[Forked Thread] What about backgrounds?

[jdrakeh]

Forked from: Rant -- GM Control, Taking it Too Far?

There is some discussion later in the linked thread (above) about the potential for players to abuse character backgrounds and it occurred to me that the best way to stop this kind of abuse dead in its tracks without the GM stomping all over the player's charcter ownership is to make character background creation part of the game's rules. Few games, however, seem to do this.

Games that do take this approach are the various Mekton core rule books, Burning Wheel and Burning Empires, Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game, Traveller, and. . . ah. . . past that, I'm at a loss. Now, to be clear, I'm not talking about games that let you buy background traits or adavantages/disadvantages/skills however you see fit but, rather, games that use 'life paths' to randomly or semi-randomly create an entire character history.

Task Force Games also had some books that could ostensibly be used with any system to this end though, in practice, some life paths therein seemed to be pretty poorly mapped out. Also, good luck finding these books at a reasonable price

Are there any other currently in-print games or supplements that allow for 'life path' background creation?

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I seem to recall that Cyberpunk 2020 had life path character creation. No idea if the first or third versions did or do.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Dragon Warriors, although it doesn't have a lifepath system per se, does suggest that you randomly determine your parentage, and thus station (etc.) in society. That's by default, anyway. Also, unless you're for example a Sorcerer, there's rather little chance that you can read or write. Also, additional languages are random (i.e., the number of them, and sometimes the specific languages as well, the latter when it comes to ancient or exotic tongues).

Oh, and it's 3d6 in order. Old skool, bay-bee.

But yeah, there's um. . . Artesia, I think? Because, well, that's Fuzion-based. Hrm, can't think of much else right now. . .

 

[Mallus]

I solved this potential problem by gaming with people I trust... or perhaps it's better to say we built up the trust and mutual respect required for the DM to run with virtually any player idea/background. I've found that if the default attitude at the table is trust, then people act in a manner worthy of trust. If the default attitude is suspicion/low-level paranoia, then the game frequently becomes one of the players constantly trying to wheedle advantages out of the DM.

Never look for a rule to solve a personal problem I always say.

edit: hmmm, as for answering the actual question posed... I hear Burning Wheel has great life path rules.

 

[timbannock]

I LOVED the lifepaths in Mekton and similar games, because of the immersion factor. I built similar ones for D&D, but haven't used them much. Mine were based off this rather nice one:

Character Lifepath (DnD Variant Rule - D&D Wiki)

Totally worth checking out!

 

[Prisoner6]

One of the people I DM with uses has created a character background document which contains a lot of questions designed to focus character creation. Questions include things such as "What were your parents professions?" or "Who was your best childhood friend?"

It's not exactly integrating lifepath into character creation, like say Traveler, but I view that as a good thing. Just having the questions there forces the player to address issues that one imght inclined to gloss over. As a result the PC tends to be much more rounded, deep, and coherent. On the other hand, the development is left completely up the the player - in the form of questions - which means that the PC turns out just the way one wants.

Here's my point: when designing a PC, we usually have some concept in mind - let's say I want my character to be a Scholarly Paladin (never mind what that ism it's just what I want). Using a formal set of rules to generate my character's background could allow me to create the character I want, but in practice it really only provides opportunity to detrail my desires. I might blow a die roll, or follow a flow chart down a path that really isn't the way I want to go. Suddenly I no longer have the character I want because the rules couldn't accommodate my imagination.

(I remember *wanting* to create a certain character in Traveller and having to create character after character after character to have none of them work out because I wasn't getting the right rolls. Of course now I would just say "screw it" and create the character I wanted, but that futher illustrates my point. One ultimately ends up doing an end-around the integrated character generators to get the characters one wants. So what's the point of the intergrated generator?)

So trying to get my ramblings back on track with the thread:

(a) building one's own set of rules for charcter background generation is doable
(b) such a set of rules needs to start in the middle, so that the end character concept isn't junked.
(c) I've never seen a system that allows for (b), so option (a) is probably the best.

 

[Simm]

The original Oriental Adventures honour rule have a lot to do with character and family history and are at least partially based on character race and class. Mechwarrior 3rd edition and CBT:RPG both have a mixed point buy/lifepath creation system, Mechwarrior 1st edition doesn't, and I'm not sure about second.

 

[I'm A Banana]

While I'm kind of personally a fan of these systems, they fall by the wayside for a pretty good reason: most of the time when players create a character, they want to control who their character is, rather than have random die rolls determine who their character is. It's how D&D evolved from "3d6 in order!" to "here's some scores, put them wherever," after all.

Still, I am partial to background systems, and like it when they're well fleshed out but also simple and balanced within each other (so that dirt farmers can do something special, too!).

 

[Thanael]

This one is in print, so to speak: Second Rat Games - Background Noise

As for OOP of fanmade:

You might want to check out the following books by Paul Jaquay /Task Force Games:
Central Casting: Heroes For Tomorrow
Central Casting: Heroes Now!
Central Casting: Heroes of Legend
(Those are excellent generic books! Long out of print though, and they fetch quite a price on ebay. Here are some descriptions: Fantasy & Sci-Fi Campaign Building Guides - Wayne's World of Books)

In the 1E Unearthed Arcana there are tables where you roll the character's social class (access to certain classes has prerequisites in this table, i.e. you can't be a Paladin if your from a very poor background.). The World of Greyhawk boxed set has tables for the home region and I believe either City of Greyhawk or the later Player's Guide to Greyhawk let's you roll social class again and you can gain a few slight benefits/contacts.

For D&D I sometimes use the Character Background tables from Unearthed Arcana.

There's also the web enhancement to the Hero Builder's Guide: NPC Background Generator


Some googling and reading Enworld's
Lifepath thread1
Lifepath thread2

...revealed these:
Character Lifepath on dandwiki
Atomik Lifepath pdf
Lifepath (very interesting, the navigation is a bit strange but this is the most complex system i have found yet, aside from Central Casting.)


I love such tables. I have several fanmade ones for Shadowrun. I often use a simple fanmade one fitting the system together with the apprpriate Central Casting book

 

[jdrakeh]

This one is in print, so to speak: Second Rat Games - Background Noise

Cool! Thanks for the link

Central Casting: Heroes For Tomorrow
Central Casting: Heroes Now!
Central Casting: Heroes of Legend

I could remember who published these books, but not the titles. Again, thank you!

In the 1E Unearthed Arcana there are tables where you roll the character's social class (access to certain classes has prerequisites in this table, i.e. you can't be a Paladin if your from a very poor background.). The World of Greyhawk boxed set has tables for the home region and I believe either City of Greyhawk or the later Player's Guide to Greyhawk let's you roll social class again and you can gain a few slight benefits/contacts.

For D&D I sometimes use the Character Background tables from Unearthed Arcana.

None of that is really of the same order as an entire life path, though. It's neat flavor, yes, but dozens of games have options for generating a handful of background details.

There's also the web enhancement to the Hero Builder's Guide: NPC Background Generator


Some googling and reading Enworld's
Lifepath thread1
Lifepath thread2

...revealed these:
Character Lifepath on dandwiki
Atomik Lifepath pdf
Lifepath (very interesting, the navigation is a bit strange but this is the most complex system i have found yet, aside from Central Casting.)

Very clever! Thanks so much for taking the time to dig up those links