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Sounds great! So great that I am going to steal it to use myself.

8. People your character wants to avoiding fighting or killing, but they may want to fight or kill your PC.

Somewhere, I have a lengthy list of "questions about your character" that players can use to flesh out a backstory and what their character is like. I found that it helped, even if they only answered a handful of them.

Warwolf wrote:Somewhere, I have a lengthy list of "questions about your character" that players can use to flesh out a backstory and what their character is like. I found that it helped, even if they only answered a handful of them.

Me thinks you should find this mythical somewhere and share

Here's the list I present to my players to aid them in defining their character:

• What is the character’s gender?
• What is the character’s race?
• What is the character’s physical appearance?
• Does the character have a distinctive physical trait?
• Describe the psychological traits of the character.
• Does the character have any good habits?
• Does the character have any bad habits?
• How old is the character?
• Where is the character from?
• What was the character’s family like?
• What relationship did the character have with his family?
• Does the character have any current personal relationships?
• What is the character’s occupation?
• What is the character’s lifestyle like?
• Why does the character do what he does?
• What are the character’s personal goals?
• Does the character have any secrets?
• Who are the character’s friends and rivals?
• What is the character’s name and/or nickname?

Hope it helps.

Cinos wrote:

Warwolf wrote:Somewhere, I have a lengthy list of "questions about your character" that players can use to flesh out a backstory and what their character is like. I found that it helped, even if they only answered a handful of them.

Me thinks you should find this mythical somewhere and share

That would be a rather lengthy post, but if I come across it I'll try to remember...

EDIT: Turns out, I actually have a copy on my thumb-drive... who knew? This was designed to be a very brief read and was written on the fly just before a game, hence the lack of intimate detail. Also note that this was written for use with Heroes Unlimited, but could easily be adapted to any of the other systems.

Writing Your Hero’s Bio

The number one thing to keep in mind is that you are creating the history of a living breathing person, not a sheet of paper with some stats and skills on it. Here are some basic guidelines and tips on fleshing out your history, but by no means is it exhaustive. Let’s start at the beginning.

#1: (Personality) This is the base. What is the character like? Are they relaxed or uptight? Passive or aggressive? Shy or outgoing? (etc., etc.) Try to get a feel for their general personality and then maybe try and develop some reasons why they are that way.

#2: (Environment) Where was your character born? Small town? Big city? What class was he/she born into? Rich? Poor? Middle Class? If lower class, do they resent the upper class? If upper class, do they feel superior to the lower class? Were they born into a violent atmosphere, or a relatively peaceful one? What were the cultural values of their society? Did their family adhere to these values, or were they outcasts? Was their family known for anything in-particular (good or bad)?

#3: (Childhood) How was their childhood? Were they a happy kid with a cohesive and loving family? Were they from a broken home? Did Mom and Dad divorce or were they raised by one parent? Did they suffer from some other kind of childhood trauma (i.e. losing a sibling, Dad was an alcoholic, were they adopted or orphaned)? Did they look up to one of their parents (grandparents, uncles/aunts, guardians) as a role model, or did they hate their family? Were there one or more individuals that impacted their life during this time (i.e. the family priest, childhood rival, another hero)? If so, how? How does the character’s childhood affect him now?

#4: (Schooling) Did the character do well in school? What kind of school did they go to (public, private, or home-schooled), if any? Do they still have friends (could be a teacher) from school? Did they play in any sports or participate in any clubs? Were they one of the popular kids, or maybe a social outcast? Did they complete school? If not, why?

#5: (Adulthood) The finished product... sort of. What is the character like today? What are their major strengths and weaknesses (personality-wise, not stats)? How do they view the world? Life? (Note: Those last two will be guided by the characters alignment, but you should try and elaborate.) What are their personal goals (short-term and long-term)? Try to keep in mind their profession as well as their skills, as it usually takes a specific mindset to perform certain jobs. Do they like what they do? Do they plan on retiring at some point, or do they even expect to live that long? What is their typical dress/hair style (wardrobe, what they wear)? This will affect how other people perceive them. Do they have any friends, relatives, or even a spouse close-by? Any dependents? Do they have any regular routines or habits (good or bad)? What are their hobbies/interests? Is there anybody they look up to/admire or completely hate? What is their take on current events (if applicable)? What is their opinion on religion? Are they an active participant in a chosen faith, or just a casual member? Do they trust the government, or is everything a conspiracy (and do they belong to a political party)? How do they view the paranormal? Do they believe in things like magic, clairvoyance, and monsters? What are their feelings towards super beings (humans if a super being themselves)? And the all-important question: Why did they become a hero? (That last one can make for key element in the bio.)

#6: (Final Thoughts) It might be a good idea to keep notes on how your character feels toward other members of the group and/or local populous, and perhaps their feelings on certain events. A story about when and how the character obtained and first discovered their abilities is another keeper. If minute details are your thing, little things such as favorite color and birthday are possibilities as well. Also, a brief physical description wouldn’t hurt (i.e. eye and hair color, physique, etc.) Any other details you might think of could be welcome additions to this list, be sure to share your thoughts with me.

-Your GM

Thats a little more concise and helpful to campaign generation than most of those huge lists or player bibles I see people writing.

I think one thing is that combat systems tend to normalise murder. At which point I think pretty much all the PC's become two dimensional, since hey, if you don't give murder a second thought, are you really going to care about anything (except grabbing loot)?

Noon wrote:I think one thing is that combat systems tend to normalize murder. At which point I think pretty much all the PC's become two dimensional, since hey, if you don't give murder a second thought, are you really going to care about anything (except grabbing loot)?

Only systems like the standard PB Megaversal System normalize killing (you misuse the term "murder"). Try the RECON system. It makes dying easier and, therefore, the characters tend to avoid combat more.

Combat (and even more-so killing) should have psychological and physical affects on the characters involved in it. Unfortunately, as a spin-off of the old D&D "dungeon crawl" kill-it-if-it-stands-between-you-and-the-treasure system, the Megaversal System fails to put any rules in place to enforce such realities of combat. This allows players to ignore "how" their character deals with these affects (personality alterations, physical tremors, chronic nightmares, etc.).

Also, if the GM maintains some level of control, or at least puts realistic controls in the game (i.e. legal ramifications for killing), and if the players play to their character's alignments (supposing they haven't been allowed to play evil characters), the characters should stop just short of killing. If they are all playing evil alignments, then they should simply be expected to kill.

Warwolf wrote:What are their major strengths and weaknesses (personality-wise, not stats)? How do they view the world? Life? (Note: Those last two will be guided by the characters alignment, but you should try and elaborate.) What are their personal goals (short-term and long-term)?

Not saying anything bad about what you wrote Warwolf, just using this as an example for how alignment is character-defining. Alignment always seems like a weak mechanic, but most often it is simply a failure of the GM to enforce any penalties (depending on the system - PB has none). In the Megaversal System, Players are to be told that they are about to act out of their alignment (regardless of upward or downward movement) and if they act that way too often the GM is supposed to change the character's alignment.

The character's alignment should be brought up, even in combat, to stop a character short of killing the opponent. "Murder" will no longer be "normalized" in the group once that is done.

If you like "I punish players into roleplaying properly", okay. I think players are already capable of doing so without enforcing alignment through punishment, though.

Do you think it's conflicting to mostly have rules about combat and extensive weapon artwork, but then your supposed to punish the players enjoying using them?

I mean, if I wrote an RPG where 95% of the rules are about sailing sail boats across the ocean, would it seem conflicting of me to write into the game to punish players for enjoying sailing?

Maybe this discussion about combat rules vs roleplaying should be it's own thread so it doesn't continue to hijack the topic about putting together a list to help players develop their character's personality?

Noon wrote:I think one thing is that combat systems tend to normalise murder. At which point I think pretty much all the PC's become two dimensional, since hey, if you don't give murder a second thought, are you really going to care about anything (except grabbing loot)?

Nowhere does Palladium "normalize" or even CONDONE murder of any kind. Combat and murder= two different things (as Beatmeclever pointed out). As a GM, I've run plenty of combat scenarios where no living being was killed. Of course, there are also situations in real life where the use of lethal force is not only acceptable but encouraged (think combat zones). So in any RPG that includes armed conflict... especially in settings where law is minimal or nonexistent... the rule of the day is likely to be "kill or be killed." Add to that plenty of non-sentient targets for "lethal" force like robots and vehicles, beings so malevolent and dangerous that dispatching them could hardly be considered an immoral act (think zombies or demons), and there are more than enough chances for combat-oriented characters to blow crap up without necessitating a constant moral evaluation of the consequences (real or imagined).

Personally, as a GM, I find situations where there are other living beings as the antagonist to add a level of challenge as I DO make players consider their alignments during gameplay. Thus, the characters now have to use (or discard) their often highly-lethal armament to subdue their adversaries or be prepared to rationalize how they can mete out justice like the punisher and still remain one of the "good guys." I further find that when players start to wise up to these circumstances they tend to take a page out of modern law-enforcement & military handbooks and diversify their options with the inclusion of "less-lethal" options.

So, some may see alignments as an "artificial" set of boundaries on the gaming experience but my argument to that is that almost any other "rule" is just as artificial and even sometimes arbitrary. If you have a huge problem with alignments not being "real enough" you should remember that the same could be said of the rules for ranged combat, the structure of the melee round, limitations to character skill selections, etc. In my experience, alignments are there to constrain players just as much as any other rule is. But keep in mind that without any kind of structure or rules, we'd just be sitting around with our friends "playing make-believe" like a bunch of 7-year-olds. If that's what people are after, fine, but I like to think there's a bit more to RPGs than that.

Warwolf: I'm going to go with Beatmeclever's suggestion. I gave my advice, the OP can consider it as he/she will. If you want to start a new post on the subject, you can cut and paste what you wrote and I'll answer it, or you can PM, or whatever. I think this is a thread for giving advice, not discussing the advice given (unless the OP him/herself asks).

Shorty Lickens wrote:Thats a little more concise and helpful to campaign generation than most of those huge lists or player bibles I see people writing.

Thanks. Part of my profession is condensing a person into a single file.

Noon wrote:I'm going to go with Beatmeclever's suggestion. I gave my advice, the OP can consider it as he/she will. If you want to start a new post on the subject, you can cut and paste what you wrote and I'll answer it, or you can PM, or whatever. I think this is a thread for giving advice, not discussing the advice given (unless the OP him/herself asks).

Actually, threads on these boards are quite suitable for the discussion of not only the primary question but any answers given. You wouldn't want a plethora of conflicting answers without their proponents justifying and possibly defending those answers, would you?

At any rate, I already gave my input on both accounts, so why would I then burden myself or others with an additional thread? If, by chance, you feel there is more to the topic that you wish to discuss then perhaps it is you who should take advantage of one of the options so generously offered.