I’ve had Tareks on my mind of late. No, it’s not what your thinking, nothing sexual or erotic I can assure you. I just happen to have one in my Dark Sun game and, well, I think it is time for him to sort of step into the spot light a bit. I wouldn’t necessarily say he has been a bump on the log but if you just happened to be sitting on a log and felt something uncomfortable it’s probably not your hemorrhoids. When we did a bit of Q&A as he introduced his latest character (his 2 previous ones have been KIA) he stated that he was an orphan who had been picked up by the Muto Tieflings as a child and had lived outside their cave for most of his life, never traveling outside the area and having no ties to anything. I kind of chuckled at this and then ribbed him mercilessly at work about the non-background he created. Even when one of the other players tried to collaboratively build him into the fiction and emergent story of the game he steadfastly clung to his history.
This player tends to stick to the rear in social interactions and collaborative story telling scenes (in fairness he does have a bit of social anxiety and often worries he will make a mistake or do/say something foolish) but that is all about to change because I am going to drop him squarely into the centre of a shit storm. In the “business” we call that exposure with response prevention (although in fairness it is going to be and feel more like flooding). I am going to start the next session with the party in a large pit surrounded by the Dark Sun equivalent of wolves and a mob of Tareks looking down, cheering, hurling feces, cursing, and betting. Then with some Q&A we’ll try and sort out how this all came to be.
*Warning* if you are some kind of Dark Sun cannon purist then this next part might make you feel like I dropped trou and bricked in your mouth. I am going to model the Tareks on Klingons from Star Trek The Next Generation. They are going to be a nomadic collection of clan/houses lead by an overall war leader. Perhaps in the green time they had a larger nation/empire but where almost extinguished during the racial cleansing of the brown times. One of their motivations might be to create another great Tarek empire. I have been researching some Klignon terminology so I can mix that into conversations.
With regards to my player (and the group) it should be interesting to see what they create. In my mind I have a couple of possible elements of fiction I can add such as the Warf story line from STNG where he is considered an outcast because his family was falsely branded traitors or if they survive the pit they might prove themselves worthy to be hunted ala “The Most Dangerous Game”. Well whatever it turns out to be it should be interesting; I just hope it is not too traumatic for the Tarek PC 
Hilarious.
I’m the Tarek PC with social anxiety. What makes this so perfect is the fact that I talked with the MiddleAged One at work earlier in the day of the game. I did not read the blog until now (day after the game) and had no idea this was coming down the pipe.
I suggested to my esteemed GM that if he felt like dropping a Tarek into the campaign at any point in the future, that would be cool, as I had done a little reading on Tareks, and thought I might make use of their primitive psionic link to each other, in order to try getting more involved in story telling. To use his delightful metaphor, I might sprout from more than just a bump on a log. At least anyone lowering their posterior onto the log might actually become aware of this bump.
Imagine my shock and awe when the game opened with our little team down inside a pit, surrounded by perhaps two dozen Tarek, and facing an interesting array of critters to fight. I immediately thanked my GM for taking my suggestion seriously.
I do admit to my anxiety spiking a bit; but I can assure you, MiddleAged One, that it was not too traumatic. I am still hindered by whatever the term is that you gaming vets use to describe someone who tries to stick to a backstory (and perhaps basic laws of physics and logic…).
From occasional reads of this high quality blog, I have gathered that this is a perverse and foolish way to operate. I shall try to shed the bonds of structure, and have at it with storytelling in a spontaneous and perhaps even chaotic fashion. This will not be easy, but thankfully my far-seeing GM anticipated this, and has given me as close to a perfect opportunity to blossom as can be imagined.
I’ll try to read the blog more regularly. It would have been handy to have considered the Klingon/Son-of-Mog stuff ahead of time. I walked into the story prepared with a simple backstory taken from online Tarek info I read. In short, only two factions. I was operating from within this limiting structure, which hindsight reveals as problematic, given the multiple factions inherent to clans.
Been a long time since STNG. Gonna have to watch some episodes before the next game…
Gaurik
[...] you remember that little experiment I was planning? You know the one where I was going to thrust the socially reticent player into the collaborative [...]