anonystu
J'Accuse PirateCat!
I wanted to both share this, in case it helps anybody else out, and ask for help if anybody has suggestions to make this better.
For my upcoming game (an urban-intrigue/police procedural fantasy game), I wanted to get characters who were detailed, who already had lives going on, and who have both things they care about, goals they want to pursue, and a feel of being a real person with aspriations (heroic or otherwise). Asking players to write backgrounds, in my experience, gets some people not far at all, and even those who get into writing backgrounds, tend to create things which are kind of static, in the past. I also want to give players the opportunity to sort of choose what they like roleplaying: if they want a romantic subplot, they should be able to say that. If they want treachery and vengenance, well, give it to them.
So, to try and provoke characters that would be interesting, complicated, and generate lots of plot hooks for me by default, without being too overly long, I've passed out this questionaire:
1) Name three goals for your character. At least one of these should be short-term.
2) Name three faults, rivals, flaws, adversaries, or complications which will prevent you from accomplishing these goals.
3) Name three people that your character interacts, or is likely to interact with on a regular basis. At least one of them should be appropriate for a PC (but not a PC currently).
4) Name three things that your character has allegiance to, in order. Allegiances can be anything, from people to places to ideas to things.
5) Name the three most important aspects of your personality.
6) Name three things that people are likely to visually notice about you upon meeting you.
I've also required that all PC's know each other through a maximum of two degrees (A knows B knows C, where ABC are all PC's), but that may fit your game less. So, do people find this useful? Are their questions I'm missing? Questions you'd take out?
(Edit: Changed wording of 3 slightly. I mean for 3 to be both a source of NPC's the players want to roleplay with, and a source of PC's in case of adding players, or character death/retirement.
For my upcoming game (an urban-intrigue/police procedural fantasy game), I wanted to get characters who were detailed, who already had lives going on, and who have both things they care about, goals they want to pursue, and a feel of being a real person with aspriations (heroic or otherwise). Asking players to write backgrounds, in my experience, gets some people not far at all, and even those who get into writing backgrounds, tend to create things which are kind of static, in the past. I also want to give players the opportunity to sort of choose what they like roleplaying: if they want a romantic subplot, they should be able to say that. If they want treachery and vengenance, well, give it to them.
So, to try and provoke characters that would be interesting, complicated, and generate lots of plot hooks for me by default, without being too overly long, I've passed out this questionaire:
1) Name three goals for your character. At least one of these should be short-term.
2) Name three faults, rivals, flaws, adversaries, or complications which will prevent you from accomplishing these goals.
3) Name three people that your character interacts, or is likely to interact with on a regular basis. At least one of them should be appropriate for a PC (but not a PC currently).
4) Name three things that your character has allegiance to, in order. Allegiances can be anything, from people to places to ideas to things.
5) Name the three most important aspects of your personality.
6) Name three things that people are likely to visually notice about you upon meeting you.
I've also required that all PC's know each other through a maximum of two degrees (A knows B knows C, where ABC are all PC's), but that may fit your game less. So, do people find this useful? Are their questions I'm missing? Questions you'd take out?
(Edit: Changed wording of 3 slightly. I mean for 3 to be both a source of NPC's the players want to roleplay with, and a source of PC's in case of adding players, or character death/retirement.
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