Developing complete character backgrounds

[Deacon Rayne]

Hello,
I'm starting up with a new group. I'm currently starting up a new campaign. I'm working with my group to develop distinctive characters. A human from Chantrilla and a human form say, The Outer Rim should be very different characters. I'm going to be making use of the Advantages/Disadvantages system in the new expanded updated revised edition. But I'm looking to expand on that system a bit. Are there any additional resources I should be consulting to help my player develop more distinctive characters both aesthetically and mechanically?

A character background sheet would also be extremely useful. Thank you very much.

[Whill]

Welcome to the Pit!

[Raven Redstar]

Oliver Queen over on the G+ Community shared the following 25 question questionnaire for new characters:

[Naaman]

I love the advice given so far.

Some other tips that I have used include:

Taking inspiration from pop culture characters: sometimes, it works really well to combine the concepts of two or three pop culture characters into one character. For example, imagine taking elements from Dick Tracy, The Incredible Hulk and Judge Dredd and combining them into one character. You don't need to take ALL of each character... just the bits that work well (or, not so well) together. For example, if the character's detective skills uncovered some heinous crime, his short temper and anger issues might cause him to act in ways outside the law, which is otherwise the very foundation of his values system.

Once you have the "concept" penciled in, you can flesh out the details of how this came to be.

Where do the anger issues come from?
Where does his "respect the law" values system come from?
What kind of detective is he? Intuitive or deductive? (that is, does he go with his "gut" feeling, or is he more analytical like Sherlock Holmes). And why?

Often, whatever decisions you make concerning a character (for example, "my character is really good with a blaster"), always ask the follow up question of "why?" or "how?" and it really helps to flesh out the substance of the character, taking it from a mere concept to being believable and relatable.

Cheers.

[Dredwulf60]

I had a system where I had a big list of character personality traits; things that they think would really define their character. They were encouraged to play against their normal character types. (we have been playing a long time and a lot of people develop one or a few default character personality types).

Each player selected 2.

As a game mechanic, I had a bonus character point awarded if a character fulfilled their personality trait in a game, as judged by the rest of the group at the end of the session.
At least one scene example had to cited.

This had a couple benefits; players being a team would of course always try to ensure they all got their bonus. It made people really pay attention to each others role playing, and it made people want to look for opportunities to put one of their traits on display.

realizing that some traits were easier to show off because they came up much more often, I rated some of the more difficult traits a little higher, so there was a range of 1-3 bonus character points.

[Naaman]

Character points are a great motivator to prompt good roleplay.

They are called "character points," after all.

[Mamatried]

[CRMcNeill]

Another idea (I believe I heard it from Daniel Stull on Shooting Womprats) is Round-Out Dice. It’s been a while, so I don’t recall the specific amount, but he would give players an additional 10-15 pips that could be applied to a maximum of +1D to any skills the character hadn’t already improved with their starting 7D of skill dice. The key restriction, however, was that the skills improved by Round-Out Dice had to be directly related to some aspect of the PC’s background as defined by the questionnaire.
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Deacon Rayne]

[CRMcNeill]

[Deacon Rayne]

Good advice. Do you still have that personalty trait list?

[Deacon Rayne]

I'll give this a go. Which questionnaire is did you use?

[Mamatried]

[dph]

I find that, much better than generic, broad questions, ask provocative ones that go deep into the true nature of the character, what they're about and how you as a GM can find hooks to use in game.

I like to ask 10 questions and encourage players to reply with as long, short, literal or metaphorical answers that they want!
I try to be slightly ambiguous and ask questions that cant be answered yes or no.
And... if I CAN, i tailor them to the campaign.

For example:

What brought you here and why can you never go back?
Who do you trust with your life, but why don't they trust YOU anymore?
What would you never do?
Who on your crew would you die for?
Who was your mentor and why haven't you spoken to them in 10 years.
Who do you share your biggest secret with on the ship?
What one item will you never leave the ship without.
You have one last chance to get it right... what is it?
Who wants you more, the Empire, the Hutt's or your previous employer?
What do you hate more than anything else... REALLY hate that is?
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Check out my campaign and others on Obsidian Portal!

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/roguetraders

[CRMcNeill]