A_True_Believer Character Discussions

Working Background & Story

Kroog has the Outlander background. He was indeed raised among Orcs. Within his Orc tribe, he grew and became a tribal warrior at the age of 14. His tribe was known for its fierceness and swiftness at village raiding and pillaging. Although he was fierce in the heat of battle, Kroog was not without some sense of compassion. This created the slightest of hesitation in the execution or enslaving of "enemy" children, which certainly did not jive well with the fierceness associated with his tribe. At the age of 22, Kroog was exiled from the tribe for showing a special sense of compassion toward children. Kroog objected to his exile and thus was attacked by multiple soldiers and his beaten and battered body was thrown into a nearby river. Kroog was not dead. A child found him, a human child. He was taken in and shown compassion and the family allowed his wounds to mend. Kroog is in debt to the family and has taken an oath unto himself to not harm an innocent child or family. Freedom is his driving force. No longer bound by the dictates of his "tribe," Kroog now searches to gain his own purpose in life and stifle the stigma of his often mistrusted and disliked race. [WORK IN PROGRESS, PLEASE HELP!]

I just thought of this: we are using the Feat option, so you can choose a Feat instead of the attribute adjustment if you prefer one of those.

True. Heck, I think I'll stick with that Strength bonus!

FYI your back story so far is fine. If you haven't picked traits, an ideal, a flaw, and a bond yet, I found that going through them from all the character classes, not just the one for my character, helpful. Sometimes the examples for the selected class don't match my character conception. Also, they can help provide ideas for character back story and development.

I always look for a portrait to my charterers (Pinterest is my go to) and look for the image that fit my idea. I often find that portrait tells me more about my character than I originally thought of myself

Okay having been raised by Yrocs (it sounds like Orc when pronounced properly because you sort of swallow it as you say it), you would be aware that they are as you outlined fierce and proud valuing Strength and Power greatly but they are not inherently evil although many of them do tend to drift in that direction as a tribe but they have sprinkling of alignments within the even a more evil appearing tribe due to their traditions but in-fighting for dominance is not uncommon. Still most Yrocs have not had good experiences with stumpies (Dwarves) or tree-huggers (Elves) because the dwarves hold long grudges and the elves cannot identify with their might makes right attitudes. Humans is a mixed bag sometimes they get along with them and sometimes they do not.

If you want to kind of see what my Yrocs look like check out Warhammer Orcs as I like their rendition the most but other than that think primitive Klingons ;) as the women are just as bad-arsed warriors (think Klingon or Celtic) as the men are. They just tend to be a wee bit smaller.

I can give Kroog a side mission if you like -- that family has son that they had not heard from in a long while that had left for Far Reach -- they are hoping to find out what happened to him. Are you interested?

Awesome. Possibly. How would a side mission work? I like the concept.

I will take a look asap.

Quite true. I'll look over some of those options.

Updated Background

Raised among a Yroc tribe, Kroog knows well the fierceness of his half-kin, valuing strength and power above all. By the age of 14, he joined the ranks of the tribal warriors. Although he was fierce in the heat of battle, Kroog was not without some sense of compassion. This created a personal hesitation in the execution or enslaving of "enemy" children, which certainly did not bode well with the tribe's fierce identity. Kroog made attempts to keep his hesitation and disagreements concealed. However, at the age of 24, Kroog was exiled from the tribe for compassionate hesitations. Kroog objected to his exile and thus was attacked by multiple soldiers. The defeat was something he was not familiar with. His beaten and battered body was thrown into a nearby river. However, Kroog was not dead. A young child found him, a human child. He was taken in by the family and shown compassion.
The family cared for him and allowed his wounds to mend. Kroog is in debt to the family and has taken an oath unto himself. An oath to not harm an innocent child or family and to show compassion to those that are innocent. No longer bound by the dictates of his "tribe," Kroog now searches to gain his own purpose in life and stifle the stigma of his often mistrusted and disliked race

A few other details: Kroog stands about 6'7" tall and weighs in at about 250 lbs. He has that greyish/green toned skin with several scars from previous battles (including the one that almost claimed his life from his former tribesmen), black hair and light almost hazel eyes.

Personality Traits: Kroog is strong and has self-confidence in his strength. He relies on it and has worked to maintain that strength. However, Kroog is not the best at keeping in line with ideas that he disagrees with. Although not as outspoken as some of his kin or half-kin, Kroog tends to bottle up aggression that can lead to outbursts and a short-temper.

Ideals: Kroog believes in freedom and that innocence should be spared of brutality and cruelty.

Bonds: Kroog has a soft spot for children, even more so now for human children. If one is in danger, he is compelled to act in their defense.

Flaws: Kroog cannot bear the shame of his defeat during his forced exile. This causes tremendous social angst with an orc or half-orc in social situations. He feels that his scars tell a tale that would be obvious to his kinfolk.

I would change this to the following:
Why because this would be Yroc way -- if you were exiled the chief is the one that would have exiled you -- if you objected you were bringing into question the chief's judgement and right to rule -- aka you were challenging the chief -- and direct or indirect a challenge is always met by the challenged

Awesome! Thanks.

Basically you have a description of the young man, you have his name, and that he traveled to Far Reach --- it is not an easy mission, since you have no photo to work with or all the much to go on. So I would suppose you would have to start asking questions of folks that he might have met when he arrived.

Is this something I would use (kind of like Inspiration) as I'm introduced to the group or is this something we're going to do prior to me joining up with everyone?

Think of it this way -- this was/is your main purpose for coming to Far Reach -- the catalyst so to speak. However it is kind of like searching for that proverbial needle in a haystack (with the haystack being the entirety of Far Reach) ;) you might find it, you might not, heck you might sit on it who knows. However yes you may actually complete the mission at some point but this will greatly depend upon how you go about pursuing it but considering what little you have to go on it is not going to be all that easy. Then again maybe you will just accidentally sit on it and find it in the most painful way.

Now granted you have agreed to hook up with these others as there is safety in numbers and adventuring while you search for the young man will hopefully get you enough to live on and besides that is kind of what the young man came here to do so you might stumble across him that way who knows.

Ahh! Yes! :)

I have not given him a description nor a name -- as I thought you might want to do that but I doubt your character would have met him so you would be going off the description the parents gave -- maybe he has some special thing he wears that might help indicate who he is in case the worst has happened. Preferably something made of metal or stone ;)

Maybe I would have his name, a description and the idea that he keeps something important to the family? A gem or something like that..? An heirloom?