Three questions that help characters be fleshed out

[Hand of Evil]

• How often do you change your underwear?

In a grim world, it could be of concern, as everyday not changed increase the chances of a number of complication; crabs, skin issues, lice, etc. Plus, laundry day is a great time to introduce players to NPCs and gossip.

Oh, I updated and corrected the links in my SIG and there are a ton of questions in the DM Advice thread.

 

[Klaus]

The problem with this question is that I'm not sure that I could describe what I find funny, much less invent a description of what someone else finds funny.



Likewise, while I could list a few things I'm afraid of, I'm not sure I even know what my own greatest fear is. I'm afraid that any answer I imagined for someone else would be, compared to a real person, too simple. I would consider simply having a clear cut 'greatest fear' to be a character defining trait, but not a trait necessarily shared by everyone. Not everyone has a fear that so stands out from the rest of their fears as to be a distinguishing and obvious feature.



Again, I'm not sure that I can answer this question with any clarity about myself, as the answer to the question depends on my mood, what I've eaten recently, the time of year, and so forth.

Personally, I think this is the kind of question that I think could be better summed up as, "Does you character have any notable quirks: for example, a slight phobia, a favorite dish, an obcession with a particular sort of humor, a favorite color, a lucky charm, a notable habit, a fondness for collecting some item, etc." Not everyone is going to possess any of these particular traits to a strong degree, but if they do possess it to a strong degree, then it will likely be noticable and character defining.

But those are answers all by themselves! Let's call the character "Celebrim", ok?

1) Celebrim's humor is unpredictable. Sometimes he finds funny things entirely flat, sometimes he laughs at things that shouldn't be funny at all.

2) No single overarching fear, but gets the heebie-jeebies from several common things.

3) No single favorite dish. Is it because Celebrim loves trying new dishes, or because he doesn't find food that appealing as anything other than nourishment?

You then take these answers and run with them, trying new foods at every tavern, laughing at innapropriate moments, or getting the shivers from, say, clowns.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Basically I'd love it if PCs could somehow buy contacts and other plot-hook-shaped backgrounds with ... I dunno, background points? So the rogue could slap down his "instant aunt Ethyl", while the necromancer summons his 300 year dead ancestor's ghost, and the cleric chats with a cheeky cherub. All for similar mechanical benefit, but with very different spheres of application.

Fantasycraft has that exact system.

 

[Hussar]

Back in 2e I made a half-elf bard and detailed his best friend, the three bullies that picked on him and the bartender who was like a father to him.

The DM killed them all in the first session.

Grrrrrr. Boo hiss, bad DM, no biscuit for you!

Yeah, I've seen the whole "orphan'd at birth" thing pretty often too. It's become a running joke in my group. Everyone's family tree has been pruned with a flame thrower.

Honestly, character background interests me less than character motivation. Background is what you have when you're sixth or seventh level - that's what the first five levels were all about - establishing the motivations of the campaign.

I like your questions Klaus, because they don't really speak to events in the character's past, just states of mind.

About the only thing I now enforce with chargen is what links the PC's together.

 

[Nifft]

Fantasycraft has that exact system.

I'll look into that.

Thanks, -- N

 

[Klaus]

Grrrrrr. Boo hiss, bad DM, no biscuit for you!

Yeah, I've seen the whole "orphan'd at birth" thing pretty often too. It's become a running joke in my group. Everyone's family tree has been pruned with a flame thrower.

Honestly, character background interests me less than character motivation. Background is what you have when you're sixth or seventh level - that's what the first five levels were all about - establishing the motivations of the campaign.

I like your questions Klaus, because they don't really speak to events in the character's past, just states of mind.

About the only thing I now enforce with chargen is what links the PC's together.

I too am past the point where I start a campaign with everyone as strangers meeting for the first time. From the start, everyone knows everyone else. I've seen way too many campaigns wither and die because of "in-character" suspicions and general jackassness.

 

[cmrscorpio]

Honestly, character background interests me less than character motivation. Background is what you have when you're sixth or seventh level - that's what the first five levels were all about - establishing the motivations of the campaign.

As I've matured as a player and DM, I've come to find that this is absolute truth.

Also, players (and DMs) tend to not think about how the events of one's life affects and effects who they have become. I've had players give me beautifully rich and diverse backgrounds, but when we start playing, characters soon falls into the same old personalities that the players have played time and time again.

For this reason, I always ask:

How has [answer to previous question] influenced who you are today?

 

[Celebrim]

I've had players give me beautifully rich and diverse backgrounds, but when we start playing, characters soon falls into the same old personalities that the players have played time and time again.

It's a relatively rare player who can play anything other than themselves, or at best, some self-idealized version of themselves as hero. That isn't to say however that such players are bad roleplayers. Quite often the persona that they create for themselves is an entertaining one, it's just that they lack the ability to consistantly pretend to be anything else.

 

[Storm Raven]

Who is your character most like: Mal, Zoe, Wash, Jayne, Inara, Book, Kayleigh, Simon, or River?

Alternatively, Patience, Niska, Badger, the Operative, Mr. Universe, or the Men with Blue Hands.

 

[Mallus]

It's a relatively rare player who can play anything other than themselves, or at best, some self-idealized version of themselves as hero.

<thinks about the PC's in his group>

Good Lord, I hope this isn't true!