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Character Backstories, How do you flesh out your character?

How do you flesh out your character?
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TBRMInsanity View Member Profile	Mar 9 2009, 07:49 PM Post #1
Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,002 Joined: 22-April 06 From: Canada Member No.: 8,494	I was thinking what it would be like to play a character that has a family. I was wondering has anyone else played a character that has family/girlfriend/whatever before? How did it turn out? What are the possible situations that someone with a family would turn to crime (ie Shadowrunning) to support their family? Of the top of my head I can think of the following scenarios: * You come from a poor orc family. Your father was a crook, your siblings are all crooks, so you don't know any better, but at least you have enough drive to do more then just petty crime. Maybe one day you can get out of the barrens and into someplace classy. * Your ex-military and know nothing but war. You tried your hand at security work for different corps but a string of firings for excessive valence has left you unemployed. Your wife expects you to put food on the table and all doors are closed to someone of your skills... except one.

InfinityzeN View Member Profile	Mar 9 2009, 08:04 PM Post #2
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 992 Joined: 23-December 08 From: the Tampa Sprawl Member No.: 16,707	I come up with a concept, build the character, then write the backstory. I guess you could call it saying why he has the stats he does, except that I have the concept before the build. I also always include family info, though they often end up dead (STUPID GM!). All of my characters I have played (across all RPGs, not just SR) have family, sig other (girlfriends or FBs normally, rarely a wife though it has actually happen in game a couple of times). Having a girlfriend leads to interesting role playing and provides good plot hooks, as long as the GM doesn't over do it. If every girlfriend you get dies, then your going to start looking for girls you don't like to date. Even if the GM never does anything nasty to your girlfriend (which they really shouldn't if you don't have the Dependent quality, well maybe once), they can provide lots of interesting role playing. In a project twilight game (think WW version of Delta Green, which is CoC with federal agents), my character started dating a girl named Gina De'giovanni after our second adventure. After around our 20th, they got married. Around our 25th, he found out about the clan of vampires named the Giovanni (our game rarely touched other WW properties though, so we had little experience with Vamps). Talk about a mind BEEP! After I told the wife about it, she put 2 & 2 together and freaked out as well. Lets just say our house had a massive security upgrade. I still got my "Chart'o'Evil" from that game. Ahhh, good times.

ElFenrir View Member Profile	Mar 9 2009, 08:28 PM Post #3
Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,168 Joined: 15-April 05 From: Helsinki, Finland Member No.: 7,337	I vote: ''Other''. I come up with a concept with some basic story points, start doing the stats and skills on that, and then flesh out the rest of the background later. I've been following this basic format in my character folders(for the background/personality points) Appearance and Personality(3-4 paragraphs) Role(this is never more than usually) Quotes(a selection) Background/History(2-4 paragraphs depending) Contacts(quick description of them. Usually a few sentences each. I like to describe who my character knows.) Stats/etc are on another few pages(my character sheets tend to be long.) On the actual stat-sheet, I usually put a quick list of likes/dislikes. Picked this up from my table. Here's the format I've been using: http://www.valtio.org/~fenris/blog/?p=30 (an example on my gaming blog.) They're kind of long, but not book-length. I try to keep it to a few paragraphs for each section; some characters end up longer, others end up shorter. Not sure why.

Degausser View Member Profile	Mar 9 2009, 08:36 PM Post #4
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 380 Joined: 19-May 07 Member No.: 11,698	I am with the others. I come up with a vague idea (like, washout of the Tir's Ghost program), then make the character as I tweak the background and understand the character more. I decide that he speaks Japanese, so his backstory goes to him being able to read corp data and analyse what he needs to steal from the Japanese corps. I want him to be kicked out of the Tir, so I give him SINner (criminal). My character has bad close combat skills, so that becomes the reason he was washed out. By the time I am done I have a character with a decent enough backstory, and he's pretty cool to boot.

Chrysalis View Member Profile	Mar 9 2009, 08:47 PM Post #5
Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,141 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Neverwhere Member No.: 2,048	I used to write long backstories on characters. Sometimes tens of pages. For one character who I got to play for a whole of three months I wrote about 60-90 pages in all. Nowadays, I don't write much or then I use a similar types of characters. Reyella my D&D rogue uses the same template.

Bai Shen View Member Profile	Mar 9 2009, 08:56 PM Post #6
Target Group: Members Posts: 35 Joined: 3-February 09 Member No.: 16,837	Character creation and backstory tend to go hand in hand. I usually start with a general concept, and then add to the backstory as I build the character. A lot of times the original idea won't truly fit into the game system, so I end up tweaking things 'til I get what I want. I don't tend to write most of it out though. The backstory usually stays in my head as I haven't had many GM's that play off of backstories.

Draco18s View Member Profile	Mar 9 2009, 10:34 PM Post #7
Immortal Elf Group: Members Posts: 10,289 Joined: 2-October 08 Member No.: 16,392	I suck at backstories.

Stahlseele View Member Profile	Mar 9 2009, 11:06 PM Post #8
The ShadowComedian Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 14,538 Joined: 3-October 07 From: Hamburg, AGS Member No.: 13,525	one, two, three and six. yeah, i suck at things like backstory and finding names/history for connections too <.< . . i usually have an idea for a character concept:"i wanna play someone who has a laser-gun built into his hand" "i wanna play a guy who has rebuilt the sonic screech weapon from cyberware into his body" or "i wanna play darkwing duck" or "i wanna play darktwink truck" . . then i build, then i look at, then maybe i get to playtest . . if the character is fun to play for me, i will try and play him more often. if he is not, i will retire him after the first run usually . . if i do not retire him early, i try and make up story as i go . . i get the best ideas while playing, but of course i can not just add them in just like that . . so i try and memorize these ideas, and when i find time and quiet for it i try to consolidate these ideas into one story . . though there have been notable exceptions from this rule too. sometimes i just have this story stuck in the back of my head that wants out . . "i am batman, this is my story" and then i write and write and write for several pages . . in the end, i read it over, shake my head at it and go "fuck that shit, badly written, waayy too clichee for my tastes . . i'll add it to the heap of unifinished business" and maybe add some ideas/stats for a character that is supposed to go with this story.

Glyph View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 03:29 AM Post #9
Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,116 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,449	I usually do concept, then stats, then flesh out the backstory, making a few changes as needed. I can write "general" format characters, but prefer structured formats like Bull's 50+ questions. I think it's good to start with an idea, then see if the nuts and bolts of the game can make it work. It can be frustrating to come up with a great story for a character, only to realize that it either won't work within the rules, or won't fit in the game. I find that when the stats and background bounce off of each other more, I get a character where all of the stats have an underlying explanation. The character is also more functional, and fits more smoothly into the game world and the game mechanics. Also, I consider a character with a good background still a work in progress - once you start play, the character can often go in dramatically different directions than you envisioned, so don't set all of your character's traits in stone.

kanislatrans View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 03:54 AM Post #10
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 602 Joined: 2-December 07 From: The corner of Detonation Boulevard and Fascination Street Member No.: 14,464	just started a group that has never played SR before. They are all young kids(two of them the fruit 'o me loins) so I tried something different.. I gave them a copy of the 20 questions and a couple of sheet of paper and said"use this to tell me what you want your character to be like...you don't need exact details, just a bit about them." after they finished we built their characters based on who they wanted to be. Ended up with an Elven rigger/Hacker. a human gunbunny with a carp load of edge, A troll adept who focuses on throwing big heavy things , and an elven shaman/face. I think they did well and two of them have gone on to really flesh out their backgrouds. we play thier first game on sunday. I am going to drop them right into a combat...trial by firefight as it may be... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

the_real_elwood View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 03:59 AM Post #11
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 483 Joined: 16-September 08 From: Madison, WI Member No.: 16,349	I always have a general character concept I'm going for to begin with, and I try to do something a little more interesting and with a little more backstory than your generic "runner worked his way up from the barrens" deal. Past that, I try to work up the stats to match that concept, but frankly I always try to do the best I can at character creation. I suppose you could call it min-maxing, but I have more fun playing the game if my character is good at what he does.

Draco18s View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 04:08 AM Post #12
Immortal Elf Group: Members Posts: 10,289 Joined: 2-October 08 Member No.: 16,392	QUOTE (Glyph @ Mar 9 2009, 10:29 PM) I usually do concept, then stats, then flesh out the backstory, making a few changes as needed. I can write "general" format characters, but prefer structured formats like Bull's 50+ questions. That's about what I do, now what's this 50 questions thing?

Glyph View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 06:32 AM Post #13
Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,116 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,449	Originally on Bull's site, here's a copy: [ Spoiler ] 1. What is your character's Sex? 2. What is your character's physical size? 3. What is the color of the character's hair, eyes, and skin? 4. What is the character's general appearance (i.e., How does he/she dress, etc.)? 5. Where was the character born (City, State, Hospital Name)? 6. What is the character's date of birth? 7. What was the character's family life like? 8. Has the character begun his/her own family? 9. Where or how was the character educated? 10. Has the character ever done anything else for a living? 11. What are the character's political and religious beliefs? 12. Describe the character's moral code. Include how mercenary he/she is, whether or not he/she will kill innocents, etc. 13. What are the character's goals, if any? 14. Why does the character run the shadows? (Why does he/she run the shadows still, rather than getting a "real" job?) 15. What kind of personality does the character have? This should not necessarily be obviously stated in the background, as it is more important for actually playing the character, but it may color or add mood to the history. 16. What special qualities does the character posess? This does not refer to skills, but rather to other things, such as How he/she gets along with people, does he/she plan ahead, etc. 17. Are there certain things the character can't or won't do? Why? 18. What things, people, or ideas does the character hate? 19. What things, people, or ideas does the character love? 20. What is the character's name? Give both full birth name, as well as nicknames, street names, etc. 21. Determine what your character used to do, before becoming a shadowrunner (very important). 22. Decide why your character left his or her old job, if he/she had one (also important). 23. Come up with a reason for why the character became a shadowrunner. (This very often will tie in with #22. This is not the same as #14, but rather why he/she started running the shadows originally. What led him/her to it?) 24. How did your character come to know his or her contacts? Contacts are an important part of Shadowrun, decide how and why you know them. 25. Does the character have a SIN? Does the character actually use it? Or is the character one of the SINless masses? This may be affected by the characters previous employment. 26. Is the character a full-time shadowrunner? Or does the character lead a Batman-like double existence? 27. Which person(s) or group(s) do you love the most? 28. Which person(s) or group(s) do you hate the most? 29. Which person(s) or group(s) do you respect the most? 30. Which person(s) or group(s) do you fear the most? 31. What is your favourite colour? 32. What is your favourite food and/or drink? 33. What place would you most like to visit? 34. Which person(s) or group(s) are you most loyal to? 35. What pastime (that you particiapate in regularly) gives you the most enjoyment? (Warning: Answering Sex for this question can and will result in penalties to your character!) 36. What pastime (that you participate in regularly) gives you the least enjoyment? 37. What annoys you the most? 38. What (if any) is your favourite form of art? 39. What is your greatest goal? 40. What do you think is your character's best quality? 41. What do you think is your character's worst quality? 42. What is the most important thing you have ever done? 43. Which religion (if any) do you follow? 44. What is your most treasured possession (and why)? 45. What are your three most common dreams? 46. What is the Character's current relationship with his/her family? 47. If the character's family is still alive, what do they do, and where do they live? 48. Where did the character learn his/her Skills? 49. Does the character have a good luck charm? What is it, and why? 50. What type of music does the character like? 51. List any past serious relationships that your character has had, and give a brief overview of the relationship. 52. Where does your character live? Why does he/she live there? 53. Remember, your Gamemaster like detail, so if you can think of any other little details, quirks, or whatever that you think might please the almight GM, then add them in as well. Oh, and your GM won't use any of these details against you at a later date. trust me...(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Draco18s View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 07:18 AM Post #14
Immortal Elf Group: Members Posts: 10,289 Joined: 2-October 08 Member No.: 16,392	Great, thanks.

Dream79 View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 07:24 AM Post #15
Target Group: Members Posts: 73 Joined: 24-February 09 Member No.: 16,911	For SR I'll usually have a general concept along with a back story in mind. I'll usually finish the actual build with a few things in mind and come up with a full description and back story. Over the past couple years I've kinda developed a format that starts with appearance followed by history. With the characters appearance I'll have a basic physical description that includes stuff like approximate height, build, skin tone, facial features and so on. After that will be notes for things less obvious like scars or marks usually under clothing. Some typical habits or gestures that are typical of the character like posture (or lack of), nervous twitch, distinctive smell or so on. I'll usually leave out stuff like clothes or gear since I assume the runner doesn't wear the same thing every day. With the back story I've been leading toward writing it as if it's the characters own words. I found that doing it like the characters own reflections allows me to not only provide the characters history but also the characters world view and demeanor. This usually means that I can save a few pages of inane bullet point descriptions on various things relating to my character and is a better read for a GM. I wish my players would do this instead of the usual back story geared at justifying the PCs bad-assness or those Q&A descriptions which usually include a lot of nothing.

Artemis View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 08:37 AM Post #16
Target Group: Members Posts: 60 Joined: 23-January 09 From: Greenock, Scotland Member No.: 16,803	I only usually do about a paragraph, but its really like a flashcard to remember the important points cos i keep most of it up in the grey squishy bit.

RedeemerofOgar View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 08:41 AM Post #17
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 150 Joined: 5-April 04 Member No.: 6,219	QUOTE (Bai Shen @ Mar 9 2009, 04:56 PM) Character creation and backstory tend to go hand in hand. I usually start with a general concept, and then add to the backstory as I build the character. A lot of times the original idea won't truly fit into the game system, so I end up tweaking things 'til I get what I want. I don't tend to write most of it out though. The backstory usually stays in my head as I haven't had many GM's that play off of backstories. This is pretty well spot on for me.

Mäx View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 04:13 PM Post #18
Prime Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,803 Joined: 3-February 08 From: Finland Member No.: 15,628	QUOTE (RedeemerofOgar @ Mar 10 2009, 10:41 AM) This is pretty well spot on for me. Me two. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Ayeohx View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 04:34 PM Post #19
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 346 Joined: 17-September 06 From: Utah USA Member No.: 9,402	It's something of a joke in my group that even when making PCs I tend to make NPCs. I spend a lot of points on skills to support my background stories and "voila!", NPC. Probably why I'm the gamemaster most of the time. Back in the day when I was an elitest prick (more so than now at least) we use to have a semi-mandatory 100+ questionaire to help people flesh out their backgrounds. We tried to inflict our "role"playing on our other group members who came from a more hack-n-slash background. Sad really. But damn, that was one sweet questionaire. We took questions from all over including Harlequinn's Back, every RPG that had a "fleshing out your character" section (DC Heroes, GURPS, etc) and some good ol brainstorming. But once again, it's a real swell way to make NPCs instead of PCs.

the_real_elwood View Member Profile	Mar 10 2009, 05:52 PM Post #20
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 483 Joined: 16-September 08 From: Madison, WI Member No.: 16,349	QUOTE (Ayeohx @ Mar 10 2009, 10:34 AM) It's something of a joke in my group that even when making PCs I tend to make NPCs. I spend a lot of points on skills to support my background stories and "voila!", NPC. Probably why I'm the gamemaster most of the time. Back in the day when I was an elitest prick (more so than now at least) we use to have a semi-mandatory 100+ questionaire to help people flesh out their backgrounds. We tried to inflict our "role"playing on our other group members who came from a more hack-n-slash background. Sad really. But damn, that was one sweet questionaire. We took questions from all over including Harlequinn's Back, every RPG that had a "fleshing out your character" section (DC Heroes, GURPS, etc) and some good ol brainstorming. But once again, it's a real swell way to make NPCs instead of PCs. Yeah, a well developed character is good and all, but it doesn't mean much if the character is no fun to play.

Ayeohx View Member Profile	Mar 11 2009, 03:13 AM Post #21
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 346 Joined: 17-September 06 From: Utah USA Member No.: 9,402	QUOTE (the_real_elwood @ Mar 10 2009, 01:52 PM) Yeah, a well developed character is good and all, but it doesn't mean much if the character is no fun to play. Indeed, but a well developed character is part of the fun for me. And it depends on the group too. If everyone is of the same mindset then its fun. If you've got any min-maxers in the group it doesn't work so well. It depends on who you are playing with I guess.

ElFenrir View Member Profile	Mar 11 2009, 10:20 AM Post #22
Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,168 Joined: 15-April 05 From: Helsinki, Finland Member No.: 7,337	Though there is nothing saying a min-maxer can't make a well-thought out, compelling, and fun character as well that fits just fine with the rest of the team. They're just optimized for what they do.

crazyconscript View Member Profile	Mar 11 2009, 12:57 PM Post #23
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 174 Joined: 23-February 09 From: Tír na nÓg Member No.: 16,906	Personally, whenever i'm making a character i actually want to play i just start out with a kind of general idea of what it is he does best, and then figure out why it is he has those skills, and why they aren't being used in a legitimate line of work. However i also like just playing around with chargen and seeing what silliness or monsters i can create...where background or reasons come second....why the hell is that fox shapeshifter phys-adept who goes on fire a shadowrunner?!? Dunno, but its funny (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) ...and that fox adept actually ended up being played by a friend of mine....and so far we've figured out she does shadowrunning cause its fun to set things on fire...is not afraid of shifting into her human form naked while in the middle of an ork nightclub...and doesnt really value money as so far she has yet to spend any (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) in 5 games... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif)

suppenhuhn View Member Profile	Mar 11 2009, 02:26 PM Post #24
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 268 Joined: 14-February 08 Member No.: 15,682	I start out with a basic concept, then get to work on the stats. Doing this I tweak the concept until both things fit but to be honest i normally start to really flash out my character during play once i get a feel for him/her. That's why i hate such things as those 50 questions to be answered before starting the game.

darthmord View Member Profile	Mar 12 2009, 05:36 AM Post #25
Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,245 Joined: 27-April 07 From: Running the streets of Southeast Virginia Member No.: 11,548	QUOTE (Bai Shen @ Mar 9 2009, 04:56 PM) Character creation and backstory tend to go hand in hand. I usually start with a general concept, and then add to the backstory as I build the character. A lot of times the original idea won't truly fit into the game system, so I end up tweaking things 'til I get what I want. I don't tend to write most of it out though. The backstory usually stays in my head as I haven't had many GM's that play off of backstories. Pretty much par for course for me too. Got into a SR4 game recently. Yay!! My character is loosely based around Altair (Assassin's Creed), the guy from Wanted, and Agent 47 from Hitman. He's an assassin by trade. Travels a lot. Has a Day Job (programmer which works well in the wireless world btw). Decent with a gun. Has magical tricks up his sleeves. Even has a little bit of Bioware (sleep regulator & trauma damper). His negative traits are represented against the backdrop of his history & training. Stat-wise, he's a mystic adept. Based on attribute allocations, he can overcast up to Force 6 and with the right spell (Stunbolt for example), buy 3 successes and eat the last point of Drain (Trauma Damper). If I normal cast my spells, I don't have to bother rolling for Drain. Between 3 bought successes + 1 Stun eaten by the Trauma Damper, I'm an Energizer Magic Battery. I do need to learn a few new spells and get a couple more points of adept powers but that is slated for future growth. That same Magic split 5 (3/2) also let's him summon up some decent spirits without biting it in the Drain dept too. Compared to the team he's hooked up with, he's not overpowered. In many areas, he's the 2nd string player. Which is fine with me as I need to get back in the groove but I also have some ideas and plans for improvement that will make him stand out on his own. All in all, the concept (assassin) came first. That was followed by the inspiration sources. Then came the statting out basd on concept & inspiration. Then came the haggling to get back down to 400 BPs. Fun character. Not overpowered. Versatile and has several skills (particularly Knowledge) that are unintentionally quite useful.

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