Obligation (Vice)
I have a player who would like some sort of family obligation as a Vice, specifically related to his military sea captain father or an as-yet-undefined younger sister (all Severosi). However i’ve been unable to connect this to the self-destructive but relaxing nature of vices; i’ve been having this trouble with Obligations in general.
How do you guys deal with this vice in your games?
Obligation-family can equally be a quiet night at home with the kids as it can be getting entangled in the “family business”
My 16 yo Lurk has Vice: Family. The joke is that the first time he overindulges he won’t be able to hang with the crew because he’s been grounded by his Momma.
I haven’t had anyone take family obligation as a vice yet — currently we have Luxury, Pleasure, and Thrill-Seeking. But if I ever get a chance to run a PC myself, I’ll almost definitely be taking Family as my vice.
Ultimately it depends on what your player is trying to explore with it. It might take some discussion between you to come to a point where it’s as troublesome as other vices — Aldo’s frequent vice changes in the Rollplay Blades series come to mind, as Zeke was struggling to come up with a vice that was double-edged.
My take on the Family Obligation vice would probably involve a sick family member who owes money to someone. Plenty of ways to indulge that vice in perfectly healthy ways, caring for the relative and funneling money toward the debt. But there are also plenty of ways for it to lead to complications — their health takes a turn for the worse, a debt collector comes calling, family drama about inheritance comes to the forefront, etc.
It could also be a family business — maybe the character’s aging father runs a pub, and the character spends their freetime helping out. When the character overindulges, he could out some ruffians who turn out to be a problem for the crew down the road.
It could be caring for a dead relative’s home, keeping things in order and fixing the place up. Overindulging might mean another relative comes along and claims the house belongs to them, maybe brandishing a forged will.
I think there’s a ton of cool stuff to be explored with a Family Obligation vice, just depends on what sort of thing your player wants to get into. You should definitely feel free to leverage it to make things more complicated for the crew — vices are by their nature both restorative and destructive.
*Small edit as I missed the mention of the military sea captain father and the younger sister — a couple ideas:
– The character helps maintain the father’s holdings while the father is at sea. Downtime RP could explore the character’s relationship with his father. Does the father appreciate his son’s efforts? Is he dismissive of the time and money his son has devoted to keeping everything running smoothly? Perhaps the father’s enemies (of which he surely has a few) complicate things.
– The character is saving up to bring his sister to Akaros (assuming the crew is in Akaros while the sister is still in Severos). The voyage is long and dangerous, and thus expensive — but the character would do anything to bring his sister across. The vice might revolve around negotiating with ship captains, writing letters back to Severos, greasing palms, etc. Why was she left behind? Does she know that he’s doing this?
I have a player who’s obligation is to the small machine shop he owns. The self-destructive (ish) part is the fact that as a Skovlan refugee, he’s using the shop as an opportunity to employ other refugees and more than he can afford. Whenever he overindulges, he loses a coin or two (because he’s paying out more in wages than he takes in) or perhaps the powers-that-be start to notice more and more the connection between this shop and the crew. At some point one of his employees may also start to catch on to what his boss is doing on the side as well.
Adrienne Mueller gets into a lot of trouble with Arquo’s obligation to his family, often by agreeing to do things they want him to. As a note, his mother and father rarely want the same thing!
Ben Norby Some pretty good points and great ideas to boot! I guess the Obligation vice just can’t be as ‘formulaic’ as the others (bad thing is great until bad thing is bad) and it’s more an additional RP hook with added Stress relieving. I’ll pitch a few of these to my player and see if anything stick there; managing the dad’s estate is one i particularly like. Thanks a bunch!
Chris Herde Solid Obligation! Can’t use it here but i’ll pop it in the toolset 🙂
Sean Nittner I haven’t started Doskvol Spectral Society yet but maybe I should just get round to it :p
Cheers all
One of my players has family Obligation as his vice. He’s a physicker(the crew’s Leech and doctor), and his sister has a condition that he goes home to help treat. The self-destructive part is mostly the internal conflict between being a good doctor and the illegal stuff he’s wrapped up in.
Unfortunately, he recently overindulged and we decided he’d be cut off: his father got wind of his illegal activities and barred him from coming home!
Other possibilities; bullies mess with a weak family member and must be dealt with, but they’re connected. A family member or two are inspired by the character and turn to crime but immediately get in trouble and are used as leverage. A family member is sick and can’ta fford medical care. A family household is evicted by an up-and-coming crew claiming their area as turf. The character must be a peacemaker as two powerful personalities in the family risk a schism. A family member goes to prison, and another influential family member blames the character; how to make restitution? Thieves rob the family and take six heirlooms that must be repatriated to the home.
Had a player do something similar (though they later switched it), and the first time they over-indulged I told them that they’d received some really bad news about their family (who’re in Iruvia). I imagine that if the family is hanging around in Duskwall itself it would be even easier to have a “something happens to them” overindulge scenario have a bit more bite.
Overindulge can also mean “news of the scoundrels activities get back to the family to cause trouble”. The naval man might be unaware of scoundrel pursuits or accepting so long as they are kept on the down low. After all, it reflect on him if his kid is out cutting up Doskvol.