Gruzzle
2019-06-29, 09:24 AM
I am getting ready to start a fresh Rise of the Runelords campaign, mostly newer players with one player being a grizzled vet like myself. When chatting with each of them about what they want to play, one has said they really want to play a samurai. I immediately loved having another Minkaian in Sandpoint, and since I have Jade Regent on my digital shelves as well, thought I might be able to incorporate some kind of blend from the 2 by having the samurai in Sandpoint to protect the Tsutoku lineage. How best to do that, I'd like y'alls input!
My current brainstorm is partial inspired from Diablo 3's Crusader backstory as well, that his family was part of the Tsutoku line's personal samurai order and that his father passed down the importance of protecting the royal family. His father also made clear that for their own safety the current descendants must not be told of their lineage until the time is right. I'm not really sure how to have a surviving member of the house guard, given the butchering of Brinewall and the shipwrecks.
The easy answer is that Lonjiku wasn't the only survivor from the fleet but the samurai's father was somehow separated and unable to go in search of the family? Sent son to do what he couldn't? How much back story into Jade Regent plot would y'all recommend I give, since this character will suffer a watcher's fate, ultimately, never returning to Minkai (at least as a player character) and will spend the whole campaign never revealing to Ameiko why he is actually in Sandpoint, waiting for a sign that will never come until after his character's adventuring story is over.
Assuming that this gaming group stays together through the end of ROTRL I fully intend to run We Be Goblins followed by Jade Regent next so he might be an NPC in Jade Regent? Or he is called across the sea preceding the events of Jade Regent, and is there laying groundwork for a grassroots resistance in anticipation of her return? My inclination is that his father raised him on stories that HIS father told him about the Onis' curse/threats, though I acknowledge the dangers of arming a PC with information that is best NOT revealed for an entire campaign. It will absolutely tie the samurai to Sandpoint and make him care about the town's fate, which is fairly integral to the campaign. Thoughts? Advice? Brainstorms!
My current brainstorm is partial inspired from Diablo 3's Crusader backstory as well, that his family was part of the Tsutoku line's personal samurai order and that his father passed down the importance of protecting the royal family. His father also made clear that for their own safety the current descendants must not be told of their lineage until the time is right. I'm not really sure how to have a surviving member of the house guard, given the butchering of Brinewall and the shipwrecks.
The easy answer is that Lonjiku wasn't the only survivor from the fleet but the samurai's father was somehow separated and unable to go in search of the family? Sent son to do what he couldn't? How much back story into Jade Regent plot would y'all recommend I give, since this character will suffer a watcher's fate, ultimately, never returning to Minkai (at least as a player character) and will spend the whole campaign never revealing to Ameiko why he is actually in Sandpoint, waiting for a sign that will never come until after his character's adventuring story is over.
Assuming that this gaming group stays together through the end of ROTRL I fully intend to run We Be Goblins followed by Jade Regent next so he might be an NPC in Jade Regent? Or he is called across the sea preceding the events of Jade Regent, and is there laying groundwork for a grassroots resistance in anticipation of her return? My inclination is that his father raised him on stories that HIS father told him about the Onis' curse/threats, though I acknowledge the dangers of arming a PC with information that is best NOT revealed for an entire campaign. It will absolutely tie the samurai to Sandpoint and make him care about the town's fate, which is fairly integral to the campaign. Thoughts? Advice? Brainstorms!