|
I have long realized that my players are lazy bums. They will not write a background unless i pester them about it for a while and then they will do it grudgingly. So i resorted to asking them some questions and writing their answers down, then outlining their background for them and letting them fill in the blanks. It has worked like a charm. But i think that i do not have enough/good enough questions. Any suggestions?
I start with standards
Where is he/she from?
Any family?
Any happy childhood/adolescence memories?
Any sad memories?
Enemies?
Morals?
Hobbies?
Personality wise questions...
I can see what you are trying to do by getting the players to think about their characters as more than a collection of numbers but childhood memories and such are a little irrelevant IMO.
Try this and see if you can get a better response.
What is your character like being he has such a high/low (insert stat score here) When did they realize that they were stronger/tougher/more nimble/better able to grasp arcane concepts etc. than their peers. Remember the average is a 10, even a 14 str is rare and a 18 is stupid strong.
One thing I like to ask is Why did your character chose to become X.
What made her become a devoted cleric as opposed to a devoted wife/mother or any other traditional role for their gender.
Why did a fighter pick up a sword and learn to kill other men better than an average solider rather than becoming a pig farmer like his ancestors.
How does your family react to your occupation, Is Mother proud her daughter is skewering hydras and having audiences with the local baron or is she scandalized that HER daughter out of all the other daughters in the town was the one that doesn't know her proper place.
The guys don't get off any easier. What kind of man becomes a wizard after all. How did he learn his craft at an academy or from his crazy old grandmother?
How could his only son turn to a life or crime and ner'do well.
How could his son bring the such shame onto the family as becoming a wandering minstrel, You know what they say about men like that. They never settle down they break the hearts of countless maidens wherever they go, proving they are NOT to be trusted.
That's how I add flavor to my characters. My current priest of Wee Jass has 6 older brothers making him the 7th son of the 7th son. He was promised to the temple when he was born because his father offered him to the traveling priest if he would use his curing magics on his wife. Other wise she would have died in labor.
Remember that to adventurers gold rains from the heavens every time you kill something but to a farmer it takes hard work to scrap up a silver.
So at the age of 11 I was packed off to cauldron and began working as a librarian and general errand boy. Once I took my vows I became a full priest and continued in the library but also went around the city collecting the dead and performing last rites.
I still see my family and they are pleased with my choice to embrace my lot in life but they are a little weirded out by my powers and my rather grim demeanor so I don't go home very often. I don't even use their sur name any more I am know as Dorien the grey. I dress in the black and grey robes of my office and due to recent events of rescuing some orphans, breaking up a slave ring and stopping the city from flooding my group and through me my temple are becoming very well received by every citizen high and low alike. at least for now.
I hope my suggestions help. Good gaming.
|
|
@LazarX
Did i mention it works like a charm? I did. They like the new method. Partly because i do some of their work for them, and all they need is think of details.
As for childhood memories, well, the game assumes that most characters begin adventuring at a ripe age of 17-18 so childhood memories are important as they are recent.
However, thanks for the advice.
I love this kind of thing! I always ask myself very similar questions, I like to wonder who my characters were before they picked up the sword. Most often I ask myself these things over the course of the game though and only the basics at creation.
Was his childhood hard? Easy?
What was the relationship with family?
Was there one singular event that made him what he is?
Did he have any friends? Still have friends?
Why is this stat so much higher than this stat?
Why does he use that weapon? Why not this weapon?
What's his fears? His joys? Likes and dislikes?
What's his relationship with women like? With men? With other races? His party?
What's notable about his temperament?
Does he have any vices? Virtues? (Picked up from World of Darkness, haha)
If I think of anything else I'll drop back, but that's it for now I think. I got to get back to work!
I'd add, "Why are you drawn to adventuring?"
Something that helps the player think about their character's goals beyond fulfilling the aims of a specific adventure hook. (And if they're not drawn to adventuring, have them explain why too.)
And also, "How do you meet the other members of the party?"
This last one isn't required for character creation, but I find determining that the party members already know each other before the story begins really helps the group work as a team. This is also a discussion the players can have with each other--which helps early OOC cohesion as well as IC.
Many players don't want to (or can't) come up with an incredibly detailed backstory (complete with childhood memories and likes/dislikes) before they even play the character. Maybe they don't want to go through all of that trouble only to have the character die due to a lucky roll in the first encounter, maybe they haven't been able toget a good enough "feel" for the character until they've had a chance to roleplay them a bit. Backstory doesn't always have to precede story- Chuck Palahniuk, the writer of Fight Club, didn't realize the connection between the two main characters (omitted in case nobody's seen/read Fight Club) until he was halfway finished writing the book.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
Of characters I've made, my favorites have been the ones who were nothing but stats and a vague idea during their first session, and then their personalities evolved organically over time. The character whose personality I spent the most time on ahead of time ended up being my flattest, least-interesting character.
So if I was asking to join your group, would you make me fill out that questionnaire anyway, or would you be open to the idea of living, organic characters?
Of characters I've made, my favorites have been the ones who were nothing but stats and a vague idea during their first session, and then their personalities evolved organically over time. The character whose personality I spent the most time on ahead of time ended up being my flattest, least-interesting character.
So if I was asking to join your group, would you make me fill out that questionnaire anyway, or would you be open to the idea of living, organic characters?
One isn't necessarily exclusive of the other, do both.
I have changed my concepts and retrained character levels to take advantage of a great story line my DM came up with while gaming but it didn't change my background.In one shadowrun game I played an elf that didn't know he was an elf because he looked completely human, he was a proud member of Polly Humansis, think KKK only race not color of the skin, once it was revealed that he was in fact an elf he still went on hating other races just not elves as much. The backgrounds can be used to enhance the current story or you can ignore them once you begin adventuring.
I just like having something to make the character more than a collection of numbers before we kill the first orc/goblin/skeleton or whatever other CR 1 creatures we are facing.
|
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
I just like having something to make the character more than a collection of numbers before we kill the first orc/goblin/skeleton or whatever other CR 1 creatures we are facing.
Heh, one of my aforementioned "mechanics first" characters didn't even have a name when I arrived at the table. Running out of time, I rolled dice to determine the first two letters of his name, to help me decide.
JJ.
So I played J.J. the half-elf rogue, who turned out to be not too much into social niceties but possessed of a stronger-than-you'd-expect maternal instinct. All in all it was something of a heartwarming session. :)
To each his own, I guess. Maybe I'm different due to having cut my teeth on Magic: the Gathering, where you have to extract the flavor from a line of text at the bottom of a few of your cards. Seems like I can get a lot more flavor mileage out of a "pile of stats" than what I hear from most people. Oh well.
I just like having something to make the character more than a collection of numbers before we kill the first orc/goblin/skeleton or whatever other CR 1 creatures we are facing.Heh, one of my aforementioned "mechanics first" characters didn't even have a name when I arrived at the table. Running out of time, I rolled dice to determine the first two letters of his name, to help me decide.
JJ.
So I played J.J. the half-elf rogue, who turned out to be not too much into social niceties but possessed of a stronger-than-you'd-expect maternal instinct. All in all it was something of a heartwarming session. :)
To each his own, I guess. Maybe I'm different due to having cut my teeth on Magic: the Gathering, where you have to extract the flavor from a line of text at the bottom of a few of your cards. Seems like I can get a lot more flavor mileage out of a "pile of stats" than what I hear from most people. Oh well. [/QUO
as long as we are both having fun then that's whats important.