E.T. backstory

I don't generally like to give any backstory that didn't come out in the episode. Backstory, when dribbled in to a narrative slowly, through the natural telling of the principal action, can be incredibly powerful. When given as a bland info-dump, is a quick way of robbing your story of its sense of awe and mystery. 

But I think E.T. makes an ok exception to this rule for a couple reasons: It's backstory that was hidden from the characters not because it was mysterious, but because the character who knew this information didn't speak good English. It's also a pretty goofy episode, and I think knowing a bit more adds, rather than subtracts from the story. I'm also not giving you all the backstory, just the bit that Jon knew, in fact, I'm just copy-pasting the email I sent him right before the story began.

The other reason I think it's worth pasting is because E.T. is such an interesting reroll from a meta-perspective: The movie relies on a sense of mystery around E.T. that naturally had to be absent from the reroll if I was going to make E.T. a player character (which I was always going to do.) The other thing is that in tracking E.T.'s story, I found that the implied narrative in the film doesn't actually make any sense, in a very crucial way: E.T. needs to phone home to let them know where he is, but they saw exactly where he was and knew they had left him behind. If the crucial question is E.T.'s ability to get in contact with his people, but it is technically trivial for him to do so, clearly there's more to E.T.'s emotional journey than is being let on by the film, which is steadfastly from the children's perspective. In thinking about this problem, and watching the film very carefully, there is something about the way the other alien stands at the door looking out at E.T. as he sprints back to the ship that screamed betrayal. This jived with other details in the story and explained why E.T.'s emotional state was so fraught, as well as why it was more complex than just phoning the ship. It added a deeper challenge, and while it was a bit of a betrayal of the tone of the original, I thought my version was an honest reading of the film, and the shift in tone was inevitable in reframing the story around E.T.'s perspective.

Ok, with no further ado, here's the email I sent Jon as we started this campaign. I've also attached a map I drew for him (I think I've posted this map before.)

Hey Jon, sorry about the wall of text. Just give it a quick read and try to pick up as much as you can of it. I’ve added a glossary in the back with important terms. I want to try to keep your backstory mysterious to the other players and the audience, so I’ve created this big document so you can consult it in game rather than asking me. Obviously, you can ask me stuff if you need to, but I’d like to minimize that so that players are learning more about you when/if their characters learn it.

The interesting thing about the movie is that it’s really E.T.’s story more than any of the kids’, but we never really get E.T.’s perspective on it. However, having a player as E.T. means that we get to look inside his head somewhat. You have a whole lot of knowledge and skills, but you are dealing with some serious cultural and biological unfimilarities that will make it difficult to do a lot of things.

In order to play this game properly, I’m going to have to count on you to not meta-game. You and the other players will likely be trying to communicate a lot of things, but if your characters don’t get the information, you don’t have access to it. Similarly, you have a lot of backstory (below), which I will trust you to not spill to the other players unless they gain access to it in game (some things may slip as you and I talk about what you’re trying to do, and that will be part of the fun, but the other players and the audience should be in the dark to most of who you are and what your story is.)

I have filled out a lot of cool stuff that’s going on out in space. There’s a good chance that we won’t get to play with most of it (but a non-zero chance that we will).

Basics and Biology:

Your name is I’iti’i (pronounced E.T.), you are a Baidalurian of a powerful and ancient family that long has reigned over a peaceful and prosperous empire. FTL travel exists in this universe. Along premade “highways” it is very fast. However, Earth’s solar system is not on the map, so you have traveled here more slowly (though still FTL). The journey has taken you two months, rather than the weeks or days that it would take you to traverse those distances within Baidal. FTL engines can only be run with the aid of an engineered fungus/plant life called Eme’al that dominates are grown on the inside of your ships. Helping that Eme’al thrive is the job of the ship’s engineers. The Eme’al requires copious fuel which can usually be found on planets so large distances may require careful planet-hopping.

Your species communicates via “telepathy” (really it’s essentially two-way radio over a medium humans aren’t aware of.) It has a range of ten miles. The speech itself can not be heard by Baidalurians. However, using it causes you to emit a sound, and your chest to light up. Among Baidalurians, the speech can be directed, but bystanders with the correct set of skills may listen in. You also have working mouths you use to speak to non-Baidalurians.

Your species has no gender, (I will refer to you as male, but you are neuter). Anyone in your species can lay eggs. An adult Baidalurian may enter a “pregnancy” at will, and will enter a lower activity state and lay eggs about six months later. To share genetic material, Baidalurians can enter a “bond” with others during the pregnancy phase, which will cause the hatchlings to get genetic information from both. However the Bond can be used at any time, even outside of pregnancy. It causes the two members of the Bond to empathetically share emotions and feel what the other feels (though stops short of mind-reading). You may only enter one bond at a time. If both parties are Baidalurian, the Bond can be entered only with the consent of both parties, and either can drop the Bond at will. However, Bonding with non-Baidalurians is possible, though the exact properties of the Bond may change and are unpredictable. Mechanically, a Bond with a non-Baidalurian requires a will role, with a penalty that grows based on how dissimilar the race is from yours. Once in a Bond, all HP and FP lost will be divided among the parties equally (so if only one of the Bonded parties is taking damage, it essentially divides it in half. And damage can be redistributed with a will roll, so it allows a healthy party to revive a dying one.) However, if damage has not been healed by time or medicine, leaving the Bond causes all the damage to return to the party that received it. Like your speech, the Bond has a range of ten miles.

Your species also has telekinesis and healing powers. I won’t describe these in detail here, as they will work like gurps RAW. They will be on your character sheet. Both of them will have “consumes FP” as a limitation.

Backstory:

Baidal is no more. You never thought you’d see it fall. The ancient empire your ancestors built stretched across sixty worlds and encompassed dozens of races. You were of the eighth egg of the ruling Ra'an (your word for emperor; a very ancient line, long since a ceremonial title with little real power). You were among two dozen hatchlings that could be chosen next to rule, but with little interest and less political talent, there was no real chance of that happening. Yours was a life of leisure and of quiet study. You spent your childhood on Vaian, a forest planet that serves as ceremonial capital of the empire. The planet was the birthplace of your race and few are allowed to set foot on it. For a quiet and contemplative soul like yours, it was idyllic. You spent your days exploring the vast forests with your brother Wanad, and your friend De’ento (a hatchling of an attendant of the Ra’an.)

But it was on Vaian that the end began, thirty years ago now (1 Baidal common year = 1.1 Earth year). The empire had long ago ceased to be ruled from the middle. Most worlds saw to their own administration, and the gears of empire turned very little: a bit of trade regulation here, a little legal interpretation there, and a whole lot of pomp and ceremony. It was an arrangement that worked well and had been stable for generations.

Until the Dust came. Streams of violent foreigners in huge numbers, all in small ships of mixed technologies and races. Pirates and raiders and worse, they were a threat to peace and order, and one that proved impossible for the militaries of Baidal to effectively contain. So on Vaian before the Ra'an the governors all gathered to forge a way forward. You still remember the unease in the air as the days wore on and no agreement could be reached.

With no agreement, the governors decided to replace your father as Ra'an with your brother E’enco, an action which had no precedent. The new ruler was given more power over military decisions, but was bound to the governors. Your father agreed to a new accord and stepped-down, and the new decision was hailed as a great success. However, seeds of dissent were sown: The Ra'an had always been a life-long title, so many felt that your father was still the true emperor. Others were angered that the Ra'an (the sacred ruler of the ancient empire, and always of the Baidalurian race) would have to report to governors: self-interested politicians of all races.

At first the military build-up was effective and tensions subsided. E’enco was an effective and popular leader. Meanwhile you left Vaian for a great estate on Dectol, a sparsely inhabited planet on the periphery of Baidal, and there you spent the next twenty-five years, in relative isolation and luxury.

Five years ago A’anoke fell. A powerful and prosperous world on the inner edge of Baidal, rich in resources and critical for its wealth in rare-minerals and exports of technology. A wave of Dust like none you’d seen descended on the world and took it within twelve days. With it came reports of the Mangkal, world destroying savages from far beyond Baidal space that were the cause of the waves of refugees you call the Dust.

The fall of A’anoke was disastrous for the empire in many ways. Your brother E’enco, in his capacity as Ra'an led a great military expedition and retook the planet, but was killed in the process. By tradition, the new Ra'an should have been chosen by the hatchlings of the old, but now that the role had been given more power, the governors wanted a say. With no clear process to select a new ruler, the disagreement lingered on for two years.

The reconstruction of A’anoke proceeded apace but overseen separately by several powerful nearby worlds, each vying to control a greater part of the tremendous resources of A’anoke. With no coordinating power and these different world armies occupying, all playing cavore’e (alien chess) for control of the planet, the outbreak of violence was inevitable.

Negotiations were called for, and parties from each of the belligerents were to meet on A’anoke. A great contingent of your family traveled from Vaian hoping to use the moral authority of the Ra’anship to restore order. On the way, the ship was attacked and destroyed. Killed were many of your brothers and nephews, and all but one of your own hatchlings.

Heartbroken, you returned to Vaian, and there remained the next two years as the violence escalated into full-blown civil war across Baidal. The remaining members of your family became powerful commodities: though the power of the Ra’anship was broken, the aura of the institution remained, and each belligerent power rushed to get members of the family on their side. However, a strong faction existed that resented the Baidalurian race altogether, and the Ra’an family most of all, as ancient rulers. Thus the count of living family members slowly dwindled. But the taboo of the inviolability of Vaian was still such that it was likely a safe place for the time being, and there you stayed, even as the last of your hatchlings, your youngest I’nmi’i, headed into the maelstrom.

The headstrong I’inmi’i had come to you in Vaian, and asked you to aid him, as he believed that fighting was your family’s duty. Your childhood friend De’ento (now a powerful diplomat himself) encouraged you, and said he would be proud to serve by your side. But you had turned them down, and said that you were no warrior and you had no role in this war.

Half a year later you received word that I’inmi’i was caught in We’ago, a powerful world that was seeing the worst of the fighting as it’s enemies advanced on it. You and De’ento rushed to We’ago, but arrived too late: We’ago had fallen and it’s cities were burned to ash.

You were detained by a Peleithi ship (race of tree-like beings) and expected to be taken captive. You did not care about anything at that point, so heartbroken you were at the loss of your last hatchling. But the person who comes to you is the last one you expect to see: It is your brother Wanad, of all your family the one you have long been closest to you. He has unified two of the greatest belligerent powers and now is in a powerful position. He bonds to you and speaks powerfully to you of your past friendship, and the need to find peace and unity. He tells you he trusts you and needs you by his side, for your friendship and your counsel.

Suddenly the words of I’inmi’i weigh heavy in your heart and you realize your duty is to be of service to your brother and to what remains of Baidal. De’ento suggests you undergo the ancient ritual of Sa’eneth, a self-imposed exile on an uninhabited planet; the deepest solitude that a soul can feel. Sa’eneth is a deep personal journey steeped in the Baidalurian tradition; said to waken the heart and regrow the most broken of spirits. You simply think the time alone will be the best way to heal from your grief and so you agree.

De’ento takes on the task of finding you the planet. He mistrusts the notion of using a planet within Baidal space during wartime, and so he picks one he has found towards the periphery and your ship sets course towards it. Our story starts as your ship touches down on this unexplored and uninhabited planet and you ready yourself to undergo Sa’eneth.

Glossary:

Baidal: An ancient empire created by your people long ago, in time immemorial. Now in the final throes of dissolution and civil war.

Ra’an: The Emperor of Baidal, long ago a powerful title, it has long since become ceremonial. Currently there is no Ra’an.

Sa’eneth: An ancient ritual of regrowth, in which someone goes and is left on an uninhabitted planet to fend for themselves with not but their wits. Your Sa’enteth is meant to last one Baidal year.

Baidalurian: Your race. Founders of Baidal and mostly still within the upper strata of society.

Eme’al: Plant life necessary for the operation of FTL space travel.

Dust: Fleets of space-faring refugees that are the spark that lit the current conflagration tearing Baidal apart.

Mangkal: An unknown race of planet-destroyers from far beyond Baidal space that has been named as the origin point of the Dust. Nothing is known about them, and most believe they are a fictional boogeyman rather than a real  race.

The Bond: Baidalurian biological trait that allows you to become one with another being.

Characters on your ship:

De’ento: Your closest friend from your childhood on Vaian. Now an important diplomat representing the interests of the inner-worlds (mostly Baidalurian worlds). Since your return to Vaian, the two of you have struck up a close friendship again. He has agreed to take you on your Sa’eneth to help you heal.

Ta’egen: Aid to De’ento.

Sodenat: Head of your personal retinue.

Danta’an: Close friend and adviser in your retinue.

Be’o’ent: Cheif ship engineer.

Baral: Ship engineer.

Gogot: Ship chemist (needed to analyze materials for suitability as feed for Eme’al.

Berobo: Ship-mate.

Bo: Peleithi diplomat who has come to observe the journey.

Notable characters not on ship:

I’inmi’i: Last of your children, now dead. His death weighs on you and is the reason for your Sa’eneth.

Wanad: Your brother who has emerged as one of the key players in the current civil war. You have agreed to be an adviser to him after the end of your Sa’eneth.

State of the war:

At this point few hope to recreate Baidal in its entirety, and factions are fighting to get the biggest chunk. From many factions, consolidation and destruction has gotten us down to three.

Wanad leads a coalition of Peleithi and Jonmot that controls the most space and is fighting to control the inner planets.

The Nenge are a race of diminutive quadrupeds that now lead a large coalition of formerly poor worlds. These are the most resentful of Baidalurian rule.

The Kerego, Cortedal, and Weogne are three of the more important peoples in a large alliance of prosperous non Baidalurian states fighting to keep control of the more valuable resources and trade routes.