Player character backgrounds

I'm a firm believer in working with players to develop characters that are well-wrought and properly embedded in the game.  Even if its just for a one-off game.

I like to provide as much information about my gameworld that they (as characters) would realistically know, and let the players develop a character that fits in with the world, the situation and the particular aspect of the story that the game is going to cover.

In this way its easier to create tension in the game.  We know that character A's father was savaged by wolves.  So now we can introduce some wolves later in the game.  We know that character B's mother went missing and is remarkable because she had eyes of different colour (heterochromia).  So later we introduce an old crazy beggar woman with heterochromia.  Is it the PC's ma?  No one can be sure... to begin with.

All these things serve to make a rich tapestry of game story.  And all of them can be leveraged.

There's also a few game mechanic techniques one can employ to help develop these concepts.  I like to use:

1. Bloodlines.  No matter what race the character is (and I use my own races rather than the standard elves and dwarves etc.). But no matter what the race is, I present at least two different bloodlines which the player can choose from.  Whilst they are the same race ostensibly, the use of bloodlines offers some subtle variants between the two.  A generic example of this (not from my gameworld) would be Men.  With bloodlines of High Men and Nomads, or you could call them Nobles and Gypsies.  They're the same race per se, but have subtle yet significant differences which influence background and prior experience.

2. Childhood.  No matter what your character is, they grew up somewhere and developed some skills - before they became a warrior, a sorcerer, a bandit, or whatever.  Some skills are fixed and relate to where the character grew up, or what race they are.  Other skills might have been derived from their parents.  Father was a ranger, so character gets basic tracking and basic herbalism, for example.

3. Star Sign.  Tho I hold little truck with zodiac in real life - I don't believe in zodiac, I just believe in aquarians. =)   - I like to use them in my games.  But under names like Sign of Thief, Sign of the Wolf, Sign of the Sage etc.  Each culture (race) in my gameworld has a slightly different take on these (more variants) but basically each Sign bends the character slightly, providing it with minor bonuses in keeping with that sign.  I.e. a thief character born under the Sign of the Thief, will have a few extra points on agility and sneak.  One born under the Sign of the Sage, will have a few extra points on reasoning and diplomacy, whilst the Sign of the Beast might convey a character with some decent fighting skills, despite the fact they're a thief (perhaps turning them into more of a thug).  But it doesn't take much to develop a zodiac like system for your game, and it adds a nice flavour to the characters.

4. Secret societies.  This is something Paranoia taught me.  In my fantasy world I have a number of different secret societies.  I don't necessarily give every player a society.  Some societies are fairly small, local affairs, based solely in a particular city for example.  Some span continents and races with agenda's that date back Ages and over-rule other petty prejudices such as race and profession.  i.e. a Human Mage and an Elf Ranger may have little in common until they learn that they are both members of the Order of the Night's Eye.  All of a sudden these characters have a bond which trangresses their birthplace.  Members of secret societies may also know some secret signs of recognition, or even have a secret language.  All of which can be used to enhance the game.  ...You see what appears to be a crescent moon etched into the gate-post....

5. Forbidden secret.  This can be different to the above and far more vague.  But its another great tool for providing PCs with interesting backgrounds.  Imagine if your character's father was a murderer.  Or the character had accidentally killed his own mother, and no one had ever found out.  Or the character had elven blood in them (1/8 elf, something like that).  Or was a serial killer.  There are all sorts of things you can provide the PC with to enrich their background.  Player suggestions welcome!

6. Heirlooms.  Have the player inherit his great grandfather's sword, or ring, or castle.  You don't even have to tell them straight away.  Or tell them what power it may or may not possess, or even tell them much about the relative that bestowed them with it.  There's nothing quite like adding a bit of mystery to the game by having a lawyer rock up and thrust a scroll into a PCs hand which is the deed to a rundown castle in some backwater province.  You can even set an adventure (or sub-adventure) there!

Okay, not all of these necessarily fall into the remit of game mechanics.  But they can do.  All you need to do is have them influence the dice in some way, under some specific condition of the game.  Also, you don't have to provide every character with every one of the above.  I played a great game GMed by my brother years ago now, in which each character was a member of a secret society (in some cases more than one!) and as such had hidden agendas and who they were friendly with in open-game, would actually be their arch-rival if they only knew which secret society they belonged to.  But that's for another post.

Come to think of it, I'm sure there's some classic ones missing from this list.  If anyone would like to comment on this post with some suggestions of additional tools for enhancing player-character backgrounds, be my guest!