Another D&D question - how would these women react in this situation?

[NewJeffCT]

OK, maybe I need to add “D&D” to the subject line to get a response here.

But, I wanted to get an idea of how two human female non-player characters (run by me, the DM) would react in this situation. Or, if my thin idea is realistic?

In the game I am running, the sole female player (character name is Janayla) is getting close to her home town, and they will likely stop by there, since it is on the way to their next major destination.

The woman running Janayla basically did not give me much in the way of a background, but since we were getting close to her hometown, I asked her if she wanted to give me any family information.

This is a summary of what she gave me, and I want to know how you think Janayla’s mother and sister would react upon seeing her again?

Summary:
Janayla was very close to her father, who died when she was 10 years old, leaving behind Janayla, her sister, and her sickly mother. The mother had always been a bit bitter about the relationship between Janayla and her father, who was a well-known local do-gooder type and follower of an outdoorsy-type goddess like Artemis/Diana. Janayla’s sister remained close with her and tried to play peacemaker between Janayla and her bitter mom, but to no avail.

At 15, Janayla left home, leaving behind her sister and mother. She wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a do-gooder type follower of this goddess. She was gone for seven years and ended up becoming a priestess of this goddess.

After the seven year absence, she returned home to find her mother’s bitterness might even have escalated due to Janayla leaving for seven years. The sister was still happy to see her, but the mother’s bitterness made it uncomfortable, so Janayla did not stick around for long before hightailing it out of Dodge…

That was three years ago.

She is now a successful priestess of this goddess (sixth level so far, almost seventh) and is about to return home.

How do you think the mother and sister would react upon her return as part of an otherwise all male group of adventurers? Janayla and the group have done a lot of good deeds, but the word likely would not have spread all the way to her hometown and her mom/sister and they are not that powerful yet to have recognition throughout the kingdom.

Any suggestions?

I am not cruel enough a DM to pull off a Doc Ock-Aunt May type scenario where the mom or sister introduces their new boyfriend, who happens to be one of the main villains of the story…

I was thinking of having the mother on her deathbed, and the sister – while happy to see Janayla – as a bit more cold & distant because she has been the sole caretaker of the mom for a decade now.

[Orrex]

1. The only thing more geeky than a Doc Ock/Aunt May reference in a D&D thread

Is understanding the Doc Ock/Aunt May reference in a D&D thread.

Would it be too much of a sidetrack for the campaign to have Janayla stumble upon some unfinished business in her home town, possibly involving her sister, mother, and her late "do gooder" father? It might even pertain obliquely to the larger events of the campaign, so that you would establish a connection to the town without greatly distracting from the story.


Realistically, I can't imagine that the ten-year absence would have improved the relationship between Janayla and her family. What's the general health of your campaign world? If the mother's been sickly for so long, it seems to me that she might easily have croaked in the interim, leaving the surviving sister alone. She might be an outcast spinster, having devoted so much time to her mother's care and so little to herself.

This could be an opportunity for Janayla to face a sense of loss that she hadn't previously experienced. If her mother is dead, maybe her sister has moved away from the town, so Janayla has no ties to it. Suddenly she realizes that she has no "home" to return to--what would be the impact upon her character?

If you're interested in a theological clash, perhaps her sister has embraced some other faith in hope of comforting/curing the sickly mother? How might this difference of faiths affect the daughters' interactions?


My simple take on it: the mother is years-dead, and the surviving sister is either very bitter about it or doesn't give a damn one way or the other about Janayla.

[NewJeffCT]

2. I was thinking

of having the mother on her deathbed, but having died is an interesting take. The sister embracing another religion to try to save the mom is a good idea, too.

[Orrex]

3. You should have seen me in my geek heyday

So long ago...

[NewJeffCT]

4. I used to be a lot better at it

back in the 80s & early 90s when I gamed at least once or twice a week. However, I'm not always as fast on my feet mentally anymore and I get more mental blocks when trying to come up with ideas for the near term.

[NewJeffCT]

18. On another site

somebody suggested that the sister has actually become a follower of a really lawful-good deity and takes a "holier than thou" attitude towards the long-lost sister/PC.

that's an interesting idea, too. But, I only have about 6 hours left to prep...

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

28. I hate you.

:cry:

[ThomCat]

5. If she hasn't been sending money home

and her mom and sister have been surviving on their own, I imagine you can work in a poverty angle. What have they been doing to survive? Do they run a farm all by themselves? Do they take in washing? Do they run a boarding house? Do they have a craft?

Some bitterness that the priestess went off and got successful while leaving them to fend for themselves would be a good start. :)

[NewJeffCT]

6. Not sure what they did

so, I guess that is DM's prerogative... so, House of Ill-Repute it is.

Just kidding, but it's a farming community where people raise sheep & goats, and grow corn.

[NewJeffCT]

7. late morning kick

for more input, if possible

[ThomCat]

24. So, her sister probably had to do all of the work that

she used to do before running off. How many younger siblings wouldn't be pissed about that. I can see some real nice tension coming out of that.

And what if the kid sister has some kind of talent, but she's afraid to go off and develop it because she doesn't want to abandon mom like her big sister did?

Now your PC is responsible for holding back her kid sister.

I'd have with a family situation like that. :P

[blueraven95]

8. you could go in a slightly different direction

and have the sister totally put together, so that while she might be happy to see Janayla, she also resents her presence, as it disrupts her well-ordered world. Sort of, a "their life went on, and turned out okay" kind of scenario, where Janayla can see she's missed out on something.

It's just a thought.

I also like the idea of weaving in a side quest or a step on the larger quest that someone else mentioned.



darnit, now you've made me miss gaming...no good crew to game with where I am now.

[NewJeffCT]

9. Thanks - interesting idea

and, I moved a little over a year ago and put my current gaming group together from scratch - myself and 6 gamers. There is an online gamer database at a place called something like "pen & paper games" that sends you automatic emails of people in your area...

[blueraven95]

12. very cool.

I'll look around for it.

[NewJeffCT]

14. Here is the website:

www.penandpapergames.com/forums/memberlist.php

[blueraven95]

17. thank you

:hi:

[DS1]

10. Trick question. There are no women in D&D

:hide:

[NewJeffCT]

13. I thought it was a myth, too

but, she keeps showing up with her husband to game every two weeks...

[Rhythm]

26. The wasband and I hosted a "weekly gaming group" through the late 80's into the mid 90's

... and i think i ran as many sessions as he did. We ran the gamut from D&D to "Call of Cthulhu" to "Cyberpunk"... whatever the group voted to play that week.

We actually had one other female player who showed up regularly; i still talk to her from time to time. Certainly i've been in closer contact with her than i have with any of the others (including the wasband, but that's another story).

[FloridaJudy]

30. Oh yeah?

I'm a Chaotic Good Fighter/Mage, and I cast Melf's Acid Arrow on you!

[NewJeffCT]

31. It's an illusion, right?

:P

[Magrittes Pipe]

11. The paladin should cast an obfuscate spell...

...so he can more successfully escape detection in his parents' basement; where he will once again fail his saving throw against humiliating himself in front of girls, and have to resort to pulling out his Bag of Masturbation from behind the bookcase.



I'm sorry, dude, I HAD to. ;)

[NewJeffCT]

15. well, the guy playing the paladin in our group

is the only single person in the group - everybody else is married (the woman comes with her husband)...

[Magrittes Pipe]

16. Ha!

So he DOES have to resort to the Bag of Masturbation! I knew it! :D

[redqueen]

19. What... there's something wrong with that?

:P

[Magrittes Pipe]

21. Heh.

Isn't your "Bag of Masturbation" on your C: drive?

[SteppingRazor]

20. Could be an adventure opportunity...

perhaps something has happened to the family, some item needs to be recovered or something, and if the party can succeed, then the character could finally get back in the good graces of her family.

[Book Lover]

22. Sounds like Janayla has only been a sort-of do-gooder

seeing as how she abandoned her family as soon as she could. If I were the mother (by the way, what is the explanation for the mother's original bitterness? Stereotypical jealousy or something deeper?) I wouldn't give her the time of day.

[NewJeffCT]

23. I think it's just stereotypical jealousy

but, the woman playing Janayla didn't go into a lot of detail on the inner-workings of her mother's mind.

I'm currently leaning towards going with the idea that her mom has passed away and her sister has become a priestess of a god that is big into loyalty, duty, honor, etc.

So, then I can play the sister, "My religion puts duty, loyalty and honor first, something you know little about."

[Orrex]

25. Well? How did it turn out?

:popcorn:

[NewJeffCT]

27. UPDATE - I must have done okay

with how I played the sister as the woman playing the wayward sister PC later said, "I could totally understand her reaction."

Basically, as Orrex mentioned above, I had the sister take up the study of another god in an attempt to save the fading mother. However, instead of the chaotic-good nature goddess the PC follows, she took up following a lawful-good deity that follows duty, honor & loyalty as tenets.

So, when the PCs arrived in the sister's town after the townspeople had just repelled a large attack from some orcs & goblins, they ran into the cleric sister, who was a bit cold to her sister.

However, that was at the very end of the session - after the heat of battle has subsided, I will have the sister warm up a bit towards her long-lost sister.

The mother had passed away a few months earlier.

[Orrex]

29. Sounds good--neat and tidy

But still believable, and entirely workable in a campaign.

Nicely done!