history aid.

[Shinizak]

So I'm building an original system and I'm looking for a way to "stat out" the character's history, for instance, how much money you have access to, what your relationships with your family are, who your contacts are and how informed they are, etc. I know oWoD did this well, but I want to avoid copying them, how would you go about doing this?

[Halaster]

You could go one of two ways, I guess:
- roll it up. Make a bunch of tables, have the player roll D100 on each and record the result, which might be a number (a +12 relation to your parents, 5D6 gold) or an effect (all members of your culture react one level better to you), depending on whether you want to make "relation rolls" later. You should probably divide this chronologically. Childhood, adolescence, apprenticeship, adventuring days, or something, and place appropriate tables in each section.
- have the player buy it. Assign a point cost to each aspect, then make the player start out with X points (0 might work, if you want the player to balance things) to buy aspects. Might result in some players mostly ignoring the system and spending 0 points whenever they can.

In any case, the default result should be whatever the character would have otherwise started the game with, if anything. Particularly gold/equipment, rolling badly could really suck.

[Serpentine]

I think the fairest way to do it would be to have a series of approximately equal trait-like things that everyone chooses one of at first level which have an appropriate benefit and drawback. So, for example, a character from a rich, priveledged background might have extra starting money or a regular income per week, some extra skill points in specific knowledges (representing better education), and perhaps a bonus to Charisma-based checks against certain people in exchange for a penalty to Cha-based checks against other types of people, a penalty to some knowledges (representing a closed-in upbringing), and... something I can't think of; as opposed to a character that's basically a street-rat which would have lower starting money but more street-smarts and possibly better reflexes and stuff like that.

I think this could be fun to make... You should take it to the Homebrew forum

edit: Just realised you're talking about an entirely different system, not D&D. Could still work, though!

[Aux-Ash]

There is a swedish roleplaying game called Eon, which is known (not to say infamous) for it's extreme attention to detail, it's strict attempts at realism and it's very... thorough character creation. One of the traits of this is the creation of family and background which adds stats.

The firts part is the creation of family, one basically rolls how many siblings one have, determines if the parents are alive and can then use the optional rules to keep on going (me and my brother have on occasion tried, but found that sooner or later, usually three or four generations up, the family trees starts resembling a fractal-tree). Next step is a roll on the family-table to determine if there's anything with your family and/or it's relation to you (some of these involves providing the character with stats, other just roleplay-traits or ploothooks).

Next step is the background tables. Basically all character recieve 7 rolls (except dwarves and elves who get 5), adjusted by age and low attributes (so a really old, think 60+, and weak, with the highest attribute at 8 in a 3-18 system, character could get as many as 11 rolls). Then they roll on a small table to see which of the major tables he gets to roll, them being: Title, Possession, (wealth), Events, mental traits, physical traits, supernatural traits, drawbacks, additional roll on the family table.
Some of these adds stats, some add contacts, some add just roleplay opportunities, some do absolutely nothing (but are fun to have).

Finally there's a family profession table, that you roll on and get a few skillpoints on select skills.

I should mention: all these tables are rolled on with a d100, some of them actually having almost that many different results. Yes, it's quite extensive.

[LibraryOgre]

You might take a look at Chronica Feudalis. You start by choosing three mentors. Each mentor is going to increase certain skills (having been a soldier increases your fighting skills; having been a courtier increases your talking skills, etc.), and provide you with some equipment.