Pathfinder 1E Question of Character Details

Hey there all,

So, I am trying to source as much data as I can for the Edge of Eventide campaign and its characters, and I don't want to get caught in the trap of only listening to sources that are already sold on a concept. To that end, I thought I would as a few questions of the crowd here on ENworld to make sure I've got my bases covered.

So, the campaign that I am developing comes with the characters provided, each one with a backstory, personality, secrets, and goals. I am currently trying to work out what I should include in each character dossier that will be given to the players. So far, I have the following:

Stat Block
Illustration
History
Family
Personality
Relationships (with the other PCs)
Secrets and Goals
New Rules

So.. here is the question. Is that too much? Not enough? Is there anything I am obviously missing? I realize that playing a pregenerated character is not everyone's cup of tea, but assuming that you were playing, is that enough?

If you need more context, you can check out the Edge of Eventide page or its Patreon.

Thanks for your help!

That sounds like enough to me. If it were my campaign, the relationships section would also include at least one, maybe more, relationships to NPCs, as those are a really important tool for the DM to direct the story (especially when it gets offtrack).

This may be more of a suggestion for the NPCs in the adventure, which could also be incorporated into the pregens, but a lot of modules go on and on about NPCs backstories without ever giving the DM a portrayal they can use at the table to make the character come to life. A character whose hair is always in her face or in her mouth, or who likes to lean in too close and whisper, or holds his head back to look down his nose at whoever he talks to--these details are gold for when the DM has to switch quickly back and forth between various NPCs. The physicality of these mannerisms helps her "find the character" quickly.

The reason I think this might be relevant to the pregens is that often the lamest PCs in many a campaign I've played in have been those with long involved backstories--but no particular individuating details to actually portray at the table, no mannerisms, nothing to make that character distinct in actual play. Such actor-like details should certainly be on the pregens' sheets.

Finally, the most important part of the pregen personalities, that I think really needs to be there for the players, is their weaknesses: In what situations is this character going to make a suboptimal decision or get the whole party in trouble or run away or flake out or whatever. Nothing has made for more memorable PCs in my past campaigns than characters with strong, known weaknesses to their personality--and this gets glossed over too often in Pathfinder campaigns, I think.

(In my campaign, no more than once a session, when a player makes a wrong or strongly non-optimal choice for their character because it would be what their character would actually do, given the flaws of their personality, I reward them with one of the Flashback cards Paizo put out a few years ago.)

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

Mannerisms is a good catch and something I will make sure to include in the character descriptions. The characters will each have a number of relationships to various NPCs that are set to appear in the campaign, as for many of them the start of the adventure is a homecoming of sorts, making that sort of information vital to their experience.

Lastly... when it comes to weaknesses. Yeah. No worries there at all. Making characters with memorable and engaging flaws is half the reason I am doing this. I really want this campaign to go deeper, be a bit more involved that your ordinary adventure.

My preferences is to start the characters with relatively little backstory, and then let the character's history grow both forwards and backwards, inventing flashbacks and background characters as needed. This makes for campaign-relevant subplots, as opposed to plots about lost uncles who never actually appear in the story.