Questions to ask players to help with backstories

[powerdemon]

I am trying to make a list of questions to ask my players to help them make back stories for their characters and to help me keep all the information in my records to blackmail them with bring up in later sessions.

This is what I have so far, and I would like some help coming up with more questions:

Spoiler

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Where are you from:

Why did you leave:

Relationship with parents:

Fate of parents:

How many siblings:

Are there any other important family members (uncles, aunts, cousins, etc):

Are you religious:

How do you come to be this class:

Biggest fear:

Biggest pet peeve:

Biggest guilty pleasure:

Main motivation:

Most memorable event in your past:

[herrhauptmann]

Have them take a creative writing class first off. I've seen some pretty horrible backstories. (and yes, 'horrible' is subjective. To some, A song of ice and fire is horrible, while others hate Wheel of Time)

Ask what their character's dreams/goals are.
What the character believes himself to be. In a given world, the word 'paladin' might be a reference to a specific group of mounted knights with a code of honor. Some/many are not the paladin class.

So a very religious fighter (class) might consider himself to be a Crusader, or one who wanders around meting out justice will call himself a Justicar. Even though the first is a barbarian/fighter, while the second has 0 levels in the Prestige Class justicar.

[PersonMan]

Here are quite a few useful questions for elaborating/creating a backstory.

[Dr Bwaa]

Oh man, that's great. I was going to post an application that someone here had for a game, but now I have to go read that over instead. (Also, that's a good place to look-recruiting threads, by definition, usually have a bunch of questions to answer at the beginning; some good; some worse, but you could do worse than checking out over there).

[Shadowbane]

I highly recommend the Ten Minute Background.

[Alcopop]

"Fate of parents"

Is a bit of a loaded question.

Not every hero has to have a tragic past.

[Jallorn]

I highly recommend the Ten Minute Background.

I second this. I made most of my characters with this for a while, though I have since grown beyond it (IM(not quite)HO). Still, I think that a lot of that growth was because of the background.

[valadil]

Tell them where the game starts and then ask them how they got there. If they say something lame like "horseback" ask what reasons brought them there. This helps them start out the game with a bit of story in motion. It did wonders for my PC's druid who used to live on an earthmote.

[powerdemon]

My players can be rather dense, so I NEED to ask them questions or the best I will get is: "I'm a druid, I like animals".

[Totally Guy]

That can be a good sign. It might mean that they highly value the adventure at the table.

The longest backstories I've written have been at times when I've been frustrated with the game. If I can't make the coolness of my character happen at the table for whatever reason I write all the cool stuff into the backstory to make my character's coolness into the game canon. It's a way I can get attention and my creativity acknowledged.

But that doesn't mean I'll spontaneously start enjoying myself. It was more of a cry for help.

[DabblerWizard]

The link PersonMan gave is really great. I've posted it a few times on these forums myself.

I do highly suggest that a DM shouldn't present all 100 questions to his/her players. I generally pluck out between 10 and 20 questions that are the most interesting / most meaningful. Some players might enjoy answering all 100, but realistically, even super dedicated heavy role-players might find this very tedious and annoying.

The last time I used this, I posted 3 major questions that I wanted answered, including a question that asked them for their basic back story depicting the major events that happened in their life prior to the start of the campaign. Then, I presented some other interesting, but non-obligatory questions, stating that they'd get XP for taking the time to answer them.

I also had questions concerning character religious sentiments, because the role of religious affiliation was a continuous subplot in the story. - The basic point, is that these 100 questions are extensive, but not necessarily exhaustive.

[GiantNewDoctor]

"Fate of parents"

Is a bit of a loaded question.

Really? I don't see it, if you take fate as 'the circumstance that befall someone'.

[powerdemon]

Yeah it was went as, "How are they? Are they dead? How did they die? Where are they? Are they in prison? Kidnapped? Missing?"

[valadil]

I do highly suggest that a DM shouldn't present all 100 questions to his/her players.

On that note, I'm trying something new to help get through the 100 questions. Before each session starts I ask the table one question from that list. I think this will help people grow their characters as the game progresses. I also think people will be more into answering random floofy questions (if your character were a piece of fruit...) if they're only doing one a week.

[powerdemon]

On that note, I'm trying something new to help get through the 100 questions. Before each session starts I ask the table one question from that list. I think this will help people grow their characters as the game progresses. I also think people will be more into answering random floofy questions (if your character were a piece of fruit...) if they're only doing one a week.

Excellent idea!