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Childhood Rival

Source Ultimate Campaign pg. 178
A childhood rival might be someone who used to bully you, an apprentice of the same mentor who competed against you for privileges, or a contemporary in your field who resented your opportunities or scoffed at your inferior birth status. This rival might openly hate you, pretend to like you while plotting your downfall, or respect you but have goals that conflict with yours. Backstabbing, cliques, peer pressure, and rumors are her weapons—the rival is someone who has known you for a long time and knows what buttons to push to annoy or distract you.

Adventure Hooks: Whether the rivalry is a slow boil or ragingly violent, this person is a strong tie to your past, and the core of many memories. Some adventure hooks include:

An old mentor has fallen ill or passed away, and you and your rival have been called to put the mentor’s affairs in order—and perhaps carry out an ambiguous will.

A threat to your hometown sends you running to deal with it, only to find your old rival is there with different and dangerous ideas on how to remedy the problem.

The rival unexpectedly reappears in your life and wishes to make amends. This could be a sincere change, a ploy for trust, or another attempt to humiliate you.

Your rival is the leader of another adventuring group and issues a challenge to your party, such as a race to retrieve a legendary artifact or a public battle for a political prize.

The rival wants to hire you to perform a quest, but the specifics are mysterious and she won’t tell you what happened to the last group hired.

Roleplaying Advice: With this sort of relationship, you have to identify the original conflict with the rival. Perhaps you were an easy target because you were physically weaker. Perhaps you had a different religion, were of a different race or gender, or practiced a different kind of magic. Perhaps you were the instigator (knowingly or unknowingly) of this conflict, the rival is the original victim, and you are dealing with the consequences of your own bad behavior.

With this knowledge, find a way to justify the rival’s behavior toward you—encouraging you to overcome your weakness, convert to a morally superior religion, see the benefits of a different magical school, and so on. You might not agree with these reasons, and they could make you angry, ashamed, or vengeful, but they drive the roleplaying for the conflict.

Growing the Relationship: Identifying the rival’s main motivation could be the way to turn the tables on him. By beating the rival at his own game, you become the dominant one in the relationship. For bullying rivals, this might even convince his allies or neutral parties to rally to your side and turn against the instigator of the rivalry. If the problem stems from the rival’s weakness or insecurity, challenging the source of the conflict or making sincere attempts to become friends might turn the rival into a staunch ally—many relationships start with two parties disliking each other, only to grow into friendship after conflict.

Archives of Nethys

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Childhood Rival