Character Creation

[DongShenYin]

As a GM of a more storytelling bent, I want my players to create a compelling, full-of-plothooks characters. However, I want to help them more than just saying, "Write up three paragraphs of your character's backstory" What sort of questions should I have the players think about that would help them along?

Write your character description with a question.

Will Toram Jr. live up to his father's title, Toram the Great?

Write your character description with a verb.

Toram Jr seeks all his father's arcane knowledge.

Um... what else can I have the players do?

 

[Roman]

Well, the usual stuff.

For example:

1) Please mention any close relatives the character has and his/her relationships with them.

2) Please describe what motivates the character.

3) Please state the personality flaws of the chatacter.

 

[Yair]

"please try to provide me with plot hooks" might work.
As would rewards with some players. I liked FATE's method of handling this - essentially, in D&D terms, the DM promises to give a little XP award to the player whenever his background comes up. So if for example he wrties his character is greedy or that he owes a favor to a local mob man, and the DM uses that, he grants him XP. That should encourage the players to come up with plot hooks and development points... Be sure to lower these to a reasonable number.

Personally, the hard part for me is getting some of them to write anything at all...

 

[iblis]

As a GM of a more storytelling bent, I want my players to create a compelling, full-of-plothooks characters. However, I want to help them more than just saying, "Write up three paragraphs of your character's backstory" What sort of questions should I have the players think about that would help them along?

Weeeeell.......

If you want compelling, full-of-plothooks, I'd say maybe a page or two minimum....?

But each to their own. I realise this wouldn't suit a lot of people, and it's not necessarily better than writing less background; it's just what I prefer as GM or as player, ideally that is. And not everybody wishes to write prose or anything that approaches it warily from a great distance, for that matter. Understandably too.

I'm not sure what you already would have covered, so I don't know what specifically to suggest. Of course, 'the basics' is the place to start : P.O.B, age, general circumstances surrounding conception and birth and early childhood, family members originally, family members now - including the extendeds and in-laws etc., friends past and/or present, lovers past and/or present, enemies past and/or present, other social ties past and present, general outlook past and present, likes, dislikes, loves, hates, hopes, fears, feelings about various iffy or touchy subjects (such as sanctity of life, vengeance, politics, religion, personal rights and freedoms etc....), personal strengths, personal weaknesses, PC's perception of self, others' perceptions of PC, physical description, distinctive features, clothing and style..........

Well, I'm not working from a list, so that could go on for a while. I'll shut myself up there.

Once those points above are addressed, there's room for a lot more detailed and possibly difficult questions to be answered, but really.....how appealing would that task be in general? Hrm. Not overly, I'm thinking.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Online personality tests can be somewhat amusing. Answer them in character and see what you get back. Really more suitable for modern games, IMO.

Asking for a friend and enemy outsider the party was helpful. Lots of NPCs I could drop in.

Steering the questions towards the specific campaign can work well. Getting them to put their character in the 'startup' situation of the game worked well for me.

I tie the number of points for stat point buy to the background the PCs produce. They get an extra point for each of my questions they answer (total of 4). Found this serves as a very good way of getting background.

Personally I like to get about half a side of stuff, with some nice punchy plot hooks and nothing too complicated to wade through. Find it provides plenty of material without making me go insane.

 

[Bagpuss]

Write your character discription as a Haiku.

Write your character backstory as sung by a bard in the local tavern.

Write your character discription as if scrawled on the walls in the toilet of the same tavern.

 

[knifespeaks]

Start 'em off at 0 level and have them roleplay their way to level 1 and a class. Only takes a few hours, an encounter or two.

 

[Li Shenron]

If they start at mid-high level, you could also ask them to write a single sentence about each magic item they possess (well, not potions or scrolls...) to tell how they came into the possess of it. At level 1 is not good because everyone is looking forward to replace the equipment with something better, so it won't last long

Remember that religion is always a good source for background and roleplay. From the descriptions in e.g. Faith & Pantheons a character can get lots of ideas.

 

[Thanee]

"please try to provide me with plot hooks" might work.

Yep, I'd just talk to them about what you are looking for and why you want them to write down an extensive background story.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Rel]

I tie the number of points for stat point buy to the background the PCs produce. They get an extra point for each of my questions they answer (total of 4). Found this serves as a very good way of getting background.

Same here. But I provide a lot more ways of getting the points than there are points to get.

For example, my list might include:

- 1 point for at least one typed page of background
- 1 point for being from the town where the adventure will start provided that the player gives details for at least 2 local NPC's
- 1 point for giving details of at least 4 NPC's from the character's past
- 1 point for having some driving goal that the PC wants to accomplish during the course of the campaign.
- 1 point for knowing at least two of the other PC's including a brief description of how you met
- 1 point for fully describing the PC's perspective on his religion
- 1 point for having a dark secret from the past of the PC or his family
- 1 point for writing two brief plot hooks that might be worked into the campaign at some point

Starting from a base 28 point buy, you can get up to 4 of these points in addition.

Alternately you can do what our current GM did. We all sat down together to make our PC's. He asked us to provide any background information we wanted to that pertained to our lives before we met each other. Then he gathered up the characters and he is writing our backgrounds for us that detail how we met and some of our early adventures together. This obviously works best at a level higher than first or in a system where the PC's start out with a bit more skill under their belts than 1st level D&D characters do (as is the case for Dark Ages: Mage, which is what we're playing).