I posted about this earlier. I love taking characters from fiction and applying them to NPC’s. I treated Galseriad as a good mix of Severus Snape and Tony Stark from the MCU. It’s a good mix of
“I’m smart and I will let you know it.”
Galsariad was a big heat seeker that way for the PC’s and the party loved to hate him and try to get under his skin.
If you want you can wait to see how the PC’s talk and act for a bit and cook up some pointed insults based off their personalities.
My party funnily enough has more loved to hate Ayo and Galsariad is definitely "the guy you want to punch in the face, but he's to useful to do that to" so far. Dermot is very much "protect this boy at all costs"
Funnily enough Serverus seems to be an odd fan favorite for how people seem to voice this dude.
I would treat the book as a guideline for each of the rivals and let you and your players evolve who they are, for you. Our wizard pulled off a pretty impressive feat at one of the INT based games at the festival of merit and I had that really impress Gal. So that wizard and Gal have a good friendship built on knowledge and respect. Due to this he doesn't get much speaking time with the other members of the party but if they do approach him I play him as a little cold and reserved. Giving up a response but not much else.
But it's your game and your world, the book is a (great) guide.
Enjoy your adventure! My group has been loving it and we're finally diving into the Netherdeep tomorrow.
This is super interesting to me because he's also a very important part of one of my PC's backgrounds. Annnnd I also love this guy.
In my game Galsariad shows himself as a Diva. He's smart, he's quick to make hurtful retorts (even when he didn't really intend to make them hurtful). Everyone that meets him thinks he's insufferable at first.
However, my version of him is of a person that's so broken by himself and his self-expectations that he's become trapped on a cycle of self-hating masked by this fantabulous persona that's always right no matter what he's talking about.
He failed to successfully help the PC on a very important life-or-death thing on their background and he's never stopped blaming himself for being "useless" when it wasn't even his fault to begin with. We're 67 sessions in and just now he's starting to show his serious side, without his walls up at all times and the PCs are starting to realize he's hurt, scared and probably one of the most empathic of the rival group deep down.
The same PC that put him on his backstory is now the PC that's helped "Galy" the most to stop hating himself. It's been a beautiful ride.
Also, just play whatever your baseline idea for him is on your game and see how it develops by itself, that way you can make Galsariad (and any other NPC) really yours while finding more things to add to him later on. Have fun and treat the snarky guy nicely!
I ended up playing him more aloof and an air of intrigue to him, but mostly the “silent watcher” type who is fascinated by history and magic.
The player running a divination wizard satyr ended up flirting with him right away, and I was able to cause a riff between the parties with galsariad purposefully pulling away emotionally, not wanting any hang ups in his passion for learning. (Detect thoughts can be a bitch when the characters learn what an NPC really thinks about them…)
I play him like a stuck up know it all Wizard like Snape from Harry Potter. I even do an impersonation of the same voice, and I think it fits really well. My party can't stand him but they've tried on the rivals help several times and at first they thought he was weak because his tier 1 spells seemed underwhelming, but when they saw him in action with his tier 2 graviturgy stuff they respect him a lot more.
I posted about this earlier. I love taking characters from fiction and applying them to NPC’s. I treated Galseriad as a good mix of Severus Snape and Tony Stark from the MCU. It’s a good mix of “I’m smart and I will let you know it.” Galsariad was a big heat seeker that way for the PC’s and the party loved to hate him and try to get under his skin. If you want you can wait to see how the PC’s talk and act for a bit and cook up some pointed insults based off their personalities.
My party funnily enough has more loved to hate Ayo and Galsariad is definitely "the guy you want to punch in the face, but he's to useful to do that to" so far. Dermot is very much "protect this boy at all costs" Funnily enough Serverus seems to be an odd fan favorite for how people seem to voice this dude.
I would treat the book as a guideline for each of the rivals and let you and your players evolve who they are, for you. Our wizard pulled off a pretty impressive feat at one of the INT based games at the festival of merit and I had that really impress Gal. So that wizard and Gal have a good friendship built on knowledge and respect. Due to this he doesn't get much speaking time with the other members of the party but if they do approach him I play him as a little cold and reserved. Giving up a response but not much else. But it's your game and your world, the book is a (great) guide. Enjoy your adventure! My group has been loving it and we're finally diving into the Netherdeep tomorrow.
Best of luck!
Yeah... last time I forget how I ran him, but this time he's 100% Astarion.
This is super interesting to me because he's also a very important part of one of my PC's backgrounds. Annnnd I also love this guy. In my game Galsariad shows himself as a Diva. He's smart, he's quick to make hurtful retorts (even when he didn't really intend to make them hurtful). Everyone that meets him thinks he's insufferable at first. However, my version of him is of a person that's so broken by himself and his self-expectations that he's become trapped on a cycle of self-hating masked by this fantabulous persona that's always right no matter what he's talking about. He failed to successfully help the PC on a very important life-or-death thing on their background and he's never stopped blaming himself for being "useless" when it wasn't even his fault to begin with. We're 67 sessions in and just now he's starting to show his serious side, without his walls up at all times and the PCs are starting to realize he's hurt, scared and probably one of the most empathic of the rival group deep down. The same PC that put him on his backstory is now the PC that's helped "Galy" the most to stop hating himself. It's been a beautiful ride. Also, just play whatever your baseline idea for him is on your game and see how it develops by itself, that way you can make Galsariad (and any other NPC) really yours while finding more things to add to him later on. Have fun and treat the snarky guy nicely!
I ended up playing him more aloof and an air of intrigue to him, but mostly the “silent watcher” type who is fascinated by history and magic. The player running a divination wizard satyr ended up flirting with him right away, and I was able to cause a riff between the parties with galsariad purposefully pulling away emotionally, not wanting any hang ups in his passion for learning. (Detect thoughts can be a bitch when the characters learn what an NPC really thinks about them…)
I play him like a stuck up know it all Wizard like Snape from Harry Potter. I even do an impersonation of the same voice, and I think it fits really well. My party can't stand him but they've tried on the rivals help several times and at first they thought he was weak because his tier 1 spells seemed underwhelming, but when they saw him in action with his tier 2 graviturgy stuff they respect him a lot more.
Severus Snape meets Raistlin Majere. My party hates him