Believer Character - Help Needed

R

RogerN

Banded Mongoose
Hi All - question / help needed sort of post. Last night we added a new player to the group and did the usual character creation with the usual entertainment such a session provides. Long story short we have a new character that in his first term as a Drifter (Wanderer) survived a near death experience. Now that in itself gives ideas for stories but no our new player decided to become a Believer as he quite liked the idea "the religious" group were responsible for healing him post his near death experience....

8 Terms later all in this organisation as a member of the faith and with some absolutely insane dice rolls he ended his career pathway with the rank of "Movement Leader", statues erected in his name and the potential for sainthood.

What the heck do I now do with a character who clearly from his rolls became a radicalised religious terrorist and ended up in a place where people only remembered the good things he achieved. A character who now in his 50s wants to travel the universe spreading the faith whilst also leading a fanatical group !!
 
Roll with it, baby.

Some of that could describe Nelson Mandela. "Terrorist" is a value laden term - who were they opposing? The French Resistance fit every classical definition of a terrorist organisation, aside from ending up on the winning side.

But if his movement is objectively wicked, let it be. PCs don't have to be good guys. My Merchant come Pirate Sergeant is definitely no saint, even though the campaign has mostly been about working for the Imps. Or at least they said they were Naval Intelligence... ;)
 
rinku said:
Some of that could describe Nelson Mandela. "Terrorist" is a value laden term - who were they opposing? The French Resistance fit every classical definition of a terrorist organisation, aside from ending up on the winning side.
Click to expand...
We actually did discuss the Nelson Mandela option as a group last night so that certainly feels like an option to go with.
 
The IRA might also be worth looking at. Especially the later Provisional IRA and their transition to a political party. That even has a religious angle.

Actually... just check every former colony, especially the British, French and Dutch. There's going to be some anti-colonial resistance movement that eventually succeeded. Including the USA.
 
The group doesn't have to be that fanatical or terroristic, if you don't want it to be. But it does make for more exciting politics. It could also be an extreme splinter group of a mainstream church.

Regardless of that, there are a lot of possibilities which allow you as referee to shape adventures out of having one character is in this kind of situation. The danger is that PC becomes too central to things, so you need either to weave the other PCs into the same plot with high levels of importance, or make sure they spend time doing other stuff as well.

There are some obvious ways to do it. Religious leaders go away on pilgrimages to places of religious significance, and might travel anonymously because of enemies to the faith. The leader could hire the rest of the PCs to take him somewhere. This could be quite far away, giving you a chance to put lots of adventures in the way, driven partly by the cult politics, but also by the other PCs' interests.

Cult politics can get pretty dirty, as new leaders emerge, who might not want to see the old leader return. Repression by governments could be a thing that is happening. There might be secret agents who turn up who want to harm or help the PC.

The tenants of the faith could be onerous, involving poverty, service to the poor, bodily penitence.

I would treat this as a major asset for the PC in the form of faithful who help, church resources , political influence but one which also brings significant constraints, such as behavioural requirements, enemies, and followers who sometimes do crazy stuff that might be inconvenient. Even if fanatical followers are willing to take a bullet for you - these are people who might have significant skills, but also clearly have significantly impaired judgement or they wouldn't have joined a cult in the first place.

It is also the chance to make up your own crazy cult, but it is best do it also with input from the player to get buy-in. Plot out the size of the organization, the believer demographics (which might be much larger than the actual organization, or might be a small closed circle), the different factions involved, enemies, resources (political, financial, physical, HR).
 
MonsterX said:
The group doesn't have to be that fanatical or terroristic, if you don't want it to be. But it does make for more exciting politics. It could also be an extreme splinter group of a mainstream church.

Regardless of that, there are a lot of possibilities which allow you as referee to shape adventures out of having one character is in this kind of situation. The danger is that PC becomes too central to things, so you need either to weave the other PCs into the same plot with high levels of importance, or make sure they spend time doing other stuff as well.

There are some obvious ways to do it. Religious leaders go away on pilgrimages to places of religious significance, and might travel anonymously because of enemies to the faith. The leader could hire the rest of the PCs to take him somewhere. This could be quite far away, giving you a chance to put lots of adventures in the way, driven partly by the cult politics, but also by the other PCs' interests.

Cult politics can get pretty dirty, as new leaders emerge, who might not want to see the old leader return. Repression by governments could be a thing that is happening. There might be secret agents who turn up who want to harm or help the PC.

The tenants of the faith could be onerous, involving poverty, service to the poor, bodily penitence.

I would treat this as a major asset for the PC in the form of faithful who help, church resources , political influence but one which also brings significant constraints, such as behavioural requirements, enemies, and followers who sometimes do crazy stuff that might be inconvenient. Even if fanatical followers are willing to take a bullet for you - these are people who might have significant skills, but also clearly have significantly impaired judgement or they wouldn't have joined a cult in the first place.

It is also the chance to make up your own crazy cult, but it is best do it also with input from the player to get buy-in. Plot out the size of the organization, the believer demographics (which might be much larger than the actual organization, or might be a small closed circle), the different factions involved, enemies, resources (political, financial, physical, HR).
Click to expand...
This is so much great advice thankyou so much
 
Sigtrygg said:
He has mustered out...
his prior careers are now behind him...
the opportunity to start again...
Click to expand...
To me this is the key bit. They WERE a believer. Why did they muster out? Have they lost their faith? Did they ever have faith or were they just carried along by events. Did they decide that it was time for new leadership (and why did they decide that). Many real world religious leaders die in post. If Father Ted is anything to go by Old Priests don't really retire, they just get shuffled off to some backwater. It is not a job, it is a calling.

These are the important questions, and they are for the player to answer from the character perspective. The character wanted to leave the Believer career for a reason. With a career that was held for a long time, that reason should feature high in the characters motivation.
 
swordtart said:
To me this is the key bit. They WERE a believer. Why did they muster out? Have they lost their faith? Did they ever have faith or were they just carried along by events. Did they decide that it was time for new leadership (and why did they decide that). Many real world religious leaders die in post. If Father Ted is anything to go by Old Priests don't really retire, they just get shuffled off to some backwater. It is not a job, it is a calling.

These are the important questions, and they are for the player to answer from the character perspective. The character wanted to leave the Believer career for a reason. With a career that was held for a long time, that reason should feature high in the characters motivation.
Click to expand...
Or was the money just resting in his account?
 
Depends a great deal on the direction that the group as whole wants to go.

One assumes he's about to kick the bucket, so a succession struggle could be interesting.

Interpretation of his teachings could be different amongst any number of factions and cliques, and it could descend into a schism.

Outside forces want to crush the movement.

Or, a hostile takeover.

Or, even worse, infiltration and subvert the movement.
 
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