Since the rebellion'd have good reasons to be cautious what's the likelihood that a character knowing about them and expressing an interest in joining up would be enough for them to actually allow him? If it's low, as I would think it is, how can I make this more reasonable?
The Rebellion? What are you referring to? What's this all about? I'm quite interested with the word rebellion, but your post are confusing. Care to explain in detail?
Can you elaborate a little more? When I read your post, I wasn't sure whether the rebels are cautious in letting the character join them or whether the character is cautious in joining the rebels.
Well, it's a rebel group that exists in my story (sorry, I thought that'd be clear). The rebels are the ones who are cautious ... a character finds out about their existence and wants to join them ... what's the likelihood of these facts (the facts of the character knowing about them and wanting to join them) causing the rebels to allow said character to join their rebel group? I'm guessing it'd be pretty low. You don't just say "hey, since I know about you anyway can I join?" and not have someone, most likely everyone, oppose that notion for a number of good reasons. But I need this character to join them so I need a good reason for them to allow it. How can I make this more reasonable?
Well the character could learn of the Rebellion through rumors. Some coming from those who would secretly support them, but to afraid to join. Some rumors coming from the organization or government side. Perpahs exaggerating what the Rebellion has done in terms of being bad. While the other side exaggerating how great they are. He could then stumble upon something. In Code Geass the main character gets caught up in a fight between a group of small time terrorist and government. Wanting to end the fight, he joins the terrorist and actualy becomes their leader later on. You could have your character stumble upon some fight and decides to help out. When the fight is over the character has somewhat earned their trust but also has shown he would be serious about joining. Adds some excitement and solves your problem.
A classic from computer RPGs: First you must do a low-level assignment to prove your worth and sincerity to the organisation. The assignemt could turn out to be very dangerous compared to the benefit for the rebels, so assigning an aspiring member to the task would be ideal for them - No loss if he fails. You could also build in a plot twist - perhaps the assignment was a fake setup, to prove his loyalty - by having the character become captured by the enemy and interrogated - then after he refuses to break during the interrogation, the rebels reveal that they made the fake interrogation and were disguised as the enemy.
Unit and Horus have covered what I want to say, so I'll just add some. In general knowledge, if it's joining a rebellion usually new members have to prove the themselves, especially if he want to join without any recommendation from potent member, in fear for government spies infiltrating. Usually story that leads to recruitment would involve some events I could think of; a)The MC is caught in a battle, or being treat unjustly or lose someone dear to him because of the government. To avenge him/her, he decided that joining the rebellion would be the most logical way. b)The MC has strong reason to hate the government (oppression, lost of a dear friend, family etc.), then followed by the event, which force him to take quick action that made him an enemy of the government, or a likely ally for the rebels (saving their potent member, delivering important message from a fallen member, you said it) c)The MC learn that his close relative/best friend was a potent member/leader of the rebellion, and in an event that guy was killed protecting him, and he asked him to protect his family/contact his rebel friends. The MC don't want anything to do with the rebellion, but soon learn that the family was under threat from the government, so he went all his way to protect them. In his feat he realized he could not fulfill his friend's final wish without aid from the resistance/liberators (rebels/rebellion, usually used by the government to undermine their enemy's cause). Then he sought their help. But then his identity was exposed, so he had to join them. That's it. It's just my amateur thought. There's unlimited possibility for you to think of, but hope these will be useful.
I've got the "why the character would want to join" and the "how he finds about about them" already. The "why" being he's suffering a curse that an overthrow of the ruling class could reverse and the "how" being he runs into two rebel members while they were dodging my world's equivalent to the police and he puts 2 and 2 together. The character's not particularly useful to the rebel group outside of being another fellow capable of toting a gun, which they could certainly use, but I don't know if that need alone would be enough for them to bring him along with them. I can't really have him insist on following them since to my rebel heroes this rebellion is Serious Business and they'd likely just shoot him and leave him rather than risk the safety of their group by bringing in what is essentially just some stranger (albeit one sympathetic to their cause). What I need is a reason for them to think the risk is worth it to add what is essentially one more gun to the group. Only thing I'm tossing around in my brain is that perhaps they suffered a recent loss of a vital member and they think it might just be easier to take and train this guy (given his previously demonstrated interest in helping). Though, I'm not sure if that would be reason enough ...
If the rebels are outnumbered, then they would surely want someone to help them out. It's a risk they will have to take if they are short on manpower.
Then there's the amusing "accidentally did the rebels job for them" technique. MC for reasons of his own takes some action and the rebels whisk him off to safety and ask him to join them. Used by Evelyn Smith in "Miss Melville Regrets" to get her MC to become a hitman.
"The rebellion." You keep saying that. But it tells us nothing. How any rebellion works depends on what they're rebelling against. The Beat poets of sixties were a rebellion, as are Al Qaeda and, if you take their word for it, Anonymous. I assume, though, you're going for a traditional Empire versus Rebels thing- open conflict, open, violent combat, a small, incredibly organised group against a phenomenally greater, dogmatic and fragmented foe. Joining a rebellion is usually as simple as signing up to be a foot soldier. So long as you're unlikely to do any harm, they'll probably sign anyone up. If this is a violent, organised rebellion, then you'll have to prove yourself worthy before you can get anywhere near a leadership role, though. Signing up for jobs would be simple, leading them- that is, taking a large amount of resources out of the rebellion that might be put toward other ends- is far more difficult. You'd have to prove yourself competent and worthy of the role. From what you've told us, though, this rebellion is very, very small and very, very high-skilled. Otherwise, they wouldn't bother screening people as heavily. But really, we need to know who they are and what they're trying to do, and how they're trying to do it, before we can know why someone would join them.
Who among the rebellion would be sympathetic to your character? Who would think its worth inviting him after the run in with the police? If its a close knit rebel unit you need someone willing to give him a tryout, or at least argue for it. Maybe one of the rebels has something in common with the character? or alternatively, they could make him paint 'romanum eunt domus' on the palace wall 100 times
I think I understand what you are talking about. One good reason for letting him join could be that he is already involved in something along the same line as they are. Or, as mentioned, he could do something for them that would prove that his is sincere about his intentions. One idea that popped into my head is the big brother, little brother scenario. Big brother (rebel group), is doing his own thing, and little brother (MC) wants to be part of it. Big brother does not like little brother, so he ignores him and tries to avoid him. At one point Big brother gets in trouble, and little brother, who has always imagined himself to be part of the team, helps out. Big brother realizes how wonderful little brother really is, and the two become bestest friends. You could apply that to your story, as long as big brother isn't the type of group that just kills anyone who seems to be annoying.
In 1984, the rebellion movement was famous and known about by everyone. However, they were secretive and selective when it came to new recruits. I always thought that was a great way to portray a rebellion (even though it was all faked by the government).
A rebellion need not be an organization with a membership. The anti-war protests in the United States in the 1960s is an example. There were individual groups with their own hierarchies, but mostly it was individuals acting independently on their beliefs. Even hard core groups like the Weathermen weren't tightly organized. Many of the members were just people who knew one another, with one member of each group also associated with another person somehow connected wit the core members.
I'll sound like a broken record of the 3 who already did a great job at this, but this is all I can think of: Entry test. Have the two rebel members take the character to their leader, have the leader examine him and maybe even question him slightly, then have the leader approve but only after the character completes a test (or a series of tests) to prove both his loyalty and how serious he is to join. You could also use that curse. Maybe if the leader shows doubts about letting him join the character can express slight desperation by going "Wait! What if I told you I have something that could help you?" and then telling the leader (and any nearby members) about his curse. That's all I know that could help you... And I agree with Unit, Code Geass has a really good rebellion you could examine...
Y'know, I have sadly never gotten around to reading 1984 (did Brave New World and figured I'd met my gov. take-over quota : P ) and that sounds really helpful as the rebellion I'm writing on functions much the same way; well known but careful in their recruitment. I'm also liking the entry test idea as it seems the most sensible thing to do.
