CharGen Questionnaire

[Drakevarg]

Having grown tired of several members of my campaign who just seem to be along for the ride, I've decided to give them all compulsory homework: a questionnaire intended to illuminate their personality, background, and motivations. I'm shooting for 100 questions, but am aiming high intentionally and expecting much less.

Since this is a lot of work, I'm gonna try to spread to work around a bit and ask the Playground for question suggestions. I'll be compiling my own list at the same time.

Here's a random question to get things moving. I'll be extending this list as I come up with more.

1. [OPTIONAL] Go to TVTropes.org, and select three tropes that accurately describe your character. List them here.

2. List every member of your immediate family (living or deceased), and your relationship with them.

3. Describe your hometown in as much detail as possible.

4. Who taught you your class skills? If you were self taught, how did you do so?

5. Why did your character decide to start this particular adventure?

6. Why do you travel with the rest of the party?

7. Have you ever killed anyone before? If so, what happened?

8. Have you ever had any romantic interests? If so, what happened?

9. Name two close friends, and your relationship with them.

10. List any enemies you've made, and how they became such.

11. What is your name? If it has any particular meaning, explain that here as well.

12. Are you associated with any particular organizations? If so, who are they and what are they like? (Noble families count as organizations for the purposes of this question.)

13. What does your character ultimately want to accomplish in life?

14. What are your views on killing?

15. What are your religious views?

16. How do you feel about interacting with members of the opposite faith? If you don't adhere to a particular faith, how do you feel about interacting with the faithful?

17. How do you feel about interacting with embodiements of the opposite faith? (Demons, angels, undead, etc.?) If you don't adhere to a particular faith, how do you feel about these sort of entities in general?

18. What are some of your character's fears? Why are they afraid of that?

[Jallorn]

I like how step one probably takes about ten hours.

You should check this out too.

[Drakevarg]

I like how step one probably takes about ten hours.

A fact I'm getting all too familiar with right now... hell, I don't even remember what I was looking up in the first place.

[Hallavast]

Those first 4 are a good start. But really, the important thing about character backgrounds is how it feeds into the "Group Template". That is, "how well does the character fit in with the rest of the party" and "why will the PC continue to adventure with this group of people?" Far too often the rp problems from characters comes from the fact that their characters are just random people who don't fit in at all with the DM's micro setting or with the other characters' stories.

Credit for the Group Template concept goes to Fear the Boot at feartheboot.com

[Mando Knight]

...
...
...That's too much work. I like to start with ones, then work from there. The below numbering is a suggested order.

1.) Pick one class. Alignment, race, gender, etc. can also be picked at this or any point.
2.) Pick one central trope, as if it were the character's only defining trait if he/she were a one-dimensional character (i.e. an NPC).
3.) Decide on one aspect of your character's background: what his family was like, whatever.
4.) Pick out one ultimate goal.

Then, flesh this character out. This can be done over a period of time, even during play.
-Link the central trope to the class (if necessary). Then hang random tropes on the character, like a Christmas tree. Also like a Christmas tree, organized randomness is better than full randomness.
-Link the background to the central trope and class. And race (and gender, if necessary).
-Link the ultimate goal to the central trope and class.
-Add in extra nuances (possibly via tropes) to both the background and personality. Likely via tropes.

After all, most characterization I've put a character through has always popped up from fleshing out a one-dimensional character in-game, much like a character in a novel or film or whatever is characterized over time. I don't even like the Ten-Minute-Backgrounds method... it suggests too diverse a start for me. I like ones.

[Dust]

Having grown tired of several members of my campaign who just seem to be along for the ride, I've decided to give them all compulsory homework

I'm going to go ahead and just say this now because the thread is going to dissolve into a discussion about it anyway.

You're in the wrong here.

The fact that your players are not bringing enormously, ridiculously-expansive backstories to your game (which will, of course, never come up...I mean honestly, what difference does it make to your plot the methods which the PCs self-taught themselves class abilities? You're not going to be re-enacting the training scene from A Knight's Tale here.) is unfortunate, sure, but you're just going to push players away with your unreal expectations.

[Milskidasith]

Sidenote here: Assuming these four questions are average, and giving conservative time estimates for them...

15 minutes for tvtropes.
45 minutes for the family stuff (less if you're intentionally having no knowledge of people, or if relationship just means a couple sentences.)
At least three hours for the hometown. If you only mean "in reasonable detail, rough draft outline style", then about thirty minutes.
How you were taught: At least thirty minutes, again.

So, assuming you massively cut down the work for the hometown, that's still thirty minutes per question... or fifty hours for the entire list of 100. That is more time than you an reasonably expect to actually be actively roleplaying your character in a year of play (assuming you are actively roleplaying for an hour every session, which is rather unlikely since snack breaks, combat, NPC actions, and other PCs tend to take time as well) at a session a week.

[Mystic Muse]

Since this is a lot of work, I'm gonna try to spread to work around a bit

This is spreading it around a bit? your first four questions alone will take about two hours.

[Drakevarg]

Sidenote here: Assuming these four questions are average, and giving conservative time estimates for them...

Apart from the more elaborate ones, like "describe your hometown," I was only expecting a short paragraph each. (Counting each family member as a seperate question for those purposes.) If that would take an average of half an hour per question for you, I think it's time you worked on your writing skills.

If you're assuming a short essay for each question, then yes that would be totally unreasonable and I'd only be asking ten questions, tops.

This is spreading it around a bit? your first four questions alone will take about two hours.

By Milskidasith's estimate, apparently yes.

But I was referring to spreading the workload away from me.

[Mystic Muse]

Apart from the more elaborate ones, like "describe your hometown," I was only expecting a short paragraph each. (Counting each family member as a seperate question for those purposes.) If that would take an average of half an hour per question for you, I think it's time you worked on your writing skills.

They all seem fairly elaborate to me.

10 different non conflicting tropes? That would actually be longer for me.

the different family members question would depend on how many you had.

the hometown is going to take way too long to be worth it. I'd just say it's a pile of ashes right now.

How long the fourth would take would depend on the character I was playing.

If you're assuming a short essay for each question, then yes that would be totally unreasonable and I'd only be asking ten questions, tops.

Why not just do that instead of asking for 100+ Paragraphs you're probably not going to actually ever read? Not the short essay part, the ten question part.

[Hallavast]

I'm going to go ahead and just say this now because the thread is going to dissolve into a discussion about it anyway.

You're in the wrong here.

The fact that your players are not bringing enormously, ridiculously-expansive backstories to your game (which will, of course, never come up...I mean honestly, what difference does it make to your plot the methods which the PCs self-taught themselves class abilities? You're not going to be re-enacting the training scene from A Knight's Tale here.) is unfortunate, sure, but you're just going to push players away with your unreal expectations.

The specifics of how they learned ability X is not important. What's important is giving a bit of detail to a potential "mentor" from the character's past. To real people, the individuals who teach and train us are often important in our lives. When you risk your life based on your skills, then the manner in which you learned them is probably important to you. For an example, I'll point to the classic bildungsroman in the Poke'mon cartoon. Think of how many mentors and teachers Ash Ketchum had on his way to becoming a "Pokemon Master". The lessons learned from Professor Oak, Brock, Gary, and even Pikachu are integral to who Ash is midway through his quest to "catch 'em all!".

The real fun for a DM at that point is using what the player has provided to create real life character moments and interactions with party members, authority figures, lovers, and friends from the past. The more a player provides, the more a DM can reap to create a real life experience in a fantasy world.

And that should do it for cheesy inspirational speeches today.

[Drakevarg]

10 different non conflicting tropes? That would actually be longer for me.

Given that it's TVTropes, that's probably the most time-consuming question on the list. Of course, I've been on the site enough to have a near-encylopedic knowledge of it, so it would be relatively simple for me to answer that.

the different family members question would depend on how many you had.

With immeadiate family members? It'd be suprising if you had more than four. Short paragraph each... 20 minutes maybe.

the hometown is going to take way too long to be worth it. I'd just say it's a pile of ashes right now.

That would get half a page at least, yeah, if they didn't decided to write a damn splatbook about it. With my players? Half an hour, sure.

How long the fourth would take would depend on the character I was playing.

Another short paragraph. 5 minutes maybe.

Why not just do that instead of asking for 100+ Paragraphs you're probably not going to actually ever read? Not the short essay part, the ten question part.

I would read it. I like reading.

But given that I set 100 as my "high mark" in the same since that I set the works of Shakespeare and J.R.R. Tolkien as my "high mark" in writing, and given that I have two days to actually compile this list, the actual results will be MUCH lower.

[Mystic Muse]

With immeadiate family members? It'd be suprising if you had more than four. Short paragraph each... 20 minutes maybe.

In real life I have 6 just in my immediate family. Including extended, without actually counting I probably have around 70.

This question really depends on how in depth you want to go.

I don't even bother with backstories in my 4E campaign because my character death rate is so high. Heck, my new character may have essentially died in the first session with him.

[Drakevarg]

In real life I have 6 just in my immediate family. Including extended, without actually counting I probably have around 70.

I've got a pretty large extended family, myself. 'S why I knew it'd be a bit unreasonable to ask that.

Four siblings, huh? Must be fun.

I don't even bother with backstories in my 4E campaign because my character death rate is so high. Heck, my new character may have essentially died in the first session with him.

Which would be exactly the sort out outlook I'd like to avoid. Leading a bunch of shiftless bints around by the nose with no particular goal in mind is boring. And about half of my party is pretty much exactly like that. Two of them behave like idiot fratboys and the other two just kind of watch until combat happens.

Two new questions added.

[Godskook]

Apart from the more elaborate ones, like "describe your hometown," I was only expecting a short paragraph each. (Counting each family member as a seperate question for those purposes.) If that would take an average of half an hour per question for you, I think it's time you worked on your writing skills.

Its the research times that are far more gratuitous. TV tropes is poorly laid out and highly intoxicating, asking someone to draw character traits from it is like asking them to open nine thousand bottles of vodka, and determine which tastes best. Alone. In both cases, about half way through, you're so disoriented and confused, that you forget who you are, what you're doing, and who's dead body is lying on the floor.

[Hallavast]

In real life I have 6 just in my immediate family. Including extended, without actually counting I probably have around 70.

This question really depends on how in depth you want to go.

I don't even bother with backstories in my 4E campaign because my character death rate is so high. Heck, my new character may have essentially died in the first session with him.

I have 3 in my immediate family. So 5 minutes each means 30 mins for you. 15 for me. Big deal. If your character has 12 brothers and 8 sisters, you could probably sum that up in 2 paragraphs easily. Just write about the ones you want to potentially include in the game. And if you don't want to make your character's parents/siblings a big part of the game, then you won't. But at least this question forces you to consider parents/siblings as a source of content.

[Drakevarg]

Its the research times that are far more gratuitous. TV tropes is poorly laid out and highly intoxicating, asking someone to draw character traits from it is like asking them to open nine thousand bottles of vodka, and determine which tastes best. Alone. In both cases, about half way through, you're so disoriented and confused, that you forget who you are, what you're doing, and who's dead body is lying on the floor.

TVTropes only applies to the first question, and is the only one that requires any research. I said it was the one that would take the longest to answer for a reason.

[Mystic Muse]

Which would be exactly the sort out outlook I'd like to avoid. Leading a bunch of shiftless bints around by the nose with no particular goal in mind is boring. And about half of my party is pretty much exactly like that. Two of them behave like idiot fratboys and the other two just kind of watch until combat happens.

I don't really play like this though. I'm more than happy to make a background if it's actually going to come up* But when it's not actually going to come up and my character is likely to die within two sessions anyway** I just don't see the point.

* Like in this one campaign I was playing online with Archpaladin Zousha.
** My character contracted A level 16 disease at level 10 and I had a 10% chance of not contracting it. Now, since I'm pretty sure the party doesn't have remove disease I need to roll a natural 20 to get rid of it. If I don't I then have to roll 2 natural 20s or a 15 when I don't have all my stuff on to stay stable. If I don't, I die.

I have 3 in my immediate family. So 5 minutes each means 30 mins for you. 15 for me. Big deal. I

I agree. However, when there are 99 other questions I have to answer, even assuming the rest only take 5 minutes each, that's 525 minutes or roughly 8 and a half hours of preparation on a character's background.

[Drakevarg]

I agree. However, when there are 99 other questions I have to answer, even assuming the rest only take 5 minutes each, that's 525 minutes or roughly 8 and a half hours of preparation on a character's background.

I'll remind you again that 100 questions was the (intentionally) unrealistically high mark I set for myself. Honestly, if I come up with 20 by Wednesday, I'll be suprised.

[Mystic Muse]

I'll remind you again that 100 questions was the (intentionally) unrealistically high mark I set for myself. Honestly, if I come up with 20 by Wednesday, I'll be suprised.

Don't know how I missed that.

Still, I say just ten questions should be enough to cover anything that'll come up.

[Drakevarg]

Four more questions added.

[Mystic Muse]

is number 8 really ever going to come up? I guess it will if you're bringing it up but it doesn't seem like something that's going to happen very often.

Instead of ten tropes on TVtropes how about ten adjectives to describe your character? Those are easier to find without losing 5 hours of your life in the process.

[ranagrande]

I don't know how your players feel about it, but I probably wouldn't be willing to do that.

[Drakevarg]

is number 8 really ever going to come up? I guess it will if you're bringing it up but it doesn't seem like something that's going to happen very often.

Vengeful ex-lover? Beloved twoo wuv murdered for extra angst? Romance has an interesting habit of being a gold mine for plot hooks.

Instead of ten tropes on TVtropes how about ten adjectives to describe your character? Those are easier to find without losing 5 hours of your life in the process.

Tell me honestly; have you ever regretted those wasted hours except in retrospect?

[Mystic Muse]

Tell me honestly; have you ever regretted those wasted hours except in retrospect?

No, but then I had time to spare. If I don't because I have school and a job for example, my DM telling me "Go waste 5 hours looking up stuff for a character that's probably going to die in two sessions anyway" I'd kindly remind him that there are things that are more important in life than D&D.

Vengeful ex-lover? Beloved twoo wuv murdered for extra angst? Romance has an interesting habit of being a gold mine for plot hooks.

Really? those both seem incredibly boring to me. In a movie maybe but I don't actually want to play that guy in a D&D game.

[Drakevarg]

No, but then I had time to spare. If I don't because I have school and a job for example, my DM telling me "Go waste 5 hours looking up stuff for a character that's probably going to die in two sessions anyway" I'd kindly remind him that there are things that are more important in life than D&D.

Then perhaps you should not have set aside your afternoon to show up and fill out my questionnaire until you did have the time to spare.

And my players tend to last a bit longer than two sessions. Maybe four. And it's getting better as I figure out the exact location of the breaking point. Heart surgery with a sledgehammer and all.

Really? those both seem incredibly boring to me.

It's all in the execution.

[Mystic Muse]

I'm going to hold off on any more comments until I see what the finalized list looks like. Right now though, I have the feeling it'll drive your players away.

[Drakevarg]

I'm going to hold off on any more comments until I see what the finalized list looks like.

Chances are the finalized list will look like whatever's in that first post by the time I fall asleep tomorow.

Right now though, I have the feeling it'll drive your players away.

Oh, I most certaintly hope so. To be honest, the two fratboy-types I'd rather just be rid of, but it's a bit uncooth to just request that they **** off.

And one of the apathetic ones is the girlfriend of one of the fratboys, I wouldn't be suprised if she left too. Though she does seem to be rather fond of the game despite not taking a very active role.

[Mystic Muse]

Oh, I most certaintly hope so. To be honest, the two fratboy-types I'd rather just be rid of, but it's a bit uncooth to just request that they **** off.

as opposed to saying "make a character sheet that'll take 8 hours to make or **** off"?

[bokodasu]

Yeah, there's no way I'd do this and I like doing character backgrounds. But that's not important, since I'm not one of your players; what's important is that your players, as described, do not want this sort of game.

Take hold of your reproductive organs of choice and tell them to **** off, if you don't want to play with them. Weirdly passive-aggressive character building demands are... weirdly passive-aggressive. And not at all going to make anyone say, "oh my, I've been playing wrong all this time! I shall now work up a fully-fleshed character and begin striving for the Oscars of Role Playing!"