I usually have a big problem with just building a character and then trying to come up with a neat/interesting background for him/her or even vice versa. Especially with other character sheets I look at where its all really well thought out.

So....does anyone happen to use a certain list of questions that is fairly flushed out to help them along in the process, though that is somewhat quick to finish as well.

Thanks for the future help!

1: Why does this character run the shadows?

If you can answer that then most things will fall into place.

Where where they born?
Where did they train?
How did they get their ware/gear/whatever?
Do they have family?
How do they feel about killing?

Do you have Runner's Companion? There are 20 questions in there that really help flesh things out. If not, we'll hook you up.

I see nothing wrong with this. My characters don't really come alive until they are in play, and I start to get a feel for what I think their personality is.

I often come up with a rough life history/background, some major personality traits, and the character's motivation for doing what they do - and then once play begins it tends to evolve from there.




As others have mentioned, check out Runner's Companion, pg. 18 & 19.

A lot of time I have characters come to me while I'm reading the fiction. That's really my advice: mine the fiction.

My favorite character of all time in SR was my former DocWagon pilot/medic. I was just reading through some stuff about DW, and I thought, "I really want to play someone that's in the Shadows but used to be a respectable member of DW, how can I do that?"

I decided why he was in the shadows (excellent advice, crash2029), and just started going from there.

Why does he do this?
Who does that link him to? Which ones are friends? Which ones are enemies? What is his relationship with each of those people or groups?
So on and so forth.

A background story is still a story. What makes an interesting story? What makes you want to be the protagonist of that story?

What makes you want to be Frodo? Ok, that was a bad example, I hated Frodo.

But whatever makes you want to be the central figure in the story is what makes the background interesting.

Some GMs just want a cool story. That's fine. I am more particular about my background stories though. I want my characters' backgrounds to fit their stats. If they have a gazillion dice in firearms, I want to know how they got so good at it. If they have no skill at athletics, maybe he was a clumsy klutz at school, or simply had no interest in physical activities. But I want to see in the story why he does or doesn't have a certain skill/ability/etc.

Great advice.

Pick a role - Street samurai, hacker, etc.
Pick an approriate occupation before you were a shadowrunner - Soldier, security consultant, courier, gangmember, doctor
Pick a metatype, a racial group and a land of origin - Human, Caucasian, England or Orc, Hispanic, California Free State

I find that qualities really changes my characters' backgrounds. If I take an addiction, why do I have that addiction? Is he trying to forgot something? Did you get a bad rep from it?

From here make a list of skills that you want. Now ask yourself this: Does the skill fit my role & previous occupation? If not, how can I make it fit?

Treat your implants and gear just as you did your skills. Does it fit my role & previous occupation(s)? If not, how can I make it fit? Who would have it?

As someone already pointed out the best way is starting with a character concept and his/hers story, than build the character.

First character concept (what the hell is he/she supposed to be good at?), than background (where does he/she come from? How did he/she end up running the shadows?), than build the character considering the attributes/skills/equipment/contacts that he/she would logicaly have considering his/hers background.

I know that it's not much of help for defining the background but if you have Runner's Companion you an use the 20 question test.

Thanks for all the great help everyone!

For this character (Who is actually the driver/pilot/rigger for a DocWagon rescue team) I think is going to be my best character yet. I am putting alot of effort into his stats, gear, and story so that everything flows with him. Though damn is it hard not just min-maxing the hell out of him.


Again, thanks for all the help!

I find that my background helps limit my natural min-maxing nature.

For instance, what did your guy do before he worked as a docwagon driver/rigger?
Why would docwagon hire him to pilot their vehicles?

Some questions that might need an answer are:
Why DocWagon?
How did he/she get in?
How did he/she obtain his skills/ware?
Is he/she still working for DocWagon?
How did he/she end up running the shadows?
How did aquitances react to the character becoming a shadowrunner?
What are his/hers hope for the future?
What does he/she fear?
What does he/she like/dislike?

just some 0,2

Favorite fleshing out questions:

Do they smoke? If so, what?

Do they drink? If so, what?

Favorite food?

Sexual orientation?

Phobias? Fetishes? Assorted turn ons and turn offs? What kind of person attracts them?

Nuclear family? Marital status? Spouse / dependents? Plans?

Preferred style of dress? Mannerisms? Accent?

Favorite phrases or motto?

Favorite music?

Favorite kind of movie / trid?

What is most people’s first impression?

How trusting are they?

Where are their loyalties? God? Country? Team? Family? Self? How do they prioritize them?

Religious beliefs?

Have they killed in cold blood? Who? When?

Have they killed in the heat?

Do they have any public service history, of ANY kind? If so, why?

How adaptable are they to sudden and / or dramatic change? (honestly?)

Do they have a pet peeve? A pet hate (like a specific corp, gang or person)?
What are their dreams and aspirations, if any? Any shattered / abandoned dreams? Why?

If you can answer all of those, the names, dates, places and assorted crunchy bits should fall into place easily, and role playing at the table should be both more rewarding and more natural, which is a better experience for your table-mates as well.

The two aren't incompatible. Min-maxing is not inherently bad, either. If the most optimal combination would not make sense, that's one thing, but if the most optimal combination does make sense, don't feel like you need to go out of your way to avoid it. In other words, if your background says that he was a drek-hot combat mage working for the Atlantean Foundation, and that he left them when he found a high-powered focus and decided to abscond with it rather than turn it in - then it would make sense for him to have Spellcasting/Combat Spells: 6/+2 and the restricted gear quality with a Force: 4 Power Focus.

If you're just running the numbers, then coming up with a patchwork quilt background to justify a lopsided skill set and gear that doesn't quite make sense for him, then yeah, might want to curb it a bit. But don't reject it out of hand if it does make sense, either. Don't fall into the Stormwind fallacy.

I didn't address the min-maxing side of this when I posted above, but I both agree and like your example that you give. It would have to depend on your character's mentality. Most people outside the shadow community are intelectually lazy and take the easiest road. That means the tend to over-specialize and be worthless outside their narrow area of professional specializations and a couple interests, or they will wind up drifting (often a LOT) and wind up with a smattering of things that is "sub-optimum" by any real objective analysis. But there are always the overachievers who from the moment their parents explain how vital getting to a good college is, for example, plan out their every class and ECA (Extra-Curricular Activity) with exquisite care as part of an effort to be the best (read: most desirable in a labor marketplace) WHATEVER it is thet are going after. Those people are real-life min-maxers. And there is nothing "munchy" about it. But the things they choose will always be RELATED to their core purpose. In another thread, I mention the gay male trid interior decorator with military level small arms training. That isn't min-maxed, it's munchy. (Munchy, as in "Munchkin", a person who always takes whatever will be the best game numerical benefit regardless of the role-playing penalties.) Think Troll street samurai who routinely ignores how hard little details of life are for a guy who's over eight feet tall, with hands the size of a shovel and covered with rough patches that abrade most fabrics, simply because it's powerful.


Very well put. A word I have fallen in love with to describe this is "organic". If it does not "feel" like the character could really have grown up and developed into the background events and skills (and cyberware and contacts) that you picked, it won't feel "real" to your fellow players, either. Trust me on that. I have played with a person who wrote thirty page detailed backgrounds based on RANDOM CHARACTER HISTORY CHARTS. Some of their characters were pretty decent, but many of them were just nonsensical. Their motivations were nearly incompatible which made them see "unstable". Agravating for the players around them and disconcerting for the other characters in-game. That is why I ask the questions I posted above: they are the real-world kind of things that really motivate life choices, and that is what makes us who we are. If your character is a gay alcoholic Japanese troll who experienced UGE at puberty, but wanted to be an astronaut up to that point, it's going to make for an entirely diferent set of background knowledges, secondary skills and role-playing hooks. Are they alcoholic because they lost their dreams to Japanese racism? Or is that genetic from the Native American great grand parent who is generally not mentioned by the rest of the family? When you wind up asking THOSE sorts of questions of your CHARACTER, THAT is when you will find you have a real person that your GM will appreciate, your table-mates will believe and treat accordingly and you will find much more rewarding to play week after week because they won't just be numbers on a page to you any more: They will be a real person who is growing, changing and adapting to the world around them, and you are rooting for them, not just for your dice.

The 20 questions worksd really well but often we take one element we see in a character then expand from that.
I know it sounds crazy but we build.
One rigger had a fondness for baseball. So we imagined her in a Seattle ball cap. Why did she like baseball? How did it express itself in her life.

My fav character was bult around a leather jacket.

One player wanted a katana. Why? What was it in his life? Was he Japanese or a poser? If a poser why? etc.
have fun drawing it out like that. you'd be surprised how quickly the bits fill in.