I was thinking about house rules today and came up with an idea we have probably seen a few dozen ideas, but I don't come to this section often so don't know for sure.
The idea is to give each player a questionnaire about their character's background, maybe 10-20 questions. If the player answers the questions he would get some kind of minor bonus at character creation.
So my two questions is What kind of questions and what kind of bonus?
Some questions I have come up with are
Where is he/she from
What does she value most
What is she afraid of
Describe her family
Why adventure
Where did they learn their skills
For a bonus I was thinking an extra trait...
I have offered an extra trait for a half page (minimum) background and/or description. Trait chosen by me as inpsired by said write up.
Traits are a good way to be impactful without running into the "this is useless why bother" territory or the "this is too powerful and will make other players jealous".
I have an interesting thing I do for backgrounds, using background skills from unchained with some extra bonuses. I give each player 3 choices, based on their campaign trait.
Here is an example, from the giant slayer ap (and a copy of the original e-mail)...
"These are Background Skills tied specifically to your class and Campaign Trait, so it will be different for each player. I will give you sets to choose from based on your class and possibly race.
After that, will be using Background Skills from Pathfinder Unchained. These take up your 1st level Background Skills. I am only giving the choices once your Campaign Trait is firm; after that, you may change Skills around if you feel the need to better match your set choice.
As an example, this is for xxxplayerxxx, Half-Elf Trunua Native Hunter...
Ok, you get to pick one set of these as a Trunua Native:
If you are militia:
PS (soldier) and Lore (Trunua Community & Residents). Lore is a class skill for all classes. The Lore acts as Knowledge (Local) and Knowledge (Geography), but just for Trunua and it's immediate area. If you have ranks in Knowledge (geography), you may take 10 within Trunua. If you have ranks in Knowledge (local), you may Take 10 for checks within Trunua. If you have ranks in Diplomacy, you may Take 10 to Gather Information within Trunua.
Second choice, if you are a militia scout;
PS (scout) and Lore (Trunua environs). This acts as Knowledge (Geography) within Trunua and its surrounding areas; if you have ranks in Knowledge (geography), you may Take 10 for Trunua. In addition, this may substitute for Stealth within Trunua and its environs; if you have ranks in Stealth, you may Take 10 within Trunua environs.
Final choice is you are a hunter for the community.
PS (hunter) and Lore (Trunua habitat). The Lore acts as Knowledge (geography) within Trunua environs; if you have ranks in Knowledge (geography), you may Take 10 within Trunua environs. It also acts as Knowledge (nature) within Trunua environs; if you have Ranks in Knowledge (nature), you may Take 10 within Trunua environs.
xxxPlayerxxx, please forward to player and player; I will send them choices once they have race, class and campaign traits selected.
Thanks!"
Since we are in the homebrew area, I thought I would share what I do. I have two more examples for the same campaign, if you would like to see them...
The full system I have used was to offer a 3rd trait, chosen by gm, for one of the following: a background/description write up(this gives the player a chance to influence the trait choice), a sketch of the party, maintaining a party loot list, journal, or map library, help w mapping/ providing minis for f2f games.
Tried to set it up so each player would be able to do one of these, and they would contribute to the game over all.
I've always given out some free XP for a background (usually 100 xp/level of the character).
I reward with an extra build point or so, More than one if it gives me material to use.
Our GM gave us an additional hero point for having a background. He also gives XP for in-character journal entries after each session. More than half of our group journals regularly.