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Welcome back. It's one of those things that an adventurer likes to
hear every once in a while. Or maybe not. Maybe all the characters
in your games had horrible homes that they'd never want to return to.
That seems to be a fairly common issue with characters in RPGs.
But even if the characters don't like home, the whole "going back"
story is one that we often use in games. It makes a good subplot, in
showing how the character has developed since those early days of
chargen.
Sometimes though, someone comes home and feels like nothing has
changed. It could be easy for adventurers to look with pity on their
friends/relations who've stayed home. After all, the adventurer is
coming back with piles of stories (and hopefully at least a few
riches/bits of wisdom/prestige) and what has everyone else been
doing?
Well, they've been making a life. And that's something a GM should
really try to highlight, especially for those characters who really
missed their home. Even if they come into town and everyone welcomes
them with open arms and talk about how nothing's changed, of course it
has. The village might not have had anything exciting happen but
there're still more layers of common reference that have been added.
And that can be disillusioning for characters who were homesick. As a
GM, this is easy to simulate with a few jokes that the homecome
character just doesn't get and has to have explained. Once you become
an adventurer you give up on some of that depth.
What if your character's been out in space for three or four years?
Everything's going to be a bit out of whack. Things change back home.
Little things like getting lost in your own neighbourhood get
disorienting.
And if the character wasn't homesick and never wanted to go back?
Well, maybe you can do something with the idea of familiarity and it
being an unexpected draw. People remember how you used to be (for
better or worse) which might be relaxing for those characters who have
to work hard to make an impression, or infuriating for those who've
worked hard to change since leaving.
One thing I've gained appreciation for since being a realworld
travelling kind of guy is the ending to Return of the King. We all
remember how drawn out the end of the story and the three endings to
the movie were. That's what coming home is like though. You don't
just arrive and have everything be either weird and different or
familiar and comforting. It takes a long time to get home, even once
you're physically there. In a game you might not want to deal with
that head on, but it might be a useful hook for a character. If
you've got a campaign set primarily in one place, a character who's
just returned could have all sorts of interesting things to do. Like
deciding if she really wants to be integrated back into this society
or not.
And with that little collection of thoughts, I'm bidding you a bon
voyage. I've just returned to Canada from my two years in China and a
summer of travelling through Ukraine and Romania. Now that I'm not
actually a gaming hitch hiker I think it's time for me to hang up the
keys to the column. The G2H2's explored the kinds of things I wanted
to get to (albeit in a fairly superficial kind of way). I hope it's
been a bit thought-provoking in its way.
Thanks for reading.
J Unrau
Hungry J Propaganda
www.djs5.com/hjp/
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