Building Characters for Role Playing Games
The Importance of Character Background When Playing an RPG
Dec 31, 2008
Character background is everything about a character before the role playing game begins. Some character's backgrounds are relatively empty, but almost every character should have some background. Unless they sprang from the ground fully grown with everything they need to know already learned (hey, it's a fantasy! Anyway, it worked for Aphrodite)
The Twenty Questions of Character BuildingMost role playing games suggest some of the following starting places for character background:
- How old is the character?
- Does the character have any family?
- What job does the character have?
- Does he/she have any children?
- Is he/she married?
- Does the character have any enemies?
- What goals does the character have?
- What are the character's beliefs? (What kind of beliefs will depend on the game: gods? the Force? Liberalism?
- Is the character predjudiced? Who or what does the character hate?
- Does the character belong to any organizations? The Jedi? A guild? A mob family?
- Does the character have any pets?
- Where does the character live? Why?
- What kind of childhood did the character have? Abusive? Happy-go-lucky? In the middle of a war zone?
- What hobbies does the character have?
- Does the character suffer from a curse? A blessing? Do they have a secret patron?
- What is one incident from the character's past that haunts him?
- Who is the character's best friend?
- Where/how did the character learn his/her skills?
- Why does the character know _______ language?
- If you could, what advise would you give your character?
It's generally a good idea for a character's background to consist of at least 5 of these questions.
Why Does Character Background Matter for an RPG?
Some game masters don't care whether their players have a character background or not. Others demand write ups of character background. A few give extra XP or skills for a well written background. And of course, GMs love character background for all the potential story hooks.
But why should a player worry about whether or not they have a background?
- A character background makes a RPG character more real
- Helps a player understand how a character will react in certain situations
- Shows what types of things will affect the character more then others
- Helps determine what the character is doing in the downtime between game sessions or chronicles
At the same time, having a character background does not mean spending hours writing a disertation on the character's history. If the player has a solid grasp of who the character is and what his history is, then there really isn't any need to write it out unless the game master requires it. If the player doesn't have any idea who or what the character is beyond the stats on a page, then writing down a couple of paragraphs to help flesh out the character is probably a good idea.
