my friend is creating a backstory, i told him to revise it to

>>49572847
Seems very run of the mill "Dickass thief."
If he wants the permanent mask, tell him to look up the Man in the Iron Mask, may give his character a motivation for the secrecy and murder.

To risk being a weeb, take a look at utawarerumono. It might not fit the setting, but could be interesting.

The mask is a curse. It twists the perception others have about the wearer, forcing the wearer to forever be a stranger to everyone, never being recognized for his deeds or actions. Sometimes, the mask projects foreign thoughts into the wearer's mind, such that the wearer may not even know himself. Perhaps it was a curse laid by an enemy of the wearer, relegating the wearer into eternal obscurity and eventually madness, should the wearer be too weak to overcome the mask's influence; perhaps the mask was designed to create the ultimate killer, one who could feel no empathy by way of eternal ostracization; or perhaps the mask was donned willingly by a man who came to hate the world that he wanted to feel nothing towards it.

Occasionally, the mask tells him to do things, things so extreme that the world would have to recognize it. It does this in the vain hope that it might be remembered.

seems like a decent enough starting point.

I prefer a 2-3 sentence vague backstory over a 28 page manuscript any day. you at least know he's engaged in his character more than just class + race + level, but hasn't gone full-on special snowflake all-about-me style

I say leave it be and allow him to add detail as the game goes on

>>49572847
>He doesn't remember how it got there, or very much of his past pre-mask.
What if the body isn't wearing the mask but the mask is wearing the body.

The man under the mask is just a random criminal one that is being promised as a test subject to a mage. The mage in an attempt to create the ultimate assassin bound the soul of a legendary assassin to the mask. When the criminal is made to put on the mask the resistance of both souls caused them to go crazy killing the mage and escaping. Ultimately the assassin's soul won "killing" the soul of the criminal however the struggle caused the assassin to loose his memory.

>mask is attached to face

How does this guy eat?

File: mask.png (140KB, 756x1116px) Image search: [Google]

140KB, 756x1116px

>>49574132

File: edgy hedgy.jpg (26KB, 300x300px) Image search: [Google]

26KB, 300x300px

>>49572847

>>49572847
>mask is actually attached to his face
you don't say

>he wasn't caught for all of the murders because he wears a mask
>all the time

>>49572847
It's a little edgy but it's functional, I'd just go with it.

Are you the GM or just helping him out with character creation?
Of you're the GM, get his character killed in the course of the campaign, then have an NPC put the mask on after the body was looted.
Have him rejoin the game as that NPC.

>>49572847
the mask shifts its emotions when no one is directly looking at him, reflecting his lost selfs emotions rather than the emotions he's currently feeling. additionally, part of the curse of the mask forces him to break eye contact and look away from people if he maintains eye contact for more than 20 seconds, and, if possible, cause some kind of distraction so the mask's features might change. this even applies to when he is sleeping.

> you tell player to revise character to make it better
> "i dun wanna"
Well, I guess he "dun wanna" play that character, does he?
It's all edgy, overdone, murderhobo bullshit anyway. Couldn't have taken more than a few seconds to think of.

>>49573955
dude

He is the mask. It's a sentient artifact that takes over the body of the wearer, a hapless nobody, and suppresses their personality in favor of its own.

>>49572847
Seems that 'epic killer' is a big of a big start for level 1.

>>49572847
What level is he?

>>49575701
Who said they start at level 1?

>>49575828
We are assuming they are not degenerate.