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Yora
2014-03-31, 10:46 AM
I recently started a new campaign and had planned to make the adventures personal to the PCs instead of generic tasks that could be dealt with by basically everyone who happens to come by. But as these things usually go, we went to creating the characters and started playing with pretty much 4 blank slates. Two players dected spontaneously that their already completed characters are sisters, and when the thief player asked if he had any knowledge where to ask around for clues in the local underworld, I introduced a well connected fence who's an old friend of the thief. That is pretty much all the backstory that exists for the party.

So the next time we play, I want the players to work out some more background information on their characters, which I could use to connect to the individuals adventures and make them into a campaign, before we continue where we last left off. Which is especially important since the campaign is supposed to be ambigous and the characters are no goody two shoes who help people out of the goodness of their hearts. But I still want the players to get personally invested in the things they do.
Writing up a backstory isn't easy, and might not neccessarily produce anything useful either. So instead of having the players tell me their characters life story, I want to make a short list of simple, but important questions, which should be easy to come up with an answer for, but still make the players care about the characters. Sometimes a throwaway gag can develop a lot of traction to the point that the players rather abandon their current quest and instead enjoy working themselves up into something that started out completely irrelevant. Which I think is always great and more fun than anything the GM can come up with. Instead of leaving such things to pure happenstance, I want the players to provide me with a bunch of opportunities that I can exploit and get them to latch onto.

I've got a few ideas and would like to hear your thoughts on them and also get some more ideas you might have.

How did you chose your career?
How did you get your skills?
What is your Quest? (What is your long term goal?)
Conan, what is best in life? (What rewards are you looking for?)
What people do you admire?
What people do you despise?
What do you love?
What do you hate?
What do you fear?
What do you regret?
What is your biggest fault?
How did you get here? (At campaign start.)
Who would you make sacrifices for.
What would be a good way to die?
Do you have a big secret?

I don't want the list to get too long, but also get the most possible content from it. In addition to more questions to asks, ideas on how to improve the questions are also very much welcome.

Ailowynn
2014-03-31, 11:15 AM
My "questions three" (that I stole from someone else) are
-What does your character love above all else
-" " " " " hate above all else?
-Why is your character here? (As in, why are you working for the King? Or how did you get put in jail? Or why are you at this tavern?)

The last usually involves a simple, rough backstory. The first two are motivation.

Red Fel
2014-03-31, 12:03 PM
A truly comprehensive understanding of a character takes more than a questionnaire, no matter how detailed and well thought-out. A great way to get into the habit of constructing detailed characters is to start constructing detailed characters. Towards that end, consider sitting each of your players down, separately and in turn, and going over the characters with them.

Obviously, starting with some ground questions is a good baseline. Start with things like the town in which they grew up, their parentage, and so forth. From there, in many ways it turns into something like a therapy session. (The response to "Tell me about your mother" would explain so much about most adventurers. So much.) Because - and here is the key part - no question is an end unto itself. A good question reveals more questions.

For example:
- Where did you grow up? Which leads to... And what did do as a child? Which leads to... Did you have any friends?
- Who were your parents? Which leads to... Are they still alive? Which leads to... What is your relationship with them?
- What made you decide to start adventuring? Which leads to... And how did that make you feel?

(Always include "And how did that make you feel?" It forces the player to consider the character's feelings, their motivations, and it makes the PC less a list of stats and more a person, to be empathized with.)

Most importantly, once a player has done this once or twice with characters, it can become a habit. Many players (at least in my experience) will start doing this instinctively with character generation. So while you, as GM, may only have to do it once or twice, the fruits of the project should pay off across many games.

BWR
2014-03-31, 01:06 PM
Legend of the Five Rings has the 20 questions (http://l5rmisty.wordpress.com/2008/09/15/the-20-questions-of-l5r/). These are obviously setting specific but are a decent place to start, especially if you aren't too familiar with the setting.
Personally I have a problem creating a detailed backstory at character creation. Personality and character usually develop during play. I'll have a few guidelines but detailed personality and backstory rarely show up. Partially because I don't want to make something that doesn't fit with the GM's world, partially because I have a hard time developing a detailed character from scratch, be it personality or history. Things often change during play and I hate inconsistency.

For instance in an L5R game I wanted to play a Hiruma warrior. My original concept was typical of his family and training: quiet, competant, hard to notice, silent in social settings. First session this went out the window and he became a trickster (competant and quiet in the field, joker in town) and I gradually developed a background and stories about his family and exploits. I suppose the background I would have made could have been used to the GM in any case had it been that type of campaign, but it wouldn't have been fitting his personality.

ElenionAncalima
2014-03-31, 01:55 PM
Personally, I like the questions that really get to the core of how the character will act, such as:

-Who or what would your character do almost anything for?
-What is a lines won't your character cross?
-What are your character's flaws and vices?

Actana
2014-03-31, 02:55 PM
A truly comprehensive understanding of a character takes more than a questionnaire, no matter how detailed and well thought-out. A great way to get into the habit of constructing detailed characters is to start constructing detailed characters. Towards that end, consider sitting each of your players down, separately and in turn, and going over the characters with them.

Obviously, starting with some ground questions is a good baseline. Start with things like the town in which they grew up, their parentage, and so forth. From there, in many ways it turns into something like a therapy session. (The response to "Tell me about your mother" would explain so much about most adventurers. So much.) Because - and here is the key part - no question is an end unto itself. A good question reveals more questions.

For example:
- Where did you grow up? Which leads to... And what did do as a child? Which leads to... Did you have any friends?
- Who were your parents? Which leads to... Are they still alive? Which leads to... What is your relationship with them?
- What made you decide to start adventuring? Which leads to... And how did that make you feel?

(Always include "And how did that make you feel?" It forces the player to consider the character's feelings, their motivations, and it makes the PC less a list of stats and more a person, to be empathized with.)

Most importantly, once a player has done this once or twice with characters, it can become a habit. Many players (at least in my experience) will start doing this instinctively with character generation. So while you, as GM, may only have to do it once or twice, the fruits of the project should pay off across many games.

I agree with this. Instead of a strict questionnaire, have a small informal interview with each player about their characters. Start with a simple question and tell the player to give simple answers, leading from one question and answer to related topics, focusing on how the character feels and what they think about their situations. Every once in a while you can try to see what sort of character is behind the answers and suggest some character trait based on what you think, allowing the player to then answer whether or not this is true.

For example, I recently tried this with a person playing a warforged. It went something like this:
You were owned by someone; who was it? -> What kind of master were they? -> What did the master use you for? -> How do you feel about it? -> If you were to escape, where would you go?
And so forth.

Yora
2014-03-31, 03:25 PM
I think that's about the opposite approach to what I am thinking of. A full backstory is a great thing if you can get it, but it's not neccessary.
Instead of starting with a complete story and then filtering out the most crucial elements that it tells about the character, you can also just start with a few pieces of information and fill in all the details on the spot, when it ever becomes neccessary to do so.

Most characters in fiction don't have a full backstory when they are introduced, and those who do get one usually do so after the characters have been around for some time and people keep asking the creator to tell them more about them.
Often, you just have to establish a few facts about the characters values and motives, and then you simply roll with it. What you really need is some hooks. Both for the GM to pull the players strings a little, and for the players to see their PCs as characters and not just a faceless mouthpiece for their role as players outside the story.

Just based on the movies, what do we know about the backstory of Han Solo or Indiana Jones? Basically nothing, as those things are entirely irrelevant to the story. But they are defined by a number of major traits, on which all their actions and behavior are based.

It's not the ultimate tool of character creation, but it has the huge advantage of being quick to do and not requiring a lot of imagination from the players. And it's very flexible so you can make up additional details as you go and it becomes neccessary.
And in my experience, players totally love it when the GM appeals to even the slightest character traits the PCs have shown before. Remind a player that he once mentioned his character hates a certain thing or type of people when they are encountered at a later point, and he'll have a blast making a huge deal about it and getting deeply into his characters emotions.


Personally, I like the questions that really get to the core of how the character will act, such as:
-Who or what would your character do almost anything for?
-What is a lines won't your character cross?
-What are your character's flaws and vices?

Thinking about things that make a character refuse to go along with things, and cause them to put a stop to things are good ideas. Though I feel that these are rather complex questions. The list of possible attrocious things is endless. Maybe there's some way to make the phrasing more general so players don't have to be that specific?

Having the players give the character one or two faults and vices is a really great idea! I totally love that one.

Actana
2014-03-31, 04:03 PM
The aim of the approach I use is less to create a large backstory, but to find and develop what the character cares about through their past life. I value personality over backstory by far, but personality is affected by a person's past. It also helps to find a place for the character through their relation with the setting. Ideally after the questions the GM would have a good grasp on the character, their background and their general world view, and the player would find another aspect of the character's personality that they didn't think about before.

Kitten Champion
2014-03-31, 05:32 PM
A few that I would add...

What is your character's most marked characteristic? That quality which most defines them.
What is your character's motto?
Does your character have a secret? If yes, who would they tell it to?
How would your character like to die?

TheCountAlucard
2014-03-31, 05:34 PM
Exalted has "Intimacies," i.e., "What does your character give a crap about?" So a paladin-esque character will probably have a positive Intimacy regarding acting honorably, an avenging guy might have an Intimacy of hatred for whomever wronged him, and so on and so forth. In addition to being a good start for roleplaying, they also provide some minor mechanical benefits when resisting persuasion that would have them act against the intentions of that Intimacy.

Genth
2014-03-31, 05:54 PM
Well, here's an example of a character 'preempt' I sent to my GM (we're doing Rise of the Runelords!) What have I missed?

Zakk – NG Shoanti Sylph Sky Druid



Brought up in the Tamiir-Quah clan of the Shoanti, Zakk was the eldest son of the Shaman of the tribe, Zirraha. Zirraha had never married, nor was anyone stepping forward when she began to show. When the child was born, it was clear that whoever Zakk’s father was, it was not human, his skin pale and tinged with blue, his eyes completely white without irises, slight whorls and shadows moving across them as if filled with mist. The boy could see fine, however, and as he grew into a child, he was swift of foot, and enjoyed scampering on the high reaches of the Wind Clan’s home, far from the prying and overly inquisitive eyes of the other children. A Shaman, however, needs to be close to their people, and Zirraha ensured that Zakk attended the rituals, learnt the craft of interpreting dreams, of listening to the wind, and of attending to the sick.



However, the unfortunate nature of his birth meant that he stopped growing, developing at an early age, from twelve he started to see his peers growing up into teenagers and then men, while he, nervous of people, and nervous of the stares such a still-young boy attracted, spent more time away. While he stayed young, through his twenties, and then his thirties, Zirraha grew old and white-haired, unable to look after her son any more. When she died, Zakk ran, thirty five and yet still with the form and innocence of a teenager. He learnt how to survive on his own, but his training couldn’t keep him away from people. Soon he started visiting other clans, learning from their Shaman, offering his hands and eye as a healer, or his swift feet as a runner and scout. When he reached his 70th birthday, an adult proper and true now, he decided to make his way south, into the civilized lands, because the Shoanti could no longer sate his curiosity about people. For being perpetually on the outside of his society, and his Sylph curiosity burgeoning inside his mind, he focused on understanding people



Zakk is a nosy bugger, to put it mildly. He’ll always ask questions of people about rumors, beliefs, thoughts and opinions. He is also wise and fond of kindness, enjoying the feeling of serving ‘the community’ as a whole, though he chafes at the thought of the Varisian and ‘civilized’ community ripping apart the more primitive, vibrant way of the uncivilized. He wants to understand the city, but he doesn’t want it encroaching on the beauty of nature, and will defend it. As a result, he tends to prefer associating with those who share qualities with the Shoanti, blood, battle and fun.



He is also very curious about the history of the land, and spent time with a Varisian scholar learning the Thassilonian language. If given the chance, he’ll collect what artifacts he can afford from the old empire.



He is a vegetarian, and not a BIG drinker, though he does like a drop now and then.



He’s always kind to children especially, and enjoys the role of ‘storyteller’ and magician for them.



When fighting, he likes to use his weapons as part of his somatic components, gesturing with the shortspear or quarterstaff in whirling, flowing movements. (Think Aang from Avatar)

Madcrafter
2014-04-02, 07:49 PM
This (http://ptgptb.org/0029/a-question-of-character.html) set I found really gets me into thinking like a character (especially if you answer in first person). It's a little long, but you don't have to use all the questions. It also comes with a nice example (http://ptgptb.org/0029/an-exemplary-character.html).

Another option might be the method outlined Brian Jamison's book Gamemastering. I uses an interview format like above, asking the player questions to get to a character, but it goes through a few steps that you could modify based on how much background you want. Focuses quite a bit on getting appropriate hooks and motivation for each character.
1) Define Character Class/Profession (basically where the player wants them to end up role or ability-wise)
2) Create Rough Outline (this is where you get basic elements, as rough as you want)
3) Rights and Wrongs sheet (basically a crib sheet of a few things the character believes in and things they think are wrong. Can be used later by the DM to set up roleplaying encounters)
4) Backstory (quite thumbnail, approximately one significant even for every 5 years of adult life, things like Death of a Friend. Can be expanded or skipped to preference)
5) Friends and Foes (at least one of each type. Can be used later on by the DM depending on their role (he advocates never using a generic NPC when you can use one with a connection to a character, even if slightly implausible))
6) Goal Sheet (just a few short, medium and long term goals, to give an idea of possible motivations)
7) Quirks and Weaknesses (if you like)
And the rest is translating that to a system appropriate character sheet. The whole book is available free online if you want more details.

neonchameleon
2014-04-03, 07:43 AM
Who are you?
What do you want?
Where are you going?
Who do you serve and who do you trust?

Really, I do this a lot - I run both Dread and various Apocalypse World style games. In Dread the entire character creation consists of a dozen or so loaded questions "Why at the age of 12 did you become afraid of the dark?" - it's a horror game. And Apocalypse World encourages asking a lot of questions like this even in character creation. In the Apocalypse World hack Dungeon World at the start of the game you create bonds with your fellow PCs as part of character creation with the bonds varying by class - bard bonds are: (http://www.dungeonworldsrd.com/classes/bard)
This is not my first adventure with _______________.
I sang stories of _______________ long before I ever met them in person.
_______________ is often the butt of my jokes.
I am writing a ballad about the adventures of _______________.
_______________ trusted me with a secret.
_______________ does not trust me, and for good reason.
(You don't need to choose them all - but they are a source of XP).

But in each case the question varies by the setting. Pathfinder's Curse of the Crimson Throne started out with "Why do you want revenge on Garadren Lamm?"

erikun
2014-04-03, 08:47 PM
I think it would be good to have questions with meaningful in-game mechanics and results. This way, there is encouragement for people who would not otherwise do so, to flesh out their character. Also, having some mechanical or in-game reason for the question avoids situations like answering "What was your family like?" when it probably has little bearing on the current character or situation. It also avoids the orphan-from-destroyed-village syndrome, because a backstory full of absent NPCs doesn't relate much to the game at hand. For just a few ideas on questions:

What one thing are you best at?
What one thing are you best known for?
What one thing defined who you are today?
What one thing do you wish to be?

What one ally will support you?
What one rival is a challenge to you?
What one organization do you work against?

GrayGriffin
2014-04-04, 01:04 AM
I think it would be good to have questions with meaningful in-game mechanics and results. This way, there is encouragement for people who would not otherwise do so, to flesh out their character. Also, having some mechanical or in-game reason for the question avoids situations like answering "What was your family like?" when it probably has little bearing on the current character or situation. It also avoids the orphan-from-destroyed-village syndrome, because a backstory full of absent NPCs doesn't relate much to the game at hand. For just a few ideas on questions:

What one thing are you best at?
What one thing are you best known for?
What one thing defined who you are today?
What one thing do you wish to be?

What one ally will support you?
What one rival is a challenge to you?
What one organization do you work against?

Um...personally, I think any questions that make you think a bit more about who your character is will affect the current situation. Someone whose family was supportive might make fond comments about things their parents taught them. Someone with neglectful parents might make comments about wanting to show them. An orphan might show jealousy whenever those other characters mention parents.

tiltedwindmill
2014-04-04, 01:32 AM
The one question that I have had the most success with:

Under what circumstances would your character act in a way seemingly out of alignment?

erikun
2014-04-04, 07:31 AM
Um...personally, I think any questions that make you think a bit more about who your character is will affect the current situation. Someone whose family was supportive might make fond comments about things their parents taught them. Someone with neglectful parents might make comments about wanting to show them. An orphan might show jealousy whenever those other characters mention parents.
While true, I'd be more interested (at least at first) with more basic questions that help flesh out a character in the context of the game. As a DM, this helps me create situations that get the character involved. As a player, this helps me become involved in the character and the world.

While a lot of these questions are great at anaylzing or exporing an existing character, I feel that they tend to have the problem of requiring a fully thought out character to begin with. Stuff like "How does your character feel when other people mention their parents?" or "When would your character act out of alignment?" tend to rely on already being quite familiar with the character to produce interesting answers, because otherwise I've found myself answering with very boring responses otherwise.