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<blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 7278377" data-attributes="member: 2205">That's not terribly different than the White Star serials idea; which is another one I like.&nbsp; The way that they do it is randomized and comes with modest mechanical implications, but I still like the notion of a simple form-fill background creator.&nbsp; Each line gets little more than a sentence or even sentence fragment.&nbsp; <ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Home(world)—White Star is space opera, so it has options like &quot;high gravity world&quot; or &quot;Between the stars&quot; for people born in mobile star fleet environments rather than a &quot;world&quot; per se.&nbsp; But the idea can be easily adapted to fantasy.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Family—ranges from &quot;You have a strong relationship with your family&quot; down to &quot;You have an antagonistic relationship with your family&quot; and at the end &quot;You have no idea who your family is and were raised as an orphan.&quot;</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Youth—presumes that you had a more adventurous than normal childhood; ranging from &quot;You were sold into slavery as a child&quot; to &quot;You are a graduate of a military boarding school.&quot;</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">First Adventure—everything from &quot;Captured by Outlaws&quot;; &quot;Your home planet was destroyed&quot; to &quot;Hired as an assistant&quot;</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Adversaries—I love this one; a built in nemesis who can show up (or have minions who do so) to try and thwart your plans during the campaign.&nbsp; The flipside of this is...</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Allies—everything from a loyal street rat who can give you information to a wise old space wizard (Old Ben Kenobi) who pops in and checks on you every so often.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">Critical Event—a more risky proposition (from both the player and GM's perspective); everything from &quot;You won a starship in a game of chance&quot; to &quot;Your character died during chargen a la Traveller.&nbsp; Start over!&quot;</li>
</ul>I'm not suggesting that this exact method is desirable, but I do think that both that and the Fate Phase Trio systems are optimized for coming up with stuff that's actually useful and interesting in game and tends to avoid the drawn out fan-fiction-like nature of character backgrounds that, honestly, both players and GMs aren't quite sure what to do with.All that said; I'm not against players writing up lengthy character bios if they want to.&nbsp; Like some posters have said here earlier, though—I can't guarantee that I'll read them, and even if I do, that I'll remember anything substantive from it after the fact.&nbsp; And don't come crying to me if you put all that work into it and your character gets killed by a flubbed roll half an hour into the first session (honestly; that isn't very likely.&nbsp; But it could happen.)&nbsp; I just prefer backgrounds that are more useful and interesting than a short story.&nbsp; While in general, I'm not necessarily a fan of coming up with more rules, I have seen a few systems that actually work very well to create character backgrounds that are useful.&nbsp; The Phase Trio works great at generating role-playing opportunities between players, and the White Star system is chock-full of actual, usable things that a GM can really sink his teeth into to create interesting, character-specific campaign elements.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Desdichado, post: 7278377, member: 2205"] That's not terribly different than the White Star serials idea; which is another one I like. The way that they do it is randomized and comes with modest mechanical implications, but I still like the notion of a simple form-fill background creator. Each line gets little more than a sentence or even sentence fragment. [list] [*]Home(world)—White Star is space opera, so it has options like "high gravity world" or "Between the stars" for people born in mobile star fleet environments rather than a "world" per se. But the idea can be easily adapted to fantasy. [*]Family—ranges from "You have a strong relationship with your family" down to "You have an antagonistic relationship with your family" and at the end "You have no idea who your family is and were raised as an orphan." [*]Youth—presumes that you had a more adventurous than normal childhood; ranging from "You were sold into slavery as a child" to "You are a graduate of a military boarding school." [*]First Adventure—everything from "Captured by Outlaws"; "Your home planet was destroyed" to "Hired as an assistant" [*]Adversaries—I [I]love[/I] this one; a built in nemesis who can show up (or have minions who do so) to try and thwart your plans during the campaign. The flipside of this is... [*]Allies—everything from a loyal street rat who can give you information to a wise old space wizard (Old Ben Kenobi) who pops in and checks on you every so often. [*]Critical Event—a more risky proposition (from both the player and GM's perspective); everything from "You won a starship in a game of chance" to "Your character died during chargen a la Traveller. Start over!" [/list] I'm not suggesting that this exact method is desirable, but I do think that both that and the Fate Phase Trio systems are optimized for coming up with stuff that's [I]actually useful and interesting in game[/I] and tends to avoid the drawn out fan-fiction-like nature of character backgrounds that, honestly, both players and GMs aren't quite sure what to do with. All that said; I'm not against players writing up lengthy character bios if they want to. Like some posters have said here earlier, though—I can't guarantee that I'll read them, and even if I do, that I'll remember anything substantive from it after the fact. And don't come crying to me if you put all that work into it and your character gets killed by a flubbed roll half an hour into the first session (honestly; that isn't very likely. But it [I]could[/I] happen.) I just prefer backgrounds that are more useful and interesting than a short story. While in general, I'm not necessarily a fan of coming up with more rules, I have seen a few systems that actually work very well to create character backgrounds that are useful. The Phase Trio works great at generating role-playing opportunities between players, and the White Star system is chock-full of actual, usable things that a GM can really sink his teeth into to create interesting, character-specific campaign elements. [/QUOTE]

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