5 Rumors About Your Character (A Simple Trick For Quickly Establishing a PC)

Getting information about your character front and center in any game can be tough, and as a result it can be difficult and time consuming to get the party together when you first start playing. One tool that I've been on both ends of as a player and a DM, though, is the idea of rumors, and the power they have to immediately convey who your character is, and what the rest of the party has heard about them. Because as I said back in Character Reputation in RPGs: The Small Legend, just because the other PCs don't know you personally that doesn't mean they don't know of you.

So tell them what they know.

Seriously, my dude, don't target the dog. Trust me, I've heard the stories.

4 (Mostly) True Rumors, and 1 Lie

I've seen lots of DMs shuffle the numbers on this strategy, and you should feel free to play around with it to see how many rumors fits your ideal play style. My personal recommendation is a total of 5 rumors, where 4 of them are at least mostly true, and where the 5th is a lie (and typically one that reflects badly on your PC).

As an example, take Gard Hardacre. Tall and bald except for a braided tail at the back of his head, he has the look of a tough man who doesn't scare easily. That's enough to get a picture of what the party is looking at, but what have they heard about him? After all, he's a PC... surely someone is talking about him in this town?

Well, the rumors the others hear are:

- They say he fought for the black coats, back during the war. They offered him a promotion and a knighthood, but he was so disgusted by what they did he walked away and never looked back.

- He's even most of the time, but he's got a temper to beat the devil. He once beat an innkeep till he could barely see just because he didn't get him his food quick enough.

- No one's quite sure what his tastes run to. He's pleasant enough, but no one's ever seen him with a man or a woman, orc, elf, dwarf, or otherwise. He pays more mind to his sword and armor than company.

- His sword's one of the best around, but he can't keep gold in his purse for nothing. He gambles and drinks, sure, but he's a sucker for a sob story. Urchins, whores, and beggars know him by sight.

- No one's ever seen eyes like his. A green so dark they're nearly black... no one in this country has eyes like that but the Dredgers. He don't look like one of them swamp lords, but he handles that blade better than any foot soldier I've ever seen.

Starting to get a clearer picture now?

The reason I suggest five rumors is so you have flexibility. Part of their benefit is that they help you create your character, but the other part is that you can hand them out however you please. Do you hand out one rumor per session per PC? Does every player get a different rumor about a fellow PC in the first session, so they have to talk to each other in order to spread the gossip and figure out who their fellow party members are? Or do you post them in your group's Facebook page after the first session, and leave them to decide which rumors are true, and which ones are false?

There's no wrong way to go about this, but it is key that at least one rumor is a falsehood. And for those who are curious, the second rumor on my list was the lie. The innkeep was slow bringing Gard's meal, that's true, but he'd found out the man was beating his wife. So Gard decided to give him a taste of his own medicine to see if it taught him a lesson. He never bothered to try to stop the rumors because he knows what really happened, and that's all that matters to him.

Looking For More Inspiration?

Crafting rumors off the top of your head isn't always easy. Fortunately, I've written some stuff that can help get the wheels turning if you're looking for a push start.

- A Baker's Dozen of Noble Families: This one has the Dredgers that I mentioned above in Gard's rumors, along with 12 other noble families, their history, reputation, and heraldry. Whether you want to have a secret son of a noble house off adventuring, or a rumor that your PC is a bastard child of the line, this is a useful thing to have on-hand.

- 100 Random Mercenary Companies: Mercenaries are a copper a dozen in many fantasy settings, but if you want it rumored that your character once fought for an elite (or cursed) band, then this collection is quite useful. Especially if you have insignia, weapons, armor, etc. that ties you to a particular free company, since those symbols will get tongues wagging.

- 100 Knightly Orders: Much like free companies, knightly orders carry a lot of weight with them... sometimes good, and sometimes bad. Whether your PC is a member, or is only rumored to be, this list should spark its share of ideas.

- A Baker's Dozen of Rumors (And The Truth Behind Them): This one is more for DMs than players, as each of the rumors in here can be stretched out to fill an entire session. However, since we're on the subject of rumors, I felt I should include it in the list.

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That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you've used run these kinds of games before, leave us a comment to let us know what worked for you!

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