“You do not have my permission to use my old character. You never asked me to make them an NPC…and I’m pretty sure you didn’t ask Ropie or Dopie either.”
Cass,
Dorkness Rising
Like Louis Tully, I consider myself a most fortunate individual. Not only have I been gaming D&D for 40 years, I have a few players who’ve been with me almost as long. I have always been a fan of stories and characters that have built on previous ones. Creating an open, shared experience where it feels like you can return to a campaign and revisit old friends (or enemies). Yeah, some may call them Easter Eggs but I’m referring to creating a living history you can’t get with a DM sitting alone with note paper ready to write a campaign. I’ve been running my homebrew world Quais from the beginning (except it didn’t have a name for a while). When characters today play in Quais they hear echoes of the past. They might come across a scroll that says “Come, Come Slygg.” They might discover the verbal component of a spell is “eenie meenie miny moe, magic missile strike my foe.” They may hear a legendary musical number composed by clerics of Gabriel, hear of the empire-spanning villainy of the arch-mage Z’Lackiar, or enjoy a tavern bard telling of the rescued woman Skye in Brycshire. I’ve been running Forgotten Realms games since 1987. And in today’s world players may come across an old Judge of Tyr officiating in Waterdeep, not looking as old as history says. They may come across adventuring journals kept by Svanhilde of “The Hand of Auryn.” They may run afoul of agents of the dread halfling assassin Advan Zerian, hear of the never-ending labors of the apprentice of Moondown the lost oracle, or pause by a statue of Torren the Harper who sacrificed himself to destroy the black dragon Hrondalbar. I’ve been running Golarion games since 2008. When players trod the Darkmoon Vale they may hear of the devil-may-care tactics of He-Lush-Ka the barbarian. They may discover the consort who also foils assassination plots against the Regent in Korvosa is Wyatt Jameson. In the River Kingdoms they’ll hear of the mighty King Trent or the fey Nyrissa who plagued his realm. They could stumble across the Pathfinder journal of Ignatius, hear of the legendary archer Kay who freed Bloodsworn Vale, know to fear the waters of the Shackles due to Solaris, agent of the Hurricane Queen, or hear of Misha, the speediest woman in Varisia living in Sandpoint. None of this would have been possible without the stories we told, the characters we played or the history we shared together. The best part is today, sometimes when certain names are mentioned, the table gets impressively wide-eyed even if the players don’t recognize the reference! Because these things have real weight. It feels like a lived-in world. I didn’t consult notes, they rolled off my tongue with ease.You have only an inkling of how much this means to so many. When we played Waterdeep: Dragon Heist just 2 years back, one of the villainous possibilities was the Cassalanter family. One player got wide-eyed and rallied to target them as the true threat. Yes, the player knew of their history, but so would ANY character who grew up in the City of Splendors, so he ran with it! And yes, sometimes they are just cheesy Easter Eggs with a particular player in mind or sometimes even for myself. Just dropping the right name can illicit chuckles from the players as waves of nostalgia wash over so thick, they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. As a side point, I love that there are multiple timelines of the Forgotten Realms. When I play in Joe or Jim’s games my characters sometimes quote history and they’ll either say “yes!”. Or they say, “that’s what you’ve heard but it isn’t true” – because it’s their Realms!
