GREATPC: 6 Questions to create the Ultimate Backstory for your Player Character in Roleplaying

hello and welcome to another episode of how to be 8 great PC can I start off by saying thank you to everybody who's watched the first video two thousand views and Counting I have to say I'm blown away and I do hope that I can help in some way to help you have more fun and to really be a great player today we're looking at the GM's busy looking at world building which is how to create the space in which you're playing the question I have for you is how responsible are you for contributing to that world building and the answer is your vital the whole world is being built just for you to plan it so that means as much effort as the GM is putting in to creating a fantastic world with all sorts of things or an amazing galaxy for you to explore you need to be putting as much work into your character and that means creating backstory we're going to look at how to create backstory in this episode there are six six questions you should be asking yourself every time you create a character regardless of system regardless of setting and those six questions let me tell you are asked by every script writer who has ever written a good movie of every single one of their characters what are they well before we get there your characters backstory is going to help the game master to shape the adventure that you're in and if you're one of those people who go oh I I don't really know how to tell a good story I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not creative guess what you're a role player by definition you are you maybe just don't know the right questions to ask so these six questions are going to help you create your character now we're not going to be going this is how you fill in the number here and this is how you fill in the number there the GM is watching my other channel all know that I do not care about numbers and you shouldn't either the numbers are there to help you to create tension and there to resolve issues and conflicts in a mathematical way your responsibility is to make sure that your story rings true if your story rings true you want to come back time and time again there are players out there who like to come back because their numbers keep changing and getting bigger and better that's fine they're not role playing they're playing a different kind of game so how do you create a great back story that's going to keep everybody going how did this person do this well here are those six questions that I promised you question number one where was the character born and bear with me here these questions you're going to be going what does it matter where my Romulan commander was born what does it matter where my dwarf was born what does it matter where my Victorian female was born was it Dorset was it Essex who cares that was twenty or thirty years ago well creating backstory is about creating your history and it allows you to already start interacting with your game master so that very first question where was the character born has a whole lot of other questions that spawn around it to create a better character let's take for example we are going to roleplay in a Cthulhu game I haven't used Cthulhu for a while and you are going to be playing a Victorian female that's all you've decided upon you don't know what class you're going to be playing you don't know what their focus is going to be on it doesn't matter you're going to tell yourself eventually what they're doing so let's go to that first question where was she born was she born in London was she born perhaps in Ireland is she Irish or is she specifically British if she's British and she was born in Ireland in the 1870s let's ask our Jim hey what was Island like during the 1870s in your world the GM might go well gosh I don't know then you say well I would like it if the Ireland in the 1870s had not been included in the British Empire and there was not major tension between the Irish and the English I would like it that the Irish using their Celtic ways and their powers of the Fae had managed to keep the English at bay and were in tune with the natural environment because then I can have my character born there where she's a little bit more aware of the arcane she goes to the fairy circles and she looks for leprechauns and that kind of thing because the environment she grew up in is is a friendly environment the GM might then say well that's fantastic he runs off to create this amazing Irish Kingdom that's managed to survive the incursions of the British and you now have a starting point on the other hand you might say a game master what type of setting are we Anisa der its Cthulhu so it's supposed to be dark and morbid and gothic so maybe she was born out in Dartmoor out on the moors this barren frigid swamp type of place what are the implications of where she was born well if she was born out in say Dartmoor that means she probably has some understanding of how swamps work or she has a longing for big cities because there aren't any out there do you see what kind of questions get and what kind of answers just get thrown up by choosing where the character was born what if she wasn't even born in England or in wet and Ireland what if she was born in India or in South Africa how would that change the character and how would that change her story quite significantly because once you've decided how aware they were born not how they were born where they were born you can then ask the next question who are the parents was she born in South America if so why were her parents in South America and you don't necessarily need to follow any kind of logic or if you prefer follow logic use your general knowledge rather than your imagination well her parents were in South America because a in the 1870s they were explorers so was she born in a canoe on the Amazon the canoe by the way is a special couple's canoe so you can canoodle while you sail down the river so when was she born in a canoe in the Amazon jungle to Explorer parents or were there missionaries was she born to a bunch of missionaries who were heading to South America to hunt down the mysterious demon of quater laquet all these are questions that you need to answer and that you need to take to your game master and say hey could I have demons wandering around from the ancient Aztec gods that are really manifesting and causing problems the game master might say no actually I wanted to be very low-key I wanted to be are their demons or maybe they're not demons so I don't want it to be absolutely on surd in the first session well then perhaps her parents were explorers and they were looking into temples and foreign artifacts which is where her love of the occult came from two questions so far and we already have several different types of character that have come out of different regions and have got parents have got really interesting stories next question all the parents still alive does she have a brother does she have a sister does she have a grandmother does she have a grandfather again why are we needing all of these questions if she has a grandfather he's probably not in Brazil with the Explorer father and mother maybe he lives out on the scott'll Scottish Highlands maybe he is a Russian in which case why did a Russian man marry an English woman to give birth to her parents who then moved to England and then explorers in the Amazon jungle what was that chain how did it happen is she related to the Czar perhaps her grandfather was simply a carpenter then maybe she picked up some woodworking skills or perhaps she never knew her grandparents were she never knew who her parents were she was raised an orphan in Brazil well perhaps she was raised by missionaries someone must have raised her is she a Romulus and Remus was she raised by wolves yes speak to the Jim about that because that's a little bit fantastical maybe he accepts it in which case are we pulling in now on the crowd there was an old film from the 90s so asking those questions just get you some very interesting directions to look at her history and what could influence her so you haven't chosen yet her class or her career which leads us to the next question what was she doing before she became level one what was she doing before you committed her to paper so we know that her parents were missionaries in the Amazon jungle and they died mysteriously exploring a tomb oh what a cliche rather her parents were explorers who perhaps brought back an artifact to England and a mysterious event occurred around that particular artifact which caused a monarch to suddenly wither and die bringing her family into shame so her parents have gone into exile and headed off deep into Antarctica to hide their shame leaving her behind with her aunt who owns a small villa in Italy but the aunt prefers to we summer it in England because it's nicer there than Italy and summer but she has a house in London and that is where our female character is when we start the adventure when we start at very first adventure look at that long chain just made from building Questions how do we make the back story a little bit more interesting how do we avoid cliches well just ask different if you notice I'll ask a question I'll provide an answer then I will provide a different answer and I'll weigh them up and go well I think this is more interesting this is less likely to be predictable so if she now lives with her strange on two winters in Italy in the summers in England and has a house in London is the on rich well if she travels a lot maybe she is is there an uncle involved I don't think so necessarily because it kind of sounds quite nice to have this feisty old aunt who loves to be in London in the summer because she likes the rain and who speaks Italian because she's an Italian for six months of the year and she has brought up her niece in a similar style so now we're starting to go well maybe the niece speaks lots of languages she was born in Brazil in a canoe she spent some of her time in Italy she spent some over time in England and she has a Russian grandfather so maybe she speaks Russian perhaps not let's carry on asking questions were only on question number three and they're throwing a bonus question so what was she doing before we started maybe she decided she should become a nurse so that she can solve the great mystery of why the monarch died when they touched the artifact that the parents brought back the parents weren't affected by it evidently maybe she wants to go and bring her parents back from exile maybe she wants to prove that her parents were not the villains who assassinated the monarch maybe she wants to forget the whole thing I have nothing to do with adventuring or going off to exotic places I want to be a librarian well those are perfectly good answers - the problem is when we get to the next question question number four four why did they leave at what point did she say you know what this strange bunch of other people because you're not necessarily going to be playing the campaign on your own you will have other players who will have their characters this strange bunch of people if our GM throws us all in a prison cell in Becki Stan which didn't exist by that period so let's say Transylvania or Congo why did she leave why did she stop why does she accept her fate and move on was she bored as a librarian was she unfulfilled as a greengrocer were her experiments not going well and she was dismissed and so she had nothing else to do and decided that going off with this bunch of people was the best choice so questions questions leading to more leading to more leading to more we still haven't decided on any of them yet we've just kind of got them up then we're going well this is kind of interesting I like this aspect that's kind of cool so question 4 is why do they quit and this is a tough one why would you resign from your current job or stop studying or actually get a job what would motivate you is it a major life change is it literally someone walking into the inn that you're sitting in having your little drink in the ladies section of the bar please this is 1877 and they catch your eye and they whisk you away because they're dashing or because they promise something different from what you have so then we go to question 5 and this helps you to create a more believable character in the future so you are planning for future adventures you're planning for future stories by creating a beautiful past the decision to leave they job their life whatever has ramifications and the biggest ramification is what did they leave behind did she leave her aunt in London mysteriously as her aunt searching for her is her aunt dead maybe maybe that's why she decided to leave the on had a heart attack and the house was being sold she had nowhere to go so that stranger who offered her a trip to the deepest darkest Congo is her only choice what did she leave behind did she leave relatives did she leave her parents and Arctica is the grandfather and Russia still there did she leave behind debt did she leave behind a lover this allows the gamemaster to go hey you said you left behind the lover we are six months into the campaign and buying there is your lover back to find you and he is angry or perhaps it's a she and we've got the scandal going on because now you're this great adventurer and your female lover has shown up what a scandal so who or what do they leave behind and again don't just make the decision go to the gamemaster and say well this is my story so far what do you think can I leave something behind maybe there's an inheritance if your game master is up to snuff he should say yes yes yes yes let's tweak this slightly let's adjust that and you need to be open to the game master adjusting things because remember he's looking at what you're writing from a totally different perspective he's looking at from a how can I take what I'm being given gratefully and change it up and make it so that even you don't know how your future is going to unfold the last question to ask yourself is what does your character want does this little quiet librarian I seem to be stuck on the fact that she's a librarian which I hate because that's an inspiration from a movie called The Mummy with Brendan Fraser in it one of my favorite films of all time so let's say that she became a nurse because she wants to solve the middle the root of the riddle of the object killing the monarch she leaves this environment because she's been promised a journey on something like let's say the HMS Beagle to sail around the world and find exotic cures to amazing things what does she want does she want to be related with her parents does she want to send money back to her aunt to say thank you for the decades of care that the aunt has bestowed upon her does she want to track down that Russian father of hers perhaps she wants to return to Brazil to go and explore those ruins and find the true origin of the curse you need to ask what does she want and the answer comes from all of the questions you've answered already it's easy 6 questions and now you've got this amazing character backstory and when the GMs is okay so what's your character's backstory well she was born to parents who were explorers and they were on a quest to go to Brazil and discover the Temple of Quetzalcoatl I was born in a canoe and so my name is Elizabeth God after the guide Branson and that is a remarkable story already but it goes on her parents found the temple it was many days traveling and her mother whilst nursing me had to carry the father's backpack but they were a United couple and they found this temple and they struggled through it and my father was killed I decided he died but my mother carried on because she was devoted to my father she came halfway across the world had a child and still carried on she found the artifact she took the artifact with the guide back to England she presented it to the king and the King mysteriously died there was a chancellor who saw that it couldn't possibly have been this woman with a brand-new baby being responsible but they also couldn't let the assassination of the monarch go unanswered so she was exiled to South Africa to go and live out on the mines that were being founded in the Boer Republic the child was given to an armed a venerable ambassador to Italy on behalf of the English crown off she went of Italy where she spent many days running through the dappled sunlight and forests and Naples where her original origins seemed forgotten but the on kept in contact with the mother and of course as time grew up so Elizabeth had questions and these questions later got her to be interested in what caused the death of the monarch and the only way she could explore it was not becoming a doctor because doctors in 1877 could not be woman but she could become a nurse and that brought her as close to medical science as she could get and every summer when her aunt would go back to London she would study at Guy's Hospital to try and better her knowledge and her understanding now that an opportunity has come up for her to sail around the world on the average ms Beagle she's going to take it because she wants to find that cure for what killed the monarch or the curse and what killed the monarch secretly she's hoping that when the Beagle gets to Brazil she'll hop off it and go and find that temple and be able to conduct real research or perhaps when the Beagle arrives in South Africa she will travel north and go and see if she can get more answers out of her mother and convince her mother that she is not the evil woman that she thinks she is there are so many possibilities for you to explore here that neither you nor your gamemaster should get tired now imagine if all the players around the table had as complex stories as yours and it didn't take very much let's be honest six questions a little bit of history a little bit of general knowledge a little bit of common sense and just a sprinkling of imagination allowed us to change our character from just being she's she's the healer of the party so she's a medic no she isn't she's a woman who has a very sad story she grew up just with her aunt in a foreign language she really wants to know what happened to her mother and what happened in the temple and why did the Malik Mark died and where is is he still in his little canoe so many questions so many great Auri opportunities and do you see now how you as the plan have contributed to creating a world that everybody who plays in it is going to go oh this is amazing this so much history this this is real and after all isn't that what we want we want to experience this amazing story of these amazing characters slowly coming to life bringing to the table these remarkable adventures that we can participate in I hope you like this very long exposition on why backstory is so important then how easy it is to create it really is hit that like button hit the subscribe button share us with all your friends there's lots of players out there who can always benefit from a little refreshing or perhaps a different take on how to roll up characters we've got plenty more planned but drop your questions below we will answer all of them if you have suggestions for content that you really want to see bring them to us we'd love to answer them in terms of actual character creation filling in the numbers and that kind of thing there are the GM channels out there that have got lots and lots of explanations on it I'm not a numbers person you can see that on all of our channels stick with me we will make you a great PC till next time happy playing

Channel: Board Goblins

Views: 549,231

Keywords: Roleplaying, Geek, Nerd, Tabletop Roleplaying, GM, How to GM, Roleplaying demo, Roleplayers, Pathfinder, Pathfinder Roleplaying, Pathfinder Roleplaying system, Tabletop RPG, How to be a Great Player, Player Character, Roleplayer, How to, How to PC, GreatPC, Bacon Battalion

Id: hhkYSLOMmTs

Length: 23min 51sec (1431 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 09 2016