Back stories

[DeltaX15]

Some times the back story for a rolled character just leaps off the page.

I'm currently playing around with building a char gen program, and during a test run it spit this out:

Other 9A5B53 Age 34 Terms 4
Electronics-1 Gambling-1 Mechanical-1 Cr110000

I looked at that and immediately thought - Slum born, possible orphan. Basic primary education, self taught electronics and mechanical via reading books in public library (safe, warm environment). Childhood disease due to low quality of life = low endurace. Why is he travelling? A 'specific group of people' have discovered that a large percentage of the profits from his custom made slot machines end up in his account, rather than theirs, so he has decided that re-location would be a good idea.

 

[Gray Pennell]

With my new campaign I had each player track their terms and write their back story and description of their character. I then created a background tracker for each character and OTU history going back to the day they were born. I than created a year by year back story that explained their terms, how they got to what the players wanted and how they related to the Imperium and its history. One was actually old enough to serve at the tail end of the 4th frontier war. It was very interesting work and waiting for that history to come out in game.

 

[Enoki]

A good back story makes for a better front story by far.

 

[Icosahedron]

Other 9A5B53 Age 34 Terms 4

It's hard to tell from a solitary example, but what jumped out at me was you have a 9, a 10, an 11 and a 3 together in that UPP.

Could be just coincidence, but Is your generator creating a 2D6 distribution or a 1D12?

Just askin...

 

[CosmicGamer]

Not sure which chargen system you are using, but 3 skills in 4 terms seams low.

Personally I think any program that randomizes additional details (like what table to roll on) creates unrealistic characters. It can be fun to see what it spits out though.

 

[DeltaX15]

Combination replys

With my new campaign I had each player track their terms and write their back story and description of their character. I then created a background tracker for each character and OTU history going back to the day they were born. I than created a year by year back story that explained their terms, how they got to what the players wanted and how they related to the Imperium and its history. One was actually old enough to serve at the tail end of the 4th frontier war. It was very interesting work and waiting for that history to come out in game.

Nice plan, but seems like a lot of (extra) work for you.
I hope if you played through 1107, the 4FW Veteran was regaling the younger characters with grisly war stories, and tips on the best way to 'gut the perfidious Zho'

A good back story makes for a better front story by far.

In my opinion, if a character doesn't have a back story, then the player is Rote-Playing, rather than Role-Playing.

It's hard to tell from a solitary example, but what jumped out at me was you have a 9, a 10, an 11 and a 3 together in that UPP.

Could be just coincidence, but Is your generator creating a 2D6 distribution or a 1D12?

Just askin...

It's definately 2D6, and the 9, 10, 11, and one 5 were modified up by one during character generation.
So, the initial rolls were 8, 9, 5, 10, 4, 3. A little outside the expected distibution, but I suspect the dice gods were in a particularly playfull mood at the time.

Not sure which chargen system you are using, but 3 skills in 4 terms seams low.

It was using the Book 1 rules. No rank skills for others, so 4 terms = 5 skill rolls. Two rolls were on the Personal Development Table (+1 Stren & +1 Dext), and the other 3 on the 'real' skills table.

Personally I think any program that randomizes additional details (like what table to roll on) creates unrealistic characters. It can be fun to see what it spits out though.

Agreed on both points, which is why I'm building it to run in three modes: 'Manual' - you make all the decisions, and actually roll the dice, 'Semi-Auto' - you make all the decisions, dice are rolled by the program, and, 'Full Auto' - everything is randomised.

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I wouldn't automate it, but I love building back stories to characters. Usually, it's when I have a failure in something that I start to really develop a great story.

 

[AndreaV]

I wouldn't automate it, but I love building back stories to characters. Usually, it's when I have a failure in something that I start to really develop a great story.

I tend to get a little carried away, my last "backstory" turned into an actual story and came out at 12000 words :rofl:

 

[Fritz_Brown]

Piker!

I tend to get a little carried away, my last "backstory" turned into an actual story and came out at 12000 words :rofl:

PSHAW! I did one (not for Traveller) that is 2 pieces, 20 pages, 15k+ words. o:

 

[77topaz]

PSHAW! I did one (not for Traveller) that is 2 pieces, 20 pages, 15k+ words. o:

Well, that definetely gives the PC an interesting base...
Maybe you should publish it somewhere (what game was it for?).

 

[Rover]

I played in mutans and Masterminds (Supers RPG) with a guy who was a massive comicbook fan. Part of the buy in to the game was we had to write fiction based on our characters as part of game play. It was a real blast. We started with the backstory and then added more stuff from the time between the game sessions. I wrote 30+ pages abd a couple of the guys wrote more. Some of it was really good stuff.

I enjoyed it so much and got such good feedback I am actually tring to write a novel based on my character. It is hard slogging some times, but since we don't play the supers game any more it is good to know that these characters aren't going to waste.

R

 

[Fritz_Brown]

(what game was it for?).

It is for a current RoleMaster (AKA ChartMaster) campaign I am in. The reason for the long backstory is three-fold: he is an older character at start (not some 18yo newb), he has some unknowns that I wanted to establish and provide hooks for the referee to use (the second part is five pages about his mother and his birth that he does not know, and the main story explains his "background options" as well), and it is written as an autobiography (he is a bard so: plenty of dialog, an excursus or two, probably some gasbaggery, and so forth).

Oh! And, because I wrote this extensive story, and we are traveling into territory he knows well, I get to do a lot of the mapping work for the referee over the next month. The rewards of a good job? More work, of course!

 

[BlackBat242]

Ahhh... Rulemaster/Rollmaster... a rule for everything and nothing without a rule (and multiple rolls).

 

[Shonner]

I'm using Mongoose for my Traveller CharGen program. I love all the backstories generated with those rules.

 

[oldgamergeek]

I have been requiring a background story for all PC's and major NPC's in my games. The reason is it helps fill out the characters and brings the players into character a lot more than just here is my character sheet let's play.

 

[LiamKerrington]

Backstories are a nice tool of the (game)trade.

Hi there,

from my perspective the backstory for character is quite a tool - for gamers and the referee alike.

Regarding PCs backstories allow you to connect more easily with your character. In addition you may play your role a lot more coherent making your character more 'reliable' or 'believable'.
Also the backstory may serve as a store of recipes for the referee to use in the game - for example by introducing npcs which take a minor or major role in the backstory, or a dark secret the PC wishes to keep covered for as long as possible, or simply for the sake of just making things more colorful around the PC - especially the latter being an acknowledgement for the gamer's work on his character's background.

But anytime I was DM/GM/referee myself, I had the impression that many gamers in my region do not connect with the idea of backgrounds for their PCs; they rather stick with how (cool) (awesome) (innovative) their characters look, and that's it. Personalities? That's what alignments or personality profiles or archetypes are for. Background-story? My character, my character, my character, who actually cares.
To get things more evolved around the characters as personalities I was hardly successful with my gamers. Therefore backstories also depend a lot on what gamers are pleased to play with. (I hope this makes some sense, what I write here ...)

As the DM/GM/referee I always loved to create background stories for my major and at least mediocre NPCs, not so much for the minor ones. With the help of their backstories I was able to produce a much more conveniet story or plot for the gamers to interact with. Anytime I did not do this thoroughly enough I really got into serious problems with deciding for my NPCs to act properly according to new and especially unexpected situations provided by either random events (dice never lie) or the decisions and actions made by the gamers and their PCs.

Bottomline: backstory is, in my opinion, a very useful, maybe even quite important tool of the (game)trade; I am not sure, though, if backstories are vital or mandatory.

About the length of them ... Once I nearly fell in love with a character I created; and all my comrades were very pleased with him as well. I ran into a writing frenzy and produced a rather long backstory for him, which was kind of epic - like about a dozen pages in Word with Times New Roman in 10pt; and then, on the first game-session the character died a heroic, but unavoidable death. Ever since I keep tight control on me to prevent such a painful experience from re-occuring again. So backstories tend to be quite short these days ...

All the best!
Liam

 

[Fritz_Brown]

...unexpected situations provided by ... the decisions and actions made by the gamers and their PCs.

Oh no, that would never happen!

Ever since I keep tight control on me to prevent such a painful experience from re-occuring again. So backstories tend to be quite short these days ...

I understand entirely. With something like a great backstory, it's easy to get personally invested in a character.

 

[Shonner]

Background-story? My character, my character, my character, who actually cares.

30 years ago, that was my attitude towards the drama/actor kid in our group. The rest of us always wanted to just "take our turn", "make our move", and ask "whose turn is it?" Role-playing was an unknown thing still, and meta-gaming ruled.