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Hey! I'm a lazy GM and I remember a number of the GMs on here mentioning that they had some questionnaires for the players about their characters. I had one but I lost it. It was like 3-4 pages long and it had questions like "Would you break the law if..." and a bunch of questions about background and disposition and stuff.
Just wondering if anyone had any of those handy as I could really use those.
"If your party is doing anything but running like hell trying not to get vaporized, the GM is not running the Mechanoids correctly." -Geronimo 2.0
"Coming Summer 1994... Mechanoid Space!"
75 GM Geek Points
Yeah, I can see your points there, but with my group... I honestly think they need it. Some of the players are actually asking me for something like this to help them get into character. I've filled them out for my characters, they seem to be a good option.
The problem I have is that my players have a hard time even choosing a disposition for their characters. There is no playing in character because their characters have no character. Honestly, if all of our dialog were simply written out, with no explanation as to who was who, we wouldn't be able to tell one character from the other.
This is just the kind of depth we want in our role playing experience. Thanks for those two, The second one is the closest to the one I had before (I think it might be it actually).
"If your party is doing anything but running like hell trying not to get vaporized, the GM is not running the Mechanoids correctly." -Geronimo 2.0
"Coming Summer 1994... Mechanoid Space!"
75 GM Geek Points
The Heroquest RPG does something interesting. They have you write a 100 word essay about your character. You must write 100 words - no more, no less.
Then from the 100 words, we circle and indentify the key words that stand out. Those are the ones we focus on for the campaign.
Example sentence: Lord Basher hates goblins and yearns for revenge against the Goblin King.
The two words that jump out are Goblins and Revenge. Obviously those two things are important for the character and should be important areas of focus for them. Also, they are keys for the GM so you know what kinds of plotlines will appeal to this player's character.
How do you use this info? Obviously, Lord Basher can go out and kill goblins. That's easy. But what about using those keywords in other context. Like what happens when Lord Basher learns that his king has granted anmesty to the Goblin King? What happens when a noble comes to Lord Basher for help with a horrid plot for revenge as plays upon Lord Basher's similiar inner anger?
Remember character background is USELESS if you don't use it in your campaign. The more the player's write - the less you will actually use.
Keep in mind that motivation is your most important component of character. Ask them, why are you a Cosmo-Knight? Why are you a Rogue Scholar? Why are you Aberrant alignment? Why are you hate the Coalition, you dbee loving scumbag!!!
The "why?" question is great for players too. Grab their character sheet and start asking some whys. Did they take some unusual skills that don't mesh with their OCC? Ask why would their Dog Boy learn Audio/Video? Why did their City Rat learn WP Whip? If you hate the CS so much, why are you using their tech?
Same for spellcasters. Look at the chosen spells at chargen. Pick a couple of oddball choices and ask what made this mage learn that spell? What happened in their life to make learning that spell important?
SkyeFyre wrote:Yeah, I can see your points there, but with my group... I honestly think they need it. Some of the players are actually asking me for something like this to help them get into character. I've filled them out for my characters, they seem to be a good option.
The problem I have is that my players have a hard time even choosing a disposition for their characters. There is no playing in character because their characters have no character. Honestly, if all of our dialog were simply written out, with no explanation as to who was who, we wouldn't be able to tell one character from the other.
This is just the kind of depth we want in our role playing experience. Thanks for those two, The second one is the closest to the one I had before (I think it might be it actually).
I'll see what I can do with my sheet of questions I worked up for HU2 characters. As a psych major with a social work minor, I cover a lot of character building elements in a short space. The best part is that they don't have to answer them all right away, but can develop some of them as they play the character and use logic to figure out how they would flesh out given the other information. No promises, but I can try and have it to you by the beginning of next week if you pm me an email address to send it to.
Yeah, everytime I see a blazingly obvious moron walking the streets... I think, "score one for the creationists..." ~ DLDC Warwolf is right... you can sig that. ~ TGK I refuse to participate in a battle of wits with an unarmed man. ~ Me
and I remember a number of the GMs on here mentioning that they had some questionnaires for the players about their characters. I had one but I lost it. It was like 3-4 pages long and it had questions like "Would you break the law if..." and a bunch of questions about background and disposition and stuff.
