Here's an actual PC I am playing, Robin "Redcap" Powrie, a vicious, bloodthirsty gnome ranger.
The Ten-Minute Background Robin Redcap [Evil Gnome Ranger multiclassed with Fighter, Level 2]
Step 1: write five things about your character’s concept and background, five things that you think are the most essential parts of your character. You don’t have to stop at five, if you like…this is just a minimum.
"Me people were butchers, brigands, and thieves...and I wanted go grow up just like 'em!"
1) Robin Redcap is based loosely on legends of the Powrie, a vicious, murderous little fey. He is callous, bloodthirsty, and lacking in manners, and has a habit of dipping his cap into the blood of fallen foes, "to keep the cap the right color." 2) Robin grew up in the Feywild as part of a wandering gnomish clan. He is proud of his race and his heritage, though his clan wasn't much better than a band of brigands with airs of communal pride. 3) Robin learned his ranger fighting skills among the militia of his clan, and he helped defend his clan from attack (as well as helped out when they raided other settlements). 4) His clan was scattered after an attack by an eladrin militia, so he left the comfort of home to wander The World and make a living as an adventurer. 5) Part of his "live for the moment" attitude is fueled by a legend among his clan. It is said that, unlike the souls of most other beings, the souls of gnomes are fragile and may not survive the trip through the River of Time to be reborn, instead breaking apart into pieces of soulstuff to be absorbed by other newborn spirits. When the Goddess Jillian was still alive, she watched over gnomish souls and helped them survive the transition, but she was slain by the Dark Reaper, her own soul torn apart and scattered, and this left the gnomes without a patron to watch over their souls and keep them together. This means that most of his clan believe that they are living on borrowed time on their final life, so "eat, drink, and be merry" has become a tradition among them, and Robin is a product of his people.
Step 2: List two goals for the character that you, as a player, think would be cool to see accomplished in-game.
"Us gnomes? We don't get t'go on the soul carousel like ye other folk do. We get one spin o' this life, so I'd rather make mine fun. Eat, drink, and be merry and a'that. Oh, and kill things, too."
1) I'm interested in playing against stereotype with this character. I'm playing a fighting, vicious gnome, counter to expectations. I'm not only testing how well a non-optimized character can work in 4th edition, I'm also interested in the idea of the short, violent little redcap legend and I want to see how that would play out as a character. 2) I'm interested in seeing the character develop. He might turn away from his vicious upbringing and choose to be a little more noble in his actions, depending on how things go.
Step 3: List two secrets about your character. One is a secret the character knows, one is a secret that involves him but that he is not actually aware of yet. This will help me in creating plots that center around your character. I will also be creating a third secret which you as a player will not be aware of, so expect some surprises!
"There's more t'me than ye see. Not, y'know, a whole lot, but it's there."
1) Robin doesn't know how many of his kin actually escaped the raid of the Eladrin wild hunt that destroyed his clan. He might be surprised at who survived. 2) Robin dislikes the agents of the Dark Reaper, thanks to the clan legends of the death of Jillian. The subject of the Dark Reaper is a sort of berserk button with him, and he has no mercy or pity for undead or Dark Reaper cultists, and heaven help those who get in his way. 3) This is the DM's secret, and as I am not the DM of this game, I don't know it.
Step 4: Describe three people that are tied to the character though blood, romance or honor. Two of them are friendly to the character, one is hostile. All can do something useful for you, if you can get the situations to line up. If you like, you can include an enemy of yours here as well, so I have an instant NPC nemesis to throw at you.
"Yah, I know ah don't have much in th'way o' friends. 'S a conseqeunce o' this life o' mine, y'see."
1) Robin doesn't have many friends, given his crude and vicious nature, but he's made one with Splug, a shifty goblin rogue that he met a while back. he hasn't seen the goblin in a while, but they're thick as thieves when together. 2) Trin Fairweather (of the Southdown Fairweathers) is an adventuring companion who endlessly praises Ason, God of Travel and Fortune, and is openly disgusted with his violent ways. She seems to have picked him as a target in need of salvation, but she's also decent in a fight and Robin feels they make a good team, even if he'd like to tell her to shove her religion somewhere unpleasant at times. 3) Aigen Korrelis is a race traitor in Robin's eyes, a gnome who joined forces with the Dark Reaper. The last time they met, he tore open Aigen's face with his blades, and he left the gnome to die after dipping his cap. What he doesn't know is that he didn't finish the job, and Aigen's soul didn't die with his body, instead forcing it to rise again and seek him out for revenge.
Robin is a character I play, as opposed to one of my NPCs. I wanted to use the new Gnome rules, and I also wanted to play with the idea that, in my world, the Gnomes are the ones responsible for all the legends of nasty little people. Robin was based on the Redcap, an evil murderous goblin from English folklore. He also is my chance both to play an evil-leaning character and to play a character against type and expectations.
What I find most frustrating about 4E is that I can see it includes the D&D game I've always wanted to play, but the game is so lathered in tatical combat rules that I have thus far been unable to coax the game I want out.
Another NPC backstory. This is turning into quite a theme.
The Ten-Minute Background of Marcel DuParis
Step 1: write five things about your character’s concept and background, five things that you think are the most essential parts of your character. You don’t have to stop at five, if you like…this is just a minimum.
1) Celebrant Marcel DuParis of the Lyceum of Amyra is an eladrin cleric who honors the goddess of love. He is the high priest and administrator of the local temple of Amyra, which is quite influential in the town of St. Clarice. 2) He and his wife hail from the Feywild. For many years, they lived in the human town of Abbeville, until the Doom that destroyed that city four decades ago. They were the one who lead the survivors from the city to St. Clarice, and it was there example which lead to the boom in popularity that the Amyran church enjoys to this day. 3) Celebrant DuPairs is a distinguished-looking Eladrin with aristocratic features, long silver hair, and violet eyes. He has a pleasant, soft-spoken demeanor and tends to dress in long, flowing robes. 4) Marcel is especially supportive of mixed-race marriages and pairings, and he is outspoken against the cruelty sometimes demonstrated by the City Watch. His political leanings have a lot of influence on his flock. 5) It is well known that he and the Bishop of the Great Church of The White Lady do not get along well, and they are rivals for the spiritual well-being of the city's inhabitants. The two faiths differ greatly in doctrine, and Bishop personally holds Marcel responsible for the decline of his beloved faith in the town. Marcel regrets the Bishop's opinion, but he refuses to be held accountable for the Great Church's decline.
Step 2: List two goals for the character that you, as a player, think would be cool to see accomplished in-game.
1) Marcel is a patron, and the keeper of a lot of secrets, so he's an important person for the party to get to know. He's also at the center of a web of intrigue, which allows for great roleplaying and adventures dealing with St. Clarice politics.
Step 3: List two secrets about your character. One is a secret the character knows, one is a secret that involves him but that he is not actually aware of yet. This will help me in creating plots that center around your character. I will also be creating a third secret which you as a player will not be aware of, so expect some surprises!
1) Marcel DuParis is seeing someone behind his wife's back. He has become enchanted with a raven half-elf who calls herself Mai'ali, who is slowly seducing him so she can get at the secret records library of the Lyceum. 2) He doesn't know that his wife, Angelique, is also being unfaithful. She has been growing closer to the paladin Audric Cwellen, who is Marcel's most trusted friend. He also isn't aware that Gerard LeVaine has become interested in these affairs, and is spying on him in order to create a scandal that will rock the people's faith in the Amyrans. 3) Marcel is the local leader of the White Fox Society. In addition to his relatively light duties as the high celebrant of the temple, he organizes all the White Fox Society's covert activities. He is currently supporting the Faceless Underground (a changeling "underground railroad" that helps these oppressed people escape the Feywild, Spoiler:Show
or so he thinks--See Old Leroux's entry for more information
) and he is also working to weaken the power of the corrupt Merchantmen Guild and the draconian City Watch. Spoiler:Show
4) The Church of Amyra is run by Eladrin loyal to the crumbling Avaleron Empire. In secret, they are manipulating human and elven bloodlines, encouraging the creation of half-elves to have a breeding stock that can help introduce human blood into the Eladrin gene pool. They are doing this because they hope it will weed out The Madness, the horrible curse that causes Eladrin to go insane as they grow older. Marcel and his wife are the coordinators of this effort, though they are unaware that Old Leroux is a spy for the Eladrin Court who is manipulating the White Fox Society to serve the interests of the Eladrin Empire.
Step 4: Describe three people that are tied to the character though blood, romance or honor. Two of them are friendly to the character, one is hostile. All can do something useful for you, if you can get the situations to line up. If you like, you can include an enemy of yours here as well, so I have an instant NPC nemesis to throw at you.
1) Angelique DuParis is Marcel's wife and confidant. She helps him run the temple and handles most of the day-to-day affairs while he attends to the church's business. Though they make a wonderful couple and an excellent team, they have grown apart as of late. 2) Old Leroux is one of Marcel's most trusted friends. he often consults with Leroux on important matters, and they share many interesting tales. 3) The mysterious raven-haired half-elf Mia'ali has entered Marcel's life and enchanted him. He is fascinated with her, and spends time with her when he can. His intentions towards her are, however, not entirely innocent. 4) Bishop Antoine Montaire is one of Marcel's most bitter rivals. He administers the Shroudmist Abby, dedicated to the Lawful Good goddess of the Sun and Civilization. His church was dominant during the founding of the city, but when Marcel and the refugees from Abbeville arrived, their faith quickly won over the locals, and people flocked from one church to the other. This did not endear him to the Bishop, who blames Marcel for stealing his people away from the true faith. Marcel regards this rivalry with disappointment, for he respects the Bishop's conviction.
Marcel was dead in the previous campaign, killed in a plot by Mai'ali to terrorize the city of Abbeville long before the party arrived. This time around, I decided to put him in as an active NPC so that the party has a chance to save him from his previous horrible fate. And after that decision was made, his role increased. He is now a very important figure in the campaign, and one that a lot of other characters revolve around.
What I find most frustrating about 4E is that I can see it includes the D&D game I've always wanted to play, but the game is so lathered in tatical combat rules that I have thus far been unable to coax the game I want out.
What I find most frustrating about 4E is that I can see it includes the D&D game I've always wanted to play, but the game is so lathered in tatical combat rules that I have thus far been unable to coax the game I want out.
I think it works best to run your questions backwards, it seems to roll better in my experience.
For example, start with 3 childhood memories. People tend to be much more free-wheeling with making up childhood memories, as they don't see the immediate connection to who their character is now.
Move into defining 3 people, 2 allies and 1 enemy, (parents count as 1), sometimes many adventures are simply orphans, because that way they don't need to think about parents, family life, etc, of the character. Starting with childhood memories, oftentimes a relation with a parent is hinted at. This is build off of, and then you are 33% done. It is easy to bang out two more relationships.
Secrets step, this is often build into the 3 relationships, either as something MORE on top of the relationship (maybe a why) or else something that the PC is more than just not happening to mention to the other party members, but something he is actively trying to keep some close relationships from finding out about. Being secretly married to the barmaid in your home town, the rest of the aventuring party isn't going to care, but being secretly married to the barmaid in your home town, and neither set of parents know about it, that is already more interesting.
throw these all together and you get some great hooks for storyline goals. Just like the 2 goals are DM hooks for adventures, these underpinnings are great hooks to build your 2 goals off of.
Round it out with 5 (or more) 'interesting facts' about your current situation, 3 of which relate to your goals, secrets, relationships, or memories, but 2 of them must not, and now the creative juices are really flowing, and only 2 must be totally new. Often you get 2 totally new ones and 7 that are related to the work done before.
I have also found that looking at pictures or parrosing a collection of figs can really give good hooks too. I've know people to grab the smallest dwarf mini (because it was older...we seem to have gone from 25mm to 28mm to now pushing 30mm) and decide he wasn't just going to play a dwarf, but a dwarf who was short even for dwarves...now why was he short? Malnutrition as there were some severe famines in the family hold those years located close to the old border defined in the goblin wars 500 years earlier. Most other dwarves see the war as old history, but on the border the goblin raiders would often burn the mushroom fields, and eventually his parents in tears sent him away as a foster-child to some distant relative, sitting in his guilded halls.
Now, the actual armament of the miniature (shield or no shield? axe or hammer?) depicted the armament of the character, and as that was pre 4ed, now is when the attribute scores would be chosen with an eye for the feats each weapon can utilize.
To me that is a much better way of doing it than looking at the feats, picking a weapon, then trying to find a miniature that happens to have the same weapon choice, but otherwise has no relation to how you see your character
I think it works best to run your questions backwards, it seems to roll better in my experience.
For example, start with 3 childhood memories. People tend to be much more free-wheeling with making up childhood memories, as they don't see the immediate connection to who their character is now.
Move into defining 3 people, 2 allies and 1 enemy, (parents count as 1), sometimes many adventures are simply orphans, because that way they don't need to think about parents, family life, etc, of the character. Starting with childhood memories, oftentimes a relation with a parent is hinted at. This is build off of, and then you are 33% done. It is easy to bang out two more relationships.
Secrets step, this is often build into the 3 relationships, either as something MORE on top of the relationship (maybe a why) or else something that the PC is more than just not happening to mention to the other party members, but something he is actively trying to keep some close relationships from finding out about. Being secretly married to the barmaid in your home town, the rest of the aventuring party isn't going to care, but being secretly married to the barmaid in your home town, and neither set of parents know about it, that is already more interesting.
throw these all together and you get some great hooks for storyline goals. Just like the 2 goals are DM hooks for adventures, these underpinnings are great hooks to build your 2 goals off of.
Round it out with 5 (or more) 'interesting facts' about your current situation, 3 of which relate to your goals, secrets, relationships, or memories, but 2 of them must not, and now the creative juices are really flowing, and only 2 must be totally new. Often you get 2 totally new ones and 7 that are related to the work done before.
In truth, any of the steps can lead to character development. When I write up the NPC backgrounds for instance, often I have a good idea of what secrets are surrounding them, so I work on those first, then turn to Step 1 and Step 4, using Step 4 to identify other NPCs with whom my party is likely to interact and creating a sort of web or relationships. Since I'm a DM most of the time, I don't worry so much about Steps 2 or 5, though those steps are sometimes useful if I want to flesh out the NPC more. This background is modular for a reason...it can be adapted to suit the needs of the game a DM is running.
I've found Step 1 most useful for hammering out an image or concept. It allows the players to start thinking about what sort of character they'd like to play as they are jotting down ideas. The goals get fleshed out, then the secrets. I've found that the hardest part of character generation in this method is Step 4, because, as you point out, players are used to creating characters with no other ties. Many times, they will chose other PCs to put in these slots, which is actually very useful for party cohesiveness.
What I find most frustrating about 4E is that I can see it includes the D&D game I've always wanted to play, but the game is so lathered in tatical combat rules that I have thus far been unable to coax the game I want out.
I love this background. But I'm a bit biased, as I love gnomes who focus on beating the tar out of things with their man strength.
Thank you very much. Robin is fun to play, though as the only evil character in a mostly unaligned/good group his viciousness causes some tension, so I try to keep his bloodthirstiness aimed solely at monsters.
What I find most frustrating about 4E is that I can see it includes the D&D game I've always wanted to play, but the game is so lathered in tatical combat rules that I have thus far been unable to coax the game I want out.
These are some great jumping off points. With improv, we focus on the who but get some where, what, and why in there for flavor, and that's what you did. Good work, you've just made someone's dnd life a lot easier :D
Monsieur Tutheinco-Ponayme could be called Toulouse, to good effect, although everyone might still call him "too lazy". :D However, if this disgusting trend of nobleborn characters continues, I shall have to post some sort of antidote. Serfs up, yo.
This is the best post.
The lack of qualification is conspicuous for a reason. Also, I'm going to post my own 10-minute character background here in a bit. I play a homebrew race. The character concept is far from original, but feel like he's sufficiently unlike the characters the Foglios have written.
