So you think you're a rogue?

[bylin]

In my opinion it is very simple to develop your rogue as a unique and carefully detailed individual – but maybe you are having trouble coming up with exactly why you are a rogue, and not something else?

Most rogues have three things in common.
We often have no skill or interest in magics and spirits that we know exist in the world. Whether we can’t control them or have never really wanted to – magic is not something we use.
We are often smaller or more frail then our magicless counter parts, the warriors, and generally don’t like having our pretty little faces bashed in.
And finally – we like to kill things, not from a distance with clean hands, but right up in the face of the creature, covered in blood and sweat so that we can’t tell if it’s theirs or ours. There is only one thing better then this kind of killing – and that is killing without being caught, or giving your target the satisfaction of knowing it is coming. Either way – we often enjoy killing – lots of killing.

But – how did I learn to be a rogue? How did I find myself on this path?
There are several ways one might find themselves in the position of being a rogue, and each rogue has the right - and I think duty – to come up with an original story as to why they are the way they are. But perhaps you are stuck. So I will give you some basic starting points for creating who you are and why.

[bylin]

The Street Rogue.
The street rogue is often a fun loving individual who has come to be the mischievous little pest we all love and adore out of sheer need for survival. For one reason or another, (perhaps you’re an orphan?) the hapless street rogue has had to depend on themselves to get them through the day with food in their bellies and all their limbs attached. They are thieves, skilled in sneaking in and out of places without leaving a trace of their passing. They do it to survive. They learn to fight to keep the other beggars and guards and thieves off their backs. It is a hard life learned through experience. They enjoy a good thrill and strive off the challenge. Others must earn the street rogues trust, for they are very secretive and weary of strangers – as they must be to survive.

The Assassin
The assassin is a well trained killing machine. They are adapt at not being seen and often kill without remorse. Assassins are often in it for the money or glory – the cash reward of a job well done. They are often clean and quick killers, in and out without a sound, without a trace. They are as the wind with a deadly task. Assassins are trained, these are not skills one just wakes up knowing or learns through trial and error, for error means death in this line of work. Usually another assassin would have trained this sort of rogue as an apprentice, or perhaps you attended a secret school for such things. However you got your training, you probably will never tell anyway.

So what made you decide to get this training? Well, often once you discover you have the three traits of being a rogue and the personality to match you’d probably seek out training in secret, cause you are probably a very sneaky underhanded sort of person. Or perhaps you were some fortunate street rogue that lifted a coin from the right person and got caught and somehow managed to charm your way into training. How ever you go about it, consider yourself lucky you survived it.

The Angry Runt.
You heard me – you’re nothing more then a bully that’s too small to take a hit. You wanted to be all big and tough like your brother Joe, but you aren’t you’re small and frail with no magical talents at all. And d**n it, you are pissed! You’ve got a temper as big as your ego, and couldn’t fit both through a doorway built for a giant. You rush into fights, blades flying, cackling like you’ve lost your mind – dodging this way and that- cause gosh darn it you’re twice the fighter Joe is and nothings going to stop you from proving it. You are fast, nothings going catch you – but watch out for Sam’s left hook cause it will land you on your ass – your ego be d**ned. And when it does – I would not want to be some poor sob that you decide to take out your wraith on.


These are just some ideas designed to spark your imagination for who and what your rogue is and why. Each rogue is different – there is no divine intervention of spirits that sets the rogue on their path (well maybe there could be – but that’s your story to write), we are what we are – frankly because it suits us.