This is great roleplaying on the players part but it isn't really conducive to spurring my players along the sweeping adventures I have planned, so my question to you is how can I motivate this character without totally railroading him into one path. I have pointed out to the players that the time of the levy is approaching and the way their fellow slaves nervously look towards the Zigarat and the wall of skulls, and could potential use the threat of death at the hands of the templars as a motivator, but that seems heavy handed.
Any thoughts?
You could always have one of the templars, maybe his owner is a templar, find out that the others are preparing to break free, and he wants the mul to be his spy- after which time the templar will grant the mul his freedom legally and reward him richly! If the idea of breaking out and being free does not intice him, then maybe being awarded is freedom with money to boot will spur him on.
The templar should be interested in getting the information on the groups activities for several reasons, some of which are right from the Prism Pentad books, but you could always come up with your own hooks to get him to be a spy.
This path also offers up a whole host of role-playing oppertunities too!
But really, I'd say talk to your player. What dreams does his character have besides being a slave? Does he have someone he cares for that would make him want to escape? Then entice him with it.
Or maybe he could be "invited" to another city's games and the caravan he is transported in gets attacked and his master killed... I doubt he go and find another master to be a slave to; "Hi, I'm looking for a job as a slave.", the gladiator says. " Just fill out these forms here, sir!" answers the clerc with the sqeaky voice, "You should get a mental call in a few weeks for the interview."
Well- I have never thought ANY slave would, when offered freedom, meekly decide that he would RATHER be a slave!
Actually I imagine many Muls would have such an attitude. Compared to other slaves Muls are much more expensive, and because of this most slave owners are less willing to risk loosing their investment by working them to death or beating them too much, therefore Muls enjoy a comparetively better life than other slaves. Also remember that Muls are almost exclusively bread through forced breeding on the part of slavers and are therefore born into slavery, which makes freedoms something wholly unknown and never understood, and you always fear what you don't understand. The problem is that PCs are the exception rather than the rule.
He's only passed up one opportunity so far and it wasn't all that great of one, the party had just been purchased by the arena master at auction, and they were to be thrown into the arena in an hour, the Elf tried to convince him to break down the door that blocked the exit to the arena slave pens and his answer was "I can't, I've got to get ready for the fight" being a gladiator I can see him looking forward to the arena which is an additional reason not to escape at that point (worked out well for me since I hadn't planned on them trying to get out that way, and it likely wouldn't have been successful).
The real concern is that when the party is approached by Meegar (the headlining gladiator everyone comes to the arena to see) with an offer to arrange their escape if they carry a message for him to a contact in the bards district, that the Mul character will turn him down.
I could go the path of giving him the opportunity to serve the templars or his owner the arena master, and I'm sure the character would likely take it, the problem is that pits the agenda of one character against the others and I am not keen on doing that.
So, honestly, could you say your player is being "mul-headed"? :D
He's a gladiator slave correct? Can you shed some background info on who his owners are and what they're like? That would be useful in order for us help you formulate a reason for him to want his freedom. ;)
Well I don't have a full picture of the characters background yet, the setup for the campaign was that your characters background was your own to devise so long as it ended with your character for sale at auction in Draj, most of the players went the route of the Foreign slaves kidnapped by Draji raiding parties, the character in question however went with a background as a gladiator slave held in bondage since birth and raised for the fight. I'll need to prod him for more information about the circumstances of his background.
For instance, the mul gladiator/earth cleric in my game is lawful neutral; the player is a great role-player, so he has the whole "mightier than thou" mul gladiator attitude, but being LN he plays his character similar to how your player does - although he prefers to be a freeman, and has bought several slaves from their masters in order to free them, he doesn't have any outright hatred or disdain for slave owners...as long as they treat the slaves "fairly" (whatever that may mean) he's fine with them. During this last game session he even went so far as to go back to meet his former owner, from whom he won his freedom following an extremely high-risk gladiator match (character background: he was a long-shot bet in an underdog fight versus a braxat, but managed to kill the creature by shoving the stub of his chewed-off arm through the creature's eye as it was preparing to bite him in half). I expected him to get mad at the guy and kill him when he started demanding extra money for a slave that the PC wanted to purchase (a former gladiator friend of his), but instead of doing so he treated it as any other haggling deal and simply worked the guy down to a more reasonable price. Why? Because he's Lawful Neutral, and so as long as his ex-master continued to "play by the rules" he wasn't about to break the law and kill the guy simply because he was asking for more money than the slave was worth. "There's no harsh feelings between us, what's done is done" is how he put it.
So anyway...I say to cater to the guy's alignment. From the sounds of it, the PC must either be Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral, otherwise he's probably not playing his alignment right and as such is more likely trying to upset the group than actually role-playing. And, if he is LG or LN, then perhaps throw in something where he's forced to escape in order to maintain a sense of order in his life - perhaps his slave-master tells him that he's been bribed to throw the next fight, something that might hurt his sense of worth, or perhaps he could even overhear his master dealing with another slave-master about how they're going to throw the fight by poisoning the mul PC...again, something where his choice either comes down to taking part in a corrupt activity or else "breaking the law" and escaping as the lesser of two evils.
Well I don't have a full picture of the characters background yet, the setup for the campaign was that your characters background was your own to devise so long as it ended with your character for sale at auction in Draj, most of the players went the route of the Foreign slaves kidnapped by Draji raiding parties, the character in question however went with a background as a gladiator slave held in bondage since birth and raised for the fight. I'll need to prod him for more information about the circumstances of his background.
What might motivate him is if he had a master who considered him a valuable slave, and treated him quite well, with respect, and he is now held by a master who doesn't appreciate him at all, doesn't use him properly (books him in the wrong gladiatorial fights), and is generally a really bad master.
Another idea is to force freedom on him temporarily - he's being transported from point A to point B, and the caravan (or whatever) breaks down, so he's left to his own devices (with the other PCs possibly). Then he has actual experience of freedom to contrast with slavery.
It was actually not unknown amongst real-life slaves who were born into slavery to not wish for freedom, especially high-status slaves ("house" slaves, as opposed to "field" slaves). As far as they were concerned, their needs (food, shelter) were taken care of - all they had to do was their work. If they were free, they'd have to take care of all that themselves.
Having said that, I would suspect that with the actual experience of freedom, their opinions would change. I'm sure there should be some slave writings out there on the Web, or your local library. Might be a reason to do some reasearch into an interesting topic.
Hope my experience helps.
-X
I find that a whip is a good motivation on mul
Damn it, Kal! You beat me to it!
Damn it, Kal! You beat me to it!
I beat you to a lot of things- it is natures balance you see. I have good looks, charm, wit, intelligence and you have...well...I am sure you have something brun01. ;)
I beat you to a lot of things- it is natures balance you see. I have good looks, charm, wit, intelligence and you have...well...I am sure you have something brun01. ;)
...2 numbers in his name?
...but if that's "something" then I've outdone him there, what with my amazing 5 numbers!
Sorry.
Yes - but the sum of your numbers still equal 1, so it is not the LENGHT of your numbers, but how you use them!
Yea, well...umm...mine is defined to 5 places, allowing it to be converted from simplified binary code to the letter A, whereas 01, although it probably means "A" might also mean "H" should additional zeros be added at the end.
Think outside the box, man!
You know, if Kal weren't clinically diagnosed as delusional, this would kind of put me down, but since he is, it's better not to contradict him... he has a sword.
Actually - I have like 4, but that is not the point I guess :P
This was just my pay back for using my poor helpless Hack'em Masters in a Brizilian joke! Yeah, thats right, I seen it!
Do not make me sick the ǽfre-aetan or their dreaded masters, the Nifolaetan, on you because you know what they can do! Or at least you will once you get them written out and sent to me! [cracks whip]
:D
Yea, well...umm...mine is defined to 5 places, allowing it to be converted from simplified binary code to the letter A, whereas 01, although it probably means "A" might also mean "H" should additional zeros be added at the end.
Think outside the box, man!
I have you box here that proves me right once again- you need two more digits to make the letter!
American Standard Code for Information Interchange. This is the world-wide standard for the code numbers used by computers to represent all the upper and lower-case Latin letters, numbers, punctuation, etc. There are 128 standard ASCII codes each of which can be represented by a 7 digit binary number: 0000000 through 1111111.
LOL- I have had WAY too much time on my hands today at work.
LOL- I have had WAY too much time on my hands today at work.
Hehehe, I can see that.
I have you box here that proves me right once again- you need two more digits to make the letter!
LOL- I have had WAY too much time on my hands today at work.
Nooooooooo!!!!
Well, then...apparently I'm the first Dirk out of a potential pool of 100,000 while brun is simply the first of 10, tops. So, despite the total pointlessness of that statement, you may want to give in...given the current US population of 298,815,605 people (estimation based on U.S. Census Bureau data, as of 21:19 GMT), there's quite possibly a greater than a 1-in-3000 chance that next stranger you walk into is one of me! Beware!
(Take that...you're not the only one with time on their hands and a bookmark to Google...)
Touche.
Nooooooooo!!!!
Well, then...apparently I'm the first Dirk out of a potential pool of 100,000 while brun is simply the first of 10, tops. So, despite the total pointlessness of that statement, you may want to give in...given the current US population of 298,815,605 people (estimation based on U.S. Census Bureau data, as of 21:19 GMT), there's quite possibly a greater than a 1-in-3000 chance that next stranger you walk into is one of me! Beware!
(Take that...you're not the only one with time on their hands and a bookmark to Google...)
I do not think you would enjoy that though. Because how many of those 3000 strangers were trained hand-to-hand combat instructors in the Marines, an Expert rifleman, had 6 years of Ti Kwon Do, and an unhealthly attraction to long, sharp steel objects? Here is a link to give you a preview.
I do not think I have that much to worry about :P
Show
[cyber trash talking can be fun sometimes]
Why not just play on the Mul's racial ties. Being a halfbreed race he probably doesnt trust half the party, so make Meegar (the one with the first task for the PC's) a Mul as well. If one of the most powerful gladiators of the arena is a Mul and asks your Mul to assist him, that might just give him the push to help out one of his own.
Already done, Meegar has been a Mul since I first wrote him up, at their first meeting that wasn't enough, but maybe after they establish a bit of a relationship. After all we've only played the first session and it was a bit of a short one.
I do not think you would enjoy that though. Because how many of those 3000 strangers were trained hand-to-hand combat instructors in the Marines, an Expert rifleman, had 6 years of Ti Kwon Do, and an unhealthly attraction to long, sharp steel objects? Here is a link to give you a preview.
I do not think I have that much to worry about :PShow[cyber trash talking can be fun sometimes]