Character Trees

Life on Athas is harsh, brutal, and oft-times short. The same can be said of death on Athas.
As such, players of SAGA beneath the Dark Sun can create Character Trees, a roster of characters upon which they can draw should their active character fall ill, be imprisoned, lost, or replace if dead. However, the character tree is more than a pool of characters upon which to draw in the event of mishap; it is for use when different parts of an adventure call for different skills and abilities, so that an experienced character is not replaced with a wholly inexperienced one, whom is new and unfamiliar to the player and the campaign world at large.
This makes character transition in the event of mishap much smoother and more believable than the traditional method of replacing a well-known, oft-used character with an entirely new and heretofore unknown one.

Each player should fully create between three to four characters, one of whom they will choose to be the active character, the others who will be their inactive characters. These characters may then be switched between, as the player wishes, with some restrictions as necessitated by the story.

Characters on the tree should be somehow related to or known to one another; siblings of the same mother, members of the same tribe, slaves from the same household or arena, or perhaps preservers in the same branch of the Veiled Alliance. The player should invent whatever circumstances they feel appropriate to connect the characters, including nothing more than a passing acquaintance.

However, the inactive characters on a tree are not followers of the active character, nor are they Narrator-played; the inactive characters will not come into contact with the active one in the campaign world during the course of the adventure, they will not trade items, money, or other possessions or even information.
The above can be superseded by the Narrator, if such actions would advance the plot and contributes to the enjoyment of the game.
The option to do so should not be abused, however.

Also, characters on a character tree must have the same general Nature, their Natures being no more than two values away from one another (according to the value of the cards chosen their Natures). This is for the reason that all a player's characters will tend to be working towards the same goals, and as such, will tend to work with others of like mind more readily than those not.

Switching between characters on the tree is handled depending upon when the switch is called for, either between quests, during a quest, or upon the death of the active character.

If between quests, or upon the completion of a quest (as judged by the Narrator), the switch is assumed to occur without any problems or delays.
If the switch occurs during a quest, then the request to switch may take many, many days to complete, as the other character must be found and have time to journey to the place of the active character (who will then depart or be left behind). As such, switching of this sort cannot happen during dangerous or critical scenes of an adventure.
If the active character dies, then the switch is assumed to occur within one day, if such is possible; other events may delay the arrival of the new character. A new character must also be created to fill the empty spot on the character tree.

Regardless of which time a switch occurs during, a good story should be crafted as to the why and how of the switch (if the situation demands such) for a coherent, enjoyable, and believable story.

Finally, whenever the active character completes a quest (and adds one to his total number of quests), the player should choose one of their inactive characters whom has a lower total number of quests than the active character, and add one quest to their total as well. The player may also draw a card from the Fate Deck and use the suit listed on it to determine the nature of the reason or quest that allowed their inactive character increase their quest total.

 

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