Create an Interesting Back Story for Your RPG Character
Ever finished building your Dungeons and Dragons, Vampire: The Requiem, Mutants and Masterminds, or other RPG character and wondered, "How can I make this a character of depth and substance?" A back-story or biography for your character is the easiest way to transform her or him from a two-dimensional figure to a fascinating and inciting hero (or maybe villain!). Hopefully, this guide will help you in the process.
Steps
- Determine the physical qualities of your character. This includes most of the things you will find on the character sheet (sex, age, class, appearance, clothing, etc,.). Many of these traits will be imperative to determining the history and tastes of your character.
- Decide whether you want your character alignment to be ethically; "Lawful Good," "Neutral Good," "Chaotic Good," "Lawful Neutral," True Neutral," "Chaotic Neutral," "Lawful Evil," "Neutral Evil" or "Chaotic Evil".
- Ask yourself what your character's goals are. For what are they fighting? Later, you will be able to expand upon this by explaining why the character has these goals (What in his/her history lead him/her to have these goals? Does the character's likes/dislikes have an influence on these goals?).
- Now you get to the environmental influences upon your character. Where did he/she grow up? What social class is he/she? Who are/were some of the people closest to him/her (enemies, parents, friends, love interests, etc,.)? Remember that the physical and social environment a character grew and lives in has a huge effect on the philosophies of that character.
- Start to sculpt the personality of the character starting more generally and getting more specific (Ex: Is your character more of a type A or type B personality? What does he/she like and fear? Does he/she have any quirks? What are some of the secrets your character will have this adventure?) Keep in mind that a campaign adventure will help you flesh out and grow your character, so don't worry if you are having difficulty deciding on the specifics.
- Move on to constructing the history of your character. What has happened to him/her to make him/her the person he/she is today?
- Lastly, it is nice for both you and your Game Master if you tie into your back-story how your character is connected to the campaign (Was your character somehow wronged by the antagonist? Was your character simply trying to help his/herself or his/her people and was swept up in the adventure?). Having finished the history and personality of your character, this should be a rather simple thing to do working alongside your Game Master.
Tips
- If you find that you are experiencing "Writers' Block," this might help.
- It is okay to go back and edit what you wrote in the past. In fact, it is very likely to happen!
- Remember that it gets easier as you go along.
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