My wife's first game of D&D (Part 2)

Last week I touched on the first RPG I ran for my wife. So the first big step was creating her character. Naturally I didn't want to bore her with different feats, the nuances of character creation, or all the different classes, so I wanted to keep it simple. I asked her what type of character she would like to play. Thinking of all the books you've read, the movies you've seen, what type of heroin would you like to be?

After bouncing some ideas back and forth, she fixated on a strong female warrior type reminiscent of some of the girls in Frank Frazetta's artwork. An artist we are both fans of. She also had the idea of an amazoness type warrior woman. So I figured the best character archetype would be a barbarian.

Now, True20 doesn't have character classes, which is what I like about it. Basically you can choose either the Expert, Adept, or Warrior character types. Warrior was the obvious one, but the choice of gear, skills, and feats are what separates her from a soldier. Giving her the quintessential 'Rage' feat, which would temporarily boost her stats seemed appropriate.

There was another key thing about RPG's that I wanted to drive home with my wife, and that was the RP part of RPG. I wanted her to create a backstory for her character that helped define her actions and decisions. One that gave her character a goal and demeanor instead of a sheet full of numbers you roll on. After some more lively brainstorming, we settled on the following:

Maevik was the daughter of the tribal queen of the Amazon forest tribe. This matriarchal society believes in strength and prowess of their leader. The tribal queen is required to have several daughters to determine who will be the next queen. There was Khyos, the first daughter, and then there was Maevik, the second. Khyos and Maevik never quite got along, mainly because they both knew that they would have to fight one day for the crowning headress. It didn't matter who was born first, it only mattered who would win in mortal combat.

Then came the fight for succession, and Maevik was beaten by her older sister. Unwilling to accept defeat, but having no choice, she ran away from her tribe, and absconded with the queen's sword, the Widowmaker, which was the symbol of the queen's power and authority. She also took one of the tribe's young dire wolves with her.

Maevik has been an outcast and hunted by her tribe for a year. She took work where she could get it, and has been living as an adventurer since. For a few months she has been traveling with the others of the party: the orc, Hogel Leftshooter, the dwarf Galazbryn, and the leader of the group, the tiefling named Verital.

You could imagine my pride when we came up with an actual interesting female character, one with flaws, strengths, and an interesting past that may provide an issue in her future. Beth seemed excited about the concept of Maevik, and her animal companion, the young dire wolf named Fang.

Soon we gathered around the table to start her first adventure. More on that next week.