Thank you. I find that it helps me to create plots that revolve around the PCs in ways that get their attention. The best RPing, I've found, comes when the game begins to resemble a soap-opera with surprise twists and turns and revelations. It also works because I'm using stuff the players are giving me, instead of relying on just my own sense of the dramatic...of course, with the Third Secret, I have the ability to throw truly unexpected things at players, especially those wanks who think that they can give themselves uber-powerful and string-free resources in their backstories.
I find that the outline format works very well, allowing players to separate things into more manageable chunks as they build their backgrounds.
I don't follow a specific format like you do, but I do encourage my players to spend time figuring out how they fit in the world. I find the best way to promote it is to actually use the character backgrounds that the players give to draw them into the story or be some kind of background.
For example the most senior role player in my current campaign makes very in depth backgrounds. I love it personally, we will spend days talking about how his character fits in the world. In the campaign I just started, he is playing "Echo Stormheart, also known as the Chaos Shepard." To make the story short, weird things happen around him. When he was born, there was a storm that hit the remote town his mother lived in. They never knew his father, and his mother was dead when they heard the baby's voice echoing through the house. They never spoke of what they saw in there to him. Odd things happen around him. Animals, not through magical compulsion, will either hate or adore him, and people will mistake him for someone they know all too commonly. He knows things that any rational person would wonder how he could know something without pre-disposition. He has two oddly colored eyes one is silver and one is green. The silver one turns colors from time to time without him noticing. There's more oddities and background about him, but that gets you the gist.
He plays his character as a good character who always tries to see the best in people, and his own personal theory is that his senses are a little weird, and that's why the world around him acts so oddly to him. As if he can see in to the past or the future at times. The truth is though, Vecna himself, actually came down, ripped out the eye of the newborn, and placed his own eye into the socket. Since then he's been growing up with the eye telling him secrets, and recently, secrets of undead. So much so, that in game, he actually unwittingly turned a dead imp into an undead imp that now follows him. It was a pretty big shock for a good aligned character to realize that he could raise the dead into undead, especially because he worships Pelor!
It'll be funny when I have the paladin in the party drop the bomb "If your hand causes you to sin then cut it off and cast it away," as a hint to him that he has an evil body part. It'll also be interesting to see whether he turns evil due to the influence of the eye, he actually puts his eye out to remain good, or he struggles his entire life with the eye playing with him.
Why do I bring this up? Because when other players see that when you make a background, it'll mean something, they in turn want to make a background as well.
I've given my players the task of filling out your background questions, and it's been the easiest and most painless thing ever. Integrating their desires and character histories into the story arc has never been easier.
It's like a source material feast.
Well, thank you! This format has worked wonders for me, especially since it gives me enough tools not only to ties the characters into my forming ideas, it also gives me a chance to think about how to build relationships that are meaningful to the players.
For instance, one of the characters is a lost scion of an Eladrin noble family. Another is a changeling who escaped the Feywild because of Eladrin witch hunts, and has a missing brother who is working a sort of changeling underground railroad. A third character mentioned a mentor character who was secretly grooming him to be a member of a secret society.
I took these threads and began weaving them together. The Lost Princess's family, for instance, is the one that was persecuting the changelings. The mentor is helping the changeling's brother smuggle other dopplegangers into the world. And so on.
Another thing i've noticed is that, when the players are stuck for ideas on contacts (which they very often are), they've chosen other player characters as contacts, which means they talk about their backgrounds with each other at least to a small extent and form relationships that can make it much easier to organically form an adventuring party.
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 don't follow a specific format like you do, but I do encourage my players to spend time figuring out how they fit in the world. I find the best way to promote it is to actually use the character backgrounds that the players give to draw them into the story or be some kind of background.
For example the most senior role player in my current campaign makes very in depth backgrounds. I love it personally, we will spend days talking about how his character fits in the world. In the campaign I just started, he is playing "Echo Stormheart, also known as the Chaos Shepard." To make the story short, weird things happen around him. When he was born, there was a storm that hit the remote town his mother lived in. They never knew his father, and his mother was dead when they heard the baby's voice echoing through the house. They never spoke of what they saw in there to him. Odd things happen around him. Animals, not through magical compulsion, will either hate or adore him, and people will mistake him for someone they know all too commonly. He knows things that any rational person would wonder how he could know something without pre-disposition. He has two oddly colored eyes one is silver and one is green. The silver one turns colors from time to time without him noticing. There's more oddities and background about him, but that gets you the gist.
He plays his character as a good character who always tries to see the best in people, and his own personal theory is that his senses are a little weird, and that's why the world around him acts so oddly to him. As if he can see in to the past or the future at times. The truth is though, Vecna himself, actually came down, ripped out the eye of the newborn, and placed his own eye into the socket. Since then he's been growing up with the eye telling him secrets, and recently, secrets of undead. So much so, that in game, he actually unwittingly turned a dead imp into an undead imp that now follows him. It was a pretty big shock for a good aligned character to realize that he could raise the dead into undead, especially because he worships Pelor!
It'll be funny when I have the paladin in the party drop the bomb "If your hand causes you to sin then cut it off and cast it away," as a hint to him that he has an evil body part. It'll also be interesting to see whether he turns evil due to the influence of the eye, he actually puts his eye out to remain good, or he struggles his entire life with the eye playing with him.
Why do I bring this up? Because when other players see that when you make a background, it'll mean something, they in turn want to make a background as well.
While long, detailed character histories such as these are always a bonus, they sometimes get out of hand. Perhaps the player is writing so much because he expects to be the main focus of the game, the "main character" above all others. Perhaps they mean well, but present you with a history so long it resembles the last Harry Potter book; while it may be an interesting read, it also doesn't hit on the parts that DMs really need to know about in a manner that is easily accessible. I know that I don't want to wade through the Next Great American Novel to come up with a few adventure hooks when it's crunch time and the players will be at the door in fifteen minutes.
It also encourages the players to focus on different aspects of the character. Our group had the most trouble with coming up with contacts because they were used to playing loner types with no ties to anything. Once they started putting thought into it, these concepts bloomed. Naturally, I had some silliness (one player wanted to have a pet demonic talking skull named Murray, since he was playing a necromancer), but over all it was fun and very productive.
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.
Since I'm bored and can't sleep, I'm going to make up another example character using one of the NPCs of my game. I encourage those of you who like this thread to post your own Ten-Minute Characters if you feel so inclined.
Spoiler Alert: Those of you in my Rise of the Fallen game can just skip right over the secrets portion of this background, m'kay?
The Ten-Minute Background of Bodak Steelgrinder
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.
"Oh we are adventurers! Mighty, mighty adventurers! Going to kick their *****es! All the way to Kelsenon!" --A drunk Bodak trying to inspire morale among his companions
1) Bodak Steelgrinder is a Dragonborn wizard from the Keregorn Mountains, way up north of the current setting, in the ruins of the Kelsenon Empire. 2) He is a self-trained adventurer, whose only magical training came from scraps of spellbooks he attained on his travels. His magic tends to be flashy and not exactly stable as a result. 3) As a self-styled adventuring mercenary, he cross-trained in the arts of fighting. He likes wearing heavier armor than most wizards and wields an axe, but he dosen't know any of the better tricks of dedicated fighters. 4) He was once part of an adventuring band investigating the activities of a group of evil vampire bloodmages called "The Order of the Fair." However, his group was outclassed and split after a failed attempt to infiltrate an Order stronghold. Bodak narrowly escaped the debacle with his life, and took to wandering as much out of fear of reprisal as dragonborn wanderlust. 5) Bodak has a love of all things draconic, seeing such items and lore as linking him to a great heritage. He is especially fond of tales relating to Lost Arkhosia, the ill-fated dragonborn empire. A few more, details important for this character's role as a patron in my game:
6) After wandering for several years, Bodak came to the campaign area. He felt that this was a good place to put up stakes for a while, and he now feels he's far enough away from the Order of the Fair to relax a bit. 7) He joined the local adventurer's guild, known as the Draconic Botherhood. He quickly distinguished himself, and was surprised to be offered the leadership of the guild when the old guildmaster retired. He quickly learned, however, just why the guildmaster was so quick to promote him, an inexperienced newcomer. The Brotherhood is suffering severe financial difficulties and is caught in political struggles with the other guilds in town, and Bodak does not command the respect of the other adventurers he is nominally in charge of. His appointment was strictly so the old guildmaster could flee with the remaining coins in the coffers, and he has been struggling to clean up the mess ever since.
Step 2: List two goals for the character that you, as a player, think would be cool to see accomplished in-game.
"There ain't anything in this world like being an adventurer, let me tell you! You get to travel to exotic lands, explore long-forgotten sights, uncover fabulous treasures, meet interesting monsters...and kill them!"
Since this is an NPC, these are going to be more of my goals as a DM.1) I'd like to see Bodak rise above the problems surrounding the Draconic Brotherhood that he was placed in, most likely with the PCs' help.
2) I'd like Bodak to come to some closure regarding the Order of the Fair.
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!
"You know, I miss the good old days. Traveling through the dark dungeons and solving cunning traps, exploring the astral sea, being chased by wizard cabals controlled by vampires...ok, I don't miss that last one very much, but the point still stands: you have it good."
1) Bodak has been courted by the head of the Merchant's guild, who is offering to cancel some of the Brotherhood's outstanding debts if Bodak will use his position to send muscle against the dockworkers of the city, who are trying to organize their own union to combat unfair Merchant Guild policies and practices. Bodak doesn't want to do this, but he's becoming desperate to get out of the crushing debt and ruinous interest rates his predecessor incurred. The temptation to give in is awful, but he's heard of a few treasure-laden ruins in the area which might allow him to get free without resorting to the dirty politics, and he's pinning his hopes on the new band of adventurers he's signed.
2) Though Bodak isn't aware of it, vampire spawn have begun appearing in St. Clarice. The Order of the Fair was run by a vampire, and if Bodak suspects that the Order has infiltrated the city he will stop at nothing to see that the vampires are rooted out and destroyed, with the hopes that he can finally find his way to their leader and slay him.
3) Bodak isn't aware that he's a pawn in another game. Gerard LeVaine, the Jack of Ashes, is preparing a Xanatos Gambit designed to ruin the reputation of the church of the Raven Lord. The first step of his plan is complete (the vampire spawn infiltrating the city). Gerard is not a member of the Order of the Fair, but he has learned of Bodak's history with them and is planning on manipulating that to his own ends. Gerard wants the vampire spawn to be uncovered, because he has set things up to appear as if the Raven Lord's temple is their source. All that needs to happen now is an incident that will expose the spawn...
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.
"I got a problem. You remember Jerek? Yeah, the git's gone and started up his own rival mercenary band. That's bad for business. now, I know you've had your problems with him before...so while I can't officially offer you a contract to forcibly disband his pack, I can guarantee that the Brotherhood will be exceptionally grateful if someone were to take care of that jerk and his men. Do we have an understanding?"
1) Bodak has a pet: a spider the size of a cat which he calls Bug. He refers to the spider as his "familiar," though he doesn't seem to have any mystical connection to it. He found the spider chomping on one of his boots the night after he tried to perform a ritual from a burned spellbook, so you can see where this impression stems from. Bug seems quite friendly, for a spider that can eat birds and rats.
2) Jerek Redscar is a mercenary who was employed by Bodak for a while. But Jerek is a jerkass and Bodak realized that he was a liability after a bar brawl that resulted in the bar being burnt to the ground. Bodak severed Jerek's contract, and the human is still bitter. Worse, he's been hired on with the St. Clarice watch specifically because Sheriff Bulrick despises the Draconic Brotherhood and wanted to put a thorn in Bodak's side. Still, as a member of the Watch, Jerek is bound to follow town law, so Bodak can bring attention to situations requiring the city watch.
3) Bodak has recently hired on a group of promising adventurers. At least, he thinks they're promising. They remind him a lot of his former companions, at the beginning of his own adventuring career...though perhaps that isn't an encouraging sign. But he helped bail them out of trouble during that bar fight, and they proved themselves against Jerek and his band of thugs. They just need a little time to gel, and some training to smooth away the rough edges...he hopes. He really doesn't have any other choice but to hope that they will be the answer to his problems.
Step 5: Describe three memories that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.
Bodak was actually a character I once played in one of my first 3.0 games. I decided to bring him back because he was very fun to play.
So when I brought him in, he acted as a DMPC, filling the role of the party wizard. The players liked him, and he accompanied them on several adventures. I deliberately strove to avoid DMPC traps, which helped a lot.
The campaign I am running now is a world-wide reboot of a previous campaign that ground to a halt due to DM burnout. 4th edition gave me a change to go back with my party and start the game from the very beginning, giving everything in my world an "everything old is new again" vibe. Previously, Bodak had been a half-orc working on the Dragon Disciple prestige class, but my original concept for him was to have been a dragonman, so the Dragonborn race switch was a perfect fit. I put him as a guildmaster to make sure he didn't act as a DMPC and follow the party around, acting more as a patron than the companion he was last time I introduced him. This may have failed, as the party has stated openly they like him enough to try and get him freed of his obligations of guildmaster to get him to come with them on an adventure or two, which works with my goals for the characters.
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.
While long, detailed character histories such as these are always a bonus, they sometimes get out of hand.
Yep. You nailed it on the head right there. It's always a bonus. If it's out of hand, then you don't have to deal with the out of hand parts. If you have a good two way communication with the player, you can work together to make a background you're both satisfied with.
Although you mentioned earlier, 15 minutes before game is not the time to read and consider a background. I generally work with players on and off for 2-3 weeks before I start a game with characters that are meant to do something a bit more than a straight forward story like "X is killing people. You people decide to stop him."
I tended to go that route in the beginning, but as I got older I found I had less and less time for the process of meeting with people. And sometimes, getting a background was like pulling teeth...some people just kept dragging their heels, and I wouldn't get anything from them until we were actually rolling up characters, which made it difficult to plan things ahead.
The background format I developed works to provide a "concept framework" for getting me the important parts of the characters. Not all the players are great writers, after all. And I've found it's easier to reference these shorter backgrounds as compared to the longer ones I've called for in the past, which speeds up adventure design immensely. And those inclined to write longer, more detailed things have not been diminished...far from it. I still get the longer background format. This just helps distill what I need at any given time down into a manageable one or two pages.
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 background, for yet another NPC from my campaign. Yet again, I remind those from my Rise of the Fallen game to ignore the Secrets block to avoid spoilers
The Ten-Minute Background of Dominique Leroux
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) Dominique is a half-elf from one of the near-by villages. She is pretty and has raven-black hair. 2) She has come to St. Clarice to get a new start on life, after a rough childhood hanging with one of the local gangs. She is trying to escape her criminal past, but her skills as a rogue may prove useful to adventurers. 3) She dated the leader of a gang of hooligans in her village, but he was abusive and when she called it off he took to stalking her. Eventually he got caught and is spending time in the village stockade, but he won't be there forever, and she is afraid he will come looking for her. 4) She works a very low-paying job as a tavern wench and can only afford lodgings in the red-light district of the town, which doesn't help her reputation much. She longs to find a more lucrative line of work, but doesn't want to turn back to larceny to obtain it. She's been considering looking for employment at the Draconic Brotherhood. 5) Recently, her life has taken a turn for the strange. Ever since a vivid nightmare a few weeks ago, she has been having odd blackouts, and is waking up in strange places. People have been telling her they've seen her in places she doesn't remember going and doing things she's sure she wouldn't do. And then there is the odd magic that has crept into her life...during a brawl at the tavern she worked at, she somehow caused a man's eyes to start bleeding. She fled, but heard later that the bar burned down in the aftermath. And she thinks that she saw her old boyfriend there, watching from the balcony. She's terrified, and is looking for help.
Step 2: List two goals for the character that you, as a player, think would be cool to see accomplished in-game.
1) I would like to see Dominique get past the scared little girl that she is right now and blossom into a more confident character. 2) I would like to use Dominique as a love interest for one of the players. 3) I would like to see the Shards of Jillian hook explored over the course of the campaign.
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) Dominique's nightmare involved her killing people who looked amazingly like herself, and then stealing their souls. This dream is recurring, and every time she has it she finds she's had another blackout. She wonders what this means, and she's scared of the vision. 2) Dominique is one of the Shrads of Jillian, holder of one of the pieces of a dead goddess's soul. The blackouts and odd powers are manifestations of this power beginning to awaken in her. The Shards are drawn to each other, and unconsciously seek each other out. Their ultimate purpose is to put the dead goddess back together. Spoiler:Show
3) The reason Dominique is having these blackouts and finding out she's acting strange is because she isn't Dominique. Dominique is actually dead, killed by another one of the Shards who stole her soul and tried to integrate it with her own. This attempt failed, resulting in the Shard carrying two intact souls that war for control of the body.
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) Claude Perriot, Dominique's old boyfriend, is bad news. He is an abusive, hateful bastard and has recently acquired a taste for murder for hire, having joined a secret assassin's guild. When not out doing jobs for the guild, he is stalking Dominique to make her life miserable. he's currently living under the name "Tayce," which is the name of a bogeyman figure. 2) Old Leroux is an Eladrin wizard and Dominique's grandfather. He creates magical tattooes for a living, though he used to be a wizard for the royal court of an Eladrin queen. Dominique visits him when she can. He is knowledgeable about a great many things. 3) Martin Tenbones is the owner of the Three Keys Inn, an inn/tavern/gambling hall in a nicer part of town than Dominique has been living in. He has offered her a job at his place after meeting her a while back. Dominique doesn't know what to make of his interest, though. He says she reminds him of someone he once knew, but she doesn't like the wistful way he looks at her sometimes, and suspects he has ulterior motives.
Step 5: Describe three memories that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.
1) Once, when Dominique was very little, she went off to play in the forest near her village, she came across a strange ring of mushrooms and felt a tingle in the air that seemed magical. She believes that place was a fairy ring, but she was never able to find it again to make sure. 2) The icy slap of a belt across her face when Claude was in a bad mood, coupled with the tears and helplessness she felt, is one of her least favorite memories. 3) The vivid nightmare she had a few weeks ago where she met a person who looked just like her, talked with this doppleganger at length, and then killed her and placed her soul in a black gem has woken her up screaming several times now. Worse, when she wakes up from this dream, often she finds herself far from home, and can't remember how she got where she was.
Design notes--contains spoilers, so KEEP OUT PLAYERS!Show
Dominique was one of the NPCs from the previous 3.x campaign. She was the love interest of one of the characters, and her twisted backstory just grew more so as the campaign progressed. She started with having the Evil Twin thing with a BBEG called Mai'ali. With the reboot of the campaign she's in, I decided to mix things up and turn the Evil Twin thing into a Multiple Personality thing.
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've done similar, but this thread has me inspired. Great minds at work and fun as heck to pick from! I'm asking my new 4E campaign group to give me background (and i've stolen a number of your ideas from here - unabashed plug!). I'm looking to do a number of short "flashback" scenes, ala "Lost" - maybe one each gaming session. Each would feature one or two of the party's main characters and the other players will get NPC parts to play in the scene. I'm wondering if anyone else has done much with flashbacks and how well it worked, was everyone interested in other folks' backstory, and how did you reward the "encounter" (i'm thinking with Action Points maybe?)
I've done similar, but this thread has me inspired. Great minds at work and fun as heck to pick from! I'm asking my new 4E campaign group to give me background (and i've stolen a number of your ideas from here - unabashed plug!). I'm looking to do a number of short "flashback" scenes, ala "Lost" - maybe one each gaming session. Each would feature one or two of the party's main characters and the other players will get NPC parts to play in the scene. I'm wondering if anyone else has done much with flashbacks and how well it worked, was everyone interested in other folks' backstory, and how did you reward the "encounter" (i'm thinking with Action Points maybe?)
A DM I played under did this, though it was more like a pre game "prelude" than a flashback. I'm done this as well. mostly it's doing one-on-one things with players during the week. Trying to do flashbacks while in the main game can get dicey, as can having players play NPCs (something I did a lot of when we were playing Mutants & Masterminds). It's doable, but the more often it happens the more people might wish to get back to playing their "real" characters, so it should be used sparingly.
I was curious...to any mods out there, is there any chance of making this thread sticky?
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.
