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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nytmare" data-source="post: 5304966" data-attributes="member: 55178">My suggestion was going to be to have them create elements of the world that they'd be interested in interacting with.  It could be a family member, or a friend, or a hated enemy.  It could even be a thing, a family heirloom, their childhood home, the city they were born in.  BUT you've got a backstory for them already, so I'm assuming there must be something in there already. I'd caution against, however, considering that person, place or thing to only be something for you to take away or threaten every time you wanted to elicit some roleplaying from your crew.  I'd hazard a guess that if they DON'T have those things in their backstories, it's because they were left out for that exact reason.I think that there's a reason why at least 90% of the RPG characters I saw while I was in college (gaming 7 days a week) were mysterious, (CG/CN), orphaned, loners without any ties to family, king, or country.  If you were stupid enough to put that stuff out there, then you were just giving the DM ammunition to use against you.I myself try to turn to my players as frequently as possible for improvisational fodder.  You want to wander around till you find an appropriately shady tavern?  Ok, you spot one as you wander down a dimly lit side street.  What's the tavern called?  Someone walks in and they immediately catch your eye, why?  What do they look like?  What do you think they're doing here?  Are you right?Maybe the player doesn't even interact with the person.  Maybe they become a recurring fixture that they see over and over again around the city and don't become important until later.  But they become important because you followed the players lead (while they were following yours) and they took you to something they were interested in.I think that there are more important questions you can ask a player to try to get them out of their murder/gold/xp shells.  I myself add 6 extra bits to character creation to help flesh things out, and to give each of us (the player, their team mates, and me) a better handle on who the character is.The first two I borrow part and parcel from the Burning Wheel RPG.  Instinct, and Belief.  A character's Instinct is their gut reaction to things.  As a DM, a character's Instinct is a hint as to what kinds of situations the player wants to be put into.  "Always expect trouble."  "Never let those with power bully those without it."  "If people need help, make sure you get payed up front."  This becomes an easy explanation of what people should expect when the character is around.  It's not straight jacket, saying how the character has to act, but it's an easy crutch to grab if the player isn't sure how to react to something. A character's Belief is a short phrase that encompasses an ideology, code, or goal.  As a DM, a character's Belief is a giant neon sign pointing to what kinds of choices the player wants to make and where they want the character to go.  A Belief can either be something that they want to eventually resolve, an idea that they might re-evaluate and change, or a life goal that they'll never attain.  "Lead others to follow Sehanine by the example I set."  "Keep Reginald safe til I can get him home to his family."  "I will find the six fingered man and give him The Speech before I kill him."    After the big two, I ask the player to decide on their character's Appearance, Theme, Quality, and Flaw.Height, weight, hair-color, eye-color, and skin tone never really made much sense to me.  If they ever actually came up in a game, it was only to see who broke the bridge, or got decapitated by a trap.  In my mind, a more important question would be "In one word, what does your character look like?"  "Tall", "unkempt", or "angelic" all mean more to me, and paint a better picture than "6'2", 193 lbs, blonde hair, blue eyes, tanned." I always describe a character's Theme as their "after you peel away the character class, class."  Yes, he's a fighter, but what is he?  Is he a scholar, a bounty hunter, a missionary?A character's Quality and Flaw are their most and least redeeming features.  Basically "people who like you describe you as _______, and people who don't, describe you as _______."  "Good natured, but gullible."  "Reliable, but irritable."  "Smart, but short sighted."  More than anything, we use these to help us describe success and failure.  The dice tell us whether we win or lose, Qualities and Flaws help us figure out why.  All in all, I've found that these 6 bits of information were handier than a backstory.  They're snippets that can fit on a character sheet, and give you a cliff notes version of who the character is and what makes them tick.[EDIT]Another method that I used to use was borrowed from an old personality test meme that had been floating around while I was in highschool.  The long and the short of it was that you had three descriptions of your character.  One was how the character saw themselves, the second was how the character wanted other people to see them, and the third was how other people actually saw them.</blockquote>

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