This past Saturday we started creating characters. There had been a lot of discussion on what would be allowed and how to properly build the party. At this time it looks like we will only have three players: Sarah, Trevor, and Anderson. Sarah will be playing Arakih: the Elven Shaman. Trevor will play Kalik Ilyu: the Human Fighter. Anderson will play Candar Pike: the Elven Ranger. You may note that there is no controller in the group. Originally, we were going to have our friend Scott playing instead of Trevor. After Trevor joined we were going to have a party of four, which may still happen, but apparently Scott's schedule is a little hectic this summer so we'll see if he'll be available.
Stats have been rolled, skills, feats, and powers have been selected, and gear has been bestowed upon our three adventurers. We are quickly nearing the beginning of our first session. A specific date has not yet been selected, but we are hoping to start within the next two weeks. Now that there are completed characters I need some time to tweak the campaign to their abilities.
Much to the chagrin of the players, I originally allowed very little room for back story. I prefer the teachings of Gary Gygax who believed that backstory was what happened between levels one and four (or at least that's what I'm told). However, I began to realize that the characters needed to have some hint of history to explain how they came to be where they are in the world. So, with a little guidance (and hesitation) from myself, I allowed basic histories to unfold for the characters.
It should be mentioned that, in the world in which this campaign is built, humans are, more or less, the dominant species. There are still quite a few dwarves and there are both dwarven and elven kingdoms, but they are mostly far away. In the specific region in which the players begin their journey, even Elves are very rare and often looked upon with a certain awe. This made me hesitant to allow two of my players to be elves, but it actually works out quite nicely for how I planned to have my players meet. Since elves are so uncommon, it made sense that Arakih and Pike (as he likes to be called) would know each other and probably stick close together. This leaves poor Kalik off on his own at the beginning of the game. I plan to have the currently separated party meet up within the first twenty minutes or so of the first session, but that will be explained later.
I think it's best if the characters' histories are explained by their players so I will allow them the chance to either post histories themselves in the comments or through me in an actual post in the near future. If you would like to see a brief summary on how Arakih and Pike came to meet, you can read it here. Sarah has decided to blog about her character on her tumblr page. She also has a rough sketch of her character here.
