One of the feedback we picked from the Driftmoon preview was that some players (me) didn't like the way the plot of the game started. I'm looking for a way to improve the beginning, and while we're at it, we could make the player character more interesting. If you have an idea for the plot, don't read any further before posting it to the comments, or you might forget your unspoiled idea.

So now that you either don't have an idea or you've posted it already, I can tell you my ideas. Looking at the current setup, the player is just a general chap who's father was the baron of Driftmoon, and the player didn't know this. Someone said he'd preferred playing Paul the Librarian, and I would have preferred playing Bobby the Skeleton. Often RPG characters are weak nobodies who just happen to be at the right place, such as in all Fallouts and Oblivion. The argument there is that it's easier for the player to feel sympathy for characters similar to themselves. Also that allows character development, the player can mold the character as they will. Call me crazy, but I'd like a my character to be a little more interesting, perhaps even have a background of their own that I could learn while playing.

My favourite example of RPG player characters is The Nameless One from Planescape: Torment. The protagonist was handed an ugly tattooed character with an unknown background, only the knowledge that he lived forever and had lived many different lives in the past now forgotten. You could develop him while playing by getting him to remember some of his past lives, and you learned quite a bit of his past. He was an interesting character from the start, it was cool playing him and you wanted to learn about him, but since he had no memory of his past the character itself didn't force your choices. Unfortunately the forgotten past is one of the most used game elements today, but this was ten years ago when it was still nearly new.

So here's my initial ideas for the player character. I don't want to completely redo the starting levels, but I could for example start the player in Driftmoon and turn Samuel (the professor with the teleport) into some sort of a wizard or sage, and move his house there.

• The player is the baron himself, come to the past to stop himself.
• The player is a golem created by the wizard.
• The player is a dwarf trying to escape from the mines, mistakenly tunneled into the wizards house.
• The player is the king of Driftmoon from a thousand years ago, woken from his grave by the wizard to stop the Curse.

Or something like that. I'm very eager to hear your ideas so if you have none, make something up right now!

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