NPC Relationships with PC's and Character Development: Question
Hi! I'm a first time DM with very little experience playing D&D. I'm DMing the campaign for my friends who have never played D&D before. We had a session 0, which turned into session 1 because they were eager to start playing. Our next session is in a few days, we're playing every other week.
I spent a lot of time learning the rules and now the past week and a half I'm learning the storyline for LMoP. I want to tie in the Black Spider earlier on and am adding the puzzle box suggested by Matt P. I was also thinking of ways to invest the PC's a bit more into the storyline and give them opportunities to shine during the campaign. I want it to be fun for everyone and for everyone to have their moments.
I talked to a few of my players individually last night about ideas I have for their backstories to connect to NPC's and to ask for any more ideas they have for their backstories. We're using the pre-made character sheets. They're playing the halfling rogue, the elf wizard, the human noble fighter, and the dwarf cleric. I added that the halfling rogue is Quellin's niece from Phandalin and the human noble's family used to employ Sildar Hallwinter as a sell sword, before he left to join the Lord's Alliance.
However, many (3 out of 4) of my players want their character to have a messy, gay ex-situationship in their background. I'd like some feedback on my ideas on how to incorporate these and any ideas y'all have as experienced DMs or players would be useful as well.
- The Human Noble had a relationship with someone they grew up with who trained them. It lasted 2-3 years and they never had the "what are we" conversation. After that time, their ex ghosted them. Left town and they never heard from him again. It's been 8 years.
- I was thinking of making this ex join the dragon cultists and have an encounter when they visit Thundertree, possibly having Sildar mention the family of this person for intrigue. I don't see any issue with this, it is the least of my concerns for running.
- The Halfling Rogue was dating someone in the Redbrands who know some magic. This person was the one who betrayed them and ratted them out to the Redbrands, and why Glass Staff has it out for the rogue. (I had them roll to see if they knew for sure it was her who ratted them out, she rolled a 16 so I said that it was a rumor she heard that definitely seemed to add up.)
- My idea here is to make this character's ex turn out to be Nezznar the Black Spider. My main concern for this is it's such a big role and would be more of a main-character arc that I doubt any of my other players would have a problem with, but I can see the imbalance so I'd love feedback here.
- The third and biggest "I have no idea how to make this happen for you" is the Wizard Elf. Her backstory with her ex is straight-forward. She left to pursue knowledge and the ex wanted her to stay. The ask that my player has is that her character learns how her (sometimes selfish) pursuit of knowledge can have a negative effect on the people around her. My idea for this is basically:
- Give her a cursed tome or something that causes Bad Things to happen to her friends as a direct result of her using it.
- Past this, I don't know how to help her with this character development other than let her roleplay it so I would love love some more ideas here, as it's the most complicated request IMO, especially for someone who has never Dm'ed before.
Thank you in advance, I really appreciate all the resources I've found here and reading everyone else's questions and answers. I hope my question helps someone else build out their campaigns as well, as your questions and answers have done for me.