Character Backgrounds

Usually I have players right up a background history or answer a survey ala Candi, but Numenera comes with a simple system for creating background that is thorough enough to get a character started but also vague enough to allow for development. It also comes with starting connections so that we can skip the obligatory you meet in a tavern nonsense so common in roleplaying games.

If you are using one of my pregens you will see that I included your background connection, source, and player connection. If you created your own character pick one of the background seeds from the book and expand upon them. Please type up a paragraph for Background Source and a paragraph for Background Connection and post them here. Also post any questions you have here. The Player Connection is just a sentence.

Background source is basically supposed to explain where your powers / skills come from. I provided the seed and you need to elaborate here.

For Example: Ports and Plugs means that you are mechanically enhanced with some form of cybernetic or nano technology interfacing with your brain. What exactly you have and how it works and how it got there is up to you. This is mostly for flavor and doesn't really effect the game. If you need me to elaborate on what your background source seed means please post your questions here.

Background Connection is how you are connected to the rest of the community that you live in. Again you have a seed that should be expanded on. Background source and background connection are generally enough to flesh out the guidelines to rolepaying a character and also tells the other players how to roleplay with you.

Player Connections are how you are connected to one of the other players. Since communities in Numenera are small and tight knit it is likely you have history with one PC already. This is where you can flesh that out.

Biiliik's apprenticeship as a hunter was formidable; after all, survival in the Golden Sea is difficult enough, but returning with sufficient provisions for the Hive is a truly daunting task. She was apprenticed to Makuurish, an unpopular hunter who was known to be a dour curmudgeon for whom no task could be completed with satisfaction. Unable to accept that any of the male students who took lessons from Makuurish might best her in any way, Biiliik practiced long and hard at each skill presented, but her arrogance grew and became a distraction that ensured that she was never good enough. Makuurish was harder on Biiliik than she was on the other, less dedicated students.

During a foray into the desert with Makuurish, her haughty grousing about the foibles of a male student drew the attention of a Sand Dragon. Unprepared and distracted, the fight started poorly but the creature was vanquished. However, it was not without a consequence. A wound sustained to Makuurish's arm kept her from full mobility for a time, and even after it healed, the arm aches miserably when overused. The adventure taught Biiliik an important lesson on humility, and Makuurish has never let her forget what her arrogance cost. Even now that the apprenticeship is over, Makuurish still expects Biiliik to come back and sharpen the training blades and clean up after the classes as if she were a poor student in need of disciplining, but occasionally shares interesting rumors with her as if she were a peer.

Background looks good. Very well written and thought out in such a short time. Once you get the character transferred onto the official sheet you can submit it into the game for approval and make a starting post to introduce you character. In Act One I will edit the OP to change Vespula to Biiliik and you can play from there. Luckily Cockroach never got a chance to post so we do not need to retcon anything.

As to the Connection to other PC background, I choose Vizim who once saw Biiliik show surprising mercy toward her
prey, and now she hopes that he keeps that information quiet—it might harm her reputation among the other hunters and the warrior caste.

Vizim had recently accompanied Biiliik into the desert overnight in order to observe some lichens that grew on certain rocks. They found a suitable outcropping after a long days travel, and Vizim spent the remainder of the day poking the lichen and scribbling in his book. In the night, a two-foot long lizard had wandered near the camp, drawn by the lingering heat of the outcrop on which they rested. Biiliik jumped down beside it and pinned it to the ground with one hand, but instead of killing it outright, she stroked it gently along the throat until it ceased thrashing about and calmed. She even lifted it onto a rock and continued to croon and stroke it as the lizard settled onto the warm stone. When it settled and drifted to a lazy, languorous rest under the attention, a blade slipped silently the rear of the skull and the beast was instantly still. Biiliik then looked around and caught Vizim watching from above. When she climbed back up to the camp, she saw that Vizim's notebook was in a different spot. A bolt of trepidation went through her as she thought of whom he might reveal that night's events. In the morning, they did not speak of it, but Vizim seemed almost reluctant to eat the lizard meat, which had cooked all night in the campfire coals, when they broke their fast. They returned to the Hive that day, but have they subsequently spoken to each other of what happened that night.

Very good pc connection. I suspect it would be wise to ensure all characters are connected by saying that Vizim should pick Seyyal and Seyyal should pick Biiliik.