmith in all the land. One day,a noble came to him and ordered a custom sword to fit his particular grip. After toiling on the sword for over a year, the characters father finished.

The sword was a thing of beauty; perfectly balanced and sharp as a razor. When the noble returned however, he offered the noble a tenth of the sword's promised price. The character's father refused to sell so the noble cut him down.

When the character tried to stand up to the noble he was defeated almost immediately and left with two scars across his face for his troubles.

From that day on, the character swore to track the noble, explain who he was, and extract revenge.

Is the character a Spaniard, working for Vizzini to pay the bills? Not a lot of money in the revenge business.And I suppose she has a half-giant companion gifted at rhyme.:smallbiggrin:

[Winds of Nagual]

Some great thoughts here! The campaign is designed to be quite sand-boxy. Lots of quests available for PCs to choose from. And I have at least a dozen plots going on. I feel that the father sub-plot could be intensive enough that the entire party could take part - or small enough for just two or three PCs helping out. Greatly appreciate the help so far!

[incarnate236]

The PC left a toy on the floor which caused him to trip and fall on a tool. It looked like murder but really the PC is to blame for the accident.

[incarnate236]

The PC left a toy on the floor which caused him to trip and fall on a tool. It looked like murder but really the PC is to blame for the accident.

Trick into wishing for the death of the murderer....

[Uncle Pine]

The PC left a toy on the floor which caused him to trip and fall on a tool. It looked like murder but really the PC is to blame for the accident.


Trick into wishing for the death of the murderer....

This is the most evil thing I can imagine. :smallsmile:
If you try this, please give the player a way to avoid scry attempt as soon as possible, so that the player himself will never be able to scry "the murderer". Then, immediately after the real adventure/campaign has ended (in other words, the main villain is dead/in prison/etc.), present the player a way to avenge his father without fail: a ring of wish. Remember to use various way to make the player feel more and more uncomfortable about the loss of his father and the fact that the culprit has never been found and consider adding a red herring so that the player will actually want to kill the damn bastard.

Finally, don't forget that there are also other players at the table and that their backgrounds should be equally important.

[Winds of Nagual]

"Finally, don't forget that there are also other players at the table and that their backgrounds should be equally important. "

Oh I haven't forgotten this at all - I have a Wayang who has been banished from his clan (actually the result of a draw from a Deck of Many Things"

A Gunslinger from a parallel universe that has been corrupted by a creeping chaos.

A Grippli bard - the last 'Spellsinger' of his tribe

An Inquisitor possible related to (or a reincarnation) of the great wizard Nex

A brute hired to do the 'dirty work' for his aristocracy bosses.

But the simple revenge motive seems more difficult to wrap my head around.

[Strigon]

The character's father was known for being the best weaponsmith in all the land. One day,a noble came to him and ordered a custom sword to fit his particular grip. After toiling on the sword for over a year, the characters father finished.

The sword was a thing of beauty; perfectly balanced and sharp as a razor. When the noble returned however, he offered the noble a tenth of the sword's promised price. The character's father refused to sell so the noble cut him down.

When the character tried to stand up to the noble he was defeated almost immediately and left with two scars across his face for his troubles.

From that day on, the character swore to track the noble, explain who he was, and extract revenge.

But wait!
The character must have a means of identifying his father's killer!
Some unique feature, perhaps...?




I've got it!
What if he had six fingers on his right hand?

[atemu1234]

His father actually survived, a la star wars?

[Uncle Pine]

His father actually survived, a la star wars?

Or maybe his father really died but was killed by an aleax or ice assassin of himself, which means that the character's father's killer was his father and that if the character wants to avenge his father he basically has to get his father killed. Again.